Orkin (Wo)Men (D2 ME)

[Zeno Thul]

Zeno sighed. He didn't really care about the people there himself. But he did care about doing what was right for his family. And in this situation it might mean not slaughtering everything that moves. For now he doesn't reach out to touch their minds. If something can control their minds it would likely be able to feel interlopers into that domain.

[Dapper Dog]

Killiks flew by overhead throughout this hive, but as of yet they were not reacting to the team.

[Delmi Koor]

Delmi was used to nasty work for the past five years and knew decisions needed to be made on the fly. This was her op… so she was willing to make the unpopular call.

“Alright… target the eggs. That should draw the scary ones. Try and avoid harming the humanoids, but if they turn hostile we have to put them down.”

[Jocasta Teraan]

"There's no cure for this, they're just empty shells at this point." She gestured to the Joiners.

"If we don't go loud, they shouldn't react to us. It's your call if you want to start it up here and setup your device."

[Delmi Koor]

“Get started Ashlin.” She motioned for the group to get ready.

Delmi pulled out her pistols and made ready for chaos.

[Zeno Thul]

Zeno's guard shoto was and dueling shoto were, ready but not ignited. No point giving away their location.

[Jocasta Teraan]

While the device was being setup and the others prepared themselves for attack, Jocasta turned to Julio, "Can you help me with this?" She asked, indicating her climbing kit. On past missions, they would create a series of trip wires to try and catch any unobservant killiks that came their way. At the very least, it should slow them down to navigate the spaced out, crisscross lines. "Be careful and don't anchor to any loose resin sections."

After making their preparations, she made sure to get the others' attention one by one to point out where the trip lines were. They retreated to the backline where they would provide fire support. Jocasta checked that her stimpacks and power packs were readily available. "Just like the good old days, right?" She said to Julio giving a small fist bump to the shoulder.

[Ashlin Organa]

Ashlin glanced around and took the compacted item out of her backpack, tweaking the settings one final time. Then she extended the mount and shoved it into the ground, setting up the anchors. "All right... You guys aren't going to hear anything, but the Killiks might freak out. They should mostly bail out, but some may have unpredictable reactions." With that, she opened the switch cover and flipped it on.

Then she readied her blaster.

[Azura Mora]

Azura just nodded from her position, watching ahead to see what would happen.

[Dapper Dog]

She was right there was no sound they could hear but the flying killiks start flying into walls and then to the ground and seem unable to act in a coherent way. The joiners fall to their knees and or collapse and scream.

One shouts in Basic, "The song... the song is sour, we must... the children!"

[Dapper Dog]

While the device was being setup and the others prepared themselves for attack, Jocasta turned to Julio, "Can you help me with this?" She asked, indicating her climbing kit. On past missions, they would create a series of trip wires to try and catch any unobservant killiks that came their way. At the very least, it should slow them down to navigate the spaced out, crisscross lines. "Be careful and don't anchor to any loose resin sections."

After making their preparations, she made sure to get the others' attention one by one to point out where the trip lines were. They retreated to the backline where they would provide fire support. Jocasta checked that her stimpacks and power packs were readily available. "Just like the good old days, right?" She said to Julio giving a small fist bump to the shoulder.

"Yeah, old times," he said to the woman.

[Layne Hoshin]

Layne didn't like this; though she'd readily admit she was not an expert on these things, the notion that they were just 'empty shells' didn't really make any sense to her. Still, they couldn't exactly allow this to keep happening to people either; and it wasn't like they had the means available to them to safely extract them all without them turning on the group. It was an impossible situation.

Hopefully this sonic thingamajig would do the trick in such a way as to have them avoid making any tough split-second decisions.

[Dapper Dog]

The joiners continue to scream, some stumbling about and others on their knees in agony.

[Delmi Koor]

Delmi turned to Ashlin, “Is it lethal?”

[Dapper Dog]

Delmi turned to Ashlin, “Is it lethal?”

The joiners begin bleeding a black pus-filled blood from their eyes and ears as they cry about the Song. Meanwhile the incapacitated killiks begin to rise and butchering each other in a mad clicking frenzy, they fight each other, the joiners and anything that comes close. It does not seem they are lucid and whatever the inhibitor is doing their seem to be unexpected side effects due to the alien physiology of the killiks and the interactions with the hive mind.

Either way, If they stay any longer they will be consumed in a hive of killiks bent on destroying each other.

OOC: Time to go, Daunting Athletics (Brawn) or Survival (Cunning) check or there will be blood. Setback due to the state of the killiks, and GM is flipping Destiny for the roll to upgrade once.

[Layne Hoshin]

"Time to go people," Layne wasn't stopping to make it clear to them; she was already going to work making sure the path would be clear for them...

...but sometimes things weren't so easy.

Athletics (GM upgrade), Setback ignored (Blade of Woe), +1 brawn from Enhance: 2eP+3eA+1eC+3eD 2 failures, 1 threat

[Dapper Dog]

OOC: Each player make a Hard Resilience (Brawn) check with 2 setback dice. Suffer 7 wounds minus each success made. Threat causes strain, and three threat or a Despair instead of strain causes a Critical Injury at +10; while a Triumph means they miraculously avoid any harm, well wounds not strain.

GM will spend a Destiny point to Upgrade the difficulty (1 red, 2 purple) once per player on this roll.

[Dapper Dog]

OOC: Soak applies to a minimum of 1 wound unless a Triumph is rolled.

[Jocasta Teraan]

Jocasta had seen it before, the others' morale begin to fail after seeing the Joiners. "Don't feel bad for them, get angry at the killiks that did this to them. The device is working and it will save countless lives, now let's save our own and get the hell out of here!" She yelled out as the disoriented killiks turned into a feeding frenzy.

D2, ME, Bug Hunt, Leadership Average, Inspiring Rhetoric check #2: 3eP+1eA+1eB+2eD 2 successes, 3 advantage

Jocasta and Delmi are affected and gain 1 boost/blue die on their checks for the next three rounds.

[Jocasta Teraan]

After giving a rousing speech, Jocasta turns towards the tunnel out, only to be bowled over by a pair of enraged killiks, becoming collateral damage in their fray.

D2, ME, Bug Hunt, Resilience Hard, +1 boost, +2 setbacks, 1 destiny difficulty: 2eA+1eB+1eC+2eD+2eS 0 successes, 3 threat

3 wounds taken (4 soak), 3 threats yield 1 critical injury.

D2, ME, Bug Hunt, Critical Injury +10: 1d100+10 52
52: Fearsome Wound: The target increases the difficulty of all Presence and Willpower checks by one until the end of the encounter.