COMPLETE Chapter 11: Hatred

Scene 1   Sentinel approaches the group as they return from Dancitron.   SM: So... Riptire, was it? We need to talk.   If Riptire attempts to run, the party will be surrounded by Autoroopers.   SM: If you remember, I asked you to tell me about the Speedwagons' base of operations. We reached an agreement...   SM: Our understanding was that you were not going to be sending my troops into a black hole. So it's time to renegotiate. You're coming with me, all of you.   The party is escorted back to the Colonial Garrison Headquarters and taken to Garrison EarthCom. Sentinel activates the holo-display.   SM: When I first sent scouts into the region you described, they found absolutely nothing. I was ready to put your aft on the line then, but on the return trip, they found something-- an entire Speedwagon facility appeared out of thin air.   He advances a slide to show a geodesic dome structure.   SM: An optical camouflage, reverse-engineered from our own goddamn Mission City dome. Our scouts thought it was abandoned, but after I gave them orders to investigate, we lost contact with them. So I sent in another team, and then I lost contact with them. Care to guess who team three is going to be, Riptire?   SM: Guess you've got a central processing unit after all. Here are your orders: Infiltrate the facility. Find out what in the Pit it is for, and find out what happened to the scouts. If the Speedwagons are still kicking out there, put a bullet in their cranial casings. If those scouts are alive, bring them back. Pull that off, and our arrangement stands, Riptire. As for the rest of you, you'll be getting hazard pay. I need this unfucked, so I hope your coin-toss performance is landing face-up. Dismissed.   Scene 2   When the party arrives at the coordinates, they will find the dome exposed to the desert air near Lone Mountain. Unlike Mission City, the dome is skeletal and it seems that dust and dirt travel freely into it. Inside there are two scattered buildings and two elevator pads. Outside the perimiter, there are signs picketed into the ground reading "No Entry- Restricted Area- Hazardous Materials- USA" and in Imperial Common "Keep Out."   The largest building aboveground is a supply shed. Within are several ration packs, shotguns, and a small supply of ammunition. On the ground is a Speedwagon Droog, dead. A DC 5 Tactics check will reveal cause of death to be suicide.   The smaller building aboveground is a security checkpoint. Inside the players will find a datadeck, and the Elevator Keycard 1.   The datadeck gives a schedule of work times from a few months ago up until three weeks ago. As time progresses, more and more of the names on the list are labelled as "can't make it"   Using the Elevator Keycard 1 will send Elevator 1 down. The elevator lands in a staging area for a ramshackle underground facility, only freshly dug out, not dissimilar from the one that entered into the Mission City Mine. The lights are flickering intermittently, on more often than not, but prone to occasional blackouts.   In the corridor leading south, the party will find a dead Autorooper. A DC 10 Tactics check will reveal cause of death to be blunt force trauma from multiple strikes.   The Lounge is a small room with a few chairs and an out-of-date holoscreen and game console. There is also a refrigerator with rotten Energon Goodies inside. There is also an archaic Datatape (SW Datatape 1) on the table. Plugging it into a communicator will reveal the following message.   SW DT 1: This is supposed to be top secret, so we can't use communicators down here. I'm stuck wif this old datatape recorder, gross. The rest of me droogs probably wouldn't want me recording a log either way. But to hell wif 'em. I've got a roight to put me thoughts down. And here's what I think: It may be dark and greasy here, but it sure beats raiding. Y'see, we don't get shot by Domies. That's a step up.   To the north is the Greenhouse. It's a small-scale hydroponics setup, with ceiling-mounted lattices holding up plants. A DC 10 Knowledge/Cybertron check will reveal these to be Galax plants, which are extremely rare on Cybertron. The plants seem to be over-watered and dying. In the back of the room is a pile of what seem to be body bags, and another pile of what seems to be ashes. In the room are two infected Autoroopers. If the party gets too close or tries to communicate with them, they will attack.   IAT 1: More...! More! Split! Apart!   IAT 2: Feel it! FEEEL IT!   In the greenhouse, a search near one of the pump mechanisms will reveal another Datatape (Seance DT 1):   Seance DT 1: Making good progress. Amazingly, galax imperator seems readily suited to Earth's climate. Or it could be the water... It took a lot of effort to siphon enough from human pipelines to get the farm going. Glad it's paying off. Distilling the phytochemicals with my limited resources is the next hurdle. It's taking me a lot of time to work this out, but I can't leave it to Blastpipe. The kid's got talent, but this requires an experienced touch. Everything else is already in motion. But we need this contingency.   Down the hall from the greenhouse is Elevator 2. Two Infected Speedwagon Droogs are attacking the mechanism.   ISD 1: BLEEED! BLEED! WON'T GRRRAAAAAGH   ISD 2: PUSH the button WORK LIFT GO COME ON   On the floor next to the elevator controls is another Datatape.   SW DT 2: So, wot exactly is we doing down here? Well, plants, apparently. They ain't Lunablooms... ain't any kinda herb I've seen. If Seance is cooking up drugs he's doing it wrong. But who knows what goes on in that bucket ov 'is? We just follow the orders. "Turn off the faucets after this much water goes through," he says. "Punch out the pressure seal rings," he says. Worst is the prisoners. Yeah, they're mutineers. But still, I knowed some ov em. And we're feedin' 'em to the goddamn plants.   To the Southwest of Elevator 2 is a laboratory. It's very neatly organized for such a makeshift set-up. Many cut Galax blooms can be found on the countertop, as well as some complex glass apparatus with boiling vessels and multiple distillation funnels. A drip feed is set up to empty into a glass vial-- there is a faint red residue on the bottom of the container.   Among some empty vials the players can find another Datatape.   Seance DT 2: I've followed the recipe to the letter, and it at least looks like the real thing. Yield is low, but it doesn't have to be high. I have to hand it to Longroof, he's got some amazing restraint as a spy. Maybe he's learned some lessons from his past... In any case, the university is clay under his digits. I guess that teach of his thinks he's ELF or something. You know, his rap sheet says he killed his Decepticon CO. Maybe I should watch my back more closely around him. In any case, only one thing left to do.   To the Southeast of Elevator 2 is a packaging facility. There are several vacuum-sealed vials in the room, all empty, save for one with a small amount of red residue at the bottom. Underneath a crate of empty vacuum vials is another Datatape.   SW DT 3: We're putting juice in jars. That's all this fucking is. Not even juice, it's bloody tea. I guess Seance is feeding it to the prisoners, it kills them, and we're torching them after their dead. Wasse planning on doin? Does he want to treat all of the Domies to a toast? Nobody'd be daft enough for that. Does he want to put it in their water? There's just too little. Or maybe there isn't. Last few days, me droogs have all stopped showing for their shifts. Erd noffing from 'em since. Isn't hard to connect the dots. So, did they drink this shit? I don't know. But I'm the one filling the glasses. Fuck me. Fuck all of this.   To the North of Elevator 2 is a long corridor. At its end is a reinforced door, slightly ajar. Entering through the door will reveal the testing facility.   An Infected Autorooper weakly attempts to smash through one of the cells with his club, but cannot. When the players approach, he will attack.   The testing facility is divided into two parts. Closest to the entrance is a set of six roughly-carved cells. Four of the cells are empty. Two of the cells have decaying Speedwagon corpses in them-- a DC 15 Medicine check will reveal that they have been dead for just under two weeks. Both are towards the back of their respective cells. In this room is a small security station. On the station's counter is an access key and another Datatape.   SW DT 4: There's no one left to do this but me now. I get them out of the cells, I push them into the chamber, I push a glass through the slot, and then Seance watches and takes notes. Then he leaves, and I have to clean everything up. Primus, the mess. I've been pulling the glasses out and torching them too, 'coz I'm the only one to do that, too. But it don't make sense. The tea's all dried up. What's left to spill? At least Seance doesn't make me watch what makes all the messes. But I can imagine. And I'm sick of it. So I'm not cleaning up any more. Next shift can deal wif that. I'm making a break for it.   The access key opens a pressure-sealed door which leads to the second area-- A glassed-in chamber with another pressure-sealed door and a single access port. There are many scratches on the glass, as well as dried blood.   In the outer observation area, Rook is curled up in a ball.   R: Oh, Primus, oh, Primus, how many days how many days... Oh! No! No! Don't! Don't kill me!   R: I'm... I'm Rook. We came over here to look for the s-s-Speedwagons, and I guess... we found them. What's left.   R: They got the jump on us, and we fell back, b-because we didn't know how many of them there were. But once we found some breathing room, the boys started going crazy. Just screaming and attacking. I tried to... well, I couldn't do it. So I shut myself in here but I didn't have the key. I don't know how long it's been...   R: Sentinel... let's just get back... can you get me out of here? If I die I want to see some sunlight first.   Also in the observation chamber is another Datatape:   Seance DT 4: The history books say that during the Colony Wars, Xeptos was destroyed by their own bioweapon. At the end of the war, during the surrender talks, everybody got together and agreed that the Colonies were so awful for having made it. That they should be ashamed for killing their own people. That it should be banned and never made again. And everyone was happy after that. But I found the records. Xeptos didn't do that to themselves. The Autobots designed it, and they released it. And they got so goddamn scared that they decided to ban it for everyone else, and wrap it in a cautionary tale so no one dared to think otherwise. Until now. I've got a viable canister of Hate Plague. Atomizes on contact with the air. Vectors through direct contact or inhalation. The active phytochemical simply causes mild mood swings and aggression. But once it's in your system, the virus goes to work. The cells start building the phytochemical instead of proteins. The dose gets higher and higher. And that aggression... soon, it's all that's left. By that point, the victim is sweating Hate Plague from every servo, crying it out of their optics, and their blood's swimming with it. They hit you, you're infected. You hit them, you're infected. Try to treat them, you're infected. I told Topfuel. I let him know this was a last resort. I've got the antidote. He doesn't like it. I don't either. But if this Operation Destiny thing is real, we need to be ready. We need an ace in our sleeve. If the Autobots think they can wipe us off the map, they have another thing coming.   If the party leaves, Rook will begin showing signs of infection. If the party decides to kill him, he will snap and attack.   If the party struggles to kill Rook, Nightscream will appear to finish him off.