Operation Silver Tongue
Michael Shannon, The Drakes, Agro and I all travelled to Bunker Fortitude to try to help with our mutual specialist issue.
We met up with several of the Fortitude FEF we have worked with before. I was happy to see people like Sarge and Katia as I hadn’t seen them since the Floor 17 mission and I wanted to see how they were all getting on. Councillor Alverson met us just as we were catching up with the terrible news that Welkerson had been poisoned by an assassination patch and was close to death. He tasked us with investigating the people working with him and to do so quietly so as not to spread panic, and to find a copy of the virus used on him. We had about 3 hours to get the job done.
We went to soldier Mclaren bunk space and started to poke around. A lot of the residents of the level were confused as to why we were there and were quick to suggest it was because of an assassination or something as they had heard rumours.
In his room we found two PADDs that needed hacking to gain access to the information. Engineers and Psymon worked diligently to get us access to the information.
Here is an example of the comms
Unfortunately we appeared to trigger some kind of silent alarm as we came under attack from Fortitude personnel. The team managed to deal with the attack easily, and we left the attackers for Fortitude to investigate.
The second communication led us to a lab which had all the technology needed to create the assassination patch.
It was here things started to get… odd.
The lab was investigated for traces of the virus and none were found. Shannon and Katia also discovered that the equipment was too clean. The lab was a fake!
This called into question everything we had discovered so far and then another Padd with hidden data was discovered. In the course of hacking this, the device blew up, although luckily we got the data off it first.
(Padd record)
It became very apparent that this was the true communications device and that the ted by the Network and the Specialists. The other information that we had received could only be seen as dubious at best and on my opinion is utterly false and attempting to use our methods of collecting information against us.
We informed bunker control that we would be leaving the bunker to head to the Garden that is mentioned in the comms. (K20 on the map) Control and Alverson were confused by this turn of events but allowed us to the surface. On the way to the Garden we came under repeated attack from the children of Eden. It’s a further confirmation that the Network have managed to get them under their control.
Agro had a theory that someone was trying to stop us getting to the Garden and to try and deal with that suggested sending the drones back along the path we had already come and to say we were on our way home, unsuccessful. This turned out to be entirely true and getting rid of the drones allowed us to get there.
At the Garden there were further sustained attacks while Scar tried to get the doors to the facility open. There were specialist snipers and children of Eden and they were very persistent at trying to stop us. We pressed forward and Scar managed to get the door to the facility open.
I was not prepared for what Katia and I found within. It was a Hive subject suspended in some kind of device.
Shannon and Scar could tell you more about it as I understood very little as the medical and technological discussions were very advanced, but what I did understand was this was part of something called Project Nexus which was about infiltrating Hive programming for who knows what end.
Also in the facility the medics found a device that had the base codes for the virus that was killing Welkerson. Katia uploaded the code to bunker control who managed to use it to help Welkerson and just in the nick of time as he was nearly dead.
As we started to make our way back to Fortitude, Alverson came over the radio taunting us with his superiority and accusing us of destroying years of research. He was Network! (I think his codename is Einstein) we tried to get back to arrest him but he shut down DAMAGE and the comms relays. He and several Network Specialists managed to escape the bunker in the confusion of DAMAGE being down. I imagine they will plague us further but at least he is not in a position of power on the council.
Once again Fortitude and Ascendancy personnel came together for the good of both bunkers and we all worked very well together.
If anyone wishes more details of Project Nexus or the Specialists and their misdirections please do contact me in office hours at the usual address.
Additional note:
As I was returning to Ascendancy lands, Katia asked for a conversation and the result of which is that she wants to join Bunker Ascendant and its FEF as she doesn’t feel comfortable at Fortitude. I have brought her back and she is currently living in the tunnels above my office. She’s a brilliant scientist and medic so I’m eager to see what she can do for the Ascendancy.
Senior Minister
Sally Fields.
