Ice Station Episode 2
General Summary
Secure (for the time being) in the security room of Ice Station Zulu, the Stewards take a few moments to catch their breath. They are greeted by Chip, a prisoner who escaped before the infection spread and had been using the vents to traverse the facility - but had been unable to escape through the frozen wastelands beyond. With their combined capabilities, they have a chance of reaching the landing pad theorised to be on the other side of the laboratories - but first they must make their way through the prison cells.
Meanwhile, Zanderbey had been seeking a way to salvage this mission. On a camera feed overlooking the cafeteria a green light flickered, catching his eye - a datapad that still had power, and potentially records of the events here. The group agreed it was worth the risk, and so with Chip leading the way they cautiously crawled through the air vents, with a ravenous (but unaware) horde of transformed ghouls in the hallways below.
Once at the cafeteria, they discovered they were not alone. Two small packs of transformed ghouls were feeding there, unaware they were being watched. Chip crawled in while they were distracted, and quietly snatched up the datapad - which promptly sounded a small alert. The ghouls turned towards their new prey, but Chip bolted back to the safety of his friends at phenomenal speed. Zanderbey fired his beam spreadgun (and missed) while Tyrfing moved to a defensive location in front of the door, ready for a fight. He obliterated the first ghoul with a blast of sunfire from his hand, and then was mauled by the remaining two - but his armour held, and he was only slightly wounded.
Chip dashed through the door with the datapad in hand, and as more ghouls bounded over tables and benches Zanderbey called out that he had rigged the door to shut. Tyrfing hopped backswards through the doorway, and Zanderbey tapped the button - but nothing happened. The pair of ghouls that had attacked Tyrfing leapt forwards again, trying to slip through the doorway to their prey but Tyrfing caught them, barely keeping them at bay. Zanderbey dug through the exposed wiring of the door panel, desperately hoping to find a way to shut the door before the other ghouls sprinting across the room arrived. Finally, Chip shoved him out of the way and tapped two wires together - a slate of metal slid across the gap, decapitating the pair Tyrfing had been holding and sealing them from the oncoming beasts. They were safe.
Datapad secured, the trio made their way back to the security room travelling via a mix of hallways and vents. As they went, Zanderbey deciphered the data on the 'pad and found that many prisoners were transferred into the laboratories, but never returned - a fact which Chip confirmed. They passed over the security room and continued down an elevator shaft, emerging in an expansive hallway lined with cells. A dull thudding sound indicated a single uninfected prisoner, still locked in his cell but the group quietly decided to let sleeping Junga beasts lie and left him undisturbed.
At the other end of the cell block, they discovered a stairway. They went down, stopping for a brief moment to investigate the infirmary. A brightly lit, secure room showed a few untouched healing kits, but as they crept towards it a ghoul leapt onto Chip and was inches from killing him. The ghoul fled as soon as it realised it had failed the attack, but was not quick enough to escape Tyrfing's sword. The group made their way to the medical bay and picked up a pair of autohealers (using one on Tyrfing immediately) and returned back to the stairway, continuing downwards.
At the bottom of the stairs, they were confronted with a solid airlock, ostensibly leading to the laboratory. While Zanderbey and Chip worked on opening it, Tyrfing could not shake the thought of becoming infected and feasting on his allies. His mind snapped, and he wrenched open the airlock (which had the hydraulics disabled by Zanderbey) and pushed onwards. He forced his way through the second airlock (again, with help from Chip) and found a room with eight floor-to-ceiling glass tubes. Most were cracked, gently leaking embryotic fluid onto the floor while distorted ghoul-like beings floated inside. While Tyrfing stalked around the tubes, teetering on the edge of a berserker rage Zanderbey quietly found a computer that still functioned. Using a simple backdoor access algorithm, he logged on to the account of 'Doctor Tui' - a head research scientist at Ice Station Zulu and a specialist in genetics and virology.
According to Dr Tui's notes and message log, one of the "subjects" had unexpectedly woken from statis and busted out of their tank - infecting a pair of lab technicians before security destroyed it. Dr Tui knew the pair were contagious, but his desire to observe the virus in an uncontrolled environment was won over his sensibilities. He assigned the pair to the upper levels, and secured the laboratory section against contaminants. As Chip scuttled over to investigate a locked door, Zanderbey discovered a concerning message: Dr Tui had agreed to send something called "XR-12" along with the antigen to "Captain Delagray", an officer amongst the Stewards and the one that had assigned them to this investigation. Dr Tui was to deliver the package back to Delagray via a pair of Stewards Delagray would be sending in the next few days.
Just then, Tyrfing wiped away the condensation from one of the undamaged tanks and discovered a larger ghoul still wearing a lab coat - and a name badge reading "Dr Tui". In the same instant, the door that Chip had been picking opened. Two Androids, each armed in riot gear with stunstick in one hand and beam pistol in the other stood in front of the diminutive Ysoki.
"You must not wake the sleepers..." said one in a monotone voice, instantly betraying the pair's broken minds.
"We protect them," said the other "They are changing. They will change us. They will change the Pact Worlds!"
Chip agreed with them - anything else would be foolish. Unfortunately, they saw through his lie and immediately went to attack - but Chip moved first, knocking their beam pistols out of their hands with his tail and snatching them up for himself before scuttling away. Tyrfing walked over, casually twirling his sword. The three released the last parts of their sanity and attacked like feral animals, wielding their stunsticks against Tyrfing's sword with a ferocity on par with the ghouls of the facility above. Zanderbey and Chip fired at them, but Zanderbey heard a quiet cracking sound. The sounds of beamfire, stunstick electrocution and metal-on-metal were waking the huge ghouls still within their tubes. Zanderbey turned his spreadgun on the closest tube, melting the outer layers of glass.
Tyrfing fought like a beast, using every skill he had. But the stunsticks were wearing him down, and as he fought he was stumbling like a drunk. Chip leapt to the rescue: he called out to Tyrfing to "shut the door!" Tyrfing yanked the door shut in a sudden moment of clarity, startling the guards by this display of tactics long enough for Chip to weld the door shut with his replicator.
It wasn't a moment too soon. The beast known previously as Dr Tui shattered its container and leapt to the floor...and then instantly burst like a poorly made sausage. Which left only one, who advanced on Chip and picked him up in his webbed fingers. Chip squirmed to escape but teeth came down and almost cut him in two, until Tyrfing launched an attack and released Chip from the beast's jaw.
They were outmatched. Tyrfing could barely stand, Chip desperately needed medical attention and Zanderbey couldn't hit anything that wasn't an inanimate object with his spreadgun. The three ran, dodging the claws and teeth of the beast as they made for the landing pad. Zanderbey suddenly dropped out of sight, over the edge of the pad - but returned a moment later, wielding a side turret in the Steward dropship that had originally brought them here. Bullets sprayed past, missing the huge ghoul as Tyrfing leapt aboard, fired a bolt of sunfire from his hand and finally succumbed to unconsciousness. Chip took the gun from Zanderbey and shredded the beast to pieces in a hail of slugs a second before it, too, boarded the craft. They were safe.
As they flew away, back to the safety of Verces' Ring and civilisation all three agreed upon one thing:
Orbital strike. Right now.
They got their wish. As the Stewards Battleship "Steadfast" left the atmosphere for another mission, it delivered a parting gift: a solid, thick beam of destructive golden light that turned Ice Station Zulu and the ghouls within to glass and ash.
Rewards Granted
- x2 Autohealers
Missions/Quests Completed
- Discovered a relationship between Dr Tui and Captain Delagray.
- Escaped from the facility without infection, and commissioned an orbital bombardment to ensure to biohazard could not spread.
Character(s) interacted with
- (Deceased) Dr Tui
- Captain Delagray
- (Deceased) Laura from accounting
