The four of you.

Big John as you've come to known him, the muscle of the group, as well as the one that makes the rest of you feel good-lookin. Tends to tell stories to the kids at night when he thinks nobody is around to hear him.

Graves, who is the magic of the group, and tends to play the memory game a bit too well. The kids tend to call him Sparkles, though no adult has been made privy as to why.

Ole Joe, the backup firepower of the group, causing more than a few people in the fort to call him Gun. Not the friendliest, but without a doubt a solid cornerstone to the refugees.

And Mishka, who seems to have his own following of kids who do their best to imitate his every move when he's practicing in the yard, though the prize 'pupil', could they be called that, ends up being his own sister, who is becoming alot more durable than the months past.

The walls didn't last long, at least not at the height they were built, but they do stand a solid 8 feet high, just high enough to make crossing over them a pain in the ass, and have barbed wire fence along the top to keep intruders out. About 3 weeks have passed now, and the influx of people has died down, though the 'hotel' is now about 3 times as large as when Chicago fell, equipment borrowed from nearby buildings to enhance the number of living quarters, with most of the men spending their time either building it up, or harvesting fish from the lake for food. Walls had been raised to extend the property into and past the water, but food was becoming sparse, not that it was ever plentiful, and the local stores had all been wiped clean of provision over a week ago.

There has been no news on the radios as to the extent of the problem, or possible resolution, but certain shortwave broadcasts indicated that Chicago was only the first city of what would be many to fall. Seattle was the first 'other' city heard about, and it also fell to the bugs.

There was one major source of discussion and concern, and that was food shortage. A group would have to be made to go out and find a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, Central Chicago was far from farmland, and chances were too good that not only would there be no more stored provisions in the city, but anarchy could insure that the streets were controlled by lawless renegades out to survive in their own way, mostly by removing the competition.

Through suggestion and volunteering, it's this team of 4 that is decided upon. To find a way to open a passage out of the city, safe from the street thugs, and find food. Another option suggested has been to find fertile land in the city and seed it, since seeds were still easily found for gardening foods. That would require conquering and maintaining control over the nearby woodland area which seemed to be a central spot for the street renegades. Regardless, as the 4 who have voluntarily accepted the mission of finding a way to survive, the decision lies on your shoulders. The question being, what to do to survive and eat.

You have retreated to the upper level where a 'tower' of sorts overlooks what it can of the city as a watch tower, the 4 of you alone, and it is time to discuss how best to handle the situation.

OOC: It'll be easy to over-post in discussion if 2 people are on at the same time. Please be sure to allow time for people to respond before posting too much please. Tomorrow I will see what has been worked on and comment myself, but the game officially starts back up on Monday.

Eric climbed the last few uneven stairs to what had become affectionately dubbed the"fortress of solitude." He carried with him several empty mugs in one hand and a pitcher of Wyman's home made beer. They had climbed to these heights to escape the seemingly endless stream of complaints from the ungrateful citizens of "Bug City." He wasn't certain who had taken to calling it that, though he himslef had first heard it nineteen days ago as several children walked past. The city council had been holding 'committee meetings' to address the 'situation.' The situation was that they were rapidly running out of food. And, while the militia they had organized early on inthe quarantine was doing a fairly decent job of maintaining order, if food ran out they would be right back to day one; Not a place Eric wanted to revisit.

Eric smiled as he walked past Sven, the second shift city watchman. He nodded to the crew as they moved to the ladder to the upper room. "Hi-yas guys. Poker night?" he chuckled. Eric attempted a smile and handed Sven a mug. "Maybe his jokes get better with alcohol..." he said as he poured half a glass of stout into the mug. Sven frowned at the half-empty, mostly foam, mug and shot a sideways glance at the mage. "I guess we'll never find out, there's no alcohol in here, just beer flavored bubbles!" Sven complained. In his most patronizing tone Eric responded. "Rationing Sven, we all have to sacrifice. You get the foam and I have to put up with just beer."

They settled in to hash over the looming difficulty. Eric poured everyone half a mug of beer and flopped into the makeshift chair, which threatened to deposit him onto the floor. He waited for everyone to seat themsleves before speaking. "Wyman tells me that this is the last of his beer." the groans that followed made his next statement all the more difficult. "We are also dangerously low on food and the council has asked for volunteers to seek remedies. I offered us up to look for arable land to plant seeds. It seems we have plenty of those. Since the wall extends from the North along Wacker out to the lake. I think our best bet is to start there. If we start with our 'backs to the wall' as it were, we can concentrate on sweeping south and leaving a contingent of Joe's trainees to maintain order/defend the place. That is, if Joe thinks they're ready?" He looked at Joe for an answer. "If we can get half-a-dozen acres secure, it will give us enough space to get a farm started. And I don't know about you but I could use a break from this mess."

"Yeah I'd like to take a break from this mess too, but we're kind of stuck with it, aren't we? Joe adds. Or maybe we're not so stuck, I mean we could also try to use our forces to leave the city instead of finding some other place we need to defend again. The problem would be to fight the military, I guess. I dunno, I wouldn't want to fight trained soldiers and I don't think we could any more than we should. Damn, I give up on getting out of here any time soon, so let's talk about farming... " Joe says with a sigh.

"The guys are not that badly armed now but we're getting low on ammunitions. I have trained most of them but they aren't even at the level of street cops. And well.. I don't consider our regular Lone Star as that great of a sharp shooter. Anyways, it could be enough to fight off the street gangers though. At least for a while anyways, and I really fear too many losses on our side. I'm not so sure it's that great of an idea to use force as our main tool to do this even though that's what I'd be more confortable with 9 times out of 10. "

"Couldn't we instead plan something bigger and try to give other people food - and hope - too? If most of the community works on farming with us, it would become way easier to defend our property. I'm actually suggesting cooperation instead of war. Does anyone think it is even doable ??"

Joe is trying to go through all this as rationally as he does everything, but he appears kind of desperate instead. It feels odd to see him with this uncharacteristic lack of decision making and confidence. When would Joe normally turn down a fight for the greater good of the group?

Mishka waves away the mug Eric offers, content with taking small sips from the water bottle sitting nearby. He grows more and more perplexed as the discussion seems to focus on farming.

"I don't get it. We are almost out of food right now, and we are supposed to fix that by planting a garden? I've only seen Ma's flowers, but don't things need lots of time to grow? I don't understand how any of this is going to help us right now."

The big man scratches his blond head as he looks around at the others gathered in the 'tower'. He is quite hesitant to make any suggestions after the way he has been treated, but forces himself to go on for Tash's sake.

"We should be thinking about stockpiling real food now. Others must have some, and as we desperately need it, we should just take it from them, and worry about gardens later."

"Hmmm... if we could get ahold of those soya-growing machines the corps use for their arcologies, we ought to be set up for a while. Sure the food would likely be a bit on the bland side, but food is food. Of course, the question is how to get ahold of one. The military is shooting everything that tries to go out over land. Hmm... how about going under the land? You used your earth elementals to make our walls, could they make a tunnel going under the military's shoot-on-sight zone, Eric?"

"I'm not so sure it's that great of an idea to use force as our main tool to do this even though that's what I'd be more confortable with 9 times out of 10. " Joe says with a sigh.

Eric nodded in agreement. "I agree that the use of force is a least desireable option, but given our present set of circumstances I wouldn't want to leave the relative safety of the walls without having the option available to us if needed. You have said many times in the last few weeks that it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I'll be the first to suggest negotiating first. But, like it or not, we have one-thousand two-hundred and sixty three people depending on our efforts." Sometimes having a perfect memory really sucked. Eric longingly eyed the mug Mishka had declined and continued. "We have to do something."

Joe sat for a moment, lost in thought, and finaly asked. "Couldn't we instead plan something bigger and try to give other people food - and hope - too? If most of the community works on farming with us, it would become way easier to defend our property. I'm actually suggesting cooperation instead of war. Does anyone think it is even doable ??"

Eric shook his head. "If there were reasonable people running things out there yes, we could work together. Unfortunately most of the territory outside our walls is controlled by this gang lord or that maniacal madman. They 'own' everything we don't. But what really gets me is the fact that we have been left to rot in here by the government without so much as a 'by your leave!'

Mishka spoke up, startling Eric as the young man rarely said more than a sentence at a time. Not surprising given their history. "We should be thinking about stockpiling real food now. Others must have some, and as we desperately need it, we should just take it from them, and worry about gardens later."

The young man's words broung the room to silence. Eric was certain that the thought had been on everyone's mind but it shocked them to hear is stated so plainly. "It's not that simple Mishka." Eric began. "If we reduce oursepves to taking from other simply because we can, we are no better than the rabble we have been struggling against for the last month. We cannot allow ourselves to become animals. And as for stockpiling, we simply don't have the stores. We've been rationing but it will only go so far." He shouldn't have been surprised at Mishka's statements. Given what little he had gotten of his past Eric wasn't surprised at the young man's attitude. But that was then, this is now as they say.

Locke set his mug down and added. "Hmmm... if we could get ahold of those soya-growing machines the corps use for their arcologies, we ought to be set up for a while. Sure the food would likely be a bit on the bland side, but food is food. Of course, the question is how to get ahold of one. The military is shooting everything that tries to go out over land. Hmm... how about going under the land? You used your earth elementals to make our walls, could they make a tunnel going under the military's shoot-on-sight zone, Eric?"

"Not a bad idea. I wonder if astral travel is being prohibited. Given the speeds at which one can travel it would seem unlikely that they could stop it. If I could contact someone 'out there', maybe we can get some assisstance." Eric sat lonst in thought for a long moment before looking up. "I suppose I could send an elemental to make the tunnel. Though I have my doubts, it's as good a plan as any. It would allow us to bring in supplies as well as an escape if we are forced to run. Elementals aren't affected by viruses and diseases so I don't see why they wouldn't be allowed out. I might even be able to send a message for it to deliver. What do you all think?"

Mishka leans forward as he listens to Eric's answer to his suggestion. He takes his time trying to put a response in words, but by the time he opens his mouth the others have moved on to discussing other things that he has quite a bit of trouble comprehending. He sits back in the seat and contents himself to wait for an appropriate opening before speaking again.

"So why don't we just take the things we need from those fraggers that make up the rabble? Seems to me that would solve more than one problem at the same time. That's the kinda thing Sapphire or Neil would do."

"I'm morally opposed to stealing the goods, even from the rabble. As Eric has put it, we're better than that. I'm not surprised you came up with that idea, though." Joe says with disdain.

"Getting out of here still seems impossible if we do it straightforwardly. But doing it from underground is a different story. If the tunnel is deep and long enough, it might be possible. Although such a tunnel still puts us in a situation where food is going to be difficult to find on the short term. Also, once we're out, it's likely going to be hard not to be noticed from the authorities, even if we're miles away from Chicago. I believe for this plan to work, some reconnaissance is required and Eric, it seems like you could do it astrally."

After some thought, Joe adds almost philosophically... "On second thought, about what was mentionned earlier; if we kill the gangsters and criminals that roam the streets for the greater good of the community, we're doing something positive and helpful. That this happens to give us armament supplies and food supplies is only an extra advantage for doing this. Not our motive. So we could still consider this option after all. "

"I mean, we do want to free the streets from criminals. Let's just be more careful than we were with the Italian boys we encountered last time."

Eric shook his head. Mishka had put up with a great deal of distrust and ostricizing from the community for his brash and often draconian methods. Few of them took the time to find out why. If Eric was to believe the story, the young man's life was extraordinarily brutal.

"I agree that astral is probably our best option for recon. We need intel and I am in the best position to get it. As soon as we are done here I will get to work." Eric replied. Joe's next comment gave Eric a moment of pause. "You realize, " Eric finally said. "that that statement sounds like something Mishka would say?"

Joe looks down. "These are difficult times. I care about my family and all the people around here. We need security and food. I feel responsible." Joe pauses to swallow deeply and goes on. "I had been thinking about fighting the bastards before; for security purposes. Now we almost have to do it just for food as Mishka has indeed pointed. Although I don't like the motives of Mishka, I believe 'Criminals don't deserve pity, but justice'. I've always believed that. This time, justice dictates that criminals don't deserve the power and the food they have. That's my belief. I don't propose to go out and fight anyone who's got food; I simply want to get rid of the cutthroats and thugs.. and take their food."

"Man I'm so confused. I'm not sure what's right and wrong anymore..." Joe seems completely lost.

John smiles.

"Been there, done that. Although the gangers are a threat, we need food, and fighting gangers is a short-term solution. We'll soon run out of ammunition, and then we'll run out of food. I think that grabbing a corporate soy machine is our best shot at long-term survival. Once we have that, we can begin reclaiming the area from the thugs."

[IC Information]

There are 3 arcologies in Chicago with the resources to have and maintain their own Soy growth accelerator machines. These machines are primarily used for enclosed areas meant for maintaining their own life-support indefinitely. Chances are good that all 3 arcologies are already 'occupied' by the remnants of whatever war seems to have been happening out in the great city of Chicago. Brilliant Genesis, a Simsense company who has alot of 'big names' around. Truman Technologies, another Simsense company but only in distribution and hardware, they maintain an entire Park area on the WestSide with known paranormal security. And UCAS Steel and Manufacturing, the biggest company in Chicago just north of the Wrigley Dome.

"We need to find out which of the three local facilities with the equipment we need are occupied; in what numbers and dispositions. After we're done here I will perform astral recon of the grounds, look to the quarantine zone barrier for whatever security they have, and return to do some prep work. But astral recon isn't a substitute for the real thing. I am going to need some time, say twenty-four hours to prepare." Eric said. "Joe, John can you russle up enough heavy armor for all of us? I don't have any and I think we'll need it. I know we have the facilities to make it, though not before we leave, so I'd like to discuss later having some made for our cadre."

Eric leaves the meeting anxious and afraid. He had grow used to the illusion of safety they had constructed here behind the walls. Now he would be leaving his family behind once again to secure some future safety for them. He reached the moderate apartment where his family stayed and walked to the board in the kitchen. He scribbled a note to his wife about what he was doing and went to his bed. There he settled in for the work at hand.