>>6438994
But first a little look elsewhere


23:24 15 miles north of Atlanta Georgia July 10th


“UP!” screamed the loader as the breach of the Abrahms 120mm cannon slammed shut the gunner wasting no time and pulling the trigger. The commander watched through the grainy green view of the top mounted 50cal turret camera as the 120mm round flew into the crowd of distantly shambling corpses. He watched as corpses arced into the sky tumbling away from the explosion a disconcerting number standing back up afterwards. There were easily a thousand of them directly visible to him, not that any number of them could stop his tank but the occasional muzzle flash to the right or left of his command reminded him why he should worry.


This was the third day of fighting like this, slowly crawling north through suburbs and small towns intent on escorting a small cadre of CDC personnel north away from their now overrun headquarters in Atlanta. He flicked the camera to thermal and scanned the crowd for a moment. The undead were the same temperature as the air which made thermals useless against them but did let him spot the living ones. The autonomous turret traversed right and he put a short burst of 50cal into two infected trying to work their way along the side of the road.


He had started out as one of six tanks in his column and breakdowns and lack of fuel had seen all but his tank and another at the head of the convoy lost. They could sometimes manage a blistering 15mph usually but sometimes like now they had to wait as the lead tank pushed wreckage out of the way while he and the dismounted tank crews did their best to hold the line. “UP!” Cried the loader again and another of the dwindling supply of shells flew out to thin the horde again.

>>6438996

and lastly today's post

July 18th 1800 hours


The cruise ship is completely dark and you swear you can see the forms of people running about on the deck in the failing light, one of the sailors turns a spotlight on one of the groups and you sigh seeing the bloodied forms of infected, some wearing the uniforms of the crew and others wearing civilian clothes. Captain Sinclair sees it too and swears and begins to order the Richard Snyder to pick up speed and move away from the infested cruise ship when one of the lookouts shouts in surprise. “LIGHTS ON THE BRIDGE!” Looking up you see a light flashing on and off in a rhythmic pattern.


It takes a moment for you to remember the small amount of morse you learned in SERE school but the flashes are basic anyway S.O.S 13 P.E.O.P.L.E. You look at the Captain who is grimacing. It's clear why the bridge of the ship is several hundred feet higher than the deck of the cutter which means you would have to not only make your way up the ship's hull to one of the decks but you would have to enter the interior of an infested ship to reach it. The prospect of doing that then taking 13 people back down the ship's interior to where you could safely lower them to the deck of the cutter is daunting but to be honest the survivors on the cruise ship don't really have any other chance for survival you imagine. So should you board the ship and attempt to rescue the civilians onboard?


>Yes board the ship
>No its too risky

>>6438997
In theory, it's possible if we go sneaky breeki but we only have one silenced weapon and we'll need a distraction on the other side of the ship to lure the infected out of the way. Even then, there could still be infected trapped behind doors that weren't able to wander away. Also we only got one suit of riot armour. We don't know how stealthy those 13 survivors are.

Did we recover any other silencers by any chance?

>>6438997
>>Yes board the ship
We should see if we can think out the horde by pulling 50+ feet away and slowly picking them off. Would be a great chance to train one of the civies how to get head shots.

>>6439001
Sadly no and calling anything about the MK48 silenced is honestly a joke Its suppressed but all your ammunition is regular 7.62 and not subsonic

>>6439004
Do we have enough rope after breaking a window to pull them out or no?

How's the sea state right now? Calm or choppy? I've also got an idea.

>>6439005
You plenty of line that you could in theory lower someone down from the bridge of ship but they are going to be at the mercy of anything on each deck as they come down and you would have to get the line up there as well

>>6439006
the sea is pretty calm currently

Have a ship stay that will go dark with the ropes. The other ship goes to the opposite side with lights and starts taking potshots to lure the infected away. The survivors climb down. With the noise and light will draw away the hordes to the opposite side. While staying dark will keep them from noticing.

>>6439008
If the sea is calm, then I've got an alternate proposal. Use the tanker instead. The Deliziosa's bridge is a bit shy of 30m in the air, which coincidentally is about level with the top of the superstructure of your average medium-sized tanker. It should be easy enough to bring it very slowly alongside, shoot out a window on the bridge wings and throw a rope in from the roof. We can either transfer them over from there or lower them down to the cutter, and doing it from the wings should put it nicely out of reach of anything on deck.

It might need some delicate low-speed manoeuvring to bring two large ships alongside, but a few scuffs pose no threat.

>>6439010
This is a better plan. I still think we need a distraction to lure infected away lest they try jumping/falling to board the ship.

>>6439013
We've got ships, and you know what ships have? Extremely loud horns. We can bring the ship we're not receiving them on around the other side and start tooting away with some gunshots and bright lights for good measure.

>>6439014
>>6439010
I'll back this for >>6438997

>>6439014
I would like to point out as someone with intricate knowledge of the infected you know this will work for the undead but living infected will not be tricked by this if they can see the ship, so you will have to deal with them

>>6439019
Even if it runs dark and they cannot see it at night?

>>6439023
If you want to do it completely unlit at night you can but its going to be very dangerous to try and break out a window of a cruise ship throw survivors the lines while on the top of the bridge structure of the tanker

>>6439035
What about prepping during the day and doing it at night? Would the living infected stay put or wander off too?

>>6439037
At night most should wander off once they can no longer see the ships as living infected do still have to eat and drink and will do those things when there's no human stimuli around

>>6439038
So do the prep during the day and then move the survivors at night with a distraction on the other side. That way even the living infected will be lured away. Will work so long as nobody starts screaming or stupid shit like that.

>>6439038
In that case, we can set everything up during the light and take them off after dark with the ship blacked out save for a couple of small lights and a distraction going the other side. I think we'd be better off doing it with the cutter since it'd be much easier to stay on station with that than with a literal oil tanker. It's only a quarter moon tonight so moonlight should be fairly low as well.

>>6438997
>>Yes board the ship
Ask the survivors to see if they have any controls or at least a PA system to attract them with in the bridge.

>A write in

You're at a loss on what to do. You really want to help these people but if the information the cutter has on this ship is correct there could be close to 2000 infected onboard. It seems pointless for a minute as you think but just as the captain begins to order backing off you get an idea and you quickly begin to explain the basic outline of your plan to the captain. He listens intently as you explain how you're going to climb on top of the tankers bridge, shoot out one of the cruise ships' bridge windows then throw a line up to them and then have the survivors slide down at night. Captain Sinclair looks at you for a moment thinking the coast guard aren't strangers to odd rescues and this one isn't all that all odd honestly though he does change one part of the plan. He wants to use the cutter and not the tanker to actually pick up the survivors. You can still throw the line from the tanker but there's a non-zero chance of turning one of the survivors into pancakes if the tanker and cruise ship met due to the sea being choppy or something so he wants to use the cutter for the pickup instead.


With that one change he agrees to your plan and using the dingy from the cutter you quickly transfer over to the tanker with several hundred feet worth of rope they had on hand. You may need to do some shooting while either getting the line to the survivors on the bridge or while they disembark. Would you like to use the belt fed MK48 with its suppressor holo optic or the MP5 with its smaller round which shouldn't over-penetrate or bounce around as much?

>MK48
>MP5

also could I get a 1d100 best of three DC of 65


I would like to say I love write ins even if there is no write in as an option in a vote feel free to throw one out there

also guess who posted in last thread by accident im dumb as shit

Rolled 77 (1d100)

>>6439674
>MP5
we're just trying to break a window. Though does the cutter have a breeches buoy as part of its rescue equipment?

>>6439675
No sadly it seems the coast guard has ceases using anything like it because helicopter rescues are far easier

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>6439674
>>MP5

Rolled 37 (1d100)

>>6439674
>MP5

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>6439674
>>MK48

I think we should go up the rope after we attach it and wait on the bridge with the survivors until go time. They may have injuries they need patched up, need to be guided in their descents, have comms with the crew and be defended against any incursions.

It's a shame we don't have the firepower from the larger cruiser's gun. I'd have liked to blast a couple of holes in this floating mausoleum to send it to the bottom as we leave later.

>MP5

The MP5 should be more than enough for what you need even if you need to climb up the rope to help the survivors down. You fully expected climbing atop the bridge of the tanker to be far harder than it was for some reason, imagining the tanker soaring up and down in great swells but the sea while not flat clam does little more than make the tanker bob up and down a little. One of the coast guard sailors using a bullhorn tells the survivors up in the bridge to stay back and thankfully it seems at least one of them knows English as you see the shadowy forms of the people move away from the window in the failing light as you fire. The three round holes you leave in the safety glass are enough for the survivors to knock the glass out after some coaching from the bullhorn.


You only have to throw the line with the grapple twice before you manage to sling it into the open hole where the survivors tie it off to something. All the while your doing this you've attracted quite the crowd of observers, hundreds of living infected crowds, the open decks shouting and screaming at you as you work. The line tied off your just about to transfer back to the cutter when and idea comes to you. You could climb quickly up the line from the bridge of the tanker to check on the survivors and explain the plan and render aid if need be or you could just let them come down on their own. The climb isn't all that bad honestly you've done worse in training.


>Climb up
>Just let them figure it out


With this being a new thread and youve just come off the Charleston raid flush with a lot of ammo for all your guns is there anything in terms equipment you wanna be looking for in the coming weeks?

>>6440179
>Climb up
Do the above.

I wonder what the fuck they've been eating. I assume they've been trapped on the bridge a while and there's not much food or water up there and it must be an oven in the summer heat. There might also be other pockets of survivors around the ship, plenty of places to hole up better than the bridge though to do S&R here is impossible.

Well, I'd really like a helicopter, but sadly we have nowhere to put one on deck. I guess I'd like some bicycles or motorbikes, a few heavy weapons, anti-bite clothing as we've discussed before, better melee weapons as well as searching for general supplies and survivors, especially uniformed ones. Ideally I'd like to dredge up enough mariners to add a third ship to the flotilla. Not sure whether I want to drop in at Wilmington.

>>6440179
>>Climb up

>>6440218
i dont imagine we could tow her till she runs aground near shore or to a port you think? And to clear a ship like that, Riot gear is a must.

>>6440179
>>Climb up
i think we should try to thin out the deck first, it should take 6-7 hours max

>>6440281
I don't think we could take her under tow. The cutter is way too small and I doubt the tanker has the hardware to tow a vessel far larger than it either, not to mention how we'd actually drive it onto the shore or bring the massive, uncontrollable vessel into a port. Clearing the ship would be a nightmare, having to fight thousands upon thousands of infected and undead in highly confined CQC through a maze of dark corridors and cabins when we could be attacked at any time from any side and have no clear route of escape. Not only would this be a lethally dangerous slog taking days for our very limited team with little training for operating in such environments, it would also burn through much of our ammo stockpile. At that point, it's just not viable. We can't save everyone.

>>6440285
After dark, the living infected should wander off, presumably back inside. No need to waste ammo on them when the shooting would only attract more from inside.

>>6440288
then do you think we should sink her? or leave her adrift?

>>6440290
I would like to sink her as a hazard to navigation and whatever shoreline she happens to eventually wash up on, but we don't have anything that could easily do that. We could try strafing her hull at the waterline with the cutter's autocannon so she starts slowly taking on water that may sink her over a period of days and breaking windows low on her hull to expedite the process but, for now, she's just going to have to drift I think.

The lights starting to fail you as you have the tanker pull away enough for the rope to go taunt for you using a carabiner on your gear you hook your belt to the line and start to climb. You use your feet to anchor yourself and your arms pull slowly inching your way up toward the broken window really hoping the people on the bridge managed to actually tie the line off properly. An ache begins in your arms as you climb but compared to the rope wall at RASP with your M240b slung across your chest your MP5 and the five mags with it are nothing. As you come to the smashed in window you get your first good look at one of the survivors, a young man clad in the white uniform of the cruise line he's dirty dirty and dried blood covering his pants making them more of an off white. He shakes slightly as he helps you into the compartment.


Like the basic morse code had said there were 13 people total on the bridge about half wore uniforms the rest wore to your slight confusion the remnants of formal wear. Of the 13 there were 4 women and 9 men though one of the men was more of a boy really, all 4 of them women wore formal dresses and 3 of the men wore suits all of them looked thin like they hadn't been eating well for some time. The man who had helped you into the ship spoke in heavily accented english “Oh thank god you're here the ship is overrun with some kind of monsters” IT takes you a second to process what he said as you wave off the tanker which lets go of the line attached to a buoy for the cutter to pick up. You ask what the man means and he tells you what had happened on the ship in the last month.


The cruise ship a month ago had been pulling out of Boston on the first leg of a bermudan cruise. They had been in the midst of a formal dinner in the ship's dining room when people who had been confined to their rooms due to illness began to attack any and all they could find onboard. Things deteriorated quickly. The young man, who you find out is the third officer, had been on watch when it began and thinking there was some kind of riot or terrorist attack onboard had barricaded the ship's bridge only allowing the small handful of survivors inside during the opening hours. He had tried to radio for assistance but you guessed with the chaos of the opening hours of the infection nobody noticed the cruise ships calls. The third mate had eventually decided to turn the ship back toward Boston in hopes of finding help and had just started the turn when the ship had lost all power only able to steer the ship with what limited emergency power remained.
1/2

>>6440592

The small group of survivors at that point had numbered close to 40 at that point between crew and passengers but the last month had whittled them down. Some had died in an attempt to reach engineering, others tried to make it to a lifeboat launch and others still died while raiding the ships stores for food. This small remaining group had apparently been preparing to soon make a try for a life boar again when they had seen the Richard snyder and her tanker consort approaching. While the third mate had been talking to you the cutter had come around and scooped up the line barely able to be seen in the dark. Now you can hear the tanker begin to honk its horn to draw the infected to the other side of the ship.

2/2

could i get a 1d100 best of three please DC of 50 because your there to help the survivors

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>6440593
Don't suppose they know of any other groups of survivors aboard? Odds are low we'd be able to rescue them but still. Also curious as to the roles of the crew we have up here, a member of the senior command staff is a catch if we want to add a third ship to the flotilla.

Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>6440593

Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>6440593

Rolled 14 (1d100)

You ask if the bridge group had seen or heard any other survivors but the third mate simply shakes his head informing you the lower decks were a charnel house, the bridge only having survived the early attacks because it was relatively isolated and had a strong sealable hatch. The sound of splashes draws you over to the other side of the bridge where the tanker sits constantly sounding its horn, looking down you can see as the undead throw themselves up and over the railings of the ships arms outstretched in futile attempts to reach the tanker.


After a few minutes the line to the cutter has gone taunt and any remaining infected had either wandered off or gone to the side of the ship with the tanker on it. Your plan was to use a harness borrowed from the cutter hook up each survivor and slowly lower each of them with a length of rope you had brought with you along the tied off line. A quick check of the tied off line on your end and a quick flash of your light to the cutter to confirm your ready, you look over the survivors and inform them of the plan.


They seem somewhat nervous but it's not like they have much other choice when the ship is most likely full of a thousand living infected. For the first test of your makeshift escape line you intended to pick the young man as you figured he was the lightest however looking at several of the women you see that's probably a close run race on whos the lightest but you wind up picking the boy first. The harness goes on and you've got him hooked onto the line and sitting on the broken windows sill. He turns back to you and starts to argue in what you think is Spanish when you give him a light boot to the back like you had done to you the first time you had ever jumped out of a plane in training. The boy yelped loudly but the line held and you began to slowly lower him toward the cutter on the angled line, the third mate helping you with the rope to keep the descent nice and slow.

Could I get a 1d20 best of three please and Im rolling for THE event as its been around 24 hours since the last one, which now has a DC of 90

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>6440954

>>6440954
Wait what event?

>>6440964
There is an event that will happen at some point in the future that will effect things greatly how long that will take is randomized somewhat with a 1d100 roll with a DC that drops by 5 every in game day until the roll passes, I did something like this in my first quest and I really liked the randomness it added to the story so im doing it again

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>6440954
>>6440966
>>6440955
im guessing you still want the rest of the d20s?

>>6440968
sure one of you could always roll a 1, if rolls are similar to how last thread ended

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>6440954

>>6440981
Fucking alright I guess, Im going to bring back the crit storage save system from my last quest so you will have a crit on stand by if you roll a 1

File: 1619093699223.gif (180 KB, 404x416)

180 KB GIF

>>6440981
hilarious

>>6440981
Almost didn't roll bc I rolled a one last thread

Figure its better to have rolled and lost then never roll at all