Target: Alice

All right, so a long time ago, this douchebag decided that it would be a hilariously awesome idea to take d20 Modern and set up a long-winded campaign in which the PCs were members of a specops team in the Resident Evil universe, and were tasked with hunting down infamous ur-example Mary Sue Alice, from the Resident Evil movies.

What ensued was a three-day campaign easily amongst the most retarded ever seen, yet was one that at the end of, everyone was cheering raucously (in various levels of inebriation, no less) at.

This is their story.

Pre-Campaign Analysis

As a fan of the Resident Evil series - before it had completely vanished up its own ass, mind - I always had a very special hate for Alice. The "Mary Sue" label gets thrown around an awful lot around /tg/ and the internet in general, but it is rare indeed that one comes across such an example as genuinely terrifying as Alice is. In order to properly establish Target: Alice and the objectives for the players, I had to dig deep - and hard - into Alice herself, and find out why she was as bad as she was.

Was my hate of this character the bitter grumblings of an oldfag, or was this something legitimately worth getting aggravated over? The answer I came to was the latter, but understanding why was a bit more complicated. I eventually came to the conclusion that Alice herself is manifold:

• In the first movie, she's competent, but not exactly overpowered; indeed, short of one unbelievably stupid scene with a Cerberus, Alice is pretty much just a regular character. At this point, she's exhibited few of the Sue traits that she would display in the later movies. Indeed, had the movie series ended at the first one, Alice probably wouldn't be as hated as she is now.

• By the second movie, however, the need to turn Alice into the only competent protagonist is on full display: everyone other established character in the series is completely inept, and literally exists only to validate Alice's existence as the coolest character evar; the existing characters from the Resident Evil series are introduced solely so Alice can outshine them. From her initial intro where she rides a motorcycle into a church and kills a Licker with a shotgun loaded with coinshot, to her entire scene directly copying the intro from Resident Evil: Code Veronica, to her finishing literally everything useful another character tries to do, Alice has gone into full-blown Sue mode. The god-mode Sue traits are fully unearthed at the end, where she not only exhibits psychic powers able to explode heads through security cameras, but is basically able to walk out of the research facility she is held at through rule of cool.

• From the third movie onwards, the formula repeats: Alice is the only competent protagonist and all other protagonists exist to validate her existence as the most powerful thing in the world. The psychic powers continue to come and go as plot circumstances demand, there's apparently dozens of Alice Clones, and the entire plot winds up plunging up its own ass like a FATAL player trying to hide in another player's anus.

Right away, several things became apparent:

• One, I could run multiple Alices at once with varying power levels because clones. The Alice Clones would have any number of different class-combos, and would range from Alpha-Level Alice Clone (level 15), to Omega-Level Alice Clone (Level 25). "Alice Prime" would be level 30.
• Two, the best time-period to run the campaign would be after the second movie and before the third movie decided to screw its own continuity in the urethra. This would allow me to have power groups that the PCs could work with and would have a vested interest in seeing Alice destroyed.
• Three, I would need to allow my players to completely circumvent the usual Alice tropes in these movies by out-clevering her, something that I knew my party was going to be all-too-keen on. With that in mind, I drew out a campaign outline, sketched up NPCs, and got to work.

Alice Templates

To properly represent the Alices, some theorycrafting was needed. Originally I was intending to simply stat them out using a much higher points-value than the players, but this seemed like a waste. Instead, fitting for a munchkin-set like the Alices, I created a set of templates, each providing different stat boosts/penalties. Rather than try to shoehorn a level adjustment and pre-set template onto them for each type, I made it so the template simply scaled on clone level and gave each of the clones a set of default statistics (all 14s/15s/16s/17s/18s depending on clone level - Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Omega/Prime). They also gained a Natural Armor Bonus of +1/+2/+3/+4/+5 based on clone level (again, Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Omega/Prime). They are also immune to poison and disease, though special toxins and diseases can be specially-formulated to harm them.

Alice Clones of Alpha or Beta level may have one of the following traits. A Gamma may have up to two, Omega three, and Prime has them all.

• Fast Healing (Ex): The Alice Clone benefits from an unusual mutation that closes her wounds rapidly. She gains Fast Healing 1/2/3/4/5 based on Clone Level (Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Omega/Prime), healing that much every round. As a drawback, her massive damage threshold is reduced by 4. The Alice clone also heals ability damage at a rate of 1 point per minute.

• Adrenal Surge (Ex): Once a day as a free action, the Alice Clone can increase its strength and dexterity scores, but at the cost of reducing its saving throws accordingly. Whilst this ability is in effect, the Alice Clone gains a +4 bonus to Strength and Dexterity, but takes a -2 penalty on all saving throws. The surge lasts a number of rounds equal to the Alice Clone's level. Following an ability surge, the Alice Clone is fatigued (-2 Strength and Dexterity) for as many rounds as the Surge was in effect, but it can negate this penalty by spending an action point.

• Psionic Focus (Ex): The Alice Clone is much more attuned to her psychic abilities than normal, and as such can make better use of them. The Alice Clone counts as naturally psionic, giving her +2 power points and enabling her to take psionic classes without the Wild Talent feat. When manifesting a power, the Alice Clone can spend an action point to increase the damage of a damaging power by an amount equal to her manifesting ability modifier (usually Charisma).

• Energy Resistance (Ex): The Alice Clone gains resistance 20 to one energy type (Fire/Cold/Electricity/Acid/Sonic). This ability can be taken multiple times, each time taking a different kind of energy. Alice Prime gets resistance to them all.

• Damage Reduction (Ex): The Alice Clone gains damage reduction 1/-,2/-,3/-,4/-,5/- based on clone level (again, Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Omega/Prime).

Additionally, all Alices count as Aberrations, have the standard Aberration traits (including darkvision).

The general gist is that the Alices in general were intended as boss-fights; Alice Prime was going to be ridiculously overpowered (exactly as my group had demanded); it was simply a question of whether or not the group would be able to handle it in the long run. Ultimately they were able to, but we'll get to that.

Character Creation

As most of my players were not only d20 modern veterans, but characterization wunderkinds, they quickly drew up an international team to begin the hunt. They were free to use any of my available d20 modern books; to my surprise, most of them stuck with the original, though a few decided to go with some feats from d20 Future and the Telepath grabbed some powers from Urban Arcana using a Houseruled Expanded Knowledge feat. My only restriction, same as it ever was, was that the Plus Feats from d20 Future were banned on the grounds that they allowed access to tons of abilities you wouldn't ordinarily have insanely early and functionally bypassed most conventional character-building issues (since any basic class can effectively take any trait from any other basic class this way).

The party was level 10:

• One was a former KGB interrogator with psychic powers.

He was a Charismatic Hero 5/Telepath 5. Pretty much the "face" of the party, as well as the most matter-of-fact of the group. Was completely nonplussed by the infected, acting towards them with no more emotion than if he had missed a bus. As such, he came across as genuinely hilarious. As the Telepath advanced, he grabbed a houseruled version of Expanded Knowledge to teach himself a Psionic Agent power (specifically, Dimension Door).

• One was a former Marine Captain who had a fondness for airboat racing.

He was a Tough Hero 5/Soldier 5. The team leader and a man with no restraint whatsoever. Would carry out his mission no matter what; a larger-than-life nutter who was at his best when the situation was at its worst. His class and weapon of choice actually resulted in more confirmed kills than any other character. He was also dead for a bit, but he got better.

• One was a tech expert and a former contract killer.

He was a Smart Hero 5/Tracer 5. This guy was the unsung champion of the entire campaign. Played by a friend of mine who was a well-skilled veteran, he decided to bite the bullet and do something clever with his class of choice, especially when he noticed, rather unusually, that the Tracer class got a counterpart to Sneak Attack - and unlike the D&D ability it was based off, gave zero fucks about whether or not it was used from afar. Suffice to say he grabbed a Sniper Rifle immediately, and became the group's primary recon expert, as well as their tech guy.

• One was a mercenary field medic who had developed a taste for "monster hunting" in the wake of a viral outbreak.

He was a Dedicated Hero 5/Field Medic 5. Sarcastic, snarky, and kind of a dick, the Medic was a put-upon everyman whose relatively mediocre combat capability belied the fact that he was the one who even made the group's battles with the Alice Clones possible. Whether it was sewing the Soldier back together, patching up PC and NPC alike, or simply being the one who came up with a solution that remedied everything, the Medic we had was a real godsend and was characterized beautifully by his player. "Quit bitching, you still have most of your blood" became an instant meme with his squadmates.

The idea eventually became that they'd all be members of the BSAA, and would be assigned to eliminate Alice - claiming that she was a sentient biological weapon and potentially capable of triggering a mass viral outbreak (this is not much of a stretch). They kitted themselves out in a colorful array of weapons and armor, were issued some choice equipment, and cowboy'd up to head to her last known position and start hunting the bitch down.

Much later, the group encountered a trio of new teammates: UBCS Mercs. These were originally going to be fellow players, but they couldn't run initially, so they were DM-controlled until the following session and final mission. The trio included a Smart Hero/Shadow Hunter, whose build was designed specifically to track high-profile targets (Alice Prime, for example), Strong Hero/Dreadnought (who was built arpound using a Sledgehammer to knock enemies on their ass when she wasn't using an LMG), and a Fast Hero/Bughunter (Hunter's Grudge Target: Infected, making him the bane of mooks and able to more-easily resist the abilities of the Alices).

3 weeks later, we had out first session.

Mission Log

Target: Alice was a relatively short campaign, the result of all involved being available for only a few days. As such, the campaign took place across 4 specific missions: One at an Umbrella Test Center, One in a Jungle and Mine, One at a Village near the previous mission, and the final one at the Refinery itself.

Mission One: Operation Silver Hammer

• Target: Alice Prime Escaped, 3 Alice Clones Terminated.
• Casualties: 2 Alpha-Level Alice Clones, 1 Beta-Level Alice Clone, 4 USS Operatives, 6 Zombies, 4 Cerberus, 1 Licker.
• Team Status: Minor Injuries.

The first mission began, as they so often do, with the group heading to the target's last-known position - one which had recently seen a low-level outbreak - a former Umbrella test center. This, it would later turn out, was not the result of Alice, and more the result of Umbrella's typical security procedures. The group were airdropped in, and after surveying the situation, determined that the worst of the situation had already passed: most of the organisms were destroyed and there was little clue what had happened.

Penetrating the facility through use of some creative hotwiring from the Tracer, and dealing with the few remaining infected targets (some Zombies, and later, a Licker that tried to ambush the group), the group found what had really been going on down below: A pit full of deceased Alice Clones. The group ran into an Umbrella Secret Service (USS) team which was there for much the same reason the players were, but some words were said by the Medic, and the Soldier elected to escalate breaking and entering to pre-meditated quadruple-homicide.

Having got the drop on the enemy in the worst possible way, the Tracer and the Soldier wound up cutting one of the enemy USS members to ribbons on the opening round, with the Telepath rendering of the enemy squad squad easy pickings the following round. The final one hightailed it, and the group pursued.

Eventually, the group chased the USS Soldier to the facility floor, and were engaged (as was the soldier) by two Alpha-Level Alice Clones (Dedicated Hero 5/Psionic Agent 10) the pair opened fire, and the USS soldier was critically injured. Our intrepid heroes opened fire, the Telepath using Brain Lock to hold one still so the others could cut the pair down piecemeal despite their superior position. The second one fled, and the group, save the Medic, who stabilized the USS operative before tying him up, chased after the fleeing Alice Clone, badly-wounding it before they encountered another - the Beta-Level clone [Tough Hero 7/Battle Mind 10]. The group responded to her presence with heavy weapons fire, the Tracer lining up shots as the Soldier started pitching incendiary grenades. The Telepath tried using Attraction to stop the Alpha Clone's retreat, but unsuccessfully; on the following round, he started unloading his combat shotgun as the Soldier continued firing off his grenade launcher. With the Beta Clone weakened and the Alpha Clone crippled, the Medic re-joined the battle from another angle about 7 rounds in, lighting up the Alpha with his SMG to finish her off, before a lucky critical strike from the Soldier popped the Beta the following round.

Exhausted and low on ammunition, the group took their prisoner - and the corpses of the Alices they had killed - and called for extraction. After fighting off several Cerberus that had been lurking around the facility's edge, they returned to base and gave their report: Clearly, not only were statements regarding Alice true, but there was more than one! It was then, with aid of their buddies in the intel division, that the group found out about Alice Prime, and their mission became much more dangerous.

Determined to track down these dangerous biological weapons before they could wind up in the hands of one of the big corporations, the group followed after Alice using the best intel the BSAA could dig up, and soon was headed from Mexico into South America, re-armed, re-equipped, and 3 levels higher for good measure. By this point, the group was confident they'd be able to handle the next op.

Mission Two: Operation Black Flag

• Target: All Alice Clones on-site terminated. Alice Prime remains at large.
• Casualties: 2 Alpha-Level Alice Clones, 2 Beta-Level Alice Clones, 1 Gamma-Level Alice Clone, 6 MA-121 Hunters, 5 USS Soldiers, 15 Rebels.
• Team Status: Moderate Injuries.

Mission 2 began with an assignment in the jungle, where it was rumored Alice had been planning to seek asylum, along with a contingent of her clones, amidst a local Warlord. Our intrepid heroes were inserted under the radar, but things went wrong almost immediately; their helicopter was spotted by local air-defense network, and the helicopter was damaged by an AA Gun before it could make an emergency landing, grounding the team until the crew could repair it. With no other options, the team immediately set out to silence the gun and secure the crash site, which had rebel troops descending on it within only a few minutes. Fortunately, assistance arrived in the form of USS troops attempting to, likewise, kill the Alice units. They began by dropping MA-121 Hunters into the encampment - quickly scattering the rebel forces, and forcing the group to go from killing enemy personnel to BOWs.

The group quickly dealt with them, though the Telepath was heavily injured during the initial encounter. The medic began patching him up and soon had him back in the fight, if only to a degree. The Telepath's Lesser Body Adjustment power handled the rest. The group pursued the USS helicopter, and in a ballsy maneuver, hijacked their helicopter by waiting for it to land, then killing the vehicle crew and taking it for themselves. Using the stolen helicopter, the group proceeded to buzz the area and follow one of the MA-121s towards an old mine, where Alice Prime was thought to have fled. After popping the Hunter from the copter, the group landed, sabotaged the Helicopter, and entered the mine.

The Alice Clones had turned the mine into a killing field, forcing the group to rely on tactics and intelligent movement to bring down the Alpha and Beta Clones holding the interior. The fight quickly got brutal; two Alphas and two Betas had a position with a commanding field of fire, as well as a Machine Gun Nest, and the others were only too-glad to drop psy powers on the group. The Telepath was having none of that; He succeeded at nailing an Alpha with Lesser Domination despite her meaty will save, and turned her on her teammates. The Soldier moved up and made full use of an RPG-7 he had approriated earlier, damaging the entire enemy squad, whilst the Tracer scored another devastating Swift Strike with his sniper rifle. The Medic was the real star here, patching the group up between rounds, and utilizing tear gas grenades to screw with the clones when not actively healing them. The fight was over remarkably quickly, but the multiple Whitefires and Lightning Strikes had taken their toll on the party; the Medic then spent the next seven hours patching everyone up with field surgery. Now, fatigued but unhurt, the group proceeded onward.

Deeper in, they encountered a Gamma Clone (Tough Hero 10/Dreadnought 10) which had explained that Alice Prime had taken the remaining clones and fled deeper north. This was going to be a hard fight: She was heavily armored and armed, and the group couldn't run or charge! Fortunately, intelligent choices won out where raw force would likely fail: The group broke into the fuel reserve for the mine, and, using a mixture of their own equipment and the fuel containers, had the Soldier rig several major support beams to explode, causing a structural collapse that buried the Gamma alive. She actually survived several rounds after the impact; the group showed no mercy and finished her off soonafter. After looting the Clones and getting some grasp of where they were headed, the group called for extraction, and received, for their troubles, an air-dropped APC to help chase the clones on the ground-level due to the threat of SAMs - a previous flyover had cost the BSAA a copter already. Resting on the way over as they drove their new vehicle to the next objective, and with a 2 more levels under their belts, the group headed for a nearby village to restock their supplies and prepare for the fight to come.

Mission Three: Operation Red Arrow

• Target: All Alice Clones on-site terminated. Alice Prime remains at large. Village destroyed in Airstrike to prevent outbreak spread.
• Casualties: 2 Beta-Level Alice Clones, 2 Gamma-Level Alice Clones, 1 Omega-Level Alice Clone, 37 Zombies, 8 Cerberus, 6 MA-121 Hunters, 2 Bandersnatches.
• Parameter Change: UBCS Personnel encountered on-site; targets were not hostile and were allowed to join the squad temporarily.
• Team Status: Soldier remains critically injured after being dead for about a minute; Field Medic did, however, upgrade his status to "alive."

Mission 3 started in the worst way: the trail quickly went cold and the village nearby that the group stopped to refuel and resupply at had gone dark. Closer examination quickly revealed that the village had been overrun by a virus attack, though the group had no idea what the cause of it yet was. Electing to investigate, the group made their way through the streets, encountering multiple infected, and dealing with them in the way to which they were accustomed. The group quickly learned that the remaining Alice Clones had detonated a viral weapon to slow the group's progress, and released its remaining contingent of B.O.W.s; the group now had to finish refueling their APC and restocking their munitions; it was clear that if they were going to make it, they'd need to salvage what they could in terms of weaponry and medical supplies from the locals. Advancing through the town on their supply sweep as the Soldier refueled and rearmed the APC, the group eventually came upon a small squad of Umbrella's Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS) soldiers (three in all) fighting off both MA-121s and a Beta Alice Clone (7/10 Strong Hero/Gunslinger). The group immediately jumped to their aid, and the squad's Tracer managed to take the Alice Clone down with another satifying headshot.

Interrogating the UBCS afterwards, the group found a series of unlikely allies: The mercenaries were trying to hunt the Alice Clones as well. The BSAA team and UBCS thus put aside their differences for a time, and the group gained three temporary new members. They rejoined with the Soldier soonafter, and, after restocking ammo and gear at a nearby supply depot, the group prepared to cowboy up and head towards a fuel refinery, which is where the SAM strikes came from and where Alice Prime was believed to be. The UBCS grunts further explained that Alice Prime was planning to make an escape from the region entirely, just as soon as they could waylay a transport from the refinery's airstrip.

This could not stand. The group got moving with their UBCS allies, swearing to end this.

They came under fire soonafter, however, by more Alice Clones - 2 Gammas (10/10 Tough Hero/Soldier) and another Beta (7/10 Dedicated Hero/Psionic Agent) - and a pair of Bandersnatches. Opening fire, the group took down the B.O.W.s in short order, but several of the group were wounded when one of the Gammas fired off an RPG. This, plus focused fire, meant that the Soldier was left hurting pretty badly, but, unwilling to go down without a fight, drew his Machete and, in a move both foolhardy and ballsy, survived multiple shots as he charged into close-combat with one of the Gammas. His doing so prevented the heavy weapon Gamma from following up with another RPG, and the combined efforts of the two teams quickly cut down the beta thereafter. Unfortunately, this caused the other Gamma to lock onto him as well.

The Soldier took a critical shotgun blast, failed his massive damage save, and crumpled to the floor. Enraged by their fallen Comrade, the BSAA team lept into the fray, following their comrade's example, and, in the face of all logic, abandoned ranged combat for additional choppy. The Telepath drew his knife, Medic his stun rod. The UBCS team could only look on in stunned silence as a team of normally crack professionals utterly lost their shit and laid into the remaining two clones with more viciousness than any of the B.O.W.s could muster. The wounded Gamma went down in less than 2 rounds of sustained assault as the Tracer took advantage of flanking to shove his Katana through her, gaining his meaty damage bonus from flanking. The other Gamma went down soonafter, even though she seriously messed the group up with a cunning strategy of move-shoot-move-shoot.

At some point or another, the Medic snapped out of the fervor and broke off and decided to see if he could sew what was left of the Soldier back together. Even with his meaty +25 bonus to Treat Injury from his ranks in the skill, Master-crafted kit, Medical Expert feat, and class ability, making the DC40 check for Medical Miracle was a tough call; the Soldier could only be saved on a 15 or better. Rolling it, the Medic got a 12 - a roll that would have failed - but then, it was Action Point time. Rolling 3d6, and dropping the lowest dice, the Medic got a 1, a 2, and 4. Success! The Soldier was revived to 3 HP, as the UBCS troops provided covering fire to the medic against some more angry locals that came down looking for a meal. The final Gamma was brutalized a few rounds later when the Telepath, fed up with the Gamma's running, grabbed the Gamma with Telekinesis and threw her off her vantage point, causing her to fall about 120 feet (and to her death).

The group once more resupplied, and, after contacting HQ for an update, the group moved with their new UBCS allies and decided to take advantage of the terrain; they pulled the APC into a cave to act as an impromptu door, and spent the night inside as the Medic patched them up. The following morning, they headed out once again, setting smoke flares with timers up so that the village could be properly marked for airstrikes once the SAM sites at the refinery were down.

Advancing towards the refinery thereafter, the group's APC was ambushed in a rocket attack by an Omega-Level clone (10/10/5 Strong Hero/Telepath/Battle Mind) - the group was clearly closing in. The APC was disabled, and the group disembarked whilst the medic stayed in the commander's cupola to use the APC's turreted 30mm cannon to provide fire support. Sadly, the Omega was in a place the BMP's gun couldn't reach, forcing the rest of the squad to footslog it whilst the medic kept watch on the group's ride. Though she assailed the group with psychic powers, and managed to gain control of the party's Telepath for a few minutes with Domination, the Tracer elected to mimic something he'd seen the Telepath do, and bull rushed the Omega Clone, and, in a bit of rampant awesome, rolled a 19 on the check when she rolled a 4, and shoved her directly off the fucking ridge.

Soonafter, the Telepath snapped out of his fugue, the group patched up the APC as best they could, and drove on towards the refinery. Level-ups were applied, with the group now at level 20 each.

One way or another, it would end there.

Mission Four: Operation Blue Dawn

• Target: All Alice Clones on-site terminated. Alice Prime terminated. Refinery and runway total loss.
• Casualties: 2 Gamma-Level Alice Clones, 2 Omega-Level Alice Clones, Alice Prime, Many, MANY Zombies, 2 T-002 Tyrants, One B.O.W. of indeterminate type, 6 USS Soldiers.
• Team Status: Heavy injuries amongst the team. One UBCS operative lost during combat with Alice Prime. The BSAA Tracer was also slain.

The final mission was undeniably the hardest one as well. With little time left before a petroleum company tanker-transport landed and unwittingly extracted Alice Prime, the group arrived at the refinery with one goal: prevent that from happening. The UBCS and BSAA teams shared some team members and broke off to conduct two seperate operations: One team would locate (and eliminate) Alice Prime, and the other would ensure that the incoming transport plane could not land. As such, the Medic and Tracer went with the UBCS's Shadow Hunter and Bughunter, whilst the UBCS Dreadnought went with the Soldier and Telepath. The former team began to hunt down Alice; the latter went to take over the refinery's SAM sites and use them to give the tanker aircraft an unpleasant surprise. The group's contingency plan was to blow the storage tanks for the refinery and let flames claim the entire site.

Almost immediately, the situation for the Alice-Hunting team worsened. USS Soldiers after Alice were also on-site, and, unlike the UBCS soldiers, were hardly friendly towards the group. The group took some fire but managed to thwart the USS personnel via Shadow Hunter, who marked the various targets and spotted them for the rest of the team, leading to a series of easy and violent sneak attacks from the Tracer. The resulting disruption was enough to buy the group a reprieve, and judicious use of automatic fire by the Bughunter soonafter quickly cut through the surviving USS Soldiers. The USS got a distress call off, however, and reinforcements were expected. Using Play a Hunch, the team deduced, via the Shadow Hunter, that odds were good Alice Prime was hiding in one of the Hangars.

Meanwhile, the anti-air bunker brought the B team face-to-face with a Gamma Alice Clone (10/10 Dedicated Hero/Psionic Agent) and another Omega (10/10/5 Charismatic Hero/Telepath/Psionic Agent). This was a tough fight in a close environment, and was made worse by a few of the Zombies from the previous village having made it out here, though they fought both sides. The Omega Clone almost immediately turned this battle into a nightmare when she managed to Dominate the team's Soldier. The Telepath broke the contact however using Psionic Blast, stunning the Omega and allowing the Dreadnought to melee the Omega with a sledgehammer - and subsquently knock her on her ass due to her class feature. What occured then was a surreal bit of awesome as the Dreadnought used ready actions to smack the Alice Clone back into a prone state every time she tried to get up (which was easy due to his high strength and her lack of sufficient Dex bonus). Meanwhile the now-freed Soldier and Telepath cut the Gamma to ribbons in short order, before the Omega was finished off as well. The group took control of the Air-Defense battery, and quickly learned that a transport helicopter was already in the air over the base. The battery fired on it, destroying it, but not before it dropped a pair of canisters off...

The Alice-hunting fireteam had one of the canisters land close-by, and were horrified to learn the occupant: A T-002 Tyrant, which was dispatched to kill Alice Prime as well as anything else on-site. Immediately, it attacked the squad, forcing the team to fight on the run to avoid getting locked into close-combat with a creature for whom fighting close-combat with would be a death sentence. The Bughunter exploited his Improved Autofire feature heavily here; the low reflex DC of the T-002 meant it was hit pretty resoundingly each time with no real need for attack rolls - handy since the group was hauling ass. Finally, the team's field medic tried using an Anti T-Viral medication on the T-002 via a dart gun, which weakened it a bit and allowed the group to outmanuver it, cutting it down in short order. The team's Tracer was quick to light the remains on fire afterwards, just to make good and goddamned sure that it didn't get up again, because fuck that noise.

Moving forward, the team in the AA battery barricaded themselves inside and prepared to fire the second they saw the plane. The group quickly got some makeshift barricades put up, and ensured that the bunker was as Zombie-free as it could get before they began to play the waiting game. All, however, were worried: the missile barrage they fired had to be noticed, and the group was (justifiably) worried that had the Alices seen the barrage, they wouldn't be able to keep Alice Prime out. This, paired with other infected in the bunker, meant that they had to hope for the best - there would be a breach eventually, and their best bet would be to down the aircraft and get the fuck out. This cautious attitude was proven entirely justified when, moments later, a T-002 breached into the bunker, leading to the Telepath stripping off his armor for a better movement rate, leading the beast on a merry chase to buy the rest of the group time.

Moving into position, the Alice-Hunting fireteam happened upon Alice Prime (10/10/10 Fast Hero/Psionic Agent/Telepath) and her 2 bodyguards - a Gamma (10/10 Tough Hero/Bodyguard) and an Omega (10/10/5 Strong Hero/Thrasher/Soldier). Immediately the Shadow Hunter marked Alice Prime as the target, and the group began to cautiously get into position. The squad was not at full-strength and was not in a good position to take this enemy fireteam down. Getting in touch with the other squad, the group elaborated that they needed to even up the odds, but that they couldn't risk the plane landing and giving Alice Prime an escape vector. The Telepath then decided to try something both ballsy and clever:

It used Domination on the T-002. A Natural 1 later, and the Telepath had, for the moment, a useful meat-shield. Immediately punching its way out of the bunker, The Telepath led his mentally-controlled hostage towards the Alices, and hurled it directly into the fray against them. Suffice to say, it immediately drew ten shitloads of firepower from the hostile squad, and only survived about 3 rounds. Those three, however, were enough for the Tracer and Bughunter to get into position and start lighting up the Alice team. Unfortunately, the Gamma kept Alice Prime safe through multiple sniper rifle shots and burstfire attacks from the Bughunter. Inevitably, Alice Prime fucked off, using her psychic abilities to flee the area, as the group was left to deal with the two remaining Alice clones; the Omega proved damned-near invulnerable to the group's weapons, outright ignoring small arms fire due to her immense HP and damage reduction. Between her incredible resilience and the Gamma's absolutely enfuriating survivability, the group wound up getting ground down in a war of attrition, unable to meaningfully hurt the two Alice Clones as the Telepath tried (and failed) to use his powers to take them down. Eventually, the Field Medic got an idea and used his grenade launcher to take potshots at the Hangar roof, causing several chunks of debris to fall and crash down on the Alice Clones; unfortunately this wasn't enough to cause them much lasting harm, and the group was forced to fall back when Alice Prime began firing ghost bullets through the fucking ceiling. Meanwhile, Team B was fighting off an origin-unknown BOW that kept sending swarms of smaller B.O.W.s to try to eat them alive. The Dreadnought and Soldier were now in for the fight of their lives.

The Telepath wound up stunned by Alice Prime soonafter, via Brain Lock, and only snapped out of it when the medic grabbed him and ran. The Alices had the high ground and the initiative; the group were badly-injured, and low on resources. And then, the dice gods smiled. The Tracer had backed off long enough and hid, the Alices having focused on his teammates. He then popped out, and in a shot that would go down in history, critically hit the Gamma with a dead-on shot and a Sneak Attack besides, dealing around 30 or so damage, and causing the Gamma to drop to the floor when she proved surprisingly unable to make the saving throw vs massive damage. The remaining 2 Alices broke off, as Zombies drawn by the gunfire made a bad situation worse. The group broke off, and, lacking the time necessary for full field surgery, used the bulk of their First-Aid Kits and Action Points (via the Tough Heroes' Second Wind ability) to patch themselves up as best they could. The Alices were up on the roof of Hangar C, and the group could see, in the distance, the approaching tanker aircraft. And unfortunately for the Alice-hunting team, even with the loss of the Gamma, the Alices were done fucking around, and were actively looking to fucking kill them.

It was Team B's time to shine, having killed the B.O.W. only a few minutes previous. Using the air-defense bunker's SAMs, they opened fire on the aircraft, tearing gaping holes in its fuselage and causing it to plummet flaming towards the runway like the Hindenburg. The tanker aircraft exploded soonafter its failed touchdown, killing numerous zombies, and brewing over half the refinery in flames. Their work done, the Dreadnought and Soldier re-joined the rest of the team, but by this point, tragedy had struck; between her ghost-bullets and supreme mobility, Alice Prime landed a barrage of rounds that criticalled - and killed - the squad's Shadow Hunter. Without the ability to track Alice Prime's movements anymore, the situation went from a deadlock to badly against the group. The Omega immediately attacked the Dreadnought and Soldier in close-combat with dual-wielded Katanas, and the two biggest advantages of the pair in CQC - the Dreadnought's knockdowns and the Soldier's raw damage - quickly proved useless against the Omega's fucking damage reduction. She quickly wound up cutting the Soldier down, but the Dreadnought got in the way and held her off the only way she could: by holding the fucking line. The Medic dragged the Soldier to safely, whilst the Bughunter and Tracer ran for what they felt was their only hope against the Omega and its immeasurable defense and damage output. The telepath joined the fray, tazing the Omega and stunning it just long enough for the Dreadnought and himself to get clear - but it didn't last, and the Omega was quickly back on their heels, with Alice Prime firing on them as well. As the Omega closed to cut down the fleeing Telepath and Dreadnought down in a sweeping advance, the Tracer and Bughunter returned with the BMP-2 they drove here in, and sneak attacked her with the BMP-2's 30mm Autocannon. She made the massive damage save, but the group finally had put enough of a dent in her to make the difference; the Dreadnought turned and overran the Omega, knocking her down, before the Telepath returned the favor for the earlier Brain Lock by doing the same to the Omega in turn, now that she was downed. The Bughunter took advantage of this and promptly had the APC run her over.

That time she didn't make the massive damage save.

Only Alice Prime was next, but things got bad in a hurry. Another shot from Alice Prime's Ghost Shot-boosted weapon fired squarely through the hull of the group's APC, and in another tragic critical hit, killed the Tracer through the turret cupola. Immediately, the group flew into righteous anger and fell upon Alice Prime with all the firepower they could muster. But with her Ghost Shot ability, Alice had no trouble cutting through the group's defenses. The soldier screamed in hate and fired off his RPG, which hit where she was dead-on, but Evasion meant that Alice was all-but-untouchable for any effect allowing a reflex save. Thinking quickly, the Bughunter climbed into the turret, kicking the corpse of the Tracer out, and readied the main gun once again. Repeatedly, the Alice clone used Dimension Door to zip about the battlefield from point to point, and she quickly rendered the Soldier to negative HP for the second time today, before the Medic once more got him back on his feet.

The Telepath then got an idea, and, in a move that would be remembered by the group forevermore, remembered his lessons from the previous session: He Dimension Doored right next to her, avoided the barrage of close-combat attacks despite his lack of armor in what could only be described as "hilarious luck," and Bull Rushed Alice off the roof. The damage wasn't very much, but damage was not the point - instead, it was knocking her down to the group's level. The Dreadnought charged in, and with a resounding blow from her sledgehammer, knocked Alice Prime to the ground, where the Bughunter and Medic opened fire with extreme prejudice, the Telepath providing fire support from the roof, before the Soldier, still dizzy from blood loss, staggered to his feet, charged towards Alice Prime drunkenly, and with his combat knife in hand, proudly announced a ready action for if she tried to get up, before the Dreadnought approached and did the same.

The result was exactly what was anticipated from the moment they knocked her down.

Alice Prime met her end at the hands of the group soonafter, whilst the refinery burned around them. It was over.

The body was thrown in the fire and left to burn away.

The threat of the rogue psychic B.O.W. that was Alice Prime, and her army of clones, was ended. Her information was quietly removed from government records, and every step was taken to ensure that by all accounts, she never existed. This tragic cycle could never be allowed to repeat.

The Tracer was posthumously promoted twice for his services during the campaign.

The UBCS were granted full pardons and allowed to join the BSAA.

The squad returned to the states.