Fire and Ice: Chapter 6: Kitty

From SSDC, Inc.

ENCOUNTER 12: KITTY

Once the characters manage to escape (either with or without their vehicle), they can press on.They will eventually come upon the first missile base. From the outside, it appears abandoned. There are no signs of external activity, and it is as quiet as a tomb. Signs proclaiming "MILITARY PERSONNEL ONLY - INTRUDERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT" hang from the fence and sway in the breeze.

The fence is no longer electrified, and can be climbed (Level 7 Climbing) or leaped over with a running start (Level 3 Acrobatics) if you can leap a 3 meter high fence (i.e. you are a Cizerack or have jump pads or some such). Failure in either case means the character has taken 1d8 damage from the molecular wire topping the fence. Like laser damage, any damage that penetrates threshold is applied directly to the character (but ablative liner won't help here!).

Once the characters are in the perimeter, the fun begins! The first opponent the team will face is a K-Sat (Combat Sphere with Propulsion 1, Radar Guidance Package 2, Pulse 1 weapon package, and a missile pod with 2 NARC reflex missiles and 2 Interfon Arm Rockets). If the party is particularly tough, upgrade the weapons package to Pulse 2 and add 4 more arm rockets. It has an AI of 30 and a THR of 7. It will move to attack the largest concentration of intruders fighting until it or all intruders are neutralized.

If the team dispatches the K-Sat too easily, send a Ramcor-AR robot (2 M-18L laser rifles, 1 M-75 grenade launcher with 6 M-202 grenades; THR 6, AI 60/36).

Characters probably will not wonder this: if this is an Able installation, what the hell are they doing with a Balshrom K-Sat? It's better if you don't give them the hint!

The missile silo itself is unremarkable from the outside - a 12 meter by 5 meter ferrocrete bunker standing between two launch tubes about 5 meters from each of the long sides. There are no windows, only a single armored door on one of the short sides. An electronic lock (Level 7 Bypass Security, Level 5 Defeat Security) protects this door. Don't tell the player the levels - just find out how much the roll was made by. The idea is to get them inside, not to keep them out.

The first level (above ground) is like a tomb - dark and ominously silent. There is emergency lighting, but it is sparse - some lights have burned out or otherwise stopped functioning. In those areas, night vision, infravision and ultravision will do little good as there is no light. Let the characters explore the empty rooms on the first level, and perhaps the second (hope they brought light!). When you feel they have gone too far, or just when they decide to leave, they get jumped. Their attackers are a pair of corrosive Kitties (pg. 60, UNCLE ERNIE'S). These Kitties have 6 levels of Acrobatics, 10 levels of Stealth, and 6 Body Points each. It's fun to watch the team try to take out the "watchdogs" with stealth so as not to alert the entire compound! When they overcome the creatures, they will find out why they were attacked. The Kitties were simply protecting their lunch. Over in the corner lies the body of an Orion Rogue, his throat torn out. The poor fool looks like he's been dead for a few days and he smells awful. He is clad in Infiltrator armor (or Spy Master if everyone's got Infiltrator or better) of Size Class 4 (or 5 if you wish). The armor is equipped with jump pads, a camo unit and an IR damper. It once had skalers, but the acid destroyed them along with his body computer. Apply two 3d4 acid bite attacks to random limbs of the armor. He is also wearing a wrist torch and a holstered Savage-C (never fired - didn't get a chance to draw it). A nearby satchel contains a field detector, a sensoid master, and a power shunt.

If the morons persist in delving further, or if you feel a pair of Kitties is not a challenge, have them ambushed by a Dwalark (pg. 49, UNCLE ERNIE'S). Make it a cybernetic one if you are a real bastard. Unless it replaced the Kitties, it will have no treasure. The team can delve no lower than sub level one - primary power is shut off and the elevators won't respond. In fact, the elevator doors have been welded shut!

BM's NOTE: It is important to make the PCs think that this could be the lab they seek. Regardless of the order checked, whichever one they enter first will be this encounter. Let them believe they have to be stealthy and quiet, even in battle. Mess them up a little, make them earn their goodies, then revel in their chagrin when they realize they're in the wrong silo!

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Fire and Ice: Chapter 7: The Big Enchilada

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Fire and Ice: Chapter 5: The Free Americans and The Firing Range

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