Where we last left our heroes, they are stranded in the displaced "Temple of the White Tiger" - now nothing more than a decorative floor surrounded by mists, and floating through a formless virtual void. An ambulance has landed roughly in the center of the floor, and Voltage uses this opportunity to squeeze through an old-style shock-absorbing bag (and to dust off all the accompanying white powder) in order to extract herself from the ambulance. She finds Kathmandu changed back to his "cute little white cat" form, so he can console poor Nao - who is more than a little unnerved to be wrenched back from relatively "realistic" (if horrific) Night City, and back into the Temple, with the ever-present threat that she might lose her identity again once DungeonWorld exerts its influence upon her.

For better or for worse, there isn't time for that to happen. Reality - as our heroes know it - stutters, as a glitch rips through this unstable "pocket" of virtual space. Nao, Kathmandu, Jing Li, Rose and Voltage are displaced - and find themselves hurtling through the void. By chance, it seems that Kathmandu was thinking about where to go next, and for an instant, "Deimos" crossed his mind.

Whether or not that had anything to do with what happens next - well, that remains to be seen. But the next thing Voltage, Nao, Jing Li and Rose realize is that they are inside sealed, glassed-in cylinders, looking out on a large warehouse-like chamber full of similarly sealed containers. The interiors light up, and the seals break, as the windows slide open. Voltage, Nao, Jing Li and Rose stumble out. Another cylinder pops open, revealing a small white cat - Kathmandu. However, it seems that all his possessions (save for his collar) litter the interior of the cylinder he came out of; his costume hasn't miraculously "molded" into his little cat form.

After a brief inventory-taking, our heroes discover that everything in their possession that was overtly magical (or partially magical) has either ceased to function, or has disappeared entirely. Rose is particularly sour about this ... for she notices the conspicuous absence of Soulrender, and she doesn't have the slight "energy drain" that is the lingering effect of his "bond" to her. She glowers, considering the possibility that he may have simply been erased out of existence ... and she might not have her "pony" anymore.

Ferrari and Delilah show up, wandering through the cryogenics chamber. It seems that they arrived here some time ago, but were dissuaded from exploring too far, what with the acid puddles, burn marks, bones, and other signs of very nasty creatures lurking about. Delilah looks like a human version of herself - still in her typical "evening gown" attire, but minus the horns, red skin, bat-wings and spaded tail. Ferrari looks perfectly normal ... but she discovers that, while she can still sprint at a very athletic pace, she just isn't super-fast anymore. (She also has gone through the discovery that silver coins actually occupy space in this world, as evidenced by her torn-up pockets.)

Voltage finds that her semi-magical, semi-mechanical wings have ceased to function - in particular, any processes powered or controlled by the "golem gems" from DungeonWorld. Here, they are nothing more than gemstones - or perhaps even merely pieces of colored glass. Although they can't fly or even move any on their own, Voltage insists on still wearing them, in the hopes that she can find some way to fix them using more "conventional" technology that this game reality presumably supports.

Rose discovers that she cannot cast spells, and she senses that one of her special "rose attacks" - one that stretches the bounds of believability - probably won't work here ... though it seems she can still fling roses with surprising accuracy. Jing Li feels considerably less "lucky"; she finds that her "probability control" power is useless here, and, of course, casting spells is out of the question: her staff of healing and the holy book borrowed from Fireman have vanished. (Fortunately, she still has the "blessed shotgun", though it seems by all appearances to be no more special than any ordinary double barreled shotgun.) Delilah is apparently stuck in her current form, and lacks any of her magical powers.

Kathmandu quite possibly has the worst deal of the group: He is, by all appearances, a very intelligent but otherwise mundane housecat. He tries and tries, and strains and strains, but he is unable to change forms. He tries various meditations and brain games in the hopes of somehow exploiting a flaw in how "reality" is programmed in this game world, but he only hurts himself for the trouble. Since Kathmandu isn't wearing his nice fancy costume at the moment, Ferrari lays claim to it - so that she can finally put something on that's a bit warmer in this chilly environment (and so that people can stop making "streetwalker" jokes about her usual attire).

Our heroes discover that there is at least one other present: a man in a black trench coat and futuristic black uniform, training a couple of pistols in their direction. Jing Li, seeing this, returns the favor by checking and raising her shotgun.

"Who are you?" the man demands. It seems that introductions are in order, so they are made. The man is Captain John Scion, a security officer at Deimos Base Alpha. As he explains, there has been a terrible accident in part of the base, and several explosions. He just escaped from an accident with the high-speed tram that heads here to the Cryogenics Chamber. Apparently, there are many hostile aliens on the loose - reconstituted from fossilized and preserved DNA found on Mars, in an experiment gone terribly wrong.

But he has another identity that comes up, as our heroes make it evident that they aren't about to "fall in character" as far as the story of this game world goes. In real life, he's a programmer for the Universe Corporation, and he's taking part in a "stress test" of the Deimos game system - an endurance trial to study the effects of long-term play beyond the normal recommendations. He explains that, normally, the system is supposed to kick out anyone who stays on for too long, but they wanted to test to see what might happen if those safeguards weren't in place for whatever reason. There were several others taking place in the trial, but apparently they have exited the system early - by getting "killed" in-game. In the real world, he is in a bed, hooked up with monitors, an IV, and various other supports, though of course that's not the typical way to play the game. He's essentially in a dream state, and most of the time he's living this experience as if it were real: However, obvious breaks in the "story" (such as the emergence of these player-characters who obviously don't belong around here) cause him to "snap out of it" and break from character.

At first, he supposes that our heroes are hackers, but they insist that there is some sort of error and that they've ended up here by mistake.

Scion, upon looking at Kathmandu and Jing Li, asks, "Hey, are you two hacks? You look a lot like those Kathmandu and Vixa characters from Megamon...."

"I am not a hack!" Jing Li protests, tail swishing furiously. "My name is Jing Li. I'm certainly not Vixa."

As dubious as their claims seem, he isn't inclined to report them; after all, with the exception of a creepy little girl and a small cat, he's in the company of several beautiful women! Plus, as he reveals, one "glitch" in this system is that pain is very real here, and death is a very unpleasant experience, to be avoided if at all possible - even if it's merely "virtual". He would very much like to make it through to the end of his trial run without having to make an emergency exit - or exiting in the "usual" unpleasant fashion ... and if he can team up with a few buddies, he just might have a chance. (In fact, he came this way in the off chance that someone else might have signed into the trial, or that he might find some fellow player-characters this way who had somehow survived.)

Captain Scion fills in the others on the particulars: the most common enemies to be found are what his team has dubbed the "Spiners". These are spider-like alien creatures that spew acid and dig into the backs of their victims, burrowing into their spines and taking over the nervous system. Spiner victims become "Spiner Zombies", at first keeping some of the memories of the host brain (though not the original motivations), which can make them particularly dangerous: Some Spiner Zombies in sensitive positions have sabotaged a lot of the base equipment, and have even reprogrammed many of the base androids and workbots to display homicidal tendencies.

As the Spiner symbiotic process continues, the Spiner Zombies lose any traces of their original personality, and branch into various sub-types. Captain Scion, alas, is not up on all the particulars: He's mostly concerned with just shooting the aliens, rather than getting overly involved in the "story". Some presumably take on more alien forms. Others are just mindless "zombies" shambling around and looking for organic sustenance. Still others are augmented with strange symbiotic weapons - particularly many of the security guards, who are armed with strange hybrids of human and alien technology in the form of acid-spewing guns.

The Spiners are fairly easy to kill, Scion reports, if you get the jump on them. However, they're quite small, have a tendency to pop out of air ducts and shadows, are immune to radiation (and a great many other things), and they typically attack in large numbers. Plus, when they hit, they tend to do a great deal of damage.

The mindless "zombie" stage is quite possibly the least of a threat, though they possess horrific strength and can throw large, heavy objects. Possibly the worst could be those zombies who possess any degree of intelligence - particularly those who are armed.

Unfortunately, he knows very little about anything like "warp crystals" or the like - particularly unfortunate, since that's the only artifact that Voltage knows of that might be of any particular use to get from here. But then, he doesn't seem to be overly concerned with the particulars of what can be found on Deimos: He's mostly focused on the bare basics of survival, and of destroying aliens in the most efficient means possible - not uncovering clues or solving puzzles or trying to piece together the "story" here. After all, as he relates, they keep changing the storyline and altering the scenario each time they do a test run, so it's hard to get overly attached to the plot.

With this sobering information in hand, Voltage puts her mind to the task of trying to get some useful supplies. After all, it seems that her DungeonWorld "tinker tools" are of very little help when dealing with electronics and high technology. She finds a supply locker, and tries to open it, but ends up frying several tools in the process. She ends up using some Molotov cocktails to try to blow the lock open, but all she manages to do is to fry the security pad. It would seem that this supply locker is not going to open.

So, our heroes consult a map of the base, and head out to find the tram tube that Captain Scion arrived in. The hover-tram has collapsed a few meters away from the docking station, and its windows are smashed. Nearby, a "plasma recharger" unit has been broken by the explosion that damaged the tram; with all the glowing and probably radioactive goo, our heroes wisely give it wide berth. The tunnel leading here isn't terribly encouraging, either: It provides a "scenic view" of the desolate, rocky grey landscape, of Mars hovering above, and of sharp shadows and a dazzling starscape - the sort of view that can only be seen so crisply without the interference of an atmosphere. There are a few impact cracks on the windows ... but it looks like they should hold for now.

Voltage and Captain Scion get to work trying to enact repairs on the tram, while Nao scouts with a flashlight - and discovers a score of scurrying "Spiner" aliens! One of them leaps on Voltage's back - but fortunately has to try to dig through the clockwork wing contraption on her back before it can get to Voltage herself. Jing Li makes wild shots with her shotgun - pausing after every couple of shots to hastily reload - Kathmandu tries to keep out of sight, Nao pegs several with her crossbow, and Rose uses her rapidly diminishing supply of roses to take out as many of the aliens as she can.

Nonetheless, one of the aliens leaps onto Voltage's back. Her wings, nonfunctional as they seem to be on this world, nonetheless provide layers of protection that minimize the damage, but she's still severely wounded. Rose leaps up into the car, and can see a seemingly endless supply of Spiners working their way down the transport tube. She and the others with ranged weapons struggle to hold the aliens off, while Voltage struggles to make hasty repairs. The anti-grav supports of the car come back online, and it raises off of the ground - shaking unevenly. Everyone piles onto the back of the car, avoiding the broken glass and the bubbling pools of acidic alien goo, and Voltage starts the car moving. It rushes forward, sending sparks flying as it bangs against one side and then the other of the tube, and soon there's a steady green spray as it plows its way through the aliens. (Our heroes keep toward the back, so as to keep well clear of the spray; the "acid" seems to eat through just about anything - even glass.)

On board the speeding and jerking car, our heroes tend to the wounded, using up most of the medical supplies they picked up from Night City. Unfortunately, all of their healing potions and balms from DungeonWorld were rendered inert when they came to Deimos, but for now they seem to be doing well enough. Captain Scion sees the end-of-the-line marker fly past, and warns the others that the train car should be slowing by now. It most certainly is not. Voltage hastens to the controls, and then starts prying open access panels to manually patch cables in an attempt to deploy the brakes. She warns everyone to grab something secure - and then she gets the car to veer sideward, digging into the sidewall, sending a shower of sparks flying, and making the whole car shudder from the impact. Sparks continue to fly, as the car slows shakily down ... and finally, something works free, and the car continues its regular slow-down process. It pulls away from the wall and glides to a stop - with a single rough jerk at the end - and the doors open.

Our heroes are faced with a choice: head down the way that Captain Scion took to get to the train, or take the other door through new, unexplored territory. They opt for the relatively "safe" option, and check their weapons - but first, there's a maintenance access down the corridor a bit, which might provide some much-needed tools and resources. Voltage heads over, and uses another "Molotov cocktail" to blow the door. It succeeds ... but there is another glassed-in corridor just beyond the door, and the explosion shatters the viewports. Air rushes out into space, and Voltage is wrenched off her feet! Just in time, Rose flings a wooden stake (a leftover from Night City) from her bouquet, jamming it in the open door groove. Voltage grabs the stake, and the others help her pull against the outward rush, back into the corridor - and then they all dash along to outrun the closing blast doors. The doors close, the air stops flowing ... and they all consider that, next time they plan on using explosives, they'll want to consider the hazards of the vacuum of space. So ... they move on.

Down one corridor, there is a door that repeatedly opens and closes violently, and there are "burn marks" around it that look like they were made by "Spiners" caught in the door at some point. The lights are out, save for the occasional ambient glow through one of the viewports, greatly limiting visibility. Nao scours the corridors with her flashlight, while Rose relies on her big ungainly nightvision goggles. Beyond the opening-and-closing door, it looks like there's a maintenance workroom, with several large built-in tool workstations, and some lockers holding who-knows-what.

While Ferrari considers the risk, Voltage decides to pull out the Mirror of Souls, and see if it works in this world. She uses the mirror to examine Kathmandu, and she sees, above his head, a reflection of some ghostly label flag that shows his name (Kathmandu), and various status bars - some of them broken up, the colored bars replaced with what looks like "garbage data". After reflecting upon her own computer knowledge and her experience with games, she comes to the supposition that it's showing her game data that is normally available to players - but apparently not to characters that solely exist within the game reality, such as themselves. She can see Kathmandu's health and fatigue levels, but there's a bar for "psychic" that is replaced with garbage data; perhaps this is a statistic used for Deimos that wasn't employed in the same way in Night City, DungeonWorld or Superior City, and there was an error in "translating" Kathmandu over to the new rules.

She tries the mirror on John Scion, and it works just fine: Apparently, he's in good health at the moment, and has absolutely no psychic ability whatsoever. She tries the mirror on herself, which only seems to cause a painful experience. Likewise, when she tries to examine Rose through the mirror. The mirror seems capable of providing some interesting insights now and then, but it's somewhat unpredictable: sometimes the experience is too painful.

Voltage relates some of her discoveries to the others, while taking care to watch some of her words around Captain Scion. Nonetheless, as they argue about what should be done next, Scion is surprised by their intensity. "It's only a game, you know," he says.

"For you," Jing Li replies - but at a glare from Rose, she falls silent.

Meanwhile, Ferrari considers the risk posed by the broken door: She doesn't have her "super speed" anymore, but she's still rather fast. She just might be able to make it through the door. But if she can't ... she could get maimed when the door comes down. All the same, she can't pass up a crazy risk. She dashes through. The door clips just a few of her hairs in back, which fall lightly to the ground on the other side.

But Ferrari has more pressing concerns. Once she's inside, she can see the ceiling ... and it's crusted with alien chitinous growths. Even more worrisome, there's a larger Spiner "queen" perched in a melted-out ventilation shaft - the bars eaten away by alien "acid". What to do? She could dash back out ... or she could grab something. She opts to run for the locker. She rips it open, and sees an assortment of tools, plus something that looks vaguely gun-like. Just as the alien is about to pounce on her - with a whole trail of smaller Spiners lined up in the ventilation shaft behind it - Ferrari points the "gun", pulls the trigger ... and lets loose with a blast of expanding goo that covers the wall and ceiling. The goo hardens into a slightly rubbery shell ... and the Spiner is stuck in place, with the vent sealed behind it. And, best of all ... it seems that "Emergency Sealant" is one of the few things that Spiner acid doesn't eat through.

With the alien still hissing at her overhead, Ferrari more leisurely unloads the locker, pulling out the sealant gun, a cable gun (with grapple), and a portable box of miscellaneous tools. She manages to solve the problem of the opening and closing door by catching it with a blast of the super-sealant while it's mostly open. It hardens - and the door stops.

Of course, that just can't be the end of it: Several Spiners pour through ventilation shafts out in the corridor. There's a short and intense battle as our heroes practically scramble over themselves to get in line to make clear shots at the Spiners. (The narrow corridors greatly hamper maneuvering.) Still, they manage to hold off the wave of aliens. Rather than staying around to wait for another wave, they press on.

They work their way through the corridors, avoiding some areas that Captain Scion said he hadn't explored before - particularly one nasty area that seems to have been "assimilated" by the aliens. They make their way from the end of the Cryogenics Access Tunnel to the Medical Center. A convenient wall map shows them the general layout of the area and their location in it; it looks like this is the area where people recently revived from cryogenics are taken to properly check them after their long hibernation. (Apparently such procedures aren't necessary for our heroes who emerged from the tubes.) There's some debate as to how to open the door to the medical center ... but Rose solves it by walking up and kicking the door.

It opens. Beyond, there is the medical center ... and there are several people who once were members of the medical staff and a security detail, though now they all sport hunched backs with the protruding forms of parasitic "Spiners" invading their nervous systems. The security guards bear rifles and shotguns that are covered with chitinous growths, with pulsating "umbilical cords" that run from the weapons to their own torsos - and when they open fire, they launch slugs surrounded by acidic alien goo. It's not pretty.

Battle commences. John Scion frequently comes to the rescue of pretty combatants by reaching past them to fire - a pistol in each hand - at the aliens. Jing Li proves to be able with the shotgun, and Ferrari is warming up to the use of firearms as well.

Afterward, it's time to loot. Many of the medical supplies have already been cleared out when Captain Scion came through here the first time. However, Rose investigates what looks like a rather nasty "torture device" that turns out to be a surgical bed modified in a vain attempt to provide a way to extract Spiners from human victims. Kathmandu is able to crawl under the medical beds, and finds a dropped security card. Nao and Jing Li find a supplies locker - and inside, they manage to find a few med kits, and assorted other useful things - like a "tire iron" bar, a flashlight, and some batteries.

They decide to check another room off to one side - an "observation" platform. Opening the door reveals that it's open to space. Fortunately, our heroes are not entirely caught of guard, and Ferrari slaps the control to close the door again. It appears that there's a small hole burned through the "glass" - possibly by a Spiner - and the remains of someone unfortunate enough to be caught in the room. Ferrari considers that there might be something useful: After all, they can't safely "loot" the bodies of fallen "zombies", since their bodies end up melting away in acidic alien goo after they're slain. Finding an "uncorrupted" human body - presumably with useful items - is relatively rare.

So, they carefully plan things out, open the door, Ferrari uses the sealant gun to seal the hole - and they check out the room. The pickings are slim - but they come away with a few bullets and a security card - one that opens emergency medical supply lockers in any of the Green security areas. (Not bad!)

After replenishing their first aid kits and other medical supplies, our heroes check the base map. While they're at it, they try experimenting with the surgical bed. Kathmandu leaps into it, and it closes around him ... and then, error lights flash, and surgical lasers are about to cut into the poor cat! Nao and Voltage struggle to shut down the machine - and finally hit the emergency shut-down. After a bit, they extract Kathmandu. Voltage looks over the machine, and after some explanation from Scion about the alien problem here, she's able to determine that the surgical bed has been reprogrammed, focused on extracting non-human organic material from anyone put into it. Nao lends some assistance to Voltage; she doesn't have experience with anything resembling this sort of technology, but she still at least has some acquaintance with medical terminology. So, they manage to reset the machine ... but nobody is especially eager to hop into it and see if it works. (After all, nobody is particularly wounded at the moment.) Still, it proves to be a potentially useful exercise, should they encounter another one of these surgical beds elsewhere in the base.

After plotting various courses on the base, our heroes decide to take the transit tube toward the central offices. Their views of the base exterior suggest that Shuttle Pad A has been taken over by the aliens. Shuttle Pad E is the only other "low-security" shuttle pad - and is the next closest means of escaping the base. As for John Scion, he indicates that there are various ways to end the scenario. One is by simply escaping. Even better, though, would be to actually do something about the alien menace before doing so, preferably by blowing up the base by overloading the central power core. Another is, of course, by dying - but this scenario hasn't even reached beta test stage yet. It employs new player interfaces that allow for a different experience than that of Superior City - and, right now, they still haven't figured out the best way to deal with pain. Death is very unpleasant.

Also, as Scion lets them know, they've recently incorporated taste. Unfortunately, as Voltage notes, there is still definitely the sense of smell. "Good thing we don't have to shower in this game!" Scion says - but as her attention is called to the fact, Voltage notes that he's a bit ripe ... and she wonders at his hygiene back in the real world as well. In fact, it seems that most of the group is fairly "funky" right now. Superior City was nice enough to do without worrying about such things: Superheroes, after all, shouldn't ever have to spend game time using the bathroom or having to deal with personal hygiene. They should just be ... superheroes! Here, however, there's a definite "grunge" feel to the world. (Maybe it was the case in Night City, too ... but everyone was too busy fighting zombies to notice!)

Our heroes find another transport tube, and this one isn't as badly damaged as the first one. They pile in and head along. It stops at one point, at a juncture. They take a brief moment to be absolutely certain that it wasn't summoned by somebody hoping for help; rather, it seems that some zombies must have bumped into the call button. Voltage overrides the controls, and they move along, before any zombies or Spiners can pile onto the tram and make the ride even more interesting.

At last, they come to the end of the line without any major incidents, and find their way into the general offices. Oh yes, and some zombies are waiting for them. There is a short gun battle, as our heroes fight zombie janitorial staff, maintenance staff and secretaries, plus a swarm of Spiners. After the smoke clears, our heroes decide to retire back to the train to get some rest - as they've been at it for a long time now, and fatigue is really starting to set in. Once everyone loads on, Voltage moves the train a little bit away from the doors, and they set up watches. Kathmandu manages to indicate via pantomime that he's willing to take up a watch.

It seems to go fairly well, until Jing Li wakes up Kathmandu to take the watch. He does well enough at first, but rather than waking up the next person at the regular time, he decides that he should just keep on watch. After all, he reasons, his powers of meditation give him a better-than-average chance to stave off fatigue - and even if he doesn't get enough sleep, someone can just carry him around while he dozes, anyway. (After all, he's not feeling particularly useful in combat anyway.) And then, our heroes wake up to find that the Spiners have burned their way through the walls of the train car. The Spiners attack, and Nao is struck the most viciously: Jing Li ends up shotgun-blasting a Spiner off of Nao's back just before it can fuse itself into her spine. It's a particularly frantic battle, since most of the group couldn't very well sleep with loaded weapons ready and already in hand, and the Spiners definitely have the jump on them. However, they manage to finish off the aliens, and make some hasty first aid to Nao and the other wounded. No longer feeling very comfortable in the car - since it appears that no place is truly secure against aliens who can burrow through walls, given time - they pile out, and continue their journey.

They take a detour through the offices, heading up to the administrative level, in search of the "transit authority", hoping that someone in that area might have a key card for accessing the shuttles. Things don't look good when they notice that much concern was spent for giving lots of scenic views of the starry expanse - in other words, a great many windows just asking to be broken, so that every door opened poses a risk that it will just lead to the void.

Over the intercom, a gravelly voice grates, "Join the Hive. Become One with Us! We are the Next Step in Evolution!" Et cetera, et cetera. At first, it's unnerving, but, as Scion notes, "They just keep repeating variations on the same thing. After a while, you just sort of tune it out." Then, it's merely annoying.

Our heroes head into one office and find a bureaucrat who has ended his life rather violently - the pistol still in his hand. His secretary android, however, is still functioning - and hostile, it seems. (Scion explains that most of the robots may be hostile, because of newly "assimilated" hosts reprogramming the station systems.) However, Kathmandu leaps forward ... and meows at the secretary. Suddenly, the secretary robot's demeanor changes. She jerks a bit (apparently damaged in a previous scuffle), and then reaches down to scoop up Kathmandu, declaring that he is overdue for his daily feeding. The surprised heroes part way as the secretary robot marches past, carrying Kathmandu. He's a bit surprised as well, and meows back at the others. They overcome their shock to file after them - all except Scion, who heads in and raids the office, claiming the gun, ammunition, and another key card.

The secretary puts a hand up to a panel to override an emergency bulkhead ... and when it opens, it's clear why the bulkhead closed: the panels in the corridor beyond are shattered, and air rushes by, emptying into space. The secretary, having some sort of special grip on her "feet", starts to step into the corridor, still holding onto Kathmandu - but Ferrari and Voltage rush up to detain her, and Jing Li slaps the panel to close it again. The secretary ... reaches up to open it again. Jing Li blasts the panel with her shotgun. Battle ensues. Fortunately, it's a short battle - and at the end of it, the secretary robot is in pieces, and Kathmandu is spared the dangers of hard vacuum.

Voltage spends some time trying to figure out how the secretary robot was able to open the door. The hand alone doesn't do the trick. So, she extracts the robot brain and rigs it up to the hand, and in short order, she has a functioning "key" to bypass the emergency bulkheads. (Meanwhile, the others discover an emergency medical supply cabinet - much needed at this point.)

They make their way down another corridor, only to discover yet another vacuum trap. Voltage ends up getting sucked in, and makes grisly use of a human leg to wedge into a support beam to keep from being sucked further down the corridor. Ferrari uses her sealant gun to seal the hole - and then the bulkheads open up again.

Cautiously, our heroes continue on, finding their way into the head offices of the transit authority. They discover that one door leads into an office where all the windows have been shattered, and Ferrari can't possibly seal all of the openings. What's more, there's a psychotic robot inside. The only contents are a large heavy desk, as apparently it's too large or heavy to be rushed out with the air into space.

So, there's some disagreement in the group. Some want to just leave and abandon the room, as it's apparently not worth the trouble. None of them can survive hard vacuum, after all, and there are no space suits to be found. However, Ferrari gets an idea: Her sealant gun may not be of much use, but there's the cable gun. It could be used to hook the desk, and pull it through the door - if someone else could do something about the hostile robot. But ... can it even be done?

Jing Li is inspired with an idea: Rather than just charging in and risking death via a psychotic robot or hard vacuum when one of any number of things go wrong, why don't our heroes test the cable gun first? They could go into one of the other now-vacant offices, fire the grapple gun from an appropriate distance, and see how hard it is to snag the desk and bring it through the door.

Voltage adopts a "stage" stunned look at the suggestion. "Test an idea? What is this 'test' of which you speak? What a novel concept!" And so that's what they do. Ferrari stands back from the entrance of one of the side offices, fires the cable gun into the room, snags the desk in there at one end, then drags it out through the door. Certainly, it may be different when dealing with air rushing past and into space, and racing against emergency bulkheads - and, oh yes, a hostile robot - but at least they know the cable gun works.

So, they carefully take up positions, moving most of the group past the next bulkhead, so as not to put additional people needlessly at risk. Ferrari takes up the grapple gun, Jing Li stands by the door panel, and John Scion stands behind Ferrari - guns ready. They wedge the other desk around the corner, and use it as an anchor. Jing Li opens the door: Air rushes out, and emergency bulkheads start to close. The hostile robot turns - and Captain Scion reaches around Ferrari to pump it full of lead. Ferrari launches the grapple hook, catches the desk, and reels it out. Once it's clear of the door, they slam the door shut ... and then the emergency bulkheads open up again.

They've succeeded! They have the desk!

Fortunately, their effort is rewarded: They find security cards, including one for the Red Security Shuttle Pads. They also find a cybernetic eye module. Ferrari seems to be very eager to claim it for her own. "I want it IN MY HEAD!" she pleads. Voltage has her own reasons for being interested, too, and she plots to try to find some good excuse to get everyone to head by the Cybernetic Research Center, where she supposes she could get some cybernetics installed.

Our heroes grab what supplies they can from the remaining offices (this side of the void of space), and then move along.

The going is a little smoother from this point on, as they cut through a larger section with many side-routes. Scion has been this way before, so he's able to direct them past several obvious trouble spots - though there's no way to guarantee that any particular path is truly free of alien influence. (After all, they keep popping out of air vents, or shambling in from neighboring areas.) They decide to skip looting and hunting, in favor of making good time. Eventually, they make it to the Biosphere - a large dome full of twisty passages and walkways, with much more greenery than they've seen elsewhere.

Unfortunately, this area seems to be swarming with zombies, alien pods, and a very large alien "boss" floating in the center of one of the bio-domes. The alien "master" transmits to them telepathically, gloating, goading, urging them to just drop their weapons and surrender to "the joys of unity with the Hive". Our heroes, however, have no such intention. The zombies lurch forward with their weapons. Our heroes open fire ... but shots directed at the large alien have no effect. They bounce harmlessly off of some sort of bluish energy shield.

"Oh yeah," Scion says, "I remember that this area had some sort of puzzle. I'm lousy with those, so I just skirted around this area."

Kathmandu leaps into one of the air vents, anxious to scout out the area and find out what this "puzzle" might be, because it looks like the others are making little headway against the zombies. Rose is just barely small enough to squeeze into another vent, so she goes the other way. They discover that at each corner of this sub-sphere, there are glowing blue crystals floating within chitinous structures. Kathmandu notes that they're giving off a similar glow to that "force field" around the alien, so he leaps in through the chitinous growths and sits on the rotating crystal, trying to push it out of the frame with his limited cat strength. It won't budge. However, Kathmandu's mind is suddenly filled with hazy images that resolve into a view of the whole chamber - as if he's somehow experiencing the view from everyone in there - and he is aware of all the plant life in the area as well. He can sense streams of energy flowing from four crystals to the center; if the crystals are disrupted, the shield will fall.

But, meanwhile, the alien has plans of its own. It dominates Delilah for a moment - who is currently carrying the sealant gun. Delilah fires the gun on herself and the others - and now Voltage, Ferrari and Delilah are tangled up in sealant goo (though Ferrari manages to work her way free). The alien even manages to dominate Voltage for a bit, getting her to use her taser gun - ineffectively - on one of her companions. Fortunately, it's not able to dominate anyone carrying anything like heavy explosives.

Oddly enough, Kathmandu's every thought seems to be broadcast around the room, while he sits atop the blue crystal. He takes advantage of this to warn the others about the crystals - to urge them to destroy them. Rose destroys one of the crystals, and is then swarmed by several of the zombies that break off from the main fight to deal with her. She evades them, then discovers that Captain Scion is being surrounded. She takes up a position and wears down the zombies with flurries of her roses - and she's getting close to running out.

Kathmandu has his own problems, though he manages to destroy the crystal he was perched on. Alas, his psychic abilities vanish as soon as the crystal is gone. He scampers past several zombies, and leaps into another vent, aiming to come out next to the third crystal - but he finds a large mini-gun pointed down the vent at him. He has been discovered - by a homicidal combat robot!

Rose's situation looks fairly unpleasant, too, as once John withdraws, she's left as the closest and most convenient target for the armed "security guard" zombies. She rushes away as fast as she can from the zombies, basically trying to find somewhere to hide - because at this rate, she's not sure how much longer she'll last. Rose calls out to Captain Scion for help - but he focuses instead on "defending" Ferrari (never mind that she's doing quite a number on the zombies on her own with her fast reflexes and a heavy handgun) by doing his by-now trademark maneuver of reaching past her to plug aliens.

Nao and Jing Li rush over to Kathmandu's defense, drawing the fire of the combat robot. Kathmandu rushes past, and dives into the shell holding the third crystal, but this time he doesn't want to break it: he hopes that if he can preserve it somehow, he can keep the "psychic abilities" he seems to possess when in its presence. So, with considerable effort, he manages to break the frame holding the crystal, and to knock it out. Meanwhile, Rose flings an attack at the last remaining crystal, and shatters it, causing the force field around the central alien to collapse.

The alien, meanwhile, continues to send out commands to everyone to attack their fellows, but fortunately most of them are fairly strong-willed to resist (or are effectively incapacitated by sealant goo and therefore unable to effectively obey). Jing Li and Nao take out the combat robot, and then, just as a zombie is bearing down on a very wounded Rose, Jing Li rushes over and shotguns the zombie in the back. The force field goes down, and everyone with a gun focuses their fire on the alien. It begins to swell and glow - and then explodes in a burst of alien goo. Likewise, the remaining blue crystal glows brightly, and despite Kathmandu's efforts to keep it (somehow!) from exploding, it bursts ... and the energies from the remaining crystal are absorbed by the small white cat.

Kathmandu glows strangely blue, though the glow is slowly dissipating. Jing Li rushes over to him.

This is cool, Kathmandu thinks. I wonder if everyone can still hear what I'm thinking?

"Yes we can," Jing Li answers, picking up the cat and cradling him. "Are you all right?"

I feel fine, Kathmandu thinks, rubbing his head against Jing Li. Wait. Are they hearing everything that I'm thinking?

"I think we are."

Uh oh. Pure thoughts. Think pure thoughts.

Just as Nao is about to frown at Jing Li and all the attention she's giving Kathmandu, Rose storms over to Captain Scion, her little hands balled into fists at her sides. She kicks him in the shins.

"I was trying to help you! And you left them to swarm me!"

"Hey, I couldn't see you were there!" John Scion says, defensively.

Glowering, Rose stalks off. Jing Li crosses her arms around Kathmandu and glares at Scion. "She's not that little!"

"I was busy saving Ferrari!" Scion protests.

"Ha! You mean busy staring at her pants."

"Well ... two birds, one stone."

So, after our heroes finish looting the area, will they find a way to escape from Deimos? Will they reunite with the others? Find out answers to this and more in the next exciting session of ... Superior City!