The Howls of BSK-Sector, Paranoia the RPG

You few, you brave few, have thwarted a dastardly communist terrorist plot that threatened all of Alpha Complex! In recognition of your glorious deeds, Friend Computer itself has declared an entire day-cycle to be spent in a celebration in your honor.

You all are riding in the back of a gold gilded truck-bot through the largest corridor in Alpha Complex, throngs of citizens lining the path and cheering loudly. Red colored confetti and streamers sprinkle down on your heads. At the end of the hallway you see the largest display monitor you have ever seen, displaying the symbol of Friend Computer staring down in approval. In front of the monitor is four of the near-legendary high programmers, holding out giant medals for you.

Looking behind you, you see Ayehayte-R-PHM-4, the man who was your hated supervisor when you were infrared, forced to clean up the scattered confetti left behind the truck-bot.

The truckbot stops and you climb out of, people straining for the chance to better see your gleaming countenances. You walk onto the stage.

One of the high programmers, dressed in a glistening white robe, steps forward and opens his mouth to speak.

Instead of words, a loud siren seems to erupt from his mouth.

The siren continues, shaking you out of your dreams of glory back into the dingy realty. You all wake up in the cramped, four person room allotted to you as red clearance personnel. The alarm eventually stops and you four hear a voice in your head.

-bing- GOO-OO-OOD MORNING, TROUBLE SHOOTERS! This is the voice of Friend Computer. It is currently 6:00 in the morning-cycle. You have a meeting with your new supervisor in 30 minute-cycles, at room HOL-1-DAY-N. Breakfast will be provided. Let's all have a FUN and PRODUCTIVE day-cycle, trouble shooters! -bing-

Looking around the room, you can see that beside the four beds there is a set of four lockers. There are two doors, one door leading to a small cramped bathroom and the other door leading into a public corridor.

Floating in the middle of your vision is a red arrow, pointing toward HOL-1-DAY-N, and a timer counting down from 30 minutes.

edited 24th Aug '16 10:27:46 AM by Nodrog

Silence-104-1 instantly starts getting dressed and pulling on his RED LEVEL assigned Boots, before instantly moving and following the Red Line. Dressing himself takes 5 minutes.

He is so excited to no longer be a RED level Troubleshooter, though he can't help but shake a feeling of familiarity.

edited 24th Aug '16 10:57:32 AM by EchoingSilence

-bing- Silence-R-104-1, this is a verbal warning. You are out of uniform. A properly uniformed troubleshooter has a jumpsuit, boots, and LASER PISTOL. -bing-

Silence steps back, grabs his Laser Pistol and Jumpsuit, and even a few more personal effects.

Silence opens his locker. Inside is his spare, clean red jumpsuit; a red laser pistol with power cell; an XP cred stick; a bottle of black boot polish; and the special edition Teela O'Malley swimsuit poster. He takes everything except the poster.

edited 24th Aug '16 11:35:52 AM by Nodrog

Phoenix-R-BRN stirred from his sleep, tossing and turning a bit before truly waking.

"Ugh...morning Friend Computer."

He rubs his eyes, before opening his locker and taking everything that he would need. In a few minutes, his jumpsuit and boots have been put on, his boots given a bit of a polish, and his laser pistol at his side. He nods at his fellow Troubleshooter.

"Another day of troubleshooting in Alpha Complex..."

Clayr-R-GLC got out of bed.

"Good morning Friend Computer."

Clayr moved to her locker, before tripping over seemingly nothing at all.

"Oof!"

She then grabbed her jumpsuit, boots and laser pistol, pulling them on.

Phoenix-R-BRN-1 takes a clean jumpsuit and laser pistol out of his locker, leaving behind a bright red maid dress with white apron*.

* Maid Dress is from Maid the RPG. When worn, wearer adds one die to his dice pool. This ability goes away if the dress is damaged or covered up.

Clayr-R-GLC-1 takes her jumpsuit, boots, and pistol out of the locker, leaving behind a ten-foot collapsible pole.

The count-down timer has reached 20 minutes remaining.

Bastion rolls out of bed with a grumble, now (unfortunately) fully awake. He nods to the other troubleshooters in place of a verbal greeting, only to find that they have already left. He also notices that the timer has been counting down for a decent while now, and rushes to his locker. He puts on his jumpsuit, grabs his laser pistol, and quickly casts around for anything else that might be useful.

In the bottom of the locker is a wooden lawn gnome. A close examination reveals major signs of wear, but it has recently been repainted with expressive blue eyes, an insolent grin, and a bright red jumpsuit.

Following the pointing arrow, Silence-R-104-1, Phoenix-R-BRN-1, and Clayr-R-GLC-1 find themselves walking down a public transportation hallway. There is little traffic this early in the day cycle. You do notice three infrared clearance citizens (two men and one woman) standing by a wall. Their black jumpsuits are raggedy and patched with scraps of colorful cloth, marking them as low paid gypsy workers, probably hoping for a handout. As Silence passes them, the woman grabs him and starts babbling.

Her words are distorted, but she seems to say "It was the stake 'n 'iz heart that killed 'im! He couldn't see why it was chasin' 'im, and they em-bare-assed 'im to hide the raisin! No bewaring the color of the blood or the stake will get you too!"

The two men quickly pull her off, apologizing for Cassie's babbling, but this delays you three long enough for Bastion to catch up with you.

edited 25th Aug '16 5:29:50 PM by Nodrog

Is there anything you four want to do before entering the room? If I don't see any messages by this evening, I'll just have you four enter the room.

Silence walks into the room with confidence.

Phoenix gives the gypsies a strange look at the sudden outburst. He then shakes his head to clear it before he also enters the room.

Bastion, odd gnome tucked under his arm, glances at the gypsies and gives them a quizzical look, before shrugging (and almost fumbling the gnome) and walking into the room after Silence and Phoenix.

edited 26th Aug '16 10:08:35 AM by Tojin

Entering HOL-1-DAY-N, you discover that half of this room is painted black and the other half is painted orange. In the middle of the room is a large table, again separated into a black and an orange side. On the black side (the side closest to you) is a metal bench and five place settings. On the orange side of the table is what is either a wide chair or a narrow couch, padded and upholstered in dark green material. Against the solid orange wall is a long, narrow table and two orange double doors. On the narrow orange table are several covered metal platters, with delicious smells of cooked foods wafting from the platters. In one corner on the black side of the room is a Near-Caffe dispenser and a stack of styrofoam cups.

There is a fussy looking man in an orange jumpsuit, necktie, and clipboard. According to your heads-up displays, his name is Wilber-O-RDR-2. "Ah, excellent, you must be the new trouble shooters. The chief will be here in a few minutes." he says, then checks the clipboard. "Let's see... you should be Silence-R-104-1, Phoenix-R-BRN-1, Clayr-R-GLC-1, Bastion-R-OVR-1, and Yotsuba-R-LWN-Gnome."

edited 26th Aug '16 10:45:10 AM by Nodrog

"I am Silence yes," Silence notes while trying to ignore the feeling of Deja Vu at the name of Yotsuba. If he had that feeling, Friend Computer must have put it there for a reason.

Wilbur waves at the metal bench in the black half of the room. "You can go ahead and sit down, or you can get some Near-Caffe while you wait for the Chief."

Wilbur hurries over to the orange double doors and opens them. The fattest man you have ever seen enters, dressed in an old fashioned suit in various shades of dark green green, with a lighter green shirt and jet black tie. A gold chain stretched over his massive belly. He walked with majestic slowness over to the table, giving Wilbur time to hurry back and position the large chair for him. The man sits and faces you all. "Greetings. I am Mycroft-G-HLM-5." he announces. "I am in charge of trouble shooters for this quadrant.". His chair creeks ominously as he leans back.

Wilbur goes over to the narrow table and comes back, setting a large plate in front of Mycroft, holding a thick steak and a golden omelette with mushrooms and covered in melted cheese. Next to the plate he sets a basket of freshly baked rolls and several jars of jelly. A large insulated thermos turns out to hold a sweet smelling black tea, which Wilbur used to fill a china porcelain cup.

An infrared class citizen walks in through the black door, pushing a cart that has a large metal pot and a stack of metal bowls. He is dressed in a ragged black jumpsuit with his straggly hair restrained in a hair net. He uses a ladle to fill five bowls of Nutri-Gruel, then slams the bowls down one at a time on the black side of the table.. Nutri-Gruel looks like shredded newspaper mixed with watery oatmeal; It is extremely bland but filling, providing all the nutrients a healthy body needs for as long as you can tolerate the almost complete lack of flavor. The infrared citizen then reaches into an apron pocket, fishes out five plastic sporks, and drops them on the table.

"Thank you, Wilbur, Alvin." Mycroft says. The infrared cook grunts and walks out, pushing the cart in front of hum. Wilbur moves over to the corner as Mycroft picks up a freshly polished silver fork and knife and takes a bite of the omelette. "I hope you don't mind the breakfast meeting, but... -chew chew swallow- my schedule is very busy and -sip- I do like to meet all new members of -chew chew, dab lips with napkin, swallow- my staff."

Mycroft picks up one of the biscuits and cuts it open, releasing a small cloud of steam, then begins lathering on honey-butter. "Right now we are facing a severe crisis; the rate of cleaning bots being damaged or gone missing is up almost a full half of a percentage point. This is a case that will require a skillful and talented team of trouble shooters." He bites into the biscuit and closes his eyes for a moment, savoring the freshly baked bread. "Mmm... well, since they'll be busy with that case, that means you'll be taking the case they normally would have taken."

Mycroft waves his hand dismissively. "It's a bit boring, I'm afraid... a murder that needs to be investigated, nothing of much importance. The governor of BSK sector, Charles-Y-BSK-3, was found deceased down in one of the agricultural areas. It's mostly agriculture; soybeans, I'm told. Frightful things, soybeans." Mycroft finishes the biscuit in two more bites, then wipes his lips before going back to eating his omelette. "Anyway, he's been blathering about irregularities and some sort of conspiracy since he got back, so Friend Computer wants a team of trouble shooters to go listen to the poor man." Mycroft says between bites..

Wilbur speaks up. "The monorail train from DAY sector to BSK will be leaving at nine thirty, so you have a little over an hour to get ready. Charles-Y-BSK-4 should be waiting for your arrival."

Mycroft points at Clayr with his fork. "Mmm... you'll be the team leader." he announces, and Wilbur hands a file folder to Clayr. "That has five train tickets, a general equipment requisition form, and a robot requisition form." Mycroft wipes his lips again. "If you hear anything about the cleaning robot situation, call me directly. Otherwise, you can call Wilbur and let him know when you finish up your investigation in BSK sector."

Mycroft takes a large bite of omelette and chews, meditatively, then swallows. "Do try to be a little, ah, tactful." Mycroft says. "Apparently poor Charles was decanted quite, ah, unclothed in the middle of his office. Probably a little ego-stroking is all he needs; these murder investigations are always rather pointless, but we also serve who only stand and wait as they say."

Do you have any questions for Mycroft or Wilbur? Looking at the general requisition form you can see it's for Supply Depot NITE-N-DAY-M and the robot requisition form is for MST-3-K-DAY. You can either split the group up or stay together, but staying together might not give you enough time to go to both places before the train leaves.

edited 26th Aug '16 10:34:55 PM by Nodrog

"No real questions. Questions about a mission from Friend Computer would be treason after all," Silence says with a smile.

Mycroft makes a little finger twitch.

Wilbur hastily hurries arround the table and hands Silence a 'Team Loyalty Officer' badge.

"If there is nothing else, I must ask you to vacate the premesis so that Wilbur and I may procede to discuss issues over your security clearance and, of course, so there will be room to set the plum puddings for the second course." Mycroft says.

edited 27th Aug '16 2:39:04 PM by Nodrog

Silence nods pleased with his badge and heads out.

Bastion's eye began twitching as Mycroft had the food brought out. The twitching began to pick up in speed until eventually Bastion just closed his eyes, trying to appear serene and calm, rather than twitching madly. As Silence headed out, Bastion (and Yotsuba) quickly followed suit, in order to escape the temptation of just grabbing all of Mycroft's food and eating it.

edited 27th Aug '16 4:29:26 PM by Tojin

Phoenix took a deep breath as the meeting came to an end. He'd had to hold himself back from saying anything that could've gotten him in hot water with Mycroft.

"No questions."

He got up and left with the others, his body slowly relaxing again.

Clayr swore to herself that she would be the best team leader she could possibly be, looking through the files and making some decisions. She would not fail her team. She shook her head at Mycroft, almost whispering "no questions".

She stood up and made her way outside with the others, making a conscious effort not to trip over anything on her way out.