5punk

*cue batman clock wipe cut*

Eraser wrote:Anyone got anythin to eat?

On that note, think its time we moved on.

The Shivers don't give you any hassle over removing the Doobrie, and seem glad of the excuse to leave. Which they do. You find the Karma labs in a nearby sector, easily in fact - it stands out among the architecture of Uptown as a shining tower of mirrored glass and gloss white. The Karma logo is fairly innocuous, but the whole building has a too-deliberate air of clinical hygiene. On reception is a young girl with stunning looks, dressed in a business style that seems uncannily provocative without appearing to be deliberate. Her expression doesn't change when a squad of armed and armoured Ops troop into the lobby. The lobby itself has plants in it, which seems unusual for Mort, and even with the inclusion of comfortable and worn looking leather seating still feels unwelcoming.

Dirk flashes the receptionist a winning smile (not that it will win much - goldfish in a bag maybe):

Dirk wrote:Good afternoon, miss. We are here to see Mr. Daniels - I think he will be expecting us. Squad Five Punk.

Receptionist wrote:Good morning Mr Gently. Mr Daniels isn't here at the moment, but he's advised us of your arrival and your requirements. If you'd all like to take a seat Mr Baile, one of our lab supervisors, will be with you in a minute.

Dirk wrote:Mr. Baile? I hope he doesn't cancel on us...

The receptionist smiles at your funny. After a few minutes a man in a Karma lab smock and pushing a wheeled metal crate emerges from a door and introduces himself as George Baile. He eyes up the dead Doobries you've hauled along.

Baile wrote:Mr Daniels said to expect some product recalls. Would you mind dropping them into the container?

Assuming you do so...

Baile wrote:Mr Daniels will be along shortly I believe. Would you like me to show you our labs while you wait?

Dirk wrote:Ooh yes please - I'd love to see what goes on inside Karma.

Dirk gives a little smile and a wave goodbye to the receptionist.

He leads you back through the door he came from, and down sterile looking white plastic and ceramic corridors with pictures of various strange alien beasties at intervals. Interspersed with the pictures are glass doors with surgical looking rooms behind them. Some are dark, lit faintly by the blue lights of the equipment in there, in others you can see people undergoing treatment. Most seem to be civilians getting cosmetics, one has a badly damaged human who is having pieces of mangled flesh removed and cast into another wheelie-box.

Baile wrote:Well I can't speak for Karma, but we're a commercial depot tasked with retail bio. Cosmetics mainly, and some upgrades. The gent back there being prepped is an LAD customer who came in last night. We're repairing him and installing the upgrades from his cold locker before they bring him back. In his case that which has killed him will only make him stronger. Aha.

Eraser wrote:D'you guys have a Stormer Upgrade Facility here?

Baile drops back slightly to walk next to you. He looks up at you with a slight smile.

Baile wrote:We do. Several of our treatment rooms are equipped to deal with Stormers. Unfortunately we don't see too many customers for them. A shame, you make the best patients.

Following a flight of stairs you're led through a set of automatic sliding metal doors into a sort of morgue. At a couple of tables are more Karma techs, who are taking apart a couple of Doobries. They look up when you enter, and to a man look at Eraser.

Dirk wrote:I think you've got a fan club

Grimmie's unnerved by the dude getting torn to bits for LAD, and half wishes he hadn't signed up for it now - their promotional material made it look so fantastical.
He's pretty sure there wasn't a photo of corpses being picked to bits in a lab.

He's also quite disappointed his war-paints have thus far been un-needed.

Baile wrote:We've had a few specimens arrive already from other Ops, as you can see. That one was alive too when it came in, which was interesting. It was in some sort of behaviour loop and was tearing itself apart.

It's not alive now, it's being dissected.

He starts to haul the dead Doobries out of the container and dump them on tables.

Baile wrote:More gunshots. The brain material is useful. This one's in a sorry state...

He pokes at the remains of the one Grimmie obliterated.

Baile wrote:Well we can run fluid tests on it anyway. We're not sure what's causing the behaviour, but it's all quite interesting. Preliminary reports are of heightened aggression and by the looks of things a surprising resistance to damage, although not enough in that one's case. No batch correlation from what I can see, I think it's an external factor. I hope it is, if this is an inherent design flaw we might have to do a lot of recalls. That's pretty bad. Nah, can't be that.

He treats the Doobrie corpses like pieces of equipment.

Baile wrote:Anyway, like I said Mr Daniels should be along shortly. Feel free to grab a drink, there's a machine over there. Have a look through the lockers if you like - no touching though. There's all sorts of upgrades on cold storage. You might see something you like.

He gets back to work.

Eraser wrote:Wot if there's nuthin wrong with the Doob's, but something added after, in thier food or somethin?

Baile wrote:Could be. We're running tests now. It's unusual for food to cause behavioural irregularities though

Anyway, enough hot-dogging with the Karma staff. Dirk, Daniels is on the phone;

Mr Daniels wrote:I've a job for you gents. Meet me in the lobby.

Dirk wrote:Well, thank you for showing us around Mr. Baile, but duty calls. Chaps, Daniels wants us down in the lobby - he's got work for us!

Grimmie sings and dances his way down, waving Bertha in front of him like a cane.

Grimmie wrote:Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby!
Let's all go to the lobby, to get ourselves a job!

Daniels is waiting for you when you get back there, sitting in one of the chairs.

Daniels wrote:We've a delicate problem that I think is best outsourced. With this number of gory deaths it's attracting attention, and so the events are attracting reporters like flies. We've seen a few off, paid a few off. One's decided he's on a crusade though. Understand that this isn't just looking bad for Karma, Karma is a SLA subsidiary. Third Eye should know better, but they're not putting enough effort into reeling this guy in. Go have a chat with him and see if you can persuade him to shut up. I don't care how you do it. The guy's name is Marty Morris, and he should be nearby in Chilwell sector, he broadcast from there about 15 minutes ago.

Don't care how we do it eh?

deej involuntarily twitches his right eye while resting his hand on his AR.

5punk

SLA Industries: Day of the Doobrie