And here it is:
*
Pyrrhic Victory
Since you began your journey through time and space, you've had to deal with so many strange people, bizarre situations and peculiar creatures that you've never been able to settle down in a state of comfort and complacency; you've always had to be alert, ready to make new plans when faced with the unexpected. Like now. Admittedly, the prospect of having to fight a horde of zombies in order to get out of the Vault wasn't particularly unexpected, but that just means you need even less time to come up with a plan of action.
'Evie, I need you to throw Glitch into the middle of them,' you say, tapping her on the shoulder and indicated the packed masses of zombies.
'WAIT, WHAT?'
But before your robot friend can protest – or make any of his usual sarcastic quips – Evie obeys your instructions, hurling him through the air. He lands with a crash, smashing through the zombie mob, crushing several of them under his bulk. As he rolls over, flailing around, trying to get up, he damages still more of them. They scratch, bite, and claw at him, but are unable to penetrate his metal shell. Just as planned.
'YEAH… GREAT PLAN, FRIDA,' Glitch mutters blearily.
'Time to let loose with your blaster,' you say, removing your hand from Evie's shoulder. For a moment, you consider whether to tell her that she should try to avoid shooting at Glitch, but you decide not to. She's been doing this for thousands of years; she knows how to fight.
From somewhere in the midst of that thick crowd of flesh puppets, you hear Lothangrim's voice. It sounds oddly muffled, as though he's speaking to you from the other side of a wall. Which makes sense, you suppose. 'I won't let you leave… well, I won't make it easy for you,' he states.
Leaping up to a high vantage point, Evie fires a barrage of energy blasts into the horde, delivering a swift and final end to dozens of them. She doesn't bother with any fancy acrobatic manoeuvres like she did earlier; in her current position, she's far out of their reach and can shoot down at them with impunity; there's no reason for her to move out of her current position.
'Goodbye, Lothangrim,' you say. 'See you in hell.'
Putting the trumpet to your lips, you strike forth with a wave of furious sound, powerful enough to shred flesh, shatter bones, and throw your enemies to the ground as if they'd been hit by an earthquake. Their front rank seems to disintegrate. Many of the others are horribly wounded. You try to keep your psionic powers under tight control, excluding Glitch from their area of effect, trying to prevent him from being smashed into pieces by your attack. At that, you succeed, but you're unable to protect him from all of the aftershocks. His armoured carapace appears almost undamaged, but his limbs have seized up and you're fairly sure that his inner workings have taken a hammering. He is silent, almost immobile, and does little to resist as the remaining zombies crawl over him.
You feel strong arms grab hold of you, gathering you up, and Evie's voice whispers in your ear, 'We need to get out of here. Right now.'
Glancing upwards, you barely have time to see a latticework of cracks spread across the ceiling. You hear a terrible crunching sound as something gives way. Then, you're hurtling through the air as Evie leaps forward, carrying you with her, over the heads of the few remaining zombies, bouncing off the ground like a ping-pong ball, and flying out through the torn-open hole where Vault Six's main door once stood. All around, you see rubble, ruined buildings and shattered streets. This was once the Buried Village. It appears deserted.
Evie sets you down gently in a patch of open ground where there isn't any rubble to stumble over. A moment later, Al-Khidr and Garrar materialize next to you. Al-Khidr collapses to the floor in a dead faint. Garrar looks mildly confused.
You don't have time to say anything to them. From behind you, you hear a series of crashes and booms as Vault Six collapses in on itself. The ground rumbles beneath your feet. Have you won? Did anything of Lothangrim's manage to escape before you brought down the building on top of him? He's not permanently destroyed, you realise – you were unable to destroy every part of his phylactery network – but, unless he can somehow rebuild his forces, he is unlikely to be a threat to you ever again.
If this is victory, it came at a price you didn't want to pay. Glitch is still in there, buried under the rubble. Is he dead? Could you rebuild him if you took the time to dig him out? Perhaps. Perhaps not. You feel so dejected and tired and frustrated. In your mind, the battle you just fought seems kind of pointless. You wish this hadn't happened. Would it have been better to let Lothangrim's undead and Mister Grey's robots spend their strength fighting each other while you got on with other things? Would that have been a better use of your time? You don't know. It's too late.
'Useless… just useless,' you mutter, echoing something which Lothangrim said after you dosed him with Malaise.
'I'm sorry, what was that, Frida?' asks Evie, looking worriedly at you.
You shake your head. 'It's nothing. How are you holding up?'
Asking that question of each of your companions in turn, you get a range of answers: Evie is fine, virtually unscathed; Garrar has already regenerated any of the injuries he suffered during your invasion of Vault Six; and Al-Khidr is unconscious. Apparently, he grabbed hold of Garrar and teleported both of them out at the last moment, expending the last of his energy in order to do so. He opens one eye when you prod him, mutters something incoherent, and then drifts back off into dreamland.
You're in the Buried Village. Evidently, Lothangrim summoned all of his minions to fight you, leaving none of them outside; the streets are deserted. Maybe there are some undead creatures scattered around the Bowels somewhere, but they're not here. There is nothing to stop you from walking out of here. After that, it'll take about a quarter of an hour to get to the Maze, which you're now able to navigate with ease. From there, you can go anywhere in the city. You can be back in your home base in less than an hour.
What do you want to do?
[] Head back to Vault Three.
-[] Garrar will carry Al-Khidr.
[] "You know, in all that excitement, we never got to eat the lunch which Al-Khidr prepared for us."
-[] Stop and have lunch, picnic-style.
[] Send some of your companions home (write in: who?) while you stay and attempt to retrieve Glitch from underneath his burial mound.
[] Do something else (write in).
