Team AJim leads the survivors back toward where the APCs will meet them.
Inquire of the civvie "leader":
You wouldn't happen to know what went down in Farming and Food Supply, would you?
((Why do I have the feeling that the governor of whoever he asked if we were here for and what happened in there are related?))
[Team A: Bruce]
"Wait up guys."
Unblock Milno, follow A stay at back of group.
[Team A Medic - Mesk]
Assist in herding the people back to the APC. Check for injuries that look like they need immediate attention.
Team A forms a loose line down the hall, directing the scattered masses to the APC's. They're haunting things, skeletons with loose skin caught in garish multicolored light, shuffling forward with their few belongings, draped in brightly colored uniforms and staring out with darkened eyes and opened mouths. They stream out in a weak line from both the main path and the alleys to either side; there are dozens of them, more then a hundred. As they pass Simus waves over the man she talked to and asks him about Farming and Food production.
"I wasn't there." He says, watching the people walk down the hall, "But It was during the riots. See, me and these people were workers up here in Ent-dis; We lived here, not down in the Housing blocks. When the Red Cough started to get bad we decided to close ourselves off. Gov-sec didn't like that, thought we were overstepping our authority. Shut down our power."
He gestures at the lights strewn around.
"Just personal generators powering these. We've kept mostly to ourselves since then. Even looters will learn to leave you alone if you shoot enough of them." He looks off into the darkness, "And we did. But from what I've heard the Engineers banded together to try and keep the colonies basic systems going: water, air, food, you know. Very noble and lots of people were with them on that. At first. But as time went on the rations started getting smaller; we weren't extracting as much water so the harvests were getting smaller. Eventually that and everything else lead to the riots and...well Engineers were the ones enforcing the rations so," He shrugs, "Anger fell on them as it did on Gov-sec. I hear that in the fighting someone set the whole place on fire with a laser rifle they got from who knows where." He smiles, sadly, "Irony."
He's quiet for long while before suddenly asking, "You got a blue smoke?"
Team B[Team B Leader=Milno=Entertainment District]
Milno just moves on.
"Team B, do not advance much. Take a few looks around through windows to make sure those are all the civilians around here, but do not step into the buildings. Never know when you might spring a trap."
Advance cautiously, taking peeks inside the buildings with the motion sensor online.
A
Jim
Simus
Bruce
Mesk
Ashley
B
Milno
Lars
May
Thomas
Kyle
"Yes, glorious leader!"
Advance cautiously as well, checking the other side of the corridor.
[Team B Sniper:Thomas:Entertainment District.]
Help Explore the area. Follow Milnos orders.
"I suppose I should say thanks for the vote of confidence.", Kyle replied.
Keep an eye out for anyone who randomly wants to kill us. Also keep an eye out for the more likely scenario of teammates randomly wanting to kill innocents.
Team B advances down the main lane, ignoring the alleys for the moment. Most stores are almost eerily untouched, bakeries and the like have been raided but clothing stores, movie theaters, brothels, jewelery; all of it is simply abandoned. Occasionally the team ducks into a larger building; carefully sweeping the tight and shadowed apartments above storefronts, behind concession stands and through back rooms, in the cramped movie archives of the theater and the individual rooms of the brothel with their ceiling mounted mirrors, red paint and sticky floors. They find nothing they do not expect, simply the exposed viscera of daily life: dirty dishes and laundry, clutter of all kinds and the rare data pad someone left behind. No books; physical books were a luxury in a place like this and these people were obviously not rich.
The main lane, beyond a few stragglers still leaving, appears clear.
Team CMiyamoto, Team C leader, Trading Storage
C
Miyamoto
Stacy
Feyri
Pancaek
Flint
Check the room for anything interesting (civilians, equipment, etc.). If nothing is found, go over to the Storage elevator and check if it's in working order.
Over command channel: 'Miyamoto here, almost done sweeping our parts. Gonna check if the storage elevator is working, never know if we might need it in the future. How are things on your side?'
((By the way, I've been thinking for a good name for my suit. Right now, I think I'm gonna call it Gilgamesh. Anyone got any other suggestions?))
Stacy, Team C Physimancer, Trading Storage.
"Trading Storage - looted. Moving on!"
Look around for any signs of life. Say, an ambush, explosive trap or something. Head to Storage Elevator hallway door. Does it have a radiation warning flashing? Is it open?
"I wonder why the looted all these containers for food. I mean, didn't command say they were self-sufficient and self-governing? Now that I think about it, why have food in here at all? Except if they were exporting it."
"They probably did it because they murdered anyone competent enough to run the self-sufficient systems, like the guys in Water Production. Hey, an idiot's got to do what an idiot's got to do. You can hardly expect reason from a bunch of rioting animals."
Team C - Feyri Nirel ; Armored Mercenary ; Water Production
"Internal rioting doesn't explain what we saw in the upper levels...."
Examine the area for any signs of pathological effects on bodies.
Miyamoto ; Radio Controlled
Stacy ; Harry Baldman
Feyri Nirel ; Tiruin
Pancaek ; Pancaek
Flint ; Parisbre56
Name:Flint/Bloody Miner - Team C - Trade Storage
"Well, this looks empty. Hey guys, do you think one of us should move to the freight elevator and go up to check sterilization out once we are finished here?"
Check around for bodies. (They seem to be part of the decor around here.) Go check out the door to the freight elevator.
"I wonder why the looted all these containers for food. I mean, didn't command say they were self-sufficient and self-governing? Now that I think about it, why have food in here at all? Except if they were exporting it."
Feyri, alone, checks the bodies and the area one more time. They have no signs of illness, at least no obvious ones, no bleeding from their mouths, no hemorrhages that she can see. Their environment betrays no sign of mental or physical effects either; their possessions and trash are not scattered about, their latrine is as sanitary as one can expect and there is no damage to the room around them. They appear simply to have starved.
While she works the rest of the team checks through Trade storage, looking for anything amiss. They find a few bodies amongst the debris, but they are scattered and few in number, much like the storage room above. And their bodies seem to have sustained the same injuries: Crude beating and bludgeoning, attacks of an unorganized and mostly unarmed aggressor that may not even have intended to kill. The team continues to the storage elevator. It's lowered to this level and looks undamaged, save for the smashed control panel. It looks like someone didn't want people using this elevator.
Team DTeam D Leader Faith, Farming and Food Production
Faith let out another exasperated sigh.
"Yeah, Farming and Food Production is definitely where everything went to hell. Or at least, a lot of it went to hell. They apparently murdered everyone and then burned down their own food supply.
God damn it."
Begin advancing cautiously towards the scorched buildings.
Team D, Jobasio; Farming and Food Production.
Jobasio hurried forwards once the others reached the farming area, speed-walking whilst keeping a secure grip on his gauss rifle.
"So, what have we..." He had done a good job of keeping any emotions hidden so far, but his steps faltered as he entered the room and saw what lay within. "What have... Oh..." His eyes took in the mangled bodies strewn casually about in the filth, they took in the dead hanging from the ceiling, they took in the sheer senseless destruction, and he had to fight down an urge to retch.
He squinted his eyes shut for a moment, patting the barrel of his gauss rifle like a favoured pet to distract his mind from the sight. Only after taking a moment to pull himself together did he move forwards to join Faith and Lukas.
When he spoke, he kept his voice carefully neutral.
"...You know, I'm starting to wonder whether we really need to spare the ones who did this. Ugh."
>Spread out, advance with Faith towards the buildings. Try not to step on the bodies, and keep an eye out for the slightest non-friendly movement.
"Okay, Oxygen is sealed as best as I can get it, what with the doors bent out of shape from Lukas. It's a lot harder to get in there now."
Drag anyone who is lagging behind with me to Farming, and then investigate the whole place. Take a moment to zip up onto the rafters and cut down the corpses hanging from there too.
Faith and the rest of the team, minus Bishop begin trekking across the ashen fields toward the burnt building on it's periphery. It's a long walk, and not an easy one through soft soil and ash, but they make it in good time and begin looking around. The buildings look to be processing centers where the bounty of the fields was made ready for consumption. They've all been raided and most burned, but there is enough left to tell their purpose: a packaging building with boxing machine and plastic shrink wrapping equipment, Machines to separate corn from cob and rind from fruit, to de-seed or de-skin or mash or juice or slice or dice whatever produce came from the fields. There are also what look like slaughter houses, smaller in scale with adjoining pasture land or some such thing. It's impossible to tell what they raised though: The pastures have been stripped clean along with the buildings themselves. There are bodies scattered around, most in green overalls, but others in normal clothing. Some have been shot, some stabbed, others beaten and torn apart. The blood and the bodies paint a frenzied scene. A mob and a melee, a desperate and reckless looting of this place while they trampled its workers.
Bishop, in the mean time, flies to the rafters and begins cutting the hanging bodies down, snapping the ropes with his exoskeleton aided hands and then lowering the bodies to the ground below one at a time, laying them out beside each other in a line. Only after they've been laid out like this does he realize just how many bodies there are.
(Everyone ok with this style of response or should I go back to individual replies to each post?)
Author
Topic: Einsteinian Roulette (Original Thread: Rules, Armory, Misson archive 1-11) (Read 3988214 times)