Xander, Tanni and Hans are on the second floor of the Redwood mall, taking care of the wounds they sustained from the battle that took place below a few seconds earlier. They managed to escape from the fight with the DeLorean intact, but Doc is left behind and the MHUTOs rip him apart in short order, his screams echoing out in all directions.
Some time passes and without warning, a distant clapping noise fills the air belonging to the Mall’s AI: Techno Boy. Techno Boy offers the players some new toys and safe passage out of the mall if they agree to help terminate the MHUTOs. The creatures are male and female, and they found their way into the mall by tunneling through the sewer line beneath the structure. Techno Boy is certain that way is now sealed, but he fears that no one will come to peruse the mall and window shop if there are two gigantic beasts terrorizing the shoppers. The team agrees and soon they are back in the gun shop, where the AI uncovers a buried cache from the previous owners. They find a Plasma Rifle and a Black Ray Rifle with a few shots to spare in each.
This discovery comes at the perfect time because the MHUTO’s smell the players’ arrival and are ready to bring on the fight again. They charge forward, the female leading the pack. The players stand their ground this time and take out the beasts, only using up about half of the available ammunition for the newly acquired weapons.
Being an AI of its word, Techno Boy releases the force field protecting the mall’s occupants and the party is provided with safe passage. They quickly clear out the place, set the DeLorean on park and beeline for the underground, where they find two trains awaiting them. On train is clearly attempting to get their attention but the doors come to a close before any passengers are accepted. Good thing, for the insane train reverses course and smashes into the concrete mall and all the infrastructure behind it. Had the players been inside the vehicle, they too would have suffered a similar fate. Luckily they are the cautious types and only entered the second train after carefully inspecting the AI’s current appreciation for staying intact.
The train leads the party away from all civilization, deep into the Californian hinterland. There are no craters here, no missile strikes or downed asteroids. No space faring wrecks are lapping on these shores. The players are returned to the wasteland. Once it surfaces the train riders are afforded a series of astounding vistas, mainly of golf courses – a sea of courses in fact – amidst a permanent winter. Nothing lives out here, and all the trees stand petrified, some still enflamed, as sentinels guarding a deceased species of conquerors.
The train heads for their tomb, a lone mountain that commands the horizon. The train stops at the last station a few miles from the western slope. It is a crumbling slab of concrete with nothing to shield it from the elements. No ruins can be seen nearby… Desolation station. The players disembark and head for the mountain entrance. There is a wide mouthed cave there; the surrounding flora is barely keeping it hidden.
Within, there is a grand vault entrance. The players easily cast it aside using their knowledge of computers. The thing was practically left open.
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