Worse Than the Disease IC

[u-b]

Sean thinks about it for a moment. "By my estimate, a dozen of well-equipped men should be about enough. So, let's call it a squad. As for having it there well-equipped, we can provide some gear for the mission if yours is not top-notch. For best results, this should be discussed earlier rather than later. We'll go all-in with you provided your commands are subject to our piecewise approval, and vice-versa. Will stand around nearby if you prefer to have a single dictatorial commander."

[Shoot Da Moon]

Major Chalmers scratches his chin, "What you are asking for will need a week of preparation, no doubt. We can use your own equipment, thank you. In the field, you and your men will have to submit to orders and direction from the field commander. You may have to take point and go in first. We need military discipline to assault a Shelter, even an abandoned or rundown one."

[u-b]

Sean grimaces. This was exactly the arrangement he tried to avoid. "We don't mind going in first, not as such, but I am somewhat afraid your field commander might be ill-prepared to handle troops with fancy gear and tactics. I've seen the plans of those we fought. They were horrible. We have to be better."

[Shoot Da Moon]

Major Chalmers pauses to light up a cigarette. "You expect the raiders to have Old World tech? That tracks, if they're in a Shelter..."

He blows smoke. "What kind of tactics do you expect them to have? A siege on the Shelter might not work, they almost certainly stockpiled food, or have an emergency back exit. If nothing else, they could call in backup from inside."

[u-b]

"Oh, no-no-no. The other way around. I don't expect them to have more than just guns. At least, not really. What I mean is that the four times we've had close contact with them, they were very ill-prepared to meet the explosives we've used. Their plans and actions seemed to not take into account the possibility of explosives being used against them. Presumably, because they themselves had no prior access to explosives and no training with them. We might be willing to use something I am not sure your field commander has experience with: explosives, stun grenades, gas, we'll see how it goes. And not necessarily just rushing in with them, we might want to get creative. I want that stuff organically incorporated in whatever battle plan we'll be using."

[Shoot Da Moon]

"We've got a demo man on staff, but..." Chalmers puffs some more. "If your man can assist, we'll be happy to have it."

Outside, eight gunshots ring out. For just a moment, everyone is straightened up with adrenaline, Chalmers goes for his pistol...Then the fear passes. It seems the meeting wasn't being interrupted by enemies, that was just the sound of an everyday murder birthed by the usual Darwinian fashion of Red Brick. Nothing to do with the exiles' business.

The men relax. It is not their time to die yet.

"So how many enemies do you expect to be hiding in the Shelter?" Chalmers says, getting back to work. His cigarette moves fitfully in his mouth as he talks.

[u-b]

"That's sort of strange. What we have thought to be their temporary camp, Point T on the maps, seemed like enough for maybe a dozen of people. There were twelve human skeletons with all the meat cut off them. The camp has been orderly shut down by the time we got there, and I somehow doubt the skeletons were of the campers because what has lead us to the shelter were the tracks of those that have left it, so they must have been alive. So, let us say one dozen there. Some unknown number has fell back from the attack on the Killington Ski Resort. Not sure of quantities, but let's say also a dozen. Maybe that's the same dozen, not sure. The shelter itself must have been manned in that time because you probably won't let it just stand there empty complete with working security cams. This gives us maybe two dozen men as a soft lower bound and I wouldn't name an upper bound even though there surely is one."

Sean looks at Richard and Tariq to correct his analysis.

[Volthawk]

Thinking it over, Richard nods. "That sounds about right by my reckoning. Pretty sure the dead we found at Point T weren't Gamblers, more their victims. Still don't know why they did it, though - we haven't seen any other sign of them being cannibals or something. Maybe they have something mutated they need to feed? Don't know. But yeah, we were pretty clean and efficient at the ski resort but some probably got away when they realised what was happening, add that to the people that were at the point but hadn't rotated into the resort yet and a skeleton crew watching over the Shelter..sure, Sean's numbers sound about right. Minus one, at least - one of them tried to desert, got shot for the effort. Found his body outside the Shelter. Might hint at some internal issues."

[GnomesofZurich2]

Thinking it over, Richard nods. "That sounds about right by my reckoning. Pretty sure the dead we found at Point T weren't Gamblers, more their victims. Still don't know why they did it, though - we haven't seen any other sign of them being cannibals or something. Maybe they have something mutated they need to feed? Don't know. But yeah, we were pretty clean and efficient at the ski resort but some probably got away when they realised what was happening, add that to the people that were at the point but hadn't rotated into the resort yet and a skeleton crew watching over the Shelter..sure, Sean's numbers sound about right. Minus one, at least - one of them tried to desert, got shot for the effort. Found his body outside the Shelter. Might hint at some internal issues."

Tariq nods, "Yeah, that sounds about right. Hard to get an accurate count, but a couple dozen is reasonable to expect, and it could be twice that."

[Shoot Da Moon]

Major Chalmers takes it all in. "I should report this to my superior before I do anything. Then I will need time to gather my men and requisition equipment. After that, I would like you three to escort us. We may not need you for the assault itself, but..."

He keeps smoking as he goes silent, enjoying the tobacco.

[u-b]

Sean nods. "Just don't send your men there to scout unless you are sure they can see two claymore mines we've set up on our way back: one across the cave entrance and one across the road. We'll be back to your men here in, what, six days? Seven days?"

Spoiler

Show

If that ends the discussion, we then go to the doc to trade some medicine. The man's Hugo Poole on the corner of Bran Street and Starry Road.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Major Chalmers nods. "Acknowledged. One week and we'll set out from here with our teams. See you then."

As the meeting concludes, the men file out with care - they're still on guard for spies or ambushes.

The exiles go down to the street doctor recommended to them. As expected, the clinic is there...and looks terrible. Drug addicts shivering in the fetal position and vomiting lie in the gutter, as armed goons keep out any troublemakers of Hugo Poole's office. The building is half-wrecked and small, covered up by bent steel plates. Across the street, a knife fight has broken out between gangsters.

The doorman stops the exiles at the front, asking them to state their business and show their citizenship tattoos.

[u-b]

Sean shows his tattoo. "We want to trade medical supplies. Also consult about some of them."

[Volthawk]

Richard nods, showing his as well. "We've got a good variety of goods to trade, so depending on what the people inside want, we're able to pay for what we want, don't worry about that."

[Shoot Da Moon]

The guard smiles. "Good enough for me. Come on in, but please leave your weapons just inside. You'll get them back when you leave..."
He welcomes the exiles inside and has them disarm, storing their stuff in a footlocker under the counter.
The exiles are then shown to the office of Hugo Poole...which is cleaner than most places the exiles have seen since leaving the Shelter, but it still carries an unmistakable atmosphere of unwholesomeness.

The "doctor" himself is a grubby and twitchy fellow, dressed in a stained lab coat and counting his stock of medicine. He looks to the exiles with a disdainful grumble and suspicious brown eyes.
"Yes, what is it?!" Poole's voice is raspy and foreign accented. The exiles have never heard such a voice before.
"Merchants to see you, boss. Selling supplies..." The guard informs him.
Poole sighs, and turns away from his inventory to greet the exiles properly. "Put it all on the table. You want payment in food, bullets, treatment or...candy?"
That last word is emphasized with a raised eyebrow and a sarcastic flourish.

[u-b]

Sean takes some drugs out of his pocket:
1. Crystal Meth x4
2. Heroin Pill x53
3. Modafinil x6
4. Lime Green Injector x1

"We want to learn more about these, especially these two." Sean points at the modafinil and the injector. "We will be selling some of them, especially those with only recreational uses. Also, we wish to sell one of the guns that we have left on the reception, a .44 magnum revolver, that is if we can have some high-tech stuff from you that would be worth it. We'd like to buy a full-fledged crash kit, a simpler bag of medical tools as a backup, some expendables for them and some antibiotics. Maybe something else you might recommend to a party often facing natural hazards and physical violence. We have more stuff to trade, if you have things worth buying, but most of it is in the car. We can bring it here as needed."

[Shoot Da Moon]

Hugo rubs his chin as he examines the drugs in front of him.
"Modafinil is a stay-awake upper. The green one is some kind of combat stim. Very interesting, practically priceless, unless you're on the Commission..."

He eyes the other offering with a much more skeptic eye.
"The meth and the heroin is worth a good stack of bullets...assuming it's good stuff and not just raider slime scraped off the wastes. How pure is it?"
The street doc has a sample of the drugs put under the microscope.

"I don't trade in guns here. I buy my iron off the gangs like a normal person, not from some weirdos off the street. I can sell you a crash kit and the rest, though." He absently tells the exiles as he studies the sample. "Painkillers and billies are what you want, for violence. Anti-toxins for natural hazards."

[u-b]

"Cannot say how pure it is. Neither chemists nor users ourselves, but we took this from the tattooed gangsters and we saw the heroin in use by a guy who seemed like he had no complaints about quality. What else do you take for payment here? If we haul just bullets, would that be fine?"

Sean lets the doc do the tests as he sees fit. Meanwhile, he tries to get more info.

"Can you elaborate a bit about this injector? Like what would be the effects, both good and bad ones, would it be addictive and such? It's just a chemical, local produce? We've also found some nanomachines and they've had really bad side effects."

[Shoot Da Moon]

"Yeah, that explains it." Hugo mutters to himself. "The drugs are good enough, but you've got serious competition in Red Brick. This stuff is lame compared to the product put out by The Doom Tunnel Boys. As for bullets, yeah. I can take it all in bullets without issue."

He then picks up the injector and points to a serial number on its side. "The green juice box here is for enhanced hand and leg movement. A single dose lasts for about 4 hours for an average grown person. Side effects may include a mental haze and a heady rush that futzes with critical thinking. Don't mix billies, or take too many doses within 24 hours. It is not addictive, I think. It is an amphetamine, Old World, product of some cutting edge research into neurochemistry. No nanomachines...Where the heck did you find nanomachines?!"

[u-b]

"In some recently-abandoned base and literally lying around on a table. Left one of them for further examination to a colleague of yours, a doctor that was working at the entrance checkpoint at The Sweet Blades shift. I didn't ask him his name, maybe I should have. He's recommended you, by the way, so maybe you know him."

"As for our trade here, we'll take as much as can be had for the heroin and the meth and, if you generally have crash kits in stock, come back for one when we're done with other purchases, some time coming week."

Spoiler

Show

Selling all heroin and all meth for $1195 total. Buying the following stuff for $1196 total (or taking 29 antibiotic powder if he is that scrupulous):

Doctor’s Bag, TL5 x1
Small First Aid Kit, TL6 x5
Antibiotic Powder, TL6 x30 wounds
Antibiotic pills, TL6 x11 courses
Vitamin Pills, TL7 x4 month

UPD: And throw in 3 rifle bullets for 15 doses of morphine.

[Shoot Da Moon]

"Oh, yeah, Doctor Feldman, I know him...We go way back."

The street doc accepts the trade.
He digs through his inventory for the supplies, and exchanges it all for the barter goods the exiles offer.

"I do have a crash kit for sale. Tell me when you want to buy it..."

[u-b]

"Thanks." Says Sean packing the purchases. "I know you might be the wrong man to ask the question, but do you know if there is an electronics shop here in town? Or do we just go and ask the guards at the gate?"

Spoiler

Show

Sean wants to meet a trader selling some electronics. Anything like that would be fine, down to a part-shop of semi-broken stuff.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Poole pauses as he squares away the stuff the exiles gave him.
"Uuuuuhhhh...Try the Space Skulls gang turf, they're the guys with all the gadgets. They got a hang out down Johnson Street, the Saturn Tavern, try asking around there."

He has his guard point out the location on the city map hanging on the wall of his office. It looks like the Space Skulls turf covers four neighborhood, sandwiched between a "danger zone" and another gang's turf.

[u-b]

Sean takes a good look at the map, to locate "here" and "there" and choose a way to follow that stays away from "danger zone", whatever that is. "Thanks. Have a nice day." Then, if there are no objections, Sean leads the group towards the Saturn Tavern.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The exiles leave the street clinic and head towards the gang territory.
They move through Red Brick uneasily, the urban blight around them occasionally showing its teeth as the city wakes up and settles into its rough routines. They spot a recently dead body now and then, lying on the sidewalk.

In 15 minutes, they make it to the Saturn Tavern, a shabby and dirty establishment with goons out front leaning on walls or tuning up their motorcycles. Inside, hustlers and ruffians are playing billiards and drinking beer. The grim stains on the floor leave no doubt that outsiders should watch their step here - the regulars suffer newbies poorly and the unwelcome even worse.

(OC: Someone, roll Streetwise or Carousing to find a hawker without incident...)

[GnomesofZurich2]

Tariq tries to fit in and find a hawker, but his somewhat oblivious nature makes fitting in hard.

Spoiler

Show

Streetwise roll failed by 1.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The exiles are given the cold shoulder by the Space Skulls. They are glared at from behind card tables and pool shots. They make it clear they have no interest in selling anything to these awkward newcomers. Some of them are stroking guns...

(OC: If you don't leave now, you may get in a bar brawl.)

[u-b]

Sean does not mind if people prefer territorial rights to business profits. At least, they were making that preference easily known. He leaves the bar and leads the party back to the cars, preferably backtracking the exact same route. If nothing unexpected is happening, the plan is then to leave for Gunmetal.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Resisting the siren's call of casinos and drugs, the exiles decide to leave for the factory city.

(OC: Gunmetal is 100 miles away from Red Brick. The journey is a relatively safe and quicker one, since you made your rolls.)

The exiles travel through the countryside with good sense and speed. It only takes them 7 hours to arrive, although it is now the evening.

Gunmetal is not quiet, the grinding of metal and the den of power tools is thick, but the place IS peaceful. The guards greet the exiles warmly.

[u-b]

In Gunmetal , Sean approaches the traders and asks if he can have...
1. More of metal body armor, as specified (he wants a total of 11 suits, including steel corselets, chainmail and stuff).
2. Some quick-assembly wire fence sections (maybe factory-welded or what). If available, what would be the price for those?
3. Some coils of tanglefoot wire. If available, what would be the price for those?
4. Steel window shutters, with or without holes to shoot through. If there are options or different designs, Sean would look at them all. If available, what would be the price for those?
5. Authorization to buy more high-tech stuff based on a report of a successful operation against tattoed slavers.