A Wee Bit O' the Fiction Options

[Kagetenshi]

The rumbling's louder now, and it sounds like it's right behind us. I'm still sluggish from one of those darts the whirly things were throwing, not to mention all the tasings, but I guess I can still run quickly. We slid down a long incline; I think we're lower than we were when we entered.

Run.

[Kagetenshi]

Phoenix made his last stand, and I don't think he's going to rise from the ashes this time.

Running from whatever it is behind us, we slid into a four-meter drop. Phoenix landed badly; it looked like he tore something in his leg. He staggered away from the drop a bit, but when Partridge went to try to heal him, he waved him away. He told us to run, and to have a beer for him, and then he took his gun in hand and turned to wait. The last I saw of him, he was blasting away at something I couldn't see with a tentacle the size of my leg wrapped around his waist.

We're all shaken up. After managing so well since the botched run itself, we've lost two people in under half an hour. I don't know if any of us will live to see the exit, if there even is one. Up ahead, the hallway is a mess of flying razors, buzzsaws, and suspicious-looking holes, but we've got no choice unless we want to take our chances with whatever killed Phoenix.

Cardinal is saying a prayer for us, and for Phoenix and Raven.

[Kagetenshi]

Cardinal lost an arm. Partridge would have lost a head if it weren't for the blue glow he shielded himself with. He said, apologetically, that he'd never learned how to create it on anyone other than himself.

All these spells are taking it out of him. He can barely stand, but he bound Cardinal's stump and then did his thing. I want to tell him how much I appreciate all he's done, but this doesn't really seem to be the time. Hawk and I came through the blades mostly unscathed; a few scratches here and there, a slash just under my eye that's making it hard to see, but pretty much ok.

Hawk surprised me. He apologized to us for the fact that we're here, that he wanted to explore; he said he and Phoenix had thought that maybe the data we were after was hidden in a research bunker. He hadn't realized how far we'd gone.

That giant, tentacled thing has been hunting us now for hours. We dash from tunnel to tunnel, sometimes just centimeters away from the flailing tentacles, and we never seem to get away. It seems to be trying to herd us away from something, though… an exit?

[Userlimit]

Good stuff.. Im enjoying it a lot.

[Kagetenshi]

We can see it now. Past the groping horror, across a narrow catwalk over an unpleasant-looking writhing mass of metal, and through a set of sliding doors. Beyond is an employee lounge, stocked with coffee and donuts. Whoever built this maze has a sick sense of humor.

Less than thirty yards, but all of them in the open, and Cardinal and Partridge are in rough shape.

Hawk and I are going to try to draw the thing off while they cover the distance. Then we're going to run like hell for the door and pray.

[Kagetenshi]

I don't understand. It had me. That thing had its tentacle firmly wrapped around my leg, but as soon as my hand slapped the floor on the other side of the doors, it let go and slithered away into the darkness.

These are the best donuts I've ever eaten.

It's a good thing we didn't go through the door first. There was a group of people waiting outside, and in the state they were in, Cardinal and Partridge didn't fire on them immediately. They say that they're fighting against whoever has taken control of the Arcology. It's either a single person or a group masquerading as a single person, calling himself Deus. They don't know how he did all of this, but they say that people get let loose in that labyrinth pretty frequently, and that every so often someone like us makes it out again. We're the most heavily armed people they've seen come out, but we're also apparently the first group they've seen to have been attacked by "the guardian" on the way out and survive.

I'll try to feel honored.

I told the others today that if I buy it, take my head. I figure one of them should recover this journal. Seems a waste to let it go now.

[Kagetenshi]

They've got a regular village set up in one of the women's bathrooms here.

I guess it's to avoid the cameras. They cut a hole through to the men's bathroom and use that for its original purpose; in here, they've got a few bunks, a makeshift medical station, and some bunsen burners for food. There are maybe fifteen of them in all, four of whom met us coming out of the labyrinth.

They told us tales of the horrors they'd seen. Experiments on people, grafting strange contraptions to captured sararimen, trying to graft parts from animals onto people, endurance tests and damage resistance tests and pain resistance tests and more. They also told us about drones. Some, like the rolling ball-things and the spiders and the raccoons (they called them medusae, but they look like raccoons to me), we'd already seen. Others, like the tiny bumblebees with lethal stings, or the mechanical frogs with monowire tongues, or the electrifying walker in the shape of an ordinary hairbrush, we hadn't seen. There were even a few, like the shocking spheres and the spinning tops, that our hosts hadn't seen yet. They also told us about the blueyes, greeneyes, and whiteyes. The Banded, they called them, with bands on their arms to signify rank or something. Once good men and women (well, some of them anyway), this Deus has twisted them into creatures more drone than human. At least they're easy to identify.

They showed us pictures of one experiment subject they'd recovered. A girl, no more than six, with more metal than flesh now, peering out of an eye that was now slitted like a cat's. She had some scars that looked like bullet holes, and she was badly burned.

What kind of person could do this?

They asked us how we'd gotten in, but their disappointment was obvious when they found out that the way back out was blocked. Maybe with enough weaponry, but it's a long way down… they say we're high up, at least a hundred and fifty floors.

One of the things these people do is shuttle refugees down the arcology and out into the world. We've been asked to go down to the next floor to help guard a group on its way down. I'm not sure if we're up to helping on this one, but we told them that we'd help soon. This might be our way out of here.

[Kagetenshi]

It's been two days now. Cardinal seems to be doing much better now, thankfully; he took losing his arm well.

The four of us will be going down to join the caravan with a woman who calls herself Lily. The name rings a bell; I think she might have been a runner.

It's been what, maybe a week, but it feels like it was another life outside, a tale I was told long ago.

I never asked the girl serving ice-cream down by the park what her name was, or if she'd like to go to a movie with me. I never said goodbye to her.

[Kagetenshi]

Three scared sararimen, a traditional Japanese housewife, two kids, and an old man. We're clearly not going anywhere in a hurry.

Lily and Partridge are taking point, Hawk and I are covering the rear, and Cardinal is doing what he can to babysit the group itself. With a pistol in his one hand, he's probably worth the other seven in a fight, but it's our job to make sure it never gets to that.

One of the ball-things has been rolling after us for the past fifteen minutes, though it's been laying low since Hawk took a pot-shot at it.

Ooh, I can fulfill another childhood dream. "I have a bad feeling about this." No, wait, I already did that.

Word is that we've got four floors of safety before we have to leave this emergency stairwell and find another way down. A few floors below that, there's a group of refugees who've blasted a hole through the floor, so that'll get us another floor. Just like climbing down a ladder, one rung at a time.

Hawk talked with me for a while about why he runs. I didn't know he had a little brother in the hospital, or that he wanted to make enough money so that he could ask his girlfriend to marry him. I've met few more efficient killers. I guess there's a lesson about judging books by their covers here.

Still, when it comes down to it, are we redeemed? Sure, some of the people around me have noble causes, but that doesn't change the fact that they're still killing, stealing, maiming for a nuyen. Or were the people destined to die, the goods and data meant to be stolen or destroyed? But if that's the case, there's no point in thinking about it, because it won't change anything.

I guess it still comes down to what Cardinal said. If we're judged by our actions, we're screwed. If we're judged by our intentions, we might just have a chance. I w¶É·?¸N

[Kagetenshi]

Tuesday, August Seventh, King's Highway

The Legion is on the march again, towards the camp of the traitor Duke of Whitechapel. His army has pitched tent in the forests near Otter Ferry; if we can catch him before he crosses the river, we can trap and destroy his forces in their entirety, ending this civil war before it begins. Roger, our captain, is determined to deliver the Duke's head to the king within the week.

William warns us against overconfidence, however. The heresiarch Douglas Black Tree is with the Duke, and if he wields even a fraction of the foul sorceries attributed to him, we face a powerful foe.

[Kagetenshi]

Wednesday, August Eighth, Outside Otter Ferry

What manner of devilry is this? The very dead themselves have risen against us! John, second captain of the archers, was pulled beneath the ground by a groping hand; Peter, first captain, would have suffered the same fate were he not carrying his knife. Meanwhile, in the trees around us, the shambling dead wait to be returned to the ground. Slow they are, slow with death, but as numerous as the leaves on the trees. This is the work of Black Tree, I know it.

[Plastic Rat]

Goddamned AWESOME! Just don't stop the story. If this is a reflection of your GMing abbilities, I'm saving to buy an airticket ... and a shotgun in case you refuse to GM for me :D

[Kagetenshi]

Why thank you :D

~J

[Sleight]

I'm also thoroughly enjoying the story as well, please keep it up.

I'm also passing this story to the players I've sent through the Arc, to show them what their adventure should have been like ;-).

[Kagetenshi]

Thursday, August Ninth, Otter Ferry

In the face of the rising tide of walking dead, Roger has ordered us back to the town. Here, we prepare our defenses and hack to pieces any corpse that comes near. The townsfolk have begun evacuating across the river already; we plan to follow once they are safe.

[Kagetenshi]

Friday, August Tenth, Forest Outside Otter Ferry

It was less than three hours ago that Roger revealed his plan to us. While the main body of our forces retreats across the river to cover the escape of the townsfolk, a small band of men will make their way to the Duke's camp, there to slay him or die trying. I was one of the men selected to accompany the captain.

Thus far, we have evaded detection, or perhaps we are beneath the notice of the shambling corpses. I am burying this journal, in hopes that someone may find it if I die today.

If we fail, the combined armies of the King himself may not be enough to turn back this foe.

[Kagetenshi]

I'm so tired. We've been negotiating with the Furahama representatives for three days solid, and talks with ArtechderaCO are in danger of breaking down completely. Only Wutsu seem at all interested in dealing, and we're convinced that there's something they aren't telling us. We're squashing bugs as quickly as we can find them, but having to watch what we say, even in the shower, is really wearing on us. Sometimes I really wonder if this is all worth it.

No one wants to agree on pollution guidelines. The software divisions want ultra-tight controls so they can look good to the people, the manufacturing and heavy industries people would rather die than allow that, and the consumer goods folks can't decide on a balance between good PR and cheap production costs. And that's not even one of the big issues right now.

Everyone's got hired operatives crawling all over the place. So far everything's been surveillance, but it's only a matter of time until someone gets antsy and pulls a trigger or orders an extraction. This could easily turn into the bloodbath of the century.

I have to go. I have an appointment to try to drink a Russian under the table while negotiating an exchange of technology. If I survive the alcohol poisoning, I'll write more later.

[Kagetenshi]

Curse you, Red Baron!

[Kagetenshi]

Your maze, their maze, my maze.

One of those whirling things nailed me but good coming out of a stairwell. After that, I must have been picked up by the greeneyes. They've taken me and four others to a room filled with thin catwalks suspended over what looks like metal spikes far down below. There are weird things on the ceiling. Three people have already been sent in, one by one; the first two had catwalks give way underneath them, and the third dropped dead where he stood after trying to take it slowly. I think I saw one of those bee-things flying around him.

There goes the guy in front of me. It's my turn next.

The greeneyes showed no reaction to the screaming. I wonder if they removed their consciences with those cybereyes?

Ouch. He was doing pretty well at first, but then a catwalk gave way. He managed to twist around and grab the ledge behind him, but by the time he hauled himself up I think one of the bee-things got to him.

Time to go. Those spikes look painful…

[Kagetenshi]

I'm a lot more fit than I was before all of this. I haven't stopped running since I started back in that maze. I don't know how I managed to make it out; it almost felt like there was something, some sort of presence, guiding me. I'm probably just cracking from the strain.

I don't know how high up I am now, but it looks higher than I was. I've made my way down three floors and across most of the building; with luck, I'll be able to find an unguarded elevator before too much longer. If I find a service elevator, though, I think I'm going to pass it up.

[Kagetenshi]

Fuck. So close.

I'm sitting less than ten meters away from an elevator, but three of the raccoon-things are sitting directly in front of it. All I've got is my knife and my emergency bullet.

I think someone's coming out of the elevator.

[Kagetenshi]

It was a team of Red Samurai. A full team. The raccoons just tore them apart, though it left two of them dead (destroyed? I guess they're drones or something, but they act like they're alive) and one badly damaged enough that I managed to jump on its back and jam a knife into an important-looking bundle of wires. The damn thing still managed to open a slash from under my right eye up across the top of my head. An inch to the left and I'd be seeing monocular right now.

On the bright side, I now have weapons, an elevator (if a rather bloody one), and just maybe some sort of hope of getting down to join the others.

[Kagetenshi]

Shit. Shit. Shit. What have I done?

When the doors to the elevator slid open, I saw someone on the other side. I fired instinctively, I figured it was one of the raccoons or the top-things or the blueyes. It was a little girl, maybe five years old. Hell, she was even carrying a doll. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. What was she doing here?

I'm going to open my eyes. Maybe she won't be there. Maybe it'll be something else, a statue or something. Maybe I just imagined it.

Shit…

[Kagetenshi]

Maybe it's not such a bad thing. I mean, what kind of life could she have looked forward to in here? She probably would have been experimented on, just like that girl in the picture I saw. Or maybe she'd just get sent into one of those mazes. Or…

Fuck. I just want to die…

[Kagetenshi]

I hear gunshots nearby. Maybe it's the team.

God damn it all, I need to snap out of this. I'm not doing anyone any good like this.

…At least I'm not doing anyone any harm.

Gah. That's enough. I can at least do something to begin make up for it before I die.