08-15:
-—

• We retcon a purchase of a suppressor for Doc Tanner’s SMG. (10 TU)
  • Gasoline x193 (193 TU, deposited w/ UF)

• We start by searching the gas station.
  • Vincent takes a 20 on searching it, taking 3 hours and 20 minutes.
  • He finds:
    • Gasoline x5 (5 TU)
    • Mechanical Parts x5 (5 TU)

• We head into the ZZ, on foot, to the hardware store we’ve already picked out.
  • There’s more zombies than normal in the area, but we manage to sneak past them.
  • We arrive at the hardware store around ~4:00pm.
  • At the hardware store, we place Eric, Sammi-Jo, & Doc Tanner watching the exits for zombies.
  • Vincent takes a 10 on the store, with Zorya’s help. He finds:
    • Backpack x2 (6 TU)
    • Battery Charger (5 TU)
    • Bolt Cutters (2 TU)
    • Chemical Light Sticks x15 (3 TU)
    • Digital Camera (5 TU)
    • Electrical Parts x15 (15 TU)
    • Cigarette Lighter (2 TU)
    • Mechanical Parts x25 (25 TU)
    • Zipties x25 (2 TU)

• After we’re done packing up the loot, Doc Tanner hears the sounds of gunfire come from the city core. (Where the crystals fell.)
  • We head to the source of the sounds, which continue on.
  • Eventually, we all hear the sounds of battle. Rapid gunfire punctuated by explosions.
  • As we approach, the swarming zombies(attracted by the noise) become too dense to get closer without being observed.
  • We’re decide to head in anyway.
  • As we move in, we end up following a pack of two dozen zombies, while we are followed by a dozen zombies ourselves.

• We arrive around the corner from the battle. Sammi-Jo checks around the corner to find…
  • A four-way intersection with a military Humvee(w/ a pickup bed) in the dead middle of it.
    • A guy in a “Mad Max” outfit using a heavy machine gun in the bed of the truck, with a woman (in a sexy pirate outfit) helping with feeding the machine gun.
    • Another guy is leaning out of the passenger side of the Humvee, picking off zombies with a rifle.
    • Two of the four roads are barricaded off by cars, with zombies swarming behind the barricades.
    • The other two roads are open.
    • The crew is keeping the two roads clear with the machine gun and rifle. The explosions are from grenades that the woman is occasionally throwing.

• Combat!
  • We turn and attack the zombies that have followed us here.
  • We easily defeat the dozen zombies. Only Zorya is injured.

• Not wanting to miss out on a adventure hook, but being wary the well-armed bandits, Vincent spends an action point to get a “psychic insight.”
  • He has a feeling of great dread, but that he should bear witness.
  • So, the group finds a nearby building to watch the intersection from.
  • Shortly, we see a young woman approach from behind a barricade, in a “bubble” of zombies. (The zombies are keeping clear of her, but still swarming in.
  • She takes a running jump and lands on top of the barricade of cars.
  • The woman see her first and shouts out “Super Z!” to the other bandits.
  • The “super z” woman shoots a bolt of flame from her hand, which strikes the vehicle. It has little effect.
  • The man with the rifle quickly kills the “super z”.
  • Then the woman moves over to the body and cuts off the head. She then heads back to the vehicle, with the head in her possession.
  • The group makes a Knowledge (Current Events) for “Super Zombies”. It turns out that there are rumors that some zombies do have psychic powers.
  • We assume that the bandits are from the psi-ocracy of St Augustine and that they are on a hunting expedition for the (likely) crystals that are in the heads of the “super zombies”. This is, however, pure speculation.
  • Shortly after all this, Doc Tanner sees the shadow of a hovering humanoid figure on a nearby building.
    • The figure is clearly hovering far off the ground, but we cannot see the being casting the shadow.
  • Then we see a minivan-sized lizard moving down the street, towards the intersection, moving up to a barricade.
    • It’s plowing through/under the zombies to one of the barricades.
  • When it reaches the barricade it shoves the barricade apart and charges the truck.
  • The bandits bring all forces to bear upon the lizard and manage to take it down.
  • By this point, zombies are flooding through the breached barricade.
  • The bandits now set off some explosives that they had (apparently) set at the breached barricade.
  • Now we see three humanoid figures hover up from around a corner.
  • They have purple skin and bulbous faces with many moving tentacles in place of/around a mouth.
  • They are taller than normal humans, probably around seven feet tall.
  • They are wearing some form of trench coat and bulky backpacks.
  • They begin floating down to the Humvee.
  • Each reaches out a hand and the bandits all become “stunned” into catalepsy.
  • The lead creature reaches the machine-gun bandit and uses it’s mouth tentacles to, basically, eat the bandit’s brain. We hear a horrible sucking sound and the body falls down with a pulverized head.
  • Another creature throws the woman to some of the (now) waiting zombies, who bear her off to the west, where the crystals are.
  • While the third creature is “eating” the rifle-bearing bandit, it sees us.

• We run!
  • The plan is to run back to the trucks and get out of town ASAP.
  • We’re able to outrun the zombies, but we’re being followed by one of the brain-suckers.
    • It’s hovering behind us, keeping pace with us.
  • We get back to the gas station and notice that one of the boarded up windows has been breached.
  • We don’t have any time to investigate, so Eric just lifts up the garage door, only to get grabbed and yanked inside by some weird tentacles. At this point, we hear a loud yowling noise from inside the garage.

• Combat!
  • The illusory cat creature is in the garage, apparently waiting for us.
  • Everyone brings all force to bear upon it.
  • The SMG with the camera is able to bypass the illusions that the cat creates.
  • The brain-sucker is just watching us.
  • After many of us getting hurt; and the loss of Strider, one of Doc Tanner’s dogs; as well as a few shots from the flamethrower, we manage to kill the cat creature.
  • We don’t have time to celebrate our victory and as we attempt to get into our trucks, the brain-sucker attacks.
  • It uses it’s stunning effect on all of us, but only Zorya is affected.
  • Eric easily picks her up and throws her in the trucks.
  • We flee, with the brain-sucker just watching from a vantage point, hovering above the gas station. It does not pursue us.
  • As we drive off we get the impression of mocking laughter from the brain-sucker…

• We stop just outside the orange zone to bind our wounds.
  • Zorya is stil stunned. She doesn’t awaken until approximately ninety minutes after she was stunned.
  • We make it back to Gainesville without incident.

08-16:
-—

• Zorya is fully-healed by Doc Tanner in the morning.

• Session ends here. We all get to level up to level 6!

• Current Inventory (stored in the Safehouse):

• Ammo, 9mm(Glock 17) x31 (31 TU)
• Ammo, 12 ga Buckshot(Beretta M3P) x14 (28 TU)
• Backpack x2 (6 TU)
• Battery Charger x2 (10 TU)
• Batteries x5 (15 TU)
• Beretta M3P (shotgun) x5 (40 TU)
• Binoculars (2 TU)
• Bolt Cutters x2 (4 TU)
• Canned Goods x4 (8 TU)
• Chemical Light Sticks x20 (4 TU)
• Cigarette Lighter x7 (14 TU)
• Crossbow (3 TU)
• Digital Camera x2 (10 TU)
• Duct Tape x3 (3 TU)
• Electric Generator (15 TU)
• Electrical Parts x57 (57 TU)
• Electrical Tool Kit, Deluxe (7 TU)
• Flashlight, Standard (1 TU)
• Ford Escape XLT (75 TU)
• Gasoline x198 (198 TU, deposited w/ UF)
• Glock 17 x3 (21 TU)
• Light Undercover Shirt (10 TU)
• Mechanical Parts x110 (110 TU)
• Mechanical Tool Kit, Basic (4 TU)
• Moving Truck (125 TU)
• MRE x4 (24 TU)
• Portable Stove (3 TU)
• Rope 150’ (2 TU)
• Shell Casings(9mm) x30 (3 TU)
• Spike Strip (4 TU)
• Undercover Vest (11 TU)
• Walkie-Talkie, Professional x2 (8 TU)
• Yamaha YZ250F (Dirtbike, 35 TU)
  • Zipties x25 (2 TU)

• Current Alien Technology:
  • Crystal(Father)
    • Found on Father Nathan. Kept by Zorya.
  • Crystal(Bob)
    • Removed from Bob Flinder’s frontal cortex. Kept by Zorya.
  • Alien Thought-Negating Devices(“bugs”)
    • A disassembled one and an intact one are secure in a safe in Prof. Pine’s lab.
    • One is in the team’s Safehouse, one is in Vincent’s truck, & one is locked up at UPD.
    • The last one(of the six) was taken by Curt when we first acquired them.
  • 8-12 hours of Digital Video of Alien Radio Transmission, as fed through Alien Circuitry tied into a human(zombie) brain.

• Thoughts on Things To Do:
  • Track down and kill the psychic cat creature. (done)
  • Do what we can to translate the brain-fed alien transmissions.
  • Use the technology from the thought-negating/control devices to build a new translator device. One that doesn’t require surgery.
  • Use the technology from the thought-negating/control devices to build some sort of protection from the brain-sucker’s stunning power.