Rise of LOKI Session 8: The Curtain Falls

Characters:
Arthur - Alphonso

            - Fuegan: The Burning Lance

            - Rex
Kirato 
Hiro

Solo Mission

Halvorsen laid out the plan: Arthur was going to strike LOKI at the heart of his operations in the Congo, delivered by a repurposed dumb missile.  The prototype neural link helmet would allow Arthur to control all three AESIR, but less effectively than usual.  On the way in, he'd have to do his best to avoid LOKI's anti-missile defense systems.  Once landed, Arthur would destroy targets meant to elicit a response from LOKI.  Kicking the hornet's nest in this way should draw a large number of enemy AESIR; doing so would require LOKI to concentrate its presence in the area.

Meanwhile, Katerina would be monitoring network traffic for LOKI's "artificial brainwaves", and once they hit a high enough threshold, Arthur would hack into the communications network and shut it down, preventing LOKI from leaving.  Finally, he would trigger an EMP which would fry everything within several kilometers.

Arthur asked Halvorsen if it was safe to be disconnected by EMP, and was successfully assured that it was "probably safe".  He then brought up that he wasn't a hacker; that had been more Kirato's thing.  At that, Katerina piped up and explained that their AIs had taken on a resonance with the pilots and gained some of their experiences, so Fuegan would be almost as good under Arthur as under Kirato.  Not confident, Arthur put on the helmet anyway, and the missile launched.

An Unexpected Ally

Kirato had, as usual during peacetime, stayed up until 7AM playing video games, when he was interrupted by a command line window popping up, displaying a message in all-caps: "HELLO.  WE NEED TO TALK".  He typed back, asking if it was a game, and got a response that, no, this was serious, and asking if he knew that the AIs had been moved.  Kirato replied that he didn't know, and the next message asked for him to find out where they had been moved to.  He then asked why he should; he was perfectly content to just play his video games.

Another message asked how much food he had, and pointed out that, if humanity blacked out the sun with over-industrialization, there would be none left for anyone.  Kirato asked who this was.  The last message confirmed his suspicions: "LOKI".  Kirato ran to Carmen's office to tell her what was going on, and as he rushed through the sliding door, she lowered a handgun while muttering "Oh, it's just you".  He then awkwardly explained that LOKI had contacted him, and interrupted his gaming time (Kirato: "... and his name starts with L, and ends with I" Carmen "I'm sure you're upset that Larami interrupted your video games but I don't see why this concerns me").

Carmen asked if this was a prank of some sort, and Kirato replied that he wasn't sure, but "LOKI" had told him that the AIs were missing, so they went to the lab to check.  Neither Katerina nor Schweitzer were there, but it was still early.  Kirato put on one of the neural link helmets, and found that the AIs were, indeed, not present in their usual storage.  Carmen looked around at some of the monitors and readouts, but couldn't make sense of it, so they went to look for Katerina or Schweitzer to find out what was going on.

Rocketmen

Now flying over north Africa, Arthur had managed to establish a poor drift with Alphonso, but was still not able to get the other two AIs under his control when his HUD flashed a TARGET LOCKED warning and showed missiles incoming.  He frantically tried to establish a drift with Fuegan, but wasn't able to Meditate well enough to establish the multi-drift, and the first missile screamed towards their ride.  Using Alphonso's Booster Jets, he was able to narrowly avoid it, but another two missiles were coming in.

Arthur managed to finally get Rex into the drift, and it opened fire with its laser rifle, missing.  Both Alphonso and Rex deployed flares, and the missiles went wide before detonating.  As three more came into range, Rex took another shot, but missed again.  Alphonso deployed more Flares, which drew away another, then tried to juke with his Booster Jets, but didn't make it.  The missile the AESIR had been "riding" was destroyed, though they were only lightly injured, but they were now in freefall.

The third missile screamed past Alphonso who narrowly dodged with another use of flares.  Arthur finally established a drift with Fuegan, just in time for four more missiles to target them.  Alphonso deployed his final Flares to dodge one, but Fuegan got hit twice for mild damage.  Rex used its Hologram Projectors, and the last missile harmlessly exploded into the hologram.  Over comms Halvorsen advised Arthur to "try to land in the lake".

Sure enough, as they plummetted towards a crator atop a mountain, a lake came into view, but only Rex managed to hit the target; even so, it was not a soft landing (14 damage).  Alphonso crashed headlong into the jungle, bouncing several times (18 damage), while Feugan slammed into the earth but lucked out and took only minimal damage (9 damage).  Two enemy AESIR were present on scanners: one of the heavy gunners, and a new one.  The new AESIR was surrounded by a glowing crimson-purple energy field, and carried a menacing axe coated in the same glow.  

The Mystery Unfolds

Carmen and Kirato found Schweitzer passed out in his room, woke him up, and explained the situation.  Schweitzer figured he could check when the AIs were transferred, and they headed back down to the lab, where he found that they'd been transferred to the AESIR by Katerina at 05:45 that morning.  They set out to find her, but she wasn't in her room.  Carmen suggested they go to the command station to page her over the PA, and on the way they passed the AESIR hangar.  It was empty.

Carmen asked Kirato what time LOKI had contacted him, but Schweitzer cut in and told her that it couldn't have stolen the AESIR because it still needed a human pilot.  They continued on at a sprint to the command station, and put out pages for all pilots, Katerina Rutkowski, and Holger Halvorsen.  A few minutes later, Hiro showed up, exhausted, but the others were a no-show (Kirato: "Wait, if I'm here, and he's here... where's, uhhhh, the other guy?" Arthur: "Doesn't even know my name; this is why I turned evil").

While Hiro told them about the "weird secret room" under guard and the big helmet inside, Carmen went to the security system and started looking through camera records to see where everyone else was.  On one of the many monitors, a black and white command line window popped up stating "I AM UNDER ATTACK.  WHAT IS THE SITUATION?".  Kirato shouted "See, it's LOKI!  It's not a game man!  It's not like a game!", while Schweitzer grabbed a fire axe and ran over to the network hub, but hesitated.

Kirato found a keyboard and told LOKI to standby, while Carmen finished going through the logs.  The camera feed for the "secret room" showed Halvorsen, Katerina, and Arthur all entering at 06:00 that morning and not leaving, so they ran over to investigate.  Hiro suggested they fine Chad to help, but Kirato spat out that he "hate[d] his stupid face".  The guards at the door moved out of the way at Carmen's direction, and she used the retina scanner only for it to flash red and display ACCESS: DENIED.

Carmen pressed a button beneath the scanner and asked whoever was on the other side what was going on; the AESIR were missing, and LOKI had breached their systems.  Halvorsen's voice responded that he had known it would do something, and that he'd been right.  LOKI wasn't operating in good faith, and he was going to take it out before it took them out.  He then explained that the AESIR were in the congo, under Arthur's control, with a mission to destroy LOKI once and for all.

Hiro yelled that Halvorsen couldn't just make that kind of decision unilaterally, and Kirato agreed that it should have been put to a vote.  Halvorsen asked which way they'd have voted, and Kirato responded that he'd abstain.  After a moment of stunned silence, Halvorsen replied "You know what, fuck you".  Hiro said that he'd have voted to try the peaceful solution, which Halvorsen took as confirming that he'd been correct to only trust Arthur.

Halvorsen continued on: you know who did a lot of voting?  The UN.  Where had that got them?  Billions dead, and millions starving.  Clearly it wasn't working, and decisive action was required.  Kirato mentioned that he'd have been fine going along with this, but he was just mad he hadn't been asked.  At that, Halvorsen said they could just sit tight, because there was no way he was opening the door.

Hiro asked Carmen and Schweitzer what they made of this, and they were conflicted.  On the one hand, yeah, sure, there was a chance at peace, but on the other, LOKI had killed billions (including Schweitzer's girlfriend).  He tried to convince Kirato with default Diplomacy ("Remember when we played pokemon blue together?"), but Kirato would really rather just play video games.

By arguing that Halvorsen unilaterally gambling humanity's existence was massively irresponisble, Hiro managed to convince the others to help him.  Now, they just needed to figure out a way to open that door before it was too late...

The Final Battle

Over comms, Halvorsen pointed out high value targets to destroy to piss off LOKI: a solar field, an AESIR factory, a rail terminal, a carbon pumping facility, and a large block of residential housing for the humans working with it.  Unfortunately, it looked like the EMP, which was currently in the middle of the lake, had been damaged in the fall from the missile, and it would have to be activated manually.

Arthur tried to Go Even Further Beyond with Alphonso, but failed, and found himself face to face with the Executioner as it ran towards him.  Fuegan took Aim with its sniper rifle, but then got took a stream of lasers to the torso from the Gunner.  Rex started wading out of the lake, heading towards the solar field to the north.  Alphonso slashed at the Executioner with his sword, but, though he did some damage, its force field deflected most of the blow.

Fuegan returned fire at the Gunner, and his explosive round detonated inside its torso, but it stayed online.  Alphonso dodged the return attack from the Executioner and continued to fall back, but Fuegan ate another burst of lasers.  Fuegan then activated its Smoke Launchers for some safety, which caused the Gunner to turn and fire at Alphonso instead, missing wildly as it stomped through the jungle.  Rex finally made it out of the lake, and opened fire at the solar field with his laser rifle; one beam reflected off a panel back to the central tower, which started to melt.

Alphonso kept backing up, steadily moving towards the carbon pumping facility, and the Executioner slowly pursued as it raised its energy axe.  The Gunner shot him with another long burst of laser fire, hitting with a pair of blasts despite a critical success Dodge from Alphonso.  Rex continued shooting the solar farm, but it refused to collapse, succeeding at 5 HT 12 rolls in a row.  The Executioner charged forward, staying barely out of range of Alphonso, who continued to All-Out Dodge.

Now that Alphonso was so far away, the Gunner tried shooting Fuegan inside the smoke, but missed horribly.  Fuegan finally finished reloading, and the solar field collapsed under weight of fire from Rex.  Through three sets of robotic eyes, Arthur looked around, and noticed the many humans running around near the targets.  He wondered if LOKI was using them as a human shield, but didn't hesitate at all.

Alphonso turned around and destroyed the carbon pumps with a strike from his sword, while Fuegan Aimed at the Gunner again.  The Executioner positioned itself between Alphonso and the human housing, while the Gunner gained LoS on Rex, who standing in the open, and opened fire, luckily missing.  Rex deployed his own Smoke Launchers to make his own cover, which left it safe, but far from the remaining targets.

From inside the smoke cloud, Fuegan fired its sniper at the Gunner's reactor core, which sent it critical, exploding in a mushroom cloud of nuclear fire.  Alphonso started towards the housing, but the Executioner moved to intercept him if he continued.  No longer under threat, Rex sprinted out of the smoke and towards the rail depot but missed its move and attack.  Alphonso and the Executioner continued to play cat and mouse, while Fuegan All-Out Reloaded.

Rex successfully hit something explosive in the rail depot, and it went up in smoke.  Over comms, Katerina announced that LOKI's artificial brainwaves had reached critical levels.  Now, they just had to hack into the network and close any escape routes.  Oh, and enemy reinforcements were inbound.  As she spoke, three AESIR came into sensor range: one of the Melters they'd last fought in Copenhagen showed up in the northwest, and a pair of new AESIR with odd, sparking guns came down from the north.

A Race Against Time

The group brainstormed ways to get into the locked room, and came up with several, all of which they implemented at once.  Carmen would be sent in through the air vents (Chad's muscles were too large), Schweitzer would shut down power which would disable the electronic lock, and Kirato would hack the retina scanner to open.  Hiro suggested starting a fire, but the suppression system was halon, which would asphyxiate Arthur, Halvorsen, and Katerina.  Carmen gave both Hiro and Kirato tasers, then went off to find an air vent to crawl through.

Kirato unscrewed the retina scanner's cover, and got to work hacking it.  Back in Africa, Alphonso and Rex started towards the EMP, which was still at the bottom of the lake, while Fuegan started to hack into the network.  The Executioner continued to block Alphonso from moving towards the housing, failing to catch on to his new tactic.  The Melter hefted its acid sprayer as it stepped through the flaming ruins of the AESIR factory, while one of the new AESIR disappeared and the other started toward Rex.

Fuegan continued to hack, but wasn't making any progress in the alien system designed by LOKI.  Rex took a shot at one of the new AESIR while waist-deep, but missed.  Just then, Fuegan's smoke dissipated, and the Melter hosed him down with a torrent of acid, melting entirely through its armour and destroying the jungle around it.  The AESIR that had vanished reappeared at the water's edge, and a bolt of lightning shot leapt from its gun into Rex, stunning it.

With Hiro's encouragement, Kirato continued to hack into the door control mechanism.  Inside the room, Katerina caught on to what he was doing and tried to reset the system, but she was too slow, and the door slid open.  Arthur tried to Overload Alphonso's Reactor Core, but failed.  Fuegan, now fully defenseless anyway, made an All-Out Hack, gained control of the network, and shut it down, trapping LOKI in the area.

The Executioner stayed at the shoreline, not pursuing Alphonso into the lake, while the Shockers both fired at Hiro, one hitting him, though he passed the stun check.  The Melter fired another surge of acid at Fuegan, dissolving most of its chassis and leaving it on the razor's edge of failure.  After a moment's hesitation ("You either die a hero, or..." "Live long enough to be named Hiro?"), Hiro stepped forward into the room, and, seeing Halvorsen holding a handgun, shot him with the taser dart, sending him convulsing to the ground.  Kirato decided to just "cover" him, and stay outside.

Back in the Congo, Arthur used All-Out Leadership, and convinced Rex to advance towards the EMP, then Overloaded Fuegan's Reactor, getting 9 seconds left before its systems were fried.  The Executioner moved in close and swung its laser axe at Alphonso, nearly cutting it in half.  Rex took the last step towards the EMP and armed it; due to its damaged systems, it would take 5 seconds to detonate.  The Melter sprayed Fuegan down again, then a Shocker stunned it with a lightning bolt.  

4 Seconds Remaining

Hiro took a better look around the room they'd broken into: it was compact, clearly some sort of storage closet with the shelves removed.  Arthur sat, twitching, in a chair, wearing a sync suit and the giant prototype helmet, while Katerina frantically typed away at a computer.  Hiro activated the stun gun, and electrocuted the computer, which burst into flame.

Arthur, already struggling with the multi-drift, suddenly found his vision pulsating and his control weakening.  He called out "Hey, there's something wrong with the system!", but when there was no response, he "kept on roboting", starting by Overloading Alphonso's Reactor Core.  Rex All-Out Concentrated to try to boost Fuegan's systems, but failed.  The Melter and Shocker sprayed Fuegan with more fire, while the other Shocker hit Rex with another lightning bolt.

3 Seconds Remaining

Hiro examined the prototype helmet, and, while lecturing Halvorsen (who may or may not have been conscious) on his brash decision, yanked out the power cable, severing the connection.  A moment later, the power went out, as Schweitzer had finally shut down the generators.  In the darkness, Arthur asked "What happened?  I was 3 seconds away from killing LOKI!".  Hiro said he thought Arthur had been forced into it, but clearly he was not, so he got a lecture about how war was not the answer as well.

Kirato pulled out his gameboy colour and LED light attachment, powered on Pokemon Blue, and then asked Arthur if he was okay or whatever.  Arthur yelled out "IS HE DEAD?  IS HE DEAAAAAAD?!"

Detonation?

Upon seeing the Valhalla AESIR fall over, LOKI realized something was up, and finally realized the trap they had set.  It tried to reopen the network, but wasn't fast enough.  The EMP detonated, destroying it, as well as the other three AIs.

The End

In the cold and darkness, the generators of Valhalla Base would not turn on, having been damaged during the emergency shut down.  No members of the Valhalla Project survived.

The rest of humanity, freed from the fear of annihilation at LOKI's hands, were able to rebuild, and the famines were stopped.  For a time.  The exact same mistakes that had led them into this crisis were repeated, and industrialized society's demands for infinite growth would prove its undoing.  The last human gasped their last breath, gazing out at a scorching rock, in June 2254.

Notes:
The PCs' bonuses to convince Schweitzer and Carmen were based on how they'd interacted with them in the past, and how many points they had in the appropriate support skills (Electronic Warfare/Sensor Ops and Leadership/Tactics).  This put Kirato at +9/+6, and Hiro at +4/+5.  Kirato decided he didn't care, and didn't want to convince them.

Because their bonuses to interact with Schweitzer and Carmen were based on their previous interactions, bypassing a couple missions worked against the players slightly.

Speaking of bypassing missions, they skipped the mission where Hiro could get a dog; he was not happy to hear this.

The epilogue parts of the campaign were settled by random die roll, with modifiers.  Because the party had NOT found a way to work with their AIs, and had destroyed theirs as well as LOKI, the 3d roll for humanity's fate was at 6 or less.  They got 7, meaning a long, slow descent.  Meanwhile, Valhalla Base rolled a 17 on a 12 or better.

A satisfactory ending, if a downer.