The cold wind blew through the ruins growing out into the sky from the ash desert. The leeches at High Command had ordered your platoon to move through the desolate hell to reach a point of interest the survivors from the previous suicide trip reported. They had graciously provided yours with barely enough supplies and hover vehicles to ensure operational self sufficiency. You swore at them under your breath once again.As your squad glided between two broken concrete monoliths which seemed to reach as high as the clouds, you turned and asked your Navigation Engineer:“What’s our ETA Kara?”“At our current speed we will be arriving at the beacon in T-minus 20 minutes sir.” She responded.“Good, keep your eyes open. Scavs tore the other expedition into shreds, there might be hostiles in the area.” You replied.You looked back at the viewing panels, giving you a panoramic view of the land the hover-APC was zooming past. The usual ruined buildings and cities that looked like a particularly spiky tumour of steel and concrete no longer seemed to be as common as it was 2 hours ago. The rare pillars that went up to the atmosphere now were far enough into the horizon that it would take at least half a day for you to get to the base of the column with your convoy. Straight ahead you saw the ever present ash desert, the grey sea only got illuminated with occasional flashes of a rad storm brewing up off-pink lightning. If you weren’t inside the APC the smell of ozone would be overwhelming, since you were, the only smell was disinfectant and iron.
>>6300984The nav girl’s report that you were 10 minutes away from the beacon woke you up from your thoughts. With the pilot’s command all vehicles in the convoy engaged their slowdown protocols. Your speed started going down from hundreds of kilometers per hour to just about ten, indicating you had arrived at the designated landing zone. The landing zone, to no one’s surprise was a field of ash, as unremarkable as any other section of the dunes. If the beacon had not been there that is exactly what it would have been, but the scans indicated a large structure was buried about 40 meters under the ashen sea. It hadn’t been there in the report, but storms had the tendency to change the topology quite often, if one was particularly lucky they had the chance of being suffocated if tons of ash didn’t crush them first.The Comms Officer, a kid called Meli, opened a channel:“Landing site, uhh, not clear. Demolitions, please advise. Over.”A rough voice came from the other side:“Roger that Commboy. Clear space for AM charge, radius set 38 meters, fuse set 30 seconds. Over.”With that exchange, the convoy went into a circular formation and rose up to an altitude of 50 meters above ash level. A singular APC, the designated supply truck, went out of the formation to the center of the circle and opened their side door. A soldier in full gear lobbed an object no larger than a helm out of the door, which landed and stuck to the ground, starting the countdown. The wait didn’t last long, with a screech a dark purple field expanded containing the destructive potential to 76 meters, and the antimatter bomb simply removed a chunk of the desert from existence. The order for descent was given and the convoy came to a stop at the lowest point, now only a few meters away from the structure now identified as being made up of metal. The grav plates keeping the vehicles afloat pushed the remaining ash out of the way, preventing it from filling up the crater that was created and revealing a spherical object in the middle of the perimeter established by the hovercraft. The object was at the center of a large hole with a forcefield of what seemed to be hardened light covering it. It shimmered with fractal-like patterns, creating semi transparent waves on it. Most of the soldiers were now looking at the interesting sight.“An artifact, I can’t believe it!” The pilot exclaimed. Many others were joining in on his amazement. Indeed, not everyone got to see wonders of the old technology in their lifetime.
>>6300985“Comms, lock on and transmit the datapack to the object in the middle.” You ordered, as per the instructions you were given. That calmed down the chatter, at least within your APC. A few buttons were pushed on the boy’s panel, and a satisfying ping later the hard light field dissipated and the circular object split up into five pieces and attached itself to some engraved sections of the pit. You heard one slightly audible disappointed “awww” in the background which you chose to ignore.You ordered the pilot to move, one by one, the vehicles proceeded to the mouth of the shaft and started diving in. Once the last vehicle in the convoy entered, the datapack was transmitted once again to seal the way behind us.It was a long way down until the next clearing, as the almost solid steel that surrounded the crafts went on for almost .7 kilometers, and the cramped tunnel not allowing for a fast descent. You, same as everyone else, had some time to kill. You decided to go to your folding bunk, and try to get some shut eye, despite the incessant humming of the engine. You take off your helmet, and look at the communal mirror. Who are you?>ST0231203 “Lusua”, previous designation: Stormtrooper. You were an orphan scav taken from the ruins pushed to the frontlines. You always carry extra guns, and can make a pipepistol from scrap on a pinch. You also know scav-speak.>EC0609302 “Nemur”, previous designation: Engineer Corps. You had a family once, but they were killed in one of the purges and you were deemed young enough for indoctrination. You have a knack for maintaining machinery, and can usually identify and solve problems. You know binaric/tech-speak.>OC0723812 “Shen”, previous designation: Officer Corps. You were born in the Silat Industries Army settlement 021. Your family volunteered you to the military for extra rations knowing you’d die, they kept starving and you somehow lived through the frontline. You have a knack for maintaining people, and can usually identify and solve problems. You know proper hiver-lingua.>(Write in)You open your bunk and get in.What do you dream?>The old world calls, screams, whispers. Sound of metal and silicon and forgotten things.>A flag soaked in blood waves as a banner. Your hatred is righteous, your blade sharp.>The closed eye opens. You awaken. Secrets brush past you.
>>6300986There are certain things you are good at, perhaps that's why you survived so long. Choose 2 traits>You can speak, read and write the old script within the ruins. A living fossil.>You are strong, you can accidentally kill someone in a brawl easily. (Designation ST has this)>Socially conscious, you understand people in a deeper level. (Designation OC has this)>Machinist, you can maintain machinery well and fix broken mechanisms. (Designation EC has this)>Pyromaniac, extra flamer squads, Modified Belanus Flamer, burns hot enough to melt enemy armoured vehicles, can be overloaded to make a potent bomb.>Sharpshooter, extra marksmen, scavenged old world Railgun rifle, can pierce through almost anything.>Demolitions Expert, extra demolitions officers, hydrogen grenade launcher. (not recommended in close quarters)>Machine Gunner, extra machine gunners, modified las-beamer with a diffraction crystal for if the user wishes to cover a large area with deadly beams.>Infantryman, extra rifleman, smart chem-gun with autotargeting semi-armour piercing explosive bullets>Armour Doctrine, your vehicles are modified according to your specifications, they will be in prime condition for a lot longer without repairs. Don’t tell command about this.>Cybernetic augmentation, you have certain body parts replaced with steel (write in which body parts and the nature of augment)>Genetic modification, your own biology is an augmentation. (write in which body parts and the nature of modification)>(write in)
>>6300986>OC0723812 “Shen”, previous designation: Officer Corps. You were born in the Silat Industries Army settlement 021. Your family volunteered you to the military for extra rations knowing you’d die, they kept starving and you somehow lived through the frontline. You have a knack for maintaining people, and can usually identify and solve problems. You know proper hiver-lingua.Any other details necessary? Are we male or female? >A flag soaked in blood waves as a banner. Your hatred is righteous, your blade sharp.>>6300988>You can speak, read and write the old script within the ruins. A living fossil.>Pyromaniac, extra flamer squads, Modified Belanus Flamer, burns hot enough to melt enemy armoured vehicles, can be overloaded to make a potent bomb.
Quest rules:Vote in greentext.Write ins are encouragedSometimes, according to the expertise of your character you will get blue text options. These are automatic successes.No one is exactly sane in this world, including your own platoon. You can develop certain traits as you delve deeper.Friendly fire isn't.Blood is red, you think.You will be asked to roll sometimes, the enemies will roll most of the times. I welcome follow up questions, Further on, I will clarify if the information you're requesting is within your character's knowledge. Anything from advantageous positioning for your troops to take, potential ambush points, or what the taste of your protein paste is (its not good)Have fun!
>>6301010If you wish for it, you can vote for the other details. For the Conglomerate and your platoon your identity is "Commander".
>>6301014Alright then. This fine? >>6301010We're 31, female and a veteran of countless battles. We were educated at a military academy after our superiors noticed our potential after surviving multiple dangerous missions. There we learned the ancient languages. Smokes to cope. We have a new family back at the base. A toddler and a husband, they are everything to you that your old family isn't.
>>6301031I see that I have not given enough information. I apologize for the lack of knowledge provided. You are already a veteran, as is nearly everyone in your platoon. There are very few who didn't start out as child soldiers, and you don't trust them.Unless you are a mutant or a scav, in which case you are not able to be tightly controlled, or high command, the Conglomerate doesn't allow attachments.The state of the world does not allow for respite, and the sane chose suicide long ago. Only your squad has been mostly the same faces (about 7-8 months). Life expectancy is low.I am open to more questions if you are curious, but I had originally planned to introduce the world slowly, hence the lack of info. I will update as frequently as possible, but my job prevents me from doing so as of this moment for a few more hours.
>>6301042No problem. Thanks for the clarification. Can we still be a smoker though?
>>6301045Of course
>>6300986>OC0723812 “Shen”, previous designation: Officer Corps. You were born in the Silat Industries Army settlement 021. Your family volunteered you to the military for extra rations knowing you’d die, they kept starving and you somehow lived through the frontline. You have a knack for maintaining people, and can usually identify and solve problems. You know proper hiver-lingua.>The old world calls, screams, whispers. Sound of metal and silicon and forgotten things.>>6300988>You can speak, read and write the old script within the ruins. A living fossil.>Armour Doctrine, your vehicles are modified according to your specifications, they will be in prime condition for a lot longer without repairs. Don’t tell command about this.
>>6300986>OC0723812 “Shen”, previous designation: Officer Corps. You were born in the Silat Industries Army settlement 021. Your family volunteered you to the military for extra rations knowing you’d die, they kept starving and you somehow lived through the frontline. You have a knack for maintaining people, and can usually identify and solve problems. You know proper hiver-lingua.>The closed eye opens. You awaken. Secrets brush past you.
>>6300986For the origins of the woman I choose,>>EC0609302 “Nemur”, previous designation: Engineer Corps. You had a family once, but they were killed in one of the purges and you were deemed young enough for indoctrination. You have a knack for maintaining machinery, and can usually identify and solve problems. You know binaric/tech-speak.She dreams of,>The old world calls, screams, whispers. Sound of metal and silicon and forgotten things.and for traits I pick,>Armour Doctrine, your vehicles are modified according to your specifications, they will be in prime condition for a lot longer without repairs. Don’t tell command about this.We need our apc to keep going for as long as possible>Cybernetic augmentation, you have certain body parts replaced with steel (write in which body parts and the nature of augment)Specifically some neural implants
>>6300988>>6301058+1 to this
Vote tally for now:Designation:>Officer4>Engineer1Dream:>Banner of Blood1>Calls of the Old3>The Sleeper Awakes1Traits>Old script3>Armour doctrine3>Pyromaniac1>Cybernetic1Explicit votes for gender>Woman2
Locking votes, writing now.
Your eyes close looking at the exposed wires on the ceiling of the vehicle. As time passes, your consciousness fades and you open them to the open to an array of unfamiliar colours. You focus to reveal a field of green, a similar colour to the algae farms within the hab block of the hive you were born in. The confusing sensation of a pleasant dampness on your feet makes you look down and see what seems like a black substrate. You walk forward, the soft green blades brushing up against your waist, a field which seems to reach into the horizon, illuminated by a sunset and only broken up by the ever-familiar skyscrapers.. but the rust and broken concrete replaced by dancing lights of more colours than you can describe and a pristine shell. On the distance, a particularly gigantic one reaches up beyond the sky, the grey hue replaced by a beautiful blue. It connects to a platform in the void, an arch that you cannot see the end or start of, joining two horizons together. Your viewing is interrupted by the sound of screaming sirens all around you coming from the distance. You don’t take your eyes off the arch, the setting sun on the white metal making it look like a ring of embers. As your eyes examine it, a thick purple beam pierces the sky. You see debris spread out like an incendiary shell coming out of a cut barrel. As the arch is cut in twine, it starts getting closer to you, enveloped by a blanket of fire. The smell of ozone fills your nose.You wake up to a ping informing you that you are less than a hundred meters away from the rendezvous point. Your head hurts. Your left hand instinctively reaches for your top right pocket for some IHO sticks and your lighter and get out of your bunk. You see your engineer sitting in hers next to you, the stable mutant normally towering over the rest of the squad. Her eyes, pupils like knife wounds and irises of red and orange, looks at you and then your IHO sticks. You sigh and reach your hand out. She smiles revealing sharp teeth, her scaled green hand reaches out and grabs a stick. You move to the front of the hovercraft and light one up for yourself.The lights of the craft brighten up what seems like a series of thick pipes on the way down, you note that the circumference of the pit you originally entered had become much wider. Soon, you reach a spot which has some solid ground. As yours lands, the rest of the convoy follows. You take another note of your assets, two APC’s armed with heavy las-beamers, one with a heavy flamer, a hover tank with a railgun turret and an unarmed APC with an expanded cargo section.
>>6301439The last of the craft touches down, the pilots, more or less synchronised, open their vents to facilitate the cooling of the engine after the long journey. You look at the scanner and see that atmospheric readings show breathable air, and the beacon is only a few meters away from the landing site. As you look through the observation panels of the APC, the device, a long tube with a red flashing light and spikes that have punctured the wall to keep it in place, comes to view next to a rather large pipe. You order the convoy to point their lights at the walls, illuminating the area.To the left of your craft, towards what the gyrocompass registers as the southeast, huge letters written in the old tongue are visible. Although some letters had washed out, you can clearly read “Ma-nte--nce Tu-nel 01--3” written. From the report, you know that is the path the previous expedition had went, and for good or ill, you were expected to do the same. After the short period of cooling for your convoy, only 15 minutes thanks to your modifications, you give the order to start the engines back up again, leaving the beacon in place for your return.Before long, your platoon once again takes to the air. Broken pipes and exposed wiring line the walls you’re passing. It doesn’t take long for the tunnel you are in to start curving downwards, and soon all your crafts reach a 45-degree incline. You move deeper and deeper into the structure, but along the 5-kilometre mark within your journey into the tunnel you start noticing something peculiar. The environment seems like it has not been damaged by the passage of time, at least in comparison to the start of underpass, although wear and tear is still visible.Soon enough you reach the end, now 12 kilometres deep into the tunnel. The incline stops to give way to less inclined ground and the environment becomes much more open. To your awe, and to your crews judging by the lack of noise, you seem to be in a side passage to a hexagonal tunnel 3 kilometres wide and 2 kilometres deep, slowly curving into the distance. You ordered a beacon to be launched into the mouth of the tunnel you came out of, and after a brief manoeuvre by your supply truck you give the order to keep moving.
>>6301440A few more kilometres later you finally pull yourself out of the awe you feel to think about the situation at hand. None of this was in the report you were given, and overall the pristine condition of the environment, an impossibility according to your experience, still shocked you. Even your hovercraft seemed old and rusting in comparison. Speeding forward, your pilot indicated the end of the current passage you were in, followed by a cliff that dropped farther down then the reach of the scanner. You gave the orders to slow down at the opening, and once your convoy reached the end you were greeted by the sight of a vast expanse. Enormous buildings, dotted with shining lights reaching out from the ceiling and floor presented themselves before you. There was central structure in the middle of the area, if you were to guess about 5km long, surrounded by floating platforms. A layer of thick fog covered the floor.No one dared speak. For a while, the humming of the engine was the only sound within the APC. To people who’s only memory of the world had been ash and blood amidst decrepit ruins, this beautiful sight was simply unbelievable.The Comm’s Officer broke the silence:“W-we need to report this to the hig-“You slapped him on the back head before he could finish his stupid sentence. The mention of your superiors soured your mood.“No comm can pierce through millions of tons of metal you greenhorn, make a report when we get back.” You said, barely hiding the disdain in your voice.Going back to the mission, you asked your nav engineer:“What are the scans showing Kara?”“We are picking up some life signatures further north, to our right, Sir. And our material scans indicate that a large deposit of Fornaxium to our south, Sir. We.. can’t get any scans of the uuhh object in the middle. Sir” She responded. Even after the last campaign she hadn’t stopped calling you “Sir”, sometimes you thought she sounded a bit repetitive. There was a scav settlement mentioned in the report, you assumed the life signatures belonged to them. Fornaxium was the fuel your vehicles and flamers used, although your supplies were still plenty enough to last you a few months, the fornax could always be used as a potent explosive. The pillar in the middle was further away than anything else and you had no data on it.
>>6301442The pilot, and the rest of the convoy was waiting for your orders.You can choose more than one, but you must mention which order you will do so.>Move to the scav settlement. Scavs can be hostile, but you are as lost as a trench cat in a hive block here. Knowledge of the locals will be invaluable and scavs will usually trade when they want to. >Move towards the Fornaxium deposit. Extra supplies are always welcome, and its better to be prepared than fucked.>Move towards the central pillar. You have no idea what it is. You think you see floating objects going in and out of it.>(Write in)
>>6301445>Move towards the Fornaxium deposit. Extra supplies are always welcome, and its better to be prepared than fucked.1>Move to the scav settlement. Scavs can be hostile, but you are as lost as a trench cat in a hive block here. Knowledge of the locals will be invaluable and scavs will usually trade when they want to.2
>>6301491+1
Rolled 22, 71 = 93 (2d100)Rolling
Rolled 78 (1d100)Rolling for something else
locking votes
You gave your commands: “We’ll greet the locals later, set a course for the Fornax deposit”. Lusil, the pilot, nodded and opened the comms to the other vehicles in the troop: “This is A641 setting route, bound east, 539 klicks. Sending coordinates, taking point. Safe clearance set 300 meters. Over”.After a very brief period of responses, you saw parts of Lusil’s head implants light up as the engine spooled up. Soon enough, you start moving and the rest of the fleet fell in line to the designated formation. You felt the shake of the APC as you exited the mouth of the tunnel you had once been in and as the arcane machinery within the vehicle switched from hovering above smooth metal to the empty space within the main area surrounding the pillar.As you were travelling in a straight line to the deposit, you marked your surroundings. The room, for lack of a better word, was cylindrical in shape. Although the cylinder was large enough that looking from the walls of the room it seemed completely flat at first, only starting to curve in the far distance. The clearance within confines of the walls is littered buildings that seem to be almost growing from the ceiling, floor, and walls sometimes surrounded by equally large monuments floating silently besides the skyscrapers. Further off, obscured by the atmosphere, you thought you could almost see the buildings move.You grab another stick from the packet in your coat’s pocket and sit down at the folding chair attached to the inner wall of the APC behind the pilot’s seat. You look at the flight computer to see that you’re a bit less than a third of the way there, showing T -115 minutes until your arrival. You lit your smoke up, and the pleasant scent gives way to a nice buzz.
>>6301744Your thoughts were soon interrupted by the internal lights of the APC going red, and you instinctively found a handlebar to hold onto, and lost your IHO stick. Shit. Before you could react, the pilot shouted into the comms:“BRACE!”The pilot performed a rolling manoeuvre, spinning the APC to dive straight towards the wall. As the central pillar that had been to your right quickly took its place above and behind you, the rest of the fleet reacted and executed the same move. The artificial gravity within the hovercraft kept your feet in one place but was weak enough for you to feel the momentum of the vehicle to rapidly change and your smoke to fall to the back of the cart. Fuck. Your internal swearing didn’t last long, as the sensors indicated a large object, with what seemed to be its own gravitational field, falling towards your previous location terrifyingly fast. Quickly moving hundreds of meters away, your pilot had already removed you from the main collision course with the falling object but unfortunately the warped gravity surrounding it had already been fighting against your own grav plates. As the object came into view in the rear cameras, you realised that it had been one of the skyscrapers growing out of the ceiling, now detached and in a freefall. The field surrounding it was dragging numerous smaller panels and debris with it to who knows where, and your engine was giving the fight of its life to escape and not sink with the detached building. The APC shook violently. The reactor working its best was still not enough to escape the full field. You were being dragged a few kilometres, but at least you were far enough away from any of the other debris that had been falling. After one last struggle take you to the depths, the falling building’s field finally failed in keeping you in its grasp. You rapidly sped towards the wall, not being able to slow down at first due to calibration errors, Lusil managed to pull the APC up from the wall after creating some sparks between it and the frontal grav plates.The rest of the fleet followed suit, more or less following the same route. The skyscraper now above you were still falling down, completely blocking out the original route to the Fornax deposit. After a brief period of damage reports and roll calls, you were happy to hear that besides some tankers who hit their head, the condition of both the vehicles and the personnel were nominal.
>>6301746A new route to the deposit was made, this time hugging the walls. Due to the gravitational anomalies left by the building, and the strain you put on the hovercraft, you had to significantly reduce your speed. Kara punched in the coordinates to make a new path, and the flight computer showed about 10 hours of travel time. All things considered, you got lucky, except for your smoke, which somehow disappeared. The convoy started back up once again.The rest of the journey went on without a hitch. The clearing was painted as a flight risk in the nav logs, and you eventually arrived at your destination.“The Fornax is within that building sir.” Kara said, pointing towards a skyscraper connected to a dark tunnel in the wall via a wide but thin bridge. In letters much bigger than the hovercraft, you could read “DEPOT K2032” by the side of the building. You ordered the pilot to move to the bridge, and after the convoy arrived you noticed that there weren’t any doors present in the building itself.Not wanting to bring irreplaceable assets into a potential ambush spot, you ordered the hovercraft to stay on and around the bridge, setting up a perimeter. You took your helmet, suited up, connected the tubing of your respirator and opened the APC doors.With your orders, another squad joined you. Your lasgun hoisted up, you moved into the building and examined the interior. There were no windows, no nooks nor crevices that could be used for an ambush. Aside from the slight incline of a ramp leading up to the bridge, the most noticeable aspect was the Fornaxium canisters stacked neater than any army warehouse you had seen in your entire life. The canisters were organised according to size, the largest being 40-45 meters and the smallest ones the standard .5 meter canisters you had been used to.
>>6301749You quietly gave the order to your engineer, who towered above rest of the troops, to restrain the flametrooper before the fuelhuffer burnt the entire expedition to the ground. You gave the “all clear” to your armour, and three APCs, (two regular one supply) moved close to the Fornaxium to load it into the vehicles. You gave the supply officer the order to expedite the process. And moved back to your APC which was holding up the perimeter with the tank on the bridge.Inside, was your ever friendly engineer, Zami, with your flametrooper, Logi who was duct taped to his seat as tightly as possible, whose creative insults would be audible if he wasn’t gagged. You sighed and took a seat next to the mutant. You removed the helm you were wearing and gave her another stick of IHO, lighting one up yourself, Logi’s eyes fixated on the fire, and he finally shut up for a second, immediately continuing after the it went out.“Ssso.. what do you think about the misssion?” asked Zami. Despite her looks she had a soft voice. “I think command skimped out on the intel.” You grunted.“That’ss not what I mean” said Zami. Silence followed, you took another hit of the IHO and spoke: “I don’t like it, it doesn’t make sense for us to be here.” You paused “If command knew of this place they’d send the whole army, not us. But they received a report, obviously not the version we have, so this whole mission tastes of ash”She looked at you, and then looked forwards, seemingly in deep thought. Even Logi had gone quiet. Comms chatter from your helmet broke the silence after a few moments. You put it on to hear your supply officer: “Sir, we have finished loading up the fuel as much as we can. Over”.“Copy that. Let’s get back in the air and start moving, I don’t want to dawdle. Over”. You responded.
>>6301750Soon, the original crew of the craft took their place. The nav officer set up a new route, this time to the life signatures detected on the northern side of the curvature. Gravitational anomalies had calmed down; hence you could speed up a bit more while still hugging the wall. The journey would take about 6 hours. You started your engines back up again, now stocked with enough fuel to last a few years, held on as the hovercraft oriented itself to use the wall itself as a road.There was no night and day in this place, in that regard, it was similar to the hive you lived at as a small kid. Although that’s were the similarities ended, the hive was a pile of shit compared to the wonders of this place.You decided to get some shuteye on the way to the settlement. Just in case, you fastened yourself to your bed.You saw no dreams.When you woke up, you were almost at your destination. The city, or what seemed like one, was almost like a heap of scrap growing out of the pristine skyscraper. Wires, scaffolding, steel supports all jutted out from random spots of the town, which expanded in all directions. Upon closer inspection, you could see visible scars, numerous bullet holes and las blasts across the surface. There was a thin, small bridge connecting the town to the wall.You ordered your APC to land on the bridge, while the rest pointed their weapons at the already battered city gates. You could now see where they had machine gun nests, although most had been ripped off by what seemed like physical force. At certain spots, blood seemed to have flown like sewer water through a pipe, staining the rusted metal. The battle seemed recent.You suited up and got out with your team. The scav guards, or what was left of them, were all in their positions. These people were desperate , they wouldn’t fight unless they had to, so you unholstered your weapon and ordered your squad to do the same. Once you got to the gate one of the guards, holding a bent machine gun that had a higher chance of exploding than hitting anything, screamed at you: “OY! YOU! HALT YOUR STEPS, WHAT ARE YOU? FLESH OR BONE?”You answered back: “We’re TRADERS, We don’t wish to fight”.You heard chatter behind the door through your helmet’s audio sensors, but it was not loud enough to be clear. After a bit of time, the guard poked his head out, he had a cone shaped helmet: “WE SCAN YOU FIRST, GREY THING!”.Afterwards, a blue light grid which according to your suit sensors did absolutely nothing, brushed over your squad. You heard a ping from inside the gate, and then panting as the mechanism to open it seemed to be manual.
>>6301752Once the gate was open, two guards immediately rushed to your side. They seemed to have bloody bandages wrapped at various spots around their body. One of them wore a half town gas mask, and the other what seemed like a mask made of plastic. The city gates lead directly to an extremely cramped street, clearly meant to be a killbox but currently it was unmanned. The plastic mask spoke first: “The Rular would want to see you grey thing. you came by before, right? This one’s brother, who got mawed, had met you before and told this one. Ask when you want to meet”.You didn’t respond yet, but the previous expedition seemed to have made it here. As you walked on, the killbox gave way to the city proper. To your surprise, barter pubs and other recreational areas were visible, and it didn’t seem like people were starving.What is your plan?>Meet with this ‘Rular’, If they have met the previous expedition, maybe you can get some information. They will most definitely ask for something back.>Plastic mask (or whatever their name is) is a local and he seemed to know stuff about the expedition. Maybe you can ask him about it (write in questions)>You can go to the barter pubs to try your luck there, but besides the amsec and IHO they often don’t have anything (roll 2d100, best of 2 for this option)>(write in)
>>6301753>Meet with this ‘Rular’, If they have met the previous expedition, maybe you can get some information. They will most definitely ask for something back.
>>6301753>>Meet with this ‘Rular’, If they have met the previous expedition, maybe you can get some information. They will most definitely ask for something back.
Unfortunately, it seems like I won't be able to update for today. I am still working on it so updates will continue as soon as possible
This is some Forever Winter type shit. I like it.
>>6300984
You turned to Plastic mask and said: “We will meet with the ruler, show us the way.”“Yes yes grey thing, I shall lead” he said in his usual shrill and giddy tone.Plastic Mask took the team, consisting of your resident pyromaniac, engineer, the machine gunner and two infantryman deeper into the town itself. You moved your gaze towards the town. In certain windows from strings connected to the building across the street, ribbons of red brown and black cloth hung, and as you moved deeper they were numerous enough to start blocking out the over present white lights to create shadows on the ground. Your guide started humming a tune as soon as you were under the shadows.After a few turns, you eventually reached a street that led directly to a building with an open door wide enough to fit a few people. Through the door, you could see a staircase leading directly upwards. As you got closer, you saw that the building itself was peculiar, as numerous etchings and markings in red covered the entire front side. They seemed to be written in a script unfamiliar to you, but under them written in bold black letters was something you could roughly make out as “SANITATION” from your knowledge of the old-world language.You went up the stairs about 5 stories before Plastic Mask took you through one of the doors, which lead to a large rectangular room with a few guards inside. They seemed much better equipped than the ones you had seen previously on the city gates, with weapons that looked like a sleeker version of your own lasguns. Although the jet black armour they were wearing had clear missing pieces replaced by subpar material that tried its best to make it seem like the armour set was a full one.One of the guards moved directly towards your squad, ignoring plastic mask, and simply said: “No weapons there” in a monotone voice while pointing at the door covered with more of the red script behind him. You gestured to Zami to come follow you and gave your weapons to the machine gunner. The two of you made your way towards the room.
>>6303569After a nod from the guards, the automatic doors of the room opened and you were greeted with relatively dark room, populated nearly entirely by wires going in and out of various seemingly random spots around the room in great quantity, almost covering the entirety of the walls, all connecting to the amalgamation of flesh and blood that was behind of a rather out of place table in the back end of the room. You assumed that it was the ruler seeing as there were no other figures in the room.It spoke first: “Visual data: Conglomerate Soldier. Confirmation?” At least it was speaking hiver, even if a bit strange. You couldn’t exactly tell where the voice was coming from, but it sounded like a field comm fried by a las blast. It wasn’t too much of a surprise it knew the organisation you belonged to. “Yes, we are tracking the path that the previous expedition took.” You answered. Perhaps it would reveal where they went without much effort.“Designation confirmed, Conglomerate Soldier interaction history; Searching. Data found. Query type: exchange for information request. Rejected. Reason: Military force projection of Sanitation; low. Lack of armour” It said, with a tone that could possibly be considered sombre. It continued: “Previous attack been repelled. Sanitation defences, sub-optimal. Decisive strike necessary to end threat.”You frowned, it was a good thing you were still wearing your gas mask and helmet so you didn’t show that emotion. You quickly retorted: “I don’t see the benefit in helping you achieve your military objectives, is the information you have worth the lives of my men?”
>>6303570It responded fast: “Answer: Threat location on previous expedition path. Additional troop reinforcement on unarmed hover vehicles; Possible. Additional information to be provided on next lower level of the structure; Political entities, local map, airspace details, storage location.”If the scavs were going to reinforce you, you could always use them as a distraction while your vehicles hung back. The information did look valuable, your superiors had sent men to die for less, but you did not have the luxury to be wasteful. You asked: “What is the nature of the threat?”Its optic lights blinked for a second. It started talking: “Threat data; Searching. Data found. Threat local designation Maw, biomechanical lifeform. Target of attack; Maw nest. Situated North-East Caution: maw able to exhibit short bursts of abnormal speed. Form of attack: Claws, Jaws.”The threat was only able to attack up close, which was an advantage to you. You had to think about your answer. More questions (you could attempt to ask for more than what is being offered as well): >(write in)Your decision:>Destroy the nest, it’s on the way according to the Ruler and the information is undoubtedly valuable.>Try to move past the nest by yourself. The risk of casualties in an expedition with no reinforcement options is too much.>(write in)
>>6303571>Destroy the nest, it’s on the way according to the Ruler and the information is undoubtedly valuable.
>>6303571>>Destroy the nest, it’s on the way according to the Ruler and the information is undoubtedly valuable.
Locking votestoday's update will be a bit shorter
You resolved to destroy the nest, as the information provided would certainly make you and your platoon’s chances of survival rise. Although you had reservations about the operation itself, namely how many men the ruler was willing to spare, the creatures should’ve been easy enough to handle with your armaments. Worst case scenario if the space was open enough you could simply load a nuclear round into your tanks barrel and send it the way of the nest, although you would prefer to not to as you had a limited number of those with no way to manufacture more.You asked the ruler: “The nest will be destroyed. What data do you have on it?”A Lense which was on what you assumed was its head lit up with a red light and projected a crude holomap on the table. The map showed a torus shaped room with the middle section removed, leaving a flat surface on the extrusions from the floor and the ceiling. The ruler spoke: “Answer: The nest location subsector reactor NW03. Previous operation identified potential entry point: auxiliary vent tunnel, reactor containment door 01. Breaching charges: necessary. Sanitation will provide” The ruler highlighted the described spots with an orange light. The containment doors, being a rather large circular panel on one side of the reactor and the vent tunnel entrance, a small hole near the floor of the torus diagonal to the door. New parts were created in the hologram to show the vent tunnel leading to an external tunnel larger than itself. They were both solid breaching points, with direct sight of the target as soon as you passed into the reactor chambers.“Hm, understood. What reinforcements will you provide to us, weapons, vehicles?” You decided to ask.When you asked that question, the hologram turned off. It looked like it was making a calculation, and after a minute or so it answered: “Sanitation troop capacity: low. Sanitation troop quality; low. Mission strategic value; absolute. Sanitation to provide 8 small hover vehicles; 4 large vehicles, 3 breaching vehicles. Total; 133 personnel. Armament; chem propellant weapons, fornax charges, rudimentary flamers.”For a town of this size, you judged that it was a sizeable clade of men. However, the armaments mentioned didn’t include the lasguns of the guards beside the door. Perhaps this ruler was not willing to enrol his best troops to the assault, which did make sense, but you still had the upper hand. You thought that you could press him to increase the number of troops or add some with real weapons.
>>6304088Still, since you were taking this mission, it was time for you to make your decision. Which side would you breach from?>Containment door. The obvious solution is often the best one, and in your experience overthinking only got men killed.>Ventilation shaft. Unlike the door, you’d be moving through an enclosed space at first. You’d be creating a lot less destruction and could net you a few more moments before your eventual discovery.Would you be pressing the ruler for more troops or some elite ones to accompany you?>Yes (write in what)>No, you’re fine with the amount of meatshields.
>>6304089>Ventilation shaft. Unlike the door, you’d be moving through an enclosed space at first. You’d be creating a lot less destruction and could net you a few more moments before your eventual discovery.>Yes (write in what)Some elite troops.
>>6304173+1
>>6304173>Supporting
Rolled 68, 65, 58, 24, 49 = 264 (5d100)Rolling for scavs
Rolled 48, 44, 26 = 118 (3d100)Rolling for the maws
The ruler was skimping out on the troops he’d provide, and if you were putting your best troops on the line so was would it. You simply stated: “If you were planning on not sending your best to the fight, you should’ve changed your security detail. I want as much as you can spare of your quality troops.”The ruler didn’t speak for a few moments and only managed to say: “Affirmative: operation, go in T -15 hours” in an audibly annoyed tone despite the garbled up voicebox.You replied to thing: “We’ll make our preparations; give us a frequency we can communicate on and alert us when you’re ready.” The ruler gave a closed comms channel and with that, ou gestured to Zami and left the room. You came to see your squad dawdling around like they always do on down time. Currently they seemed to be in a particularly heated match of dice with one of the guards, Logi seemingly winning by the constant ridicule he was subjecting the guard to. When their attention diverted to your presence, they hurriedly stopped the game and pulled Logi out his celebrations to a strange salute once he too noticed you, which only made you internally sigh.You gestured them to follow and started heading back to your hovercraft. You followed the same winding streets and arrived at the gates faster than when that scav was leading the way the opposite direction. From the back you could see the guards at both sides of the door mount a circular wheel made of scrap with handlebars attached to it, and with great effort opened the gates panting and out of breath by the end.You strolled through to your APC which had landed in the bridge. You transmitted your code to the craft and the rear hatch opened, allowing you to step inside. The squad followed and put their weapons on the rack. You moved up to Meli and took the comms to alert the convoy of the operation at hand: “Alright people, find a clearing and prep the guns, operation is a go in 15 hours. We will be assisting the scavs in raiding the nest of a biomechanical creature called maws. They can’t do shit from range, but showcase ‘abnormal’ bursts of speed, so we’ll put them behind the scav force accompanying us and turn ‘em to ash”.After all vehicles gave the “Yes sir!”, starting with yours the convoy moved one by one you to a clearing you had scanned earlier above the town. Once you landed you went outside with the others taking first watch and the engineers performing weapon checks on the mounts. Between the IHO sticks and some light conversation with the troops, first watch ended fast and it was your turn to rest.You switched positions with those that were on the bunk and went to sleep. You saw no dreams. When you woke up, the attack the ruler had planned was only a hour or two away from the timeline the ruler had given to you.
>>6306158You went to look at the control panel in your APC, which showed the diagnostics of all vehicles in the group to see if they were nominal as you expected them to be, and they were. Weapons were primed, engines had cooled off, ammunition was distributed, the armour plating had been in mint condition except some surface level damage battle damage from previous fights. You made a quick formation for the operation, with your force being in the middle, breachers in the front, heavier scav vehicles by your side and the lighter craft surrounding them. Satisfied, you patiently waited for the signal from your would-be reinforcements, which came by shortly. They sent a rendezvous point at the northern side of the town. With haste, like a bunch of rad-ants your crew scurried to their vehicles and initiated the take-off procedures. Your APC taking point, you were the first one to see the scav force in full. They appeared to be made up of strange vehicles that had absolutely no standardisation between them, seemingly using the grav panels of the surrounded buildings welded together with hopes and dreams to what could be classified as 8 hoverbikes, 3 hover cars with an unreasonable amount of fornax canisters attached to the front and 5 rather spacious hover cars with an assortment of turrets of chem weapons and flamers dotting the surface of across the surface of all but the cars carrying the fornax. Two things stood out to you, one of which was that all of the vehicles lacked a roof, and being open topped meant that they almost certainly did not have an internal artificial gravity, and another was that one of the large hover cars had been painted black and red, much more armoured than the others and crewed by the same soldiers that guarded the office of the ruler.You transmitted the formation plan to the black vehicle as they’d have an easier time herding the scav force which you didn’t wish to bother with if you could help it. After they received the plan, you started travelling to your destination. The scavs speed couldn’t match yours due to their rudimentary and taped together nature but fortunately, the nest was situated relatively close.It didn’t take long for you to reach the tunnel leading to the ventilation shaft. You gave the command to your supply truck to stay outside at a safe distance from the wall, and went in with the rest of the group. When you came to the shaft entrance, it became apparent that it was only wide enough to fit a vehicle at a time. The scans indicated there was a solid object between it and the reactor room and you gave the orders for one of the breachers to speed off first and gave the orders to organise the rest so that they wouldn’t get caught up in the explosion caused by the breacher but still exit the shaft with the element of surprise. The suicidal scavs happily speeding off signalled the rest of you to follow after waiting for a short time.
>>6306159The ventilation tunnel itself was illuminated by a series of red lights overhead, but soon, the iridescent explosion of fornax washed the entire area with a white flash leaving only a hole surrounded by slag at the end. Mere moments after the explosion you exited from the entry to the chamber of the reactor not leaving any chance for the hostiles to react.The chamber was exactly as the holomap suggested, but to your surprise it was lit up by flashes of pink and blue lightning on .5 second intervals coming from the middle section which had a cut part. The nest, situated on the left side of the reactor relative to you seemed to be growing out of the protrusion in the middle like a malignant tumour. Seeing the nest, one of the breachers in the front, with more enthusiasm than sense, screamed “SAAALLLLLIIEEEEE!!!” and activated some glued together afterburners to speed off to the direction of the nest. It didn’t take long for them to get fried by the lighting generated by the reactor, and explode into a glorious expanding inferno that you were glad to be well out of the range of, which damaged some panels in the ceiling but failed to do any damage to the nest. Damn scavs were always like this.The following explosion rocking the entirety of the chambers, if the hostiles had not been alerted of you yet they had certainly been now. Your targeting computer painted hundreds of life signals exiting the nests and You barked new orders into your comms along with the scavs: “Hug the walls and defend the cars, Head east, don’t give ‘em a fixed target!”As you were doing your run east, your guns melting targets approaching from the ceiling and previously unseen ones from the floor, the tank crew had already aimed the railgun to the nest, and with blue flash sent an HE round their way. The round hit near instantaneously, causing a red ball of fire which turned the right side of the nest into molten and burning organics. You figured that it would take a 3 or 4 more rounds to reduce the entire nest down to atoms.The maws which were making a way towards you, as if sensing that their home was in danger, appeared on your sensors as getting hotter and hotter despite the reactor itself presenting a huge heat signature. Your guns kept firing and thinning their numbers, but all of a sudden the previous targeting lock you had on them disappeared.From where the creatures previously were, only a streak of light remained. The targeting computer had nothing to lock on to, but your visual sensors picked up a trail of colourful light which was racing towards your location quite rapidly. The scavs, most likely having seen this behaviour before, started up their flamers to engulf your surroundings in a ball of fire building up a wall of burning fornax. The railgun fired another shell at the nest.
>>6306160Your tank fired a third shot, removing another chunk off the nest. Not much of it was left now, but your vehicle was picking up more heat signatures building up all around the train of vehicles. You were approaching the reactor containment doors the ruler had talked about, and you still had a remaining breacher. The railgun was recharging for now, but you thought you could most likely get away with chugging another round the way of the nest and calling it quits before taking unnecessary casualties. What is your plan?>Turn back, head through the vents. You’ll pick off more off the maws that way.>Blow the doors up and get out fast. What’s in front is what’s best.>(write in)
Missing paragraph before the last one, sorry:The light came to an end at the edge of the burning wall, revealing the creatures as some of them simply melted and others managed to jump onto some of the scav hover vehicles, digging their teeth and claws into the flesh of screaming men. The other vehicles simply opened fire, and picked off the creatures which were much too large to avoid concentrated fire. The convoy held up and no one broke formation despite the damage caused by the creatures to the first layer of hovercraft.
>>6306162>Turn back, head through the vents. You’ll pick off more off the maws that way.
>>6306162>Blow the doors up and get out fast. What’s in front is what’s best.
Locking votes
Rolled 20, 79, 59, 41 = 199 (4d100)Rolling for scavs
Rolled 26 (1d100)Rolling for maws
