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Rift's Campaign Recap

From 2003-2004 I think

Hawkeye’s journal.

Its just beginning to sink in. Everyone is dead and has been for days, it just took a firefight against some B-movie Tolkien rejects to bring it all home. But I'm getting way ahead of myself.

From the beginning this mission was screwed. The brass seemed more confused than normal and our civie specialists had no idea who or what they were dealing with. Both the military and the potential threat posed by the phenomena we were being sent to review seemed well beyond their understanding.

Even though this seemed to be a routine intel gathering excursion, it was weird. The briefing can be summed up as follows:
Survey satellites have discovered a large metal triangle 2000 feet below the surface of the earth. Two bits of interest...
1) It was at the site of an ancient asteroid impact.
2) It was in North Dakota.

The core of engineers was on-site and drilling down to the anomaly, we were to arrive the night they were scheduled to reach the unidentified object. Team one (saddled with two Civies) would proceed down the shaft while a backup team would wait topside.

The civies were green and more than a little irritated that the Gov't had called in their marker. One of the civies (Xander Castillo) was a smart mouthed punk. For a non suped-up person he has good reflexes and if I didn’t know better I'd suspect he was IntSec.

Defining high maintenance, Diana is the embodiment of Diva. When she enters a room it is like the sun emerging from behind a dark winter cloud. Then she opens her mouth and you can feel the thunderhead rolling in. Its a rare pleasure when she opens her mouth and it does not spew forth complaints or a selfish desire. It did not bother me at first, she is stunningly attractive and I was betting we would only have to endure her scorn a brief time.

We treated Xander and Diane to a basic training refresher. I found out Diane was an amateur vocalist, and I managed to get a bootlegs of her stage performance. She is very talented. Its good to know those lungs are good for something besides bitching and consuming oxygen. After training we went to ND, crawled down a hole, activated an alien artifact-causing the death of most of our strike-force and shooting ourselves forward in time.

After we woke up, we discovered only five of us were left; Diana, Xander, Mac, Gabby and myself. The others were either shriveled corpses or bloody gelatinous goo. Our internal time-clocks had reset to zero, and there was no outside radio chatter. We wanted out, and we wanted out fast, but on returning to the elevator room we found that the lift screws had been dislodged and the lift platform was lodged in the tunnel. Mac and I decided to head up the shaft and find out what was what.

Inches at a time Mac and I made our way up the smooth shaft. We took a short break when we reached the elevator but we were both anxious to get to fresh air. When we were close to the top I had to take a moment to still the creeping dread that had begun to grow as I ascended. We'd been sealed in, buried alive by our own men. It was Mac's steady gaze at the giant slab that destroyed any doubts I might have been cultivating. "how big of a hole can you knock in this without bringing it down? and can you make a hole just large enough for one of us to go through?"

A spark of excitement flared in his eyes. That’s his gig, he gets off on blowing shit up. Good thing he's in the military, the civies would call him psycho. But hey, there is nobody I'd rather have on my side in a gunfight. Not only is he one of the most destructive forces I've ever encountered, he also tends to be a preferred target. With some effort we safely blasted a hole small enough to let out one person at a time. I slipped out and realized just how much I had missed fresh air. It was defiantly worth the climb. I covered Mac as he emerged from the tomb.

There was only silence in my head. No radio chatter, no GPS update, no local radio stations nothing.

We scanned the surrounding area, a wet-slushy snow covered the ground hiding any traces of our original camp and a flock of geese were flying northward. In the distance where the town should have been was a stand of trees. Earlier today we went in with winter embracing the land and when we come out, spring is the air and the ground is thawing-not to mention the complete and total lack of a town. Strange things were going on.

I went out to explore the trees while Mac observed from the hole. Little was accomplished except finding the ancient remains of the town we originally passed on the way to the hole. As the sun was setting I returned and set up a sniper position while Mac went down to give a SitRep and get everybody up to the surface with whatever toys they could grab.

That night I sat and watched. In the darkness I heard a sound with my advanced hearing, like large very fast wing beats in the distance. It was farther than the 2000' range on either of my night vision options and sounded similar to when a June bug flies near, only this sound was more than half a mile away. At least the night was uneventful in a physical sense.

My immediate goals were to find a superior, report the anomalies, collect my back pay, and take some leave to visit family.

I don't know exactly what plan Mac and Gabbie had, but it was clear getting away from that hole and finding out what was going on was not high on the list. The longer I stayed on watch, the more I wanted to be on my way. Eventually the guys hauled up a ton or two of crap, assembled a wagon made of old golf-cart parts, and were more or less ready to go. The decision was made to head towards the nearest military base and avoid contact with civilians.

Our path would take us past the stand of trees where the town had been, as we made our way towards the trees when Mac casually called for a weapon check. Since Mac never does anything casually this had to be code for "there is something out there that I want to shoot, I don't want it to know, speak quickly if you have an objection." Gabby and I gave him the nod as we shifted to a better position for action.

Mac turned back to the stand of trees and let loose a heavy barrage. When his gun silenced we heard a scream from someone in the copse and saw trees collapsing to the earth, bearing an armored man with them. I bolted to the other end of the copse, hoping to spot any of his cohorts.

In the end we had captured one scout named Roger. He seemed awfully simple to be a successful bounty hunter, but perhaps he had rustic guile on his side. On the other hand he had the coolest toys, spiff armor, ace weapons, movie viewer, and a jetpack.

There was much debate about Roqer’s ultimate fate, but eventually it was decided he was of more use alive than dead. (Not a likely outcome with our group.) We returned most of his weapons and he told us about the world in which we now found ourselves. He spun a wild tales of wizards and apocalypse that I could not believe. With Roger's feedback we decided to head to the town of Resurrection. I thought for sure he was setting us up.

The next morning while getting ready to travel Diana called out warning and we only had time to ready ourselves for combat before someone else spotted incoming fire from the direction of the sun. It was as if she knew we were going to be going to be attacked without seeing an enemy. I'm sure one or more of us would have died if that ambush had caught us flatfooted. Once could just be luck, and I don't know if she saw them or sensed 'em, but if she can do that again she may become a tactical asset instead of cargo. Due to her early warning we were able to handily exterminate the flying pests.

After we had been on the trail a while we saw a large column of black smoke. Roger went out on his jetpack to reconnoiter and came back saying there was a tribe of orcs and goblins dancing around a giant pile of burning tires.

Gabby had to see the orcs, and once he saw them he just had to play. We left a cache of gear in a copse of trees, not wanting it to slow us down. It was in that fight I realized just how much we had lost. What should have been a simple assault ended up as a run and gun with the orc ‘borg’ chieftain. If we had our full team it would have been a cake-walk.

I miss the rest of the team, I miss the Stars & Stripes, I miss coca-cola.

After we killed all of the orcs we looted them, returned to our stash, and proceeded to Resurrection.

The glow of the sun was low on the horizon as we approached Resurrection. It is surrounded by a stockade with a reasonable number of guard towers. We were met with wariness, but not hostility. After some time the sheriff arrived and I began to have my first doubts about Resurrection; Gret Mal was an ogre of some type and he stared each one of us up and down as if trying to divine our motives, or perhaps, our underwear size. Even though the sheriff did not much like the looks of Mac or Gabby, in the end we were allowed in, but not while wearing our MD weapons. I volunteered to set up a clinic to tend to the medical needs of the town to extend our stay past his originally offered one day.

Though I thought Roger would help gain us access to the town, it almost seemed like he was using us to get into the town’s good graces. They made it clear they were tolerating his presence because they thought we might be useful to them. Heck, despite traveling with him for two days I did not trust all that much myself.

Once in the town we met Jed - the dog-boy Mayor. He was amazingly understanding of our situation and very tolerant of my belligerent friends. He basically gave us the word on the town and showed he was an educated dog. Nice enough person, if a little furry.

We stayed at Fauna’s that night; cozy inn with excellent chow. Next day we came downstairs to find Gretmal reading the paper and waiting for us. It was like a scene out of a bad western, but this one didn’t end up with us shooting up the inn. The rest of the day was filled with meeting Mayor Jed, shopping, a seminar on magic, Resurrection Free Clinic, and playing Iron Chef Past. Oh yeah, and some sneaky bug-watching.

When I was running the free clinic the rest of the guys were trying to get to the crash site. They were turned away by some CS soldiers (Skullheads) and subsequently decided to make another attempt from another direction. Mac took the time to call home, and told me of their assault plans. I tried to talk them out of it, but it seemed like they had their heads set so I grabbed one of our orc-bikes and headed out to meet them. About mid-way there they contacted me, we rendezvoused, and they said they could not get through and were heading back to Resurrection. We still wanted to know what was going on at the crash site, so I decided to sneak out and have a look-see.

As I crawled into position under the dark-night sky I saw the Skullheads surrounding our rabbit hole. Not five minutes after I settled into position for the late show I heard the bug wings. Lots and lots of bug wings. Two bugs zipped right overhead, then things started to explode. It was the best light show I’d ever seen, complete with exploding gushy bits. Hundreds of bugs died before dawn, as did dozens of brave CS soldiers. It took more strength than I care to admit not to pull the trigger and kill a bug or two, but I knew that each shot would be a nail in my coffin. If I could have saved them I would have.

Next Day: remains of the fray
Salvage, Ambush, Truce, Negotiation, Science, and raid.

It was sunrise by the time the bugs finished with their Buffets Du Skullhead and left the scene. I took a look around, found a working radio, and called back to resurrection. They let me know that Resurrection, the CS base and Dry Rock had also been hit by the bugs. By my estimation the Skullheads would not be back on the scene before we could salvage the remains of the fray. I let them know the area was secure and much salvage was to be had, and they should bring help. Then I separated some of the salvage I thought the group would want.

(SkyCycle, Data disks, computers from the shed, ammo, e-clips, ID’s, insignia)

I don’t know who was negotiating for our side, but they did a snap job. In short order the guys were on-site with several trucks with armed escort and the wizard from Resurrection. Before long fully-laden trucks were hauling swag back to the town while we continued to haul up loads of metal and gear from the crash.

We had heads up that a search and rescue was coming out from the Skullhead base. If the radio monitors had been asleep, we would have been screwed, but as it was we had time to set up an ambush. What showed up was not a search and rescue unit, it was an assault squad in an APC. The Resurrection Militia got trigger-happy and launched a missile barrage from their RV, necessitating intervention on my part. A lucky shot took out the APC by blowing out its missile launcher showing either how close they were to launching out at us or how wonky tech has become. Back home that kind of chain reaction would have been a long-shot at best, nearly impossible if they had not been launching.

A brief firefight ensued and in the end we captured Chuck and Bob. I think we were about to execute their asses when we had a radio message from Resurrection advising us to stand down because there was a truce has been arraigned between Resurrection, Dry Rock, and the CS. It did not earn them their freedom, but if I know Mac and Gabby it saved them a beating.

We stopped looting coalition gear to honor the truce, (most of it was already gone) but we went ahead and kept on pulling valuables out of the ground. I figured the stuff down there belonged to us anyway; we rode the wreck to the present, the toys were ours.

We headed back to Resurrection, taking Chuck and Bob with us. There we heard more about the unlikely treaty between the Coalition outpost, Dry Rock and Resurrection brought on by the bug attack. The thought around the board was that the bugs would try to wipe out all non-bug life in the immediate area. The three factions had contacted the Demon Hunters, a mercenary band that specialized in eliminating supernatural threats. Supposedly these bugs are just aliens, not demons, but the Demon Hunters should be able to handle them.) The one problem is before the Demon Hunters could arrive the Bugs were likely to swarm again and destroy the three settlements.

Jed mentioned a long-shot plan for a crack force to sneak in and disrupt the bugs enough to prevent them from swarming, however the CS base had lost contact with their special commando unit (oops my bad) and they did not know what they were going to do. Jed did not directly ask us if we would do it and would probably have let us off without risking our lives. However I had decided I’d throw my hat in if I could make a difference. Chuck and Bob were brought down, and they confirmed that they were the best CS soldiers in the area, and would go on the mission if they had the opportunity.

We set up a conference call with the commander of the CS base, explained the loss of his men. We learned that the commander knew Roger and knew more about us than he could have heard from anyone except Roger. We offered to replace his lost men on the mission. There was some bullyboy-chest-puffing from Gabby, but despite that Mac was able to maintain a working dialog with the CS commander. Mac delivered our demand list:
1. Resurrection be left alone
2. He equip us for the mission
3. Make the crash site an off-limits zone
4. Transport us closer to Lazlo

He could not guarantee the sanctity of the crash site but I convinced him to send in a report saying the site was destroyed in the conflict with the bugs, and that there is nothing of any worth remaining.

He agreed to all terms, just shows how desperate he was.

The Base commander provided in style, with new armor and weapons. Too bad we could not use the hover packs the commander provided. He sent along four demolition charges to take down the bug colony pillars.

Xander showed great insight, requesting the CS files on the bugs and learning the base commander was their expert. Once he had the files in-hand he dove in and came up with some clever ideas. He and Mac created some very cool toys. Not only do we have “we are friends” salve from the scent that Chuck & Bob told us about, but we also have “Bug Danger” Grenades. Acting like a teargas grenade these bad boys spray the bug attracting “Danger scent” over an area. We also converted two of the charges to “The Tuna”, a radio controlled area effect bomb to help cover our retreat.

We took our vehicle to range, snuck in, and got into position. Chuck and Bob made one element, Mac and I another, while Gabby acted as spotter. There were some tense moments but everybody performed above and beyond the call of duty. Mac and I wired two columns, and set up the Big Tuna. We encountered no resistance until we were on the way out. I lobbed a bug grenade to distract the bugs from our retreat, but one did not do the job. Fortunately Gabby was on the job and launched a danger grenade to the Tuna area distracting most of the bugs from our retreat.

One of the bugs was more tenacious than the rest and despite a grenade would not give up pursuit. Xander pulled another great idea out of his hat and told Gabby where to target the “Bug Friends” scent gland. With a sharp shot Gabby hit the bug, releasing a spray of “everything’s okay, we’re your friend” scent that confused the other bugs following it. With a couple more shots from Gabby, Chuck, and Bob the rest of the pursuing crunchy critters fell to earth.

Our ride came spinning up, Jed’s bodyguard at the wheel and driving like he was born there. The top popped up and Xander manned the turret weapon to provide cover fire. (A week ago that would have scared me more than being chased, now I just hoped he did not get hit.) The five field ops piled into the vehicle and the dogboy drove us away pursued by bugs.

That’s irony.

We took a circuitous route home and kept watch for bugs. We didn’t want to bring the bugs back to Resurrection. Sadly our efforts were wasted because a hunter bug was hitching a ride up top. You’d think we’d have noticed it setting down, or seen it when looking over the craft, but we had no idea until we were being fired on by Resurrection itself. Guess these bugs are not completely stupid. I need to find out how Resurrection spotted it.

We had the hero’s welcome when we entered the town. I was shocked to see the Skullhead commander in the courtyard. He had a small contingent of guards.

I realized at that point the Coalition really could destroy Resurrection as a city without breaking too much of a sweat. Granted we have made it more difficult with the salvaged weapons we helped the Resurrectionists claim from the aftermath of the bug swarming, but if the Coalition forces just wanted to destroy Resurrection they could wipe it off the face of the earth. Conquering it might be difficult, but destroying, not so much.

Fortunately the commander is not as bellicose as the rest of the Skullheads. Actually he’s a more tolerant science-geek kind of guy. He may not be completely trustworthy, but for the commander of an evil empire base he’s not so bad. Plus, he let us keep the toys he sent over and provided the transportation requested.

Two Days later we left Resurrection on a Death’s Head Transport.

###
After being dropped off by an uncommunicative death’s head transport crew we were alone in the wilderness. We knew there had to be a road nearby, so I took up the jet-bike and found it. Shortly thereafter the group was on the road and I was flying ahead in a jetpack, scouting the way. I could hear Mac and Gabby talking occasionally over our exclusive channel, but more and more they were talking over an open channel so the doctors could participate in the banter.

I saw a clearing up ahead, scoped it out and saw three folks lying in ambush. Unfortunately they spied me, and what could have been a resolved encounter ended up in a rapid exchange of gunfire. A SAMAS appeared out of nowhere, but I dodged out of the way, and it turned its attention to our APC. I threw down some smoke while maneuvering and then took out the rocket-launcher guy’s leg. Much fire was exchanged between the APC and SAMAS, and the SAMAS fell to earth for a dirt nap.

Then I turned to the other two enemy combatants and drew down on the lady. She said she was leaving, and that she would blow up herself and anyone that tried to stop her. I looked into her eyes and saw she was serious, for a second I thought about letting her walk - but only for a second. She had set up an ambush and could not be allowed to flee; she had a lesson to learn even if it meant her life. I aimed for her elbow and squeezed off a shot.

The smoke cleared and I was surprised to find that the screaming I heard was mine. I was lying on my back, my hands felt like they were shredded and my armor was dripping blood. My thoughts clouded with pain I could not see clearly. The next thing I remember is Mac dragging Gabby and myself to the APC. Emergency measures were called for, and he broke out the internal and external repair bots. After getting the clinic set up Mac went to work trying to repair the axle and replace the wheel on the APC.

I came back to consciousness inside the APC and there was a dead man I did not recognize in the shotgun seat. Someone was moved him out and ditched him beside the road while I felt the machines re-knitting my bones together.

The doctors were prepping for a dig… hey at least everyone was keeping busy.

While the Doctors made boxes on the ground and played in the dirt where they thought signs of old civilization were evident I continued to heal. Their approach was interesting, it reminded me of when the army has to sweep an area clear of combatants: isolate and secure. Sure their action was “identify” and ours was usually “eliminate a threat” but the concept was the same. It was an interesting diversion but I did not expect anything to come of it. Boy was I wrong.

Evidently Diana is as talented at finding buried treasure as she is at predicting ambushes. Before long she found a strange metal and cement platform that ended up being a raised above the floor of a much larger building. In the time we had it was difficult to determine the actual purpose of the structure but since there was a blind spot on our maps we assumed this was a military structure, possibly of a covert nature.

Once Mac completed repairs on the APC he maneuvered it near the platform and set to work cutting a handle into the metal sheet. Through a bit of effort, both physical and mental, we managed to get the metal sheet (lid from here-on in) off what turned out to be an elevator shaft. I covered the whole clearing with cammo gear to prevent random fly-overs from spotting us. Anyone looking closely might have seen something to get their attention but at a glance we were safe and there was nothing shiny visible to attract predators.

Mac, Xander, and I descended into the shaft while Gabby and Dina stayed up top. Our job was to make sure the place was secure while Diana would keep a watch on the sensor equipment and Gabby was supposed to be guarding Diana … well I just had to hope he would not hurt our one-legged guest too much.

Nothing seemed to have power but when Mac and Xander pointed out the security bubbles I used my fancy new jet-pack to zip up there and see if those were active. I flew between the two security balls, removing the dome that hid the first camera. As I did so it turned and looked at me, waiting. I took off my helmet and was identified and welcomed. Mac followed suit (without flying) and was also welcomed.

Further down the hall we encountered two power-dead guardbots at what appeared to a dead end. Gabby confirmed the bots were advanced tech of a type he recognized from his special training. After verifying the robots would not spring to life and kill us all we tried (and failed) to find a way past the dead end.

Gabby was summoned to bring down light. He hacked past the security system like it was not even there. At some point between the time we requested light and us passing through the secret door Gabby, Mac and I heard a voice through our cybernetics. It not threatening but it knew our call signs, was creepy, and it told us we should not be there.

Past the security checkpoint we entered a large hanger filled with robot suits and desiccated corpses. It looks like a small and evil war had raged, like something out of a modern Dracula tale with spiked heads and intestines drawn across the room. True they are mostly dried and crunchy, but some gave the impression they were still a bit oozy. I don’t know why but a deep fear overcame me, a dark revulsion at seeing this immortal combat drove me to hurl in a nearby corner.

I did not trust these corpses and I told the team that I wanted to dismember them. The rest of the group did not see the threat, but Xander suggested care anyway. We made it to the back of the hanger but decided to head to the APC to regroup and discuss our options instead of proceeding further. On the way back we dismembered the bodies of the dead combatants.

When we were half way out three of the corpses sprung to attack us. We dealt with them, but learned the peril of allowing them to strike us. Even through our armor they induced blind panic that sent us running from the combat. Both Gabby and I felt the effects, he from a melee attack, and I from a gunshot. Fortunately we also found that destroying a strange crystal embedded in their chests killed them dead.

All the while during the combat the three soldiers heard wails and cries on the military channel about us killing someone’s babies. They were corpses already so I had no pity. Once we iced them we welded the back door shut and retreated from the site. All the way the sobbing of the corpse mistress pleaded for us to go away. When we were up-top we sealed the tomb back up. The sunlight faded from the world as the plate slammed into place and night was on us.

The guys made camp outside the APC while Diana stayed inside, just in case there was a contagion. I looked over the bio evidence and dust samples collected, finding no clue as to the state of the complex. There were no pathogens or contagions found. My bedroll was on the metal plate, I wanted to be aware of anything that came out. All it got me was the creeps - that night I heard a strange scratching noise from below my chosen bunk.

+++
“See this thing with death undone, let me redo it with my gun.”
Alin Gratis
Jr. G-Man

Even in the light of the rising sun, the pit held a certain dread for me. Never before had I experienced the raw fear and panic that crypt had instilled in me. But the only way to over come your fears is to face them, and preferably blow them to bits. Yeah, I may have been hanging around Mac too much lately, what of it?

Xander wanted to bring sunlight down into the crypt with us, and I thought it was a swell idea. I had my doubts that sunlight would work against techno zombies but even if it didn’t it would be useful should something try to sneak up on us. Besides, the idea of having the sunlight down there made me feel much better.

Xander also wanted the heaviest weapon he could get his paws on, and set his site on the new coalition rifles with the fusion grenade launcher. Mac and I tried to talk him into something lighter (less expensive) and less dangerous to the rest of us, but he had his site set on that weapon. We advised him to be careful and use the grenades sparingly.

In addition to our plazma ordinance and the depleted uranium rounds Mac dispersed, we also carried three torches and some wooden stakes because Demon Busters had told me that these things can hurt the supernatural in a way they cannot easily regenerate.

Our decent into darkness, surrounded by a halo of sunlight revealed mad scratches imploring us to go away. We blew that off and continued on course to the door we had welded shut the day before. The welds had been compromised but the door remained closed. Past that door was an office that looked like a central dispatcher or control room, three corpses lay piled on the floor. Mac covered me as I roasted the first one, good thing to because another one leapt up as the other one writhed under dancing flames.

With one down and two to go Archangel charged one, claws and sword at the ready, while the other one, getting burned as it crossed the beam of sunlight, charged Mac and Xander. Not wanting to hose my team-mates down with plasma I dove toward the beam of light, mirrored bright brick in hand. Using the brick I flashed the horror with a beam of sunlight and the flesh it touched burned underneath.

By the time the second corpse dropped the third one had already punctured Archangel’s chest with a wire and driven him to the ground. It was only Xander’s quick thinking and a torch that pushed the creature back from the wounded Archangel. I let the sunlight play over the creature while Mac let loose a heavy barrage at the beast. The creature crossed the room to get to me, breaking the beam of sunlight and destroying himself in the process.

As Mac and I were taking care of the last one, I requested that Xander send a preventative grenade down the only unexplored hallway in our immediate vicinity. Once all our tasks were done I set up a new link in the chain of light to illuminate the new horrors down the hall.

What we saw was not made any prettier for seeing the light of day.

Mac must have sensed peril from the room beyond because he launched a heavy barrage, filling the hall with fire and smoke. A huge form emerged from the smoke-shrouded room, a female giant of wires and lethal intent. Sunlight burned across her body as she charged us.

As I prepared to fire on the evil metal bitch a horrible aura of fear assaulted me, clawing into my brain and driving me to the ground. Archangel also dropped to his knees succumbing to the terrors lashing out at us. Xavier and Mac withstood the terror, I suspect it was because Xavier was probably so “intellectually engaged” he could not understand enough to be afraid and I’ve never seen Mac afraid when he had a gun in his hand.

They unleashed much hell on the creature and it nearly clove Mac in twain. Xavier hit the techno demon with a glorious barrage of grenades, then Mac hit her again, sending her spinning to the ground. My courage returned when seeing her falter, so I leapt to the mirror and strafed her with sunlight. She melted like the wicked witch of the west under the purifying light.

Once we were assured all the corpses were once again at rest and found a strange temple where the mainframe should be we took the time to review our situation.

Our situation:
We now have a hidden bunker that would be excellent secret HQ/sanctuary, if it doesn’t creep us out way too much. I’d have trouble sleeping down there for a while, at least until we cleaned it out and gave it a coat of paint. Oh, and lots of air freshener, maybe Frebreeze.

We have between two and four guard-bots that if reactivated and reprogrammed would be able guard our sanctuary. I’d really hate to trade those out.

Mac had the altar rigged to blow, but has not yet blown it. There is a strange crystal grower that I think is very dangerous, but might also pay for any wizarding education Xander might want. Too bad we don’t know if it was the cause of a the problem or just a tool.

++++
We made it to Lazlo. I must have been very very drunk because I don’t remember getting there and I woke up with all these tattoos…

Looking back over the past year I see some interesting changes in our group. Xander and Diana no longer have panic in their eyes, and Mac seems more at home now ever before. Archangel on the other hand seems more withdrawn than ever, he even has two suits of armor protecting him at one time and I’m not sure if he’s even been out of his personal suit of armor in public over the last six months. But then again, my last year has been very intensive as well, and I have not seen as much of our group as I should have.

Most of my time was spent either training Lazlo recruits or under the spectral ink-gun of an elder dragon. The end effect these tattoos is like Spell Casting for dummies, to get there the greater dragon imbedded spells on my soul with Tattoos appearing as visible manifestations thereof. It hurt - a lot. They said it would not hurt, then they said it would hurt but that the pain-killers would dull the pain and make it bearable. Pretty much, they lied. Each of the first five damn near killed me however, I felt wild power surging through me like a windstorm surging under my skin, trying to get out.

With the sixth tattoo the growing power changed, instead of just having this strange force filling the same space I filled it strengthened me, flowing through me like blood through my veins. It was at that point I began to crave the tattoo process, the pain raising me to a higher mental state more profound than meditation, the previously unrecognized need it fulfilled was primal, like sex or the hunt. When the fourteenth tattoo was placed on my body and my time with the dragon was done. After that I spent my days brewing and training Lazlo recruits. I spent my nights fighting and fucking through the bar district.

The agreement
Our terms were up and we were standing before representatives of the Council of the learned and the Congress of the Elected. They had an offer for us with a mission profile uniquely suited to our bizarre history and skill set: search and acquire at old earth sites.

The first thing about this agreement is that nobody is supposed to know we are working for Lazlo. The standing mission outline is hit five sites and keep what we kill, but if we find any cool technology at the sites Lazlo gets one of each for research and we can keep the rest. There is a flat fee per site searched, but I believe the secondary and tertiary benefits of gear and personal gain through salvage will far outweigh any benefit reaped through Lazlo’s credit offer. More than likely we could do our own thing and reap greater personal gain but I prefer working within a system we can trust.

Pack up
Sometimes I think Mac missed his true calling. He would have made an excellent Quartermaster and an amazing Chief Armorer. Granted, he also excels at blowing stuff up, but the rest of us are better at blowing stuff up because he is outfitting our side.

We sent our nine minions back to the fortress of solitude with some needed gear. Their orders were to verify and maintain on-site security, reconnoiter the area for resources and natives, and avoid bringing any attention to themselves.

I bought $5,000 worth of trade goods, focusing primarily on items that would be useful to settlements or outposts. (tools, knives, power supplies, basic first aid, nutritional supplements)

Leave town
We left town at the crack of dawn, and made no secret of our leaving. Heck, we didn’t even watch our tracks to see if we were being followed. We probably should have, and in the future I’ll act as rear scout until we get to the edge of known territory.

Buffalo
All is peaceful until after we pass through a town, Buffalo I think. That was the end of Lazlo territory.

Syracuse, Flight to Lazlo
Our path was taking us past Syracuse University, home of the Orange Men. Back in the day they had a groundbreaking information science think-tank. Sadly when we took the time to swing by all we found was a basement with a booby trap SDC grenade a dead soldier and piles of textbooks. One of the nearby buildings had a heat signature in it. It took no aggressive action, so we let it be.

I zipped back to Lazlo on my jetbike and dropped off a set of textbooks, advised them of the Syracuse site, warned them of the heat signs, and set up a contact for radio messages.

Albany ambush
After the short Syracuse Detour we were on the move again. Gabby Strolled along beside our RV in that hulking machine of his while Mac and I patrolled overhead.

While the jetbike is a cool piece of equipment, it turns out that flying the only jetbike in the sky is a lot like being a giant target. I imagine that small units or elements of these are very effective at covering and supporting each other but one at a time they are somewhat vulnerable.

So of course when I was reconnoitering Albany some fool tried to shoot me out of the sky. I thought I was high enough to afford some protection from rockets but I was mistaken. Only some tricky flying kept me from eating a dirt sandwich. As I plummeted towards the earth the three would-be Highway Men started towards me.

Before I could land my crippled bird Mac had staged a hit & run against one of the brigands and as I called on the power Xander enchanted into my coat, turning myself invisible, I saw the RV shred a second assailant. (Turns out Diana is now a fair hand with the weapons systems.)

I charged the man Mac drove to earth, planning to crack open his armor and leave him vulnerable. It was the first time I would be able to use my new axe in battle, and I guess I was overzealous with my strike and buried it deep in his back. Mac screamed by in his SAMAS, playing bump and grind with our last new friend and drove him to earth. The man landed a very unhealthy bounce.

Someone in the vehicles called for a sit rep.
“The good news is my man is down, the bad news is my axe is stuck in his chest plate.”
“Is that a big problem?”
“It is to him. I hit him in the back.”
“Oh.”

We recon’ed the site, from where the brigand’s attacked me and had their camp. Some toys were found, including more rockets and a cross. Once we were sure we had their gear, we split. (I bet the bandits another cache or two in the city, but who had time to look?)

Though the Doc’s would probably be able to find something of worth in the city, it would take more time than we wanted to invest playing in the dirt. We did however hang out for a brief while and recharge enjoying the lei line nearby. I took some pictures of the area for my scrapbook.

With my jetbike being scrap I was now stuck with the landlocked folk, and decided to do some sunbathing up-top… er... I mean stay on top of the RV and keep a sharp eye out.

Encounter with the giant babes.
When heading down out of the mountains towards the eastern seaboard Mac called home to report a large unit of tall armored figures heading in our direction. The odd thing was they were not environmentally sealed. The other odd thing is they turned out to be eight feet tall women that thrived on slaying the sluggorth. The Docs seem to think they are demons, but they are hot chickas and I’d love to give one a throw.

They said we revealed our selves when we fought at Albany and that we needed to leave the area. Diana was lobbying to leave the area as they requested. They did not seem trusting, and Xander seemed to do a good job at riling them but was very clever in passing the radio to Diana. Even though Diana wanted to just turn and leave she tried my idea of saying we would be hunting for Spluggoth. They bought it and quickly retreated, with the warning that we’d be watched.

They were very nearly as pretty going as coming.

Meeting the Kennedy Tribe
Boston was under a cold swamp, and while maneuvering to find the university we discovered a tribe of backslid humans. They could barely understand us, but were mightily impressed by Mac’s Samas. After determining there was no threat from these backward folk we located and headed to MIT.

A little dip… and a trip underwater.
The MIT special projects building was swamped. Not deeply underwater, but the floor on the in-tact level was thirteen feet below the surface. Gabby stayed out in his giant robot to watch over us (and keep it from sinking waist deep in the muck) while we donned our gear and swam down the stairs to see what the building’s status was.

After we did a preliminary sweep of the area Mac began jet-cleaning tons of muck from the building with Lazlo’s –dive armor while Xander, Diana, and I explored an administrative office exposed to the murk a recently by a burst door.
Out of three file cabinets only one revealed any useful data

They had special project reports regarding projects on different levels of the sub-basement. Apparently there were at least 16 floors of sub-basement and Xander fondled a card reader and somehow determined there is a reactor and air system on the 17th floor.

While I was distracted with something the archeologists decided to pop the security door to the basement. A great bubble of air escaped, revealing that the chambers below were not completely submerged. Quickly we sealed the door back and discussed the possibilities. An airlock is what was needed.

The rest of the day was spent building an air lock. Diana, Archangel, and I worked topside keeping watch and bringing in metal to help construct the airlock. Mac and Xander did most of the real work actually constructing the portal.

When the construction was done we decided to kick off for the evening; giving the structure time to show its strength and allow us time to rest. Not wanting the natives to sneak up and sacrifice us to some demon while we sleep I decided to get in some tattoo flight-time and scout around silently.

Slug-Bug –or– Meeting the Spluggoth
While on flying Recon I saw some giant floating platform carrying a giant tentacled horror and three hot chickas. They were surrounded by giant floating eyeballs. After waking the crew and alerting them to the peril. We decided to smite them, and blew them to hell. Well, when I say “we blew them to hell,” I mean they did. Mostly I just watched and fondled the new sniper rifle Mac scored for me in Lazlo.

When first dance was over only the eyeballs remained I took to the sky, pursuing them as they fled. So did Mac, and we made short work of them. Aqua Vitreous all around.

The Kennedy clan were suitably impressed. Even more so when Xander rescued the folks put in the slaver hold, saving them from drowning in the sinking Spluggoth platform.

Using my Eye of Knowledge tattoo I was able to talk with the Kennedy Clan. We learned
Spluggoth seem to work alone, if one dies, there is no retribution from others. Also - Spluggoth come no more than once a moon. The Big Women (Shemarian) sometimes fight the Spluggoth. (I like the Shemarians more and more, but with my luck they’ll be soul-sucking cannibalistic demons.)

We chatted awhile and I brought out some trade goods. And gave a gift to each of the families that lost someone in the slaver crash. (solar rechargeable lanterns if I could get ‘em) To the survivors I gave hunting knives. Sadly there were no hot Kennedy clan members; I see it as my duty to help repopulate the earth!

+++

The celebration with the Kennedy Clan wrapped up pretty quickly due to no hot Kennedy chikas and a complete and total lack of booze. I took up my post as camp guard. Because I had slept nearly a full rota earlier in the day, I stood watch for the better part of a full shift, primarily watching for Spluggorth and rogue Kennedy tribesmen. (And of course entertaining the idol and futile hope that a Shemarian goddess would come to camp for a post Spluggorth-slaying reward dalliance.) When everybody else was getting up and around I took a nap.

The airlock had held, but we ran it through a few cycles just to be sure. Not knowing what our extrication scenario would be, I stowed an air tank in the building and a second one in the airlock.

When the airlock was clear and the door opened we looked down into an elevator shaft. The car was stopped down three floors and while the military contingent discussed how to assault the obstacle Xander tried to climb down the cables. When he fell to the top of the elevator I jumped down to help him.

I had thought we were heading to the AI floor (3) in order to disable whatever AI defense elements were active in the complex. Of course that’s when someone suggested we go floor by floor starting on the top floor of the basement. Not leaving any potential threats between us and the exit was also a sound strategy, so we climbed back up the shaft to the first door.

The well-cultivated greenhouse that greeted us once we breached the elevator door to the first level was unexpected. Many wicked looking plants lined the shelves like some demonic garden or a scene from the Transylvania production of Little Shop of Horrors. Vines moved in the still air and some flowers seemed to be slowly turning towards us. I saw a strange helmeted head hiding amongst the flora. Instead of following Mac’s style of “operational engagements involving flora” I merely pointed (no, not with a gun) to let the team know what I saw. The figure fled, but eventually we caught up with it. After a little chat we went to a meeting with three robots.

As it turns out, after the rifts occurred the MIT brain trust folks hunkered down to wait out the strangeness. They would send out a probe from time to time, and one of them brought back a flesh eating disease that wiped out all the people in the complex.

The only survivors (so to speak) were Dr Linus (Bottany) Dr Lewis (AI) and Dr Jamison (Robotics.)

To save what they could they downloaded their brains into the mainframe, somehow maintaining their consciousness. In some strange way, that makes no sense, they can only make one copy of themselves at a time. I suspect the problem would come with merging multiple timelines – imagine having multiple memories on what you had done the past year, who did you screw, what did you eat for lunch? Sure it sounds good, but for those who have trouble separating a cover story from reality imagine how much trouble there would be if there were multiple realities to track.

Plans were made, Mac I and were going up top, him to gather personal body armor and myself to get my medical equipment to check for the virus or whatever killed the bodies of our new mechanical friends.

As soon as we got up-top we heard Roger’s voice over the com system. Oh yeah, he was gonna die. Basically he had rigged the RV to blow if we screwed around. So that meant we had to screw around quietly. Mac tracked Roger by his transmissions so I popped superior invis and headed that way. Archangel (Gabby) also came out, faded out, and headed in that direction.
Mac came up with a clever “Win or Loose” idea on how to remove the explosive. Evidently we won because we still have an RV. And a Diana. Roger told us to stand down because he had help on the way. He also told us he followed us through Lazlo and Syracuse.

To acquire a simultaneous Time On Target I took the long way around, and Archangel was a bit more direct. We found Roger and struck him, nearly chopping off his leg. Roger dropped a grenade and tried to take off using his jet pack. My aikido came in handy as I gave him a flip, sending him down into his own grenade explosion. The jetpack dragged his limp form slowly across the ground after that. It was kind of pathetic.

Knowing there was incoming I pinned him to the ground and ripped off his jetpack leaving him as bait for his friends.
Gabby sped back to his big ‘bot for covering missile fire, I took cover near Roger, and the others readied themselves for the upcoming fight. In short order we have five bogeys incoming. After some debate on target choice missiles erupted from the campsite and I leapt on the Samas that had landed to check on Roger. The fight was over quickly.

Mac salvaged what was save-able, the robo-docs helped us download Roger’s brain, and I checked everything over just to make sure we were not taking E-bola back with us to Lazlo. We reclaimed all of our supplies. The DocBots let us loot their fortress of learning, copying data and acquiring some resources, but there was such a wealth we left more than enough in the hole to make anyone drool.

Oh yeah, we downloaded Roger’s brain, we learned more about him than he thought was possible. I still want to verify everything we find out from him. Yes it’s info from his mind, but he is a tricky bastard.

Leaving Boston
Before we left we advised the Kennedy clan to avoid both the newly created radiation areas, and others left over from the fall of civilization, and not fish in their tidal flows.

I made plans to return in the future to provide them with pills to take that would make them toxic to Spluggorth. (Spluggorth eat people, right?) Obviously I can’t do that now but I’d like to do some research and that means capturing a Spluggorth. If it would be fatal to the ingestor then the dosage would need to be high enough to kill with just one dose. If it is not harmful to humans then something added to their diet would be great.)

As we left Boston the Shemarians approached and told us to get out and not come back. They were unresponsive to overtures of commerce. Or any other kind of overtures for that matter.

We beat feet to the Fortress of Solitude, (FoS) I was able to practice flying on the way and even do some skitching off the APC and some MDC material. The robots settled in, started going through catalogs and put together a 6 million credit Christmas wish-list. When they go mad and wipe out the FoS We’ll know its worth it. The rest of us debated what to tell Lazlo, and what not to tell Lazlo.

Once the Data was sanitized we headed back to Lazlo where Xander gave an amazing presentation to the committee.
What we did not give up:
· Brain transfer tech,
· Robot brain holding tech
· Super E-bola virus

Then we met with the secret inner council and told them of Roger’s Knock List. We offered to trade it, bargaining not for ourselves on cost of the knock list, but instead for Resurrection. Some cool toys and a few new soldier/settlers. I bargained one thing for myself, I get to pull the hit on the council member-spy. When he’s a verified traitor, I’ll get him to betray himself, catch it on film, kill him, and send it to the Coalition. (Gabby put for the idea of counter intelligence, and someone else fleshed out the idea of feeding the spies false info.)

After we met with the secret inner council and bartered with them of Roger’s Knock List they came through in style. Perhaps because they felt we provide incredible bang for their buck on the first mission, or perhaps because we were bartering more for a working relationship than specific toys, but they came through in serious good faith.

No doubt the additional defense forces now stationed at Resurrection are also acting as the eyes and ears of Lazlo, it is good to have them there. As much as I can trust anyone in this time and place, I trust the governing council of Lazlo. I do not suspect they will try to take over or change Resurrection in any way with which the locals would disapprove.

We took three weeks overseeing the instillation of Resurrection’s additional defenses and taking care of personal projects. I had some more inking done, while Mac made busy with a wrench and credit card. Trasque (Gabby) was not about much, but rumor has it he is building his own clone army, or cobra commando force, or an frozen custard palace, or something.

I have no idea what Diana was doing, though I heard a new singer was making the rounds in some of the night-clubs I was too ill to hit while I was in-town.

My new inkings and reviewing the scout patterns for Resurrection allowed me very little leisure time to devote to the carnal arts. But I was able to tour bug central; there was much devastation, and it gave me a tingly sensation on my skin. The Demon Hunters did a good job at clearing out the rest of the mess we made.

Our destination this mission was somewhere in New Mexico.

We finally hit the road to DryRock. Dry Rock turned out to be more of a trading post than a settlement. The interior structures were all owned by Red, and were all connected. It looks like they could easily be boarded up and protected against harsh weather or people with ill intent.

I dropped in to the local bar and traded a jar of my home-brewed whiskey for a round of drinks for our company. The bartended denied any knowledge of Col. Witenaur’s ultimate destination. (The more I hear of the Colonel, the more I think he was planning his escape from the CS from the day he decided to get himself transferred out to BFR. That’s Bum-Fuck-Resurrection for those not paying attention.) Then after cooperating with Resurrection he was fled the CS, fearing for his life, because he’d been contaminated.

Once I’d cleared the dust from my throat I decided to have a look-see around town and see if I could spot any other CS operatives or surveillance equipment. None were found and my plan was to advise Red about when a new CS scout would likely have become active around these parts.

Having had enough wandering around I came inside to see how the bartering went. Both Xander and Mac looked somewhat irritated, but nobody was bleeding so I took that as a good sign. Mac did some good basic provisioning, but surprisingly Xander came up bupkis for intel due to a clash of personality with Bill – Red’s information broker.

I went over Bill’s head and requested a meeting with Red’s handler. The store gnomes were somewhat reluctant to pass on my request, but I let them know I’d done some work for their boss. It’s a credit to their skills in customer service they didn’t just say “Yah, right,” and push us out the door. They came back with a meeting in an hour, in the public room of the bar.

That gave me just enough time to find a mad ole tracker swapping him a gun and booze for intel. In retrospect giving him both the gun and booze at the same time might have been a bit of a poor idea.

Red’s handler (NAME CHECK) talked with Mac and myself for awhile. It was a very cordial conversation except for one outburst from Xander where he screamed something on the order of “next time we’ll let you all die” so the whole bar can hear. Seems like being cock-blocked, er brain blocked, puts him out of sorts. (This is where I find out Xander had tried to force his way into Bill’s psychic pants.) At this point Mac begins bargaining the artificially inflated price down to a reasonable level.

In all, Red’s people were pretty reasonable. If someone tried brain scanning on our group we’d have killed them. Probably before they could explain. Heck, if Mac or Gabby caught someone doing that to us we’d be lucky to find the remains.

I went to see the bearded guide, thinking perhaps he’d like to accompany us. He was talking to various parts of his body and his whispering to his gun in a romantic fashion. I don’t scare easily, but he freaked me out a little. I decided not to invite him along.

Our work for the day done, we spent some time in the bar drinking and looking for women. This being more or less a heavily armed truck stop all of the women were only “lot-lizard” quality, not even any waitresses that caught my eye. I was going to turn in early, but Mac said he was looking forward to a bar fight. I decided to go hit on the most attractive (only?) woman in the place, even though I knew she was a whore.

Of course someone had already paid for her and took issue with me paying any attention to her. There was a bit of a scuffle, but since I was trying to start a fight and the guy was way outmatched I decided not to lay into him. The plan had been to flip him into a table of his friends starting a general row, then buy the bar a round of drinks when it was over.

What actually happened is different. The guy pulled a vibro-blade. He was easily disarmed, but since things turned potentially fatal I decided to just give the guy a shove into the horse-trough out front to cool him down. About half-way to the door he shot me with his hold-out. The pain was intense and it took all my self-control not to rip they guy’s arm out of its socket. Sadly Mac did not have my restraint, or respect for life, and he blew the guy away.

Dry Rock security showed up, and Mac earned points from me for admitting that he blew the guy up. The cops earned my respect because they read the scene, gathered facts, and did not gun anyone down or imprison us. They did tell us to be gone before sunup.

We were gone before midnight.

Leaving town in a rush meant I was unable to pass along the info to Red about the CS agents. I’ll try to do that next time I’m in town.

Xander drove the RV, Mac was in his Silver SAMAS, and I zipped along on my jetbike. Travel was boring until we hit a break away pit that collapsed out from under the RV when we were traveling at top speed. It looked like an old ambush site, long abandoned. We dug out in short order.

We passed by a destroyed military base, it looked long destroyed by earth quakes.

Not too far along we discovered an old lava flow. Instead of skirting we started to cross it. Xander must have seen something because he forged ahead at top speed. Fortune was not with him, he wiped out and crashed through the side of an empty lava tube wedging it tightly in place. As fast as he was going I’m impressed he did not flip the damned thing end over end.

We were digging our way out when Diana gave the alarm in allowing us to see the approach of an Ogre in plate armor. We scrambled while other people popped out of nowhere attacking us from sky cycles.

Archangel (Gabby) tried to pin the Ogre Juicer, but or some reason the beast came after me, fortunately I had up invulnerability even though I was unarmed. My Aura of Fear had no effect on the Juicer, and in the end Archangel slew him from behind with an amazing shot to his neck.

Only one of our assailants was still able to carry on, and she turned tail at this point. Mac wanted to blow her out of the sky, but I thought I could capture her without killing her. She blew me out of the sky, destroying my jet-bike and a hit from someone else in the group drove her to the ground.

I was trying to negotiate with her when Mac shot her in the back of the head with a shot from my sniper rifle. Because of her armor there was a good chance she’d have been knocked out, but it did not happen that way and she blew herself up. I think I was going to get her to back down and listen long enough to meet Diana and understand we were not going to gang-rape her.

I walked over and slugged Mac. He gave me a baffled look and I picked up my sniper rifle cleaned it, wrapped it, and went to stow it in my gear.

(From that time on Hawkeye’ll be using the Juicer Sniper rifle bought off Mac unless it is certain the target is a “soft” target. Or can Mac upgrade my rifle?)

In the end we had a couple corpses, a seriously ravaged SAMAS, a destroyed skycycle and my shredded Jetbike.

Oh yeah, we also had a prisoner, a new skycycle, and some other ordinance.

Our new prisoner was forth coming with a couple of bits of info that might be worth some leniency. There is a $20,000 credit bounty on us from the CS. Half that if dead.
The Ogre Juicer was GretMal’s Brother.

I suggest we offer him a choice:
Option 1: Stay here, by himself, with a grenade
Option 2: Come with us. As long as he is useful and informative will keep him alive and as safe as any of us.
Option 3: An easy death. (dope him out of his skull then execute him)

Option 2 includes: I’ll let him know that if he keeps us interested until we make it home – I’ll set him up with a cyber leg when we get back in to town (I could install bonus tracking and surveillance devices) and he could earn some cash in the future by providing us with info.
After a little bit interrogation we learned that our bounty hunter was a bartender in Tolkien before it fell. He turned to the bounty hunter trade back when the CS destroyed the city.

Diana tended to our wounded captive and monitored our sensors while the rest of us set about extracting our RV from the lava. It was sweaty, mindless labor – hard on the back, good for the soul. Like a night of really rough sex.

The night was as cold as Mac’s heart and as black as Trasque’s soul. Okay, Mac evidently has had a thawing of his heart and I still wonder if Trasque even has a … anyway, you get the point. Nobody else seemed inclined to brave the desolate landscape and stand watch so I stood vigilant outside of the RV keeping an eye peeled for danger.

I on my third sweep I spotted … nothing. Or rather what I didn’t spot was a faint gleam that had been there before. I would not even have seen that if something had not drawn my attention in that direction.

A dog man was out there, scouting us. It looked like a dog-boy but the gait was more man-like. The creature proceeded cautiously toward our RV, stopping twice before it reached the perimeter microwave fence. At the time I thought it was just being cautious, but it turns out the creature was waiting on its pack to advance.

It had made no overt action and we were in unfamiliar territory so I decided not to attack out of hand. I should have just blown it away with my Wilkes. I know that now and really knew it then, but nobody said “Blow them away” so I let my curiosity get the better of me and addressed the intruder. I was not a complete fool, I armed myself first, he had an axe so I unlimbered mine as I approached him.

New Rule: Unfamiliar people sneaking into our camp are taking their lives into their own hands. (/Paws/whatever) If they don’t stop and address us, we can kill ‘em. Rules may differ in the city.

When I called out he said “we’ve been made.” Then, despite being within the secure grid of the microwave fence I was attacked from behind… with a chainsaw. When I was being assailed by a stealth chainsaw someone in the vehicle launched a barrage of AP missiles at the axe wielding creature right as he leapt for the top of our RV. At sixteen and a half feet, that’s not a bad vertical leap.

(Xander figured they were Werewolves and advised silver, also advised of shield of Ethan that required MD damage. Mac and Archangel went through the roof to take on axe dog and claw dog, and eventually chainsaw dog. When Archangel went through the roof, one of the three dropped into the RV)

The chainsaw missed me and then I was netted to the ground. Seeing me incapacitated the chainsaw-wielding-freak followed Axe’s lead and went for the top of the RV.

Left alone I triggered my escape jacket, easily shifting out of the magic binding nets. Their leader – Rufus – was clever enough to keep an eye on me and tried to catch me in another net fired from some strange pistol. When the netting missed he launched a quick attack with his sword. We danced a bit, he with his sword, me with my axe.
When he noticed the rest of his cronies were down or being bested he dropped his netgun, tossed a grenade, and tried to flee.

The grenade was some techno-wizard sticky bomb. Rufus used it to pin down Mac, and Xander, but Diana used his own trick against him. Despite being flat on his back Xander still tagged Rufus with an eldritch shot from some strange gun he had created when we were living in Lazlo.

We were going to talk with the werewolf survivor but I wanted to reduce his threat as much as possible. Either Xander or I came up with the idea of draining him of all his magic and psionic power. I think it was me, but it was so clever it might just have been his. Xander extracted the tidbit that we were tracked by a device placed on our vehicle. At his instigation I flew out and placed it on a harmless deer.

Joining Riders
Heading south we saw looked like a giant truck-stop turned biker-bar. The guys wanted to bypass the stop and continue on our way. I was for hitting the bar and looking for one of those indestructible local maps or wall maps showing YOU ARE HERE. In the end they decided to let me have my head but I was told not to expect back-up if things went awry.

Bold as brass I landed in the courtyard pushed my way to the bar and ordered a drink. He had horse piss to serve and I opened up a dialogue over a drink. He tried some of my booze and finally told me that to get any info I’d have to prove I was worthy.

That meant fighting the biggest biker in the place. He looked like an ogre, or at least part ogre. (those big bastards seem to be popping up everywhere these days. I should find out if he is also a relative of Gret Mal) I beat him up. It seemed pretty unfair, but at least he got to throw a power punch before I kicked his ass. He missed, but at least he was able to throw it.

Once he was flat on his back, they cheered and told me I could now wear their colors. I did some first aid on the fallen meat. While doing so I called in the team. As they arrived I told them that Diana belonged to Mac and they had to keep their hands off.

We stayed that night in the Biker Bar, and I set up another clinic. Mostly I set broken bones and treated rashes. The guys milked the bikers for the word on our destination. The word was Vampires and Mutant thralls.

Vampire Mutants

West of the Red Rider Bar, deep into mutie territory on the military base we hid under cloak for the night and watched to see what happened. When Darkness fell it looked like vampires steamed out and were worshipped by muties. Fortunately there were fewer muties where we were than there were in the city.

The next day it was good to use my scout training again. I wanted to get the lay of the land and retrieve an item for Diana to read. The members of QV to allowed me to do some recon. I prowled out into the hanger retrieving metal debris from an explosion and a folder of documentation.

Diana Item Reads the objects, giving us more information than mere examination of the site could allow, but not revealing the location of the research facility.

Xander and I went back in to reexamine patrol hangar where we found a skull and way down into a room filled with vats of volatile substances. Though this was not the site of the experiment it was used for the field test of experimental equipment. It gave Xander a great idea. He started to work on a sniffer to seek out more of these chemicals because they might still be out-gassing from wherever the actual experiment site might be.

Though a great idea, this was going to take some time. Feeling restless I left him to his tinkering and headed into the main base to reconnoiter. The old parade grounds had been turned into a cattle-pen for sub-sentient humans and most of the other buildings appeared to be used for living space. After exploring a bit I made my way to the Department of Energy building.

At the DOE building I found a large base map, a laptop, and a base phone book. The base map showed the KumSec facility on the far side of the base golf course. It also revealed the Starfire Project further back into the mountains. I took pictures of the building for later use in case we needed to assault it in the future.
I took many photos of the large map, focusing primarily on:
Military museum
Weapons Manufacturing areas
· KumSec
· Starfire project
· KumSec
· Depart of Energy
· Parade Grounds
· Base motor pool

Then I returned to the RV with my booty and Xander felt his sniffer was going to be useless, but with the broken terrain were likely to encounter it should still be useful. The Team proceeds to KumSec, finding the ramps down to KumSec barricaded we proceeded to be building beyond where we spied two armed guards in body armor.

Archangel approached the guards, flanked by an invisible Xander and myself. Mac, Randy and Diana stayed in the car.

· Archangel, engaging in discourse with the guards, announced himself as a vampire slayer.
· Xander shut down the camera and the whole surveillance system attached to it.
· I set up for a surprise strike against the guards.

The guards were some kind of vampire thralls and very slow to react. We killed them quickly.

A short rush to the building and many kills were made, I covered Gabby from an exploding fusion block. Much blood shed, many explosions, Xander walked up and down time like it was a sidewalk blowing up our foes with their own fusion block. You know, the usual.

Hup hup hup, back to the KumSec depot. Diana met us on the way. We can’t drive down, it’s barricaded, so we proceed down the ramp on foot. There we encountered locked garage bay doors. Archangel and I cut, pried and lifted a garage door to get in. Inside is a group of ready mutants waiting to blow us away. We are quicker, so they die.

Using her hag-skills Diana bewitched many foemen, clouding their minds and making them daft, so they were unable to strike a telling blow, allowing Archangel and Hawkeye to indulge in the hand-to-hand butchery of the mutants. Xander blasted away and when Diana took incoming fire she unloaded on her assailants with some grenade love to blast them off their perch in the catwalks. It’s kinda sad when the bookworms rack up a higher kill count than the warriors.

Five new suits of deadboy, and assorted bits. I plan on handing the assorted bits over to the Red Riders.

After having cleared the area of mutants we penetrated deeper into the complex to find a large airlock. We get to the airlock, and were trying to hack their way past the encryption. I saw a phone and grabbed it up, hoping to distract or intimidate the person manning the defenses. But instead the phone tried to suck out my soul. If it had not been for the new resilience I’ve felt since inking up and acquiring my axe I think my soul would now be in a different dialing area.

Despite my meddling Archangel managed to get the blast style door opening, and when it was open Archangel rolled in, guns a blazing.

Many Muties
Archangel did a rolling tumble into the door followed by Macs silver blur. By the time I breached the doorway all that echoed in my head were a couple gunshots, Mac’s grenade barrage and some strange demonic chanting. As the chanting stopped Archangel aggressively moved to prevent my passing into the room and it was all I could do to get by him.

Archangel was under the control of the bird, but I could not worry about him right now, I had a real threat to focus on. Trusting my invulnerability to protect me from any back attacks I turned to focus on the source of the demonic voice – an owl with a man’s head and arms attached. I hoped that when the owl died Archangel would be free. Eventually everybody made it into the room, though Archangel flipped Diana into the area then proceeded to attack Xander. Randy even attacked the remaining mutie while the rest of us dealt with the demon bird. Xander and his mojo armor kept Gabby busy.

Much chaos, owl was dead. No toys on hand but we did a quick recon and found a control room, Owl toys were there. I figure the Owl Demon was one that tried to swipe my soul.

To my incredible surprise the last mutie surrendered. I didn’t think that was even possible while its vampire master was still alive. Apparently these guys were just hired hands. This guy is a wealth of information, and I was going to let him live as long as he could behave himself and make himself useful. He told us about going out to hunt in force, about five vampires inhabiting this den, and that we had killed all his mutie friends.

When we were deciding what to do to him while we dealt with the bloodsuckers Gabriel asked him if he ate humans. The mutant admitted he did and Gabby gave him a clean and quick death. I was disturbed, but then was not the time to hash this out.

Unhindered by captives, we quickly proceeded through the airlock door to a vampire lair. As the door opened smoke began filling the corridor and loose dirt covered. I surmised it was because the vampires had more power, or freer movement when on their own soil, like sleeping in a coffin with some dirt in it.

One of our brains determined The Mist was evil so Archangel and I advanced into the corridor led by Diana’s light. Gabriel took a swing at the mist, forcing the vampire into physical form. The other vampire materialized as well and I chopped at him. My foe dropped before my chopping fury but Archangel’s foe must have must have been kept alive by fear alone by they way it fled Archangel… right into the rest of our group and snapping jaws of Gabriel’s Cur. Mac and I said in unison “Two down, three to go.”

There were two exits down that hall and we decided to blow the side door, and Mac worked his magic, spinning the door in place. Once again Archangel and I were the first into the breach, he engaged the sword-wielding vampire and I clobbered the one wielding a halberd. The one I attacked turned to mist instead of dying then flew to hide in the corner. I switched to the sword wielder and Archangel, assisted by Mac, chopped up Mr. Misty. Misty tried to escape out the air vent, but Xander pinned him in a bubble where it was short work for Archangel to finish off. I went to slay the one Archangel had been fighting, but it was dead because someone had killed it when I was looking the other way.

Four Down

Next we decided to blow through the Vampire Lords doorway. At least we assumed it was his because it was the only one left. Mac blew the door out, sending it flying into the room until it crushed against the far wall. Nothing happened until the door fell back to reveal a slightly crushed vampire. He chided us about why we were there and what we were doing. It was like being reprimanded by the tribal elders.

For a moment I felt as though we really shouldn’t be there. Heck, I mean we were not there to hunt vampires, and this one had done nothing to us. Besides, we were really interested in Starfire, right? I began to turn back toward the door, but everyone else’s resolve convinced me it was better to stay.

Archangel spoke up "Master I have brought you these outlanders. They would be very
able servants." There was no emotion in his voice. "They are all powerful, but not as powerful as you"

Archangel appeared to be under the thrall of the vampire, knowing it would make me the primary target I threw my axe the Vampire Lord. He caught it and threw it back at me, I triggered wings and caught it as it sped for my skull. Very Jack Burton of me.

Before I knew it the vamp was on me wailing away, boy was he fast. Archangel opened fire at Xander. He missed, and while that is not impossible, perhaps there might have been some sliver of resistance keeping him from inflicting the maximum carnage he could’ve if he really wanted to kill us. Still, until proved otherwise, he could not be trusted. After all, he was the one controlled by the owl as well.

However, when it looked like I was going to single handedly kick Ole FangFace’s ass Gabby decided he could not let me get all the glory and that he was on our team after all and joined in on the fight.

(What really happened: I was barely holding my own against that fast devil when Mac zipped past and Archangel broke out of whatever spell he was under getting the drop on the bloodsucker. Next thing I know I’m nearly blown to hell by a couple AP missiles from Mac. Next time he fires into a melee it’s a missile up his ass to keep him warm at night.)

Then, as if inspired by Mac’s lunacy, Xander fires a shotgun or something into the fray.
Did I mention the Vampire had a giant sword and was faster than I thought possible? He did. He was. But we kicked his ass.

Everybody contributed to this fight. I just can’t remember who did what. What I do remember is that Diana and Randy are the only other party members that did not nearly wound one of us, making Diana an MVP and Randy merely prudent.