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Stormy Waters subcampaign: Al and Achilles

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adamu

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« Reply #15 on: <02-16-16/0652:33> »
"Russia? Nope, never been. Tehran? Reckon I been in there more times'n I can count on my fingers, maybe toes too." He careened to the left to avoid an old bomb crater and quickly resumed a southeasterly course over the desert. "Course it's a fairly big place. Ya plannin' on jist drivin' 'round till we catch this Gibber feller's trail, well, that could be a fair amount o' drivin', an' sure ta attract some unsavory attention. So I'm hopin' you got some sort o' clue where this feller is in there. Help ya out a lot faster that way."

pistolgrip

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« Reply #16 on: <03-17-16/1626:25> »
"I have last known coordinates of the convoy. I can direct you when we are close." Achilles states, looking at an AR-projected map and browsing points of interest.

As the rover slowed, the remnants of a brighter age crawled by, jagged walls resisting their inevitable decay, melted plastics promising an everlasting memorial to things now otherwise forgotten. Achilles spun the map and manipulated points in the air, invisible to his American companion, glancing here and there as he did so. "There is some kind of structure ahead. Satellite imagery confirms Geber stopped there. The vehicles were present for at least two days, but one morning they simply were not." The ork scowled at the annoying mystery of it all.

adamu

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« Reply #17 on: <03-17-16/1854:59> »
"Reckon we best check 'er out then," Al said, accelerating in the direction indicated. Once the ork indicated the structure, he pulled right up in front in a cloud of dust. Subtlety was clearly not his strong point. Hopping out of the air-conditioned Landy, the late afternoon desert heat was a fiery body slam, enough to make his head spin for a moment. He was used to it, though, and stomped the long drive out of his legs, then stretched in the sun. Grabbed his armored leather jacket and shrugged it on, preferring sweating to bleeding, then pulled a Defiance T-250 out of the back and spun the long-barrelled shotgun once around his finger like an Old West gunslinger with a six-gun. "Yee-haw, Ivan, once more into the breach, an' all that!"

With his free hand he put a cigarette into his mouth, stowed the pack, then lit up with a big stainless steel Zippo. "So, magician plus scientist plus lunatic equallllllls....we find a genetically mutated giant white rabbit leapin' outta some mongantuous black top hat, goin' fer our throats?"

pistolgrip

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« Reply #18 on: <03-21-16/1738:04> »
"I am afraid it may be even more..." Achilles pauses, looking for a word, "unpleasant." He puts his bag on like a backpack and works the action on his uzi. A few taps of his commlink before he returns it to his pocket and he appears ready to proceed, taking slow, cautious steps towards the building. The hololens over his right eye blinked with data updates as he strode forward, uzi shouldered, peering down the sights.

The building was plain enough. Unlike much of the historic architecture around this area, this structure was thoroughly plastic, metal, concrete, and at one time, glass. But like the other structures in the area, this place had seen a lot of damage and decay. Metal bars and crude shudders were hastily installed across many of the windows, likely all the broken ones, and debris formed a barricade around the central entrance with a single, narrow passage. As Achilles approached, he noticed two cameras flanking the door. He stood outside the barricade, examining the wall and ground around the door from a distance. He couldn't see anything, but spent ammunition casings made him wary. "Just a moment." he said to the American as he looked around briefly. A ruined motorbike nearby easily yielded a decent wheel, which Achilles casually rolled in through the barricade entrance. A few feet in, a dozen .50 caliber rounds shredded the mesh tire and metal wheel alike. The two autoguns were actually hidden in burned-out car chassis on either side of the barrier. "Clever." He nodded to the American. "Let us walk the perimeter. I am sure we can find another way in."

Around the back was a service entrance for delivery trucks and the like. It appeared to lead under the building to a subterranean parking garage. The chain link fence blocking the entrance looked like it'd been through hell and back again, probably more than once. The frame of one door was bent over at a diagonal while the other one hung at a heavy slant off of a mostly broken hinge. The chain link was bent and torn in several places, and part even seemed to have melted, but the chain and padlock still held together the remains. "Ah, much better." The gate made somewhat of a ramp leading in, and Achilles expertly scaled it and squeezed through the opening, dropping to the floor on the other side with a loud, almost metallic *thud*. Once on the other side he checked the padlock. "This looks new. Geber's men must have put this in place."

Once inside, the American was quick to point out some trucks parked near the stairwell. "Yes, that must be the convoy. But I don't see any sign of--behind you!" As the American looked in the cab of one truck, what appeared to be a rotting corpse lurched out of the back of the next.

adamu

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« Reply #19 on: <03-21-16/1838:24> »
Dammit, they were still on the outskirts - the undead weren't usually too thick until they got farther in. But then, this could of course be the work of the lunatic magical scientist.

"Whoa Nelly, where ya think yer goin'?" Of course it was obvious that the abomination was in fact headed straight for Al, more than likely in a bid to feast on his flesh. The unshaven little man shouldered his shotgun, but before filling the space with the thunderous report of the weapon, he opened his ears to what else might be around. Sure enough - rustlings and shufflings from all around the room.

"Look alive there, Vlad, this ain't the only one." Then he fired for the head, knowing a body shot was useless. The tight cluster of buckshot disintegrated the thing's head - but it still kept coming. "Well fry me in pork fat an' serve me up with a side o' slaw, I ain't seen that before!" The thing could still apparently sense his presence, and he had to take a step back as he worked the pump action. This time he widened the chokd and aimed for the knees, taking both out. The thing still crawled toward him, but it wasn't fast enough to be much threat.

Now they were emerging from inside trucks and behind stacks of crates. "Well, Pyotr, looks like we done graduated from Dawn Of straight ta Night o' the Livin', if ya take my meanin'," Al said, working his way back toward the chain link fence.
« Last Edit: <03-21-16/1840:04> by adamu »

pistolgrip

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« Reply #20 on: <04-07-16/1610:55> »
"I don't!" Achilles yelled back as he shook his head. Several controlled bursts exited his uzi before he realized that the skeleton-esque creatures didn't seem to care too much about bullets. Of course, bullets were meant to make you bleed, and obviously there wasn't much blood to these things. He slung his uzi and took mental inventory of his other weapons; the best he came up with was punching. But they looked awfully bitey, and he just wasn't up for that. So he followed the American's lead and made for the gate. But there was only enough room to squeeze through at the top, and the metal was bent in the wrong direction for exiting cleanly.

Achilles slugged a corpse that was making a staggering, jaws-bared charge, sending pieces of jawbone skidding across the concrete. "Can you cut the lock?" he shouted, hoping against hope the supposedly veteran guide had brought some bolt cutters.

adamu

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« Reply #21 on: <04-07-16/1755:19> »
"Sure, Ivan, I'll just use these," Al said, making a scissors motion with his forefinger and middle finger. He looked at the padlock and chain - maybe if he'd loaded slugs, but the buckshot that worked so well on zombie knees wouldn't to shit to open this gate. He was definitely small enough for the aperture at the top, but the ork sure wasn't, and he couldn't leave him. He was carrying the cred. "Jist keep 'em off me half a tick," he said, his shotgun dropping and catching on its sling, and a pair of picks appearing in his hand from out of nowhere.

By the time Achilles had floored another couple of undead, the lock had given up her secrets and they took off. As they ran for the car, corpses hot on their heels, Al explained: "Man, keep up. Dawn of the Dead they's slow an' a headshot'll do 'em. Return o' the Living Dead they's fast an' nothin' kills 'em. You gon' do this sorta work ya gotta know that stuff."

pistolgrip

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« Reply #22 on: <04-07-16/1845:28> »
"I still do not know what you are talking about!" Achilles insisted as he ran after the man. "But thank you."
As they almost made it to the car, he looked back to see what his ears had just hinted at him--they weren't being chased. Only a moment before they were there, but now, nothing. But there was something else odd as well. He saw what looked like a boot print, but it didn't match his own or the American's. It might've been there before, but he didn't remember it...

"What happened? Where did they go?" Achilles said, adrenaline making him easily irritable. He looked around a bit, making sure there wasn't about to be an ambush, even checking under the car, half-expecting a corpse to be waiting for them. Nothing. "I don't like this." he said flatly, his breathing evening out. He hauled his sack out of the car and began rooting around within, apparently not finding what he was looking for. "I need inside that building. But this--" he said, shaking his uzi with visible frustration, "--won't be much use in there. At least not against those creatures."


adamu

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« Reply #23 on: <04-08-16/0737:28> »
Keeping a sharp eye his surroundings, Al opened the back of the Landy and filled his pockets with more shot cartridges, as well as some slugs in a separate pocket in case they needed another quick breach. Then he went around to the driver's side door.

"I took that first sumbitch's head clean off an' he still kept comin', don't reckon there's anything short of a flamethrower gon' keep these cats down. But if'n ya need in there, gate's open. We don't gotta kill 'em, we jist gotta not git bit. Jist keep yer windows rolled up." Without waiting for a reply, he locked his door and started the engine. Once the ork was in, he launched the vehicle back down the ramp. There was a line of undead just inside the shadows, but the Landrover's heavy chassis and off-road shocks registered them as no more than bumps in the road as their putrid body fluids splashed across its grill and undercarriage, squeezed out by the tires like a packet of ketchup caught in a hydraulic press.

"Plus, this way we got air conditionin'."

Rather than avoid them, Al swerved about trying to run over as many as possible as he maneuvered around the basement parking area, windshield wipers on their highest setting. "Okay, what're we after in here?"

pistolgrip

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« Reply #24 on: <04-09-16/0005:53> »
"Any documents left behind. In particular, the man or his journal." Achilles responded as the surely-mad American made roadkill of the abominations. "I had hoped to find him alive, but that seems unlikely at this point."

Eventually the American flicked off the engine and popped his door, and Achilles joined him in exiting the vehicle. Nothing seemed to be overly-anxious to move anymore, and whatever crawling hands still struggled along were easily crushed under carbon-steel footfall. "Look in these trucks first. I want information about what happened here." The American wisely brought his shotgun along again, but seemed surprisingly cavalier about the entire endeavor. Achilles drew a large knife and carefully investigated the cabs and truck beds from a distance before climbing in.

There was one man, half-eaten by all appearances, in one of the truck cabs. He did not reek of decay, but he did appear somewhat desiccated. Another was in pieces below one of the trucks, apparently having sought refuge. Spent casings lay around his body and an exit wound in his head marked his chosen fate. Achilles took the large Ares pistol and the holster still strapped to the remains of the man's leg. He also took a metal can from the man's jacket and examined it once standing up. "Fire grenade. I have not seen one of these since fifties." He clipped it to his vest and moved on. From the other man, he liberated an HK submachine gun and several magazines of what appeared to be military-grade explosive rounds. "Much better." he thought as he replaced the Uzi and stashed it in his bag.

Just then, he heard the American whistle. Some heavily-accented nonsense followed, and Achilles went to investigate. There, in the back of one of the trucks, a late-model Black Dragon belt-fed LMG was set up on a detachable mount and had previously been covered with a tarp. "What have you found now?" the ork asked with disbelief.

adamu

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« Reply #25 on: <04-09-16/1332:54> »
"Well, heh heh, 'pears that aside from magic an' mad science, yer good friend Gibber done got a hand in milspec weaponry, ta boot." He jumped down out of the truck and wend to the next, where they found an Ares Archon MP Heavy Laser, similarly mounted. The next truck had two Mitsubishi Yakusoku MRLs with what looked like a generous array of rockets and missiles. "He's your buddy, so maybe you got a clue if these was his, or if he done took 'em from someone. These zombies guardin' 'em for 'im, or did they take 'em from 'im?" He bent down to pull a hand off of his ankle before it could pull the head still attached to it close enough to bite it. Holding up the head-shoulder-arm remnant, he looked it in the eyes as the broken teeth snapped at his face. He shook his head and chuckled as he tossed to the other side of the underground garage. "Helluva lot o' questions here, hombre. Ya wanna go upstairs?"

pistolgrip

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« Reply #26 on: <04-10-16/0034:29> »
"It seems he was prepared for something. I do not think he would make things to kill his own men, but I can not say." Achilles took care to detach the Black Dragon from its mount and carried it from the truck bed, dragging the chain of ammo behind. "We go up, yes?"

The stairs were dusty and poorly lit, but the stairwell appeared to be open on each floor and light drifted in from the floors above. Achilles waved for the American to lead the way, as the LMG would make a poor weapon for close quarters. "We will search every floor."

adamu

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« Reply #27 on: <04-11-16/1759:28> »
"Da, we search every floor," Al answered with a casual salute. But a worried look over his shoulder showed he was more concerned about what was behind him than the horrors that might lie ahead. "Jist be sure an' give Al a shout afore ya cut loose with that monster, okey doke?"

So he crept up the first flight, kicked open the door ready for zombies, but was greeted only by a cloud of dust. They did a methodical sweep of the floor. The power in the place seemed to be out, as with most of Tehran, but there were lots of windows. Many were covered by the big shutters they'd seen on their approach, but enough were still glass or uncovered that Al could see well enough. Except the bathrooms, where he had to use a flashlight. They found the reception area facing the front doors, but no sign of the feeds from the cameras they'd spotted out front.

Second floor, third floor. The place apparently had only one stairwell, so with the elevators out all they had to do was keep an eye on the stairs and hopefully nothing could get down past them. Hopefully. But two men were woefully inadequate to clearing a space this size. Fourth floor. Five more to go. "Say, what's one guy doin' chasin' after a nasty customer like this Gibber feller anyhoo?" Al asked, but before the ork could answer there was an eery, bloodcurdling wail from somewhere up above them.

pistolgrip

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« Reply #28 on: <04-11-16/1848:25> »
Achilles was disappointed by the lack of useful information on each floor. There wasn't much to each but some broken furniture covered with dust, spent shells around the windows, and some dark stains that Achilles preferred to ignore. It looked like Geber's men had largely skipped these floors, but Achilles didn't want to miss anything. Still, the progress was slow and the afternoon was quickly expiring. The frustrated ork was about to answer the American when they both heard the sound. They looked at each other, Achilles face expressing a stark void of excitement, while the American seemed almost as amused as he was concerned. Almost.

Achilles hoisted the Black Dragon and walked quietly towards the stairs, his eyes flashing up to the ceiling as though he expected the whatever-it-was to just come crashing through. He waved for the American to approach the stairwell, but then realized it was unlikely the man would be familiar with Russian military hand signals. He whispered, "I think we go see. Unless we want surprise later." he added with half a smirk.

adamu

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« Reply #29 on: <04-11-16/1923:11> »
"Heh heh. I like all my surprises with candles on top an' nekkid girls jumpin' out. An' this don't sound like that."

The wail came again, and it was still impossible to tell how far up it was. His movements showing real caution for the first time, Al moved quickly to the wall with the opening into the stairwell, then cut the pie wide, weapon at the ready, until he could see the entire landing. He squatted and quick-peeked in and up. No contact and no reaction. He took a better look up, and seeing nothing he frog-stepped over to where he could repeat the procedure looking down. Clearing that angle as well, he saw that the Russian ork had covered his back while he'd done so, the big LMG trained up the stairwell.

Good enough start. There was another sound from above now, equally difficult to pinpoint a distance on. Instead of a wail, it was a sort of choking giggle. Hard to say if it was from the same throat as the wail. Al started up the stairs, careful to avoid stepping in the various patches of broken glass or rubble, or anything else that might make a sound.