"Dead End" is twenty-sixth mission of Season 7.
As unexpected consequences escalate, you and Maxine find yourselves in a seemingly-hopeless situation.
Cast[]
Plot[]
General Distress Beacon[]
As the liquid-P-Type leaks from the taps, a version of Veronica with limited functionality gets in contact to offer assistance. She activates a general distress beacon and directs you to a safe room in order to escape the P-Type.
Incinerator[]
The safe room doesn’t prove safe for very long, as the P-Type easily bypasses containment measures. Veronica Basic directs you to lure the P-Type to a nearby incinerator in order to dispose of it.
Airborne Virus Threat[]
Veronica comes back online with alarm - Veronica Basic’s plan to incinerate the P-Type is horrifically flawed. If the core mutation that created V-Types was fungal in nature, then incinerating it will only lead to an airborne indestructible zombie virus. You’ll need to shut the incinerator down before the zombie reaches it.
Ghouls[]
You manage to beat the P-Type to the furnace and shut it down. But as you escape the furnace station, the P-Type’s goo begins to infect the bodies of dead sewage workers, creating ghouls which begin to chase you.
Burn Cubes[]
As the P-Type goo pursues you and Maxine, Veronica describes the potential fallout of the P-Type escaping the lab: the entire country will be dead within 700 hours. With little option, Maxine asks Veronica to lead you to her research stock of Burn Cubes.
Colonel Sage[]
As the P-Type closes in, Maxine and Veronica connect as Veronica promises to pass Maxine’s last words on to Paula and Sara. At the last moment before you and Maxine can trigger the Burn Cubes to bring down the whole facility, though, you receive a message from Colonel Sage: he’s arrived to rescue you.
At Least We Got Out[]
Using a drone to infiltrate the air vents, Sage rescues you and Maxine before detonating the Burn Cubes, destroying the P-Type and Veronica’s lab.
S07E26 // Rofflenet[]
Discussion regarding this mission can be found on Rofflenet
Transcript[]
[goo oozes from faucet]
MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, can you hear me? We’ve got a real problem.
[computer chimes]
VERONICA BASIC: Hello. I am Veronica Basic, a simple program designed by Veronica to answer queries while she is in diagnostic mode. Diagnostic mode has been enabled due to – A CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE. Do you have questions about the plant?
MAXINE MYERS: For God’s sake, tell her to come back from diagnostic mode. This is serious!
VERONICA BASIC: Veronica cannot come online now. My sensors have detected elevated stress levels in your voice. Please explain the crisis situation.
MAXINE MYERS: All right. Fine. Five and I are in an employee kitchen in the sewage plant. Veronica melted a giant zombie with acid, and what’s left of it is pouring out of the kitchen taps. Five, that goo is definitely alive. It’s formed itself into a plug to block the sink hole, and now the sink’s overflowing. Get into the corridor. Close the door.
[door creaks shut] Veronica, we’re in the corridor now. It’s badly damaged by acid, and there’s a hole in the floor. There’s a big puddle of liquified zombie on the other side of the hole. It’s pouring itself into some expose pipes. That must have been how it got into the taps!
VERONICA BASIC: Biohazard warning confirmed. Initiating lockdown.
[alarm blares]
MAXINE MYERS: Wait, no!
VERONICA BASIC: All exits have now been sealed.
MAXINE MYERS: There’s goo seeping under the door. It’s curving toward us. I don’t believe this, Five. It is still chasing us!
VERONICA BASIC: Suggestion: there is a furnished safe room in Lab 46. The room can be sealed, and will be secure.
MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, whatever you are, can you contact Sam or anyone outside?
VERONICA BASIC: I’m sorry. Computer damage is too extensive to restore comms. I can activate a general distress beacon.
MAXINE MYERS: All right, do that. That safe room sounds like our best bet until we figure a way out. Lab 46 is that way, Five. We passed it earlier. Come on, run!
[alarm blares]
MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, we’re in the safe room. Seal it off. [door clank shut] Hey, it’s nice! TV, beanbags. Even an en suite with a shower! [laughs]
[goo oozes from faucet]
VERONICA BASIC: Warning. The contaminant has spread throughout the building’s plumbing and ventilation. Containment is failing due to system damage.
MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, open the door. There’s goo coming out of the shower!
VERONICA BASIC: Affirmative. Safe room compromised.
[door opens]
MAXINE MYERS: Run, Five! Into the corridor!
VERONICA BASIC: Scans indicate the contaminant is behaving like a microscopic swarm of V-types, prioritizing the DNA of targets it has acquired.
MAXINE MYERS: Don’t let it touch you, Five. For all we know, it’ll make you a regenerating zombie.
VERONICA BASIC: Suggestion: there is an automated furnace in the sewage plant. The Ministry used it to dispose of failed test subjects.
MAXINE MYERS: So that’s why Sigrid chose a sewage plant. Lovely.
VERONICA BASIC: If you can lure the contaminant into the furnace, it will be incinerated. The nearest access tunnel is in the basement, down the stairway to your left. You must hurry. The liquid is converging on you from multiple directions.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Maxine, Five, what are you doing? My sensors show you running through a tunnel to the furnace station.
MAXINE MYERS: What you told us to do. Luring the goo to the furnace to destroy it.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Oh, you’ve been talking to Veronica Basic. It’s me now, Maxine. I’ve stabilized my computer core, but a lot of systems are still offline. Reviewing your situation now… oh no.
MAXINE MYERS: Yeah, things have been better.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Five, Maxine, you cannot allow the zombie goo to reach the furnace! The results could be disastrous.
MAXINE MYERS: But you said -
VERONICA MCSHELL: My basic interface is a prototype. I thought you were safe! The microorganism that disabled the nanites is coordinating the biomass. If it’s a colony organism, that would explain why it gets cleverer the more hosts it occupies. It could be a fungus. They’re very robust. I don’t know what it can survive. If you evaporate infectious biomass and it proves resilient -
MAXINE MYERS: We could end up with an airborne zombie virus.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Due to acid damage, the building may not be hermetically sealed. That furnace cycles on and off every 12 minutes. I’m too damaged to deactivate it. All of the biomass is funneling into the tunnel behind you. You need to outpace it and shut the furnace down manually before the biomass spills inside. Hurry! Run!
[furnace burns]
MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, we’re in the furnace station. It’s a big iron chamber with a huge incinerator. It’s hot as hell in here, and there’s a lot of dead sewage workers. Five, help me with these controls. [computer beeps] We are going to survive this, Five. Paula and I promised each other we’d always come home to Sara. Okay, the furnace is shut down. I don’t see any way out.
VERONICA MCSHELL: You should find another tunnel behind the furnace leading back to the main lab building.
MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, the goo’s congealing around the dead sewer workers. It’s flowing into the corpses. They’re moving! They have yellow eyes. Oh God, it’s turning them into ghouls.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Head down the empty tunnel and regroup in the lab building. I am going to apply all my processing power to solving this. I will find you a way out, I promise. Just run as fast as you can! Run!
[ghouls hiss]
[alarm blares]
MAXINE MYERS: I think the goo slowed down a bit, Five. Probably busy infecting all the corpses back there.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Maxine, Five, I’m sorry.
MAXINE MYERS: It’s okay, Veronica. We’re going to find a way out of this.
VERONICA MCSHELL: No. You don’t understand. The nearest exit is some distance from you. The biomass is speeding up now that it’s turned the ghouls. Even if I lift the lockdown, it will overtake you.
MAXINE MYERS: We can still try.
VERONICA MCSHELL: It gets worse! That acid caused microfractures in some walls. Not big enough for a person to get through, but -
MAXINE MYERS: But big enough for the biomass.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Right now, you’re all trapped there. But if I lift the lockdown so you can escape, it will be able to follow you out into the world. It’s highly toxic. It creates regenerating zombies. If it gets out, I project the country will be dead within 700 hours. There is only one way to stop it.
MAXINE MYERS: Sterilization.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Janine gave me four Burn Cubes for research. They are unpredictable, but a viable self-destruct method. Due to their instability, the Cubes are in a reinforced chamber. I have yet to develop a remote detonation system. They must be activated manually with DNA authorization from two trusted Abel personnel.
MAXINE MYERS: Where are they?
VERONICA MCSHELL: Maxine -
MAXINE MYERS: Sara, Paula, Sam, Abel. If this thing gets near them, they’re worse than dead. We can’t let that happen. Now, where are they?
VERONICA MCSHELL: Lab 37. Two floors up. You should be able to get there before the biomass catches up to you, but you will have to hurry. Run!
MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, Five and I are in the lab. I can see the Burn Cubes behind a transparent barrier. I guess that’s our self-destruct?
VERONICA MCSHELL: Yes. There should be two DNA scanners nearby. After you press your palms to them, the barrier will open. You can trigger one Cube by pressing the switch on its rear. It will then set off the others.
MAXINE MYERS: If one of us stays behind to trigger the Cube alone -
VERONICA MCSHELL: Every potential exit path is blocked. There is no way.
MAXINE MYERS: There must be something!
VERONICA MCSHELL: I’m sorry. I’ve run all the numbers. There’s nothing. I wanted to make everything safe. After the Aqua Centre, I wanted to show I was better.
MAXINE MYERS: Veronica, we’re about to die here. We need you to hold it together.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I’m sorry. I should have more control. I’m not supposed to be human anymore.
MAXINE MYERS: Yes, you are, Ronnie! You’re always human to me. But you are also one of the most powerful beings on the planet, and I need you to make me a promise. Because I should be there for my daughter. I shouldn’t be leaving her. But this is the only way to keep her safe. Promise me you’ll look after her, Veronica. Promise me you’ll help Paula and Sam. I can’t do this if I don’t know my daughter is going to be okay.
VERONICA MCSHELL: I promise. The version of me in this building will be destroyed. I can use the damaged comms array to back up some memories, but I’ll lose a lot. The research I did here will be gone. But I won’t forget how this happened. I will remember your message.
MAXINE MYERS: I’m so furious with myself for ending up here, Five. Well, I guess that makes two of us. All right. We can’t afford to wait. [computer beeps, barrier buzzes] The barrier’s open. We grab it on three. One, two -
VERONICA MCSHELL: Maxine, Five! A convoy of vehicles just entered the area.
COLONEL SAGE: Abel runners, this is Colonel Sage. My forces picked up your distress beacon. Please advise.
MAXINE MYERS: Sage, the guy from the necropolis!
COLONEL SAGE: I’m getting a sitrep from your AI. Five, Myers, I can extract you. The AI says you can’t get to an exit. My forces can blow a hole in that building somewhere you can reach. We’ll pick you up and send a drone to trigger the Burn Cube remotely.
VERONICA MCSHELL: There’s a stairwell outside the lab. It leads down to a corner office. It’s a dead end, but if Sage can make it, it’s an exit. [ghouls moan] Hurry! The biomass is approaching by a different stairwell. Ghouls, too. They’ll be on you in seconds. Run!
[explosion, tires squeal]
COLONEL SAGE: Dr. Myers, Runner Five, over here and no dallying. The hole we just blew in that wall may have made it unstable. I have deployed my drone via an air vent. It’s already in position.
VERONICA MCSHELL: Colonel, the biomass will not stay in range for long. I must trigger the Burn Cube at once.
COLONEL SAGE: Understood. Myers, Five, into my Jeep. Driver, get us out of here. Drone, execute command. [explosion, vehicle accelerates] Keep driving! The blast radius is increasing! I know Burn Cubes are unpredictable, but that must be a three kilometer radius! Terrifying!
MAXINE MYERS: At least we got out. And that thing is dead. I really thought it was over back there, Five. I wonder how much of herself Veronica managed to salvage before the blast.
I get to see Sara again. [laughs] I’ll hold my daughter tonight. I guess now we know why Peter’s afraid. If I thought I could become that… thing, I’d be terrified to go near anyone I cared about. It must be awful, Five. To live through anything, and be scared of coming home.
Codex[]
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
Anti-depressants
Axe
Baseball Bat
Batteries
Bottled Water
Fuel Can
Overcoat
Pain Meds
Pencil
Penknife
Radio
Shorts
Trousers
Umbrella
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