# Marshall Flowers' Sentimental Journey Through Post-Apocalyptica and Mutantville



## tmart (Aug 11, 2006)

Day 39

We followed a sign to the military base, which was our best bet, but it’s just a huge crater, and the Geiger counter started rapping at us a bit.  It must have been a target during the Drop.  If the briefcase is still in one piece it’s not here.

I still can’t rest properly, but I’m getting used to the nightmares. 

Day 40

We followed the smoke to a large farm.  They seemed wary, as people outside the colony always are, but I was able to make friends.  They put us up for a while and I learned a lot about the area.  Our only lead was a General Sandoval.  Well, it so happens there’s a Tobias Sandoval, his grandson I think, at the farm.  He didn’t have much information, though, as it’s hard to press for information without seeming suspicious.

Daniel, the patriarch, approached me offering his niece Sally’s hand in marriage.  It took me by surprise, but they tend to intermarry a lot around here and a well-armed, silver-tongued, and competent outsider seems to be a great catch.  Sally is pretty cute too.  I was evasive about it because I need time to think.  I made sure he didn't just think I wanted to take advantage.  It might be nice, but it won’t help us out with the briefcase.

His wife Patricia seemed like a good source of information, so I appealed to her vanity as matriarch.  She was taken with me and seemed to be interested in the match as well, so I was able to cook up a pretty good story about owing a favour and duping the group into exploring up here so I can investigate this silver briefcase.  I told her I was taking a big leap confiding in her but I figured if anyone could help me around there, she could.  She agreed to try to find out something about it from Tobias.

Day 41

Oh god. 

I felt awful today.  I couldn’t sleep most of last night, and when I could, the nightmares were horrible.  Maybe I’m being punished for deceiving these people.  The fatigue was so bad today I had to lie down alone while the others worked the fields.  Then Tobias comes in with a bowl of soup for me, and I think, “That’s so sweet, that he would take care of me like that.”  But I get a real bad feeling about the situation real fast.  I don’t know from where, but it just seems extremely suspicious.  Next thing I know he’s holding a gun to my face.  “Why are you here?” he asks.  I play dumb but it doesn’t work.  Patricia must have been a real cow about it.  So he says “Drink the soup.  Tomorrow you leave and I give you the antidote.  Or, I shoot you.”  I don’t think he’s seriously considering shooting me.  So I tell him he’s crazy, I’m just a traveler, if he wants to kill a man in cold blood he can deal with his family crucifying him after they find him standing over a sick man’s body.  I’m trying to stall for time so maybe someone comes by.  He cocks the gun and puts it against my skull.  So I try to fake a sip and stop as if it’s so hot it burns my lips, right?  But he tilts the bowl at me so a lot gets in my mouth.  I sputter and choke a lot, hoping someone will hear.  At this point he gets real intense about his demands again and I fake a swallow as if I cave.

Now Hexagon Jack bursts in with his M4 trained on Tobias.  I have no idea how he knew I was in trouble but damn if he isn't my new hero.  He orders Tobias to put down his gun or he gets a bullet in the face.  Tobias tells him I’d get one too.  While he’s looking away I sidestep his gun and try to take it.  There’s a struggle but I don’t get it.  Jack repeats his demands and Tobias’s situation looks worse, but he still won’t put it down.  So I grab for it again and end up disarming him, but the next thing I know – sometimes this guy scares me – Jack walks right up to him and shoots him dead in the face.  Tobias’ brains and blood are all over the room.  All over me.  It’s horrible.

Jack thinks fast and goes to search Tobias’ room for the briefcase.  Him being here is really suspicious anyway.  Jack takes the spent 5.56mm casing with him and I eject a round from Tobias’ Glock.  I puke… it’s just so inhuman.  It’s awful.  The way you can just end a man like that.  The way you can mutilate a human body.

The family gets there and I tell them basically the truth, except Jack doesn’t show up, and after I take the gun from Tobias I have to shoot in self-defense.  They didn’t seem to buy it but it’s plausible enough.  I know the poison is going to prove me innocent.  More importantly, we need to stall for time so we can keep looking for the briefcase.  Tobias was desperate to cover it up.  It must be important.


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## tmart (Aug 11, 2006)

*Background information*

The game: d20 Modern ruleset, with some Gamma World flavour and some house rules

The setting: The oldest of us have fading memories of the Drop, the day the world went mad and dropped the Bomb.  Sixty years later flesh-eating mutants and pockets of radiation are common knowledge.  Small settlements have emerged.

Back before the Drop, survivalists were seen as kooks.  Our grandparents were the ones who looked like geniuses when they were proven right.  After hiding out in their bunker for decades while radiation died down, our parents emerged and planted crops.  The colony elders now wish to gather information about the world around them.  They send out a team of promising and well-armed young men to explore, and if possible bring back useful resources.

Dramatis personae:


*Damon Slate:* strong man and soldier, tall with dark black skin.  Uses a six foot sword and a Glock.  Renamed Dole Mule by popular demand due to his job of carrying everything heavy, especially food.
*Hexagon Jack:* sociopathic sniper.  Gets the job done by any means, preferably a scoped assault rifle.
*Timmy Thane:* pale, quiet medic.  Causes more wounds than he heals.
*Dexter Kablowski:* Constitution-challenged Jewish demolitions specialist and handyman.  Constantly tinkering with his #1 invention: a ranged weapon shooting razor-sharp discs, nicknamed "The Gizmo."
*Marshall Flowers:* chocolate-skinned quasi-pacifist; frontman and smooth talker.  Has been having nightmares, hearing voices, and experiencing intense emotions seemingly at random.  

Joining later on:

*Joe Steel:* awkward gunslinger from around Newver. Likes to gamble.
*Duff McLeod:* schizophrenic chemical engineer and cowboy.

The story thus far:

Marshall Flowers did not begin writing his journal until his adventures had already begun.  He has neglected to account for the first adventures, which involve spooky towers, sucky walls, and smashing bandit face.

Shortly before the first entry, the heroes find Trade City, one of the few settlements known to the colony.  Some merchants there give them a job: find a silver briefcase with an arrow logo on it and deliver it.  In exchange, they will get an extremely advanced firearm: the OICW, an accurate assault rifle with a built-in rangefinding electro-optical scope and a high-tech grenade launcher which can be set to either precision airburst or explode on impact.

Their only lead is the name General Sandoval and a military base to the north.

Additional notes:

Please excuse the shifts in verb tense.  Marshall Flowers has only Int 9.

The colony has limited solar power and a fair amount of media from before the Drop.  It’s possible that Marshall Flowers or one of his friends has seen your favourite movie or read about civilizations past.

In the introductory post, Marshall Flowers subconsciously exercised his Wild Talent feat to manifest _missive_ and summon Hexagon Jack.  This was the first game mechanic instance of Marshall Flowers' latent telepathy, which was introduced quite skillfully in the roleplaying side of the game by the intrepid DM.

This is the epilogue to _The Life and Opinions of Marshall Flowers, Gentleman_.


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## tmart (Aug 11, 2006)

Day 42

The family was acting strange this morning.  They demanded we come down to the living room with all our gear.  Jack gets very defensive about it.  They say we can do it, or leave.  I feel like it’s going to be alright, but Jack gets offended and leaves.  It was probably smart seeing how his gun was the murder weapon.  I leave my 2-way on so he can listen in.

So the family is there to check through all our gear.  I’m not quite sure what they were getting at.  But they say the piglet is fine – they fed the soup to the poor thing, but it’s not dead yet – so they say the soup must not be poisoned.  Anyway, the family says the gun that Tobias "supposedly" had was just like the Glocks we were issued, and they only have hunting rifles at the house.  I tell them I have no idea what they think my motive is.  We’re better armed and equipped.  We can look after ourselves.  I’m seriously messed up and not looking for a fight, let alone a senseless murder.  But I’m not family so they don’t trust me.  I demand a thorough search of his room because he must have had some place to hide the handgun from them.  Sure enough, there’s a secret compartment with a Glock magazine in it.  No one thought to look for a spent shell casing, but if anyone ever does, it’s plausible that it ejected into someone’s shirt pocket or something.  Plus these people don’t seem familiar with their weapons at all.  So I’ve cleared my name around here, which is good because I don’t want to face a lynch mob when we come back in a year.  And because it matters to me what people think of me.  I will not have a whole community going around thinking Marshall Flowers murdered a man.

I make sure they search the rest of the place, supposedly for the antidote.  But really I’m hoping the briefcase turns up.  Nothing turns up – he really was bluffing about poisoning me.  I’m sure he was bluffing about shooting me, too.  I feel terrible about it.  The guy didn’t want to hurt me.  He never pulled the trigger even when I was fighting him for the gun.  He just desperately wanted his family to be left alone.  What are they hiding in that briefcase?  And why won’t the nightmares stop?  It’s so horrible… I keep seeing his head explode all over me, again and again, only I’m the one pulling the trigger.  Sometimes the head is mine.  I just hope I don’t wake up screaming and convince everyone I killed him because I’m crazy.  I’m not crazy.  I’m not crazy yet.  I can’t imagine what I a mess I would be if I had really killed him.  I didn’t kill him, did I?  No.  Jack did.  I think he did.  Jack is always killing people.  I think he likes it.  No, he doesn’t like it… he just has his eyes fixed on the prize and will do whatever he can to win it, no matter if it ruins someone else’s life.  Tobias’s wife is inconsolable.

I ask around later about Tobias and anything strange about him.  Apparently the Sandovals are very secretive, and have some mysterious heirloom.  I’m convinced now that it’s the briefcase.  We should have thought of this earlier, but the locals all intermarry and the Sandoval farm is right nearby.  Jack overheard the directions and is headed there now.  He’s a pretty smart guy and I like him.  He’s just… a different kind of person.

Day 43

I told Daniel I need to leave the place to clear my mind and reconcile myself with what happened.  I add, though, that if his offer is still open, I’ll come back if I’m ever ready to settle down.  Sally seems like a really sweet girl, and if I ever get back to normal, I could do right by her.  She caught me at the door to say goodbye.  I didn’t know what to say.  It was extremely awkward.  Marshall Flowers is not often at a loss for words.  I think she understood enough, though.

Today we meet up with Jack and formulate a plan for the Sandovals.  I don’t know about this briefcase business, but until I know more, I feel almost sorry for them.  I hope the briefcase is some terrible secret so I can hate them and hate Tobias.  I don’t want to keep feeling like Tobias’s death is my fault.  No, it’s not my fault.  He took that road of force, and once he pulled that gun on me, he invited the consequences of force.  My father always said … something like if you take up the sword you die by it.  It makes sense that he’s responsible.  But I still feel like I killed him.  And I still see him die, even when I’m awake.


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## tmart (Aug 11, 2006)

Day 44

We’ve met up with Jack and he’s done well.  He knows the layout of the Sandoval farm, and probably most of the people there.  Apparently he cut his arm to look like a mutant attack, and pretended to be a deaf-mute.  We’ve decided to try to con them into giving up the briefcase.  I have my disguise all ready: Moomba the Mystic.  No shirt, hankie tied around the head, Caribbean accent.  This should be great.

I don’t know if Jack came to my rescue out of sheer luck, or if I was able to reach out to him with my mind.  It felt that way... but I can’t be sure.  I can’t ask him either, because if it was luck he’ll think I’m crazy.

Day 45

Dexter made crop circles in their fields!  This should spook them out.  

Jack took a potshot at one of the Sandovals – injured him pretty bad too.  Nice shot.  I’ll wait an hour until going in so they don’t kill me on sight.  I’ll play it up like he’s a ghost of someone General Sandoval betrayed.

Day 47

Goddamn.  I’ll start at the beginning.

I approach the gate and a voice calls out to me.  They’re really spooked after the gunshot wound and then tell me to leave, but I say “Ah will if ya want, but it be on little Melanie’s head” – she’s their 10 year old daughter.  So they tell me to lay down my weapons (rapier for effect) and I go in.

I tell them there be some dark energies surroundin’ Melanie.  They bring her in and I put my fingertips to her head all psychic-like.  The old man seems to be buying it and I really feel a connection with him, so I go out on a limb and reach out to his mind – and I speak to him.  In his mind.  I really did it.  And I know I did because he freaked out.  I’m not crazy.  I want to jump up and hug him, I feel so happy.  But I say to him, “There be a dark secret in your family” and I draw the sign of the suitcase on the table.  They want to know more, but I tell them I need to touch the object to channel its energies, or something.  I don't know.  When I get on a roll I can barely follow myself.  About a half hour goes by before they bring it to me, and they make sure I stay there.  So we can’t sneak in because we still don’t know where it’s kept.

But they put it in front of me on the table.  There it finally is, exactly what we’ve been looking for.  It seems legit so I lay hands on it and close my eyes.  I start mumbling about how General Sandoval betrayed a man for this suitcase.  I tell them the ghost came in the guise of a mute, stayed in their home, and hurt their daughter.  I break off and tell them I can exorcise this ghost.  I tell them to light three fires in a triangle in the largest crop circle (conveniently the one furthest from their farm, and next to the hills) and wait for me at midnight.  I go to leave and they say I can stay the night there.  I speak in Henry’s mind and say, “You don’t want that” and act all disturbed.  It’s not hard when you have nightmares like I do.  They’re a curse – but I’m starting to be blessed.  I’m telepathic.  It’s unbelievable.  I have to start developing this power... the possibilities are incredible.  

Anyway, they buy it – who wouldn’t under those circumstances? – and I take my weapons back and meet up with the group.  We make a plan, strap my 2-way to my thigh, and develop code words for certain circumstances.  I had a good feeling about it.  Jack would distract them by shooting Adam again, and I would take off with the briefcase.  Damon would back me up because he’s much tougher than me, then we run off into the night never to be heard from again.  Incredible plan.  We always have the best plans.  Then they go horribly wrong.


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## tmart (Aug 11, 2006)

I tell them I need all the family members present to channel the good energies.  I get them to all stand between me and Jack’s sniping position, and directly opposite my exit route so they don’t stop me and so Jack's shot gets their attention in the wrong direction.  I start the kooky mumbo jumbo and we’re off.  I’ve got my hands on the briefcase the whole time.  Eventually I give the code phrase, “Damn' ghost, leave this girl be” and Jack shoots at Adam again.  And misses horribly.  That’s fine by me; I don’t want Adam to die considering he hasn’t done anything.  Sure Tobias was a jerk, but maybe that’s why he left the farm.  Anyway, Adam says “We’re under attack, give me the briefcase, head for the farm” and I protect the case saying “The ghost is trying to distract our ritual!”  But he won’t have any of it so I just make a break with the case.  

Then a sniper’s bullet cuts the knot on my handkerchief.  I think most of my luck run out on that one.  I make it nearly outside the fire’s light but they keep shooting and one hits me in the arm.  Goddamn that hurt.  But we make it into the dark and the fields and we’re home free.  

Then the mutants show up.  They’ve been after me before, but not like this.  I could swear that they screamed something like DREAMSTOOLOUDDREAMSTOOLOUD at me again and again, but maybe I imagined that.  I haven't spoken to the others about it in case I did.  But at this point I’m in no condition to keep fighting, and there are a lot of them.  We make a break for it, but Dexter – God love him but he’s as healthy as a maggot – gasses after about a minute.  So he jumps into the trees and hides.  None of them chase him.  We spot an abandoned cottage a little ways down and barricade it.  So we’re safe.  Timmy tourniquets my arm to stop the bleeding.  But Jack isn’t there.

We hear gunshots from the treeline and make out Jack and the biggest damn mutant I have ever seen.  It’s got to be seven feet tall.  It’s chasing him all around the trees and we take shots at it.  Eventually Jack makes a break for the cottage and we fire some rounds into the mutie and it breaks off the chase.  He makes it to the wall but the little muties notice him.  They’re clawing and grabbing at him as he tries to climb the stone wall.  One scrapes his hip real bad.  Scratched the bone, Timmy said after he patched it up.  But Jack finally makes it up, halfway dead, and we pull him in.  The muties break the door down but we have the stairway barricaded and it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Dexter doesn’t show up, but we figure he’s safe.  The mutants are after me anyway.  We find a canoe and paddle out back and wait on the lake.  At dawn we stop waiting for him and start paddling.  We figure we’ll meet up at home.

We came to the ford again where the river runs over the road.  Our raft was still there!  We should name it the Dexter Kablowski Memorial Raft.  We press on until Blue Lake.  But we don’t want to stop in the town because they might catch up and start asking about us.  Best not to be seen.  So camping outside the town seems like a great idea, right?

Wrong.  We get ambushed by bandits.  Jack is on watch and he takes two crossbow bolts in the chest.  He’s within an inch of his life.  Thankfully Damon and Timmy kill off the bandits before one of us dies.  We’re badly injured.  And I figure… who else is going to show up to kill us?  Those random farmers from last week?  Possibly the elders with a machine gun?  How about aliens?  I’m not quite sick of mutants yet, let’s fight some more of them!

Day 48

Guess who we met on the road.  Dorn Edmunssen.  The first guy we ever met outside the colony.  The guy Jack wanted to kill for no other reason than he might take something we’d want later.  Anyway, he seems glad to see us but notes our wounds.  He offers to trade food for maps but we’re interested in pressing on home because we’re nearly there and we don’t want to give Jesus and his crack army of elephant stormtroopers a chance to catch up and mow us down with repeating banana rifles.  He does offer us work down south.  The Golandt Empire – I think I remember us telling him we were from around there because the colony is a secret – is fighting somebody, and they could use good men.  Sounds great because we get to explore down there, which the colony wants, and get paid too.  But first we need to take a couple weeks off to recuperate, then deliver that briefcase to Trade City.  I hope Dexter makes it back alright.  If he gets a cold he might die from sneezing too hard.


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## tmart (Aug 12, 2006)

Day 59

I feel rejuvenated.  The past while has been so intense.  The nightmares aren't gone, but then again I feel like I can sometimes get some real rest in and I'm not stumbling around half-awake all day every day.

I spent a while messing around with everyone's head and now I can talk to them pretty good, for like ten minutes at a time.  And they can talk back.  This is going to be so useful in combat... not to mention con games.

Day 70

We delivered the briefcase to Trade City.  Jack was hell bent on increasing the offer, so I tried to negotiate to indulge him.  Of course he wanted to walk away when they didn't agree to our highball demands, but I drove the middle road and we walked away with not only the OICW plus ammo and grenades, but two laser sights.  They should be a big help with aiming.  It was fairly generous – normally a deal's a deal and you do business by your word.  They offered more if we could find the key, but we don't have much interest in that right now.  We
need to go back and get those surface-to-air missile trucks we found.  For the one with no missiles left they offered a solar panel, a box of eight pineapple grenades, and – I can't believe they agreed to this – they're going to tune up the OICW.  That's good, because I need all the help I can get hitting a target. The truck with the working missile is going to the colony.  I have no idea what they'd use it against, but I can't argue with the brownie points.  I think we just guaranteed a lifetime supply of bullets.

Day 80

So we're building a bridge across the river.  Apparently our raft isn't going to cut it for a one ton truck.  This is hard, sweaty work. 

Day 104

And now the rainy season hits!  The torrential downpour is speeding things along nicely.  Dexter is sitting in the truck giving orders over the 2-way.  He's a real leader that way. 

Day 115

Excellent!  We delivered the truck and the OICW is much more accurate now.  They rebuilt the barrel entirely.  It's beautiful.  Even better, I got Sven back at home to paint it.  It's now white and purple with an electric motif – and it says "MOOMBA'S BOOMSTICK."  I should send a picture to the Sandovals explaining this is what I got for making tools out of them.  I still can't believe they fell for it.  Yeah, just bring your prized secret heirloom out into the open, in the dark where I can just take off with it, thank you kindly.

Day 120

We were going to the Golandt Empire for merc work, but stopped into a Wal-Mart on the way.  It was very scavenged, but we found a collapsed section leading into the sewers.  With Jack running point we explored for a while and made contact with locals – there's a town above, apparently.  And there's a bandit named Drago and his goons exacting whatever "toll" they can get away with.  I strongly favour bringing the right hand of justice down on those lazy cowards… high-tech style.  Maybe this is why I've been given this power instead of Jack.  Maybe it's to do good, not just for the colony, but for those who need it.

But Jack and Dexter were fascinated by a door with a keypad lock on it.  Dexter couldn't do anything to hack in without a computer (which we definitely don't have), so we fell back on my favourite backup plan: blow it to smithereens.  Dexter cooked up some dynamite in the sewer and set it up inside the lock.  It blew away a good section of the wall, and Damon "Dole Mule" Slate did the rest with a hammer.  It was a hospital.  Pristine, never scavenged. We cleaned it out of medicinal drugs and some other useful swag.  Dexie says he found a fusion reactor but couldn't do a thing with it… fair enough.  There was talk of making it our base and ordering pizza but we need to bring those medical supplies to the colony.

I'll recommend we come back afterward and smash some face.  They're like the Mafia from the old movies – they pretend to be classier than the regular criminals, but they're just as bad, only slimier.  I suppose this is how civilization arose in the first place.  The elites rob the others by force, and eventually gain enough power that they run countries.  That's one good thing you can say about the Drop. Most places aren't run like our colony.  Most places are the strong taking from the weak, and the Drop brought everyone back to zero.  I'd like to do the same to Drago. And I've got a precision airburst frag grenade with his name on it.


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## tmart (Aug 15, 2006)

Day 125

So Dexter and the guys fixed up an old Jeep with an electric engine.  They also added a minor upgrade: a swivel-mounted machine gun.  M60.  It’s beautiful.  

Anyway, we rode it back to the Wal-Mart town, Sandoro I think, and spotted some of the goons.  Jack and I took up sniping positions as we had the two rifles, but as we did that a helicopter flew overhead.  A helicopter.  I never expected to see one in my life.  It landed in the middle of town, just in front of the bandits, with their king Drago in the middle.  Some men in black clothing came out of the helicopter.  One of them started to speak with Drago and got angry.  He pulled out some crazy high-tech gun and shot him with a of blue light.  I guess it saved me a grenade.  Still frustrating.

The chopper guys entered the sewer and Jack had a hunch that they’d be after the medical stash.  He was right.  After they left he went inside and saw they’d taken the fusion reactor.   I guess that fine, because we had no use for it, but I still have no idea who they are or where they come from.  Maybe they’re a high-tech version of the colony.  They also rigged the place to explode, but Jack found the bombs and relocated them in another part of the sewer.  He’s always doing cool things like that. 

We decided to stick to the plan and headed to the town hall.  We tried to find the remaining leadership of the bandits but they were somewhere else.  We headed to the balcony to get a better view and saw them coming down the main drag.  As soon as they got in range we started talking, but Jack started shooting.  They were all clumped together so I decided to finally try the airburst grenade launcher on my OICW.  It exploded right in the middle of them and half of them were killed.  There was blood and gore everywhere.  I’ve never killed a man before.  I thought it would be horrible, absolutely horrible, but I don’t feel anything.  There was just a shudder as it happened, and then nothing.  I expect this will show up in my dreams.  Or some twisted version of it.

Day 127

We entered the bounds of the Golandt Empire we’ve heard so much about.  The border guards were actually very friendly.  They were kind enough to recommend we not enter the ominous-sounding Restricted Zone.  No one ever comes back, they said, and no one knows why.  

So obviously we had to drive right in.  It looks nice, trees and all, and eventually some UFO looking thing flying very low starts shooting something at us.  Dexter theorizes it was a railgun.  Sounds tech.  The jeep got hit pretty bad, but we managed to make it outside the zone before the car was broken.  The guards were pretty impressed, but I don’t think we’re going back until we have a UFO-killing gun.

Day 128

Today we met with Colonel Golandt, a short, mousey man in his forties.  We offered our services as mercenaries.  Turns out he has a certain briefcase with a certain arrow logo on it.  We had to keep ourselves from laughing.  He believes it will open what he calls the Artemis Vault nearby, but he needs the corresponding key before the briefcase can be opened.  He took us to the vault, and it’s pretty imposing.  There’s a great big metal wall built into the face of a mountain, and a room next to it with a computer screen giving the time, and a keyboard to enter a code.  The codes are supposed to be in the briefcase.

He offered five percent of whatever’s inside in exchange for the key.  He expects a lot of weapons which will help him win the war, as apparently the Mittlewerk Empire is trying to grab territory from him.  I diplomatically told him that our considered opinion was that this offer blew chunks.  We asked for half but he wouldn’t budge.  He kept his offer open.  I don’t think we’ll take him up on it, but we’re going looking for the key anyway.

Day 135

Our first idea was to go back to the Sandovals.  Their family had the briefcase for so long, so we figure they’ve got the key somewhere.  So we sneak in at night and tie them up so they have to answer our questions.  Adam – the one Jack shot last time we were here – mouthed off, something about being barbarians.  Something about the cache not being full of weapons or anything, but how they were meant to keep the key safe until mankind was ready to rebuild civilization.  I was going to suggest that if we were barbarians we’d have killed them, not conned them, for the briefcase, but Jack slit his throat.  I can’t really believe he did that.  Well, I can.  It’s just he was completely defenseless.  I don’t know.  I don’t know if I can stay around this guy much longer.  It’s one thing to kill bandits shooting at you, but he was just trying to make a living on his farm.

Then again it did make the rest of them talk about the key.  They said another family member… I forget his name… took it to some old facility nearby to keep it far from the briefcase.  I’ve got high hopes.

Day 136

There were a lot of strange things in the facility, but we eventually found a human corpse.  Thing is it was covered by this brown fungus, which the reports lying around say was designed to extract oil from oil sands.  Apparently it’s not too nice on human flesh either, because this guy was deaded.  There was a detox room leading into it, so we rummaged around for a biosuit and sent Jack in because he’s not afraid of anything.  He found the key on the dead guy and ran right back out.  Pretty easy, all things considered.  And no mutants causing problems and wasting bullets.

Day 138

On our way back we ran into a lot of mutants.  I thought we'd be outnumbered but some outriders heard the fight and helped out.  They didn't appreciate being referred to as cowboys, but that's what you get for riding horses around.  Anyway, they said things were bad in the east and they're recruiting.  They mentioned a tower with a red wall, Jack's pet peeve, and he took off with them.  They’re going to hang out on a mountain or something.  

I’m going to miss the guy, but maybe it’s better this way.  He was really starting to make me feel uncomfortable, with the sociopathy and the killing.

Day 144

I went to the elders about the briefcase situation because I’m not too sure what to do next.  I don’t really trust Golandt.  I get a really bad feeling about him.  Also, the deal sucks.  I have nothing but respect for our elders, but they really weren’t much help on this one.  I left them the key for safekeeping, though.  So I decided we’d go back to Golandt and try to get him to sweeten the deal.  We got him to agree to give us equal usage rights if whatever’s inside isn’t quantifiable.  He agreed to that pretty quickly because he’s counting on it being big guns anyway.  We also got him to agree not to expand northward.  Remember, he thinks we’re from Blue Lake because we’ve got to keep the colony a secret.  We’re trying to keep it that way.  The only problem is it’s still only five percent, and if I’m right about him, the deal probably won’t be honoured anyway.  I also warned him we don’t think it’s weapons inside.  We think it’s for rebuilding civilization.  He said he could think of no better way to rebuild civilization than to unite it by conquering the evil Mittlewerk Empire.  I’m not impressed.  I don't think he will be either.

Then I had a brilliant idea.  I’m seriously considering it was divinely inspired.  Anyway, I figure we’d have to get into the Mittlewerk Empire somehow and play them off each other for it.  Golandt still doesn’t know we have the key.  I told him our research tells us it’s in Mittlewerk, and we’d need to get in somehow.  The goof buys it and we get a pass through the border.  We’re going through tonight.  I have a really good feeling about this.


----------



## tmart (Aug 22, 2006)

Day 145

That could not have gone better.  We drove into Mittlewerk flying a white flag.  Some soldiers came out to stop us.  I told the officer that we were third parties and had an offer for the Emperor that might help them win the war.  I told him I couldn’t reveal anything more except to the Emperor.  He was pretty suspicious, rightfully so, so they took me alone and unarmed.

The Emperor is a short, bald, squat little old guy, but seems pretty sharp.  “Emperor Thomas Mittlewerk.”  I personally think that’s a highly goofy name, but then again not a lot of people tend to take Marshall Flowers seriously… at least they didn’t before I started dressing in fatigues, carrying advanced weaponry, and travelling in a posse.

I basically tell him the truth, except that Golandt only offered forty percent.  “Ah, and you want half?” he says.  Like I said, the guy’s sharp as a knife.  He’s pretty keen on the deal, but wants to keep one of us as security just in case it’s an ambush.  We decided it would be Dexter because he’ll just get killed anyway if he’s in the firefight we expect.  Plus we’re not lying, so he’ll be fine.

I met with Mittlewerk’s generals as well and we arranged a diversionary strike to allow their team of commandos – i.e., the few soldiers they have with real assault rifles – to sneak in near Artemis Vault (I have no idea why they call it that – and I asked Emperor Tommy Baby if he’d knew what I meant if I spoke about a vault, he played dumb… I’m not sure whether he knew already).  A scout would watch the vault from a hidden position, and they’d attack.  We also gave them one of our 2-way radios and arranged a signal.  They’re to produce a bit of static, and I’ll just act annoyed and turn mine off.  That will mean they’re in position.

I asked Mittlewerk about how the war started.  Like I expected, he gave me a totally different story.  He says Golandt was their emissary to the city of Haven to get them to agree to peaceful annexation, but he told everyone they were invading and set himself up as some kind of military dictator.  I’m sure the truth is somewhere in between, but the truth is that Golandt is starting to give me the jibblies.

Day 146 or 147, I’m not sure

We’ve been driving in shifts to get the key from the colony as fast as possible, but near the giant crater there were a ton of mutants at night, conveniently blocking the path.  We shot at them from across the crater to draw them away from the road, and I just drove away with Dole Mule pouring bullets into them with the machine gun.  They start coming out of the forest too… I can’t believe how many mutants there are.  Where do they come from?  And why do they just turn to dust and blow away when they die?  And why are they after me?  But I whip the car around as if I know how to drive, and gun it back around the crater with Timmy shooting the odd mutant that makes it onto the car.  I nail one with my Glock too, driving with one hand.  That was one of those times that’s really scary when it’s happening, but makes you feel like a right badass after it’s over.  I hate mutants a lot.  I think the feeling's mutual.

Day 152

We get the signal back in Golandt City (I’m guessing it used to be Haven? Remind me to do some talking to the locals later) and take the key to Golandt.  His eyes light up when he sees it, but not in a happy way.  He just seems so power hungry.  I’m glad I made the deal with Mittlewerk.  I’m hoping he’ll be a lesser evil.

By the time we reach Artemis Vault he’s practically oozing avarice.  He opens the briefcase and there’s a computer inside.  He reads the time off the vault computer, enters it into the briefcase computer, and it gives him the code.  He enters the code into the vault and looks around all expectant and shifty-eyed.  Then the giant door slowly slides open.

He takes us inside with eight soldiers.  There’s a tunnel, I think made out of steel, and we keep walking for hundreds of feet.  Then we find another door with another computer asking for another code.  I’m scared to death that we need another briefcase, and the attack is going to happen for nothing, and Golandt’s forces will just take back the vault after.


----------



## tmart (Aug 30, 2006)

The briefcase gives a code for the time listed, and Golandt puts it in.  And waits.  I’m sweating bullets.  Well, not really.  That would be so useful!  Especially 5.56mm.  Anyway, the door finally opens so I don’t have to kill myself.

The first things we see are construction machines.  They say Caterpillar on them… that’s a funny name too.  Then we find greenhouses and sacks of grain.  It looks like the Sandovals were right – it’s for rebuilding civilization.  I guess the place with the medical supplies was another one of these vaults, just not so well protected.  Golandt still expects to see the weapons cache soon.  Maybe he forgot what destroyed civilization in the first place.

Now we all see a soldier running down the hall.  Timmy, Dole Mule, and I all know exactly what he’s got to say, so we ambush Golandt and his guards.  I drop a 20mm grenade on them, and each of the boys toss in a pineapple grenade as well.  Five of his eight guards are deaded.  Timmy finishes off a wounded soldier with his M16, which is strange to watch seeing how he’s the medic.  Anyway, I bellow at them, “Surrender or die!” as scary as I can be.  It must have worked pretty well because even Dole and Timmy looked scared.*  We planned to take Golandt alive back to Mittlewerk, and I think he knows he’s hooped now..  The soldiers drop their guns but Golandt breaks into a run, bullets whizzing by him.  Dole Mule hits his gun and it scatters away.  Golandt nurses his wrist but keeps running.  I line up a shot in the electro-optical scope and shoot him right in the spine.  He falls on his face, dead, and slides just a bit.  I shudder again, and get this feeling in my mind I can’t describe, but I focus on fighting and it goes right away.**  

We help the commandos mop up outside and take prisoners.  Those that surrendered are told there’s no hard feelings and I promise them cushy positions at the North Gate if they support my succession.  That’s right, journal: Marshall Flowers is to be the new ruler of the Empire Formerly Known as Golandt.  I still need to figure out a better name because the senior commando suggested the name Golandt would have to go.

In the same vein, we loot guns and Golandt dollars (“Golandt bucks,” we’re calling them) from the dead.  I’ve bribed the palace guards with that stuff.  See, when I was growing up back at the colony I read about how emperors used to bribe palace guards to ensure their ascension to the throne went smoothly if there wasn’t a clear line of succession.  I’m the kind of guy who can understand how people react to things, and I know that if your regular joe on the street hears he’s got a new Golandt, and the soldiers legitimize it by standing with me, he’s going to go along with it like it’s nothing.

I negotiated a peace treaty with the commando officer.  Apparently Mittlewerk gave him authority to negotiate.  He initially proposed our control of the Empire Formerly Known as Golandt as a vassal state.  But I countered with ceding some land to them in exchange for full independence, allied by treaty, with Artemis Vault and the road leading to it as neutral ground.  We hammer out the exact borders and such and the deal is done.

Now we just have to sell it to the people.  I’m getting Dexter’s help with the speech when he gets here, which should be soon.  Also the word has to get out through the chain of command so the military feels it’s legitimate.  After all, Golandt was an outsider, and he never did anything so wonderful that anyone is going to fight me.

Note to self: ask some elderly locals on the real story about Golandt. 

Day 153

Dexter found a computer in the vault and found a lot of interesting information.  First of all, it catalogued everything in there: construction equipment, the greenhouse and grain stores, and some M16s.  It also explained how to use all of it.  

It listed five other vaults:
- Hephaestus Vault: hi-tech weapons and gear, including las rifles, plasma weapons, and battle armor
- Athena Vault: library, electronic database, and three scientists in biostasis
- Posideon Vault: underwater base with submersibles, mining equipment
- Zeus Vault: omnipurpose vault plus the Genesis Project (no details)
- Hades Vault: bio-, nano-, and nuclear weapons.

From what the Sandovals said, these were designed to help rebuild civilization.  Why the Hades Vault includes everything needed to destroy it again is beyond me.  Or maybe they just meant the Artemis Vault was to rebuild.

Dexter then wiped the hard drive because we don’t know whether to trust Mittlewerk. 

I also found something very strange.  Golandt had a pistol that looked like a normal revolver, but wasn’t.  I think it’s some kind of plasma weapon.  Very tech.  I’m going to keep it to prove I beat him, and as a kind of symbol of office.

Day 153 (cont’d)

I talked to some of Golandt’s former soldiers about the bigwigs of the military.  We already know Sergeant Mark Waters of the North Fort from our hilarious adventures in the Restricted Zone.  We’re on friendly terms so I think that will go well.

There’s also two sergeants in Golandt City.  Ernest Evans wasn’t keen on Golandt, but mainly because he was an outsider, which is just as much of a strike against me.  The other is Rebecca James, who apparently takes no guff but cuts a fine figure.

At the South Fort – which we cede to Mittlewerk in the peace treaty – there’s Sergeant Hank Hill, who supported Golandt strongly.  I don’t think I can bring him onside.

As for Golandt City’s civilian leadership, there are Mayor Jennifer Hughes, her husband Robert Hughes the chief doctor, as well as the leaders of the craftsmen, merchants, gunsmiths, farmers, and builders.  I think I can sell them with what I bring from the Vault, particularly the builder guy.

Day 154

We stopped at the North Fort on the way to Golandt City and Sergeant Waters is as keen on the idea as we all are.  He brought 15 soldiers too.  He’s a real good guy and I’m glad to have him around.

Day 155

We arrived at Golandt City.  Time was important so I went right to the barracks and found Sergeant James.  That was a fiiiine woman.  I told her just what happened and she made it clear that she’d support me if she was put in charge of the military.  I told her I was glad we understood each other, and got a dinner date to talk further.  “Mixing business with pleasure,” as they say.

Sergeant Evans was not so amenable.  He didn’t like the idea one bit.

Much of the municipal leaders were there.  Two were out of town, so I decided to go ahead without them, or Sergeant Hill.  I pitched the idea to them of forming a provisional council to choose a new leader.  I also made no bones about promoting myself.  In fact, I made a speech in the square about how this was happening, and how I saw myself as the best choice.  It was a real piece of work.  Peace, justice, prosperity for all.  My gift of priceless machines from the Vault, although I’m keeping half of my share for the colony.  And I pledged to rename the city Haven to escape the vanity of an avaricious and violent ruler.  I also gave them peace with Mittlewerk.  They ate it right up.  

The date went quite nicely.  I agreed to give her what she wanted, she gave me her support, and we got to know each other much better.  She explained that Mayor Hughes might be a problem, as Hughes resents the way James uses her body to get what she wants.  I asked her if she was doing that with me, and she said yes.  I told her I felt used and degraded.  She offered to make me feel used and degraded again.  This woman is dangerous… but that’s why she’s so exciting.  

Day 156

I heard some people talking about me, and they seemed to think Marshall was a rank.  I let them know it was just my given name and shook some hands.  I like it when people like me.

I was on my way to the council meeting when I was confronted by -- who else? -- Dorn Edmunssen.

---

* At this point Marshall Flowers had +13 to his Intimidate check.  After this session he levelled and took the Frightful Presence feat.

** This was only the second time Marshall has actually killed a man.  The DM has been asking for Will saves.  Marshall rolled a 23 and I shudder to think what would happen if he failed.


----------



## tmart (Jun 9, 2007)

Day 156, continued

I heard Hexagon Jack’s voice in my head saying, “Kill him! He might take something we’d want later!”  Anyway, he was all friendly and said that Golandt had a pistol of his, and that he wanted it back.  We talked about it for a while, and I wasn’t sure whether to believe him.  He said his job was to expand the borders of the empire for Golandt.  He also intimated that he was “well connected” in the city.  He said I could keep it for the day, to use as a symbol like I planned, but then I’d have to give it back.  I didn’t know what to think so I tried to postpone until the day after, but decided that if he was going to sway any opinions I’d need him onside immediately.  So I did something risky.

I gathered my will and tried to read his mind.  This isn’t normally within my power.  Sometimes, though, I can try to surpass my limits, and sometimes bad things happen.  Sometimes the dreams break through into the day.  Sometimes I get sick.  Sometimes it works, though.  So I gave it a shot.  I felt Moomba there.  Moomba talked to me.  Moomba watched Dorn’s energy and answered my questions.  He said he was telling the truth about being well connected, and about the pistol being his.

I told Dorn I changed my mind.  That I appreciated his presence, respected his influence, and wanted to do right by him.  I gave him the pistol right then.  He seemed glad.

The council meeting went well.  I gave them a speech about why I thought I would be the right choice to look after the city’s interests, but in a less autocratic way.  I promised to preserve the municipal infrastructure of the city, and maintain the military in case of an attack by Mittlewerk.  I asked if there were any other nominations.  Mayor Hughes was presented.  Sergeant Evans stood up as if to object to the whole process, but Dorn stepped out from the corner, whispered something in his ear, and Evans sat back down.  Looks like I made the right call there.  Anyway, Hughes had some support, mainly from her husband the doctor, but I was acclaimed as Chancellor (I always liked that title).  No written constitution was adopted, but I explained that I intended the council to choose a new leader after a period of several years.  The council would also have a veto power if all were unanimously against the leader.  All this seems to have just been window dressing, as I got the distinct impression that everyone there realized I and my friends are very well equipped, we killed Golandt, I was taking power and they all decided to deal with it.  That wasn't exactly what I was aiming for but we've done a lot of good here today.

I presented myself to the people, along with Mayor Hughes and James, who I’ve dubbed General James, as their new Chancellor Flowers.  I also sponsored a holiday and decreed the kegs opened.

Day 157

Looking back, I’m really impressed with what I’ve accomplished here.  I feel like it was too easy, like it was meant to happen.  I thought yielding the South Fort to Mittlewerk would have been a huge problem.  Turns out the leadership understood why it had to happen – we lost a ton of soldiers at the Vault – and the people were too drunk to care.

Day 157 (cont’d)

We heard Hill was marching with his 40 men up the road from the South Fort.  We met them at the North Fort in case he was determined to fight.  We parleyed in the field.  I told him what had happened and that he’d have to deal with it.  He said I was a traitor.  I didn’t want a fight, so I did a spooky spell on him that made him think he was my friend.  Then it was easy to convince him to come inside the fort and talk to Colonel Evans and Colonel Waters.  Long story short, I asked him what he intended to do about me being Chancellor.  He said I was a traitor again, and that I should be killed, and that he’d do whatever he could to see that done.  The colonels supported his being put in jail for treason.  Hill was none too happy when the charm wore off.

The builder guy, Ferdinand Sunborn, was also not happy about Golandt but much more ready to re-evaluate his new role in political affairs.  I set him building a fort in the rough lands between Haven and Mittlework, now that the South Fort is gone.

Day 159

I brought a force of 60 men to the new border to meet the gents from Mittlewerk.  Colonel Brian Dollus, the leader of the commandos, was there, but he wasn’t the ranking officer.  That’s a shame because the gent that spoke with me, one Commander Flint, wouldn’t even shake my hand.  Dollus disapproved so much it was written all over his face.

We agreed to send an equal number of soldiers into the neutral territory around the Vault, and much to everyone’s surprise, no one betrayed anyone!  We started moving some vault swag around, and we sent the electric Jeep up the road to the colony so we could hand off the construction equipment to the elders.

Day 165

The guys are back from the colony.  The elders are ecstatic about the equipment and Haven, but they’ve got a huge problem with mutants.  They’re growing in numbers, which is strange because I figured they were left over from the Drop.  If they’re being created somehow we have to stop it, because the colony can’t keep holding them back.  Evacuating to Haven is now a solid plan B, but that’s only a temporary solution as the mutants have been advancing steadily south.  That’s our next goal.

Dorn mentioned the military base on our map was crawling with mutants.  We think it’s a good place to look.


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## tmart (Jun 9, 2007)

*From “Travels in the Pacific Northwest”, the autobiography of Dorn
Edmunssen, Chapter 12*

_written by the intrepid GM_ 

“The first major expedition undertaken by the newly installed Chancellor
Flowers was to the old military research base far to the north of Haven.
While I did not participate in the venture, I did have a chance to speak
with most of the survivors.

The mutant problem had been growing steadily worse for several years, though
it was at first easily managed.  Most mutants were essentially mindless,
displaying only instinctual behavior.  Furthermore their unique physiology
confined them to irradiated zones; if they left those areas they began to
slowly decay into nothing.  It should be mentioned that the strain of
mutants from the northern research base was a far different breed from those
originating elsewhere.  For example, the mutants from Old Vancouver are
“mostly human” where as the research base mutants are “mostly monster”.

In any regard, as the years passed the mutants began to act in a more
strategic and intelligent manner.  At the same time, new and more deadly
strains of mutants began to appear.  While individually the mutants were no
more intelligent than before, there actions as a whole seemed to be guided
somehow.  What ultimately forced actions from the southern states was the
mutants spreading radioactive waste southwards, gradually increasing their
territory while spreading terror and death through the farm families of the
region.

Chancellor Flowers and his friends set off to destroy this threat.  They
traveled far into the irradiated badlands, eventually arriving at the
research base.  They found it infested with mutants and employed a strategy
of stealth.  Eventually they found themselves cornered by an enormous
psychic presence and forced to retreat into a pre-Drop missile defense
system control center created by the ATMA Corporation.  While this shelter
protected them from the presence and the growing horde of mutants, they were
under siege and could not last forever.

It was then a strange quirk of fate gave the expedition a chance to survive.
 At the break of dawn all the mutants just wandered away and the presence
was similarly diminished.  Emerging from the confines of the control center,
the group found a crate of C-4 lying by the base of the center.  Pausing
only to grab the C-4, the expedition hurried forward into the base.

Inside, the area appeared to have been hastily evacuated, with a large
amount of valuable equipment left lying around.  Unfortunately, they were in
too much of a hurry to collect any of it and had no means of transporting it
in any case.  Eventually, the bottom most lab in the research facility was
reached and within it lay a monster.

The psychic presence returned immediately when this lab was breached and
seemed to emanate from a massive writhing pile of flesh and organs.
Chancellor Flowers was able to see that it was likely the “hive mind” or
source of the intelligence of the mutants.  A battle ensued as a pair of
extremely large and powerful mutants emerged to defend the mass.  Dexter
Kablowski set the C-4 and the group evacuated through an emergency exit
tunnel just in time to avoid the explosion.

On their way back through the badlands the expedition observed the mutants
moving listlessly.  As they returned to the colony the general consensus was
that the threat was over and hopefully life would return to normal.  Of
course, they didn’t know the true nature of the mutation or what threats it
would cause in the future…”


----------



## tmart (Jun 9, 2007)

Day 213

We went to Haven to check on the city.  Things are still uneasy with Mittlewerk, but that will just take time.  Also the mutant attacks are way down since we blew up the giant blobby guy at the military base.  I’m really glad we took care of that.  It’s good for the colony, Haven, and civilization in general.  

Dorn said he bought another briefcase at Trade City.  It has an owl on it.  I don’t remember my ancient myth but I’m guessing that’s either Athena or Hephaestos.  After some cajoling the vendor at Trade City told me he got it from Benjamin Saunders, a wandering hermit.  I checked around the city and found out where his cabin was.

As soon as we approached the cabin he fired a warning shot into the air.  He wasn’t exactly friendly, but I calmed him down and got him to agree to talk to us.  I had to eject the magazine from my rifle and stick it in my pack, though.  Eventually he opened up and we learned all kinds of stuff and updated our maps.  He showed us where he found the briefcase, which happens to be near some ancient city the elders mentioned lately.  But the waterfall has blown up the road through the mountains, so we can’t pass in the Jeep.  He mentioned he rode the train across the mountains.  That should be fun.  It goes right by Haven, so we’ll try to jump on there.

Day 217

The train ride was ridiculous.  I have no idea how fast it was going, but it was just ridiculous.  We had to wait until it stopped, which was way past the south bend.  It pulled into some kind of warehouse.  Very high-tech.  The train cars had no openings at all, and Dex said they were made of some fancy polymer he’d never seen.  Then huge metal arms came out of the walls and removed the train cars.  We poked around and found some control panels and a computer.  We booted it up and saw a window pop up:


```
Admin01: What are you doing in our system?
Guest: Looking for the help file.
Admin01: There is no such file. What are you doing here?
Guest: Just looking around. What’s up with this place?
Admin01: I would advise you not to travel on the train in future. It is 
dangerous. I will open the main doors. Please leave. You have five minutes.
```

I grabbed the keyboard and got him to agree to answer questions before the five minutes were up.  He wouldn’t say who or where he was, but he said it was a Gor-Tech chemical processing plant.  We’ve seen that sign before, around the tower with the red walls that eat things.  Then Dexter insisted on being a wimp and apologising and thanking them for not blowing us up, blah blah.  I said:


```
Guest: So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Admin01: lol
```

Unfortunately now we’re a couple hundred miles south of where we want to be, with no vehicle.  I would say that’s the last time I trust a smelly hobo, but I’d probably do it again.  That was pretty cool.


----------



## tmart (Jun 9, 2007)

Day 220

We hiked north from the warehouse and found a road.  Timmy heard some bikes approaching from the south so we hid in the trees.  Looked like a biker gang.  We followed them to a shady post-Drop settlement built around a highway interchange.  They’re camped on a working gas station, too.  We snuck in after they were mostly passed out drunk, thinking to steal a couple of bikes to move back north faster, but it wasn’t worth the risk.  Course, when we camped that night up the road we get attacked by one biker.  We took no injuries and got a hog and a six-shooter out of the deal.  If we just had another bike, we’d be set. 

Day 222

We passed through an old, broken wall blocking the road.  The signs said it was the border between the old United States and Canada.   (How they ever ran such enormous countries is beyond me, but I guess maybe that's why they're not around anymore.)  We followed the road to an old metropolis.  Based on our map this is the city Benjamin told us about, and based on the ocean to the west, Dexter figured it must be the ruins of Vancouver.  It hadn't been nuked as far as we could tell, but the Geiger counter showed some background radiation.

We managed to salvage a bit of gasoline, about twelve litres.  We went looking to scav old computer parts for precious metals and possibly another vehicle.  Before too long a group confronted us and recommended we move on.  They said they’d like to see us out.  I tried to sweet-talk them.  I tried to use my powers on one of them, but I felt this kind of echo and a feeling of nausea.  I managed to fight it off, but one of these days I’m afraid I won’t and I don’t know what will happen. 

I asked about the Athena key but they played dumb.  I could tell they weren’t telling me something.  One of them said that the elders around here wouldn’t take kindly to anyone looking for that kind of thing.  I couldn’t get much more out of him.

Eventually they got us talking to this Rorschach guy who wears a mask.  The radiation has caused a lot of birth defects around here.  He deals with outsiders because he’s not so badly off, which isn’t saying much considering the Vader getup.  Anyway, he speaks for the elders and we arranged some trade between Haven and these guys.  We also traded our hog and revolver for a couple of dirt bikes with gas.


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## tmart (Jun 9, 2007)

Day 224

We scouted around Petrie Pond where Benjamin claimed to have found the suitcase.  I’m sure there was more to it than that, but he wasn’t talking.  Eventually we found a cave entrance leading from the mouth of the crater and went inside.  After a few minutes of walking Timmy heard something again, and this monster comes up behind us, blocking the exit.  It was this ten foot reptile thing with giant claws.  It shot a couple times, but the bullets just bounced off its body.  It hurt Timmy and Dole pretty badly with those claws.  We blew every grenade we had, and Dexter blew a four-pack of C4 under it, and it still wouldn’t die.  Eventually Dexter got a lucky shot into its eye with the Gizmo and it turned to run.  Timmy fired the last shot into the back of its neck, and it finally died.  I hope we don’t meet any more of those anytime soon.  We need to find some grenades.

After we killed the thing we heard someone starting to open the door off the hall.  We started joking around about killing whatever came through the door and he stopped.  I guess he heard us.  We backed off and went to check the blast doors at the end of the hall when the door started opening again, so we sent Timmy to check it out.  The door opened and a man was behind it.  His name’s Joe Steel, which sounds like the kind of name you give yourself. Anyway, it was kind of an awkward meeting but he seems like an alright guy.  He packs dual pistols and wears a leather jacket… he’s got this vigilante thing going on and describes himself as “a wanderer.” He also said “I am good.” He’s an awkward one.

We fiddled around in the side room and eventually Dexter managed to unlock the blast doors, but there was no power, so we had to push them open ourselves. It was really hard. Once we got inside we had a lot more doors to open, and no manual access either.  I called it the Gates of More Doors.  But we found a backup gas generator and kept it going long enough to open most of the doors, although we burned most of our fuel. Dex fired up the computer in the control room and found a map. The place is a nuclear reactor.  Also, the map showed rooms marked “power armour lab” and “secure chamber.”  Those ones are code-locked and we don’t have the code.

We found some notes written on the back of some old Sudoku sheets.  Or as I like to call it, Sudorku, cause it’s for dorks.  And the best part is the guy filled them in wrong! There’s the same number twice in some of the rows.  Goof.  The notes talked about how the coolant system is broken.  We figure it was where the crater is now.  Not having coolant for a nuclear reactor is bad, I’m told.  But it said it was safe to run at low power if the ventilation system were fixed… but it’s not safe to go in the ventilation room.  There’s some kind of noxious fumes or something.

It wasn’t until later that we went back to the Sudoku.  There were nine wrong numbers.  The code locked doors take nine digits. Not a coincidence. So we’re in the power armour lab.  Armour’s gone.  Inevitable.  But, there were implants there which let you wear power armour.  There was an automatic doctor robot there too.  Damon jumped in the chair and the screen read, “basic or advanced.”  He hit advanced yelling “advanced! advanced! advanced!”  It sedated him and starting working.  Time left?  THREE WEEKS.  Maybe he should have let Timmy read the help file first.  At least this room is shielded from the radiation outside.  There’s running water in here, and we have enough food with us to last.

Then Dexter thought it would be a good idea to fall into a coma at the reactor controls.  Timmy went to check on him but couldn’t wake him.  Even better, there was a red light on the console.  Red is bad.  I tried making psychic contact with him.  It was hard but I made his mind focus on the console, and he didn’t seem to object to the red light.  Then I passed out.  When I came to, Timmy was explaining that the rash Dex had at the colony a few months ago is back in spades.  Did I mention we still haven’t fixed the ventilation system?  And no one else is good with machines.

Oh, and while I was out, a giant (I mean giant) snake tried to crawl into the base while Dexter was comatose, I was passed out, and Damon was sedated, but Timmy and the new guy managed to close the blast doors on it to kill it. That would have been a disaster.

What a frickin’ day.

Day 225

Well, we’ve had a lot of time to look around, and we found some powerful stims in the medical facility and got Dexter back in action.  He doesn’t look good at all, though, and the rash is worse.  We also found some radiation suits which let Dex work on the ventilation without breathing whatever that was.  We’ll be alright for now. 

We also found a metal disc with an owl on it.  Apparently’s it the key for the Athena vault.  Now we just need to figure out where it is.

P.S. For now we’ve decided to have this Joe Steel guy tag along.  He seems like an alright type.  We just have to be a little careful about talking about the colony.  That, and now we need another bike, or at least a sidecar or something.  I’d love to see Dexter jury-rig a sidecar to a little dirt bike!  He hasn’t been asking too many questions about the owl CD or our goals out here, but eventually we may have to come clean or go our separate ways.

Day 230

I wonder if Damon actually realized there is no power armour here.

Day 238

Dexter’s heart stopped today.  Timmy was at the shock paddles in the medical facility for half an hour before he came back.  This is not good.

Day 242

This is really getting boring.  We’re not even going outside what with the mutant monsters.  But we’ve all become masters of “Minesweeper,” this old computer game in the command centre.  Only a few more days now.  Gosh I hope Dole’s okay.

Day 245

Dole woke up today and thought he had only been out for an hour.  He lost a lot of weight on the liquid diet the machine had him on.

Timmy had a bright idea to put each of us through the autodoc’s diagnosis.  Timmy and Joe were good for implants, although there aren’t any advanced implants left.  It told me I was unsuitable because of my altered brain chemistry.  Cool.  I have altered brain chemistry.  Dexter, however, seems to have a nanite infestation.  He went pale(r) when it said that.  He says they’re like microscopic robots, and they’ve infested his body.  Timmy says there’s nothing he can do.  I hope he’ll be okay.

We powered down the reactor, took the bio suits and the owl CD, and closed the blast doors.  In the three freaking weeks we were stuck in that place we started figuring it’s short for New Vancouver, the old one being irradiated.  Speaking of which, Timmy had the bright idea to cook up some anti-radiation meds when we get some free time.  I can’t imagine why he didn’t think of this WHILE WE WERE SITTING ON OUR HANDS FOR THREE WEEKS but then again I’m not Doctor Fancy Pants.


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## tmart (Jun 19, 2007)

Day 247

We made it up the cliff to Newver.  We gave aliases and tried to be inconspicuous, but with our gear it’s hard not to stand out.  After I asked around about Vault locations the mayor, Darren, asked to see me.  It turns out he’s a super nice guy, and has the same goal of rebuilding civilization just like I do.

He told me their chief trade good was ethanol which they make from crops grown around the city.  But they don’t have the weapons to patrol the farmlands, so they’ve been having to abandon some of the farms to bandits.  As a result they’ve been taking in a lot of refugees, hundreds of them.  But to feed them they had to produce less ethanol, which means even less to trade for weapons, so the problems just keep getting worse.  He proposed to trade me the location of the Vault for trade relations with Haven, since we have scav rifles to trade by the boatload.  I’d take the trade straight up because we could really use fuel.  But to trade we’d need a road, so we’re taking a volunteer group of refugees to repair the road across the cliffs.

Day 248

Dinner tonight was awkward.  It was a big political event to annouce the trade deal.  I got the feeling that some in the city weren’t pleased with the situation.  This woman Candace Beaumont, some snob landowner, talked me up to get a feel for where I stand and wasn’t pleased.  She could be a problem.

I also spoke with two representatives from the refugee camp.  One of them, an old woman named Mair, was very pleasant.  I proposed to her that she ask for volunteers to repair the road, which would let them go back to their farms.  She thought it was brilliant and promised a hundred workers within a few days.  The other representative, Dole (no relation to the Mule), had some crazy conspiracy theory about Beaumont rounding up the refugees and killing them.  He wanted to arm the refugees.  This man is crazy.

After the dinner I made my big speech about rebuilding civilization and how this deal would help both our cities and especially the refugees.  It went pretty well.

Day 255

We’re back in Haven now to get construction equipment for the road repair and to pick up the Athena case.  On the road back, we saw a sign “You are now entering Blue Lake.”  It turns out that the Sandovals, who run Blue Lake, are trying to expand and probably take over Trade City, which would be a disaster.  Worse, I spoke with Dorn and he said Mittlewerk has the exact same idea.  They’d be trying to annex it peacefully like they tried to annex Haven back in the day.  Yet worse, the territory they’re both trying to annex happens to be home to … our goddamn colony.  I wonder if it’s time for the colony to come out of the closet.  I consider that a worst case scenario, if we can’t take the land ourselves.  If we lose it to either Blue Lake or Mittlewerk, the colony can stand up and claim it, I guess.  Considering they were there first, they’d get the land by default.

I had this great idea, which was to go to Trade City and warn them about the impending takeover and get the people to defend their city through force.  It worked for Golandt in Haven.  Hopefully we can then ally with Trade City. 

We talked it over with Haven Council and the guys had some other ideas.  Dexter suggested making a deal to supply Trade City with ethanol now that we’re trading for it.  Dorn said the Sandovals bought a large amount of weapons from Trade City.  It looks like they’re arming.  I wonder if it’s because I’m in charge here.  They probably think we’re insane, after what Hexagon Jack did to them.  Speaking of which, after the Council meeting Jack said he’d go off on his own and try to assassinate the Sandovals under the radar.  He hasn’t been seen with us for a long time now, and we’ll be somewhere else if it happens, so we have plausible deniability and they can’t go to war over it.

On the other hand, I’ve been wondering about the Sandovals.  We never did figure out what their deal was, and we parted at least peacefully when we ran into them in Blue Lake before the military base deal.  Maybe we can work something out.  Maybe they have the same goal Darren and I do.  But would they believe me if I told them?  Jack did some pretty awful things to their family when he was with us.  I don’t know if I could convince them that we never wanted those things to happen.  It’s not as if anyone would believe me when I tell them that I’ve been given a sacred mission by God, Mother Earth, or whoever it is giving me my powers.

Day 278

We drove the electric Jeep back to the mountain road and met up with the refugee work force.  Damon set the Jeep up on the cliff, with the turret overlooking the road in case of an attack.  He also got the workers to fill burlap sacks with sand, and sandbagged some fortifications in key spots.  He’s pretty smart about that kind of thing.  I was worried about Beaumont doing something crazy, but it turns out Dole the Lesser’s conspiracy theory was wrong.

The only person who did show up was Benjamin Saunders, the hobo who told us about Petrie Pond.  He was furious.  He said he came here to be away from people because he hated people, and if we fixed the road it would mean people.  Normally I try to be nice to people, but I could tell I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him.  So I basically threatened his life, and used one of my powers, the one that scares people and sends the little mutants running.  I feel bad whenever I use it on humans.  I feel like Jack would approve, and that’s never a good sign.  Moomba loves it, though.  That scares me too.  Every time I see Moomba I remember Jack slitting Adam's throat, and I feel responsible.  I am responsible.  

Anyway, when I did that Benjamin looked terrified.  He right away reached into his jacket and I saw some TNT on him.  I managed to dive behind a row of sandbags as he exploded.  The guy was so crazy, he was willing to kill himself over this.  I think he meant to blow up the road and our construction equipment, but I just scared him into blowing up where it didn’t damage anything.  He must have got the TNT at Petrie Pond, in the false bottom of the locker that was empty.

So the road is all set now, and we’ve put up a toll booth to be leased to Newver.  It should pay for defending the pass as well as the trade shipments going both ways.

Day 279

Okay, we’re idiots.  We found the Vault Darren told us about.  It’s the wrong damn Vault.  This is the Hephaestos Vault, with weapons.  Our keys are for the Athena Vault, which must be on the other side of the mountains.  We nearly found it – we passed right by it! – when we were first scouting around after we left the colony.  Hell, Dorn even knew exactly where it was, but he assumed we knew and we never asked!  I guess this is a reminder that I'm still human, despite my "altered brain chemistry."  And Athena's right in the middle of Sandoval territory.  I wonder if we can work something out with them.

To do:
try to disown Jack and make friends with the Sandovals
talk to Trade City about their offers and dangle ethanol in front of them
send someone to scout around Athena Vault to see what force is guarding it if any
talk to the colony elders about the possibility of going public
get Dorn to write reports for the Council on the military strength of both Blue Lake and Mittlewerk


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## Fimmtiu (Jun 20, 2007)

tmart said:
			
		

> Unfortunately now we’re a couple hundred miles south of where we want to be, with no vehicle.  I would say that’s the last time I trust a smelly hobo, but I’d probably do it again.  That was pretty cool.



Sheer genius.   Love the Fallout-esque setting. This is good stuff -- keep it up!


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## tmart (Jun 26, 2007)

Day 288

So when Jack showed up back in Newver he brought a friend with him named Duff McLeod, who’s from across the mountains to the east.  He’s some combination of cowboy and chemical engineer.  He’s really smart but on the extreme far end of smart where it wraps back around to insanity.  He keeps going on about this thing called “xyclos” or something but I have no idea what that means.  But Dexter took a shine to him, and even though Jack is leaving Dex wants Duff to stick around with the group.  He’s pretty useful.  I just hope I don’t wake up with “xyclos” carved into my arms.

So the Council says the area north of our border is becoming known as the “rad wastes.”  We figure the mutants are moving in and spreading radiation.  We might have to nuke another brain like in the military base.  Also I had them send an envoy to Couver to set up trade in electronics and precious metals with the birth defect folks.

Dex is looking a lot better recently.  He’s in better shape after long hikes too.  He theorizes the nanites are actually helping his health, which is great because he was always such a softie.  Now we need a new excuse to leave him behind as a hostage.

We left him and Duff to fix up the bikes to run on ethanol, and then get started on any jeeps or trucks they can get their hands on so we can start patrolling further.  Timmy Thane is cooking up some anti-rad meds for us in the meanwhile.  Joe Steel, since nobody knows who he is, was sent to scout Athena Vault and see if the Sandovals had any guards there.  So Dole and me took a few soldiers and drove to Trade City to talk.  I spoke with Chairmen Anders and Delfino.  We hammered out some commitments:

•	We protect Trade City from military action by Blue Lake and Mittlewerk in exchange for preferential trade rates
•	Trade City lets us know about any military purchases by BL/MW
•	We give them a better rate on ethanol in exchange for exclusive access to Vault cases/keys

Eventually they insisted on exclusive rights to trading ethanol and weapons, acting as a middleman between Haven and Newver.  I’m not fond of the idea, but in exchange they agreed to join our republic.  If they join then we can do pretty well whatever we like, but I get a bad feeling about it.  It’s strange because it’s our best case scenario.  I told them I liked their proposal but had to ratify it with the Haven Council.

Day 289

So we drove up to Athena Vault to meet Joe.  He had just barely got to the Vault.  He spent all of his time in Blue Lake for some reason… spilling our secrets to David Sandoval.  

COVER YOUR EYES DUMB

He told him about the repaired pass across the mountains.  Sandoval didn’t even know anyone had been over there.  I talked to him about it and it seemed like he wasn’t quite that stupid, it’s just he was stuck talking to Sandoval and is pretty useless dealing with people whereas Sandoval is pretty crafty.  So now they know about Newver and the pass.  I guess it’s okay… it wasn’t going to be a secret for long, and people using the pass are going to pay for guards for our trade shipments.  We still yelled at Joe a lot though.  “You did WHAT?”  It was pretty funny.

Anyway, he at least had scouted the Vault and let us know about some mutants.  They seemed idle and without a purpose, like the others since we blew up the brain.  We just rolled the jeep to within about thirty metres, and then unloaded while driving away faster than they could keep up.  I took the first shot and pegged one of the big ones in the eye with Moomba’s Boomstick.  Deaded.  The muties are pretty dumb so it was really easy.  Timmy Thane was on the machine gun, and he was practically flapping in the wind with the recoil.

In the Vault control room there were two other muties, and smart ones.  They were a bit less mutated.  They had the same claws and muscles but not as melty looking.  They actually used tactics, which makes me worry.  The worst part was one was using a shotgun.  As soon as Timmy saw the one with the shottie he yelled “It’s like the Flood!”  They took cover in the room and didn’t run stupidly after the jeep like the others did.  My fright power worked on them normally like on humans.  I felt some kind of broadcast in my mind too.  I’m worried about what that might mean.  One of them managed to get up on the jeep as we made a drive-by pass.  I got in its mind and suggested the jeep wasn’t a safe place to be, and it should probably think about getting off.  It seemed to work but I felt a wave of feedback, like an instinctive defense, and I was knocked out.  The guys finished it off but they said the other one got away.

But we got the Vault open!  We took a quick look at the swag before calling it a night:

•	Writing supplies
•	A huge library
•	A computer lab
•	Fusion reactor to power the place
•	A cryo lab with seven pods, one malfunctioned.  Five of the remaining six have vital signs.  We’ve got a robotics guy, an engineer, an economist, a biochemist… and a physicist named Ferdinand Sandoval.


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## tmart (Jun 27, 2007)

Day 290

•	Hades Vault is far north
•	Poseidon Vault is far west and underwater
•	Zeus Vault is 130 kilometres southeast, which puts it past that random red-sucky-goo-wall but (we hope) north of the Restricted Zone

We raided the computer lab, which apparently just has electronic versions of the paper archive here, for anything we could think of.  The “hey read me you idiots” file didn’t say much.  These Vaults were constructed pre-Drop as part of the Olympus Initiative to help rebuild society after the Drop.  Dexter raided old news headlines to figure out how the war started.  Timmy thought it would be “Pokemon Pokemon Pokemon,” but Dex said that China, a big country overseas, had a civil war, which caused a shortage in manufactured goods worldwide.  Russia invaded them for unknown reasons and the two countries used nukes on each other.  Then some other countries on the same continent got drawn in.  He said Japan was totally destroyed, which made Timmy Thane sad because now he’ll never know how his manga series ended.  Around the same time disease broke out in some South American countries which were newly rich due to gas deposits being discovered.  The European Union then raised allegations that the United States was behind the disease.  The record ends there, which probably means that the Vault was completed at that time.  The date of the last news article is April 17, 2031.  The Vault clock says today is September 20, 2113.

We got some more on Ferdinand Sandoval too.  He was a philosopher as well as a physicist.  He was in charge of the Olympus Initiative along with his brother Miguel, who is the General that the present-day Sandovals said was their ancestor.  That would make Ferdinand their great-uncle.  He specialised in infantry weaponry R&D.  Miguel was in charge of research programs in the west.

The library had nothing on the weird red walls.  We’ve seen references to a “Gor-Tech” company around here, so we looked that up.  They’re a non-military research firm specialising in climate and bioengineering.  They’re also a subsidiary of ATMA Corporation… we saw that name in the military base where the brain was.  We wanted to find out more from the library but there was so much stuff in it, we didn’t even know where to start.  Hopefully we can come back here from time to time when we think of something else to look up.

September 22, 2113

When we left the Vault we saw about 300 mutants blocking the road.  Their ranks opened and three of the smart ones came forward.  One had a shotgun, one had an assault rifle and the third had a stick with a white flag attached to it.  They were about a klick away, so Timmy, Dole, and I met them in the middle.  The dude with the stick recognised us, so he must be the one that got away earlier.  He told the others that we were the ones who killed “The Core,” which must mean the brain guy.  He said that because we did them that favour, they would let us go if we gave them the key and case to the Vault.

Did I give the mutants free will?

I told them we were disinclined to acquiesce to their request.  They said “We outnumber you.”  Timmy Thane blurted out “We out-awesome you!” which is probably true.  I had to think for a second, but I told them we’d destroy the key and case if they didn’t let us go, and stared the guy down real good.  He didn’t believe me, but the one with the shotgun said they couldn’t take the risk.  I told them that was our ultimatum, and we went back to our jeep.  

Now the key only serves to open the case, and the case only has sheets of code pairs.  The Vault prompts you with a code and you type in its pair.  They probably don’t know this, so inside the jeep we take the codes and give them to the Mule.  McLeod then stuffs the case full of C4 and rigs it to blow if opened.  So Dex gets up in the jeep and holds a gun to the key, which is just a disc.  So we drive down the road slowly toward the mutants blocking it.  The smart ones don’t say nothing, and the dumb ones don’t move.  We get to within a few feet and Joe just keeps going.  They part at the last second to let us through.  It was intense.

To make sure we weren’t followed, we kept driving into the night.  The guys dropped me and my brother from another mother, Dole Mule, off outside Blue Lake to talk with David Sandoval.  He woke up to talk with us.  I told him I was sorry for what happened to Adam, which I am.  I told him I have nightmares about it to this day, which I do.  I told him we parted ways with Hexagon Jack because he’s crazy and violent.  I told him that when we stole the case from them, we didn’t know what we were doing, and since then we decided we would try to rebuild civilisation.  And I told him we wanted to put the past behind us and work together to do that.  I started to tear up when I was talking about Adam, so he believed me and agreed that it would be best.  But he had me agree that the authorities would have to be on the lookout for Jack to bring him to justice.  I felt bad agreeing to that because he’s one of us, but he does need to be held responsible for what he did.  Timmy said it’s not his fault.  He’s a sociopath, he said.  He doesn’t understand right and wrong like we do.  Then again, they probably won’t be able to catch him.  He’s too resourceful.

He suggested getting all the local towns together under one authority – Newver, Blue Lake, Trade City, Sandoro, and Haven.  Maybe we could add Couver and even the colony, depending on what the elders say.  It’s a great idea.  I also told him about the Vault and showed him the printout about Ferdinand.  He was surprised.  I also told him about the 300 mutants and how there were smart ones now.  That scared him.  If they all attacked at once, he said, they wouldn’t be able to defend the city.  Hopefully the rivers will keep them away.  There’s not much to be done about them at the moment except to get Haven trading weapons to Blue Lake.

We called it a night and hammered out some details the next morning.  I’m so glad we decided to do this.  I feel like I’ve atoned in a way for what happened to Adam.  I haven’t seen him in my nightmares since.

September 29, 2113

Dexter and Dole went to the colony to talk to the elders.  Dole did a really great job of selling them the idea of going public and joining the new alliance.  They didn’t commit on the spot but they warmed nicely to the idea.  Apart from that they said that the elders nagged them about coming home more often.  Elder Mitchell, the eldest of us (73 I think) is in poor health and gave Dex an envelope to open when he dies.  They have tons of medical supplies from the stockpile we raided in Sandoro but the doctor said it’s just his time.  I think they might be making him an elder.  He is pretty smart.

While they were there they also requisitioned another jeep and converted it to electric like our other one.  They tricked both of them right out.  They added body armour, an engine upgrade, off-road suspension and wheels for the wrecked roads.  And the second one now has a heavy machine gun on it.  Fifty cal.  This thing is sick.

While they were over there Timmy’s voice lowered.  He sounds like a man now.  Plus he isn’t so pale anymore.  I don’t know if puberty comes in your 20s for Thane men, or if radiation exposure unblocked a blood clot or something, or if testing out the machine gun made him churn out more testosterone, but it’s strange, like we don’t have to talk down to him anymore.

It’ll still be a while until we can have our first provisional meeting of the alliance, so we decided to check out the airfield we heard is south of Blue Lake (the lake not the city) and maybe Couver to scav parts for Dex and talk to them about joining.

To do:
•	Unify currency for all the towns
•	Talk to Couver about joining
•	Worry a lot about Mittlewerk, ask Dorn if they might consider joining (not likely)
•	Find a cool name for the alliance.  Confederacy?
•	Think about a capital
•	Find cool nicknames for the different kinds of mutants

September 30, 2113

For the first time I think we may be in over our heads.

We headed out toward the airfield, and just past the crater at the crossroads, we heard an incoming helicopter.  I’ve seen one helicopter in my life, and after it landed, Drago the would-be bandit king was shot dead with some kind of laser gun and then the guys from the chopper took the fusion reactor from the medical stockpile underneath Sandoro.  Not wanting to be the guys who get shot first and asked questions later, we took off into the trees with our two off-road armoured supercharged jeeps from hell.  Choppers are fast though, so they caught up.  Damon was driving our jeep and he managed to hit a rock.  While he was backing up ropes dropped in among the trees and two guys in black wearing shades zipped down to the ground.  They were the same guys from Sandoro.  

They took the opportunity to quickly threaten us to stop what we were doing or we’d be killed.  Since they weren’t firing we stuck around for a bit to talk, but Joe and the other jeep were still taking off.  It’s probably best to split up in this situation anyway.  I stalled for time while my mind-reading power set to work.  I felt six in the chopper and then those two.  I couldn’t read the big guy but the skinny one was easy.  His surface thoughts told me they had orders to stop us from forming our alliance.  They told us to just find a farm somewhere and just… farm.  I told them even if we stop, the gears are in motion and the cities will work together.  They just repeated themselves again.  I told them the mutants were threatening us and we had to band together to defend ourselves.   They said the mutants weren’t a threat.  I couldn’t really believe that considering the 300 outside Blue Lake, but then they said the mutants were “under control.”  I used my power of suggestion on the skinny one and said “Look, if we’re going to abandon our project to restore civilisation to our home you’re really going to have to explain to us who we’re dealing with and why we should stop.”  He answered “Listen to me, you ignorant savages, the ATMA Corp –” and then he stopped, said a very bad word, and reached for his gun.  

Dole floored it and took a couple pot shots at the helicopter.  I took shots with Moomba’s Boomstick and Dexter unloaded with the machine gun while a laser beam flew right over his shoulder.  We actually managed to damage the chopper enough that it turned and took off south from whence it came.  It was smoking and we probably nearly downed it.  We would have kept chasing but I spotted one leaning out the side with a rocket launcher of some kind, so we just held back and kept taking pot shots.  It got away, but we think it was a pretty big win for us.  The thing had two machine guns firing at us but we only took one hit to the jeep, and Dex said he can fix it right up.

I’ve thought a lot since then and based on the guy’s surface thoughts and the word choice “under control” I’m beginning to think that ATMA might be behind the mutants.  After all, the Core / Brain thing was located deep inside the ATMA military base.  I’m also suspicious of Dorn.  He has a gun that looks just like a revolver but is actually some kind of plasma or laser weapon.  I’d like to ask him where he got it when I see him next, and I’m going to be using my powers on him.

September 30, 2113, continued

Joe said while he was taking off in the Jeep somebody fiddled with the radio and they heard this broadcast:

….Attention, please, attention.  The United States government is returning order to the pacific northwest.  All loyal citizens will be protected. Lawless brigands and those possessing illegal mutations will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.  Resistance will be met with force.  United states citizens in need of immediate assistance are advised to report to the US Army outpost north east of Seattle along Route 2, just off the I5.

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous night
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ rad glare, the nukes bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the pure and the home of the brave?….

….Attention, please, attention….


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## tmart (Jul 8, 2007)

October 7, 2113

Well we continued to the airfield.  We scav’d some parts to fix the Jeep, and found a working airplane.  McLeod said it would be ridiculously hard to find airplane fuel for it, so we left it for now and just took an electronic part to keep it from working.  Also in the radio tower we saw a distress message sent by a plane about 80 years ago.  Dex figured out where it must have crashed and we went to take a look.  Unfortunately it had recently been found by someone else.  The weird thing was some skeletons around it – Timmy said they were like bears, but nastier.  He found tracks heading off toward Blue Lake.  We had to go by there anyway so I stopped in to talk with David Sandoval.

I asked him what his boys got from the crash site and he said some weapons, supplies, some kind of armour… I got the feeling he was holding something back, and asked him to share what he knew in the newfound spirit of cooperation we had agreed on.  He brought up the whole Moomba debacle.  I said “I thought that was behind us.  I’m going to go sulk now.  See you at the meeting” and left.  But when I was on the other side of his door I scanned his mind and he did find power armour, like I suspected.  So I poked my head back inside the door and asked him flat out about the armour he found.  He seemed surprised that I suspected it, so I said “What, did you think I read your mind or something? Moomba be sensin’ some power armour!”  If he only knew…  anyway, I traded him the airplane for the armour, and I said I’d throw in the airstrip if he’d stop being mean.  It’s a great deal considering we probably couldn’t even use the airplane, and are liable to being shot down by ATMA crazies anyway.

So we got Dole in the armour.  It’s really good armour.  It’s crazy heavy but it increases his strength too.  Timmy won't stop addressing him as Master Chief.  He can also see 360 degrees.  I’m lending him Moomba’s Boomstick, which ties into his heads-up display and can do crazy things like track targets and see around corners through the scope.

Dex and Joe snuck around some mutants to get back into Athena to look up ATMA, helicopter specs, and about the United States.  They searched for the song Joe heard on the radio, and it was the anthem for the old States.  But he said it was off a little bit – it used to be the land of the free, not the land of the pure.  I guess they took some liberties with the song after the Drop, but I’m told they were pretty good at taking liberties before it too.

October 12, 2113

Somebody remembered that we have a SAM truck at the colony that we should bring to the meeting in case another ATMA chopper shows up.  For now the colony has lent us a hand-held missile launcher.  Between the machine guns on the Jeep and this baby, they’re toast if they come at us again.

Dorn came back from Mittlewerk.  He said they’re stockpiling food and weapons, which is not exactly out of the ordinary for them.  The Emperor Johann is very aggressive.  Dorn said his son Theodore would be more likely to consolidate their territory than try to expand, but added that Marcus Flint, the military goon we dealt with earlier, would be likely to make a coup if Johann died.

I also took the liberty of reading his mind while I asked him about ATMA.  He said they were normally secretive, and doing what they did was very unusual.  He told me he had run into them before, but Moomba said he used to work for them.  He said they’re very high tech, and aim to control everything they can.  They seem to be based in the Restricted Zone.  He said they were working on a monitoring system in the past, and if they had it working now it would explain how they found us.  I asked him some personal questions as well, and it seems he likes the idea of rebuilding civilisation, but is mostly just satisfied with the living he makes in Haven.

October 20, 2113

I talked to Macross, an ambassador from Couver.  I got him to agree to come to the meeting at least, but I’m not too optimistic.  They’re interested in trade but not much else – they’re pretty isolationist.  I would be too if I looked funny.  Something weird happened, though.  I tried to use my powers on him, just to soften him up and make him listen to me, but it wouldn’t work no matter how many times I tried.  And after I kept trying, my mind felt something.  I fought it off and nothing happened, but I’m afraid he may have powers too.  Maybe he’s been given a gift, like I have.  Maybe he’ll have a role in the struggles to come.  One thing’s for sure, though – I won’t be using Moomba on him from now on.

October 27, 2113

We were just heading to Blue Lake to make arrangements for the meeting with David, when Timmy spotted Rorschach on a motorcycle headed toward us.


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## tmart (Jul 11, 2007)

October 27, 2113, continued

Rorschach had heard that we had asked around about keys and suitcases.  He said he knew of a couple that would be better off not in the hands of certain guys in Couver.  He offered to help us get the Hephaestos and Poseidon keys, splitting the goods down the middle.  I pumped him for info because it made me really nervous.  He said the Couverites are becoming irrational.  “They’ve become a cult,” he said.  They call themselves the Disciples of Evolution.  We’re calling them Devo for short.  They think they’re supposed to help the cause of… evolution.  They appear to be doing it by looking funny.  Timmy got all excited and said “They’re like the Brotherhood of Mutants! And you’re the X-Men!”  Rorschach didn’t get it.  Nobody ever does.  

Anyway, we were really suspicious of why he’d want all those weapons.  He said he didn’t even want the weapons, that we could have Hephaestos and he’d take the Poseidon key.  He said he was just getting paid to do it.  I got him to tell us he was selling it to the Melkior Alliance, some group based offshore, supposedly with no hostile intentions.  Moomba said he actually works for them.  I’m afraid it might be a front for ATMA, but it doesn’t sound like it.  We agreed to each take a key, but he’d have to help us find the Hephaestos briefcase. 

To go incognito we’re taking the bikes instead of the jeeps.  To carry everybody we traded the wolf pelts and some gold for a sidecar in Trade City, and Dex is using it as a guide to hack together another one.  Duff can ride in the hack job… I don’t trust it.

October 29, 2113

So we went to the colony before we left to stash some stuff we didn’t want tying us down, mainly Dole’s power armour (which is not very sneaky).  It was just Dole, Timmy, Dex, and me.  When we got to the entrance there were more guards than normal.  Lt. Fillion Braymore told us to stop so our equipment could be inspected.  I figure Dex takes pretty good care of it, but he said it was by order of the Council.  Moomba got him to make us an exception.  I scanned some thoughts and someone was thinking the rule made sense given the incident.

I kept scanning as we made our way in.  I was getting a really bad feeling.  A couple people thought “oh, it’s them, the ones making trouble with the outsiders.”  Some houses were burnt down, too.

When we got to see the Council there were only three of the five elders there.  Mitchell, the scientist who gave us our orders, and Marie, the quartermaster who released ammo and gear to us, were missing.  The Council asked for a report.  I asked what happened to the other elders.  They demanded my report.  Looks like Claire is in charge now, and she was very confrontational for no apparent reason.  I told them that we were continuing to arrange our big meeting, and we went to Couver to talk about attending.  Claire refused to say anything else and told us to leave.

When we left the Council we were stopped by a dozen militia who demanded our weapons.  I tried to talk and Moomba them out of it but it wasn’t working.  I thought they might even shoot us if we refused.  Dex opened a letter and read it, but I didn’t know what it was.  I barged back into the Council and demanded to know what was going on, which was pretty reasonable considering all I’ve done for the colony in the past year.  She practically yelled that Mitchell and Marie were executed for treason.  She said they conspired to build a Drop bomb, and she also thought we were in on it.  I argued for a while that we had hardly anything to do with him.  We just came back once in a while to get bullets and orders.  Dexter then pulled out this letter again that was from Mitchell, saying he maintained a laboratory in the unsafe mine that no one else knew about, and if he came to an “untimely demise” then Dex would have to take care of it.  Apparently the fire occurred when the elders were arrested.  Someone overturned a lamp and it started a fire.  Anyway, based on the letter and my badgering I argued them down to house arrest with our weapons.  We’re stuck in here now… at least Dole makes a mean gumbo.

I scanned some folks on the street and someone was thinking about what happened.  I think some kid snuck into the unsafe mine and found the lab, then told the militia and they found the nuke.

October 31, 2113

I asked a guard to let us speak with Hugo.  He was the only elder who seemed in his right mind.  He came by and I asked if we would have a trial.  He said there would be some sort of tribunal.  Dexter asked about the nuke, and wowed him with some technical mumbo jumbo about disarming it.  It was a good idea, so Hugo took him into the mine.  I don’t know exactly what happened down there, but it turns out it’s not a damn nuke, it’s nuclear reactor which powers the lab.  Dex said it’s probably the real power source for the whole damn colony, because there’s not that much gas left in the world to run our generators!  But he mouthed off to Hugo.  No more speaking to Hugo for him.  His Hugo privileges are revoked.  I mentioned that since there is no “Drop bomb,” the charges against us are invalid and have to be dropped.  He said nothing and walked away.

Dexter asked me to include this in my journal: “gg guys. gg.”  It’s hard to believe that these crazies murdered two elders for no reason.  They didn’t even bother to find out what it was… then again, Mitchell would be the only one who saw the place who might even know the difference.

Happy Hallowe’en!  No kids came to the door, though.  The guard won’t let us talk with anyone.  They wouldn’t want to give us a chance to tell our side of the story.  No, the plebs only get to hear Claire’s propaganda.

November 2, 2113

We finally got to go to the tribunal.  They made us leave our weapons for real this time, though.  The Council immediately dropped the charges of conspiring to make a bomb.  But they added charges for knowing of Mitchell’s wrongdoing (whatever that may have been?) and for endangering the health of the colony.  They asked what our defense was.  I told them our defense was that they had no case at all, and if this were a real trial instead of a kangaroo court they couldn’t even have charged us because they have no evidence.  As for knowing about Mitchell, Dexter’s note proves that we didn’t, seeing how it was sealed and only opened in front of Samuels, the semi-competent militia leader and elder.  Endangering the health of the colony was a joke too.  We only ever followed orders.  Apparently ATMA finding us was our fault.  But ATMA doesn’t even know about the colony!  Claire tried to argue that we made them look bad in the eyes of Blue Lake… but that’s marginal at best and I don’t even see how this is a crime to begin with.  Then again they seem to be making it up as they go along in this witch hunt.  And Sandoval doesn’t even know about the colony yet!

November 6, 2113

So the next day some militia came by and told us we had been found not guilty of knowing about Mitchell’s lab, but guilty of endangering the colony.  They locked us up in a cell to wait for the sentence.  The next night Hugo came by, nodded to the guard, and the guard unlocked our cell and left us alone.

Hugo said that he thought we were innocent.  He also said there were a lot of good people in the colony that were just scared.  He said he obviously couldn’t let us go, and that it was a shame that we had no way to get into the armoury to get our gear.  As he turned to leave he dropped a key on the floor.

Needless to say we went out the back way (this place wasn’t meant to be a prison) and snuck through the halls to get to the armoury.  Feeling a bit resentful, we not only took back our stuff but jacked a fat loot.  We took all the explosives, a ton of ammo, some parts, grabbed an M16 for Duff and Dex and I traded mine for a sniper rifle.  We also took a heavy machine gun to upgrade the second jeep.  We didn’t take anything that they had ever had a use for, and any bandits or mutants that came around would be easily dealt with considering all the stuff they do have.  They can outfit a small army here.  And that night they kinda did.

Dex wanted to check out Mitchell’s lab pretty badly to see what had to be a secret.  The two guards at the exit of the complex were asleep, and I think they may have been drugged by Hugo.  That or they passed out drunk.  Anyway, we snuck around the outside to the mine and there were two guards there.  We snuck up on them and surrounded them, pointing assault rifles and Dole with the M2HB.  I told them to put down their weapons and they wouldn’t get hurt.  Moomba also suggested they not tell anyone they let us in.  Then we just tied them up in the closet.  Dex didn’t have much time to look around but he found some really high-tech gadgetry that Mitchell had been tinkering with.  He said he could make something awesome out of them, but I don’t know what.

So we sent Dole to get his power armour which was still in his house, which took some major sneakery.  He said only one person saw him, and it was a little girl, and it was while he was in his armour, and she just fainted.

Meanwhile the rest of us went to the vehicle depot.  There were two guards again.  We waited for Dole and did the same drill as before… these aren’t hardened soldiers, just regular folk, so they’re not going to say no to a big suit of power armour wielding a heavy machine gun.  So we loaded up all our loot in our jeeps.  Since there were four of us, we each drove one vehicle and also took our SAM truck (for the meeting in case of ATMA) and a military truck for Haven.  We also took all the spark plugs from the other vehicles to buy us time in case of pursuit.  We came out with a pretty big haul.

The irony of it all is that we came here to stash our gear.

I split off to go to Blue Lake and talk to Sandoval and tell him about the colony in case he heard bad stories about me.  About Mitchell and Marie he said he wasn’t surprised that someone from our colony killed someone for no reason.  Apparently he still holds a grudge about Adam.  I can’t say I blame him.  Then again, I still hold a grudge against Jack too.

November 12, 2113

With all that insanity behind us we got to Couver.  We stashed our bikes in the trees and snuck into the sewers.  In a while Rorschach led us to a door with a keypad.  Dex hacked it good.  The inside wasn’t a sewer but a proper hallway, and recently built.  We ducked into a side room to hide from a patrol and although it was pitch black, Dole used his night vision scope to check it out.  He saw some half-built machines but didn’t get much.  After the patrol went by we found a bigger bunker door, also with a keypad.  Dexter hacked it open with his wizardry and there were some fellas inside with assault rifles.  One of them asked for identification.  I said I had our identification right here… and pulled out my new Heckler and Koch PSG-1.  We tried to intimidate them again but they seemed like fanatics or something.  I also got a little bit of feedback on my powers, so I decided to lay off while we were there.  The firefight was really fast and we didn’t take any injuries.  Dole even charged a guy with his huge sword and just chopped his head off in one slice.

I only wounded people again.  It’s easier when the others kill them.  I still won’t be sleeping for a while, though.


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## tmart (Jul 18, 2007)

November 12, 2113, continued

Then Rorschach said we’d be detected fairly soon, and told me to cloak the party.  I played dumb and told him I didn’t bring any cloaks.  He told me to use my psychic powers.  I guess the cat’s out of the bag.  No idea who told him… maybe Macross knows and told the Couverites.  Now recently I’ve been working on shielding us from melty mutants and I think I’ve got it down… but from humans, I can’t do this.  So I put everything I had into it.  I thought my mind was going to tear itself apart, but it seemed to work.  My sense of judgement was seriously messed up.  It was like being extremely drunk, but still sober.  It’s not something I want to feel ever again.

So then Rorschach leads us down another hall and he takes the keys.  Timmy tells me over our mindlink that there’s actually three of them that he takes.  Couldn’t see what the third was.  Now, that wasn’t the deal, so we considered confronting him then, but decided we’d best get out first, so I just grabbed the Hephaestos key from him.  But he isn’t very smart taking them and an alarm goes off.  Good work, Rorschach.  As we run to leave I feel a psychic presence sweeping the area.  It looked right at me, but it didn’t see anything and kept looking somewhere else.

As we leave the room we fought in we see an oncoming party of Couverites.  They look a little confused, and don’t see us.  We sneak past them, and genius Dole stubs his toe and has to swear about it.  They started looking around a little harder and I was afraid they’d see us, so Duff threw a smoke grenade back on the other side of them, and they figure we’re on the other side of it and lay down a base of fire.

Duff hacked one of the heavy doors to stay shut to slow them down if they came after us this way.  But pretty soon we were hearing footsteps coming from all directions, and Rorschach said it wasn’t going to work.  He said “Plan B,” and took out some electronic device and flipped a switch.  He told us to follow him.  The other guys were thinking double-cross (double-Macross?) but he seemed alright to me, so we followed.  We waited for another group to break the hacked door back open, and followed behind them.

Now there were a ton of them in the room where we had the gunfight, and that was where the elevator was that would take us to the roof.  Our cloak held while we were in the room, but the elevator opening was too much.  We were all in balaclavas so they couldn’t see who we were.  I started shouting orders at us like we’re the elite troops they’ve never seen, and it at least buys us enough time for the doors to close and get us moving to the roof.  Once we got to the top Duff had the bright idea to put it on service so they couldn’t get it back. 

We got out onto the roof and barricaded the stairs.  Rorschach said we were waiting for a helicopter.  Timmy said “If it’s a Sea King I’m going back down to face the mutants.  I’m not even kidding.”  Soon they started banging on the door.  There was talk of rigging some C4 or a grenade to go off when it opened, but in a second the banging stopped so we knew they were going to blow it.  They busted out and there was another gunfight, and some of them used swords.  While we fought Duff planted three pounds of C4 against the stairwell to keep more from coming.  He only set a very short fuse, and just as he finished three more soldiers ran through.  He managed to stick out his foot and trip one of them, then run and dive around the corner just as the bomb went off.  I have never heard an explosion that loud.  My ears are still ringing.  Anyway, the one he tripped got caught in the explosion.  He was proud of it.  I guess it’s a better way to go than being shot?

So the chopper shows up and fortunately it’s not a Sea King.  Timmy said they were speaking Japanese.  They also said they were taking us to their boat.  Now, between the extra key, the change of plans, and this, I start getting nervous.  Over the mindlink there was chatter about maybe pulling guns on these guys and forcing them to take us to our bikes in the forest outside Couver.  I told him I didn’t like the deal changing and I brought up the third key.  He said he didn’t know it was going to be there.  I asked him what it looked like, and he said a grinning skull.  Obviously it was the Hades key.  I told him he didn’t want what was inside, and he said he knew what was inside and it could be useful.  I told him it wouldn’t, and said “let me see, I’ll show you.”  He handed it over and before anyone could react I pulled out my Glock and shot the disc right in half.  I gave him one half and kept the other.  Nearly shot myself in the hand, too.  He didn’t even flinch.  He just asked me to keep my gun holstered.  This guy is just ice cold, it gives me the creeps.  That and his damn mask.  It’s always changing just a tiny little bit, like the light reflects a different way and it looks almost like a face, but then not again.  It gives me the jibblies.

I’m not too sure why I did it, but then again I am.  The kinds of weapons in the Hades Vault are what reduced our world to the nightmare it is now.  It’s what I’m working to rebuild, and I’ll die before I see some lunatic nuke it all to hell again.  But I didn’t even think before I did it.  It was just reflex.  Looking back I think it was just the drunk thing, but I’m sure it was the right thing to do.  Of course, if anyone can get the case open without the key, they’ll still have the codes, but it’s a good start.

But he reassured me about Melkior and we went with them to the boat.  When we got off Rorschach introduced us to a guy named Tom, who had an Australian accent.  He said the boat was an old research vessel called the Jack of Spades.  I asked him if it was the Jack of Spades, if we were on the bowers of the ship?  He didn’t seem to get the joke.  Dexter was wondering if anyone even played cards out at sea.  He said maybe they didn’t have any decks to play with.  I killed myself laughing before I could spit out “But ships have plenty of decks!”  Everyone just looked at me funny.  I tried to pull myself together and introduce us, but Timmy thought he’d better sedate me.  He gave me a shot and the last thing I remember before passing out was him saying something about knowing it’s stress because he’s a surgeon, and Tom said something about a psychiatrist.  Anyway, it was kinda lame to fool me like that but it was probably a good idea given the way I was acting like a crazy person.  He kept me out for a few days while I recovered from the strain.

So when I was out, the guys learned some stuff and managed not to insult ALL of them Melkior guys.  Rorschach admitted that he does actually work for them.  They said they thought they had about 95% of the world’s remaining naval power.  Someone said “So… two boats?” and Tom just shrugged.  They also said they have a nuclear-powered submarine which could reach Poseidon Vault.  Dex and Duff were stoked to see it.

They also said there were three USA’s they knew of: one in the northeast, one around Texas, and one around old Seattle.  They also asked about ATMA.  Apparently before the Drop they predicted it would happen and consolidated enough to survive it.  They’re based near Zeus Vault like we thought.  They suggested they almost certainly have access to it, which would explain their chopper and Dorn’s high tech pistol, whatever it is.  Also the UFO rail gun dude in the Restricted Zone.  Most impressively, they added that not only would our LAW have a chance at blowing it up, but that the kind of robotic guy it is probably used a radio frequency emitter to identify friend or foe, and if we could find out what it was we could just waltz into the Restricted Zone.  Note to self: get Dex to scan radio frequencies if we run into ATMA hacks again.

They said they could get us home using a train they had.  We thought of the Gor-Tech train and asked them more about it, and it was exactly the one we were talking about.  Now I don’t know if I was still being silly, but we’re talking about a naval empire here, and I remembered the last thing Dexter wrote to Admin01 when we were in the chemical plant and had another fit.  Anyway, they said some stuff was lying around after the war and they hijacked the train and the plant, even though it’s Gor-Tech which was a subsidiary of ATMA.  It sounds really suspicious but I’m sure they’re telling the truth.  They said ATMA has total superiority on land, but they couldn’t touch the Melkior Alliance at sea, so they had a nice stalemate going.

So they’ve also heard about what we’re trying to do and got some intel from Rorschach, which explains why they wanted to work with us.  We also talked about trading for food.  They also mentioned a place called the Bazaar south of the old border where we might ask around for the cases.  They also gave us a device like Rorschach’s to communicate with them.  So after the council meeting, that’s our next stop.

November 13, 2113

Actually I slept pretty well last night... and now that I think about it, when I was messed up I shot and killed two men on the roof in Couver.  I don’t know what to think about that.  Maybe it’s better if I don’t.

November 21, 2113

So here’s who all showed up for the council meeting:

Representative Philip MacGregor of the Gor-Tech mine (population 200)
Chairmen Anders and Delfino of Trade City (population 200)
Ambassador Macross of Couver (population unknown; he said “several thousand” but that was being evasive)
Mayor Darren Joelson of Newver (population 3000). Also TC was with him, that guy is solid.
Mayor David Sandoval of Blue Lake (population 400)
Champion Damon Slate of Sandoro (population 50 mangy scavengers, if that)
And your awesome Chairman, Chancellor Marshall Flowers of Haven (population 2000).

MacGregor actually only showed up partway through.  Apparently he ran into some problems with bandits.  That played nicely into my hands.

Macross left partway through, saying “Just tell us what you require from us.”  It was weird.  He wasn’t committing to anything, and seemed to be there mostly to spy on us.  We already know Couver is interested in trade but not much else.  Apparently we don’t figure into their insane cult’s plans for human evolution.

We agreed on some broad strokes:

Defense.  Mutants, bandits, and Mittlewerk were everyone’s problem so we agreed each city would contribute men or arms within their abilities.  We also agreed to set up an academy and barracks in Sandoro to train them.  Damon knows tactics and is going to do the training.  Also, this will provide Sandoro a reason to still exist.  Plus there’s that medical facility we saved from being a sploded by ATMA.  I also told them that when mutants move into an area, radiation comes with them.  I was figuring they spread radiation themselves, like they pooped it or something, but Timmy said that’s not really biologically possible.  My conspiracy theory brain started working like maybe ATMA irradiates an area so the mutants can move in? I don’t know.  Anyway, Blue Lake wanted help with the mutants around Blue Lake (around 300 in an army when we were at Athena the first time), and we promised it would be the first thing for the militia to do.
Basically we agreed to keep the Council going in more or less its present shape, with each city getting one representative, who all elect a Chairman.  I won the vote but barely.  Macross had left by this point so there were only six representatives.  MacGregor, Anders, and Sandoval voted for Anders and me, Darren, and Damon voted for me.  MacGregor knew Trade City well and was interested in not much other than trade anyway.  Since it was deadlocked 3-3 we had speeches.  I told them I was going to restore civilisation to this part of the world, and that Anders was just a businessman interested in making money.  It was enough to make Sandoval think I was a better choice, which I am, but he only abstained to give us the 3-2 edge.  Delfino challenged Sandoro’s vote, but they’re around the same size as the Gor-Tech mine anyway and I argue better than they do.
We agreed that Couverite freaks were people too.  I didn’t put it like that, but while Macross was still there we cleared up the whole “mutant” word problem.  Couverites with deformities are now called “radiants” and melty mutants are just mutants.  It was mainly throwing them a bone, and hopefully everyone will start using these words now to avoid the stupid confusion.  I still need to come up with names for the different mutants though.
Macross said mutants do face some persecution.  When I first brought up the subject he said “some are more human than others.”  I said “we’re all equally human.”  He shrugged.  Those bastards and their cult are really starting to get to me.  Who do they think they are?  Most of them are just funny looking!  So they have one psychic there too.  Who cares?  I may be chosen to restore civilisation, but I’m not more human than anyone else!  They are so arrogant!
We decided to establish a common currency.  Eventually I broke it to them about the economist we have on ice.  Trade City insisted we agree to no protective taxes on trade goods, and that we wouldn’t have price controls.  I guess that sounds okay to me.  I’ll leave that stuff up to the economist when we thaw him out.

Darren said this wasn’t enough.  He wanted to unify.  I agreed but felt that some other members might not be ready, and we were taking things as fast as we could already.  That seemed to go over well with the rest of the council.

Timmy also offered to show the others how to make anti-rad drugs, but the supplies to make them are more of a problem.

Finally, we named our little council the Olympus Confederacy after the vaults, and our next meeting will be in two months.  Hopefully by then we’ll have some recruits trained and the economist woken up.  Now to the Bazaar.

So Marshall Flowers is now one step closer to world domination! Just kidding. Although the world would be way better off if I ran the place.


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## tmart (Jul 29, 2007)

November 29, 2113

I got the master builder, Sunborn, to bring some men and construction machines to have the military academy built in Sandoro.  We made the manor into the officer’s barracks and began training the first recruits.  They’ll be taught to gather shell casings and make their own bullets, as well as fight.  Dex also decided to paint the jeeps and Dole’s power armour purple camo to match the OICW.

It’s getting really cold.  I liked it better in the colony.  We won’t be going back there anytime soon, though.

December 4, 2113

Dole suggested going around Couver to avoid them, but I thought it would seem suspicious, so we just drove through.  They seemed agitated and I think I know why.  I played dumb and I don’t think they know it was us that took the keys.  They just escorted us out of the city the way we were going.

When we went off the road to skirt around the Rock, the biker town, Joe started acting weird.  He said he wanted to go to settle some business.  I think he’s got some vendetta going on.  We can’t go there, though.  It’s just an unnecessary risk.  There’s just too many of them and with our gear we’d be walking targets.  We did run into a gang of six of them outside the city, though.  They opened fire and we killed them.  Hopefully that will be enough for Joe.  Since Moomba made two of them just stop their bikes and get off, we got two Hogs in perfect condition, and four damaged ones.  We tied the broken ones to the jeeps to haul them to the Bazaar.

December 5, 2113

We ran into a military patrol near the “US Army” base.  They were pretty alright, actually.  We told them who we were, although Joe gave a fake name as usual.  They’ve heard of me down here too.  There’s a tariff of ten percent for anything crossing the border.  And they have two light tanks, maybe a few hundred men.  It makes me wonder, how they’ve decided to claim the name of an old country.  Maybe it could work for us, make us seem more legitimate.  But then again I like the sound of the Olympus Confederacy.

December 6, 2113

The outskirts of the Bazaar were pretty rough.  The people there are very poor.  Dole and I handed out some jerky and rations and got swarmed.  They’re more desperate than the poor guys in Newver when they were in trouble.

Joe told us some stuff about the town.  Seems it’s owned by this Aberforth family, criminals I think, and they might have something to do with the Rock.  I think there’s more here than he’s telling us.

There were two casinos in town.  Timmy got a fair amount of chips in exchange for some morphine.  I can’t believe they’d risk it but Joe won a ton of chips, enough to get the morphine back and then some.  

I was going to use the rest to buy the Hephaestos case.  I asked around about where I could find a curio like that and someone directed me to a weapons dealer named Alanson.  He set me up with a stogie and showed me his stuff.  He’s got another OICW, and a Land Warrior suit to go with it.  There was also a couple of high-tech handguns and a “laser rifle,” which is a rifle that shoots a laser.  Anyway, I tried to play dumb about the case and buy it with chips, because most merchants take them around here.  Unfortunately he seemed to have some idea of what it was worth, because he had had a couple offers for it before.  He said he’d trade it to us if we did some work for him.  It seems there’s some old military base near here that’s defended with some autoguns, and he wants what’s inside.  If we get it to him, we’ll get the case.  I also got him to throw in the OICW.  That way Dole can use it and I can have Moomba’s Boomstick back.

By the end of the day Joe had taken out two machine guns that were guarding the entrance.  Tomorrow we go inside.  We’re hoping for no injuries this time.


----------



## tmart (Aug 12, 2007)

December 7, 2113

Duff MacGyvered some hammers into a grappling hook and we scaled the wall.  We hacked the door into the main compound.  It was pretty boring, mostly crates of tools and supplies, nothing even scav-worthy.  Then a levitating deathbot came out of the floor and shot at us with its machine guns.  It also had missiles, weird shield things, and little repair bots that came out to patch it up.  It took some grenades but we took it out.

Looking around we also found a couple maps that are post-Drop but seem really old.  Behind some blast doors we found a shuttle.  One led to a cryogenics facility, but the computer said there was no one in there.  Another led to “Project Walken.”  We went to check it out and the ride there was really long, dozens of klicks at least.  The project is a mech.  It’s nowhere near completion – it needed a power source and all kinds of things.  Maybe one day it could be fixed up but not anytime soon.  Obviously this is what doofus wanted, but we didn’t like the idea of him getting his hands on it.  The last thing we need is Mittlewerk with a mech.  So we scav’d some parts, sabotaged the tunnel, collapsing it, and programmed the computer to show there’s nothing special there.

We went to check out the cryo chamber.  A really old man was there, Michael Arnie.  Long story short, this place was like the Vaults, intended to keep some people alive to rebuild after the Drop (except U.S. military).  They were revived 20 years after the Drop.  They were doing some good, especially seeing how there were a lot more bandits back then with the amount of ammo around.  Then ATMA showed up to help, then betrayed them, and destroyed everything they had built.  We told him we were going after ATMA, and he gave us a silver wand-type thing.  He said it’ll get us through some of their defenses, like the red walls which have a real name, “nanobarriers.”  He also gave us a stack of books, a history he’d written of the base and what happened.  We told him Alanson would be coming for the mech, and he said he had a surprise for them.

As it turns out Alanson was just approaching the base as we were leaving.  He asked us to escort him inside, which we did.  We told him there was a harmless old man still there.  I yelled out “Hey crazy old man, don’t hurt us!” like I was making fun of him but really I didn’t want any part of his surprise.  Alanson and his men took a quick look around and saw we’d pwned the defenses.  Duff said pwned isn’t a real word, but Dex told him that he checked last time he was at Athena Vault, and pwned made it into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2014.  Anyway, they let us go and we headed to the Bazaar for our reward.

About halfway there, we saw a flash of light.  We turned around and looked back at the base.  It was a mushroom cloud.  It’s a good thing Michael waited a bit for his surprise.  We could barely get back into the Bazaar.  The place was going nuts.  We got to Alanson’s building and decided to just steal everything, seeing how the guy was dead, and we don’t want his high-tech gear falling into the wrong hands.  So I told the guards that Alanson and his men were near the nuke, and they needed anti-rad meds.  They let me in.  I mindlinked with Dex and Duff, and in the commotion they were able to sneak around back and set up some dynamite on the building.  Two guards escorted me in, and when I gave the signal they set off the explosives.  One guard ran to investigate, but one stayed with me, so I used the Force to make him tell the guards out front what happened.  That left me alone to smash and grab.  I threw on the Land Warrior suit, grabbed the OICW, the two Falcon .45s, two HK G36Cs, and the lasrifle.  The guards out front were obviously suspicious, so I just told them their boss was dead and they should probably help themselves.  We were way better armed and had a guy in power armour and now me in the suit, so they didn’t start anything.

The Land Warrior suit can communicate with Dole’s power armour, so I can see what he sees in my HUD.  Mostly we used it to make jokes about Dex behind his back.

December 8, 2113

We went around the “U.S. Army” base.  No way are they getting ten percent of this!  Then again, the lasrifle has 50 charges, so we could have just shot five of them and called it even.

December 12, 2113

We went to Hephaestos Vault and opened up the case.  There were no codes inside, just a note:


```
Dear Marshall Flowers and Company,

Congratulations on your successful acquisition of the Hephaestos case.  
If you would like the codes, please meet us at Harper Rocket Base.

Love,
ATMA

P.S. Burn in hell.
```


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## Veldran (Aug 13, 2007)

Hello Gentlemen,

The "Intrepid GM" here, with Tales from the Wasteland, a collection of short stories based on happenings in the world.  They were sent to the group as an interlude during a week when we had to skip game night.  These are player, but not character knowledge.  Chronologically, they happened within the last month or so, and all occured prior to the explosion at the Black Thorn military base.

Tales from the Wastelands, Part 1

Everett crouched low, behind the bushes.  The wind was chilly; though the winter sun was bright, it provided little warmth.  Just ahead of him were some of the men who had killed his sister.  Big, brazen bullies with guns and knives who sat around a fire, laughing at some joke.  They seemed oblivious to anything going on around them, trusting in guns and their grey and red uniforms to keep themselves safe.  Everett had a gun too but with only three bullets left, it was unlikely to do much good. 

He whirled around at the sudden crunching sound of a branch breaking behind him but it was too late.  Another man in grey and red was behind him, pointing a pistol at his head.  This one's uniform was different, grander somehow.  He was likely an officer of some sort and both his bearing and the look in his cold eyes told Everett that he would not be granting any mercy.  "Move, boy" the officer gestured with his weapon towards the camp fire "but drop the gun first". 

The officer spent a few minutes berating his men for their inattention to detail but turned soon enough to interrogating Everett. 

"You from Haven?" 

Everett nodded. 

"You got a problem with my men here?" 

Another nod. 

"See that fort?  That's South Fort.  Means that his here land belongs to the Mittlewerk empire.  That makes you a spy." 

Everett glared. 

"You stupid, boy?  I said you was a SPY!  You better talk quick and tell me what Haven is doing spying in Mittlewerk territory before I make you curse the day your bitch of a mother ever laid eyes on your dog of a father." 

A quick glance to the right was all it took to convince Everett to act.  One of the Mittlewerk men was a step too close and his knife was temptingly close.  One quick lunge, and the knife was in his hands.  An upwards jerk brought a flash of bright, red blood as the soldier fell backwards, clutching his throat.  The rest of the soldiers stumbled backwards, confusion and shock putting them off balance momentarily. 

BANG.  The officer's first bullet hit Everett in the chest.  He slumped backwards a bit, eyes closing, gasping for breath.  He looked up at the officer, saw the gun being pointed at his head.  It was hopeless, he was already dead.  With one final burst of energy, Everett tried to lunge forwards, to stick the knife in the officer. 

All he had to do was stick the knife in the officer. 

Stick the knife in the middle of the grey-red uniform. 

BANG. 

Too slow.


----------



## Veldran (Aug 13, 2007)

Tales from the Wastelands, Part 2

Walking into the interior of the casino was always something of an adjustment.  The bright lights of the slot machines, the noise of the different games and the smoky haze from the cigars created a powerful combined assault on the senses.  It didn't bother him however, he was used to the place. 

He looked around the room and headed for the bar near the back, past the jingling machines and the tables of card players.  Someone tossed the dice too vigorously at one of the tables; they bounced off and landed near his feet as he passed.  The gambler, perhaps a little tipsy, ran over to grab the dice, laughing something of an apology as he scooped up the dice.  It was only when the gambler stood back up that he noticed who he had just thrown dice at.  The gambler's face went white and he stammered an apology before backing off. 

He continued through the crowds until he reached the table of the men he had come to see.  They sat quietly, sipping at drinks.  There were three of them, a tall man, a shorter, bulkier man and a young blonde woman.  They all wore neatly pressed black suits and ties.  He sat at the table, nodding curtly as the tall man began to talk. 

"You're late, Aberforth.  Now, what was so important that it couldn't wait until after our vacation?" 

"I have some information that concerns a certain group of travellers from Haven.  One of them is this new "chancellor", this Flowers.  He paid a visit to Alanson's, inquiring about the briefcase.  Alanson sent them to the old Black Thorn military installation; the man is obsessed with getting in.  He thinks they might even succeed, something about a tin can.  That important enough for you?" 

The tall man pondered a moment before responding.  "You're doing an excellent job so far Michael.  I think we can all agree that it would be much better if you succeeded instead of your brother Raymond.  Continue to be this useful, and you will find yourself with some powerful support when the time comes."  The tall man pauses for a moment, extracts a small package wrapped in brown paper from his jacket and passes it over.  "This should be enough for now.  Now, if you don't mind, we would like to get back to enjoying our vacation." 

As soon as Aberforth left, the blonde woman turned to the tall man. 

"We should leave immediately, we can catch them before they escape." 

"Patience," replied the tall man, "there is a chance that the Black Thorn will do our work for us.  If not, we can catch them on their way back.  They will be tired and worn out, hopefully low on ammo.  Why work harder than we need to?" 

"But - " the blonde woman started to reply, before being cut off by the tall man. 

"We are on vacation, and you will enjoy the remainder of that vacation, am I understood?"


----------



## Veldran (Aug 13, 2007)

Tales from the Wastelands, Part 3

The group of robed men moved quickly through the dark tunnels, lit sparsely by electric lights.  Beneath the city it was always quiet; their footsteps echoed through the tunnels as they passed by multiple doors and other tunnel branches.  Finally they emerged from the deep tunnels into a large, circular room with multiple doors branching off. 

The leader, the only one of the robed men to carry no weapons paused and frowned at one of the doors.  He remember the recent attack on this very place, one of the holiest in the world.  He began to grow angry as he thought of the traitor that had lead the interlopers here.  One day, Rorsach would be found and he would pay with his life . . . but not until he revealed who he had lead here and where they had taken the disks. 

He shock off his dark thoughts as he turned towards another doorway.  He motioned for his guards to wait outside and then keyed in the entry code for the door.  With a hiss it snapped open, revealing the room beyond.  The leader walked in with two of his followers close behind, the door shutting automatically behind them, and checked to make sure that nothing had happened here. 

*** 

Phil waited despondently in his cell.  He knew his time was almost up.  He had as his comrades had been slowly tortured and killed by the mutant scum.  They had been captured while out on patrol months ago.  He looked as the door opened and the one that called himself the prelate entered.  Phil was almost relieved when the prelate announced that his time had come.  He no longer had any hope of being saved or of managing to escape.  Death would be a relief, though likely a long time in coming. 

The prelate motioned for his acolytes to bring Phil.  He tried to prepare himself to fight but both energy and spirit had long since been gone.  He struggled only feebly as he was dragged to a table and strapped down.  The prelate approached with a hypodermic needle filled with a green liquid that glowed recently.  With a quick stab, the needle was deep inside Phil and his veins were set on fire. 

As he screamed the acolytes dragged him to one of the numeros tanks in the rooms.  They dropped him in from the top and then sealed the tank.  A machine began to rumble and then a tube connected to the tank began to pour a foul liquid inside.  Phil still felt as though he was on fire, and the liquid did nothing to help.  His screams were finally cut off when the liquid filled his lungs. 

*** 

The leader knew it was a sign, a miracle that had come to help in the aftermath of the intrusion into the temple.  This, his last subject, looked as though it would be a success.  At least, as much of a success as he could hope for.  He entered the inner chamber once more, accompanied by his followers with his guards waiting outside. 

The creature filled the tank, its muscles pressed against the glass.  It would no longer fit inside and it was to be released today.  He glanced at the other tanks in the rooms and at the pitiful corpses that floated within.  With the secret he had found the whole world would soon know the one truth and embrace the cause. 

A sudden crack drew the leader's attention back to the first tank just in time to see it shatter and a wave of serum flood into the room.  He was dimly aware of a roaring noise as the creature lurched into the room, charging towards him.  With one might swipe, it threw the leader into the wall where he tumbeld to the ground in a lifeless heap.


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## Veldran (Aug 13, 2007)

Tales from the Wastelands, Part 4

Dorn moved quickly and quietly through the woods.  He knew that remaining undetected had to be his priority.  His thoughts were in turmoil; he had spent years hiding from ATMA, had changed his name and his appearance.  At the beginning he had thought that he could never find a life outside of the compounds, bereft of modern convenience.  Slowly he had learned and become accustomed to the life of a wanderer; the desire for freedom replacing the desire for a hot shower. 

He had arrived in Haven a few years before Golant and looking back at everything that had happened he wished he had done something to stop him.  Golant had done serious harm to the energy and spirit that had been found in Haven.  Of course, Marshall, Dex, Damon and Timmy had arrived and managed to oust Golant eventually.  Dorn thought he could detect some of that spirit of independance returning but it could be just wishful thinking. 

The sudden sight of the wall in front of him brought him out of his reverie.  It loomed twenty feet high and was close to indestructible despite being only six inches wide.  It was not, however, impassable.  For a moment Dorn considered using the wand in his pack but the possibility of discovery was too great.  Instead, he went with a more difficult but more stealthy plan. 

Quickly unbundling a series of planks, he shoved the first one into the wall at a height of two feet.  It took a moment for it to sink in but as soon as it did, Dorn jumped on top of it and shoved in another plank.  He was almost at the top when he was a little slow in getting onto the next plank.  With a crack, the disolved portion of the plank gave way.  Dorn grabbed in desperation at the plank he had just inserted and pulled himself up.  No time to put in a plank on the other side of the wall before the one he was standing on gave way. 

Dorn jumped.


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## Veldran (Aug 13, 2007)

Tales from the Wastelands, Part 5

The crowd’s roars swept through the square.  More than a thousand people had gathered in the Plaza of Triumph, the center of Mittlewerk city.  Today was the day when the Emperor would announce his grand new plan to bring prosperity to the empire.   A day of rest had been declared, no one was to work and there would be a great feast.  Wagons of food and ale had been dispatched to all the outlying army camps a week ago so they too could participate. 

An even louder roar announced the arrival of the Emperor on the balcony of his palace, overlooking the Plaza.  He was not an imposing figure and was gray haired and stooped with age, though his people loved him in spite of it.  His son  and daughter flanked him and behind them came the commander of the Mittlewerk army.  The emperor raised his arms for silence and in moments no one in the Plaza made as much as a whisper as they for the emperor to speak. 

The loud crack that rang out into the silent square confused many people in the crowd for a moment until the emperor slowly fell backwards, blood spurting from the wound in his head.  “So much for the easy part,” thought Hexagon Jack as he watched through the scope on his rifle, “and how convenient of them to place one of their flags beside the balcony.  Uncertain wind’s ruined a good shot before.” 

With practiced ease, Hex stripped his rifle and placed it in it’s case.  The crowd had begun to scream and panic as Hex slipped down the stairs of the building he had shot from.  He emerged into the pub that was located on the lowest level just in time to join the crowd rushing outside; he blended in with practiced ease.  Everything was going well – and he hadn’t even an island shaman as a distraction. 

The thought of Marshall caused Hex to reflect on the events that had brought him to this point.  He had been in the vicinity of Blue Lake stalking the Sandovals when Dorn had suddenly appeared in his camp one day.  Hex had gone for his gun, but Dorn had been faster.  Hex had listened as Dorn presented his credentials and explained everything that had happened – the alliance with Blue Lake, the price on his head, the need for Emperor Mittlewerk to die.  In the end Hex had agreed to go after Mittlewerk and to leave Sandoval alone, adding privately that afterwards he would drop by to see Marshall. 

As the crowd continued to push and shove around him Hex smiled to himself.  He and Marshall had a few things that needed to be settled and after that perhaps Sandoval as well.  He was looking forward to those meetings.


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## tmart (Aug 30, 2007)

December 18, 2113

You know, the first two cases we opened, I figured something like that was going to happen. This time I was sure we’d be fine. Figures.

Anyway, we headed to Athena Vault to figure out where that rocket base is.  Getting past the mutants is easy now, since I can make myself and my friends invisible to them.  We put Harper Rocket Base on our map (Timmy says Harper was remembered as one of the worst Canadian leaders in history) and woke up some frozen people.

Makahito Tsumura was the first to get woken up.  I forget what his field was but it was unimportant enough to risk messing up the first time.  Apparently he was forcibly frozen by General Miguel Sandoval.  He cried when we told him what year it was.  His entire family must be dead.  Timmy gave him a shot of something to calm him down and we left him alone in another room for a while.  “It’s all just a joke, you win… a new car!”  I really feel terrible for the guy.

Next up was the economist Greg Hewlett.  He was taken by force too, and just told “his skills would be needed in the future.”  I guess the General had a sense of humour.  At least he took it a lot better.  He saw opportunity in the state of things as we described it, but he freaked out a bit when we told him he’d be in charge of organizing trade infrastructure and minting a common currency for the area.  Seems economists were mostly eggheads writing books and it was all theoretical.  Not anymore, buddy!

Xue Din We was the next to wake up.  He was an engineer from China and ran into some trouble with ATMA.  He was getting some death threats about some patents he had.  We handed him the lasrifle (after removing the power pack) to see what level of tech he was familiar with.  He pointed it at me and asked me if I ejected the round in the chamber.  That answered our question, because it only draws power when you fire, and no round is ever chambered.  Timmy shoved him in back in the cryo chamber until he smartened up.

Long story short, we woke everyone up.  Some were willing, some just woke up in the future.  We woke up Ferdinand Sandoval, the physicist/philosopher and brother of the General.  The willing ones knew him and each other.  I managed to calm everyone down about the surprise apocalypse sunrise, and Timmy promptly ruined it by blurting out, “Yeah, and if you’re still sore about it we can stick you back into stasis in case we need to rebuild civilisation again.”

December 19, 2113

We dropped by Blue Lake with the gentlemen and introduced David Sandoval to his long-lost great-uncle.  I think he trusts me more now that I made good on the deal.  I figure we’re even now – we killed one family member, and rescued another!  So it’s a wash.  What did David say to him?  “You’re looking good for a hundred and twelve.”  David is physically older, which is odd.  Probably ahead in life experience too.

December 21, 2113

Duff and Dex cooked up some rocket propelled grenade launchers out of TNT and spare parts.  Cool.  Tomorrow, Melkior is sending us by helicopter to the trap –  I mean rocket base – because it’s on a mountain top and totally cut off except by air.

December 22, 2113

When we approached the base there was a big red X painted on the ground, with a briefcase in the middle.  There was also a big crater, some ruined buildings, and a helipad in decent shape, so we landed on it.  We couldn’t see anybody.  We all piled out and the helicopter took off to wait safely out of sight – it’s for transport only, no guns or rockets or tactical nuke mutant laser eye bears.

We ran into the nearest building.  The lower floor was clear, but I scanned for thoughts and found a couple of guys waiting on the second floor.  Duff got on Dole’s shoulders and set up them the bomb.  Then Dex went upstairs, took a potshot from the stairwell before they could react.  Then the C4 went off under their feet.  It didn’t kill them, but they came crashing through the blowed up floor and we shot them and they died.

We figured there were more mooks but we didn’t know where.  We hurried to the next nearest building for cover, and a few of them appeared in the windows and starting shooting.  They weren’t great shots, though, especially after our RPGs blew holes in their walls, floors, and faces.  At that point we heard a voice on a bullhorn telling us the codes in the briefcase were wired to a bomb and we had five minutes to disarm it.  Dex figured it was plenty of time, seeing how we’re never had a fight last a minute.  If we ever do I don’t think it’ll be good for us.

When we’ve cleared the second building and approach the last two buildings around the case, a really loud shot rang out and Dex hit the dirt.  He took a bullet in the leg and managed to drag himself to cover and apply a tourniquet.  I’d say he’s tougher than he looks, but then again it was probably just the nanites.  Dole put the shooter on a fifty cal sniper rifle, so we introduced his piece of cover – the second floor of a building – to an RPG and an airburst frag from Moomba’s Boomstick.  The yell as he crashed through to the ground floor was satisfying and we figured he was done.

Now I was far behind at this point, seeing how I’m not used to this Land Warrior suit yet.  It’s got to weigh ten kilos.  But in my visor I can see what Dole sees because it’s linked to his power armour.  So he busts in with his sword, ready to clear the place, and the shooter isn’t even injured, just dusty and pissed.  It’s the tall guy from ATMA that threatened us from their helicopter.  He took out a pair of Falcons and grinned.  Just then in the 360 degree vision the fat guy stepped into the room and told him, “You made us look bad.”  Then he just punched Damon twice, and even through the armour it seemed to wind him.  The rest of us were scattered around and it looked bad.  Damon was good but he wasn’t going to last long.

We sprinted to the building.  Damon held his ground and cut the fat one bad with his sword.  The strength the guy has in that armour is insane.  He whips around this six foot sword like it’s nothing.  Joe ran in and dove behind some rubble to lay down covering fire on the shooter, who dove for cover and they each wasted a ton of bullets on each other.  Dole took a punch in the helmet from the fat one that dazed him.  I ran in and got between him and the big guy to make sure he got away.  I tried to suggest that they were outnumbered and should surrender, but my power didn’t work and they said something that would have made my grandmother angry.  For my trouble I took a bullet through the neck.  It sounds bad but at the time it didn’t seem like much of a problem.  Plus, I’m writing this so you know I’m not dead.

As soon as Dole got clear I dove for cover while he introduced the big guy to a light anti-tank weapon.  He fought the LAW, and the LAW won.  All that was left was a grease spot on the floor.  Duff caught up then too, and the rest of us surrounded the skinny one and gunned him down.  Timmy is making me write that he got the kill.

Pretty soon we hear a helicopter, so Duff disarms the bomb real quick and grabs the codes.  Timmy saw to wounds and we radioed our chopper to pick us up on the other side of the plateau.  At this point Dexter had crawled over to the helipad and he sees the chopper land.  Some guys come out wearing suits, with two in power armour.  All of them had proper rifles.  Dexter warned us on the radio and I took cover.  Duff bravely met midfield with their leader (Asian guy with a ponytail) who said he was there to pick up Reno and Rude.  That they were dead seemed alright with him.  Duff laughed and said, “So you weren’t here to pick them up, you were here to drop them off?”  The guy, Tseng, also asked if Marshall Flowers was there.  Duff stalled and the guy admitted he was from ATMA.  But Tseng said, “If you see Marshall Flowers, tell him I’m not here to Hexagon Jack him.”  I believed him so I came out to talk.  Apparently the guy had talked to Dorn.  Tseng said certain members of ATMA were shortsighted, and not everyone agreed with the direction they were taking.  He gave us another wand for disabling nanobarriers and told us Dorn would have more information.

December 25, 2113

We got into Hephaestos Vault, finally.  There were guns.  Lots of guns.  Enough to supply an army.  There were more rockets, grenades, explosives, and other equipment, some military vehicles, two light armoured vehicles, two main battle tanks, and a large supply of diesel.

Dexter noticed some boxes weren’t accounted for in the inventory on the Vault computer.  There was a note with them saying they were added at the last minute.  We found three more lasrifles, three laser pistols, a contraption marked “plasma rifle, highly experimental,” some weird grenades, and three suits of power armour.  There was one Mjolnir, like Dole already has, plus two more: a Jörmungandr, which is basically stronger and tougher; and a Valkyrie which is similar to the Mjolnir but with a jetpack that seems to work for about a minute before it needs to cool down.

Basically we ninja’d a fat loot.  The only question is who wants to fight us first.  Merry Christmas, ladies!  I would have got gifts, but I read everyone’s mind and this is what we all wanted.  It would have been nice to have Christmas this year.  I know we can’t go back to the colony anytime soon, but it’s been ages since I saw my family.  I wonder if they’d even see me.

December 27, 2113

We took some weapons and armour for ourselves, left the rest, and took our Jeeps back to Haven.  When we got there Dorn was in a meeting with David Sandoval and Darren Joelson.  Dorn said it was time for some decisions.

First, he said it seemed ATMA wasn’t necessarily all bad.  The rank and file were cut off from the outside world.  If we cut off the leadership, we could keep the organisation and its stuff but make them not jerks.  He gave us some details on the territory in the Restricted Zone and said the ATMA base was inside the expanded Zeus Vault.  Apparently Tseng was ready to make his move and could get us inside a service entrance to do a little hiring and firing.

Dorn also confirmed, as we suspected, that the mutants were created by ATMA as well as the hive mind we found in the military base.  It got out of hand and we did them a favour by destroying it.  However, the smart muties with guns are still out there and will be a problem soon enough.

He also suggested that Melkior could become a problem in the vacuum of ATMA’s power.  He said that their base was an aircraft carrier nicknamed the Galactica, and they had two destroyers as well.  Tseng could provide us with a suitcase nuke we could sneak aboard, and if we destroyed it they would be crippled.  Now, it takes a huge crew to man a carrier, and probably with family aboard.  Maybe Jack could kill a thousand people, including innocents, if it got the job done, but I don’t think I can do this.  Besides, we don’t even know that they would cause us problems.  They’ve been relatively straightforward with us up to this point and I don’t understand why we would stab them in the back like that.  Dorn said they were factionalised too.  But even still, if things work out with ATMA there shouldn’t be any vacuum.  We can put Tseng in charge of their resources, and my condition for doing his wet work for him will be that he agree to join the Olympus Confederacy.

For added fun, someone saw smoke coming from Couver and gangs of radiants leaving the city.  No idea what that’s about.

January 1, 2114

Happpy New Year!!! (inkblot)

January 18, 2114

We needed time to think about this, so we headed back to the base at Petrie Pond with implants we took from Hephaestos.  Timmy got fitted for advanced power armour and managed not to kill himself.  We put him in the Valkyrie.  That left us with two Mjolnirs.  Duff, and Joe weren’t interested.  Dex and I were, but the autodoc still said we were unsuitable – him for the nanite infestation, and me for altered brain chemistry.  Timmy said that things might work anyway, so Dex decided to give it a shot.  Well, there was a complication with his nanites, and Timmy said his intestines got torn up pretty bad.  He lived, with Timmy’s help, but he’s even weaker than he was before the nanites got to work on his cardio.

Now you might think that after that, I wouldn’t be willing to get implanted.  You would be wrong.  It sounds stupid after the fact, but I figured basic implants wouldn’t do anything with my brain, and I didn’t have nanites to worry about.  It went fine, and now Dex and I both look freaking sweet.

So we’re up one flying medic, but our engineer is even more of a liability.  Hopefully the armour will soak all his hits.  And the best part is, the power armour keeps out the winter air nicely.

January 29, 2114

We were attacked on the way back to Haven by some radiants.  I was going to ask Dorn what the hell, but as I’m explaining a soldier runs in and said that Mittlewerk troops were massing on the border.  Dole said that this was basically a declaration of war, so we left instructions for an envoy to be sent to Couver, because we were on good terms and were waiting for them to ratify or reject inclusion in the Confederacy.  So we waited to deal with what Timmy called “nonratified raiding road radiants,” and in the meantime took soldiers to Hephaestos ASAP and took all the guns, trucks, and tanks we needed to equip our entire army out of Sandoro.  We quickly figured out how to pilot the tanks and rolled up to the border at South Fort.

The look on their faces was priceless.  I parlayed with their general and gave him a choice: either his army joins forces with ours and we march on Mittlewerk, or we fight.  He caved right away.  He didn’t even have their one horse-drawn tank, and I was talking to him in power armour with four tanks behind me.   

Later he told us that someone had assassinated Emperor Mittlewerk, which left his son Theodore to succeed.  But Dorn’s guess was right and Marcus Flint, now a general, was staging a coup.  He headed for the hills with loyal soldiers and was waging a guerrilla war against Theodore, who was losing.  The troops massing at South Fort were actually neutral and just flocking around my new man, General Black.

Timmy mentioned that Napoleon did sort of the same thing when he busted out of prison.  I wonder if, hundreds of years from now, people are going to talk about me as one of the great leaders of history.  

So then we had about 400 troops total, and 4 tanks.  The capital was defended by their one tank.  It fired at us and missed.  Two shots disabled it, although Dex repaired it in just a few hours.  Its armour wasn’t fully repaired but he got it working again.  And then there were five tanks.

Soon we got a message from Theodore asking to meet.  When we found him, he addressed me as “Marshall Flowers, Conqueror of the Known World.”  I answered “Unifier, not Conqueror.”  He countered asking what we were doing in Mittlewerk, and I told him the army on our border was an act of war and I was only acting preemptively.

He said to me, “I have only one question.  Did you send someone to kill my father?”  Obviously I had Dorn send Jack to do exactly that.  I figured only Dorn, Jack, Dex, Dole, and Timmy knew, so there was no way Theodore would find out.  I lied and said no, and he believed me, because I can manipulate people so easily that sometimes I forget they’re real people too.

I gave him the same offer I gave our general friend.  He countered and asked for Black and his troops to fight the war against General Flint.  He wasn’t in a position to make a counteroffer, but he was right.  It made sense to have him get bogged down in guerrilla warfare when we had ATMA to deal with.  I made him agree in writing that once order was restored, the Mittlewerk Empire (redrawn to pre-Artemis Vault borders) would be a member of the Olympus Confederacy.  They would not have a vote until they behaved themselves for ten years, and would have to obey any majority vote of the Olympus Council.  We threw in their old tank, left him to fight, and stationed fifty men at South Fort with a LAV.


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## Fimmtiu (Aug 30, 2007)

tmart said:
			
		

> He fought the LAW, and the LAW won.



You're a bad, bad man.


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## tmart (Aug 30, 2007)

Fimmtiu said:
			
		

> You're a bad, bad man.



lawl.


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## tmart (Sep 18, 2007)

Atma


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