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[3man75]

I'm a little lost.

[mainiac]

Just providing a little 22nd century background to put the next set of events in context.  Am I going to far back?

[3man75]

I don't know I just thought it was a bit out of the blue. I was expecting an update on our guerrilla war/personal character story.

[mainiac]

The next post will deal with the Norris presidency and the return of Carter's Renegades to the surface.  I just need to take care of some work stuff before I write that up.  Maybe tonight?  Maybe tomorrow?

[mainiac]

There had long been legends of the mountain men west of Boulder.  They never set foot in civilization in their lives and didn't fear the acid rains of mutagenic spores.  It was said that even before the nuclear war started the mountain men had fled into the mountains to practice their strange religion that had made them outcasts hundreds of years ago...


Note the highly anachronistic headgear and the fact that he is standing outside without his eyes bleeding

Your goal was to meet these wildmen.  To that end you headed northwest into the heart of bandit company.  But instead of bandits you find a scout from a civilian caravan heading across the Rocky Mountains.



The traders are wary of your well armed group but eager to have well armed company as they head near bandit company.  In fact they're even open to the idea of long term employment.  When you explain your intention to scout of bandit company they are impressed but wary.  The caravan master says she'd consider contracting your group for regular escort services between Colorado Springs and Provo but need the chance to evaluate your capabilities.

Five days later you see raiders approaching and Captain Hawkins orders your squad into and ambush position while you ask the caravan master to have her people take cover...

The scourge of the wastes.

The bandits mistook your group for just another caravan, not professional soldiers.  Your squad makes short work of them and reminds them of the punishment for terrorism...

If the condemned are well hydrated before crucifixtion, they can survive long enough for atmosphere or rain exposure to cause festering acidic sores across the entire body.

The stark reminder of American military law and American military professionalism makes the caravan master agree to a long term arrangement and recommend your services to some of the other caravans in Provo.  Provo proves lucrative, you convince several caravan masters that the 17th can make the Colorado Springs-Provo route safe again.  You have secured employment for about 200 members of the 17th Infantry.  Given the depleted condition of the 17th, 200 servicemembers is about all you can equip for combat at the moment so you dont start looking into other routes.

On the trip back from Provo however you are disappointed that you haven't achieved your main goal of contacting the mountain men.  They are the real masters of survival and are the ones that could let you permanently stay outside of General Norris' reach.  The traders all seem to think that the mountain men are real, some swear they've seen them.  But the mountain men are extremely shy around outsiders, no surprise since they live in the heart of bandit country.  But you did hear a couple accounts of traders who were lost and alone in mountain men country who claim to have been saved by the hermits.  It seems like the only way to make contact is to go alone and unarmed.  So you leave your weapons and armor with your squad and head north with nothing but a hazmat suit...



For days you wander without seeing another soul.  There's no food or water in these parts.  There aren't even bandit trails, these mountains are too lifeless for there to be anyone to steal from.  It's enough to make you think that the mountain men are a myth, but so many people insist they are real.

At night you are awoken with a shock by a voice booming in the dark cave you have taken shelter in.
"HELLO- oh sorry that was a little bit loud, let me dial it back."
Confused and disoriented you turn on your light and frantically look around but no one is there.
"Who's there?"
"Maybe I'll answer that, maybe I wont.  First you tell me what you are doing so far from Boulder, Corporal Tyler." You can't pin down where the voice is coming from and the cave is definitely empty.
"How do you know my name?"
"Facebook facial recognition, duh.  Why do you even need to ask something that obvious?"
"The mountain men have Facebook?"
"The mountain men have a lot of things, Jeff.  Look, what is a National Guardsmen doing wandering out in the mountains?"
"Uh... I didn't update my Facebook profile in a while, I'm not in the National Guard anymore.  I'm with the 17th Infantry and we were hoping to make contact with the mountain men."
"17th Infantry?  The guys who got their asses kicked by President Norris?"
"Yeah."
"Huh... stick around for a while, I'll get back to you."
Then the voice says nothing else and you are stuck in an empty cave in the middle of the night with only yourself for company.  You investigate but cant ever find the speakers the sound must have come from.

Hour pass...

More hours pass...

You fall asleep again.  When you wake up you aren't in a cave anymore.


The temple of the mountain men located deep under the Rocky Mountains.

The mountain men are willing to let you stay for a few days but dont seem very interested in making a deal with you.  Your questions about their survival are met with a shrug and a nonchalant answer of "geothermal power".  You insist that they must need food, must need materials from the outside world and eventually one of them rolls her eyes at you and shows you that they do not.

A hundred years ago, 3D printers like these were commonpleace

The energy consumption on indoor farming has always been prohibitive but it is sometimes a viable technology.

This puts a damper on your plans.  The mountain men have everything you want, but they dont want anything you have.  You wont be able to learn about mountain survival from them unless you can figure out something to offer in trade.

A) Give up and go home with your tail between your legs, at least you made the deal with the caravans
B) (suggestion for a way to get what you want from the mountain men)

[3man75]

C.

"Hold on. I busted my fricking ass for like 4 years stopping people in food riots. Years that made me cringe at my own humaity for beating up on and even killing poor people that were hungry or trying to feed their kids.

An you guys just open this up and say "Well we have geothermal power and food growing.". Do you even know how much of our species is left in these cities? Not much and less with all the god damn military coups going on.

Seriously I need to know why you guys haven't come to save the day with this stuff, you'd easilly win any election and the stomachs of thousands of people."

*Sob*

"Do you even know what life is out their? You lot are..ya know what. Forget I came here and i'm forgetting this. I'll just tell anyone that the great mountain people have separated themselves from the rest of the world and don't give a frick about humanity. Screw everybody.

Oh and just so you know next time i'm kicking Norris's ass , you'll see through facebook dammit!"

((Leave them with that and conquer them later. Wow these guys suck.))

[Ozarck]

C.

"Hold on. I busted my fricking ass for like 4 years stopping people in food riots. Years that made me cringe at my own humaity for beating up on and even killing poor people that were hungry or trying to feed their kids.

An you guys just open this up and say "Well we have geothermal power and food growing.". Do you even know how much of our species is left in these cities? Not much and less with all the god damn military coups going on.

Seriously I need to know why you guys haven't come to save the day with this stuff, you'd easilly win any election and the stomachs of thousands of people."

*Sob*

"Do you even know what life is out their? You lot are..ya know what. Forget I came here and i'm forgetting this. I'll just tell anyone that the great mountain people have separated themselves from the rest of the world and don't give a frick about humanity. Screw everybody.

Oh and just so you know next time i'm kicking Norris's ass , you'll see through facebook dammit!"

((Leave them with that and conquer them later. Wow these guys suck.))

I don't think we need to be quite so ... butthurt.

I can think of half a dozen very understandable reasons they didn't come to the surface to help: WWIII, WWIV, food riots, constant warfare, bandits, the assassination of president Jenkins, the kidnapping of the next president, the rise of president Norris, ANLs. It's chaos up there, and one does not expose a long hidden bastion of civilization to anarchy and military aggression. Few would have been saved, and much would have been lost.

[Ghazkull]

seriously those guys are right. Look at the world and what the guys out there made out of it. Why should they fix the mistakes of other? We should ask them for their long-term plans.

Also still thinking we should beat it to europe. Maybe in Europe things are better. Going there with the Remnants of the Renegades and come back with the Redcoats to kick ass and take names.

[Ozarck]

Let's Ask the mountain men why they invited us inside, and why they allowed us to see all this. Then, ask if they will be willing to teach us some survival skills. We'd be willing to rotate people through some kind of workforce and do grunt work and the like. Tell them we simply don't understand them enough to know if there is anything we can offer in exchange, except loyalty. We don't forget our friends, nor do we forget the kindness of strangers, and if circumstances change, we will lend support to the mountain man cause, within reason.

[mainiac]

"Seriously I need to know why you guys haven't come to save the day with this stuff, you'd easilly win any election and the stomachs of thousands of people."

"And what good do you think thousands would do in the world, my young friend?  There are two million people in Boulder and half a million in Colorado Springs alone.  Do you think we are wizards or magical creatures?"  You self appointed tour guide gives you a skeptical gaze.


Look the ears are round, ok?

"I wish matters were that simple, Jefferson.  But it's not technology the surface dwellers lack but the willingness to use them.  You have great nuclear power but you use it to make weapons of war.  Boulder city can make far more then our machines can but the citizens dont use that power.  What do you think the people of Wichita would think of your bravery?"

"A young soldier named Mendoza once insisted we could change the world.  Our seeds would let him feed the people and stop the wars.  But the more land he reclaimed in Kansas, the more food the President demanded from him.  Mendoza grew power hungry and died a vengeful and angry man.  The people of Wichita were scattered to die in the poison wind and acid rains."

"There is a saying from long ago that we still remember under the mountains.  'Everyone is the hero of their own story'."

Puzzled you ask the woman why the mountain men brought you into their home.
"One lost national guardsman isn't a threat to us.  Although it seems to me now that you weren't really lost."

[Ozarck]

"I'm not gonna claim I made the world better. I made a lot of mistakes. I just wanted a better life. Your help might not transform the world out there, but you could make life better for a few. I think that matters. Do you think it matters? I guess you'll have to judge for yourself whether the risk that I'll become something awful outweighs the hope that I will do good in the world, even if just a little."

((I voted against the whole "why didn't you help" line of questioning. Oh well, it gives us insight. I think it lowered their opinion of us though.))

[mainiac]

((I think it lowered their opinion of us though.))

((Nah, it was a pretty legit line of questioning so I wanted to answer it even though the votes were against it.  No opinion penalty.))

Then, ask if they will be willing to teach us some survival skills. We'd be willing to rotate people through some kind of workforce and do grunt work and the like. Tell them we simply don't understand them enough to know if there is anything we can offer in exchange, except loyalty. We don't forget our friends, nor do we forget the kindness of strangers, and if circumstances change, we will lend support to the mountain man cause, within reason.

"Even supposing I could convince my people to risk an extended period of contact with the surface, you would be asking us to pick sides.  We stopped our support of Mendoza as soon as he was in a conflict.  You are already in a conflict.  Suppose you had a 3D printer.  Soon you would make guns with it."

[Ozarck]

"I can't really argue with that line of logic. I don't know what to do, really. I am not going to abandon my people, I can't. Maybe some of them would give up arms for a peaceful life down here, but I think those have already left, long ago. The rest are in too deep. We may be simple caravan guards now, but we're still soldiers, fighting for what we think is right.

Can I at least have a way to contact you? Who knows, I might find someone who can use what you have in a way you would find acceptable."

((I can't really see this character being of much use to the mountain people. That is, unless someone else discovers their location, and they need military aid. But I am sure gonna veto any attempt to leak any info we have on them.))

[mainiac]

The woman has a brief conversation with the man operating the 3D printer.  There a soft hissing sound for a moment from the machine.  Then she opens the door and removes the newly created object.



"Did you know that right now there are still more then 7000 operational satellites in orbit around earth?  Rather impressive, is it not?  This watch will let you send me messages from most places if you press the button and tell it "Message for Cassandra".  Expose the surface to sunlight to keep it charged.  My people used these watches when we made pilgrimages across the surface, before it became too dangerous.  I would be interested in your experiences on the surface.  Oh... and if you ever find a forest, send me pictures and I will be most grateful.  And if you find anything you think might entice my people to open their doors, I will hear you out."

[3man75]

"If at first you don't succeed. Fine i'll take your watch and send you a Forrest picture one day. Then i'll come back with improvements from Boulder city.

I'm the vengeful guy that will surpass everyone expectations. See ya around."

Leave back to camp and see what's happened in our time gone.