Session 43 - A Number In The System (Part 2)

Key Points:

• And so, the battle continued...
• Setter creates an opening for Aria to strike the LADY.
• The LADY wounds both Managirl and Kembu with a spell.
• Otter hacks into Roan's brain and allows him to escape being cornered by the JERK.
• Roan stuns the JERK with a well-timed sniper shot.
• Athena, to stir up trouble, forces Aria several times (even when she attempts to evade it) to attack Managirl. She also causes a little trouble by forcing Managirl to say hurtful things towards Aria. Afterwards, all of the Athena's vanish from the party's field of vision.
• Kembu calls Watchdog; who seems to be in a combat situation of his own. Watchdog after receiving part of the information regarding Athena, suggests the use of an EMP to prevent her from jumping from body to body.
• Managirl performs an impressive feat of power against the JERK; nearly killing it again.
• Remaining drum drones attempt to fire and pin down several key Runners.
• Aria throws multiple shurikens against her enemies!
• Angel has some healing love for some people, and finishes the JERK off with a shot gun blast.

• Wow. So Battle. Much Fight.
• Setter dazes and bloodies the LADY with a powerful shot while empowering Managirl with a spell.
• The LADY's powerful ghastly visions spell returns and she forces Setter to relive a traumatizing failure from his past while Managirl is forced to deal with her abandonment issues again and again.
• Otter tinkers with the processing for several drones; nearly destroying them.
• Managirl rolls a death saving throw! She passes.
• Roan focuses on weakening the LADY with a solid sniper shot.
• Two of the three remaining Athena's reveal themselves; attempting to gundown Setter and Managirl. They're successful in taking Managirl down.
• Kembu slays a drone by throwing his sword at it.
• Roan attempts to snap Setter out of his ghastly visions, but the effort has mixed results.
• The drones attempt to kill a downed and dying Managirl, nearly achieving the desired result.
• Angel delivers a powerful shot to the LADY.
• Aria tosses Kembu's thrown sword back to him after briefly considering taking it for herself, then she bloodies one of the visible Athena.

• DANGER, DANGER, IT IS A NEW COMBAT ROUND!
• Setter focuses on reviving Managirl (and is successful).
• Hera tries to unleash more ghastly visions upon the group, but Aria's opportunity attack finishes her off and prevents that from happening. The LADY dies, and we see the aged, life support HERA fall out of the machine and flat line.
• Otter decides to unleash a huge plasma grenade in the middle of the battle field; wounding friend and foe alike.
• Roan kills one of the remaining Athena's, then stuns and wounds the other.
• Various machines rise from Athena's cybermancy.
• Managirl comes back in a fury; nearly killing the last Athena and mending some of Kembu's wounds.
• Kembu nearly kills one of the drones, then runs back towards the door in hopes of finding the missing Athena.
• Managirl is shot by the remaining drones.
• Angel finishes off the last visible Athena with a shotgun blast.
• Aria ends up throwing more shurikens; nearly killing many drones.

• NANI, MORE FIGHTING!?
• Setter wounds the revived LADY terribly, which disrupts her attacks against Kembu and Angel.
• Otter destroys one of the drones with a feedback surge.
• Athena reveals her presence; after used her time invisible to trigger some fail safe plans. Alarms and sirens begin to go off, and Otter reveals that Athena has accomplished three things. 1) She released her "nest egg" of sensitive information and intel regarding Genesis online. 2) She released an army of assassin robots to hunt down high priority targets. 3) She activated the explosives she has hidden under Sector Six; enough to take out the entire sector.
• Managirl destroys a drone and nearly the LADY again.
• Roan plots something, preparing a hidden EMP that he stole from Nacht.
• Kembu rushes back across the map to try and engage the last Athena.
• Angel takes down one of the drones.
• Aria attempts to attack Athena, but she evades for now.

•  Last round? I can't remember...
• Sirens and alarms go off while the bombs prepare to do their thing.
• Athena had several exchanges with the group; offering Angel her wisdom (in the form of her SEED) and offering Aria some hints about a past that she didn't quite understand.
• Setter fails to land a strike this time around.
• The LADY wounds Aria and Kembu with a minor attack.
• Otter begins to try and counteract what Athena has done; she only makes it 33% or so of the way there.
• Roan wounds Athena with a rubber bullet.
• Managirl fails to land a strike this round too.
• So does Angel.
• The remaining turrets fire on Otter.
• Aria severely wounds Athena, bringing her near death and destroying the genasi's forearm computer.

• Remember when I said the last round was the last round? I lied.
• Setter heals Otter, then makes sure the door to the room is closed.
• The LADY attempts to direct her ghastly visions at Otter, but the Freediver had a plan that protected her.
• Otter continues her work, roughly getting pass the 50% marker.
• Outside, the group could hear some terrible construct on the way to try and kill Otter before she could finish.
• Roan and Kembu revealed their plan. Roan activated the EMP and Kembu killed Athena right then and there; hoping that it would prevent her from jumping as the freediver was in the process of uploading herself to the Net. Whether or not the two were successful in killing the IDEA that Athena became is unknown, but the identity of Athena itself is dead and gone on Mount Olympus.
• The EMP device shut down all electronics in the immediate area; a painful and terrible experience for Setter while for Otter it more... brought her down to normal.
• The EMP was enough to disable the remaining machines.

• The aftermath...
• Angel collected all the artifacts; including having to do surgery on Athena's head.
• The group had mixed reactions; more or less spending a few words with another Runner. They were wounded, physically and mentally, and now faced potential certain death...
• The facility began to quake and rumble with explosions... but they weren't directly underneath the facility. Otter had done enough to ensure that the group would survive. However, roughly 50% of Sector Six was destroyed by explosions that Otter wasn't able to stop (given she didn't have enough time). And that's not counting potentially 50% of the machines unleashed after high profile targets...
• When it became clear that the group would not explode and die, and when electronics came back on, Angel reported a quick message to the Middleman, and the group started out of the facility...

• The conclusion...
• The group arrives at the Treant Theater, wounded and exhausted, hoping to get in their truck and recover Pandora's Box from Prometheus and take it to Rickenato.
• However, at the Theater, they find Gwen, Niklas, OGRE, and a legion of Genesis Security along with all the captive and dead Olympians. The session ended on the cryptic message, "We need to talk" from Gwen, FIRST CLASS ROGUE Agent for Genesis, and one of the primary power players in Babylon.

Loot:

• Athena's Wisdom, Hera's Diadem, and Zeus' Thunderbolt: click here...

Current Objectives:

• Complete the Middleman's Third Job: Deliver Pandora's Box to Rickenato.
• Receive the Middleman's Answers.
• Pursue Personal Goals.
• Roan: Defeat Nacht.
• Setter: Revenge.
• Kembu: Save the girl.
• Managirl: Find yourself.
• Aria: Reunite your family.
• Del: Save the world.
• Angel: Start a family.
• Death Otter: Defeat Athena.