The Last Cycle

Session Summary 11/17/96

Curtis Henley's Recent History

Curtis Henley's early life was marked by chaos and misfortune. His mother lived in a Cincinnati public housing project, and never told him who his father was. He drifted into an life of early misdeeds, serving light time for B&E and similar offenses. His exposure to the Government Psionics Project began after he was screened in the Cincinnati City Jail by government agents.

After his capture, Curtis was placed into a psychotronic tank for two weeks, and subjected to a variety of horrible experiments. By the end, he had developed Astral Projection (power 8) and Teleportation (power 4), along with the following skills: Astral Projection-13 (6 points), Astral Sight-11 (2 points), Autoteleport-10 (1 point) and Exoteleport-10 (1 point).

The Rest of the Group

The other characters in the group include: All of the characters have spent time in the testing center, in general in psychotronic tanks (with the notable exceptions of Seth Harris, who was injected with drugs, and Case Vincent, who was infected with a recombinant virus).

We Regain Consciousness

Our experiences all started with a visit to the doctor, one way or another. A couple of days after the visit, we were abducted and woke up on a medical table. The room was surrounded with tanks filled with pinkish liquid, each holding a human brain.

Other Residents of the Testing Center

In addition, we have all met several residents of the testing facility. They include:

Doctor Holtzman's Explanation

Doctor Holtzman informs all of us (individually) that we are carries of the delta flux gene, which allows psychic powers. The Pogrom, a branch of the CIA, has abducted us to keep us out of the general population and to teach us how to use our powers for the betterment of humanity.

The Testing Facility

The facility is sealed off from the rest of the building. The doors are accessed by keycards. It includes a Testing Room, several bedrooms and a Lounge. Our powers only work in the Testing Room. Peter Jowill (the child) says that he's been here for three weeks, and that all outside access is essentially forbidden.

The Lounge includes a computer which Case Vincent determines is connected to the base's computer network (through an extreme Computer Programming roll). Case uses this access to determine that the base is located at a military outpost near Boulder, CO. He manages to print out a few names and some details on where and what the facility was (a former CIA testing center shut down about ten years ago). Soon after he managed to get this access, the computer shut down on him.

There is also a computer link to the outside, so we can request things from the outside world. Several of the characters determine that nothing even remotely dangerous will be sent in.

Drake determines that the rooms are bugged, and informs everyone that the facility is probably being monitored (by camera).

The Typical Testing Room

Most testing rooms are circular, lined with brains in jars. They typically incorporate a chair-and-helmet arrangement that amplifies psionic powers, a high-set one-way window for observation, and several other less-obvious features.

The Other Patients

The other three patients have been there for varying amounts of time. The Asian girl (Rift, the amnesiac teleporter) doesn't know how long she's been there. She doesn't remember her name, but she thinks they found her in a shopping mall somewhere in the Midwest, sleeping in a fast-food outlet. She has spent her time here being tested in a variety of ways. The child has been here about three weeks. The cabbie has been here about a week.

Rifts claims that the authority types show up about twice a day to take people to the testing center. None of us have been tested in the room in this facility, though all of us have been tested in other rooms.

The Testing Group

Three armed guards (equipped with assault rifles) accompanied by two zombie-like female orderlies enter the lounge to take Harvey Pooka off to the testing room. The rest of us are not invited.

Harvey's Experiences

Doctor Holtzman orders Harvey to sit in the "throne" over an intercom. After he sits, he is ordered to interface with an (isolated) computer system using his Cyberpsi abilities. He spends some time doing this until he eventually fails to open a file. He comes to in the "throne" (with the traditional helmet on his head) feeling very tired. The orderlies (whom he recognizes are also psionic, with the Antipsi power). He spent a total of about an hour and a half in the room.

Curtis' Experiences

As with Harvey, Curtis is brought into the room and told to sit in the throne. He is told to Astral Project, which he does. He notes that the pit in the center of the room (in astral space) appears to have a huge white glowing pillar in it. The walls of the room are also impervious to astral bodies, save (somewhat) at one point.

Just before being ushered out of the room, Curtis attempts to Exoteleport one of the guards' knives to himself. It teleports into the center of the room instead.

The Psychic Accident

Void goes into testing next. A few minutes later, the lights dim down and the anti-psychic hum goes away. Harvey uses Cyberpsi to get into the testing room. Inside is total chaos: all the guards are dead, the room is wrecked. Only one assault rifle remains intact. Drake takes it.

The hyperactive cabbie uses Cryokinesis to make the bay window brittle, then Drake uses a single shot from the assault rifle to break through. The vista beyond is a valley, with one building (low, half buried in the ground) in sight. A couple of helicopters are visible (briefly) heading off to the northeast.

The building proves to be a stainless steel shack holding helicopter fuel.

Transportation

Curtis briefly Astral Projects to locate some kind of car or truck. He finds a jeep with some kind of bundle in the back about 100 yards away. It's in a sort of carport type building, which doesn't stop Harvey's Cyberpsi for long.

The garage contains one jeep, gasoline, a rack of guns, and some survival gear (including rope). Drake (who has Survival skill) orchestrates the equipment disbursement. Everyone takes one rifle (M-16), and Drake lashes several survival packs to the hood of the jeep. The characters leave the spare gasoline in the garage.

The wrapped package in the back of the jeep proves to be a single-shot disposable rocket launcher.

The characters leave the complex in the jeep as fast as possible, leaving gunfire and Pyrokinetically-created fires behind them. All the while, Curtis uses Astral Projection to look for pursuers and helicopters. There appears to be no organized pursuit. However, Harvey locates a tracing device with Cyberpsi. Drake then proceeds to disable it.

The characters head for an interstate highway about ten miles north of the complex.

The Ravine

Halfway to Boulder, the characters run into a 20' ravine with a bike trail and a small river at the bottom. A road is also visible at the base of the ravine. Drake uses Levitation to get to the base of the ravine, then move some of the supplies along. The rest of the characters attempt to climb down, invariably falling and suffering damage at some point. A small orgy of medical care follows afterwards.

The characters make it across the river (on a small footbridge). Seth then attempts to use Aspect to persuade a car to stop while the other characters hide. This proves to not work. However, Drake manages to persuade a trucker to stop. Seth stuns him with a Mental Blow. The characters leave the driver by the side of the road, pile into the truck, and drive off. The cab is a bit small, so the characters disconnect the trailer (a liquid nitrogen tank) and two characters ride on the back of the tractor. Seth drives, but keeps to less than 20 mph to avoid losing the two folks on the back.

The Black Helicopters

About 25 minutes out of Boulder, Curtis and Case hear helicopters. Curtis checks them out with Astral Projection, and determines that they are black military choppers engaging in some kind of search routine. Seth speeds up to about 35 mph, until the tractor gets into a tunnel where he stops. Astral Projection searches of the area reveal that the helicopters are hovering around the ravine where the characters left the liquid nitrogen tank (and where a car apparently hit the tank).

The characters decide to try and get another vehicle. The next vehicle to stop is a police car holding two officers. They stop upon seeing the tractor, and immediately act suspicious. Seth hits one with a Mental Blow, but the other one shoots him in response (eight points of damage). Case suffers an epileptic fit. Drake finally incapacitates the remaining cop by appearing to surrender and using Pyrokinesis to drive him unconscious (with a Physician roll to figure out when to stop heating to avoid killing him).

The characters take the cops' guns, badges, keys and wallets (about $75 total). Curtis and Case both take the cops' pistols. The characters then drive off in the police car, reaching Boulder in about fifteen minutes.

Stealing Cars in Pearl Street Mall

Drake drives to the Pearl Street Mall (a large, three-block-long outdoors mall) to steal a van. Drake uses the police car's lights and spotlight to drive away onlookers. Curtis then gets out (very subtly) and steals a van. He meets up with the rest of the characters a few moments later, whereupon the other characters proceed to strip everything of value (radio, shotgun, etc.) from the police car and toss it into the van.

There is a bit of excitement when a local derelict expresses some curiosity about the proceedings. Seth uses a Mental Blow on him, before he realizes that he has a bunch of friends. Drake faces them down very successfully with an assault rifle.

The van proves to be filled with security equipment (cameras, lockpicks, bugs, wiretaps, etc.) and about $155 in cash. Curtis takes a set of lockpicks. The characters then go to a hotel parking lot and steal another van, stripping the van of everything useful and transferring it to the new van.

What Is the Next Step?

Seth insists that he wants to call some of his "friends" and see if they can help. Several of the characters also want to get some food, as nobody has eaten for hours. Seth arranges a meeting with his friends to get some money and fake identification. The meeting is at a small suburban house. An Astral search reveals that the only occupants of the house are an old Italian man, a sleeping blonde woman, and a small dog.

The meeting goes fairly uneventfully. Seth gets a car and some key, an envelope of money ($2000), and instructions to go to Las Vegas to get more help from someone named "Vinnie".

Bob's Gun Shop

Harvey and Curtis arrange to steal a massive quantity of firearms and ammunition from a Boulder gun shop (several handguns, two shotguns, lots of ammunition, and some shoulder holsters).

Going to Las Vegas

After dealing with a couple of other errands (new clothing and food), the characters drive off to Las Vegas.

A Guess On Equipment

Though the exact equipment list possessed by the characters is subject to a certain amount of doubt, this is a speculative list of everything they have found:

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