Relics and Rayguns Episode 26: The Catacombs

The Blind Jump crew have discovered a treasure – an intact Founder City. At the center of the city, they discovered a sort of temple, and inside, the entrance to a series of catacombs. They descend, seeking the next fragmented coordinate that would lead them to the massive starship they saw at the beginning of their voyage.

The crew descends, activating the lights on their suits. Whooey fires up his scanset, searching for any signs of activity in the tunnels. The tunnels themselves extend for miles, a maze of dark passages lined with alien skulls. Partway along, the crew encounters an alien mech. Max fires immediately but his needle rifle jams. Lefty fires his plasma bolter but misses, vaporizing a skull, but Max clears the jam and shreds the mech with his second shot.

The crew continues their explorations, encountering a larger mech. Shuhb immediately fires his autoneedler, but the needles ricochet harmlessly off the mech’s armor. Binx fires her needle assault rifle and knocks the mech back as Miaulong fires his lightning gun, striking the mech and scorching its armor. Max opens up with his own needle rifle, punching through the scorched armor and and bringing the mech down.

To help boost morale, Shuhb pulls down some skulls and bones and puts on a short one-act play about the need to get out of there. The crew loves the play, and, with new motivataion, Miaulong and Binx chart a course through the catacombs. They arrive at a lighted chamber and spot two more mechs, who immediately attack. The chamber itself seems to be a strange blend of church and datacenter, and the crew spots an altar at the far end with a data terminal on it.

Shuhb snaps his autoneedler up and fires, punching a needle into a mech in a shower of sparks. Lefty fires a blast of plasma at the same mech, melting part of its carapace. Whooey charges the mech and swings his plasma torch, incinerating it, but the other mech fires at him with a plasma bolter, hitting him hard and scorching him through his armor. Miaulong fires his ion blaster, hitting the mech but doing no immediate damage. Max charges the mech with his cyberblades, striking it in one arm but ricocheting off its armor. Binx moves in, firing her assault rifle and knocking the mech back. Miaulong fires his ion blaster again, striking the mech and unbalancing it further. Whooey sees the coordinate fragment on the terminal on the altar, and makes a run for it.

Binx fires again, and one of her needles punches through the mech’s arm. The mech backs away from Max to clear its weapons, and Max slashes at it, but cannot penetrate the mech’s armor. The mech fires its autoneedler at Max, who dives aside, evading the attack, then pulls his assault rifle and fires, shredding the mech.

Shuhb moves into the temple, looking for more opposition, and hears the sound of more mechs approaching from the catacombs. Lefty takes up a position in cover, waiting for more mechs, as do the rest of the crew. Whooey reaches the terminal and begins to hack it. He quickly deciphers the code, and determines that he can shut down the mechs throughout the catacombs with a bit more work – and he does so before the next mech arrives. Coordinate fragment in hand, the crew must now decide which world to visit next…


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