Vestigial Memories, Session 13: UCLA

Scene setup

Countdown event check: [D10]: [8] => Event happens
Countdown event table roll: [D12]: [9] => Loss: Evidence stolen or destroyed, key person killed or missing, safehouse compromised

Scene check
[D8]: [6] => Routine. Probably does not require a skill roll => The witness is cooperative; there are obvious clues at the crime scene; the data you seek is easily retrieved

Scene category
[D12] Must be [3] =>  Consult. Seek expert insight or outside perspective => CONNEC TIONS to leverage an informant or LAPD asset, MANIPULATION to gain cooperation, TECH or MEDICAL AID to verify or interpret findings

NPC details roll
Sphere: must be Science
Trait: [D6 + D12]: [2 + 6]: Arrogant
NPC skill level roll: [D8]: [1]: => unskilled [D6 + D6]

I’m pushing the Spinner’s turbines toward the UCLA campus when the KIA screams. It’s Dante. His voice is a low, panicked rasp.

Dante: "Nate, the safehouse is burned. That tattooed freak—the one from the lair—he’s outside. He’s waiting for someone. I’m out the back window, but the drive is going with me. I pulled the base sequences you wanted, but the final hash-masking is going to be delayed. I need to find a new hole."
Locke: "Shit. Run, Dante. Move fast and stay off the grids. And destroy those copies!" Dante: "Will do."

The line goes dead. Vestige is persistent, and if they have ghosts like Kamarr feeding them LAPD movements, Dante isn't safe anywhere. But I can't help him if I don't have the "poison" ready.

The University

I reach the ivory towers of UCLA. It’s a different world here—cleaner, quieter, and full of people who think they’re above the grime of the city. I head for the lab of Professor Helena Sterling.

I earned her trust five years back during a sabotage case. A replicant radical had tried to torch a vital research she was working on; I put him down before he could strike a match. Since then, she’s been my private consultant for the "weird" biosynthetic stuff.

I knock.

Sterling: "Go away. I’m busy."
Locke: "Professor, it's Nathaniel Locke. I need a few minutes. It's life or death."
Sterling: [A heavy sigh, then the buzz of the lock] "Come in."

The office is a tomb of digital scrolls and DNA models. She doesn't look up from her screen.

Sterling: "What is it this time, Locke? Do I need to explain how to spell 'Deoxyribonucleic' for your report again?"
Locke: [Ignoring the jab] "Indulge me, Professor. Suppose you had a sequence for a biosynthetic organism. What kind of subtle, untraceable alteration could cause the production process to fail halfway through the vats?"

She stops. Her eyes narrow as she finally looks at me.

Sterling: "That is a very dangerous question, Locke. What are you playing at?"

Opposed roll: Manipulation vs Insight
Locke's [D12 + D10] vs Sterling's [D6 + D6]
Result: [6 + 4] vs [2 + 4] => 1 success vs 0 => Locke wins

Locke: "The less you know, the safer your tenure is. Just think of it as a hypothetical security flaw."

She scoffs, but the challenge piques her ego. She pulls up a blank sequence and starts typing with a predatory grace.

NPC skill check
I'm assuming she is one of the top on her field so [intelligence + Tech] = [D12 + D12]
Result: [7 + 12] => 3 successes => critical success => Prof Sterling provides an untraceable alteration to the DNA sequence.

Sterling: "A child could answer this, Locke. You don't rewrite the DNA—you just confuse the translation. You insert a Premature Stop Codon into a structural gene—specifically one tied to neural stability. To a basic scan, the sequence looks perfect. Pristine. But halfway through the growth cycle, the cell just... stops reading. The organism becomes a non-viable slurry before it ever grows a heartbeat."

She spends the next thirty minutes explaining it to me like I’m a particularly dim-witted student, her fingers dancing across the holograms to show me the exact "Cut and Paste" points. By the time I leave, I have the "Poison Sequence" encrypted on my KIA.

Locke: "Your help was invaluable, Professor."
Sterling: "Just get out, Locke. And don't come back until you've bought a better suit."

I step back out into the rain and immediately burst-transmit the data to Dante’s secondary encrypted drop-box.

Transmission: > "Dante, here’s the altered sequence. Inject this into the Kane template's neural scaffolding. It’ll look like a natural mutation. Get it done."