Run Synopsis
The original dome city was pre-APS and was primarily a Chinese colony.
The Major splits his group up into various teams, one to scout the perimeter, one to scout/take the power plant, etc.. His own group intends to investigate the military complex. Our Team decides to stick with the Major's until it is clearer where the main computer complex is likely to be. The task is somewhat uphill due to the angle at which this city dome has impacted against the mountains.
The military sector show some signs of relatively recent looting. Periodically we find freeze-dried corpses, apparently those who died in the first jolts when the domes went under 40years ago. In one maintenance section there is evidence that some of the vehicles being worked on toppled and killed workmen. There is also evidence that one such vehicle has been moved aside and the body taken. Only a brown stain remains.
This proves to be a pattern" most bodies are undisturbed but an occasional one is missing. The nuclear arsenal is located: it used to hold 4 devices. None remain. (We know where the lithium for one of 'em is.)
Continuing on towards the lighted GovComplex. At the edge of same is one of the city parks. Via 'scopes we can see a series of posts; we determine that these are Japanese grave markers and deduce that the missing bodies were Japanese. The ones we found untouched tended to be Chinese. Therefore, this APS base seems to be basically a Japanese one. We watch a couple of off-duty males enter the park but elect to leave them undisturbed.
Reports establish that one building has only a couple of people in it; another is the power plant; another - probably - hydroponics; the rest get classified as "barracks" (probably concentrations of hostiles).
Our team elects to take over the low-pop building to take prisoners for interrogation. Chantal with face shield open and John with face shield closed are to provide a distraction by cycling through the front entrance a few seconds before Robert, Boris, and Teresa come in through the back airlock. Lyle stays outside with the gear and some of the Major's troops.
Chantal tries to buy time by trying to be official and asking about the test schedule for the door lock. This does keep the desk-sitter from picking up either phone or gun while John manages to wing the fellow over to the right who reacted gun-in-hand. The sound of the hostile's gyrojet rounds is audible throughout the building. John adds a gas grenade to the situation.
Teresa gives warning that someone from upstairs is heading towards the front while Robert circles 'round the other side of the inside track. Chantal secures the desk-sitter. John prepares to take on the incoming hostile. However, Teresa manages to catch up with same and take him into custody.
Meanwhile Boris has found the entrance to the underground tunnels.
The building secured (It appears to have once been a museum or art gallery/studio as there are remnants of plaster casts upstairs), the Major takes over questioning the 3 prisoners and, eventually, reports that the main computer system is somewhere on the middle of the 3rd floor of the building that flies a variation on the Japanese flat: Argent, on a torteau, an Oriental dragon rampant to sinister Or.
Our team takes the underground tunnels, leaving the mule with the Major's team. The Major gives us the code words: "omicron", "cheeseburger", "tomorrow". Reaching the basement of the target building, we find 4 elevator shafts, one of which is inoperative. Lyle and Robert (in stealth suits) and Teresa ascend the inactive elevator shaft, Lyle having first rigged an airlock to prevent pressure loss when the elevator shaft was breached. Boris stays to anchor the climbing rope; Chantal and John secure the basement doors.
On the 3rd floor, Teresa mans the shaft while the other two split right and left, listening at doors to try to determine the location of the computer room. Just as Lyle reaches the men's restroom, a man exits. Lyle is able to get his gun into play and, as the man attempts to shout, shoots him through the chest. Robert reaches him and together they manhandle the still-bleeding man into the elevator shaft, hanging him on a hood there. Teresa has no med skills or equipment and so he bleeds.
Finally they locate the right door. A quick entrance surprises a man at themonitors and several shots pput him down and unconscious - and sets the monitor to sparking. The sparks alert another beyond the glas in the actual computer room. Nonetheless, Robert manages with a flying tackle to put him down just before he reaches the alarm.
Lyle proceeds to start the info download, noting that the last element is unusual: a coder, undoubtedly rigged against access. Some debate about a 3-man juryrig to disable/access it is interrupted by various computer-generated warnings followed by a phone call from, presumably, the now-downed operator's supervisor. Robert is unable to allay suspicions and the conversation ends with, "Who is this?" "I don't have time for this now," as Robert slammed the phone down.
Lyle and Robert ex-filtrate, Robert - with 4 gyro-jet rifles - setting up covering fire into the enemy elevator come (presumably) to investigate the phone conversation. A race ensues with the computer packet being sent down the shaft first followed by Lyle, Teresa, and Robert. Lyle is stunned by the fall. Boris pulls the pack and then Robert to safety; Robert pulls Lyle and Teresa to safety; Chantal gets a headstart with the computer pack.
An officer with pistol in hand comes out of the door in the basement, pinging off Teresa's helmet. Boris fired a bazooka at him. Chantal and John race towards the original entrance area to the dome.
The others return to the building wherein they had left the Major. They find it on fire and hurriedly retrieve what gear they had left there. The mule is completely abandoned. It seems likely that the Marines have landed and are attacking.
Eventually the team hooks up again outside the "lighted section" and holes up in a building not far from the original entrance area. The first continge4nt of Marines they spot seem to be bringing in wounded. Passwords are exchanged and the group rejoins the Martian military, basically staying out of the way until they can return to John Carter City. We have, apparently, managed to keep John from ever actually seeing/recognizing Robert ("wanted for industrial espionage and murder") and Boris (the "Russian shotput"). In addition, we find, the Marines and the Major's team managed to capture the nuclear device that the APSs had rigged to destroy the base. One now accounted for.
We are to return to StarPort, either by way of Jupiter or nonstop.
EPs: 2, Total 22. Brownie Pts: 2, Total 7.
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