Silent Death creep through the sewers of Downtown Sector 36. They chase something that they found chewing on a dead Maintenance worker.
On either side of the sewer tunnel, Shard and Whisper, the two Wraith Scouts, silently track the prey. Rumour (Human Kick Murder) and Murmur (Ebon I&I)trail behind Whisper, and Ghost (Ebon Strike)follows Shard.
They eventually track their quarry to what seems to be a dead end. Ghost slips into the water, and searches for a possible exit point and radios back that there is a small hole to one side. The team slip through the hole, and emerge into a large collection point, half filled with greasy sewage.
As they break the surface on the near side of the cistern, they notice that the far side is completely covered over by a mish-mash of floating debris, which somehow, over Slayer knows how many years, has solidified into a gigantic floating platform. They see lights flickering on the far side, and can barely make out the outline of several mounds.
As the team moves toward the platform, the shapes eventually take the form of squat dwellings created from what seems to be scavanged supplies. No movement can be detected, but they do pick up some audio signals from the far side of the group of dwellings.
Shard and Whisper are the first out of the water, onto the platform, and they split and skirt either side of the "village". The rest of the party quickly follow, and split to skirt individual dwellings.
The first to find anything is Rumour. He notices movement from within one of dwellings, and quickly jumps on it, and gets his hand over what seems to be a mouth. He has a large MAC knife out, and is watching it thrash in glee. The creature looks very carrien-esque in the dim lighting, and Rumour slowly sinks his MAC into it, watching the blood flow free. The thrashing intensifies for a moment, then stops all together. He takes a second to examine it, and notices that the face is not that of a Carrien at all, but the skull of some large sewer animal. He lifts the skull up, and finds beneath it the face of a human, albeit one covered in a lifetime of dirt.
This information is quickly passed to the others, and they resume their seach of the village, now looking for more cannibal humans dressed like Carrien.
A call comes in from Shard that there seems to be a congregation of some sort on the far side of the village, and Ghost and Murmur make their way over to watch from the cover of one of the huts. A large gathering of "people", who appear to resemble Carrien, are gathered near the far wall of the cistern. They are all on their knees, repeatedly bowing, and the sounds of chanting can be heard, but not in any language that the Ops can recognise. It's deep, glutteral noises stir their insides with fear, and they each fight their own internal battle to quell it's whispered horror.
Then they catch sight of a dias at the far end of the chanting mass upon which stands another figure. The scouts, with their advanced optics, verify that this is indeed a Carrien, but unlike any that they have ever encountered before. A plan is formulated, and the scouts quietly withdraw from their flanking positions, and each climb to the top of a hut. Rumour also does some climbing, and they now triangulate a large patch of what seems to be the main path between the huts.
Meanwhile, the two Ebons prepare for their portion of the upcoming fight. Ghost does some mental calculations, and promptly disappears. Murmur maintains his position, and prepares to step out into the open.
Ghost reappears behind the Carrien a fraction of a second later, and pulls out his 17mm Blitzer. No one seems to have noticed him yet. He takes a second to aim (from point blank range, no less) and then pulls the trigger. The hollow point round strikes the back of the Carrien's skull, and fragments of bone, and a mist of red, annoint the front row of the gathered mass.
The gunshot is deafening in the confines of the cistern, and it echoes off the far wall. There is silence for a moment as the cannibal wannabes watch their god slump to the floor at the foot of the dias, and then look up to see Ghost, standing defiant before them, deathsuit absorbing the light from the torches spread thinly amongst the crowd.
Another quick calculation, and he is once again beside Murmur, and the two of them step out into the open to get the attention of the now horrified and confused cannibal tribe. They each fire a single shot into the crowd, Murmer using his SLA issued FEN 603, and Ghost again with the Blitzer. Two bodies go down, and a roar comes from the crowd. Their outrage breaks into a berserk charge, aimed at the murderer of their god, who now seems to have duplicated himself into two figures, each the mirror image of the other. Of course a detailed analysis would have pointed out the obvious differences between the two figures standing side by side, but these pathetic people had neither the capacity nor the patience to notice. All they felt was pain and outrage, and they planned on taking it out on the twin figures.
The Ebons did what any sane person would have done when faced with such a charge.... they ran for their lives. Of course this drew the crowd exactly where they wanted them, into the crossfire of the other three Ops. The firefight that ensued was relatively quick, and one sided. The cannibals were unarmed, unarmoured, and fell easy prey to the superior firepower.
Thus ended the existance of the Cult of the Carrien. The floating platform was lit on fire, and Silent Death felt the heat at their backs as they again submerged to return to the sewers, and then out into civilization.
This was the culmination of a 6 session, 2 consecutive BPN marathon, which took several weeks of game time, and 2 months of Real Time, and ended with the eradication of a Carrien Cult that had been killing SLA Maintenance workers for several years. Hope you all enjoyed it.
Dev