We were hanging out in the Base, bored, when Tom got a call from his fixer, Jimmy, about a job. These days, we're a pretty typical Shadowrunner team (though our resume gets us more paranormal animal cases than average), so we met Mr. Johnson in a bar, dressed to the nines and paranoid as anything. Tom, Ritson and I went into a back room to meet with the Johnson, leaving Saganami in the bar, where he'd be able to keep his sword, just in case. Once we had filed in and been searched for weapons, a nervous looking redheaded young man introduced himself as "Hector Johnson". "I'm going to ask you to do something outside what you normally do --- though from what I hear it's well within your skills --- which is to say, I want you to do some "honest work". We laughed a little, just enough to be polite, and he continued. "Over the last twelve months, large sums from my corporation's research budget is being funneled to a research facility in Antarctica. Research has not been making it into corporate products, so my employers are getting quite curious what they're paying for. They sent a team of their own in a month ago, but haven't heard from them since--they expected it to take about this long to get there, but even with if it took 7-10 days to get in, and a week at the facility, they ought to have been heard from by now. We want you to go in, find the team and return with them. Find out what else is going on in this "research facility", and return with information, hard evidence, and if possible a full inventory of the building. Find out who is doing research there and bring them back if plausible. They are, after all, technically employees of my corporation --- though I don't expect they'll be excited to return to HQ" I smiled at him, and shifted my weight against the desk where I was leaning. "That sounds pretty standard, except for the 'Antarctica" part --- we don't usually work outside Boston. What sort of compensation are you offering for this?" "We... we are willing to offer you what we consider a quite reasonable sum. We'll give you an appropriate bonus for anything else you bring, and even if, for some reason, you are unable to get any of this, we'll pay your expenses" he said, voice still shaking with nerves. "We'll provide transportation, a snow crawler and thermal suits to get you there, and all the information we have." I shot Tom a quick look to confirm that this sounded okay, and said "All right, we're in. You've got yourself some "contractors". But, if I may ask, why us?" He shifted nervously again in his chair. "We... we suspect that the research may be parabiological in nature, given where they chose to locate their facility. No one would put a facility in the null-mana zone of the Antarctic unless they had something magical to hide. You *are* experienced with para-biologicals, yes?" "Quite," I answered. "Don't worry, we'll take care of it for you." We agreed, and were given a data-cube with info on the team members, satellite photos of the place, and tickets to Chile and then to the base in Antarctica that the first team started from. Back at the base, we plugged in the data cube and took a look at what we'd gotten ourselves into. There are likely 1-3 dozen people in the compound, plus the 6 members of the Alpo Dog Food Corporation who went in last week. The snow-cat and the armor both have emergency survival systems: if the vehicle crashes, it will be filled with suspend gas and bio-cement, and the bunny suits can provide water and food to sustain a human for two weeks in the Arctic. The suits "ping" on radio every two hours, and they have suspend capsules which can extend emergency survival up to two months. "Hey boss? This sounds like the beginning of a bad horror movie..." -Varen We made a list of all of the things we'll need to bring with us, divided up into a strike team and an investigation team, bought some of what was on our wish list (but not all), and headed to Antarctica via Chile. Damn, it's cold here. Hector Johnson was waiting at the base when we arrived. He provided us with the promised equipment (including an improved snow-crawler), gave us instructions on how to use it, and told us he'd be checking in once a day until we got in, and then would be waiting for any transmissions we could get out once we get to the dead zone. We started off, put on our seat-belts, and Tayden used her journey power to cause our journey to go 25% faster. Johnson was impressed with how easily we crossed the frozen antarctic wastes. "We aim to please," I replied. "This is Oracle, heading into the dead zone. Over and out." Just as we reached the edge of the dead zone, our radio crackled to life, and a message came in. It said, "Help! Ah! Get it off me! HELP!... and was cut off. About five seconds later, we received a three-week old emergency distress beacon. That was followed by a one-week old distress beacon, and then silence. We backed over the border and reported in to Hector. He told us that a blizzard was blowing in, and to be careful. "No worries -- we're not in the business of taking stupid risks. We wouldn't still be breathing, otherwise. Back into the dead zone, now -- this is Oracle, over and out." "Great. A blizzard. Just what we need." -Varen Despite Varen's good-natured grumblings, after Hector's sign-off message we drove back into the dead zone.The snow crawler stalled again as we crossed over the border, promising more weird electromagnetic effects to come. True to form, the hammer fell about a day into the dead zone. The engine went *clank* and a turbine blade went flying off into the snow, so Tom went out to investigate (with Koori helping, Ritson and Varen guarding -- I told you we were paranoid!). After about 20 minutes, Tom reported in: "The snow cat's engine's not going anywhere anytime soon."
"What happened?"
"Imagine a miniature lighting storm. Now imagine it in our engine. Now imagine our engine with several of the important spinning bits melted to slag"
"Oh. Guess we can't really fix that."
"Not really. Get everyone inside into the thermal suits. We're walking."
While we were getting into our suits, Tom took spare parts, tires, and some foil blankets and turned them into a sail-sled for our equipment. Like all Tom's creations, it was brilliant ---if we hadn't been in a blizzard, we might be able to use the sail to push our stuff. In this case, since the wind was blowing every direction at once, the team members took turns pulling the sled in groups of three. About 5 hours later, we arrived at the previous team's base camp, which has been abandoned. It gave off all the signs of a camp which had been used at least temporarily: there were tents, cold-broken radio and sensor equipment, sleeping bags that have clearly been used and abandoned, but it's obviously been a few weeks. There are "Alpo" signs on all the tents. making it start to look like that might really be who our Mr. Johnson works for, and not just a clever cover name. I downgraded my opinion of Mr. Johnson's competency yet again, and we took the opportunity to rest a bit before continuing on through the blizzard. A bleak, white wasteland stretches out before us on every horizon, and the wind is whipping around, tugging on the suits. The roar would be deafening if it were not for the noise-cancellation of the helmets. Suddenly, out of the monotony appears a bright flash a few hundred yards ahead. Given our condition, we decided to head into the building immediately and negotiate if at all possible. The pylon light is spinning, causing the beacon that brought us in, and a cable snakes away from a shattered antenna on the ground near the building. The door is that of an airlock, half snowed in. Saganami pressed the button, and it went *thunk*, so we cleared the snow drift. Tristain planted his hand on the door, said "friend" in elvish, and caused the pneumatic handle to spin wildly. We rushed in with our non-cold-safe equipment and closed the airlock again. We opened the next door, since there was really nothing interesting in the airlock, and the quarters were rather tight, and found ourselves at a left-right juncture. We went left, following the hot water return pipes, and walked into some sort of dining room where, clearly, some sort of meal was abandoned in a hurry. Off to the side is a supply area and freezer, in which the dry-goods, meat and poultry are undisturbed but all the pork products have been ravaged -- someone emptied a gun into several sides of pork, pulled things off the ceiling, and generally made a mess. We went back into the dining room and down the hall, passing a bedroom with two twin beds. The data-jack in one room had been kicked in -- it sparked as we passed. The horror-movie vibe had us all, now, but we were all too afraid to say anything about it, lest something come out of the walls at us. Around about 180* from the entry, there were a set of stairs and an elevator going downstairs. Tom marked that so we'd know if it opened behind us, and we went on. We scouted the rest of the floor, and found another bedroom, where several sets of three parallel marks have destroyed the bed-frame. This data jack, too, has been kicked in. tap. tap. tap. The tapping stopped as soon as I really started to listen, of course, so I didn't mention it and we moved on. Parallel to the dining room is a store room of "stuff for leaving". The doorknob for this door has been cut off with something very sharp--the latch stays in the frame while the door swings open. The snowmobile's gas tank has been ripped open and the gas is all over the floor -- so much for leaving that way. There is a light on the wall which is off, labeled "EEPS". "EEPS? What's EEPS?"
"Early Engine Processing System?"
"Eternal Exit Power Station?"
"Evil Empire Portable Snark?"
There were several other suggestions, none really serious, and we moved on. Since nothing had jumped out of the walls at us (yet), and we'd made it through a full floor, much of the team took off their bunny suits and changed to medium monocrys, and we proceeded back to the stairs. The tapping noise began again, and stopped as we noticed it. Just inside the stairwell door, we found the torso of a dead woman. Her legs are not in evidence. Tristain blessed her body, Tom took a DNA sample, and we went on. Varen hovered around them impatiently.
"Boss? The dead people won't get any deader. There may still be live people. Let's go!" So the investigators were pulled away from the dead body, and we proceeded downstairs, into a big lab with four long lab benches. Out of nowhere, Tristain turned to Tom and reported.
"There a predatory parasite in the air vents, scampering towards the core. We can't go that way--but..." And, as if on cue, one of the air vents fell open. Tom shot a tangler at the creature, but the it was already inside and away. "That was fun" -- Koori.
"Ah, I see. It's not a horror movie. It's a bug hunt. I can do that." answered Varen, as he snapped a full clip into his rifle. We followed the tunnel around to a side door, labeled: 
EEPS
Warning: Triggers ELE!
"Well, that's helpful", Tom remarked, as he read the cryptic sign. We looked in the window, where there is some sort of isolation room. It has comfortable-looking seats with harness-style seat-belts, bringing to mind the 20th century Apollo capsules.
"What a strange thing to have in a research base." Opposite that is a computer lab. Inside, the body of one of the Alpo folks is on the floor by a cyberjack, still in his bunny-suit. His head is lying adjacent to the body, a cable still dangling where he was ripped from the wall. His gun is empty, suggesting that he did not immediately die of the shock of leaving the matrix, but the cause of death is quite clear -- the head was ripped off the body by something sharp. After checking inside his suit, it's obvious that his suit was opened, he was chewed on, and then the suit was closed up -- this is not a good sign. "Great. Intelligent, tool-operating bugs. But they still die when you shoot them." --Varen.
"That remains to be seen" -- Tom. The computer he was under when he died is on, with an extension cord to the power socket for the network switch. Tristain spaced out for a second, then reported that the man died several days ago. 
GM: "The computer he was under has a login screen.  The name is
already typed in: Administrator.  It's blinking, waiting for the
password."
Tom: "I type "biogenesis". 
GM: It logs you in.
Zance did some work with the computer, downloading the files to our data-cube. Highlights: 
Head Researcher Dr. Poulidori 

        In the security records:
Minex container breach
Alpha level alarm
ELE Phase 1
ELE Phase 2
ELE Cancelled
(Apparently, the ELE was cancelled because nobody went into the escape pod after activating it. We still don't know what an ELE is, but it's probably something bad.) Benji v6 is mentioned as the name of a project. References to container breaches, someone reading "The Island of Dr. Morrow" (animal-human hybrids), references to DNA sources being delivered which are "unlike terrestrial DNA". Ritson opened up the other computers and put their data-chips in his pockets, for which we would be very thankful later. As all this was happening, the tapping began again. Three creatures popped out of the air vent. They look like ants up to the head, with 4 legs for motion, and 2 legs that are hand-like with a spike on the wrist and a tube dangling down, but they are about two meters long. Ew. Varen shot his big gun at one, which parried using a computer monitor. Mara then slid in under the monitor and sliced at it, sword clanging off its carapace. One of the others jumped on Vance, who rather ungracefully slipped past it, but managed to slip by. Just as I was about to shoot it, the third one interrupted me and jumped on Varen. It clinched him, but I followed it and shot. The bullet bounced off its armor. "Uh oh." -Varen
"I warned you." -Tom Saganami took and disassembled one of the aliens with his chain. Varen kicked the chair around and away to escape from the clinch, stuffed a grenade into the alien's mouth, and kicked the alien across the room. It scuffled into the vent and spit out the grenade. Mara used her sword to toss the grenade up and bat it into the ventilation duct. "Nice shot, Mara!"
"You can almost hear eyes opening wide in there" -GM
Tristain finished transcribing his circle in corn meal on the floor. An ephemeral jitterbug came crawling out to meet the alien, causing it to jerky-jig for 10 minutes. It jumped up to reach the shaft and barely grappled the edge before Tom shot his tangler at the alien and the shaft, closing the shaft and catching the alien outside. Dangling from my feet from the ceiling beam, I swung over and shot him, then swung back to get out of the way of the grenade blast. The whole party proceeded to treat the dangling alien like a pinyata, but the one who got into the shaft first appears to have gotten away. Mara mutilated the bodies, in case they could reanimate, and Tom, ever-prepared, handed me a bottle of insta-wall and put me in charge of closing off every vent we see. We headed around to the stairs. An iridescent blue bubble surrounded Tayden and she vanished, to the confusion and dismay of some of the new folks. The vent here that was tangled closed has been ripped open, so I closed it with the instawall. Once we got down to Sub-2, we discovered that the elevator was stuck open with Dr. Poulidori dead inside. Apparently he emptied most of his clip into oncoming aliens and then put the last into his own brain (destroying his cyber in the process). As we dealt with him, one of the aliens poked its head in the top of the shaft and then vanished again. "Varen, next time you see something pop around a corner, shoot first." -Tom
"What if it's a civilian?" -Koori
"If there are any civlians left, clearly they can fend for themselves. Let's go." -Tom
On the rest of this floor is a very big lab. In that, there are 8 incubation chambers. One was shattered, 6 were opened a bit and then shattered, and one is empty but intact. I went around sealing off the four air vents, and just as I finished the last one the tapping began again and the doors began to slam: 
SLAM! 
SLAM! 
SLAM! 
SLAM!
We started moving back into a cluster, back to back, and noticed the three bodies on the floor, bloated as if they were incubating something. Varen threw two incendiary grenades into the pile. 
"Emergency Escape Pod System Phase 1 activated"
"Oh, shit!"
"Guess we know what EEPS means now, don't we? Want to guess at ELE?" Tom went over to the door, opened the panel and touched the lead wires together. It slid open. We ran up the stairs and found the torso of another of the intrusion team with a baby alien inside. A hail of gunfire blew through it, Mara's sword impaled it, and it was dead before it even got to move, so I grabbed her dog-tags and we continued through the computer lab towards the EEPS door. Saganami ran into the computer lab, and had an alien drop on him. He turned and shot it out off the air before it hit him as Mara ran in behind and drove her sword through the alien, knocking it back and off Saganami. One of the aliens ripped a length of network cable out of the wall. 
"Critical Damage Levels reached. ELE activated. 90 seconds"
came in over the speakers. Tom slid across the room on a rolling chair, sticking network cables into sockets as he went. "Not working, guys. Let's get out of here!" I ineffectively shot at the alien before it took its "Cat 5 of 9 tails" and used it to strike at Tom. Then, its friend ran up to Tristain and struck him, picked up a gun, and strafed across the room with it on auto-fire. I dodged its bullets and continued walking towards the alien. Saganami holstered his pistol, pulled his chain, whipped the chain around a light pillar, triple somersaulted between the two aliens, and then lashed them both with the chain, rendering one incapacitated on the floor. Then Mara charged the remaining alien, but her blow glanced off its carapace. Koori turned and shot at the remaining alien with her pistol, aiming perfectly and taking it out. In the other room, Varen beat up two aliens and got to the escape capsule. He aimed at triple-speed, soaked the incendiary grenade the alien threw at his feet, and shot off the creature's thorax (taking several of its little babes with it). He then shot again three times before Zance finished aiming and emptied a full clip into the Alien Queen taking it out. The rest of us caught up, noticed the Queen Alien's body, moved her out of the way (but not before Tom put a piece of it into a vial, and took its head for questioning), and got everyone but Zance into the escape pod. Zance went to the computer and activated the EEPS. As he clicked the appropriate bits into place, a panel slid back inside the capsule, revealing a big red launch button. Over the radio, we hear Zance:
"Okay, I'm here, let's go." Tom, in the captain's chair, reached over and punched the launch button, and we were thrown back into the eggs in a 14G takeoff. "Ow. I feel like my ribs are broken"
"Me too."
"I take it we got out in time. Dying can't hurt this much."
"If you don't quit whining, I'll help you find out"
"Somewhere in the... North Atlantic, Tom. There's a ship here, which lists itself as "Alpo #37""
"That must be our Johnson -- what excellent timing he has. Koori, call him on the radio and let him know we're all right"
"Yes, sir" Koori contacted Alpo #37, which had been just about to pull us and our capsule on board. After they did so, Hector Ramirez (our Johnson) introduced himself, and we explained a little of what had happened. I told him that we'd need a little while to coordinate our information, so he gave us the run of the ship, quarters, etc. and told us that we could have the rest of the trip back to gather our information. "We got out of there *right* as the Thor strike came down, Tom. They didn't leave much slack in their escape system...", said Koori, jacked in and staring off into space as she poured through launch records from the capsule. "We're lucky we got off with bruises and cracked ribs, given that launch", answered Tom. "It's not every day you get ejected upwards at 14 times normal gravity" "So we can say we had an adventure, then." I suggested.
"That we can," replied Tom, "but let's avoid any more for a few days, okay?"
"Good idea. Maybe we can 'run something in Florida, and hang out on the beach" I answered.
"Ooh, that sounds nice. No more snow." said Koori, coming briefly out of her data-induced trance.
"Back to work, you two, or we'll never get off this boat!" chided Tom, laughing. A day or two later, I made a briefing, presenting the video with our faces blocked out, and handing over all the data (while, of course, keeping a copy and the original video). We sailed back to Boston, collected our fee, and went home to recover and relax. 
{note: 9 successes --singing this legend?}
Legend Point Recap:
Merry 		3 Glory
Santiago 		1 Glory
Tommy 		2 Wisdom  
Justin 		2 Mettle 6 Glory
Ariel 		6 Wisdom
Jesse 		3 Mercy
Cassie		2 Glory

XP: 
7 XP for everyone, plus 7 XP for the adventure.