"Grid's right," Jade says as she makes sure a clip is firmly in place on her Thompson.  "I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum...and I'm all out of gum."  She stands next to Grid.  "North, then?  Isn't that the direction you said?"

Lazarus looks up as Binary comes back from the phone and listens to what he says.  "Perhaps, we should proceed with caution, guns ablazing may not be our best route." He looks at Jade and Grid as he says this. "We should all take a breath and see what Binary wants us to do, he is the one in charge." He breaks easily into a smile and puts his gun back in it's holster.

Addressing Grid, Binary says, "I wouldn't have expected them to blow up a facility that cost the taxpayers upwards of a hundred million bucks.  They were just being cautious.  They never bought into my ideas anyway.  And besides, there were many projects going on here, not just the Matrix project."

He starts to settle down after that tirade, obviously not used to being second guessed.  "Okay," he says, starting to regain his composure.  "Let's go to my office. That's 516.  My files might still be intact.  Then we can go to the computer rooms to check the servers.  That might give us a clue."  Never the physical type himself, he steps back to let the others lead the way.

"Yeah," he says, half to himself, "if I can just get my hands on a computer."

Grid turns dark eyes upon Lazarus, "Guns ablazing was not my thought little man.  Leading the way was............" The big man seemed ready to say more when Binary interrupted with own tirade.

"Chill little man, there is no need to get over excited. Room 516 you say." he cocks his head to one side in thought, "I remember where that is from the schematics.  We'll get you to your computer.  Don't worry."

Turning on his heel, gun at the ready, he leads the others out into the corridor.

Caine rolls his eyes slightly at the posturing going on but shrugs as Grid and Jade step forward, gesturing for Binary to follow them he then steps up as tail-end charlie motioning for Lazarus to take his place next to him with a cock of his head and a grin...  "Let 'em lead, 's all the same to me..." he said softly as the group starts to move down the corridor, Caine alternating between backing up with both pistols covering the rear and turning to walk normally with the others...

Lazarus looks himself up and down as Grid says the little man comment. He looks Grid in the eyes and just shakes his head. He takes his gun out of its holster and starts to follow, doing much the same as Caine.

The party moves north up the passage.  You only get to about the point marked E8 before you see the disastrous damage.  It looks like demolitions were exploded.  The walls and ceilings have collapsed.





At this point, you may be able to climb over and through the rubble, or you can try to go around to the west.

[Please note:  If you attempt to use any skills or perform an action (such as a search), please use the dice roller (set on 3d6) upon your attempt.  I will take care of naturally occurring rolls.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:54, Wed 31 Mar 2004.

"So much for the pleasant walk to your office Binary," Grid mutters as he surveys the rubble blocking the groups path.  "I can scout a little up the west corridor to see if the rubble clears a little?"

He turns an inquiring gaze on their leader as he says the last.

Caine decides to look through the rubble first to see if he can find anything.

Caine takes a minute or two to search through the rubble.  However, because it collapsed in the middle of a hallway, it is doubtful you will find anything useful unless it just happened to be there.  But Caine does see a crawlspace through the rubble and loose rocks.  It might be a little dangerous, but you could probably squeeze through.

"I'm leaning towards going around to the west," Jade says.  "No use trying to go through there.  Grid, lead the way."

Lazarus nods at Jade, "our best bet is to stay together in a nonconfinend place."

Grid leads the group around to the west.  You turn to the north again, only to find another obstacle.  One of the fire sprinklers is broken.  The pipe in the center of the intersection has broken away from the sprinkler head.  The floor is completely covered with water.  But the water is old and stagnant.  There is not currently any water flowing through the overhead pipes.

Shining your flashlight up there, you see that the pipes are about 7 to 8 feet off the ground and are firmly secured to the wall with fasteners at 6 foot intervals.  They hug the upper corner where wall meets ceiling, about 6 inches away from the wall and a foot or so below the ceiling.  The pipes seem to run in that fashion throughout the whole complex.

To your left, you see a long flourescent light about six feet in length.  It too has come loose and swings back and forth by a wire and one screw.  It is dimly flickering on and off, the only light you've seen since entering the complex.  For a moment you wonder why it is moving.  Then you see that one of its wires, hanging down about five feet, is loose and live with electricity.  It wiggles back and forth about six inches from the water.

The staticky buzz you heard comes from this point.  It is the neon-like hum and buzz of the flickering light.



"Guys?"  It is X talking in your earphones.  "I'm getting some kind of electrical interference here.  There's apparently electricity somewhere down there if it's..." [static interference] "...up here."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:13, Sat 03 Apr 2004.

[Player Walkthrough:

At this point, there are several options you could probably consider:

(1) walk through the water to the other side,

(2) try to shimmy across on the overhead pipes (if you test them and find them to be stable enough),

(3) try to jump across (you would have about a 12-15 foot jump across to the west side but might bump into the light and/or cord, and about 20 feet to the north, with very little running room to west, but a lot if you go north), or

(4) go south and try to find another hallway through.

There may be more options.  These just popped into my head.  For the above, you would need attribute checks, as follows:

(1) walk through water (DX + 4 to avoid slipping or tripping), but it will take 4 seconds.  DX + 1 if you run through (2 seconds)

(2) shimmy:  (DX - 2) or, if you have acrobat or similar skill, at skill level.

(3) jump across:  This will depend on your jumping distance.  (You will be required to make a DX check with a modifier to avoid the light if you jump west.)

(4) go south: no roll.

THERE MAY BE OTHER MODIFIERS, but they may be secret.  The above is just for your information in considering difficulty levels observable to your PC.  If you try one of the above, just roll a 3d6 and inform me of your DX/skill.

You may have an applicable skill I did not think of.  This is why you always say you are "using" a certain skill/maneuver if you think it might apply.  If it doesn't apply, I will tell you before continuing.

Any questions?  If general questions, post in OOC.  If private questions, post me a private message.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:15, Sat 03 Apr 2004.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  If 48 hours pass and you do not post, I reserve the right to move or take action on the part of your character.  Believe me when I say you do not want me doing this very often.  There is a certain law of increasing stupidity on the part of your characters if I do this.

Sometimes I will not post for your character, but where a decision needs to be made by the group or in the midst of battle, you can be assured that I will.

Jade says, "I think I'll try my hand at shimmying across and over the water.  I don't want to risk electrocution, and I've got some skills with acrobatics."  She jumps up to grab hold of the pipe and begin shimmying hand over hand with her legs stabilizing her as much as possible.

Lazarus looks up at Jade as she grabs the pipe and starts to make her way across. He looks behind him to the others smiles and says, "Guess, I'll press my luck as well."

Binary watches quizzically as the two jump up to the pipes to begin shimmying across.  He shakes his head and walks through the water and across to the west side.

Caine jumps across to the west side.

Grid was looking up at the pipes his face etched in concentration as he seemed to way the odds of them holding his weight.  When Binary walks past him, through the water safely he laughs out loud and follows.

Binary and Grid walk safely across the water to the west side.  A moment later, Jade and Lazarus drop safely down next to them.

Caine jumps across, but he doesn't quite make it.  He slips for a moment and hits the electrical cord...

...it hits the water where he is standing, and Caine goes flying back, stuck in the water on his back with the cord pinned under his leg.  He begins to spasm violently.  Sparks fly and smoke rises.

In your ears, you hear X yell, "What's going on?  I'm losing Caine's readings!  They're off the chart!"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:35, Mon 05 Apr 2004.

Grid moves with a speed surprising for a man of his size as he moves across the corridor toward the light, removing his jacket as he does so.  Wrapping his hands in the garment and trusting that it plus the coating to the wires will protect him from the electrical current flowing through them, he reachs up as high as he can above the light and takes hold of it and the wires.

Using all his strength he reefs the entire thing down, hoping to break the light and its accompanying wires and stop the electricity flow that is killing his companion.

Grid yanks on the light.  The metal pipe conduit crashes down through drywall and tile above you, and Grid is covered in it like sawdust, but the light is still on and the conduit has protected it.  The cords simply extend further out, making the light hang further from the ceiling.  The light flickers, and the cord in the water comes flying out...


...just missing Grid.  Caine is having some sort of seizures in the water.  Smoke rises from the body.

"Oh, no!" X says.  "It's going flatline.  He's gone.  We've lost him!"  In the background, you hear him saying, "Caine!  Locke, we lost Caine!"

As you run over to the body of Caine, Locke gets on the line.  "I'm sorry to say this, guys, but we lost Caine.  You'll have to leave him and move on.  There's nothing we can do."

Lazarus cringes as the smoke rises from Caine's body. His eyes are open in shock and he crosses himself. "We can't just leave him here."

"I agree," Jade says.  She strolls out into the water and drags his body out to the west side where she can hide it in the shadows.