Mission Report: The Skin Affair

Holiday time and a game of Corporation at Halesowen Boardgamers. Present were Daniel, Ben, John (making a return), Ben C, Matthew, Richard and James, comprising Division 90 of Eurasian Incorporated.

The session opened with some Downtime and a report on the outcome of the Sea Prison Affair. The rescued Agents were all making a full recovery and the mysterious girl was still in hospital. The message had been deciphered, it was in Afrikaans and read
“Further successful implants carried out: 85% full recovery of subjects. Advise move project up to Stage III.
Targets C & D identified. Target D has Special Case potential based on profile.”

The Division were questioned if they had any more information as to who Targets C & D might be.

At the request of Division Control, they took the name Division 90 and elected Daniel as Leader.

Returning to Moscow Spire they were summoned to see Colonel Rader. The Mission Brief was as follows: -
INTEL has discovered a prototype new weapon being developed by the Western Federation in a research lab on Miller-Urey, in the Tigera region. The lab is secret, under cover of an Agricultural Testing Station. The codename for the weapon is SKIN. Report indicates that the SKIN prototype is to be moved to a secure testing location within the next ninety-two hours. It is imperative that a sample is obtained before this.
A supplemental briefing was a transcript of a message received from a solo Agent operating in Tigera warning about some purple vegetation which caused acid burns.
The Division were allocated a budget of 10,000 c and given some planning time. They bought a Condition 6 off-road vehicle (budgetary constraints) and arranged for it to be shipped to M-U. They also purchased some combat fatigues; after discovering that Tigera is mainly rainforest and jungle.
They left Moscow Spire for Irkutsk shuttle station by maglev followed by a short shuttle flight, a few hours later they boarded the Ai-Jinn Orbital Transfer Vehicle “Shuddering of Forgotten Enemies”. The crew were Asian, clad in smart red and gold uniforms. The flight to M-U took two days during which they did little other than endure the daily broadcasts by the ship’s Passenger Interrelations Officer (= Political officer).

Arriving at UIG main on M-U they successfully passed UIG Customs and retrieved their equipment and vehicle. Approaching the ion barrier with the glowing sign ‘WARNING – YOU ARE NOW ENTERING WESTERN FEDERATION TERRITORY”, they were approached by a man wearing mechanic’s coveralls: -
“Service your vehicle sir?”. He spoke with a thick German accent.
(A quick debate) “No” Richard answered him in German.
“You will be wanting it if you go out in the jungle. How long are you going for?”
(Cries of “Don’t tell him/shoot him/ask him where the road goes etc”). “None of your business” said Richard.
“Ah well”. He turned and walked off behind a building.

Heading along the road/trail, with Ben C driving, after about 10 km Richard got the sensation that they were ‘being watched’. However, no-one seemed to pay much attention to this. They began to see patches of a purple fungal-like growth along the sides of the trail as the jungle began to thicken around them. A few km later they saw a cloud of dust ahead, rounding a curve they saw three WF patrol vehicles ahead of them. Each held two guards. The captain in the lead vehicle stood up and ordered them to stop and state their business. As they hadn’t thought of a cover story there was some discussion and the captain became suspicious. He asked for their authorisation to be there; suddenly Ben C yelled “We’re here to transport SKIN”.
“You are all under arrest,” replied the captain, “until such time as you tell me how you come to know classified information”. The guards un-slung their laser rifles and the driver of the lead vehicle picked up the radio mike. At this point a firefight erupted.

This was quite a drawn-out fight; it was the first time they had come up against soldiers wearing combat armour and carrying ion shields. Some of the highlights were: -
John throwing an EMP grenade that took out the radio in two of the vehicles, Ben C’s superb sniper shot that took out the captain (Ben has a new character & Profession following his success at the Mongoose Launch Event), Daniel blasting away with his M50 and finding out it isn’t so good at blowing away armoured targets, the retreat and attempted escape of Guard vehicle 3, Ben C shot the driver and caused him to lose control and crash, a shot from James’ rocket pistol blew the vehicle up and set it on fire. The Agents had taken several hits from laser fire; eventually the last surviving guard surrendered.
“Tell us about SKIN”.
“I don’t know nuthin about SKIN man”.
“You’re lying. Where is SKIN!?”
“I don’t know. Look man, I’m just a guard”
At this point Daniel shot and killed him, despite the rest of the Division having some questions. A search of the bodies turned up four discharged but usable 10pt ion shields and four laser rifles. They disposed of the bodies in a patch of the purple fungus, noting that it did indeed exude a powerful acid that dissolved the bodies in minutes

Taking the two WF vehicles (the EMP blast had not affected the engines) plus their own, they continued along the trail. After a few km they turned off left to a set of gates marked WESTERN FEDERATION AGRICULTURAL TESTING STATION WF25A. In a fenced-off compound was a squat, featureless concrete cube with a single metal door. Off to one side was a marked out helipad. By the door was a metal grille and a button. This time they did think of a cover story; Richard pressed the button; when a voice answered he announced that they were here on a surprise inspection tour. To their surprise the door opened and they went through to the reception lobby!
(GM: I gave this a penalty to the AT and also checked for the receptionists gullibility. Richard rolled 1/1- critical success!)
The receptionist told them that Dr Cyrus was not present, he was on Earth, but Dr Bream was in one of the labs. He advised them to wait in the canteen. In the canteen were a couple of mooks wearing lab coats and reading magazines; they didn’t even look up; there was an Egg-U-Lyke vending machine and a SynthiCaf dispenser. Ben C bought a chocolate EuL. Matthew went back into reception and shot the receptionist with a KO dart, they hid him in a storeroom. Heading down a passage, they came into a security station with two guards. Taken by surprise, the guards fell to a flurry of melee attacks. There were three doors, marked Labs 1, 2 and 3. They chose Lab 2, inside were three white-coated mooks who raised their hands. There was a life-size mannequin wearing a grey suit/costume of some kind; the head was a featureless ovoid with a central ‘eye’ with a band of smaller ‘eyes’ around the head. Close examination showed it to be some kind of plastic; the ‘eyes’ were just painted on. John cut off a sample of it The dummy had a ring of valves around its neck and down its back. There was also a large case with a transparent lid; inside was a slab of meat with tubes emerging out at various points and disappearing into the base of the case. There was a purple-red fluid circulating in the tubes. A power indicator on the side showed full charge. Daniel grabbed on of the mooks.
“Where is SKIN?”
“That’s it”, the terrified scientist replied, pointing at the case.. At this point James noticed a security camera in the ceiling and shot it with his rocket pistol. The explosion took out the camera, started a fire and set off the sprinklers. Alarms went off in the building.. They grabbed the case and headed out. Ben C risked a quick look in one of the other labs, it was a large processing plant converting real blood into something else. At a quick estimate; the tank of blood must have held 45-50 litres. They drove off at high speed, wondering where the other guards were. Their fears were soon realised at the sound of approaching hovercopters; at least two. They burnt rubber down the trail back towards UIG Main, however the aircraft were drawing closer. Then the rear vehicle, with John and Ben, lost control and skidded off. Despite their attempts to get going, the last the Division saw of them was they were being surrounded by scores of heavily armoured WF troops.

At UIG Main they boarded the shuttle without incident and were soon back on the OTV. En-route back to Earth, a curious incident occurred. Daniel received a discreet message to meet with the Captain of the OTV. The Captain, a smiling Chinese named Phin, told Daniel that the Ai-Jinn were aware of the ‘item’ that he possessed and were prepared to broker a deal if he would name a price. Daniel considered it, but Richard smeakered him and reminded him that it was their mission to get it back to Earth. Daniel refused the offer; Captain Phin simply wished him a safe journey and nothing more was said.

On Earth, they delivered the case to Special Agent SB12 upon receipt of the correct recognition codes, then boarded the maglev to return to Moscow Spire.

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