# Remnants of the Dead[Trinity]



## fletch137 (Jun 9, 2004)

With Aberrant and Adventure! already converted to D20, I figure it won't be long before Trinity makes its appearance.  Fans of the original game will remember the detailed world of the future presented in that game, as well as the convoluted metaplot that ran in the Darkness Revealed and Alien Agenda adventures.  I hope to get some of the newer players up to speed on this amazing game world by presenting the above mentioned adventures in fiction form.  The only warning I have to potential readers is that there's no guarantee the D20 Trinity will pick off where the Storyteller version ended.  Still, it would make sense to do so, and with that in mind, I introduce you all to volume one of the Darkness Revealed trilogy, Descent into Darkness, in a story called  "Remnants of the Dead".

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Chapter 1
It was still early evening as Rick Vega walked home.  The streets of Downside hadn’t been constructed for the crowds they now held, and Rick held securely to his grocery bag as he wound his way through the throng of the city’s middle class.  It was just another jungle to Rick, and he adapted as smoothly to his new life here as he did to the rain forests of his native Brazil.  This jungle, however, was carved deep under the surface of the moon.  His eyes adjusted easily as he moved through patches of light and shadow that sprinkled his path home.  The current energy crunch had been solved by limiting the number of light strips illuminating public spaces, creating an artificial dusk that was normally missing this far underground.  It was one such patch of darkness that shrouded the entrance to Rick’s apartment, and effectively cloaked the two figures waiting outside his door.

Rick slowed his gate slightly.  Not enough to draw attention to himself, just enough to buy him some time.  Whoever they were, he wasn't expecting them and his old instincts told him that meant danger.  One figure had her back to him, and with the hood of her jacket up, her gender was all he could make out.  It was the other figure that drew his attention, though.  The second person was a man who shared Rick’s Sudamerican features.  His dark hair and mustache matched Rick’s own.  To the casual observer, the two could have been cousins and that’s what worried Rick.  Although it was rare for anybody to break from the family, especially one of the gifted, the Pai had let him go.  Rick had put as much distance between himself and the order as he could, but he still feared reprisals.  If one of his cousins had pursued him all the way here, the parting couldn’t have been as clean as he’d hoped.  Still, the man hadn’t spotted him yet, still chatting and smiling with his companion.  If Rick could mingle back into the crowd, he could easily mask himself and escape notice.  

He allowed the now quicker moving crowd to block him from the two waiting figures.  He summoned up his will and let the psions flow over his skin.  The tone of his skin bleached away, taking some of the darkness from his hair with it.  A mental tug pulled his mustache back into his lip and a larger push forced out his figure, seemingly adding 40 pounds to his frame.  His clothing strained to hold the changes, but when he was done he had transformed from an Hispanic refugee into a blonde Caucasian.  The transformation was too crude to hold up under anything less than a casual glance, but in the shadows cloaking the street in front of his apartment, he was sure he could pull it off.  He resisted the urge to look at the waiting man as he moved nearer.  He clutched his groceries tighter and tried to shuffle like everybody else, willing himself to blend into the crowd.  The strange man didn’t even look twice.  He simply kept talking to his partner, laughing at whatever small joke she had just made.  Rick kept himself from smiling in turn, and continued to shuffle by.  He had limited options for his next step, but once he was out of sight, he would have time to decide what to do.  Unfortunately, he never got that time.  As focused as he’d been on the man, Rick was surprised when his eyes were drawn to the woman.  With a surprisingly casual gesture, she pulled down the hood that had shrouded her.  With her other hand she pointed unerringly at Rick.  

“There he is,” she said in a startlingly matter-of-fact way.  

As her partner moved to intercept him, Rick realized it would be pointless to run.  He got the impression this woman could find him wherever he went.


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## fletch137 (Jun 13, 2004)

*chapter 2*

It looks like it's going to be weekly updates for this story.  Hope I finish before the release of D20 Trinity.  
By the way, I'm pretty new to the Story Hour format, so I'd appreciate whatever feedback you'd care to offer.  Especially along lines of ideal post/chapter length and which works better dialogue or exposition.  Thanks for reading.
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Chapter 2
The lights flickered on as Rick entered his apartment.  He moved directly to his small kitchenette, putting his small bag of groceries on the counter before turning to see if the two strangers had even entered the apartment behind him.  They had, of course.  The man moved confidently to the sofa in the main room while his partner remained standing by the front door.  She didn’t seem to be guarding it, she just didn’t look as comfortable as the man did entering a stranger’s home.

“I know what you’re thinking, Rick,” the man said.

“Then it looks like you left your Ministry uniform behind,” he replied.

“I don’t have to be a telepath to know what’s going on in that head of yours,” he explained.  “If I had parted ways unfavorably with Proxy del Fuego, I’d be thinking the same thing if I saw a stranger of my creed hanging about my door.   “Let me put you at ease, friend.  I’m not from the Norca, I represent another, larger organization.”

“You’re Aeon,” Rick reasoned.

“Special agent Hector Ramirez.”  He leaned forward and extended his hand.  Rick didn’t take it right away.  He wanted some other things cleared up first.

“And her?”

The woman spoke up then, offering her own name to the conversation.  “Rena Hafzalla.”  Now that he had a better look at her, he could see she was of Middle Eastern origins.  Her name suggested she was probably Egyptian.  “I think it’s fair to warn you that I’m a clear.”

Which told Rick how right he was not to bother running.  There were very few places Rick could go that a clairsentient couldn’t find him again.  There was really only one place he could think of, and he hoped to never go back there.  It was best that he confronted them in the comfort of his own home.

“So, what brings the Trinity knocking on the door of an ex-Norca outcast?”

“We’re hoping we could draw on some of your experiences from when you were with the order,” answered Ramirez.

“If you’re looking for Pai de Norca’s dirty secrets, you’re going to have to look somewhere else.”

“I’m not looking for secrets, I’m looking for experience.  We’ve found ourselves a puzzling mystery that may require your special skills to solve.”

“You want me to become an Aeon agent?”

“Not yet, there’s a certain period of observation and probationary-“

“Forget it.”

“Or you could just be an associate free-lancer, however you want to work it,” Ramirez tacked on. 

“Where does she come in?”

The clear had been so quiet, Rick had almost forgotten she was there.  She blended into the background almost as well as Rick did himself.  He didn’t want to repeat the mistake of forgetting about her.  

“You’d be working closely with her,” answered Ramirez.  Rick had been hoping the woman would answer for herself, but the agent had spoken up before she had a chance to.  “Rena’s worked with us in the past to help us find things.  Her gifts give her a real advantage in that area, but where we need help is with what goes down when we find it.”

“What is it you’re looking for?”

For the first time in the conversation, Ramirez wasn’t ready with an answer.  In the brief pause, his eyes darted from Rick to Rena and then back again.

“We’re not sure.”

“Well, let me know how that turns out, then,” dismissed Rick.  Turning his back to the two, he started to unpack his waiting groceries.

“But we suspect Aberrant involvement.”  The words seemed heavier coming from the Egyptian woman.  Rick stopped in mid-motion and turned to face them, still holding a container of soy meal.

“If you have an Aberrant, you’re going to need more than a clear and a shapeshifter.  You’re going to need an entire Legion company.”

“And I’m sure we’d get one, if we had an actual Aberrant to show them,” retorted Ramirez.  “Right now, we only have suspicion of.”

“And you need proof before anybody will make a move.”

“That’s about the size of things.”

Ramirez let the room sink into silence.  Rick had faced down a couple Aberrants during his time with the Guerreros do Berco.  He’d had an entire Norca strike team on his side, and even then there’d been casualties.  If Ramirez’ mystery did lead to an Aberrant, things would get messy with only the two psions facing it.  At the same time, no Warrior of the Cradle, even an ex-warrior like himself, could bear to have an Aberrant running loose on Earth or its colonies.

“Free-lance?”

“Hired by the job.”

“Then I guess you should start filling me in on what you do know.”


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## sleepystyle (Jun 13, 2004)

*Trinity fan love*

What?  A Trinity Story Hour!  I like your style, looking forward to updates.  Does the story run all the way including the alien invasion or just the original 3?

-d


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