Island clean up. Viper agents left, villains dropped off at Until base in Australia. Aqua, Coriolis etc... Super Freak takes extra weapons and data cubes back to Portland. Blazing Arrow and Sergeant Sonic decide to consult with another professor at Reed College. Blazing Arrow has heard of his ability to speak with the spirits. Blazing Arrow and Sergeant Sonic go to consult with Professor N.
They arrive at his lecture while he's rambling on about Joan of Arc's mother leaving a pie on a window sill and how the neighbor boy had stolen this. There are only five students left in the room and the class was supposed to be over 30 minutes earlier. Sergeant Sonic clears his throat and Professor N does look over for a second before continuing. This does prompt one of students to run out, muttering about being late for his next class. After Sergeant Sonic gets a bit louder, the Professor notices that class should be over. He then approached the two heroes to find what they want. Sergeant Sonic hands the Professor a copy of a datacube and asks if he can translate what is contained. The Professor brings him back to a computer in his office where he gets his intern to bring up the data. Looking at it, he thinks it's a form of Hebrew and will see what he can do. Thanking him, Blazing Arrow and Sergeant Sonic leave. The Professor has his intern print everything out and he then spreads it all over his lecture hall after moving chairs and tables. He then walks among them listening to what the dead can tell him of these papers. Many rabbis help, but they think it's a strange branch off of hebrew. Not one that they've seen before, but they are able to translate a general gist.
journey : attack : causes problem, chief warrior tried to prevent/defend, but failed. many deaths, crashing, one survivor, possibly contact previous people. survivors name : %#*!$# diplomacy rapid expansion "Great distances link"
A couple days later the Professor brings his written note to
Pioneer Base where he is offered coffee while waiting by
the front desk person, Janet Baker.
The sergeant and Blazing Arrow come out and after discussing
the note with the Professor, decide that interrogating Crystal
would be a good idea. Janet gives SWORD a call to arrange this.
They're told to swing by Typhoon to pick up a SWORD representative
there. When they get there, they realize they don't have a
description, but then they spot a woman with cat like features
talking to a man that she's having lunch with.
None of the heroes have ever met her, but Blazing Arrow has heard of
Calico. He consults with any animal spirits near him. A couple insects
are fleeing the restaurant and tell of their friend who was pinned to
the wall by a toothpick.
Sergeant Sonic knows she is often involved with Black Ops within
SWORD. He doesn't recognize the man across the table from her either,
but then he hasn't been to the SWORD base in a couple years.
When they approach, Calico asks them what's up. Blazing Arrow brandishes
the toothpicked insect at her telling her it's a waste. She takes
it from him and puts it in a vial on her belt.
She introduces them to David White, tosses a $100 bill onto the table
and leads the group over to the SWORD building. They go down an
elevator and down a corridor with some bank vault doors into a
rather bare room that has crystal on a table with restraints to keep
her immobile and within the comics code.
They ask her a few questions and when Crystal offers a deal for
info, Calico says that can't happen.
While this is happening, Professor N sees if he can read Crystal's
thoughts. After a small amount of difficulty, he delves into
her memories.
Calico seems to looking at Professor N suspiciously afterward.
Blazing Arrow, Professor N, and Sergeant Sonic go over to N-tech to confront
Patricia, since they now have "proof".
When they arrive, they are told by the receptionist, Elizabeth Williams, that
Patricia and Caroline are in a meeting with a bunch of suits. However, she
has instructions to interrupt if anybody such as themselves show up.
She offers them some coffee while they wait, but they've already had their fill.
After a couple minutes, Patricia comes out and directs them to her office.
On the way, Blazing Arrow apologizes for chopping her in the neck last week,
but Patricia downplays the injury. Blazing Arrow notes that Patricia shows
no bruising in that area, which is unusual.
There, Blazing Arrow tells Patricia of what they know. Sensing that
pretending isn't going to work, Patricia admits to coming to Earth 20
years ago and how Sandra had rescued her from the spaceship wreck.
She asks them how much the government knows, since she's a bit
distrustful of the government and especially SWORD. She mentions she's
found enough evidence of people disappearing, etc...
Sergeant Sonic makes a comment that sometimes people need to disappear.
At which point there seems to be a bit more tension in the air.
Professor N takes Sergeant Sonic out to the lobby. Patricia invites Professor N and Blazing Arrow over for dinner to discuss matters further. She tells Blazing Arrow that at the first sign of SWORD at her door, she'll bolt. She seems confident that she can get away.
Blazing Arrow and Professor N show up about the same time at
Patricia's. Blazing Arrow in his normal attire, while Professor N has put
on a dinner jacket.
Blazing Arrow has even brought a fresh kill in case additional
items are needed. Patricia thanks him and carries it into the kitchen
where the sound of a lid opening and closing can be heard.
She offers them drinks and hopes that chinese food is acceptable.
She carries out a tray of take-out boxes and some plates.
Professor N attempts to setup a Mind Link, but Patricia reacts badly
to the attempt. They agree on vocal only.
Over dinner she explains that the reason she's here is because of her race's [Need Name PXXX] war with the [GXXX], who resemble the grays of various fringe groups descriptions. Her race had discovered FTL by being able to travel via other parallel dimensions by translating to higher energy levels. As one got further away from the home dimension, the quicker travel was accomplished. The first dimensions were uninhabited and posed no problems. Then one mission, a crew reported a strange energy flux, but no other problems. When the crew landed again, they seemed fine, but they had been taken over somehow. They also seemed to be able to spread their infection. As far as Patricia knows, they hadn't been able to completely wipe out the infestation, but have it relatively under control. They had encountered a few other races which all seem to be somewhat based on the "humanoid" model. A digression into common myths between Earth and these other races takes place between Blazing Arrow and Patricia. Professor N seems to not like the religious overtones of this tangent.
In 1908 Earth time, a craft was taken by a member under control and crashed into Earth. The [PXXX] followed in 1920 to discover that this world was being infested and that the [GXXX] could manifest more directly. What followed was a brief behind the scenes of WWII. The bomb that had cut off Moscow was supposed to enclose the entire Earth into the [GXXX] dimension. What this has done is made FTL nearly impossible for the [PXXX]. It took Patricia and her crew nearly 30 years to reach here due to this slowness. She and her crew were to assist the remaining members of her race and to contact the Earth governments and help them as well. The ambush of her craft by the automated drones and subsequent loss of her crew made this more difficult. She also could not find any of her race left after she landed. She had found some of the installations, but most were inactive or destroyed. She's surprised that the one in the Pacific had captives. While the side of the WWII conflict that her race backed did win the war, she thinks that the grays have infiltrated many of the governments. She thinks that the US has been compromised and is sure that high levels of SWORD are. She thinks that Argentina is controlled by the grays and that the Scientific Council of Siberia is as well.
She's found evidence that there are only a dozen of the grays left, with most in Siberia. She thinks the others are splinters working toward different goals.
She has attempted to penetrate the security of Siberia, but has had difficulty. Argentina has been easier, and she is certain that Kernel [AXXX] is a gray puppet. She was not able to find the master gray, but is sure that with some work it can be found.
Blazing Arrow feels this would be a good job for them. He thinks Super Freak will be a good resource since he seems to have a lot of conspiracy theories. Sergeant Sonic can probably be trusted since SWORD hasn't broken in while dinner was happening.
Patricia brings them to a study where she activates a hidden switch, showing them a map of the world with suspected gray activity. Professor N is impressed, but Blazing Arrow is put off by the technology.
Patricia gives them two devices to help them.next morning they decide that they'll need to go to Argentina and to get the rest of the team on board.
Various Rewards| Character | Reputation | Death Trap Points |
| Aqua | +5 | +2 |
| Blazing Arrow | +6 | +1 |
| Crete | +5 | +2 |
| Coriolis | +5 | +2 |
| Orion | +0 | +2 |
| Professor N | +10 | +1 |
| Sergeant Sonic | +15 | +4 |
| Super Freak | +5 | +1 |