Mission 1, Chapter 0.0"Alright, listen up volunteers."Commander Eren, commander of the Helicarrier (a title he refused to give up despite its state), stands before the six of you: "The Fantastic" Húlí Jr., Tara Godorich, Farose Snow, Thomas Smithson, Vincent Dodge, and Harold Godwin. Behind him is the central "gate" to Airship City. The jury-rigged nature of it is obvious -- its scrap metal construction stands at a rigid contrast to the Helicarrier's hull surrounding it.
"Out there, order ceases to exist. Some of you have already been outside, but remember that it gets worse with every day." Eren pauses, looking behind himself at the gate, before returning his gaze to his volunteers.
"If I had a choice, we wouldn't be doing this. No one deserves to be outside; but I -- we -- don't have that choice.""Your first mission is relatively straightforward," he continues.
"Food. There's a Toskesh village somewhat nearby that was occupied by Nogrania during the war. According to old reports, the Nogranian soldiers suspected some kind of bunker system where the locals held food and supplies away from the occupation forces. With any luck, those supplies will still be there and with minimal radiation thanks to the supposed bunker. Head to the village, secure the supplies and anything else you find, then bring it back home so we can keep eating for a while."The Commander motions forward a pair of men holding a somewhat-large metal crate, labeled "EMERGENCY SUPPLIES". It's then pried open to reveal an assortment of gear and supplies that have obviously been scavenged from across the Helicarrier before being brought here.
His voice is a bit quieter, albeit not
quiet by any means, as he begins speaking again.
"This is your gear. It's not much, but it's all we can spare before our active-duty guards start losing equipment. Sort out the specifics amongst yourselves. There should also be a map detailing your trip in there somewhere. Grab your gear, do some planning, then when you're ready, just let the guard in front of the gate know. You'll be walking, as it isn't too far away and we can't really afford to spare any of our 'copters. Good luck."Not a moment after he finishes speaking, the Commander walks away into the deeper portions of the ship, followed by his entourage of two guards. Leaving you with your fellow volunteers, the crate, and the single guard on the inside of the gate.
The crate contains the following:
- 2x Meng 35 9mm Handgun (Interwar Toskesh handgun that has no safety, iron sights, or trigger guard, but is extraordinarily reliable. 8 round magazine, accurate to 20m.)
- 1x NG-11 "Earsplitter" Revolver (A very slow-to-reload [1 spent shell ejected at a time] 6-cylinder Nogranian revolver using short-barrel .50" rounds. High stopping power & recoil, accurate to 40m.)
- 2x Crowbar (Useful for prying open things or, more likely, bludgeoning things to death/severe bodily harm.)
- 1x Shovel (You can dig. Or you can hit someone with it. Either way works.)
- 1x Radiation Suit (A full-body suit designed to protect against radiation. Fairly rare, due to a perceived lack of worry for a nuclear bombing in the landmass before the bombs fell.)
- 1x Toolbox
- 5x .50" Earsplitter rounds
- 3x Meng 35 9mm magazines
You may also do some exploring/scavenging/bargaining/something else amongst Airship City for whatever reason, if you wish. This box is just what they managed to scrounge up in a short time period, but there could always be more stuff strewn across the place. Your status as volunteers may give you some leeway and reputation, but the populace of the City doesn't exactly have any faith or trust in you at the moment. You can spend a decent amount of time here before you leave, if desired, but if you spend
too long you fear that someone may get mad at you.
Begin.
Current TeamName: The Fantastic Húlí Jr.
Previous Occupation/Profession/Specialty: Engineering assistant, fisherman.
(Optional) Appearance: 21yr old Chinese man with goatee, patched jeans, dress shirt. Mildly bedraggled at all times.
(Optional) Biography: The son of esteemed engineer TFF Sr. Only a recent arrival to the City after his father spent years searching for him in the wasteland, he is immensely grateful for the security offered by the city, though is still slightly confused by the Nogranian people. Eager to help secure his home against the threats it faces, he has volunteered to go out in to the wastes.
Name: Tara Godorich (née Pebban)
Previous Occupation/Profession/Speciality: Airship stewardess
Appearance: A round-faced, rosy complexioned young woman of just below average height. She is slightly on the plump side but with fine features, and despite having a fair bit of red in her brownish hair the amount of freckles across her peachy-coloured skin is fairly mild in severity.
She dresses functionally, but comfortably: sometimes in a baggy green jumper or sometimes in a short blue shirt-dress, but always with a pair of sturdy, many-pocketed cargo pants on underneath, zippered at the knees allowing them to be quickly transformed into shorts if necessary.
Biography: A fresh-faced young crewmember aboard the Quetzalcoatlus (whose name she still pronounces with careful deliberation after all this time) when the bombs went off, Tara Pebban was one of the voices in favour of founding what later came to be known as Airship City from the start. Idealistic, upbeat and eager to help anyone she could, she soon fell for one of her new neighbours who shared these qualities: Daniel Godorich, a rookie rocket-pod gunner from the Helicarrier.
After having endured the various hardships of the city's early formative period together, the young couple married. The oddball, improvised ceremony the community came up with served to bring the two factions (Airship and Helicarrier) closer together, and before long Tara gave birth to a rather sickly girl who they named Cynthia.
Besides caring for their perpetually-ill daughter as best they could, in the few intervening years Tara became even more of a powerful organisational force within Airship City, coordinating repairs, supply distribution and the like, helping to arrange patrols, occasionally dealing with traders, mediating disagreements and just generally raising morale here and there with a kind word or a joke.
Meanwhile, Daniel rose through the ranks of the city's rag-tag defence force, his quick reflexes and finely-honed rocket gunning skills leading him to become something of a major asset - if perhaps making a mess of his nerves at the same time.
When the call went out for volunteers, Tara did not hesitate to step forward - much to her husband's displeasure.
Whilst she had managed to hold on to her youthful idealism and surefootedness, the stress of his ever-more-vital and dangerous role in the city's defence, not to mention the constant worries of Cynthia's poor health, has prematurely lined (as well as scarred) Daniel's face, changing him from the carefree, courageous young man he had been into someone far more pragmatic, irritable and ruthless. Now, not only is his wife (for whom he still cares a great deal, despite their growing differences) wandering out to a near-certain death in the wasteland, Daniel will be left to care for his daughter's mysterious illness on his own as well as everything else. It comes as hardly a surprise that his temper is very frayed these days.
For her part Tara, beneath her outwards display of concern for Aircraft City and determination to secure the wellbeing of its people, hides a far more pressing desire - a desperate hope of finding some old-world medicine, or a doctor, either potent enough or skilled enough to cure her daughter's unknown illness and allow the three of them a chance to be a somewhat normal, happy family at last.
She wouldn't admit that even to her husband, though - and so, apart from a quick, tight hug with Cynthia, her departure on this first mission is punctuated by an ugly screaming match with her husband, putting her in an inauspiciously foul mood for the beginning of the journey.
Name: Farose Snow
Previous Occupation/Profession/Speciality: {Hunter(Unknown/Natural Ability|Muscle Memory)}
Current Occupation: Student Graduate
(Optional) Appearance: Black Hair, Green Eyes. 4'7, 16, Female
(Optional) Biography: One of the survivors, she was picked up by special forces. She appeared to have lost her memory, and the only thing she remembers was Farose.
She was given the Designation Farose Snow on as her name as a result.
She has gone through most of the schoolwork from the semi-formal schools that were set up, and passed the graduation exam.
Having spent most of her time readjusting, something calls to her, to go back to where she was, so she has volunteered to be a part of this force.
Name: Thomas Smithson
Previous Occupation: Merchant
Current Occupation: Caravan Guard
Backstory: a proper English friend from the Norgranian tunnels, Thomas was born into the grand nation of Nogrania and promptly dragged underground at the age of 13. He ended up initially farming under the engineer Nuke before getting a job on a surface caravam. He decided that three years in, he had had enough. The grinding tension, senseless nationalism, and the complete ignorance on both sides of the engineers on both sides clamoring for peace had pissed him off, so he caught the next train to the surface and petitioned the airship city for citizenship, with the air of some... discount goods from the tunnels.
Name: Vincent Dodge
Previous Occupation/Profession/Specialty: Soldier
Bio: Lazy enough to only do the minimum required work at the last possible moment.
Name: Harold Godwin
Previous Occupation: Religious “Leader”
Appearance: Pleasant looking older man, late 40s, wearing simple garb.
Bio: Harold wasn’t particularly religious prior to the nukes, but needed something to keep him going in the aftermath. Life was hard, and Harold found a religious book among some supplies he scavenged. He flicked through it during some down time in the evening, and discovered the philosophies contained within to make sense, and he vowed to look deeper. His meaning was found!
While he was often looked upon as a little kooky by other survivors, a small group of people indulged him and listened to his often inane ramblings about higher callings and deities. People didn’t follow the dogma he spouted, but he was a good listener, and was always willing to lend a hand for those in need.
He came across a story within the text about a prophet who went out to proselytize among the peoples surrounding the holy city of this particular religion, but the pages containing the conclusion to the story were unfortunately torn from the book. Harold took this as a sign that his future was to spread the message, and decided to set out from Airship City to help the surrounding settlements find the truth, anyway he could.
Name: Edward William Lightoller
Previous Occupation/Profession/Speciality: Soldier/Stalker/Kotland Scavenger
Appearance: Bulky, dark haired man with bear-like frame, sporting an ridiculously British walrus moustache. Usually dressing in a modified and personalized variation of old Nogranian Uniform that has been fixed many times over and has been adapted to better suit the needs of post-apocalyptic world.
Biography: He was one of the soldiers that helped Kot set up his Kotland settlement, and he's generally a pretty nationalistic proper Nogranian foot lad who shoot a fair bit of Toskesh in his times, but now he's one of scavengers that roam the wastes and look for useful stuff. He is willing to join up on the condition he gets a share or is otherwise compensated for his skills.
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Topic: Sustaining the Behemoth: Mission 1, Chapter 0.2 (Read 4616 times)