Obviously distressed by Caine's sudden and unexpected death, Binary helps Jade drag the body out of the murky water and says, "Someday, we'll be able to prevent this.  Someday."

You barely have time to look down at his electrocuted body before you hear sounds coming from the north hallway.  The sounds are instantly recognizable.  Footsteps.  Three or four men.  By the echo, it sounds like military boots.

You instinctively crouch up against the north wall out of sight to listen.  The flickering light gives only slight illumination.  The hum of electricity drowns out some of the sound.

Whoever they are, they don't seem to be in a hurry.  You hear them walk up toward the north side of the puddle and stop.  "I don't want to get all wet," one of them says.

"Sissy," says the other in a deep voice.

"This is a sissy mission.  There's no one down here.  Hasn't been for a couple years now."

A third man, obviously in charge, says, "We have our orders.  They believe intruders will enter the complex in..."  You catch the brief glow of a watch lighting up in the darkness.  "...any time now."

"Yeah, well, I've never had orders like this before.  Shoot to kill.  Don't ask questions.  Don't talk to the intruders.  What's that about?"

"It's to save your life, corporal."

"Whatever."  Then, as an afterthought, "Sir."

"We'll wait here for the rest of the squad.  Are your M-16's ready?"

"It's a well oiled machine," says the soldier with the deep voice.

"Be on alert.  Anything moves, you shoot it."

The deep voiced soldier says, "That's right.  Let God sort em out."

"That's more like it, marine.  We should be through this detail in about one hour.  If we're lucky, the email was a prank.  If not...well, that's why we're here."

You hear a snicker from the whiny soldier.  "Should have sent in the whole platoon if they're that worried."

The deep voiced soldier responds, "Our squad can handle anything."  You hear him remove and replace the clip in his rifle.

"Get your nightvision goggles ready," their sergeant says.

A flashlight beam hovers dangerously close to you...and close to discovering the body.  Then it pulls back into the hallway.

"I hate wearing these things," says the whiny soldier.  "I'll stick to the flashlight."

"I'm with you there," says the deep voiced soldier.

"Suit yourselves," the sergeant responds.

It appears that there only three of them so far.

[PLAYER WALKTHROUGH:  At this point, you have many options, from sneaking out to the west or staying to listen further to confronting the soldiers or attacking or distracting them.]

Jade signals with her hands for the party to move slowly and quietly west and away from the soldiers.

Lazarus gets behind Jade, and starts to walk.

X's voice crackles in your ear.  "Okay.  We just heard everything that went on.  We don't want you killing any military.  That's not our job.  But Locke says we need to get some answers.  I'm sending down some help.  I suggest you meet at the juncture between the rooms marked 201, 101, and 209."

He pauses.  "Locke authorized me to send in my pet project, but it's not tested yet, so I hope there are no bugs in the programming.  It's a 45 mm MAW--that's 'modified assault weapon' to you rookies.  It's a 45 mm pistol capable of firing non-lethal ammunition."

After a moment, he pipes up, "It carries ten rounds of ammo.  I'm sending three clips for each of you.  The ammo is a dart-tipped non-penetrating round.  It fires at the rate of 1 round per 3 seconds, so aim well.  You won't get a second chance.  After a hit, it will take 3-6 seconds for the target to be neutralized."

[Note:  This weapon fires like the beretta but with a -1 modifier to hit.]

Player Walkthrough:  Sneaking away from the soldiers requires a Stealth check.  Because of the darkness and the noises, there is a +4 modifier to this roll.

If you do not have the Stealth skill, it defaults to the HIGHER of IQ -5 or DX -5.  (In this case, because of the +4 modifier, it would be the higher of IQ -1 or DX -1.)

Lazarus looks at the others; his face still has a pained expression on it. He starts to clench and unclench his left hand and starts to head to where X told them to go.

Jade, Binary, Grid, Lazarus, and Xan (in that order) begin to sneak to the west away from the guards, who are standing waiting for the rest of the squad.

Jade swiftly and easily moves away from the scene.  Binary...moves quietly away.  Grid...escapes without notice.  Lazarus...moves stealthily out of range.

Xan [roll 15]...bumps his gun into the wall, and the guards turn.  "What was that?" the whiny one says.  Two flashlights turn toward the area surrounding the puddle.

"Nightvision goggles on," the sergeant orders.  "Turn those flashlights off.  You're blinding me."

The two flashlights turn off.  "What's that?" the deep voiced soldier asks.

"Safeties off," the sergeant orders.

"It's a body," the whiny soldier says.  "Someone's down here.  Someone's dead."

"Shut up already," the sergeant says.  "I'll call in and report this."

Xan is able to move quickly away from the commotion during the talking.

The party moves down the hall as the sergeant begins calling for backup on his radio.  You meet up with Mitose, Johnny, and Twitch (the only non-rookie among you except for Binary).  They hand you each the MAW pistols and the extra clips.

"That was a close one," Binary says.  He turns to Xan.  "Maybe this isn't the place for a rookie like you.  X can take you off the hardline if you go back to the room we entered.  This is life and death here."  There is something obviously bothering Binary.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:43, Thu 08 Apr 2004.

Twitch hands Xan one of the extra MAW's.

"Don't worry about it kid.  Mistakes will happen," he whispers to Xan, placing his hand on the rookie's shoulder.

He looks to Binary, and nods once.

"The kid will do fine.  First time jitters.  We'll need all the help we can get." he whispers to Binary.

Twitch points further down toward the west, and motions for everyone to follow, placing his index finger on his lips.  He turns sideways, and motions for the others to pass in front of him.

Jade follows Twitch's motions and takes the lead to the west.  "Let's get him to his computer," she says.  "But we'll probably run into more of those soldiers, so be ready."  She has the Maw pistol loaded and ready for action with the safety off.

Laz loads his Maw, checking twice to see if everything is in working order. He nods to Mitose, Johnny, and Twitch as he passes by them. "Yeah, lets get to it as soon as possible, this isn't looking up for us."

Twitch looks at Lazarus as he passes, "Wanna bet?" he quietly asks with the hint of a smile playing across his face.

"Lamplighting.  They're wearing nightvision goggles, right?  So if we encouter them, flip on your flashlights and shine 'em right in there eyes.  It'll blind 'em for a few seconds, long enough to plug 'em with a MAW dart."