Day 3:
Our heroes are trying to rush out of the Red Mesa Complex, after having set off a cart laden with explosives in the power core. They finally make it to the garage level of the complex. Along the way, they spot what appear to be several statues of man-like shapes constructed from pieces of junk. They pass these statues and enter into the garage area, which has several vehicles still in usable condition, plus a number that aren't.
As the group gets off of the "people mover" vehicle to investigate, some of the junk starts to move. A semi tractor cab and a sports car twist shape to resemble large metal men, and several other strange collages of junk and ... human parts ... roll, shuffle and rattle their way out of hiding, and converge upon the heroes.
In the ensuing battle, Karl Dracomortat takes out the "semi" with a rocket launcher, Jim the neo-samurai manages to perform heroic acts with his sword, and Barney manages to get caught in the middle of several rampaging monsters, and explosions rack the garage left and right. Barney and Jim get snared by a couple of cranes being operated by a demented former maintenance worker who appears to have "augmented" himself with pieces of junk that serve no discernable mechanical purpose. (For instance, he has lightbulbs sticking out of his eye sockets.) He seems to be impervious to harm, keeping the heroes busy just trying to keep him distracted while they figure out a way to deal with him. At last, they find his weakness -- only tools can be used to damage this particular abomination, and once they discover this, they put an end to this undead horror's existence by bludgeoning him with wrenches.
This isn't the whole of the group's difficulty, though, because the garage doors open out to reveal ... a bunch of Black Hats waiting for the group. Karl responds by firing with his rocket launcher again, taking out a hovering helicopter gunship ... which crashes into the Black Hats who were taking up positions right beneath it. (Not a bright idea on the part of the Black Hats.)
Leonard deals with some laser trip-wire bombs outside the door by taking a spare tire and rolling it out there. Several more explosions occur outside, and the way is let clear (apparently) for an easy escape, as the heroes and the surviving Red Mesa personnel load up equipment into a Hum-Vee and a large trailer truck, and then roll out.
Things get more complicated outside, as a large and not-entirely-corporeal being is waiting for them -- an embodiment of Multi-Vac, the "super-computer" from inside the complex, it turns out. The soldier driving the trailer truck panics at the sight of the gargantuan monster and barrels off, though Barney and the coyote bail out -- Barney taking a motorcycle to charge the monster. The monster chases Jim around for a while, and then grabs Barney -- motorcycle and all -- and throws him. Barney survives the experience, but his motorcycle does not.
Karl realizes that this is another "abomination", and that the way to deal with it may not be entirely logical. After several other attempts at strange ways to deal with an embodiment of a computer AI, he takes up an electronic data-pad he got from the complex, and tries typing in commands on the keyboard, in hopes of somehow contacting the computer. Oddly enough, it works ... as the coyote ends up getting sucked into the AI's "body", and finds itself in a strange "virtual" realm.
While the coyote does battle with glowing red and green skulls in this "virtual reality" environment, Karl works through his keyboard to assist the coyote, acting more on desperate measures than any real computer operation expertise. His efforts actually pay off, and the coyote succeeds in destroying the core of the monster's being ... and then emerges back into the real world, while everyone rushes off as the titan explodes.
So, as a chain reaction rocks the Red Mesa Complex, the Combine invasion is dealt with dramatically, along with the horrors created in the Red Mesa laboratories. The explosion of the ghost rock reactor lets loose all sorts of unholy energy, which can't be terribly good, but at least for now the menace has been dealt with, and our heroes are shown gratitude by the local townspeople as their Hum-Vee is refitted and refueled (and they get a rack to mount another motorcycle on the back) and they drive off in search of further adventures.
Dead Lands, Dead Lands: Hell on Earth and Dead Lands: The Weird West and characters and features thereof are trademarks of Pinnacle Games, and their use here does not constitute a challenge of trademark status. This site is by no means official, and should not be considered representative of the quality of the products of Pinnacle Games. With the exception of the "Dead Lands" logo, and except where otherwise noted, all artwork and all articles on this page are (c) by T. Jordan "Greywolf" Peacock, and may not be reproduced without permission.