Session 65: Classified

The session began with Jason and Blair coming too; they were being pumped full of Rad Away by a double IV drip on each of them, and they also noticed they both had additional needle marks that the medics reported were from Rem administering some of her cocktail of drugs to them on her way past in order to get them on their feet. Both of them were slightly jittery but nontheless combat-ready, got up and got to work.

Inside, Kutter and Kenny had fallen back to the main team, who had caught up with them. Chokehold proposed a plan for shielding their approach from the charged assaultron lasers by removing some of the vault's wall paneling, then advancing while he and Kutter move it together. Before the assault began, Rem requested she be allowed to retreat due to her wounds, and Kutter agreed, sending her back and instead taking Chokehold into the combat ahead.

As they advanced, Kutter decided to switch up the script, instead charging forward with Chokehold and toppling the assaultrons to the floor, causing them to shoot their lasers into the ceiling

The other team members set upon the assaultrons, and Kutter used Hank's sentry turret to suppress the enemy command unit, TORR, who was about to charge the players' column. Kutter then charged in himself and attacked it, inflicting good damage. Jason helped with a Lightning Bolt from his new exoframe modifications but alas it couldnt save Kutter from a brutal aerial over the head suplex piledriver by TORR with his rocket fists.

Kenny, May, Blair, and Jason were assailed by the assaultrons' head lasers. Jason took the brunt of two, but Kenny managed to avoid both by ripping up some floor paneling to be melted into slag in his place.

TORR continued his assault, but with Kutter barely clinging to life with his super mutant resiliency, Hank bit the bullet, baiting TORR to him, and he was subsequently pummeled through two walls of the facility. Immediately, Kenny felt a chill in the air, and the whole facility rang out with indescribable high-pitched screams around 110 decibels, but Kutter, who was in the corner and point-blank from the four screeching "Nuckelavee" and backed into a corner, had his eardrums ruptured by the sonic assault. The creatures were composed of a full horse like body with a human torso also attached in a riding position, but possessing extremely long arms and claws which they used to slash at the party as they passed, then escaping out the exit tunnel.

The team activated their emergency anomaly pager, and within moments heard minuteman channels buzzing with reports of an extremely fast-moving object within mere feet of or on the ground. Seconds later, Fredrick burst in, running past the group at the door and absolutely pummeling The Old Man, who was reeling up to strike Kutter. Fredrick hit The Old Man so hard he bounced off the far wall and back into Fredrick's arms who then performed a Double-underhook chest-to-chest piledriver which smashed a tunnel through several floors beneath them, effectively taking The Old Man out of the fight, however TORR could be heard smashing through additional cells in the containment block, no doubt unleashing more anomalous creatures for the party to fight, despite this Kutter ran into the compromised block and successfully rescued Hank

Overhead, the turrets were compromised by TORR's virus, and began to deploy, training on the team, this caused Chokehold to panic, even inspite of his extensive neural implants, and throw his autocannon rashly at the turret overhead and leap down the hole Fredrick made.

During this commotion, Silence was able to hack into the Vault's mainframe as the facility staff granted him administrator access, and with an extraordinary implementation of injected codes, he was able to completely purge TORR's virus from the system, reverting autocannon and all other control to him and his allies.

When Hank was up and ready due to Kutter successfully healing him, he charged into the containment block, despite Kutter spotting another anomaly that way that vanished when he blinked.

Kenny moved to assist the deafened Kutter, then, feeling a horrible sinking in his stomach when looking past him, his instincts were confirmed when Kutter was mauled by an invisible gang of creatures, only visible to Jason with his night vision goggles when he looked over at the commotion. However, Fredrick reemerged from the hole and projected a wall of fire onto the enemies, then followed that up by leaping in to teach them a lesson.

In the atrium, the players, with the help of the autocannon turrets, successfully dispatched the remaining Assaultrons, but Hank radioed from a nearby sector that he found a molecular relay, suggesting that the players bait TORR onto the platform and teleport him far enough away to effectively remove him from the war. The team agreed, and Kenny grabbed May and Silence, sprinting to the teleporter room and running Silence to the console.

Silence quickly hacked in, forgoing manually typing in coordinates for selecting a preset destination listed by the OS. He chose Pittsburgh, said to be an absolute hellhole by Kutter, and when Hank taunted TORR, causing him to charge, Silence activated it, removing the command unit from the base, and causing all the other assaultrons to shut down.

The Anti-Tank squad reported that all the assaultrons had powered down, but one threat remained; the players heard screams over the intercoms and saw blood splatter above them in the command center, but Fredrick lept up and pounded it into the ground. Fredrick sealed away the anomalies through brute force and welded the cells closed, then talked to Kutter, casually asking him how the war is going after Jason improvised hearing aids for Kutter with his own helmet's active noise amplifying headset. Kutter began speaking casually about the incredible losses, him needing to bottle up the emotions, and how glad he was to have Jericho to talk too. Jason rescued Fredrick from the conversation, and after Fredrick retrieved Chokehold, who managed to calm down, he and Jason began examining the autocannon to determine whether it could be repaired, concluding it couldn't.

Meanwhile, Hank asked to borrow SILENCE from Kenny and May, who obliged him. However, the discussion the two would have would remain unknown to the larger group.

Jason and Kenny tended to Kutter, who was definitely minorly concussed by TORR's earlier aerial piledriver. Then Jason began scavenging the disabled assaultrons, and he said they should all be getting assessed by Doc. The rest of the party regretfully informed him that Doc died saving him and Blair. When Jason and Blair collapsed from exhaustion as the cocktail of drugs wore off, the party contacted the troops outside. The medics reported they'd been inside the vault for 10 days. Fredrick nodded, confirming many anomalies uncontained in close proximity.

They got a situation report from Colonel Garvey. The Red Tide had advanced through the Glowing Sea, pushing the Minutemen far to the north on the west side of the Charles River. Quincy had fallen entirely, the Liberators' forward base had to be abandoned, they and the Army Corps had retreated to Jamaica Plain, where the next line of defense was being supported from, meanwhile the fortified gateway, Norwood Depot, stood protruding well into enemy territory. They were ordered to redeploy there, to delay enemy advancements, especially a Red Tide strategic unit, an armored train equipped with a massive railway cannon. Garvey said it had the capability to build and repair its own tracks, but the ithmus at Norwood was the only feasible way for it to push further north, so it must be held as long as possible.

The team was able to load onto logistics wagons and rest on their way to the AO. Late that night, Kenny was finally getting over the withdrawal from the psycho, and May came to him, hopping in the wagon next to him. Tearfully, she apologized for how she'd acted and thanked him for helping her get clean. He tells her not to blame herself. When she continues apologizing, admitting he was right, he didn't say anything, just putting his arm around her, she leaned against his shoulder, and asked if he wanted to pretend to still be asleep till they got to Norwood. Kenny figured, why pretend, and they drifted back off.