Beyond the Crucible

A Mass Effect RPG. Chronicling the adventures of life after the Crucible in two very different universes. To view in chronological order visit 'Timeline'

[beyond-crucible]

He's worse than you!

In the middle of an interrogation, Ashil calls for a group huddle. Being worse than Johnny is not a good thing...

[beyond-crucible]

2.22 Lessons Learned

You’re only on the wrong end of the I-beam throw once. Don’t put it in your mouth. Especially when it’s Red Sand. Appearances aren’t everything. Sometimes the one in the suit isn’t a quarian... and the nurse is the biotic that will rip you apart. Discretion may be the better part of valour but it’s in very short supply.

[beyond-crucible]

1.22 Lessons Learned

At least being a Spectre gets you cool toys. Krogans are not known for their stealth. Ever. The smart guards are the ones that know when to quit and hastily vacate the premises. Turrets and grenades are your friends!

[beyond-crucible]

That silly quarian is going to get herself killed because she couldn’t stay dead!

While Commander O'Neill wasn't present for most of the action he definitely had thoughts to share when he heard of Aliya's latest stunt

[beyond-crucible]

2.22 Enemy Neutralized... or not

Things had been complicated enough with a saboteur assigned to take out the ship but now another person was being detected carrying red sand and heading towards the hospital. An enemy agent was on the way! - Artemis responded to the hospital call and hopped into an air car - Unfortunately she got in an accident and crash landed 5 blocks away, started running - Luthien, Nienna and Terryck: disguising as hospital staff or staying out of sight - Scanners showed the person carrying red sand had just arrived! Started checking people Luthien spotted a suspicious quarian, moving oddly and reaching into a pocket, and cast wreave. The target doubled over in pain and passed out, Luthien cancelled the wreave as Terryck stepped in to tie her up. Inside the suit was an asari commando - quite young and probably on her first mission. With that threat out of the way they just had a sabotage attempt to stop. - Amir, a quarian engineer experienced in wet work, had just joined the crew - Aliya’s FENRIS detected a drell and sounded a private saboteur alarm over helmet comms - The drell got shot in the hand and knee, Aliya panicked about keeping him alive & Amir provided first aid After hearing about the salarian base from their prisoner, Aliya dashed off on her own. Trying to do a scan without breaking her cover by using her full abilities she tripped their sensors. Salarians burst onto the roof, firing shots at random into the crowd. Maybe this wasn’t the best plan...

[masseffecting]

This guy knows what he’s talking about.

[beyond-crucible]

2.22 Red Sand Tango

The team came to Rannoch to unravel a conspiracy - now there was a murder of a team member on the line. Terryck joined up with Aliya to begin investigating. - The set-up looked like Joe had come to this location on purpose - Scans showed odd residual energy on the murder weapon, no known biotic strong enough to move it so fast - Extra research: possibly restricted & highly dangerous substances? - Traces of "red sand" & hypodermic injector found - 2 witnesses: just saw Joe pacing, acting nervous and then he was gone Enjoying herself in the bar, Artemis's drinking was disturbed by a man flung through the window. A crazed human followed, killing someone else before Artemis shot his knee and got him to pass out. - The human had brain hemorrage & criminal insanity, sent to a surgeon - Artemis walked the streets, found the don of the dockyards who helped the human - A package had arrived a week before, the human came and picked it up - The don had also helped a salarian commando cell, based in Rannoch’s capital At the hospital the man had been stabilized but was about to die. Stepping into the room, Luthien appeared to the man as one of his delusions. Taking advantage of this, she told him to confess his sins to get critical intel. - He’d been hired to kill Lt. Cornelius Joe, hacked into computer to send him a message - Faked a message from Aliya to see if she was still alive & draw Joe out - Some asari & salarian bases in the market district of the dock yard - He knew an engineer had been assigned to sabotage the ship, a non-quarian The man passed away shortly after but now they had a sabotage to avert. They searched with scans… and found a quantity of red sand, in motion and heading towards the hospital.

[beyond-crucible]

Guess he didn't... see it coming

[beyond-crucible]

2.22 RIP

Finally on Rannoch, the team went about getting supplies and repairs. While they had all survived the trap with the assassin droid Aliya was now undercover, hoping to find out who was behind it once they relaxed their computer security. When the supplies arrived they included a strange package that held a fainting sheep - apparently the asari on board had decided to take on a pet. Commander O'Neill was asked to go see President Tali'Zorah so he headed off as the rest of the team members split off and tackled various tasks. - Artemis went to go hit up a bar - Aliya attempted to socialize as her alter ego - Braxis searched for cookbooks (sheep) - Terryck secured communications to contact his family - Added anti-virus protection & wall turret installed in K-Q0's server room Then Aliya’s work was interrupted by a frantic crewman, banging on the door. A crewman had been reported murdered! She rushed off to the scene. On the ground, skewered by an I-beam… was Joe.

[beyond-crucible]

Adding to the wall.

[beyond-crucible]

1.22 Storming the Castle/Bunker

Ashil, was being escorted by two thugs to the cell’s base, the rest of the team sneaking along, but Tork’s attempt at stealth got him discovered. She managed to tranq one and Tork charged before the other could attack. - Tork charged in with his bayonet, ended up landing on him. Conscious thug persuaded to keep leading them to the base - Seeing them approach, the outdoor guards stand down and direct them to the service elevator - Scans showed the elevator goes down 50 feet, includes a bunker and some storage - Checking out the storage section lots of survival & medical supplies, heavy ammunition and a computer - Ashil hacked: it includes extensive Cerberus files, records of mysterious funds, details on their leader ‘Bruiser’ and Johnny’s Alliance record - The turrets now belong to Ashil! They go down a level to take on the enemy - Peeking in: 8 men in the main room, 6 of them around tables playing cards - After a brief firefight the first group went down, the 9 others further in set up a barricade - At the very back were 3 people by old computers, one of them seems familiar to Rae - Quintus banks a grenade, Ashil activates the turret… the survivors duck behind cover except one typing away on the computer A few more go down to bullets and Tork charged one of the few left standing. Rae called out to the one she recognized to stand down - the man goes to shoot himself but Johnny intervened with biotics and knocked him out. Now they can finally get some answers.

[beyond-crucible]

I'm not following you, I'm being quiet!

When Tork was first spotted he pretended to be a common thug, letting them pass by before following again. But after Tork's struggles with a cat rubbing itself over his face, his loud proclamation kinda got Ashil's escorts suspicious.

[beyond-crucible]

1.22 A ‘Sneaky’ Krogan

While the Alliance had informed Johnny he’d been offered a position as a Spectre… the team wanted to finish what they started with the Cerberus cell that had greeted them when the Saschen first landed. At least the promotion included a promise of new equipment. - A big mystery box arrived for Tork: an anti-vehicular missile launcher! - Defenses upgraded! Tork with internal armour plating, Quintus helping with biotic upgrades for Johnny, Ashil worked on upgrading shielding technology - Rae gathered info on Yentai, the Cerberus officer they met on her home colony, and hunted down other rumours - Apparently the Alliance told the Council they were against Johnny being appointed Spectre “for the use you want him for”... - With everything set up the next stop was Berlin, the location they’d discovered for the cell’s base - Rae disguised herself, Ashil hit up bars trying to get information… and got spotted by two thugs - The two thugs insisted on bringing Ashil to meet their boss, she went along as the rest of the team followed Everything seemed to be going well… unfortunately krogan were not built to sneak. As the thugs notice the krogan it looked like there was going to be a fight!

[beyond-crucible]

Tork went for surgery. It’s a cosmetic procedure. And by cosmetic I mean it will stop my face from being blown up.

Tork was quite excited to get internal armour plating. It is a tricky procedure since a lot of technology was lost in the Reaper war and is still being rebuilt.

[beyond-crucible]

I’ll make you a deal - you promise to never eat my liver and I’ll make you a wagon.

What is a krogan to do when he receives a mission launcher so magnificent and so large? Thankfully Ashil was willing to make it a portable wagon - for a price.

[beyond-crucible]

Previously on Beyond the Crucible...

Universe 1.21 Ran into a Cerberus group on Earth. Johnny was offered a position as Spectre, he was to report to Palaven for orders and upgrades. The team prolonged their stay on Earth to deal with this Cerberus cell... Universe 2.21 Survived the trap and the robot assassin! Headed to Rannoch for repairs as Aliya prepared to fake her death to help the team get to the bottom of things.

[beyond-crucible]

While Beyond the Crucible hasn’t been “dead” for two years it’s definitely been a while. Thanks for all of your patience! Back in January finishing these stories was a resolution... and it’s been renewed by a trip down memory lane.* So just give us a sec to finish our calibrations. *Happy birthday, Luthien. Image credit Ajmone on Deviant Art