Worse Than the Disease 2 IC

[u-b]

"Not sure. It seems there was a firefight here just a few hours ago and now the farm is burning. I guess they either have left or are dead. We're going to... hm, let me see the back of your neck for a second?"

Assuming the delegate does not object and there is no tattoo.

"We're going to track the group of people that have left here." Sean opens the visor so that the man can see him and his scar. "Sean Pires. Radar Base Guys. We have taken out a raider outpost last night, about four miles west, and when checking back on the location have found it was since visited. We have been tracking the visitors and they seem to have passed through here. Now, what can you tell me about yourselves and your business here, as planned and as changed to reflect the new circumstances?"

[Shoot Da Moon]

The delegate is dismayed by Sean's report.
He shows the exile his neck.
He has no tattoo.

"We're traders on our route. We routinely buy and sell stuff with the farmers in this valley. We know the Lanes well as regular customers. When we saw the fire, we came running to help out...Aw, heck, what am I going to tell Bill?"

The man looks heartbroken over their deaths.

[u-b]

"Did you ever interact with the raiders? We'd like to wipe them out, that is, if we can. If you knew these Lanes, I'll leave it to you to handle what's left of the farm. We will move on following the trail."

Whatever the answer, Sean thinks he should discuss one more thing.

"Last night, we have also encountered a large bunch of walking... infested zombies? Well, something of the sort. They also came from this general direction, but not exactly from here. Can reliably be killed by fire or by a shot in what stands for the brains - the blobs in place of the heads of former body owners. We plan to investigate these too. Anything you can tell or do to help us? You can also send a motorbike with us to have some first-hand knowledge."

[Shoot Da Moon]

The delegate shakes his head. "The raiders have stayed out of the valley for as long as I can remember."

When Sean brings up the monsters, the delegate looks at him like he's crazy. "I have no idea what you are talking about. What is a zombie?"

The delegate and his men start trying to put the fire out as best as they can.

[u-b]

"Stayed out, hm?" Sean looks past the man for a moment. "Richard, can I have your attention please? I'd like to know the oldest date on the raider's stack of papers, like, now." Then Sean looks back at the man. "A zombie? A piece of old world folklore, a person walking with their brain either dead or otherwise mostly non-functional. I don't believe they had zombies for real, but that concept does spring in mind upon seeing these things. That is, if you have been exposed to the culture. I guess, most people no longer are. The perticular kind we have encountered seemed to have some major parasite controlling the body instead of the brain."

Sean does not believe it to be possible to put down a major fire without a fire truck, and, for a mostly wooden building, even with a fire truck, but if these people have some plan and some hope, Sean and his team will help them hovewer they can.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The newcomers still seems very skeptical of Sean's explanation of a zombie.

As expected, the attempt to put out the fire is not successful. At best, the team manages to retrieve the dead bodies of the family and valuables from inside the inferno before the barn is consumed.
The work takes 45 minutes and leaves everyone tired and demoralized at the end of it. The newcomers bitterly begin digging graves for the deceased after they get a chance to rest up.

[u-b]

Sean examines the bodies for any and all signs of wounds, if only to see what guns the attackers have had, has the traders confirm these are Lanes, and all of them too. He describes the sights and the events for Richard to have an idea about what's going on. Sean exchanges a few final words and dates, then a thought has visited him about how to address scepticism. Do the guys have an action camera in stock? Sean might be inclined to buy one and later arrange watching a movie together if something posing a danger to these guys' trading routes and clients is encountered. A specified location or a specified radio frequency should do as a means of contact.

Spoiler

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1. It seems we'll have a lot more to do outside, so how about Volthawk takes control of the troops?
2. How tired, exactly, everyone is?
3. Do they have an action camera? If so, what storage media are available and how much do they cost? I've made the entries on lines 224..226 of our doc to compare today's prices with HT prices (presumably, taken much earlier at TL8).

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean wipes the sweat from his brow.

The bodies have gunshot wounds, but that's hard to figure out thanks to the fire. It looks like it was a rifle shot to the head in most cases.

Spoiler

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1) Sure, if he wants to.
2) Let's call it 1 FP plus your current level of encumbrance. You're at Medium (2)?
3) No cameras. The traders you've met are mostly dealing in food, water, medical supplies and bullets. You'll need to find a merchant specializing in electronics.

[u-b]

Sean leads the group on, following the same trail in the same arrangement as before.

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2) Let's call it 1 FP plus your current level of encumbrance. You're at Medium (2)?

Sean is at no encumbrance, so loses 1 FP. The others should have light encumbrance at combat load and medium with the backpacks. Nobody fights a fire with backpacks, so they have lost 2 FP each. Bart will not drive a car, so will recover to full in ~20 minutes.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Another thirty minutes of moving through the wilderness, and Sean eventually stumbles upon busy men in a clearing.

He can tell from a decent distance, they are a group of hunters carving up a large dead animal - possibly a moose or a horse. They are dressed in camouflage, wearing backpacks, carrying long arms and survival gear. As a hunter himself, Sean can see plain as day that they are well-trained and prepared.

[u-b]

Over the radio, Sean tells the cars to stop. He then takes a position behind some tree just over 50 yards from the scene. He counts the men. He then asks if any one of his men would volunteer to go chat with the hunters. The man moving forward would get a modern concealable vest from the trunk, Bart's trauma plate, a flashbang and a powerful frag grenade from Sean. And afterwards, he'll get his due reward with any reasonable terms acceptable, up to the vest itself if things go really hot.

Spoiler

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1. So, volunteers?
2. How many men there are?
3. Any darkness penalty or is it still bright enough?

[Shoot Da Moon]

One of the backup militiamen raises his hand, puts on the vest and grabs the stuff. He is not afraid.
There is six men working on the dead animal. They look very wary of their surroundings.
The time of day is still afternoon.

(OOC: Darkness penalty -0. Maybe -1 in the shade?)

When the volunteer approaches the men, the man who spots him raises his rifle and demands he stop.
It seems they are protective of their kill. The men with knives continue to skin and cut the corpse as the other four make a big show of readying their guns and scanning the area.

The men demand the volunteer explain who he is and why he is approaching them.

[Volthawk]

When the hunter raises his rifle, the volunteer immediately stops and raises his hands. You didn't survive out here long without having a pretty good idea of how to act when someone had a gun pointed your way. Now, how did the bosses do this stuff again? He gives it a go.

"Relax, I'm not here for your kill. I've eaten today. Just want to talk and suss out the situation. Y'see, about half an hour that way," He gestures back with one of his raised hands. "There's a burning farm and even further out some..." He pauses, thinking of the word Sean used. "Zombies? I think that's what they were called. Weird people that weren't people any more. Like the stories the old man back home used to tell sometimes. Just wanted to know if you gentlemen knew anything about any of that."

[Shoot Da Moon]

The hunter lowers his gun slightly.
"Alright. Stay where you are..."

The other hunters seem disturbed at the mention of a burning farm.
"What do you mean? Was there an attack on a farmstead around here?"

The talk about zombies is just as confusing to the hunters as the previous strangers found it.
"We have no ideas what you're talking. Zombies? We've never heard of it. Or the monsters you're describing."

The hunter motions to the volunteer to move along.
"If you've got no further business, we're in the middle of something here. Please leave, if you would..."

[Volthawk]

The volunteer nods and gestures in the same direction as earlier. "Yeah, back there. We tracked the things that attacked us that way, and there it was, burning up. Whole family dead. The...tch. Not sure what they had to do with our monsters, but hey." The guy with the gun pointing in his direction getting antsy is enough to get the volunteer to shrug and back off, though. He'd done the job, no point getting shot over it. "Alright, alright. Like I said, not after your kill. Enjoy."

Once he's taken a few steps backward and is pretty sure that the guy isn't about to put a bullet in him, the volunteer turns and runs back to Sean and the others, reporting back what was said, before shrugging and saying "Could be liars, I guess boss. Didn't look like it though. Nobody knows what those things that found us were. Lucky us."

[u-b]

Sean frowns. The report was highly inconclusive. The men were suspicious, right, but nothing rock-solid. Sean thought for a moment, in case any additional information might illuminate the situation in any way at all. In particular:
1. What were the valuables recovered from the Lanes' farm? Any weapons at all? Did the farm and the people seem to have been looted to any extent?
2. Were there any other fresh tracks leaving the farm?
3. Do the hunters carry any "extra" long arms (that is, more than one per person)?

Sean relays the findings over the radio. Well, "findings" might be too bold of a word, given the situation, but we have what we have. Then he consults with Richard about the following:
4. Should we inform the city forces that Lanes are dead? Would they even care?
5. The city seems too reclusive to claim police powers over its surroundings, but if they do, maybe we can cooperate one way or another.
6. Failing the above, should we just let the men be? Track them tomorrow? Do anything else?

[Shoot Da Moon]

The valuables from the Lanes' farm included lots of bullets, several shotguns, several rifles, a dozen revolvers, electrical equipment and medicine. It seems the Lanes managed to fend off a home invasion only for their attackers to simply write them off as dead with the fire that got started.

There were fresh tracks from the farm. No more than 4 to 6 hours old when Sean and his comrades arrived?

The hunters only have one long arm per person - some have knives or pistols of varying models visible in their holsters.

[Volthawk]

Over the radio, Richard listens to the updates and thinks it over. He's still not entirely sure how the zombies and the fire connect to each other, and is starting to think that they didn't. He's tries to make a chain of events to figure out how things went went. He's pretty sure that the zombies didn't pass through the Lane farm, as none of the evidence Sean has described suggests that they fought against monsters rather than men - the causes of death and the fire don't line up with fighting those things, the combined firepower of all those people should have dropped one of those things (even if they didn't figure out the weak spot) and there weren't any other bodies there, and the zombies didn't seem like they'd ever retreat when the exiles fought them. He does raise the passing thought that most of the Lanes were killed by headshots, and whatever was going on with the zombies was focused around the head, that strange insectoid thing, but he's not sure if he has a point there.

In any case, that (and the way things were when Sean arrived at the scene) suggests that the incident at the Lanes' farm happened after their own battle. Whether that means that the people who passed by the cabin did it, or just passed by without helping, it's hard to tell. It seems strange that the hunters would stop to hunt and butcher so close by to the scene of the crime, relatively speaking, if they did it but perhaps they just don't think that any consequences will come of what they've done. That would track with some of the people they've encountered. He asks for confirmation that the trail led directly to the hunters, or if they were just close by to it - the hunters denied knowing anything about the farm, as he understands it, so if the trail says otherwise then they're lying about that much (but again, that might just mean they ignored the fire and the corpses and don't want to get blamed by anyone connected to the Lanes, and doesn't prove that they actually did it, even if it is highly suspicious).

There's also the question of motive, which on second thoughts may explain what's happening here - perhaps the hunters weren't having much luck finding their next meal, tried their luck at the farm, things went south and they had to fight and leave empty-handed, and then finally found a meal here. Perhaps, but he's not particularly confident there - it's not like Sean has ever had too much trouble finding something to hunt out here, so maybe that actually gives them no motive to raid a farm. He leaves that call to Sean, since he's more experienced when it comes to survival matters and the kind of decisions a group of hunters may have to make out there.

[u-b]

Sean confirms there was just one fresh trail leading out of the farm and that lead him to these men. They did not deny visiting the farm, only claimed not to know about attacking it. This could mean a lot of things, the obvious them being liars. But there are other explanations, some more dubious than the others. Namely, some flying mutants, some people competent at hiding their tracks or what not. Not robbing the Lanes is also suspicious, especially since these people seem to have the time. Given the observables, Sean proposes we do the following:
1. We drive back to Lanes' farm to report and describe the men to the traders. Warn them sort of thing, but also question if these guys are known. The problem is we did not request any identification, but Sean is not sure about going in and asking more questions. We also ask where the traders are going to camp for the night and how we are to contact them, e.g. by radio.
2. We then drive back to the outpost. This also should not take long. Then Sean starts following the trail of the zombies back to origin or some other notable point.
3. When Richard is done with the papers, he is to go to the authorities to bring them in the loop. Sean will also participate over the radio. Sean could probably contact authorities himself, but that would mean fiddling with the radio, which he prefers not to.

Since the hunters will be occupied for some more time and may even camp on the spot, which, after butchering such a large animal, will be notable, returning to track them again in the morning should not be problematic.

If the plan is accepted, Sean fills a page or two with the people's descriptions and is on his way.

Spoiler

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The phase 1 of the plan is to drive back to the traders and chat.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The drive back to the Lanes farm (what's left of it) is uneventful. They discuss the situation with the traders, and get their radio contact (they do not have encryption). The traders are going to camp around the farm for the night. They want to mourn some more, and tidy up what they can. They appreciate the warnings Sean and his friends give them.

The drive back to the outpost is also uneventful. The place is just as depressing and battle-scarred as ever. Anyone who has not eaten lunch yet, does so at this point. Richard talks with Sean over the radio, coordinating their actions.

Then it's back on the road again, trying to figure out where those monsters came from...

(OC: Richard, you may need to make a Reaction Roll when you talk to the authorities. Sean, make your usual skill rolls. Be warned, this could be more dangerous than normal, it's getting late in the day...)

[u-b]

At the raider's shack, Sean makes sure the grenades are transferred back to him, trauma plate is transferred back to Bart, but lets both militia men wear a better vest and have a flare. Then he starts tracking.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Much to Richard's relief, the authorities of Bread Basket do not laugh him off when he tells tales of strange monsters. His report gets noted down and given to people higher up the chain. They promise that they will look into it, but he has suspicions that the matter is not a priority.

Meanwhile, Sean is doing an excellent job on following the trail from the outpost. It takes him only 30 minutes to arrive at a building where the tracks originated. From the outside, it looks like an abandoned structure, what the Old World termed a "gas station". It was where people of the Old World re-fueled their automobiles. He can see the rows of fuel pumps near the entrance.

Observing the outside from at least 20 yards, Sean spies armed people moving around within the station. They appear to be taking care to stay out of sight most of the time, hiding. Taking care to take in the details, he notices the people inside have rifles and shotguns, wearing decent amour and they've all got black neck tattoos. He counts 10 within, but there definitely could be more.

The tracks of the strange beings came from inside the station.

[u-b]

Sean remains hidden and calls Richard again. He tells he expects Richard to arrive at the raider's outpost before it gets too dark and that he'll be greeted by a man with NVGs waiting there in a car to lead him the rest of the way. Sean designates "his" car for the mission, the one with the radio, and issues an order to retreat from anything dog-sized and up. The remaining car is to be camouflaged with a net and some bushes near where it is.

Spoiler

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The plan is to get Richard into action in some reasonable time. We will attack when darkness is about -6. Hopefully, they will turn on illumination and/or go to bed by that time. Also, everyone will be fully rested. Also, the hunters will return, if they are from here. Any transportation anywhere nearby or maybe a garage?

[Shoot Da Moon]

(OC: Richard, you can post now. I posted earlier in the OOC thread you will find relevant, BTW.)

[Volthawk]

(OOC: Wasn't sure if there was much to post about before it got to go-time)

Richard nods when he meets the militiaman waiting for him at the outpost, taking the ride to Sean and the next problem. Once there, he listens again to what Sean knows so far now he can see what's going on to go along with the report, and thinks it over. So the raiders...made those things? No, that didn't make sense. Drove them off, maybe - but that also didn't match what they'd seen. Captured and sent out...now that made sense. They'd already seen the raiders use chemicals capable of attracting mutated animals, so why not a substance that can either make those things not notice the raiders, or just drive them off into the wilderness to attack at random? They do have the scientific resources of at least one Shelter at their disposal, after all. Looking over the wider situation, he is a little concerned about the risk of them having something more armoured hidden away and asks Sean if they have brought anything with them that might do some work if that was the case. The fuel pumps out front also catch his eye - perhaps those could be used to do some serious damage, but that's definitely not the preferred strategy here, between the raw value of the fuel itself and more importantly the importance of getting some kind of intel from this, whether from prisoners or documents.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The exiles and their friends settle in for a stakeout, keeping watch on the gas station and its occupants for hours until it gets dark enough for Sean's plan.

(OC: all of you and your allies eat rations and drink water for lunch/dinner, record the consuming.)

As the hours go on, Sean and his fellows observe the raiders in the gas station from afar. They send out a group of six on foot, heading east, one hour after Sean came here. (They do not come back.) A hour and a half later, a different group of people arrive on foot from the north and enter the gas station, clearly more raiders joining this group.

The raider occasionally have three or four of their number go outside to patrol the immediate grounds and scan the horizon for ten or so minutes before going back inside. Sean is certain they did not spot him or his allies.

Eventually, darkness falls. Every raider is inside the station and is trying to stay hidden, turning the lights off. Sean has noticed that they have set up barricades on the entrances he can see just before the sun goes down.

(OC: Sean, spotting the raiders again will require a contested Observation roll. Spell out what you guys decide to do now.)

[u-b]

Observing the raiders, Sean takes a note of which entrances are used and where the guards are positioned for the night. Eventually, he comes to some cover within 20 yards from the barricade and starts to plan his opening burst. Over the radio, he whispers Richard to tell the two militia men to be ready in case some illumination is employed by the raiders, while Richard and Bart use NVGs from whatever distance they find comfortable, right after Sean. Currently, we don't have anything armor-piercing, but hopefully, we'll just have to deal with the men.

Spoiler

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1. For now, the dogs are to be left with militia.
2. Sean notes the exact routes taken by people coming and leaving and whether any extra traps are placed for the night.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean and his comrades stay hidden as they observe the gas station.
Sean realizes that there is another way into the gas station - a locked metal back door that is guarded by two raiders and booby-trapped with a landmine.
When night falls, all the guards go indoors. They have at least five watching the front entrance. Three go into the backrooms.
Targeting the raiders from the outside is not easy. Most are behind medium cover/concealment (counters and covered windows), even full body cover/concealment (going low behind the shelves).
They have noisemakers set up on the front entrance.
Most raiders in the station seem to have "beds" laid out on the floor, out of sight. About a quarter of them are standing and patrolling, checking the windows, swapping watch every hour as the others rest. Sean definitely thinks they carry flashlights, but none of them turn them on when patrolling.

[u-b]

The arrangement suits Sean just fine. He leaves Richard and Bart in his stead some 20 yards from the site, makes a short trip to the cars to pick up more grenades, then, rifle in hand and bending low, starts to advance all the way towards the building, careful not to trigger any noise maker or mine. The goal is to end up somewhere between the windows and thus out of sight.

Spoiler

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Picking up seven M67 grenades for a total of 8. That's in addition to a standard TL7 frag, an ARGES and two flash-bangs. I guess Sean will have all his pockets full.
Assuming the barricade is in front of the door, not all the way around. If it is all the way around, consider Sean thinking of the ways of using and/or crossing it.

[Volthawk]

Richard stays at the front, although he indicates for Bart and the militiamen to spread out to other cover the same rough distance away, to mitigate the risk of any explosives the raiders may have and to potentially get a better shot. For his part, he intends to start firing on a signal from Sean (whether over the radio or simply hearing him starting to cause trouble) - the idea is less to take them all out from here, and more to be loud and attention-grabbing, getting them to get their heads down and hopefully be more vulnerable to what Sean is planning.

Spoiler

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If anyone is visible from Richard's position, he may as well spend the time Sean takes moving about aiming.