Scene 4: Praeterita
As the ambulance was making its way to the HQ James was starting to hear a ringing noise in his ears and then slowly through the ringing noise he started to hear the ambulance siren as it tried to get through the backed up traffic. By the time the ambulance reached HQ James could hear voices again provided they spoke up. He felt relieved realizing his eardrums hadn't ruptured. The prisoner, safely turned into a vegetable, drooled a little as his empty eyes stared at the window. The damn thing was still stubbornly healing the damage inflicted despite its vegetative state. James couldn't help feel relief that the cyborg was safely secured but made extra sure nonetheless.
---
Once at HQ the cyborg prisoner was put in a high security solitary cell, still strapped down, restrained and drooling. Damn thing had healed up James' gunshot wounds completely by this time. James could swear it looked at him for a second but Light said it was just neural twitching of the eyes because of the encephaloclamp.
Vadim and Jacki were wheeled into sickbay on stretchers, Ai following right behind them. She could not join the team in debriefing, but Erin assured her the intercomm would allow her to participate in the conversation while taking care of Jacki and Vadim. Alpha was returned to his glass cage and mewled in protest, having tasted the outside world. The television showed the Glowy Bouncy Thing again but Al seemed uninterested. Instead he watched from his cell at Ai busying herself with her patients.
---
Jordan Light sat at the head of the wood inlaid oval table in the debriefing room in his black leather chair. Erin had remained in the comm room just in case one of the missing team members attempted to make contact. Light remained silent until everyone was sitting, preoccupied with his tablet.
He looked up: "First things first. Ai, let me know when there is a change in Vadim or Jacki's condition". He continued:"Vadim is down, Jacki is down. Lauren and Sandra are missing. They took us by surprise and hit us hard and mercilessly. But we need to continue to push the small victories we made. The magma entity you encountered at the lawfirm was destroyed. Vadim and Jacki are both still alive. We have one of theirs prisoner. We know where their teleporter was operating from. We don't know if he is still there and what happened to Sandra after she jumped. Erin is trying to contact her but no luck so far. We have people watching the library. So far no one's come out".
He looked on his watch and got up, checking an Ipad briefly:"I called in some favors, reshuffled personell. Marcus Drake joins us from the Hub, welcome agent Drake".
He flicked on the big wall monitor displaying the building of "Yanowich, Dreisel & Associates", former HQ of VIGIL Gamma team. "Let's briefly go over what we know at the moment. We know Francis Stryker, supervisor of VIGIL Gamma had a meeting at Rancho Las Flores Boy Scout Camp. We don't know what went down there. we do know when he came from there he was driving fast and was being followed. On one frame from a traffic cam we saw a figure clinging to the roof of his car. Stryker eventually came to a stop at "Yanowich, Dreisel & Associates" and ran inside. Seconds after, a group of six teleported into the hall of the lawfirm and began systematically murdering our agents and allied personell. You've seen the damage. Ai has detailed medical reports. Note that we have not found Francis Stryker's body".
He pauzed briefly:"From your encounter upon investigating the area we've more closely identified our suspects. One is a young man, about 20-25 years old, dark hair, wearing antiquated clothes, in particular a hooded blue cloak. We suspect he is their teleporter and capable of summoning things that do not belong in this world. We have one of them in custody, the HITMark. Needless to say it is disturbing to find out he was once one of us before he was one of them".
He coughed:"The descrption of the two suspects corresponds with that of two members of the group identifying themselves as the Challengers of the Unknown. Reports on the group can be found in your files. These deluded deviants believe themselves to be superheroes and consider us an evil organisation. We don't exactly know their goals but they have in the past attacked technocracy targets. They are suspected Marauders. It seems that in the case of VIGIL Gamma they upped their game and went full psycho".
"I've spend the past few hours dissecting all the information and I keep coming back to this: Sandra noted she'd detected an anomaly. There was an attempt to hide a trans-chronal quantum entanglement detection event. In layman's terms someone either from the future or the past likely looked into the moment of the first assault on Vigil. Secondly, at the exact time of the assault there was a second attack on the other side of the city. The timing of the attack on the Lockup facility roughly coincides with the attack on Vigil HQ. The attack occurred while a truck was leaving for LAX with a load of artifacts intended for shipping to an offworld location. The assailants took down the truck and its guards with elemental attacks and guns about a mile from the facility, and disappeared again before reinforcements reached the truck. An alert to VIGIL had been sent but obviously in the process of being massacred VIGIL could not respond to the alert".
He sat back in his chair and leaned back:"Thoughts everyone? Not all at once. Richard, why don't you start?".
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:06, Tue 23 Aug 2016.
