As the air clears, you look around. Kri'lik, your trusted doctor, is dead. Only five of you remain: Desi, Porter, Orvo, S'krllk, and Hammer--two humans, a dralasite, a Vrusk, and a Mechanon. You have lost so many.
With his skills, S'krllk is able to engage the lock on the door behind you, locking out the approaching guards and security robots.
You begin searching the lockers. (Note: there are machine gun belts and ammo for all of the other major weapons as well available here.)
S'krllk goes to the door to the command room to see if he can make the lock work. But to your surprise, you find that the door is unlocked and it opens easily.
You look momentarily up at the hatch in the ceiling but then move to the command room to see if you can divert the missile.
You all enter the command room with weapons raised...and pause at what you see there.
Numerous monitors provide views of the missile silo and of Kraatar as seen from Setarz. You remember for a moment in the excitement that you are on the moon, the missile has fired toward Kraatar, and you need to stop it.
Sitting in front of the monitors by a bank of controls are three technicians responsible for tracking the missile. They do not turn from the screens or even seem to recognize your entrance. They are unarmed.
Behind them in a large chair that overlooks all of them sits a familiar face. You recognize Jack Legrange. He swivels his chair to face you. In his lap sits a cat. He strokes it, and it purrs but does not seem to notice you. His body has been altered significantly to add an exoskeleton. You had heard this, but seeing it is another thing entirely.
In the distant corner, two additional cats are looking at you. They DO notice you and have a distinct growling purr. These cats are not normal. They are the size of a small lynx, and they have mechanical robot legs. They also have small rocket packs attached at the base of their tail which appear to be to allow them to hover or fly long distances through the air.
Legrange continues to stroke the cat without making any offensive moves toward you. In fact, he seems downright friendly and congratulatory as he says, "You have done so well to thwart my plans, my friends. Although it is too late to do anything to prevent the missile since it has already launched, I applaud your efforts. Let's recount your successes. You successfully figured out that I surgically altered Trans to resemble myself, and then when my doppleganger was assassinated, you tracked down my agents like good detectives. I admit feeling a small pang of regret that my family mourned my death when it was really Trans who died."
He taps his heart melodramatically. You see there is no danger from him, so you let him continue his rundown of your successes.
"Let's see. You found my agent Gorboz. He worked for David Dever at the Sanitorium, as you found out. He was a fat little dralasite who liked stupid puns. I never liked him much. And Dever called him a blubbering blob of fat. Did you know Dever founded the KLC with me? The Kraatar Liberation Corps. Doesn't that just flow off the tongue? That was a long time ago. Dever was put in prison for 10 full years before he managed to escape. When we got back in touch with each other, we were able to restart the KLC activities for the ultimate takeover of Kraatar. He hates Vrusk almost as much as I do, you know. But I have to say that Gorboz may be as bad as a Vrusk by blundering things here."
Legrange looks with disgust at S'krllk.
"So then you managed to get on a train, found Dever's implant in the Vrusk to make him do our bidding, and then destroyed our KLC commandoes and crashed the train. I know you have been reporting back to RIK Zzik'ti and he gave you wide authority to take me down. Did you know in your time since breaking into the sanitarium that he has been capturing and sentencing my KLC operatives to prison? Stupid Vrusk. He will die with the others when the missile lands."
He shrugs.
"Oh well. You broke into our sanitarium--very sneaky, I must say. You took down our commandoes and came in through a vent, bypassing all of our security measures. You found out about our implants and ability to control the Vrusk through them. You found out that 'Dr. Boot' was really Dr. Dever. And what did you do? You put a bullet in his head. My longtime friend, a brilliant doctor--and you just killed him. So you learned I was on the secret base on the moon. You found out I was going to release the deadly Fumiga Virus, genetically engineered to only affect the Vrusk, and it would kill off all the Vrusk so I can return and lead the people."
You recall the following from when you had killed Dever:
Dever's calculations and experiments unearthed a fact which (had you not killed him) Dever was about to transmit to LeGrange: Unknown to Legrange, the virus will react with Kraatar's atmosphere to threaten all life forms on the planet. One week after being released into the atmosphere, the virus will have killed all Humans as well. LeGrange doesn't realize this and still plans to release the virus.
The Fumiga Virus: Legrange discovered a deadly virus which appears to affect only Vrusk, killing all who come into contact with it within 6 hours. He intends to release this into Kraatar's upper atmosphere, but, unknown to LeGrange, the virus will mutate into an even more deadly strain. This new strain will kill not only Humans, but most other life forms on the planet, turning Kraatar into a world devoid of life in a week.
For full review of what you found, go to message 18 here: link to a message in this game
This makes you also remember the other facts you learned:
As an expert in bioengineering Legrange has supervised extensive alterations to his form. His skeleton is enhanced with the equivalent of an internal exoskeleton . Legrange also has a tight-beam computer link implanted in his brain, which allows him to communicate with all computers on Artemis Base.
"Lucky for you," Legrange continues, "you had rescued a pilot, Rezz, from the riots, and she agreed to fly you here. How convenient. I laughed when I intercepted the transmission from RIK Zzik'ti saying they had no spaceships or vessels capable of interplanetary flight currently in the system to stop my planned missile launch, and they stupidly closed down the starport. Stupid Vrusk. Never prepared."
He laughs and strokes the cat again.
"So you get here on the shuttle, find our secret Artemis Base carved into the moon. And you try to shut down the missile launch. Too late. Too late," he repeats with a shake of his head.
"And now the missile has been launched for 20 minutes. You have killed my men, destroyed my robots, caused all sorts of clatter and destruction. And you can't kill me, can you? You know that I may be the only person in the galaxy able to solve the Datasphere sent by the "Shadows of Rakon" and prevent the imminent multidimensional attack orchestrated between the Qantariate and the Sathar. I have been following all of it. How many days are left until the attack? I think it's fewer than 30 now. Yes, 29 as of today, if my calculations are correct. And my calculations are always correct."
He lets out an audible sigh as he continues to stroke the cat.
"So I guess the question you have to ask yourself is this: Would you rather kill me and let the Sathar enslave or kill every intelligent species in the known galaxy with the Qantariate, or would you rather let me kill the Vrusk on Kraatar, rule the planet as my spoils, and help you save the human race? And other races too, of course. Either way, killing me would not stop the missile now, would it? You have in front of you one of the greatest minds of human existence. Tariel told you I was the only one who could help. So what will it be? I will call down my men and let you get safely back to your Vrusk pilot. But she and your Vrusk friend S'krllk here won't be able to survive on Kraatar, so maybe they should stay here or find another destination."
He shrugs.
"So what do you want it to be, my friends?"
He smiles.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:33, Mon 08 Oct 2018.