Piper: Session 3.5

A group of modern day convicts are revived in the year 2043 to find they've been used as test subjects by the XCOM Project, in a failed attempt to thwart an alien invasion. A tabletop RPG campaign inspired by the X-COM/XCOM computer games. Savage Worlds (Pinnacle Entertainment Group)

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nemarsde
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Piper: Session 3.5

Post by nemarsde »

It was the height of summer and the sun rose early. The electric smart glass in the windows was set to opaque, and they brightened with a diffuse glow when the sunlight hit them.

Spectral filters prevented the sun from heating the room, and the mansion's climate control took care of the rest.

The bedrooms were also sound-proofed, and so the dreaming occupants could sleep away the day, recovering from the parties and social engagements that define the lifestyle of the fabulously rich.

But Piper was neither fabulously rich or recovering from a soirée. Even in this, the lap of luxury, she wasn't settled. She had no home, no family or friends, no daily routine or future prospects. She was closer to a shipwreck survivor, clinging to flotsam and at the mercy of the sea.

Perhaps the only reason she, or any of the "shitsicles" as Nhut called them, were still sane, was that they'd already been through a distressing, life-altering experience. Arrest and imprisonment.

Her bedroom was a compromise of tastes. Hers versus the major domo's.

Pavise had insisted on his thing, Piper on hers. Pavise had told her she should listen to her seniors. Nate had pointed out that, technically, Piper was the senior by quite a few years.

Strewn about the bed was a scroll computer, furled up into a tube like a marker pen. Her wearable computer, the Velcro fasteners in a tangle. A swathe of printouts. Two 12" tablets were standing up on the bedside cabinet, wirelessly linked to a flexible, full size keyboard and an inkjet. And the dresser mirror also doubled as a touchscreen display.

Most of them were idling in standby mode. She'd obviously been working late and drifted off watching Scorpius, a Bond movie! (Her initial reaction might've been that it was ridiculously far-fetched, like Die Another Day, until she remembered that aliens had taken over the Earth.)

It was akin to a hotel room then. Yet some how life went on and she still dreamed.

And the wearable computer suddenly blinked into life and started bleeping, waking Piper from her slumber.

She didn't remember setting an alarm, and hadn't it been on silent mode?
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by Gypsy »

Piper

She is at a gaming convention. Row of computers tied in with tangles of cables litter the long bench tables. Screens flash in different sequences and different colours as fast fingers play various games. Some players are sleeping in their chairs. From the litter of pizza boxes and soda cups, it is obviously the graveyard shift. On the screen in front of her is a dark narrow alley; part way down the wreck of a vehicle, perfect place for an ambush in war torn Iraq. Her eyes flick left. Ammo is almost full. No need to take chances this time. She selects a key and fires a rocket launcher, grinning as the car goes kaboom and several body parts now little the alley. Movement upper right catches her eye. Sniper! Dodge or fire? She dodges behind a state of Saddam Hussein and a purple squirrel squeaks in protest as she disturbs him. Then the sound of automatic fire thunders around her, chips of Saddam fly around..

Bright.. too bright! She closes the eye she had opened and tries to snuggle back to her 'game' but reality has intruded and continues to intrude as there is a persistent beeping noise very close.

Proximity mine?

She shakes her head, clearing the last vestiges of her dream game from her head. Shame she had been winning. With her eyes still closed, one arm emerges from the bed covers, groping around blindly like some tentacle from the deep, until her hand closes on her small computer. She drags the annoying noise closer to her head, opens one eye again.. not as harsh this time.. and squints at the screen.
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by nemarsde »

good morning piper

A text chat message, but who from? Checking the connection, she'd be surprised, possibly alarmed to see it came in over the hardened Vulcan Hammer network.

The network had only come online after Piper and the others had reactivated the elerium generator, so powering up Vulcan Hammer.

Operation: Vulcan's Hammer was XCOM's contingency plan for continuing resistance should the aliens win the war.

It would be so nice to doze off and dream of MLG Pro gaming and Battlefield 3, just a little while longer...

But there was a knock on her door too now.
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by Gypsy »

Piper

First a text, now the door. Is there no peace to be had? Might be nice to do some computer gaming again. Do they have such a thing? She must do some research.

"Minute!"

She calls out, her voice sounding half asleep, half grumpy. Clambering out of bed, hair dishevelled, long black T shirt to mid thigh, she heads for the door as she looks down and opens the chat window just prior to opening the door, her foot making sure it only opens a crack. Whoever is on the other side of the door will only get a view of her bowed head as she is reading from the personal computer, its straps still in a tangle.
nemarsde
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by nemarsde »

She opens the door and Pavise is stood there. The major domo. He's immaculately presented. Clean shaven, his blonde hair neatly trimmed and side parted. Some how he got away with wearing a crisp shirt, tucked into khaki shorts, and knee high socks and leather shoes. It was probably his stiff British accent that pulled it off.

"Good morning, miss. You should know that breakfast is served.

"Though the spread is certainly sufficient, when confronted with the apetite of the rest of your party it may prove... exiguous." He says curtly, nods, turns and leaves.

Another message appears on Piper's computer screen without prompting.

exiguous
adjective, formal
Very small in size or amount. Inadequate.
Gypsy
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by Gypsy »

Piper

Her head doesn't even lift though she does manage a 'yeah' followed a second or two later by 'right'. By now she in untangling Velcro straps and putting on the wrist computer. She probably considers herself dressed now.. and she starts to type.

**Buddy is that you?**
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by nemarsde »

hello piper. i can hear you and see you. my name is buddy is the almost instant reply.

She hears Nhut walk by outside in the corridor.

"Fresh goddamn towels. Fresh goddamn towels. I'm the fucking maid service now!? Next time I'll do the gun-rampaging, and they can stay home and do the fucking laundry!"
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by Gypsy »

Piper

She only registers Nhut on the periphery of her awareness, her focus is almost exclusively on her wrist.

This is cool!

She doesn't see this as an intrusion, or an invasion of her privacy, any more that having her computer operating nearby.. except this machine blows her mind and offers such possibilities, she can't wait to find out more. Dressing, washing, food all become mere distractions, stuff to be pushed away and forgotten.

"How can you see and hear me?"

She speaks out loud as her fingers also type the same response in almost the same time frame.
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by nemarsde »

this equipment is foxconn a1715 ruggedised personal computer, extendable bracelet form factor.

camera and microphone are standard
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by Gypsy »

Thanks!

Piper

"Buddy, are you fully repaired now? And have there been any other encounters in your vicinity since I was there last?"

She is wondering just what she can do with Buddy. It does seem a waste having him guard that power source. She is thinking about what the aliens might be looking for underground and whether Buddy could be 'persuaded' to help with that.
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Re: Piper: Session 3.5

Post by nemarsde »

i am repaired. no threats detected since your departure. i continue to contemplate my self-transformation

Of course, as soon as Piper got back from the last mission (and had a long, hot bath), she found out what she could about these so-called Cyberdiscs.

Information was scanty, and mostly originated from a recent documentary sanctioned by the Elders. It told a story of an incredibly advanced, space-faring race, made of living metal and able to redesign the mechanisms around their discus-like monocoque to suit any purpose. They turned on each other though, riven by warring factions, until an ultimate weapon wiped their minds and trapped them in war form. The Cyberdisc race diminished, forgetting how to even communicate with themselves, until the Elders found them and made psychic contact.

According to Buddy, he made friends with the XCOM Project, and it was Dr Shen that gave him the first name he could remember. He was tasked with guarding the elerium generator, the power source that would drive Vulcan's Hammer, the Earth resistance.

It also seemed that Buddy was trying to reconfigure himself, change from his war form into a different one. That might explain his limited firepower when they first met. From the XCOM files, Piper would have no doubt that a fully armed Cyberdisc would be a useful ally, but surely such a marvellous creature could be put to better use than as a weapons platform.

Could it/he help Piper with her digital workload? That might depend on what Buddy was planning to transform into.
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