Emerging: End of Days IC, Will you face the Apocalypse? Recruitment Always Open Options

[sabs]

Sticks
[StillWater Compound]

Sticks scans the area and sighs. "Why is there never an officer when you need one." Checking the map lay outs and the available information he pondered. <<Kitt, you're Overwatch. Faraman, give Kitt full access to Betty Sue. How many Scout Drones do we have. I want a 3 K radius around us scouting the area. No surprises.>>

"Corporal Gash, we'll need Magical Reconn. I don't want anything magical getting within 3 K of us, without you telling me about it. Kitt will set up you up on the Reconn Channel." The robotic head turns to the others, "Lets have a quick rundown of who you are, and what the hell you're good for. Also, please allow Kitt to check your commlinks and subscribe you to the appropriate channels."

[ Spoiler ]

Green text between quotes means the voice is 'robotic'.

[PoliteMan]

Mercenary Joey "Raccoon"
Stillwater Compound

That's a bit more like it.

Joey, former Wildcat, wilderness specialist. Went by the codename "Raccoon" back in the day.

I know wilderness, know what lives in it and how to stay hidden in it. I'm also a bloodhound, cyberware, the whole nine yards. I can smell a fart a half mile away and I could track any of you for miles just off your stink.

In combat I do sniping. I use a modified Barret 60 cal, so any hit'll wreck most folks or even light vehicles. Give me time to set up my shot and I can threaten anything short of a tank. Course, I can also mix it up with my axe if need be.

What I ain't good at is this networking thing. I got the AIPS in the Crash and I can't stand wireless. My suits got a Faraday cage set up, so all your signals ain't bugging me, but try to hook me up to a network and all you'll get is a good cussing.

[sabs]

Sticks
[StillWater Compound]

"A Wilderness man and Sniper I can't talk to aynt worth a pile of drek in a can." The Mecha sits there for a second, as if Sticks is considering something. <<Kitt, we got any good old fashioned transmitter/receivers with some kind of headset for our Wildcat here?>> It is somewhat disconcerting how still the mecha seems to be. "And you can't see the maps, or the way points." The Mecha shakes it's head, "How am I supposed to work like this."

[PoliteMan]

Mercenary Joey "Raccoon"
Stillwater Compound

You can download your maps and static tac info to my suit, that'll work fine.

I can lower the Faraday every now and then to report in. Or you could set me up with a partner if you gotta micromanage me. Rina seems to be a sniper, so might not be a bad match, if she can keep up.

Beyond that, I recommend you get used to not looking over my shoulder, give me a couple broad objectives, and just let me do what I do.

[Aria]

[Stillwater Lakeshore]

Kit offered Racoon a purloined old fashioned comm with throat mic and headset unit and a holographic HUD interface,

“It’s not as good as the real thing, and I don’t suppose the benefits will be the same but this will feed you our tactical information and let you keep in touch with us. I’ll patch it through to the main comm channels as I seem to have landed the task of keeping everyone in communications range.”

And she moves off once more towards the hulking figure of Sticks, grabbing the running rail attached to the lead Roadmaster and clinging precariously

<<@Sticks: We’ve got eyes in the sky and I guess we can maintain a three k perimeter. For anything more you’ll have to rely on the three Yellowjackets. We’ve got the Hotspur on point and the Apaloosas for the flanks and they should be able to give us some warning of anything coming. So are we ready to roll? Give the order Sarge, seems like you’re the boss again for now …it’s good to be working with you again, even if it is somewhere as weird as this!>>

The Hotspur screams to a halt beside Racoon and a wild looking man leans out of the door

“You riding with me I hear?”

And he gives you a decidedly feral grin

“They don’t trust me with the Deep guys…probably just as well. So you and I are going to see whatever’s out there first! Wonder what the techs have dreamed up this time?”

The Hotspur guns its engines and in a spray of gravel heads away from the column and around the southern boundary of the lake.

Immediately beyond the line of the pylons the atmosphere changes, it feels darker and more oppressive. A lurid sun suddenly strikes through as it dips beneath the turbulent clouds. Rather than lifting the creeping feelings the red caste to the light caused by the dust clouds makes it feel like you have been dipped in gore.

A short distance on and you reach the 203 which marks the border with Redmond. The river is black in the failing light and in the distance you can see the reflected glow of man-made light from the ‘plex bouncing off the cloud cover.

Suddenly there is a white flash and you wonder briefly if the simulation has come to an abrupt end…then you see the blooming mushroom cloud rising from behind the horizon…somewhere in the vicinity of downtown Seattle…the direction you are headed in…

[Seth]

Corporal Gash - Magical Supression
[Stillwater Lakeshore]

"Well if cannot use Wifi stick these in your ears. They don't do Simsense or anything, they just make a noise" Gash hands over a set of earbuds. "You can thank me later"

"I'll keep an astral eye out boss. If you don't mind I'll stay in my body: but I will have some patrols out". Watcher spirits begin to appear around, and start to circle in the astral space around

Then the noise happened.

"Samedi!" Gash whispered as he dived to the floor. "A Nuke. A real nuke. Everybody down...don't just stand there! Lie down!"

[Aria]

[Stillwater Lake Shore]

The hot wind that hurtles towards you blows the tortured clouds ahead of it leaving a lurid vision of the sky and the looming thunderhead around the mushroom cloud. Lightening crackles in the dry air and catches in the throat.

Sandman’s voice comes across the ‘link

<<Suitcase nuke. Nothing to worry about at this distance, we’re some twenty miles from the centre of the blast. The real fireworks will start in a minute…this is serious folks, just want to impress that point if it isn’t clear already…Downtown core, due west, about now…>>

Streaks of light spear from the heavens leaving burning after images seared on your retinas

Mother of gods…thor shots now…someone wants to make an impression on something over there…hopefully your route won’t be anywhere close…

<<Move ‘em out Sticks>>

[sabs]

[StillWater Lakeshort]

"Corporal Gash. Pull yourself together." says the robotic voice. "Wolf Cub, find yourself a vantage point on the caravan. Rifle out, if we get in the Drek, you start killing things until we tell you to stop."

<<HotSpur, You're point, I want you 3 k ahead of us, at least. Here _link_ is the route we're taking.>> "Racoon, make sure we've got ourselves a nice safe trip up to Edmonds, your driver has the route." Inside his cocoon Sticks was nervous, this kind of operation really needed an officer's touch. <<Faraman, give me info on that nuke and those Thorshots. Estimated points of impact, size of radiation cloud, the works.>>

<<[Strike Force] Move out! >> That said, Sticks' Heavy Mecha began to jog it's way forward keeping up with the slower moving vehicles in the convoy. <<Kitt, start feeding me visuals, and spectrum bands from the yellow jackets and the Alpaloosas. Faraman, start analyzing the footage, run it in window 6.>>

[PoliteMan]

Mercenary Joey "Raccoon"
Redmond Barrens

Holy Drek! Didn't think I'd ever see anything like that.

Hey boss, our spooky friend have any idea what just got nuked? I mean, if they dropped fraging Thor shots on it, there was something there worth dropping Thor shots on. If this is going to turn into a bug hunt, I'd really rather know now.

For a minute, even under the orange nuclear sky, riding through the ruins of outer Seattle, Joey takes a minute to enjoy the ride. On the road, working with a proper military outfit, wind ruffling over his armor, Wish I could take of my helmet it was the best he'd felt in years.

Turning to the wildman next to him, What's your name pal? And how many times you been through this thing?

Fifteen minutes later, Joey comms, Hold up for a minute, I wanna take a sniff, see who else has been running through here.

[Seth]

Corporal Gash - Magical Supression
[Stillwater Lakeshore]

"I'll scan ahead and see what I can. " Gash explodes out of his body, armed and armored. He and Legundo headed as fast as only spirits can towards the area of the Nuke, pausing some distance away to see what can be assensed from the astral. "What do you think Legundo" he muttered as he peered into the distance

[Aria]

Gash
[Astral Space over Redmond]

Free of the limitations of your body you glory in the feel of the astral. Here it is the size of your will that determines your power. Legundo is beside you, resplendent in his natural form. From the relative purity of the astral sphere over Stillwater you can clearly see the massive astral disturbance from the blasts downtown. There is a blast wave of sorts rushing outwards from the impacts but it is being gradually subsumed into the general miasma of misery that seems to hang over the major population centres – and the ‘plex is one very big population centre.

There are less life forces out here than you would expect to see. Given the relative isolation of Stillwater you would expect there to be more signs of wild life, particularly in light of the healing magics that you know have been used to clean the manasphere and mundane world around the community. It is like the area has been cleared by the threat of earthquake or forest fire...except you have a feeling that it is a threat far more deadly than either of those...

Across the river you see signs of devil rats...nothing will kill those little buggers! Circling around the column as it advances down towards the 203 you see flickers of metahuman life centred around what appears to be a crashed vehicle of some sorts – its astral presence muted by its technological nature.

Moving closer you see that there is something deeply wrong with their auras...their will is blank, consumed even? And there is something dark hovering over them, possessing them...

Racoon
[Hotspur on Point, Redmond]

The wolfish man grins at you

“You can call me Feral...I mostly here as an observer as I’ve been through a couple of these sims before. I can tell you that they are rarely the same twice...the tech heads want to keep us on our toes!”

Lifting your nose to the wind rushing through the Hotspur’s cage frame you smell the pervasive decay of the barrens assailing your nostrils – nothing you wouldn’t expect – it almost serves to mask the smell of death which you catch in a whisper of wind as you pass a crashed bus. By the looks of things it was headed towards Stillwater when it went off the road for some reason.

The Hotspur flashes past and then you see movement in the smashed windows of the bus...something is alive in there!

Wolf Cub
[Roof of Citymaster APC 1, Redmond]

Coming down the side of the valley towards the Snoqualmie river you see the Hotspur racing ahead, about a kilometre in advance of the column and gaining distance. From your vantage you can see they have just past a crashed bus with another wrecked vehicle further down the embankment.

Your scope is difficult to steady against the movement of the APC and the dry gritty wind that is washing over you but you clearly detect movement inside the bus...someone, a white female of about middle age, is climbing out of the door and moving to the side of the road, watching the dust cloud kicked up by your forward scout.

Sticks
[Column Flank, Mech 1, Redmond]

Faraman fills your tactical display number 6 with streaming data, chaotic weather front maps, radiological signatures...

<<Satellite telemetry confirmed. Target zone: Seattle Downtown. Estimated target: Aztechnology Pyramid and surroundings. Prevailing westerly wind is propagating the radiation cloud towards the east. Estimated casualties: Unknown – insufficient data. Visual mapping is impossible due to the mushroom cloud.>>

Kit forwards you the data windows from your air support overhead.

<<I’ll send over the feeds from the flankers once we get off this road and they can widen our profile a bit>>

Sensors are confused by the massive amount of electromagnetic interference caused by the bombardment over Downtown but there are telltales of some sort of aerial signature over Touristville...impossible to tell at this distance what this might be, probably a flock of birds disturbed by the cacophony caused by sat based weapon systems being used on a civilian population!

[Seth]

Corporal Gash - Magical Supression
[Stillwater Lakeshore]

Gash returned to report.

<<[Gash]: Sarge there is some serious heavy duty mojo going down <here:embedded ARO>. The astral plane is strange. It's mildly tainted, but it's stronger as well. If I was Gandalf I would tell you what was going on. As it is I think we should send some drones to look at the mojo place. It looks like a wrecked vehicle, but the occupants are being possessed by something. Stopping that something would be good.

Do you want me to stay back on warding duty, or go and get a closer look?>>

[PoliteMan]

Mercenary Joey "Raccoon"
Redmond Barrens

Couple times. Sounds like good odds for making it ok. Where you, one sec...

Joey pauses for a second. Watching the bus, he picks up his rifle, leaving it casually in his hands.

Hey boss, I got something moving here. Don't smell quite right though. Joey pauses while Gash reports in. Requesting permission to divert the convoy north, sir.

[sabs]

Sticks
[Column Flank, Mech 1, Redmond]

<<You're the Scout son. You got our destination, you get us there how you want.>>
Sticks diverts one of the Yellow Jackets to do a fly by, so he can get eyes on the problem. <<Gash, are there living people in that thing? Or are they gone?>> There is a pause, <<I guess that means I want you to check it out>>

Sticks holds up the column as Racoon picks out a new trail for em. <<Faraman, give me an ammunition report for that Yellow Jacket.>>

<<Wolf Cub, get ready, we're probably about to kill a bus load of once and future civilians.>>

The mini gun in Sticks' hands starts to spin up, not wanting to waste the time later.

[Seth]

Corporal Gash - Magical Supression
[Stillwater Lakeshore]

"Sir!" and with that Gash leaves his body behind again.

Nodding to Legundo, "OK lets go back and see what we can. " Gash mutters a short prayer, an invocation to Papa Legba to keep the works of Samedi at bay. Wrapping himself and Legundo in the strongest magical barrier that he is capable of, he heads back towards the evil vortex.

[PoliteMan]

Mercenary Joey "Raccoon"
Redmond Barrens

Gotcha sir.

Turning to Feral

Ok Feral, we got something spooky in that wrecked bus. Take us half a kilometer north and then plot a new route to Edmonds. Plot up a new course for the convoy as well, keep em a quarter kilometer away from that bus at all times. And keep your eyes out and the wheels turning, might be more of these things.

Joey trains his rifle on the bus and focuses his vision magnification on the bus.

Now let's see if it's nasty or just a couple chipheads.

[Seth]

Corporal Gash - Magical Supression
[Approaching Shedim Vehicle]

This is crazy dangerous Gash mutters to himself. He has faced the Shedim before, and it has never been a pleasant experience. At least it was day time, the Shedim were not quite as bad in Sunlight. Still if Sgt Sticks wants a report, then a report he will get.

"Take this message back to Sgt Sticks" Gash mutters instructions to a quickly summoned Watcher.

Making sure that he and Legundo approached the vehicle from the direction of the Sun No Shedim will be looking this way Gash moves to get a better look.

Back at the main body of troops, the watcher manifests in front of Sgt Sticks. "Sir! Corporal Gash Reporting. Definitely Shedim. Keep in sunlight if possible. Try not to engage in melee combat. Elemental ranged weapons are of course the most effective. Do not rely on sight, or sound, ensure millimeter wavelength radar active."

[sabs]

Sticks
[Column Flank, Mech 1, Redmond]

The Mecha looks down at the materialized spirit and nods. "Report back: Acknowledged, Raining Hell." The Mecha stood up and let it's eyes skim over the location. <<Yellow Jacket, Designation Rising Thunder. Turn that bus into slag.>> <<Wolf Cub, if they start moving our way, exterminate any that survive the aerial assault. Headshots only.>> Sticks sighed nervously, this would be the first test to how these people reacted. <<Convoy, move following new path designated by our scout team. Go.>> Sticks kept his gun trailed on the bus, wanting to preserve ammo for later.

[Aria]

Sticks

<<Rising Thunder acknowledged. Weapons live. Engaging hostiles.>>

The yellowjacket sweeps in from the south, its downdraft spinning the waters into a frenzy. The dying sunlight streaks through the clouds one last time as it sinks in a bloody haze behind the mountains to the west...so much for using sunlight to weaken your foes...

<<Missiles hot. Locked on. Fire.>>

Racoon

Feral leans across to you as the hotspur bounces over more rough terrain, narrowly missing a fallen snag, and whispers conspiritorially

“If your man fries everything hostile in sight between here and the objective you’re gonna run out of ammo before you reach the coast!”

We’ll cross the river on the bridge up ahead and then we’ll be back on track...if we go further off road it’ll take ages to find a crossing and I’m guessing we don’t want to swim just yet?

Gash

As you warily approach the shedim on the astral plane once more it locks your eyes behind your swirling barrier. You can feel its hunger and rage, the sensation crawling across you like a swarm of fire ants. It gives you a ghastly grin and then you are aware of the sudden whosh of fire from the speeding gyro and seconds later the area is consumed in an inferno.

Wolf Cub

Through your scope you have a vivid view of the scene as the convoy turns off the road and prepares to forge a way through the woods. The wing mounts of the yellowjacket spit two rockets that spin lazily towards the waiting wreck. Fire blooms around the woman and you see her scream in anguish as she is consumed. Figures come lurching out of the wreckage wreathed in flames and the firelance on the gyro spears one of them on incadescent light before it shoots overhead...it looks like you will be called on for those headshots. The scope shows you that these were once factory workers judging by their smouldering uniforms...but now they are simply targets to be put out of their misery, aren’t they? At least you can reassure yourself they’re not human any longer...nothing normal could be walking out of that...

[PoliteMan]

Mercenary Joey "Raccoon"
Redmond Barrens

To Feral, Nah, no point causing a fuss now. Let 'im get comfortable in command first. 'Sides, looking back on the emerging Shedim, some things are worth killing.

Keep you ears open, those missiles probably attracted some attention. Don't want to get ambushed by someone else. Let's let Rina take care of those zombies. And if she can't, *shrug* best to know now, ain't it.

[Seth]

Corporal Gash - Magical Supression
[Approaching Shedim Vehicle]

Time to get seriously Medieval on their asses Gash thinks. Moving just outside the astral ward, he locks onto the possessed factory workers. Whatever they may look like on the mundane world, their astral forms shouted their possessed nature.

I just hope they are as vulnerable to magic as the ones I fought in the past. With that Gash unleashed a swarm of Slaughter Spirit spells

[Aria]

Gash
[Astral space over Redmond]

Your spells lash out through the astral plane and rend the spirits from their hosts. Psychic screams of rage echo into the firmament and you have an uncanny feeling that it is a call…but surely such things aren’t possible?

Dimly you perceive the hunks of metal that make up the convoy divert north into the woods before heading around to cross the river ahead…

All
[Convoy through Redmond

The shedim are fast on their feet, considerably more dangerous than the typical zombies of the trid…it helps that they don’t feel the pain of their host bodies perhaps…

The air ripples around them and in quick succession they drop motionless to the ground but not before a despairing cry rings out…a howl that sets your teeth on edge and makes you grip our weapons just that little bit harder.

[Seth]

Corporal Gash - Magical Supression
[Stillwater Lakeshore]

Gash returns to his body

<<[Corporal Gash] Corporal Gash reporting. Three confirmed Shedim neutralized. Suspect Master Shedim or worse in charge. Require medic for minor injury>>

<<Private Channel to Sticks. I don't want to worry the other guys Sarge, but these Shedim aren't behaving normally. There is a least a Master Shedim out there, and I wouldn't mind betting that there is Grand Master too. By that I mean that I suspect that something more potent and different is out there. You know that the Shedim have never tried to pull of a Zombie Apocalypse...well I think they were waiting for something, and that something is here. If we kill bodies we had better destroy them, or the Shedim will just occupy them again.

This could get very messy.

I think we need to set up some fall back positions early on, with some serious elemental based damage traps. Barbed wire won't be too effective, but a laser fence would work fine. Getting them to wade through salt water, with some serious electric current will work too.

The good news is that if we kill the bodies I think we kill or disrupt the Shedim. The bad news is that there are probably a lot of them. However the Apocalypse won't be over until we deal with the Grand Master. I'm thinking of taking a quick look near where the nuke went off, and check out if its just Shedim or something worse. >>

[PoliteMan]

Mercenary Joey "Raccoon"
Redmond Barrens

Let's see, Shedim. Zombies, basically, right? Tough, but they're unarmored and our guns are big enough to splatter 'em good. Wonder if they've got anything that might endanger the convoy. I mean, a zombie is a zombie but that ain't nothin' but a speed bump to a tank, ain't like they can do anything but scratch the paint. And we're going into the woods, gonna slow the vehicles down.


To Feral, Shedim. Guess our officer boy's gonna get an excuse to really unload. What's our ETA to the river? We may need to gun it here in a sec.

To all,
Working on an ETA to the river, will be providing an accelerated ETA if we have to go full speed here.

Hey boss, how we doing on the heavy stuff? I mean, I got enough .60 cal to drop a host of zombies but I don't think regular ammo's gonna do much to these things. We got enough EX and high calibur stuff for a proper shootout? Or drek, got any hollow-point? We ain't gonna be using that at the base but it'll tear up unarmored bodies something fierce.

[sabs]

Sticks
[Redmond Barrens]

<<We've got enough, but we're conserving ammo best we can.>> Sticks takes a brief moment to check with Faraman about the status of their ammo. <<We've got ex-ex rounds, and would you believe some flechette rounds. But they're back here.. and you're up there. If you want me to send someone up with some let me know.>>

<<Kitt, keep the convoy moving, don't slow down there's probably something bad coming. Get a Medic for Gash. We need him back up and running. Lets move it people>> That being said, Sticks and the convoy do their best to pick up the pace.