-[X] Explore Streets
--[X] Dr. Mashita, Jetpacks, 1 Fusion Core
_______________________________
"Where are we going, Mashita?"
[Required: Jetpacks]
The pair were currently soaring- Mashita jerkily and amateurishly, clearly unused to piloting the Jetpack. "We should almost be-" She dipped for a moment, leaning to correct and accidentally over-correcting, sending her floating backward. "Damnit, how the hell do you use this thing?" she cried, frustrated.
"It takes practice," Edgar noted. "Lots and lots of practice."
"Never want to use one of these things again," Mashita said as she finally got back into correct posture, allowing her to move forward again, expression inscrutable under her faceplate but tone clearly aggravated. "Anyways, we've spent the past few days looking for places of interest in the city- with PSIRODAX, we've successfully identified several different Royal Matchbox installations, government facilities, and sites of note that have low enough ambient rads to potentially be life-bearing," She explained, the reference to the super-computer causing Edgar's stomach to twist in dread. "Yesterday, we found a location I'm pretty sure you'll want to see."
Moments later, Edgar saw it, looming in the mist- a superscraper, one topped with a logo:
COMMONWEALTH ENERGY COMPANY, each letter massive, blocky, the paint having long since been sanded off by the decades of decay, leaving behind the concrete skeletons behind.
Moving to the top floor, the pair landed, Edgar more gracefully than Mashita, who wound up falling a foot through the air and only barely managing to maintain her footing. "Hate these stupid things," she complained. "Anyways, we went ahead and captured the zombies on the roof- transporting them was difficult, but the landing zone is safe, as is most of the facility down to the 120th floor."
Edgar continued to follow her as they located the roof entrance and descended into the darkened hall. "And what about this place is so important it required my direct attention?" He asked as they entered the stairwell.
"I saw the report from Black Springs- did we get any photos of the monolith device?" She replied as they descended, Mashita deciding to walk and use her legs, Edgar meanwhile deciding to float next to her using his jetpack, indulging in a bit of well earned laziness.
"Sadly no- it's going to be several decades until any available camera we have will function in conditions like this." He explained, causing Mashita to give a nod as they descended floor after floor, until they reached their destination: 130, the doctor pushing the door open to reveal what appeared to be…a holding facility? On each wall was a series of cells, metal bars locking bare cells. A handful of other expedition members were scattered here and there, examining the facility and what lie in the cells or operating various devices they had hauled up.
"Unfortunate. The report indicated that in it's immediate vicinity there was both a massive spike in radiation and odd behavior from the zombies in its vicinity?" She queried as they passed a bend, and Edgar saw what she had wanted him to see, the man stopping in his tracks at the sight.
"Tell me, is the same behavior you saw?" Mashita enquired as Edgar stared with fascination at the completely docile Centralia Zombies, who idly walked around their cell or slumped on the floor. Walking up, Edgar pulled a flashlight from his belt- clicking it, noting all of them seemed to possess glowing eyes, each gamma green.
Turning the flashlight on and off several times, Edgar noted that they seemed to have no strong reaction to outside stimuli. "What on earth…" He said, more and more questions popping up- and another reason to try and schedule a trip for black springs.
"...Yeah, this fits what the scouts reported," Edgar hesitantly confirmed, walking to one of the cell door, noting it was locked. "I didn't get to see it in person- I was only at Camp Darkness for a night and change."
"Ah, I understand. I'll try to schedule an outbound trip to secure visual confirmation after all is said and done," Mashita said agreeably. "I want to see the monolith anyways- I want to confirm whether it's merely at the epicenter of the radiation cloud covering Black Springs by coincidence or not."
Interesting- the tone indicated she leaned more towards the 'or not' end of the spectrum "You think the monolith is what irradiated the town," Edgar stated as the pair continued further into the labs, entered a complex room of machinery, devices, cables, and wires, with a higher concentration of researchers, all in protective gear and messing with the technology that was scattered around.
"I'm reasonably confident the monolith irradiated the town-" She said as they reached the outside of a chamber- the hazy green inside visible through a thick glass window, Edgars geiger counter tripling in volume- the room beyond was radioactive enough that even behind a decontamination glass window it was causing a spike. "-Because I'm reasonably confident that the machine that did that to those zombies is in that room."
Edgar raised an eyebrow- fascinating. Also horrifying, but more and more Edgar was learning to tune the part of himself that was always screaming out the same way he tuned out the relentless burning anger he usually felt. "Supporting evidence?"
"Correspondance- I've been going over the secured floors with a fine toothed comb, the mutants were shipped in from Megamax and put through something called the Ubaric Chamber."
[Required: Weirdologist: Fail]
Ubaric…the word seemed vaguely familiar to Edgar, but he couldn't place it. "Knowing who these people looked up to, the name is probably some asinine reference to the occult," He mused.
"That's currently my working theory- we tried looking the name up in PSIRODAX, and nothing appears to have come up," Mashita noted, before turning to nod at the console, which had someone at it. "We believe we know how to operate the machine- we're about to test it to see how it functions first hand."
A pair of technicians came in, wheeling a gurney containing a writing a writhing, snapping zombie, held down by leather restraints. "Hmm," Edgar said, feeling a little conflicted- but deciding to not protest. The data would be too useful. Watching, he observed the zombie be transported through the decontamination chamber. "Alright, I kind of want to see this too," He admitted, causing Mashita to nod, satisfied.
"On the inside is the device- it resembles a sort of coffin," She informed him. "You'll get a chance to observe it firsthand after we perform our first test."
"Speaking of," Said the technician at the console. "Specimen is now in place- please clear chamber."
A few moments later, the doors to the decontamination unit opened, the scientists who had hauled the gurney in shuffling out. "Alright, please stand by, activating Ubaric Chamber now."
A moment later, the lights began flickering, on and off- Edgars teeth began to vibrate as he became keenly aware of something happening in the chamber- feeling a strange magnetism from it. A nuclear glow occurred in the chamber, brighter and brighter, until it was almost blinding-
And it subsided. "Alright, flushing chamber." The technician said, and there was a sucking noise- and the rads began to drop, lowered to pre-activation levels, though still dangerously high.
Edgar moved the the entrance, passing through the decontamination unit alongside Mashita, quickly entering and walking to the device- indeed, it was shaped like a coffin, with several metal latches. "Opening device," came the tinned voice of the operator over wall mounted speakers. Steam poured from the lid as each mechanical latch came undone with a hefty ker-clunk, the chamber door slowly swinging outward to reveal the occupant, who now hung slack on their gurney, eyes staring dead ahead with a bright gamma glow, and even through his suit- Edgar could feel the temperature in the room rise rapidly. Walking forward, Mashita quickly began examining the now docile specimen.
"Same as the others- completely unaware of stimuli," She observed after a moment of examination, gripping the creatures chin and shining a light in its eye. "Temperature is sky high- if they were a human they'd be suffering from heat-stroke," She observed, backing away. "Alright, Mashita to team, get this one back to base camp- I want to examine this thing in my lab as soon as possible."
"This is Regional Director Wright, seconding that." Edgar said, a dark fascination in his gut: more and more puzzles were in front of him, but he was beginning to put together the pieces, and it wasn't, he noted, particularly pleasant. "And someone contact base camp- inform them I'm going to be down here a few days."
"The technology is fascinating," came the eager and fascinating voice of Mashita as the now placid creature was hauled out, tapping the fingers of each hand together eagerly, the radiobiologist pacing back and forth.
"The technology is horrifying," Edgar countered. "If it wasn't for the fact that the victims are already near feral I'd probably order this damned thing dismantled."
"Well, yes, it's creators misused it," Mashita admitted without missing a beat. "But technology will always be misused by bad actors- think of the good the principles behind the machine could accomplish in the right hands. If a means to domesticate zombie populations is found, it could prove invaluable to rebuilding civilization!" She said eagerly.
Edgar remained quiet, noting that even the technology COULD potential do good in the right hands- it wasn't IN the right hands. Whatever the research here was used for, it probably wouldn't be anything good. "Maybe," He eventually lied. "Anyways, let's go over your search strategy, Doctor-"
Hello, dear readers, it is I, Professor Patriot, here to narrate to you another thrilling ACTION MONTAGE!
Intrigued by the radiobiologists discoveries, Edgar would take some time out of his schedule to assist with recovery efforts!
[Weirdologist: Fail]
Sadly, they weren't able to puzzle out how the Ubaric Chamber functioned- other than that it required wattage equivalent to an entire power crystal to activate! Surely it was somewhere lower in the building!
[Required: Biologist: Pass]
However, there existed ample research material- the machine apparently used the same crystalline substance Edgar had encountered over and over in a form of advanced radiation therapy, one that functioned not on mundane principles, but far more eldritch sciences!
It was, in fact, intended to be an experimental piece of PSYCHIC technology! Using the power of crystals, the chambers were designed to telepathically stimulate the brain- with zeta and gamma radiation being a mere byproduct of this terrifying device! Later vivisection of affected ghouls would reveal- the process had caused their brains to literally boil, the synapses firing fast enough to cause the neurons to cook as fast as the zeta radiation regenerated them! In effect, the poor test patient was reduced to something less than an animal, a blank husk incapable of anything but the most basic of automatic biological functions- no longer hostile, but stripped bare of its higher thought!
[Required: Mastermind: Pass]
Edgar was able to read between the lines. This place- all it's documents indicated it was failing, and all dates were at a minimum five to ten years prior to whatever the hell happened. Financial ledgers, investment accounts- all of it pointed to the company being deeply unprofitable, kept afloat by investment by President Turnbull and the Royal Matchbox company in exchange for Commonwealth Energy Company helping solve one of the last obstacles in the way of Utopia, the mental degradation caused by whatever serum MEGAMAX had created (and, privately Edgar suspected, the abuse and suffering those transformed had been subject to before and during the process).
That partnership had been the only thing keeping the company afloat- until it didn't, around the time one of the leads on the Ubarification Chamber, Gerhardt Strausse left to work in another lab. The project had been producing no results, so one of them pulled out, leaving CEC holding the bag. It's offices would shutter, it's labs would close, and the building would be vacated- the research seized to be used in a different endeavor.
What documentation existed pointed to a closure date in the mid 40's- several years before the final detonation.
[Required: Field Research Expert: Pass]
Of course, it probably didn't help that CEC had been committing massive amounts of fraud- money and resources that had been meant for the project had steadily been funneled into other projects by the companies owner. Mashita would locate several samples of the crystal they had been studying in an attempt to create what appeared to be miniaturized power crystals- a project that never bore fruit! Still, it wasn't the crystals that were the real prize, but the research notes!
The company had experimented extensively with the substance, which seemed to be mined out of the Blue Mountain range from an unknown government site. This mysterious crystal, which Edgar would soon later learn the official name for from Phoebus, was possessed of vast quantities of energy- when utilized correctly, a single unprocessed crystal could have produced enough energy to meet the power needs of the entire city of New Orleans!
[Required: AGENT or SPY: Fail]
[Required: CRIMINAL: Fail]
However, the group would find themselves unable to descend to the mid-levels of the building- discovering that the upper portions were quarantined by an automated lockdown preventing any access to the 110th floor or below- sadly preventing them from collecting the facilities power crystal.
And yet, dear patriots, even with this setback, our heroes still found the place profitable indeed, both in that most valuable of currency knowledge, and also in more tangible goods! In total, their explorations would acquire…
- 2 Cases of assorted Ultracite Shards: Pieces of highly volatile crystals- unlike the ones used in power crystal units, these appeared somewhat dull. The science division would no doubt have a field day with these samples- Edgar could likely use that to pad out his own laboratory budget. Can be traded to allied factions, increasing their stats and unlocking new projects or granting funding.
- Ubaric Chamber: A machine designed to use experimental ultracite powered psychic technology to restore sanity to ghouls, instead it turned them into vegetables by boiling away their brain until all that were left were blank neurons. It was slowly being documented and prepared for transport, where no doubt it would be studied extensively by the DoP's psi-division. +1 [Weird] Dice.
- Ultracite Research Documentation: It was perhaps the next best thing compared to a power crystal, these notes contained research performed on the material itself and extensive notation on how it functioned. Both Mashita and Edgar gain the perk Ultracite Physicist: +1 to [Power] and [Ultracite] tagged projects for this character.
- Experimental Radiostimulation Devices: Another CEC project- these were designed for more mundane procedures. Apparently, the CEC had achieved modest success using mild radiation exposure as a form of physical stimulant using 'volunteers' from MEGAMAX. It wasn't quite buffout, but it looked to be mostly safe if one took Rad-X before-hand- which most of their test subjects, for obvious reasons, didn't. Unlock Special Science/Security Project.
- Extensive Finance Data: Well, this one Edgar would keep to himself- it turned out CEC had extensive off-shore assets, several of which were, ah, liquid- the CEO, beyond being a massive embezzler, had apparently been a big believer in gold and buried treasure. He'd need to have Wilbur arrange to have it quietly retrieved when they left Syndey harbor to be distributed to his allies- above and below board- to help finance their activities. Gain two points of Wealth that can be distributed to faction of choice.
- Assorted Ghouls: The zombies that had been retrieved were now safely in storage- Mashita had made sure to collect as many different varieties as she could, including both the elder zombies and gamma zombies. Gain additional progress towards Ghoul documentation and additional Ghoul variant cryptid cards that can be documented once the basic card is unlocked.
However, the amount of time Edgar had to work with the brilliant Radiobiologist in exploring the CEC headquarters was limited, as a few days in, he would get a message from Phoebus and Skulder- they had something to report to him.
And so Wright would set off, traveling to Sydney Hospital, unaware he was soon to face a truely otherworldly foe! To find out what preternatural terrors our intrepid hero is going to embark on, join us next time in the action packed conclusion of Team America Issue #1: TEAM AMERICA VS THE LOST. 
