[center]A tomato to surpass Metal Gear[/center]
Objective #1: Get dat fukken disk!
Objective #2: Escape!
Drop into the round as a humble botanist, and already dreams of killer tomatoes and kudzu are all I can think of. I wave hello to my fellow botanist and head to the dorms to get dressed fancy. I buy a a syndicate encryption key (2tc) and toss out a greeting. Who knows, maybe I'll have an ally with the AI. To my surprise, two other traitors pipe up immediately and we quickly exchange plans on what the other needs accomplished. Although, looking back, I was the only one to actually divulge objectives. Cool, Anton Slavik (assistant), and Connie Melton (bartender) have joined the party! Dressed for success, and with some tools in tow, I head back to botany to hack the vendors. After a couple tries (and a few singed hairs) I get our production rolling with contraband items. Suzuha, the other botanist already has our mutagen blumpkin supply on lock down, so I get a start on some other plants. Namely tomatoes and white beets to help with eventual kudzu production. Tomatoes ripen, and security catches a chemist traitor with an emag. I chuckle to myself and harvest... holy shit,
94 potency on the first try. Once science hits their peak, we'll have near maxed of anything we could want. Namely killer tomatoes and kudzu :^)
Some time passes and I hear that Security managed to catch the bartender (Connie) spacing a body, and at the time, I didn't know/catch the name of who the victim was. I quickly call out over the radio that I'll rescue them from the brig before they took her headset. As an afterthought I also call out that the channel was likely compromised. It seemed to work, as no one used it afterwards. I excuse myself from Suzuha's company and head to arrivals where I buy a syndie soft suit for myself and a second one for Connie. (Now 10tc spent) Skirting along the edge of the station I fight off some carp and find poor Anton dead by the cargo solar arrays. I whisper to him that I'll come back to recover his body. Serving the double purpose of seeming like the saddened friend speaking to the departed, and alerting ghosts to what I was saying hopefully getting his attention. The AI then mentions security dragging Connie to a room without cameras. Uh oh. I hurry along to the brig and buy a pair of thermals (14tc) Sure enough, the HoS, Connie, and a couple others were in the execution chamber. I begin to formulate a plan on how to best recover the body, maybe an X4 charge? Or perhaps snatch the body out from space if they eject it from the room. My concerns get simplified when the AI sends their engieborg to supervise and security relents to keeping Connie in Permabrig. Cool. I can work with this. I get a bit nervous when Suhuza asks the AI to locate me over the service radio channel. Realizing I'd been gone for a long time, I assure her I'm safe and sound. I dart around to the far side of the brig and start hacking my way in near the security escape pod, and making a falsewall in the side of the room. (to minimize my time near a camera the AI could see me). Connie sees the wall start to come apart and lingers near. I finish the wall just as something gets her attention. Thanks to the thermals I see the captain approaching and I quickly close the hole before he can see it. I wait patiently in the dark, watching the two of them, waiting for the captain to leave. Connie then darts forward and throws the first punch, attempting to knock the captain over! They begin circling and trading blows in the usual spessman fashion when the captain pulls out his e-gun. His first shot goes wide before Connie closes the gap and disarms the cap of his weapon! Switching to lethals she begins to pepper the captain with laser fire as he beats a hasty retreat back to the brig. Seeing my opportunity I open the falsewall and call out to her in my best Arnold impersonation, "Come with me if you want to live!" She vaults onto the table, and I haul her through the hole and close it behind us. Tossing her the spare space suit and a set of internals, I open the way back out to space, wishing them good luck.
Looking back, this was probably the closest I came to everything falling apart. The fact that she went right, and I went left (back to Anton) probably shaped a LOT of the events to follow. By now, word of the prison break has gotten out, and the AI has spotted us in space. Deciding not to take the obvious re-entry point of arrivals, I head a little lower to the maint entrance above the old bar. Once inside, I stash my space suit, preferring to keep as little traitor gear on me as possible. It would be bad enough hauling a dead body. Just as I'm getting myself ready to go, a lizard assistant (thank you thermals!) stops just outside the door and begins tinkering with a wall. Thinking of something to say, I force the door open and before I can get a word out, the lizard gets one look at the body and takes off! Good survival instincts buddy. A lesser tator would have ebowed and sworded you on the spot. Deciding my time was limited now, I book it to medbay. As luck would have it I come out of maintenance just next to the self same lizard exasperatingly retelling what he saw to the detective. I smash out a hurried 'I found him dead in space, and taking him to medbay'. Truth, just not the entire truth. Fortunately the lizard is placated by this with a simple, 'oh ok' and the detective doesn't give it a second thought and I'm free to go. A doctor is waiting by the lobby, so Anton is quickly taken to cloning. I hang around to make sure he's taken care of properly. The doctor begins to undress him and tosses him into the machine. I hold my breath, hoping that my earlier whispering had gotten Anton's attention and he hadn't logged out. With no small amount of relief I exhale once the cloning pod lights up and begins reconstituting my friend. The doctor hauls the naked, and now useless corpse back to the morgue. I get an uneasy feeling and and run to the pile of stuff left on the ground. I look in the bag and... shit. FULL of syndicate gear. unboxed space suit, minibombs, nuke core, the works. Working quickly I dump the entire contents into my own satchel as the doctor comes back, asking what I was doing hanging around. "Just want to make sure he's taken care of properly" I reply, trying to not sound like I had ulterior motives. Shrugging, the doctor checks my vitals and sees I'm still singed from my earlier run in with the botany vending machine. He drops me into the sleeper and tops me off. I thank him for his time and go back to watching my friend finish cloning. Nervous now with a backpack full of illicit goods, I try to think ahead to how we can get out of here ASAP. He'll be healthy, but have brain damage. I start to hack into the adjoining geneticist room for their mannitol pills. An agitated CMO steps away from the computer and asks me promptly what the hell I was doing. Berating myself silently for not double checking anyone was nearby, I meekly explain I was trying to get my friend some mannitol. The CMO stares at me suspiciously before informing me the cryo tubes are already set up for that and to fuck off with the hacking. I quickly agree and thank them for their time. Making myself look useful, I start tossing Anton's belongings from the corner of the room next to the cloning pod where he'll pop out. Backpack, gloves, belt. PDA. suspicious beac-
fuuuu!! Both his pockets had more syndicate equipment that I'd missed previously and were now out in the open. Having no more room in my own backpack, I quickly dump out my pockets to the floor and quietly and quickly stuff both beacons into my pockets to avoid any tell-tale texts the CMO might notice. Either they were busy with their PDA, looking up something out of game, or just plain didn't notice, I was able to pocket everything without compromising my identity. Anton comes out of the cloning pod as most spacemen do. Gibbering and yelling about their killer.
At this point I clue in that Connie had Anton here as an objective. Well, no going back now. Anton gets redressed and I bring him to cryo where he starts the last leg of his healing process. The captain walks brazenly into medbay and stops in front of me. My heart freezes, was I busted? Did I leave any fibers anywhere? It'd be impossible to miss the enormous amount of syndicate equipment on my person right now. I hold my breath and prepare to yakkity sax if I see the taser come out. "Any of you boys want to play russian roullette?" I exhale, and try to explain that I don't want to play, and maybe he should ask the clown if they w-- *BANG* The captain shoots themself in the chest. A scientist wanders in and upgrades everything in a spray of blue-space and leaves. My mind starts reeling with the possibilities now. Captain is alone, severely injured, and has by all chances the disk. Anton comes out of the cyro tube laughing, explaining to the captain that the RIGHT way to play russian roulette is aim for the head. He then wanders next to me, and nudges me, "Hey Hadrian, how about we go finish that botany project eh?" He wants his stuff back, and I want to give it to him, but this opportunity is too good to pass up. Maybe I can buy a cheap weapon to finish him off. I wanted an emag, but again, this opportunity is fucking RIPE. Maybe a energy pen? It's lackluster, but better than nothing, and he IS pretty beat up. The captain starts to limp towards cryo when the idea comes to me. I regain my composure as the plan begins to form. "No no no Sir~ You're only shot, nothing particularly complicated with your injuries. The sleeper is much more efficient and faster for your injuries." Which is true, but the captain was alone, and no one to double check what I was injecting him with. The captain agrees, or at least lets me put him into the sleeper without complaint. With the sleeper upgraded, this is much easier.
75 units of morphine, and a little bit of bicardine to buy me some time while he sees that he is 'healing'. Anton catches on to my plan and lingers while I start hacking the nearby maintenance door and bolt it open. I monitor the captain's vitals waiting for him to fall asleep. The doctor comes by and sees us around the sleeper, and checks it. Lizard Doc: "HOLY SHIT!!!" Not wasting anytime I glance at the vitals sign and see that the captain is unconscious, without any explanation I pop the lid of the sleeper and abduct the captain into maintenance at full speed, bringing no light and using the thermals to guide me. I duck into a side room and close the door and begin strangling the captain. My backpack beeps, and I can only bet it's Anton asking where I went. I fish it out and tell him I'm in maint, and soon see him approach. I wave him into the room and shut the door. The strip the captain of his headset and suit sensors and finish the job. Still working on an adrenaline high, I step back and finally relax.
Hadrian dusts himself off. "Huh, didn't even get any blood on my suit."
We divvy up the captain's belongings and I return the equipment to Anton, grateful to be rid of it. Keeping the disk, pinpointer, and spare ID for myself. Anton has some trouble finding his equipment in the dark, and I remember I'm the one with thermals, so I drag him over top the pile of his things. I mull things over now. I have what I need now, and my mission is complete. Far as I care, Connie is freed from perma, and Anton gets his second chance. Still... there is something to be said for style points. I tell Anton to hold still, as I have a parting gift for him. I purchase a mulligan (18tc) and inject him with it. He's grinning from ear to ear as I tell him to ditch his ID and continue with his mission. We RP a little bit before heading our separate ways.
At long last, double checking myself to make sure I wasn't tracking any blood anywhere I return to botany and greet Suhuza, telling them that I'd been off having adventures. Every tray in botany is glowing with Gaia-infusion and several mutated plants adorn the pots. She smiles and says that she'd had her own adventures, although probably they were tamer in comparison. We continue to grow plants and make cool things. My tomatoes turn into Killer Tomatoes on the first mutation and I'm pleased as can be. A little while later security is shouting at how someone had stolen the nuke core and I smile to myself with a quiet 'Way to go Anton' and continue to water my beastly plants. At this point the shuttle is called and we find out that it's the luxury shuttle. I briefly check my wallet. Yup. 500 credits. I've already got my ticket. Sadly the shuttle arrives before my ginormous tomatoes ripen, but I leave content in the knowledge that the potential was there.
I board the shuttle and take a seat. It's fucking gorgeous in here. Glancing to back end of the shuttle, I see with my thermals everyone else clustered in 'coach'. The portion you can board if you don't have the dosh. There's an angry dwarf hulk in there punching people and everyone is crowded and grumpy. I chuckle and enjoy some pumpkin pie. An atmos tech cracks a cigarette pack beside me and offers me one. Syndie smokes. I thank him and light up. As the shuttle approaches Central Command, I double check I have the disk, and smile as I pull a nice big bowl of valid salad towards me.
I've never had a round like that on basil, always get killed or the station blows up 10 minutes in. This round was probably 2hrs.
