The Clockwork Mansion

Location: Adelphus, Bunker 74
Date: 08:51 AM Local Time, December 5th, 2066

Nine years since the start of the War[/i]

~~

An average day, in Bunker 74. Day was a term limited in use - inhabitants of Bunker 74 had not seen daylight for at least 9 years.

The bunker had been well stocked for those 9 years, and everyone had survived. Despite being a civilian bunker, you could say one thing - the government had actually cared about those who would be sheltering in it, and more precisely, those who were now.

Three days ago, the 'counters had signalled that radiation levels were low enough for near-permanent exposure.

The group of six had been chosen. Assembled before the self-appointed leader of the bunker, who had seen it through thick and thin, carefully managing supplies and the resources available to ensure survival. So far, he had done well.

But now, he said, was the time to leave the bunker. It was time to reclaim the surface, now that it was safe.

He - and his five most trusted friends - had chosen six volunteers to go topside, based on age, experience and occupation pre-Fall. Looking down at the list showed the following names, each in a different style of handwriting.
 

QuotePaladin Sheppard
Johnathan R. Miller
Hayden Khail
Dus`Su Eight
Federal, Parsons
Malakin Greymane

Hopefully, they would have all received word of their selection to go topside.

~~

The notice was simple enough - the six volunteers had been summoned to the monitoring center - the most important part of the Bunker - for a meeting regarding the surface.

~~

He waited patiently in the monitoring center for the arrivals. The most interesting feature is that he is a 6'2" tall mechanoid - ie, robot or android - obviously not designed professionally as many parts do not match up. Several unidentifiable pieces of equipment make up a significant portion of him - and although most of him is in proportion (ie, sized and matched, for the most part), none of it really goes together, right down to the kneecap plates and optical sensors.

He sat patiently in one of the few chairs in the sparse room, watching the open door patiently. The room's walls were covered in monitors and input panels, an eerie, gentle bleeping and blipping as the automated systems monitored the life support, power and recycling systems.

Dormitories, Bunker 74

His eyes are closed.

"--fifth face, third row; third face, first column--" Johnathan kept most of his attention on the rubix cube as he went on his way to the station. The rest in an almost automatic sense of direction. Down the hallway, past the door, taking a left turn, dodging in and out of the crowd, into a cramped elevator, past another door and down another hallway. "Right, right, left, right, left, right--" he skillfully weaves, corridor to corridor.

Nine years.

He stopped to open his emerald eyes to look at a console monitor beside him, showing the outside view of the bunker's vault door; firmly shut, and collecting nine years worth of dust.

"I'm sure a flame tank is just waiting for me outside because I'm begging to have my juices cooked. Would save me and the rest of us from a slower death."

Morbid curiousity, he does check the outside view cameras, datajack into the console. To his disappointment, there was nothing moving for miles on end, except the occassional dust devil, which would mean it was hot and dry outside as well as being relatively devoid of cloud cover.

Slower death it is. How cruel are you, fate.

He closed his eyes again.

There was no time, long ago, where he was not the least bit bitter. He was, is and always will be. Being a lead engineer in weapons design only made it worse. By now, droids most likely carry a warmer personality, as synthetic as they are.

That, however, does not stop him from always being right. Aside from still being able to multitask, his mind is still as sharp as he is bitter, which is another constant for him. So far, at least. He is getting old and he knows it. He noticed white hairs this morning.

Nine years.

Of being bitter. As far as bitter felines go, they are wrathful and antisocial. In nine years he has made quite a few enemies, and even fewer friends. He knew no one on the list, and they don't know him either. So he pondered on his chances of survival with five strangers and no decent weaponry to cope with irradiated mutant cockroach-anthromorphs who most likely survived the blasts.

Nil. Wonderful.

Nine years.

"Nine years." Johnathan kept at the rubix cube as he approached the open door of the station, and saved the last move. He turned right, and without opening his eyes, "Nine years of playing with this rubix cube, I've had enough." he said, as he set it on the table and clicked in the last move.

Parsons Federal walked in, soda bottle in hand. He slumped into the chair closest to the door. Federal never slept well, and he took this oppertunity to get a few minutes of relaxation, after a twenty-five hour security stint. It was useless, especially given the extraordinary amount of caffine he drank. Federal had no idea why his name was on the list. He couldn't think of any situation where he had made a name for himself. Owing to his firearm experience, he had taken a rather uneventful post in security, as architects and construction workers were not in high demand in a nuclear bunker. He had used his gun a total of one time, in an incident that he honestly could not recall. Still slumping in his chair, he thought to himself, "This could be interesting.".

Room belonging to the 2nd/514 D company 2nd platoon 3rd squad
Paladin looked over the note for the 100th time as he velcroed the BDU jumpsuit and buckled on his armor.
"Well I better move it I guess" Pal grabbed his sidearm and holster and walked out and into the corridor, down the hall and into the meeting room.
"Sir Sgt Sheppard reporting as ordered SIR!" Pal not quite bellowed at the android overseer.



*edited as I rushed the first post before I went to work*

Tango-sector security sub-station
Malakin had been sitting in the darkend security station for the last hour, busy playing his last life on what he thought was the last computer game left in the world.. he had only managed to get it working by pretending the computer was borked and getting permission to reformat it, allowing him to install the older opperating system onto a new partition.. Being in the security department had its perks, usually him and his mates were the first to hear any wild rumours or rule changes passed along by other people.. In this case he had heard that he was "volunteered" to join the first people in the last 9 years to leave the Bunker.. wow.. And now looking at his watch he realised he could be a few minutes late for the most important meeting in the bunkers history..

Quickly kicking the computer off at the powerstrip, grabbing his jacket, malakin thanked his lucky stars the monitoring center is only a sector or two away..

Running down the halls, taking the stairs two at a time, Jumping the security barriers,
Skidding around a corner, Malakin arrives at the monitoring center breathless.
Now a tad unsure about the whole thing, he checks his watch and looks up and down the hall.. Here we go.. Just in time.. He pushes the call button and enters as the doors slide open with a "swish"..

"Uhh, Hi ? Not late am I ?"

Seeing the other occupants otherwise occupied, malakin makes him self comfortable on a chair in a corner and awaits the start, absent mindedly playing with and twisting his cap..

Medical Faculty A

Lazily, blue eyes the color of sapphires drifted back and forth, following the path of a goldfish as it swam through the aquarium.

"You are completely content swimming in this prison aren't you?"

The canine-like creature put down his pen and tapped a claw against the glass.  The fish immediately swam to the glass and drifted their, using its fins to maintain its position.  This goldfish was the oddest one he had ever taken care of.

His eyes drifted down to the small personal computer next to him, with a thought he accessed the mail system and reviewed his messages.  One caught his notice and his eyes widened.

"After nine years... probabilistic logic would lead to this inevitable conclusion, but it is still almost like something unimaginable.  If only all uncertainities in life could be functions of desire!"

Looking once more at the goldfish, he could not help but smile, "no longer will we share the same fate little one, this fish get's to swim in the ocean once more!"

Removing the plug of the datacord from the computer and his own datajack, he slipped it into his pocket.  Donning his labcoat he turned to leave the lab.

Stopping in front of the mirror, he made a quick adjustment to his tie and straightened his labcoat.  The gray fur made him appear to be a canine, but the brown stripes running down his tail spoke of something else entirely.

He trotted off down the hall towards destiny.

Meeting room.

Dus`Su Eight  blankly stared infront of it. After production Dus`Su's preformed well above standard. Dus`Su eight is however the only android of it's type as every new scout android was build with different goals. Dus`Su was the replacement of Du's'Su three as it malfunctioned during it's system checkup frying it's whole grid.  Dus`su is primairly lighter then it's cousins the Dus'su Nine, seven and six. However it's heavier then dus'su Three as It was based on a feminite design and fly capable design. More the Dus`Su line discontinued after Dus`su ten's failure to operate. Dus'su 2 is an heavy hovering orb, Dus`su 1 is battlemech without AI and Dus'su four is a battle droid with limited AI that was the only one  build more then once.

Bum with a soda drink.
The epitome of a military rookie.
Your typically dysfunctional security-man.
Geek. Period.
A scrawny-looking droid.

And himself, of all people, the rudest and most bitter curmudgeon this side of Bunker 74.

Jonathan examined the people entering in silence, but his thoughts spit forth an overwhelmingly loud and rude brainfart. He can't figure out why he's not laughing, this was pathetic enough to be funny. The overseer still his wicked sense of humour, it seems. Ultimately, it only reassured the notion of a slow and agonizing death either as roadkill for some hungry mutated buzzards or worse, of the mad ravings of his (possibly) ignorant teammates.

At least, he would die laughing, if only because he thought it was so pathetic. What was it that Freud said about jokes working because there's an element of truth in them? Indeed, he will laugh. Laugh like he had never laughed before; and likely, he hadn't.

Jonathan begins thoroughly examining the droid.

Dus'Su Eight. Odd--

Barring that train of thought, it seems that he might have to work on the droid. The chassis looks familiar somewhat, pre-apocalypse line of lightly armored androids? No, seems newer than that. Scout, perhaps? Might still be compatible with newer components and armour if he's lucky. Definately more armour. Better to hide behind something that won't blow up at the slightest touch of plasma. Scout or not, it has to at least feasibly protect itself and sentient organics.

Maybe a design similar to the archives. Prototype reconnaisance/first-strike? Light trooper? The humanoid design is too vulnerable, perhaps modify his limbs into an arachnoid form?

Jonathan loses himself, pondering on the finer points of making flimsy pieces of synthetics into warmachines, all the while staring at the droid.

The Commander laughs as the Cube is set down, focusing his good eye - taken from an infrared security camera - on the Doctor.

"I'm not at all surprised, Miller, nine years with that confounded block would drive me into cyberpsychosis." He then turns to Sgt. Sheppard, shaking his head slightly. "Keep a lid on it, Sheppard, the techs in Subsector Nine probably heard that, and if you keep it up like that topside, anyone else certainly will, and there's going to be some that are unfriendly."

Turning to look at Malakin as he enters, the Commander gives the thumbs up. "Dead on time."

With the entry of the final doctor, he starts.

"Now you're all here, down to business. You six have been chosen, for various reasons, to be the first to go back to the surface after nine years inside this bunker. Nine years, and finally you all get a breath of fresh air - uncontaminated, and for the most part, healthy. There is still minor residual radiation, but it is not hazardous. For the time being, however, the impact sites are still heavily irradiated and thus unsafe."

"Enough of the safety warnings, though. Your primary objective is as follows - find another bunker and make contact with any inhabitants, if there are any. Secondly, I would advise gaining access to the nearby military base to acquire some better weaponry and some transportation. Try and radio back as soon as you do - we can't afford to leave any extra resources for anyone who might be hostile to us to find and use them."

Meeting Room
"Sorry sir, I guess I'm a little hyped up" Pal turns bright red and sits down to listen to the brefing. "Which bunker are we aiming for?" Pal mentaly calculates where the nearest military base was. "And that base its where the rest of the 514th was stationed isn't it sir?

Dus`su Eight eyes focus on the commander. Eventough the soulless red lense can't detect emotions.  Dus'suc main speaker activates and a slightly robotic male voice fills the room. "In case of hostile fire are we allowed to shoot to kill?" Dus'su eights eyes takes miniature pictures of his companionship. "May I receive Intel on the command ladder?"

"Yeah, whos in charge of the group?"
*Malakin sits up in his chair now the meeting has started*
"Also, wouldnt this military base we are talking about be one of the first places they would have nuked ?"

"The military is stupid," Jonathan pauses, for emphasis, "But not that stupid; they would at least have underground levels if not similar bunkers capable of withstanding a direct nuclear blast, given that they saw the war coming. Unfortunately some entrances might be blocked by debris, or worse, guarded by surviving military personnel."

Jonathan presses down on one square of the rubix cube, accessing a holomapper showing a map of the region, pre-apocalypse. "The bunker is shown in red, the closest base in yellow, the shortest route is through the city" Jonathan then 'traces' a route towards the city, then the closest military installation. He tags several buildings in the city with green. "We might want to check the nearby police station in the city first, though. It would be very likely that there are functional or salvagable police droids since they're normally equipped with EMP shielding due to locally available weaponry. Kinetic weaponry, and hopefully some armour might also be available there. Then there's the hospital, for medical supplies; and finally some factories, supermarkets along the way. Not betting on there being any useful electronics though, EMP from the nuclear blasts likely fried everything, including vehicles. We're walking all the way to the base."

Jonathan leaves the holomapper on, "Frankly, I would advise against there being a leader in the group, a small democracy would be better, so our best interests are all fulfilled as much as possible. I'd hate for there to be a testosterone induced power struggle, don't you?"

He looks at everyone, then closes his eyes again.

"So, now that my views are covered, any alternative plans? Suggestions?"

"It depends on the military base, not all installations were targets for nuclear strike.  No one possessed enough weaponry to hit every single target in existence.  The base should provide our best bet for any salvageable gear not rendered useless by EMP, most consumer electronics don't come with shielding.  Also, as he said, bunkers that likely protected a good deal of material." 

He pushed his glasses back into place, merely a frame with thin polymer lens for show, as he did not need them to see, "most of us need to consider consumables for this excursion, we can only carry so much and we never know what will be encountered out there.  Given the half-life of fissionable material, after nine years most intermediate weight isotopes are not a problem, but higher and minor actinides will still be present in soil and therefore the vegetation.  Such material has prevailed itself within the environment and likely will be found in all organisms."

Hayden stands and ponders for a moment before continuing, "what has already been mentioned is very logical, though I debate the usefulness of supermarkets after nine years and constant radioactive exposure, little will be useable, same for most existing medical supplies not properly vaulted and shielded against radiation.  Transportation will definitely be limited down to the more conventional, non-electrical based vehicles... such as bicycles and such."

He turned away from the assembled group and raised a finger in the air, "democratic methods seem best, rational minds should hopefully prevail, but one cannot always say when subject to duress over time."

Hayden decided to make a dramatic turn, bowing his head to push his glasses up his muzzle, "what says the rest of you, eh?"

The Commander nods, then pulls up another map, albeit low resolution and only in black and white.

"The bunker's satlink - which links us to satellites - is intact and functional, thankfully, so I can provide you with a more accurate map of the city. Un[/i]fortunately, residual radiation makes transmission difficult and thus we only have poor-quality maps, and only of the city. Many of the larger buildings were knocked over by shockwaves, and a great degree of the Alpha Skyway - the city's main transport route - has collapsed across the city."

"There were three bases throughout the city, although at least one has almost certainly been annihilated, going by the maps recieved. The remaining two facilities are intact for the most part and a majority of them are, as Doctor Miller pointed out, subterranean - much like this bunker. The likelihood of any survivors is minimal, however."

He turns to the other 'mech.

"You are authorised to use lethal force if necessary, do not hesitate to defend yourselves - not all survivors will be friendly."

"Kinetic weaponry is your best bet, as most are older and thus EMP immune as they have no EMP-damagable parts. Laser and Plasma weaponry will probably be available within the military bunkers, as will any Particle Weaponry on Vehicles. Railguns and Raildrivers will be little more than decorative scrap, however."

Dus'su Eight nods "acknowledged, My programming contains enough weapon data to operate standard and semi-standard weaponary."  Dus'su looks around the group once more "Are these organics all familiar with weaponary?"

"I can use a high caliber sniper fine, but I'm not sure of the practicality of that. What are we expecting to be up against?"

Looking downcast Paladin looks at the overseer "You mean it doesn't know who's been maintaining its weapon systems?" Turning to the android scout "I'm currently listed as an marksman in just about every small arm the army has in it inventory."

"Listed, what about those three organics?" Dus'su looks at the remaining three, altough he's not programmed to know any irrelevant data or entities. Dus'su doesn't even know anyone but the commander and some other high officers and he only knows their names and faces no background information at all to conserve data. Dus'su is currently running on battery power while in the bunker. It's main power supply consisting out of the lights within the bunker and weekly recharges. While being more efficient then many other androids and droids Dus'su is  wasting energy by talking.  can however run truly independently outside in the wind and sun. Which where his best features. Dus'su is able to walk much faster then duo pod organics but his legs remained a pair for energy efficiency and lower weight as well as maneuverability

"I can use a wide variety of small arms, some explosives as well but this is all VR training, the only guns i have actually fired in the live fire range are the Falcon pistol and the PDPW-24 (a small plasma carbine)"

*he turns to look at the commander*

"Sir, what equipment, apart from weaponry is this bunker able to offer us? Maybe one of the supply trucks left in the equipment bay?"

Jonathan shoots a glance at the droid.

"I -make- weaponry, I don't -shoot- them, test-firing is done by mindless brutish grunts with classified clearance specifically assigned to the task. Theoretical knowledge tends to differ from application, it would seem; and I'm liable to shoot myself in the foot. I generally thought VR training was a waste of time, and then there's the fact that some idiot might have messed with the design we were test-firing, and cause the weapon to quite literally blow up in the grunt's face. I didn't exactly want to volunteer to die that way." He pauses, looking then at the others, with his eyes closed; "I'll leave the shooting to you ablative distractions."

Hayden crosses his arms in front of him and grumbles as he thinks to himself, The only being of reasonable intellect in this team is a complete jerk... this is going to be a long trip.

The thylacine dipped his head just enough that the light in the room hit the glasses in such a way to give them a mirrored opaque appearance, obscuring his eyes, "I don't have any appreciable skill with weapons... unless you consider the biological and genetic ordinace I've had the pleasure of developing.   Other then my stint at the fencing club back at the university, I'll have to defer to the rest of you in this area."

Pausing for a brief moment, he continued, "military training is not a paramount consideration for government researchers... it is not even tertiary.  I've spend a fair amount of time in self-defense, but hand to hand confrontations with something like military or civil defense robots is known to go badly.  So hopefully you all won't be too put off if my firearm accuracy is subpar... VR training used to be so fun... oh wait that wasn't training..."

Hayden snaps his finger at Malakin's question, "I do so love the practical minds, even if they do lack sufficient upper brain functions to be interesting... yes, what equipment can we expect to receive?"

[Space reserved for an official RP post, coming some time this weekend, once the new CPU is acquired and fitted.]

Slouching back in his chair he mutters under his breath "Just because you have actually had an education.."
while glaring at both Jonathan and Hayden...

"Hey Malakin, you got your falcon on you?" Pal asks the fox security officer.

"Yeah. don't worry, i have been looking after her." *Unclasps the gun from his hip holster, leaning over he offers the unloaded pistol to Paladin*

"Ahh cool, I finaly made that new slide and sight mount for you" Pulling a small toolkit and a pistol slide from his pocket Pal changes some parts on the falcon. Pal hands the pistol back "Should be less chance of it jaming now and you can put a scope and a laser-sight on it."

"Never liked the Falc' that much", muttered Parsons. "A tad bit jumpy on the recoil. I use my old Rockwell SixtySix", he said, pulling out an old looking pistol with a mounted flashlight.

We would need better armaments soon. Pistols won't do well in the long run, with what being just emergency defense; would be all too ironic if we died to irradiated mutant cockroaches.

Jonathan kept his thoughts to himself.

He knew the bunker had neither the resources nor the facilities to manufacture firearms. At first he had wished to visit the factories in the city to see if the assembly can be reprogrammed but then he had answered that question himself. None of the city's heavy machinery had EMP shielding. That left hollow husks of metal, stripped out off their vital circuitry. Would take months to restore just one factory, if we can even find basic components.

They gave us the chance to survive a nuclear war, but not to rebuild. Brilliant.

Back to pistols. Specifically the Rockwell 66 that Parsons just brought out. Old gun; really old gun, definately pre-apocalypse--they stopped manufacturing those when I was still a rookie. It has significantly less recoil than most would be inclined to believe, an unexpected (but not unwelcome) side-effect of the weapon's weight, which softens the impact of the discharge. I'd give him that, at least, but doesn't that thing have a tendency to jam--stovepipe? What's with the flashlight?

"If everyone's done bringing out their tools of masochistic intent," He coughs, "Can we turn our attention to more pressing matters at hand? How many rations and supplies will we be issued, and how long will it last us, minus the droid?"

"I was wondering when we'd get to that.." cut in the Commander. "The usual supplies are being issued in terms of rations. You should have about a month's worth... not the best stuff, admittedly, but enough to last you that long. I assume you're all familiar with the rations."

"Now, in terms of other supplies, you've got free run of the armoury.. there's not much in there that'll help, but it's better than nothing at all. I think there's a crate of Grade 5 - fairly average, with no lean towards rapid fire or heat levels - Laser Pistols, a couple of Plasma Pistols, several kinetic weapons - old-world assault rifles, tops - and if you're very lucky, I think there might be one[/i] sniper rifle. We're not sure how much ammo it'll have though."

He stands, gesturing toward the door. "I presume you know where the armoury is, ladies and gentlemen. After you. I'll have to unlock it myself as well as disable the security protocols that I put in place, but that shouldn't take more than a minute or two."

Standing up Pal headed out the door and towards the armory. "If I remember correctly I only had a combat load when I brought the rifle in, 20 rounds tops."

Jonathan stands up as well.

"I'm taking a look, probably pick up a few for components, modifications, and a laser pistol for myself." He mutters, "Just in case I run out of ablative distractions." He touches the portion of the cube that's sunk in to offline the holomapper and the data assistant. A symbol of a snowflake briefly appears on one side of the cube. Jonathan then begins to seemingly randomize the cube as he passes out the door, towards the armory. "Perhaps, I still need this cube, for a long time coming."

Dus'Su follwed Pal to the armory. Walking at the same speed. Analizing Along the way, his build, the way he moved, aswel as his equiptment and voice.

Malakin hops out of his seat and follows Paladin to the armoury.

"Nice one with the parts Pal, Have we got any bodyarmour around? with out proper medical equipment we should keep the risk of being injured down to a minimum.."

"Right, I'm off, seems to be the popular thing to do." Parsons followed Malakin and Paladin.

Hayden zooms in and takes note of the pattern Jonathan used to 'randomize' the cube.  The information is uploaded to the cache in the encephalon and processed as well as the design of the snowflake.

As he followed the rest of the team out, he stuck his tongue out as he mulled the idea of the rations in his head, "that stuff is always so... bleh."

He followed down the corridor after everyone else with is hands in his pockets, he considered the monumental change this expedition meant and his heart skipped a beat, a great wash of apprehension took hold of his soul.  Hayden stopped and as everyone continued, he braced himself against the wall.  He breathed a heavy sigh, shook his head and continued behind everyone.

I wonder if he made the security system a little more complex, the first time was easy to crack.  Almost got tossed outside for that one... hadn't even been here a month.

Fortunately it doesn't take long to reach the Armoury, and when you get there, the Commander punches in the access code, the two heavy metal doors creaking open slowly, although he does have to apply some manual leverage to speed the process up once or twice, uttering words best not repeated in front of small children.

Stepping inside, he flicks the lights on, then steps over to a panel into the middle of the room and punches in a further three codes. Three short bleeps sound, then there's a 'pop', and the sound of several systems powering down.

"Right, that's the security protocols handled... now, let's see what's behind door - or rather, box lid - number one!"

Without further ado, he hefts up one crate like a toy and rips the lid off, peering inside.

"Mmm, Laser Pistols. Grade 5, as predicted. Markov series.. I personally prefer the Emerald series, but they're only Grade 7 to Grade 10. Big hitters, but poor refire..."

He sets the box down again, hefting one of the pistols and checking the power cell. It's not exactly small for a pistol, but it's not huge. Satisfied, he pushes the pistol back into the foam inside the crate.

"Seems good... what else do we have... mmm, let's try this crate."

Again, he takes open another crate, pulling out a fairly old looking assault rifle.

"Eh, bit beat up, but there you go... anyway, you kids have a run of the place and tell me when you're done."

(Specify where you're searching, and what you're searching for, and I'll post the results - you can search multiple times if you want, don't be afraid to turn things upside down and inside out, you never know what you might find!)

There are several wall racks, a couple of lockers, half a dozen supply crates, and a few smaller boxes here and there.

Paladin searches the wallracks, one of the lockers labled -Sheppard and several of the small boxes looking for his Ghillie-suit a rifle case, ammo, some food and some armor aswell as some personal coms systems

recoil looked through some crates searching for heavy firearms, High firerate or Enormous damage and it didn't matter if it had a lot  of reciol since Dus'Su was designed to be able to even handle heavy antitank miscless while standing. His scanners where going through all the boxes.

Malakin look around the room, paladin already going through his old stuff and Dus'Su doing something weird with the crates..
He then Joins them, enthusiastically opening and searching through the old lockers and smaller boxes... looking for metal or ceramic and heat absorbent inserts for any armour they might find, as well as looking for flares/nightvision goggles, GPS units, 9mm caseless ammo, military smallarm power packs, he looks in the smaller boxes for breaching charges and detonators a Geiger counter if one can be found, as well as inspecting the old assultrifle to see if its worth the bother..

*Edit: also looking for a reflex sight and light attachment for the newly upgraded Falcon ^.^

Jonathan scanned the room with a glance, then went to the crates. He needed key components (of which he might have to disassemble the weapons) from the energy weaponry (magnetic bottle systems, miniaturized ray tubes, electronics), a reliable plasma pistol for a stable platform work on, an overcharger from some of the older models of laser pistols, an old kinetic rifle, and finally a bunch of fuel cells. His plans were to bolster the effective range of the plasma weaponry by overcharging the magnetic bottle systems that held the plasma bolts. Unfortunately he needed systems that can withstand the strain, and more importantly the overcharger. The latter was only available to the Emerald series of laser pistols-- of which the Commander's prospects weren't promising. He also needed a rifle, so he can assemble everything on top of one neat stock.

Of course, he needed tools.

Jonathan then stopped his ongoing series of thought, and looked at Paladin. Trying his best to 'smile'. "Can I please have your toolkit for a moment?" It took all his willpower to ask nicely, it seems.

There was a locker marked "P. Federal", and that was all Parsons needed to see. He pulled out a woodstock sniper rifle, a heavily modified Conrad/Collins LR4 that had seen much use over the years. Not by him, though. He'd purchased it off one of the friends of his brothers, the guy who also modified it for him, name of Geoff Nodstrom. He'd given it an extended clip of 15 rounds versus the standard 10, and made it fire at an amazing 3600 feet per second. The modifications also made the rifle very heavy, which was a slight shame. Parsons had replaced the original scope, which was broken, with a Northern Optical X8 scope, which had the advantage of having nightvision capibilities. He then pulled out a smallish machine pistol, in case, God forbid, they let anyone get close to them.

He took ammunition, and batteries. He then checked his other supplies in the locker.

Windproof lighter, full. Taken.
Matchbook, "Deni and Mathis' Pub! 24/7! 555-1942!", not taken.
Calculator that had to be about 75 years old, not taken.
LED signal flashlight with flashbulb, taken.
Textbook, Advanced Architecture, sticky note "Return by 2/7/58!" not taken.
Owners guide, "Your Conrad/Collins LR4 and You", not taken.
Crimson Ox Energy Drink, consumed.
Lockpick, taken.
Shortrange radio, taken.

Shrugging Paladin turned to one of the work benches in the room and pulled a large box from under it. Opening the box a vast array of tools and equipment for the modification and maintance of weapons was revealed. "I only had the small one to do Malakin's falcon, have fun!" Turning back to search Pal also went looking for one of the assault rifles his squad brought in and a silencer for his guardian 10 pistol.

Hayden noted the new voice recognition part of the security system, "nice, that wasn't there when I first snuck in here." 

Pouring through all the crates, lockers and boxes, Hayden looked for just about anything that would be useful.  Medical kits, personal body armour, portable personal computer and possibly a plasma weapon if one could be found.  If not he would settle for a mixture of heavy kinetic pistol and a laser pistol.  He was hoping to locate a better laser pistol then what was initially discovered, but would settle for what he was able to find.  He also tried to narrow down the functional gear, tents, sleeping bags, field kits and survival gear.

He left the acquisition of significant combat gear to the fighting types.

A rather battered looking flak jacket and SR sit, huddled in the corners of Sheppard's locker, two spare clips on the upper shelf. The camo suit is nowhere to be seen, not that it'll be much use in an urban environment!

Pulling open one of the smaller boxes reveals six headsets, complete with a camera, HUD display glasses, earphones and mic. Snazzy. The only food you can find is more rations. The use-by-date is marked 01/01/2200. A good or a bad sign? You decide.

~~

There's very little in the way of heavy firearms. In fact, in terms of firepower, the best that can really be found is a plasma pistol. In terms of size and recoil, a kinetic assault rifle. Take your pick.

~~

No armour inserts to be found, but a couple of flak jackets similar to the one in Sheppard's locker can be found in bigger boxes, bringing the total up to three jackets. A quick search pulls up two small cardboard boxes with roughly 20 flares each, to boot, although there's not a pair of NVGs around at all. Given that most satellite systems are still screwed up, GPS is buggerall use (nevermind the fact that the GPS Modules have dead batteries) and there's no charges or detonators. Geiger counters are easy enough to find, too.

There are several ARs, in fact. They're all of one type, and look roughly like an AK-47. Admittedly, they work better, but they look similar.

~~

Taking apart a laser pistol and a plasma pistol is easy enough, the magnetic bottle and electronics coming out easily enough. The miniaturized ray tubes prove recalcitrant at first, but eventually give and are removed.

Unfortunately, the overcharger is not so forthcoming - mostly because the laser pistols they could be acquired from aren't proving too easy to find. (Roll Failure)

~~

Also on a bad note, the only magazine Parsons can find for the rifle has five shots, although there are two full magazines available for the SMG. (Oh please, like I'd let you get away with all that -and- plenty of ammo. HA!)

~~

Several simple field-med kits are easy enough to find, simple affairs with bandages, painkillers and such. Another suit of flak armour brings the count up to 4, but there's no sign of a PDA or similar. Thankfully, there's more than one Plasma Pistol - given that Dr. Miller took one apart earlier.

A thorough search turns up a Markov Series 7 - a Grade 6, rather than a Grade 5, Laser - but not old enough to house an overcharger as required by Dr. Miller.

Survival goodies are easy enough to find - tents, sleeping bags, and after some extended searching, two six-packs of self-heating baked beans (Heinz, naturally) which might make a nice change from the standard rations.

Dus'Su picks up a plasma pistol and attaches it a a specially foldable designed gun holder attached to his hip. He Takes the Kinetic assault file and holds in in one hand and scans it some more trying to determine its affective range and accuracy. Also weighing it for possibility of using it with one hand when needed. He then starts the search for additional magazines designed or compatible  for with the assault rifle.

Jonathan stifled a curse upon finding absolutely no Emerald pistols, and assessed the situation.

"This isn't working." He looked to the Commander. "Can't you at least be wrong, this once? It couldn't hurt, you know. --- Bah. You're right, there aren't any Emeralds in here at all. Figures since the Emerald was a better gun than the Markov. They'd toss the junk here."

Jonathan sighed, and shrugged. Without an overcharger, the thing would be more a plasma shotgun than a rifle. He will have to improvise a power system out of what remained of the disassembled parts he had not taken from the weapon; which is not much considering he just took out almost everything. He had to find a better way than digging deeper into a bottomless pit. He tries to eye the stuff that the others took out from their own searches, he takes particular interest in the GPS system that Sheppard took out of his locker. The thing looked ancient, and inoperative. Plus the wars probably blew up most GPS sattelites, it would be foolhardy to try to use it. Fortunately, it has the parts he needs. A recharger, that was built in for long trips; one that he can easily convert into something relatively similar to an overcharger, given a few parts from the disassembled laser pistol's power system.

Failing that, he will have to go with the plasma 'shotgun'. At least it would still hurt, but it would be significantly more idiotic to use it against a vehicle; with what having to stand right in front of an oncoming car to be able to hit it effectively. That would be truly daft.

Bah, this is forcing me to be 'nice'. I don't do nice.

He drops his facade, and asks Paladin politely again. "Hey --uhh. If you're not going to use that GPS tracker, can I -please- have it? I don't think any of the sattelites are working."

Jonathan almost coughed and puked at saying please, but he just manages to say it without sounding the least bit rude-- he hopes.

"Oops", Parsons muttered under his breath. Thanks to the creative modifications that Geoff had made to the clip holder, the 5 standard size clips he had in his locker did not fit.  And, the only 15 shot clip he had left was about half empty.

"Five shots, what the hell can I do with five shots?"

He smiled.

Pausing his search Pal turns the overseer "Sir you haven't seen my Ghillie-suit have you? I could have sworn I stashed it in here..." Grabbing the bodyarmor, Silencer, rifle case plus ammo, comms units and the food Pal also grabs a combat harness and loads some extra 10mm clips for the guardian into it. Thinking about it he also picks up a hands free hydration kit.

Placing it all on the workbench Pal puts on the armor then the harness and hydro kit, opening the case he pulls out the .50cal SM2a3 sniper weapons system and begins to assemble it.

Stopping as Jonathan asks for the GPS, Pal grabs one from the box behind him and hands it to the brain along with one of the comms units. "I've got it set to tac channel 26.61MHz should be ok"

Retuning to the rifle he quickly finished, selecting the 4-15x power electonic scope Pal atached it along with a bipod and a cheak pad.

As Persons compain about his limited ammo Pal remarks under his breath "one shot one kill."

Turning to Malakin he holds out one of the other sights in the case and one of the comms "I've got a reflex sight here for the falcon if you want it?"

Malakins ears droop as he searches through the last box in front of him..
"Humph, guess this will do.." He scoops the stuff up in his arms and dumps it on a crate next to him..
"Lets see.. over all we have enough body armour, as poor as it is.. we also have 8 flares each, not including our tin friend here.. and a small Geiger counter each.. Oh and this assult rifle for me.. Thats all i found, what about you guys?"
Malakin looks around at what everyone else has, notices the headset and sight offered to him and pounces, ears perked up again..
"Hah, sweet! do they work? They don't need to be charged or anything do they?" After fitting the sight to his pistol He stuffs his cap in his pocket and tries the headset on.. Finding the HUD dark he fumbles about for an on switch and flips it..

OoC: any thing specific we should know about the HUD or camera on the headsets?

Ater handing the sight and comms to Malakin, Paladin takes the SM2a3 to a sand barrel in the corner and dry fires it to ensure the parts are working. Satisfied he puts the rifle back on the bench and returns to searching for his Ghillie-suit.



*OOC I believe they are something like what is worn by the ghosts in GRAW*

Hayden dusts off the plasma pistol, gathers up medical supplies and points to the armour, "any of you fighting lads need a suit of Flak armour?"

He makes one last look through the crates, wall racks and the like, trying to see if he can find a high-tech medical kit.  n the process, he picks up a conventional 10mm firearm as a backup for the plasma weapon.

He does watch, with a tad bit of a snicker, as Dr. Miller tries to act with courtesy.

"This is quite the fun show to watch, I'm like a kid in a candy store with all this gear... and I get real personal comedy from watching you two."

One more stunt like that, and I might end up turning purple, growing butterfly wings and antennae. Eigh.

Jonathan looked at the parts he had strewn across the floor, in order of assembly, the GPS unit in front of him. He can finally begin assembling the rifle itself. As he reaches for his tools, he recalls a comment that a rookie once told him in the test tooling laboratory. 'Some doctors have the messiah complex—they need to save the world. You have a Rubik's complex—you need to solve the puzzle.' It was quoted from some ancient television show about some jerk of a doctor. Must have sucked. He, at least, was right though. I'm always solving puzzles, and never caring about the world. The more weapons I make, the faster the world went to hell. Then the apocalypse came.

Jonathan put his goggles on, and as he started to take out the recharger from the GPS unit, he thought about the world, and what he is doing now.

Here's to the end of the world.

Quick calculations put the rifle's maximum range at around 200m, the optimum at about 100m, not compensating for recoil, weather conditions and automatic/burst fire ammunition dispersion, and effective accuracy is... let's just say "sub par".

Firing one handed would be possible, but it's rather heavy, so there'd be an accuracy penalty, even for a 'mech.

After a few minutes of searching, all Dus`Su can turn up is a single magazine for the assault rifle. (Bad luck w/ the dice! ;))

~~

The headset springs to life, the HUD displaying a rather useful view of the room, complete with thermal imaging. That's quite handy, actually! (Tie breaker die roll... lucky bugger xD)

Further inspection shows that the HUD can display a camera feed from any nearby active headsets.

~~

Fruitless searching turns up no signs of the suit apart from a single small shred of the materials used. (Evil dice.  >:3)

~~

Dr. Khail manages to find no less than three kits. Unfortunately, they don't all have the same bits. Fortunately, they all have bits the other ones don't have, so you can fit it all into one kit. Handy that. (Unevil dice. :3)

~~

The GPS Module isn't a pretty sight, and removing the recharger is no easy task. The Module is so old and battered, the recharger actually refuses to be seperated from the board. Forcing it might cause it to break entirely, but on the other hand, it might get it free without damaging. Care to try again?

Ignore

The logical solution: If I can't remove the recharger from the board, I'd remove the board from the recharger.

Jonathan works his way -around- (a good distance) the vital component with a cutter tool. He doesn't care if the recharger has extra bits of material stuck to it's outer casing, it would still be quite functional as it is, and it would be significantly easier as well as less risky to remove it this way.

Malakin mutters "Sweeet" again, moving his hand back and forth infront of the infared cameras on the headset, then snaping out of it he turns off the Hud and returns to looking through the boxes, this time he is looking for a good backpack and ammo for the assultrifle and his pistol..

Hayden assembles his one complete kit from the three and placed in near the entrance with what rapidly became his pile of gear that he'd be carrying.  Among such items were a tent, sleeping bag, self-heating baked beans, a headset, etc.

"Did anyone locate any power cells?"  If not, Hayden begins rummaging around a bit more.  In addition to power cells, he needs to locate some 10mm ammo for the pistol.

Other then that he will wait until the others are finished, or they can think of anything else to search for.  "Anything else you all think we might need?"

"Some 2-way radios might be useful. Anyone see any?"

Handing Parsons one of the comms headsets, Paladin goes back to searching for the suit the the point of upturning some of the boxes. Standing he askes the others "Hey guys anyone seen a thermal suppressing suit with netting and a lot of canvas strips stuck to it?"

Dus'Su isn't to happy about his bad amount of magazines. "What frequency are we going to use?" While saying that he puts a shoulder belt on his gun and puts it over it's left shoulder. holding the gun with one hand pointing towards the ground.  Then he starts searching for additional power cells for his plasma pistol.

Slaping his forhead Pal grabs one of the headsets and sets it to themal. *How could I forget its cooler than most things till its worn* Pal thought as he scaned the boxes and lockers.

While searching for his last few items, Hayden stops and snaps his fingers.  "I need a medical applicator!"

Hayden redoubles his efforts, rifling through the crates, boxes and lockers... even the racks if necessary to locate one.  Especially a higher quality or superior model to what might be found in the Field medical kit.

~~Ink~~

Cutting the recharger from the board is much simpler, and is easily completed.

~~Malakin~~

Finding a backpack is easy enough, and another magazine of pistol ammunition is - surprise surprise - within that backpack. The AR ammunition does not seem to be particularly forthcoming, however.

~~Azlan~~

There don't seem to be any powercells around whatsoever, although Hayden does find one. Unfortunately, it turns out to be completely dry. On the other hand, Hayden also finds two magazines of 10mm ammunition. Every cloud has a silver lining... right?

~~Paladin~~

Paladin upturns two boxes in his search for the suit. Whilst neither provide it, the first dumps out a pair EMP grenades, and the second drops no less than two plasma power cells, one laser power cell, Hayden's Medical Applicator, and another tin of baked beans.

~~Aiyno~~

D`S manages to scav up another power cell for the plasma pistol.

~~Paladin~~

Still no sign of it. Although the thermal scans do turn up another two AR magazines, a laser power cell and a plasma power cell.

~~Azlan~~

A Med Applicator already dropped out of one of the crates Paladin upturned. Might be worth taking a look at.

"Shit" The sniper said with some feeling.  Handing the AR clips to Malakin, he turns to Hayden "This what you're look'n for?" Holding out the med applicator, powercells and comms headset,

Walking back to the bench he puts the bandanna on his head. Grabbing the rest of his gear bar the .50cal ammo he loads it into the pockets on the harness. Picking up the mags he thumbs the large bullets out and inspects them for damage or corrosion, satisfied he reloads them into the magazines. Putting one of the 10 round mags in his webbing he loads the other in to the SM2a3 with a satisfying clack.

Checking the weapon's safety is on he relaxes and waits for the others to finish.

*OOC I've put my equipment info in my character post in the OOC topic for quick reference*

Dus'Su continues searching eventough it seems pointless now.

Finally.

Jonathan begins assembling the components together, which shouldn't prove too difficult; after all, he had basically raped three weapons and a GPS unit to get everything he needs in one neat piece. Aligning the magnetic bottle systems, rewiring the outlets of the recharger, putting up a few cells in a neat row then wiring them together, connecting and assembling the whole system in one neat stock he had taken from an old rifle. The end result, is what would be a plasma rifle, capable of decent combat ranges, and cutting though (decently enough) armour and organics.

The key word, is would. Although it is made out of choice components, Jonathan is still worrying about the recharger. The maximum range of the rifle might be hampered by the jury-rigged overcharger. Still, it is better than having it fizzle at fifty meters as per pistol range, and it has better firepower than any of the kinetic rifles on hand.

"Thanks again.. Man, I owe you a dosen and we are not even out the door yet!"

Malakin turns back to his gear, starting to pack his bag.. Rifle in the elastic netting on the front, the two clips fit neatly into pockets on the left, half a box of flares into the large pocket on the right side..  then turning to the group he announces:
"Guys, got armour and flares here, 6 flare each and I dont mind helping anyone look for anything else they might need.."

And with that Malakin sits back down on the edge of a crate and waits, messing with his headset again..

((*still waiting on responses from Azlan and possibly Bill here, will continue tomorrow if there are none*))

"I'm good to go here."

"I was just looking for one of those applicators!  Thanks... uh... Paladin?"

Hayden curses at his luck with power cells, but pockets the 10mm ammo clips. 

"Does anyone have a recharger for this?"

~~Aiyno~~

Dus finds nothing of interest, apart from some dustbunnies.

~~Ink~~

Putting it together is easy enough and nothing goes wrong at that point.

~~All you Mooks~~

The Commander looks over the group and nods.

"Is everyone ready to go at last?"

OOC: (I take it we should update our profiles with the equipment we gained?)

Malakin looks up
"Yeah sure.."

"Sir!" Paladin states as an affirmative.

Dus'Su turns to the commander analyzing the question he simply replies with "Affirmative, Commander"

"See you." Jonathan waves at the crowd rummaging at the place, and promptly steps outside, heading towards the vault entrance. With him, he lugged the slightly massive plasma rifle he had just created. He wondered, is it really an entrance, or an exit;

--Entrance maybe to a hell-hole, exit to another.

Hayden smiled and scratched the back of his head, "sure thing chief." 

He hefted his assembled gear and began to exit the room, stopping in the hall to tap his foot impatiently as he waited for everyone else.

"Ah right, as in now.. ok! lets get moving!"

Zipping up his bag, malakin slings it over his shoulder and quickly follows..

The Commander chases off after the group as fast as he can with two mismatching legs, although this isn't as slow as you'd think.

~~

A short while later, the group are in front of the second last door door - the last door between them, the main access gate, and the outside world.

"One moment..." The Commander punches in the access code and the door opens, allowing access. Once he's gotten everyone through, he moves off to a sideroom and closes the first door.

There's a soft whine as the speakers activate.

"Alright gentlemen, ready to step outside? You might want to shield your eyes for this part, my calculations indicate that your eyes will have adapted to the light in here significantly, and looking directly into the light before your eyes can adjust could cause temporary or even permanent blindness, even for those of you with cybernetic replacements or enhancements."[/i]

Dus`Su's camara's made a soft clicking noise, preparing them for the different lighting amounts. Dus`Su's systems where preparing to function without drawing energy directly from its main battery. He raised his right arm pointing it's weapon at the main access gate.  It put its left hand beneath the guns barrel for increased accuracy. Data was streamed into Dus`Su's cybernetic brain, Additional info on the assaults rifles beheavor in battle and reliablity. Also the groups pictures where organised by class and age.

After darkening the headset's HUD, Pal works the charging handle on the SMa3, loading a round into the firing chamber. Positioning himself near the door Pal waits for it to open. "Guys once its open mind letting me scout around for a bit? We don't know if anyone's out there. I'll drop a waypoint on the hud if I find a safe spot."

"Wonderful," Parsons muttered. He shut his eyes, feeling like a complete idiot.

Jonathan just stood there and did nothing; like a pair of goggles, utterly dumbfounded by the Commander.

Optical implants, remember?

Hayden activated the polarization feature of his eyes and put away his glasses.  From a side pocket he pulled a pair of slim sunglasses and placed them on.  He looked at the robot for a brief moment and gave a sideways glance to Miller who looked as arrogant as he expected.  He gave a once over of Parsons, Paladin and Malakin and smiled expectantly, raising his hand up until it was parallel with the floor and snapped his finger at the door.

"Let's do this thing." 

Malakin whips out his cap and puts it on low over his eyes, then darkens the HUD like paladin..
He looks around the group grinning..

"Hell yeah, Ready to go!"

"Beginning Primary Opening Phase in... three - two... one... here we go."[/i]

A first layer of the doors starts to draw side, the massive, outdated-but-EMP-proofed assemblies slowly pulling the first stage out of the way. Several minutes later, there's a soft clunk as the doors fully retract.

"Stage One Complete, onto Stage Two."[/i]

This time, two door plates retreat into the ceiling and floor, and again, after a few minutes, they finish retracting, leaving one, final blast door in place, a massive, thick piece of metal, with interlocking teeth and bolts.

"Alright gentlemen, this is the big one."[/i]

The gears holding the bolts in place draw them back into the walls, and with a shake, dust falling from the inside of the door, the massive bulkhead starts to open, blinding light pouring through.

"Good luck out there, you six. You have a month to report back. There's a console on the outside near the gate you can use to get back in here if you need to."[/i]

Beyond, is the city. Or what's left of it. Nearly a decade has pretty much wrecked and ruined what wasn't destroyed in the shockwaves from the blasts, but a fair majority of anything below the city walls survived the effects - in terms of shockwave damage. A lot of things have rusted or fallen apart, and civilian hovercars and the odd protocol/servant robot lie scattered about, skeletal hulks of their former selves. Otherwise, the street is abandoned.

According to signposts and the HUD set, you should be in the south of the city, in the "South Commercial District", where one of the most (in)famous shopping centers of the entire city was. The nearest military facility is to the east, and there is a hospital to the north east, roughly speaking. The distance is unmarked, but it can't be too far, right?

"Ok guys gimmie 30 mins to make sure its clear." Shouldering the rifle Pal begins to move to what his HUD says is east, looking for any threats or survivors (Unlikely as that may be) as stealthy as he can. 5km out from the bunker he halts and sends a nav point to the others via the headset. He continues to scan the area from a position of cover.

Receiving the signal, Dus`Su started moving outside, His Camera's where underlit and their setting where changed. He looked around the dead city. He rose is hand and beckoned the rest to come. He walked towards Paladins last received position. His camera's where looking in different directions while you turned his head 45 degrees to either the left or right every 30 seconds. Systems confermation complete, Paladin's observation was correct.

Time for the fun, Parsons silently thought to himself. So many places to choose, and no appointed leader. Wonderful.

No-one; rather, nothing, alive for miles. I've been thinking too hard. Mutant sentient cockroaches don't rule the world, yet.

Jonathan massages his forehead with his index and thumb, then sighs. Without looking, he starts walking east. "One month, good time. There's probably some maps in the databanks of the nearest military installation; we can find the next bunker faster that way." He pauses to heft the particularly large plasma rifle he had assembled earlier, "With any luck, I won't have to use this thing. Not that I have any."

"Ha!"  Hayden declares, with perhaps too much enthusiasm, "this should be interesting to say the least."

Hayden walked straight out, his coat flowing in the wind.  Well, there wasn't a wind, but it was still flowing dramatically.  He's just wierd that way.

"The nearest military installation it is then.  Wonder if it would be worth it to investigate the hospital?"

"If there's anyone else out there, the hospital would be a fine place to look. Military installation might hold some evidence as well."

"hmm"
After his eyes become accustomed to the light, Malakin studies the landscape.. The place is wrecked, nothing like he remembers it, or even would have imagined it would look like.. But after the brief shock of the sight, the excitement quickly returns to him.
"Hah, this is so cool! Its like one of those movies, but with a much larger effects budget!"

After a short time exploring the local surroundings, Malakin notices a new waypoint on the HUD to the east, turns and runs off towards it..

MID-MORNING, DAY 1[/u]

~~Paladin~~
There's not much to see... whoa, hold up there. You can see movement. Atop one large, tall building, you catch a glimpse of some humanoid-ish (barely) figures. There's 3 of them, and they look like soldiers. They're too far away to call to, and there's something... unusual about them. They don't -look- friendly, and you can tell that from here. They haven't noticed you yet. It's obvious that they're looking for something from up there, but you can't tell what.

~~Everyone Else~~
You lot are either hanging around or making your way east, which is also towards the military base.

Bringing up the rifle Pal atempts to get a better look at the group with the scope. "Contacts..Three...Most likely hostile" Pal says into the boom mike on the headset, thinking about it he puts a new waypoint up where he can see the figures with a red tag.

Parsons keyed his radio. "Yeah, uh, need any help over there?" He loaded his only clip into his rifle.

Malakin skids to a stop, scattering dust into the air... He unmutes his microphone..

"Uhh, can you give a better SITREP than that? We don't want to make any enemys so soon.. If you keep an eye on them, we will regroup and come at them from another direction, try to talk to them, however if anything goes wrong we will be able to catch them in a crossfire.. Hayden probably should be the one to talk to them... What do you guys think?"

Jonathan surveys the area with brief glances, scanning only for working mechanical parts, barring those that have been obviously crushed beneath debris. He had remembered to visit the police station, which was as portrayed earlier, in the general path; to the east. As he had recalled, all police droids were to be offlined, disarmed and dismantled. Fortunately, the latter never happened for most droids as the government turned it's attention to evacuation -- the exchange of nuclear arsenals came sooner than they thought. There might also be remnants of weaponry there. Stun weapons, yes, but perhaps easily modified.

This is far enough from the bunker.

He brings out his rubix cube, and promptly clicks a few moves into place, with one block in the upper-middle of every face a different color. The familiar snowflake flickers again; and his holographic data assistant, a feline woman with white hair and fur, white eyes and a white dress, snowflakes--military grade ICE programs in the form of shimmering snowflakes whirling about her feet. She is every cryptographer's nightmare.

"Frost," he addresses her. "I need a high definition telemetry scan of the city, try to patch into every commercial and military SATCOM* that hasn't been blown up during the war and go from there. If you can't get a good image from the radiation, try to match different scans and create a better image."

Screw the bunker's satlink.

Jonathan suddenly takes notice of the ongoing commotion for one brief second, then loses interest.

((*Satellite Command))

Hayden heard chatter over the comlink and took it out of his pocket and put it to his ear, "sitrep... what is that?  Situation Report maybe?  What is going on... Hayden should do what now???!!!"

The canine-like creature's ears drooped, Great... either they value my personal skills, or I'm seen as the only expendible asset.  Yup, it's got to be the second one... after all who would take someone who looks like... 16 seriously.

Hayden watched Miller and noted the faces pushed, uploaded and filed.  The data-assistant was a nice touch.  "Oh!  look at all that Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics... very pretty, not bad for an external device."

Hayden began approaching Paladin's location, somewhat faster then the others.  He switched to telescopic and focused on the building top, trying to get a better look at these 'soldiers'.  He mumbled to himself,  "I hope they are armed with low velocity and mass matter projectile weaponry."

Malakin watches Hayden run off ahead and follows..

"Out of the two particularly smart people here, you are both less threatening and no where near as annoying.. Also it allows the people with more experience shooting stuff to get into better positions.. Just make sure you have something to jump behind if the **** hits the fan..

Of course we could allways just avoid them, but we will have to interact with other people out here at somepoint.."

After standing still and looking around a bit more, Dus`Su started moving again quickly catching up with the party. Systems analysis: Fully operational energy 170%, Terrain type: Gravel, dust, stone, asphalt. Current situation: Low ground. Once He reached Paladin He looked up himself. Zooming in to about 16× He had no need to count their nosehairs. Confirmation complete: 65% chance of Hostility Dus`Su stepped backwards with intent to find a better location which to observe the Pre-Hostiles with. "Observation: Need to acquire higher ground." One of his camera's was already searching the area to find almost actual or higher buildings.Display: Best observation location within small radiusHis build in climbing gear was becoming to become more usefull now.

~~Paladin~~
It's hard to get much clearer on them, but they appear to be wearing some -heavy- armour. At least two are toting some fairly hefty looking weapons, too. The third is smaller, lighter, and probably the leader, or an engineer/scientist.

~~Ink~~
What can be accessed is pretty poor, and without the heavy array of the Bunker's Sat-Link to recieve as much data as possible, the task is rather futile.

~~Aiyno~~
When the 16x zoom goes on, it becomes apparent that they aren't even alive. They seem to be factory-built, repainted (in black, with orange markings here and there) and customised `mechs. One of the two main units has an HMG underslung, rightforearm, whilst the other has a "Support"-class Heavy Laser under it's left arm. It's obvious that one is for anti-infantry whilst the other is anti-vehicle, but split up, the latter is helpless.

~~

Which is a fine time for them to spot you. Not like they could fail to notice all that movement down there. The 'leader' moves to the edge of the building and calls the other two over. They appear to be discussing what to do at the moment, but hanging around may not be wise. They are not engaging actively in hostilities, so plan carefully. Potential allies, but also potential enemies.

Parsons hit his radio again.
"Shepard, what are you folks seeing down there? Because, if it's anything beyond your firepower, I suggest you pull back, and fast."

He started walking toward them to get a better view with his scope.

"Multiable Units identified as droid mechs seem to be factory-built, repainted. One of the two main units has an HMG underslung, rightforearm, whilst the other has a "Support"-class Heavy Laser under it's left arm. "  Hostility factor rising adjucted

"Warning, units have detected our presence! Suggesting: Retreat."

Dus`Su stood there staring at the 3 talking droid mechs. Analyzing them. If thier not in for war they will likely not attack us out of fear. We aren't a threat to them. He layed his gun onto the ground. He rose his hand and waved. "We operate in peace!!!"

Parsons set his radio to "all scan", to see if anyone else happens to be broadcasting. Long shot, given the number of frequencies, but worth a try.

Malakin walks up next to Dus`Su, and waits to see what happens..

Hayden switched from telescopic back to normal, it was then he noticed the crowd standing and staring up at the unknown trio on top of a large, tall building. 

He looked way up at them, looked at Dus`Su, looked up at them again and looked back to Dus'Su.  He exaggerated his arm movements and spoke slowly, "T...a...l...l... b...u...i...l...d...i...n...g.  V...o...i...c...e... n...o...t... c...a...r...r...y... a...l...l...t...h...e... w...a...y... t...h...e...r...e..." (tall building voice not carry all the way there.)

"Can you all stop standing around like targets?  Let's not try yelling either... I'd rather not draw everything here."

Hayden stood behind whatever cover he could find. 

Dus`su Ignored haydens comment and just turned his speakers volume up to maximum. Knowing that the droids would likely have a good microphone.  He used an high frequency that was above organic hearing and started sending an SOS signal while waving a white piece of cloth. if these guys decide to shoot us We will be illuminated the height of the building should give them the ability to shoot us from miles away without cover depending how accurate their weapons and zoom functions are. All hostile actions most be avoided at all cost. Likely including attempting to flee. As thier systems could indicate that where enemies then.

Hoping the cover he was in hid him, Pal silently cursed. Goddamn Civies, that android is gonna get us killed if he keeps that up.

Toggling up the zoom on  the scope to its max x20, Pal kept the rifle on the three and looked for any weakpoints should they open fire. "Guys I don't think they've spotted me here, if the turn hostile I'll cover you but unless I get lucky I think I can only put the little one down from here."

Malakin moves behind cover. Then, out of sight, takes the assult rifle from his backpack and loads it..

"I have had a change of heart, lets get out of here.."

Two problems. Great.

Jonathan starts to seriously entertain the ongoing drama, or at least, tries to. "Frost, offline and reset."

The rubix cube flashes the snowflake, stops emitting the hologram and snaps several moves by itself; back to the ordered color faces. He picks it up and tucks it away, then hefts and holds the plasma rifle. Walking away from the building from where the potential aggressors were found, he attempts to get a running start; heading for cover, but he maintains only brisk walking-- as he thought to himself. Only run when they start gunning down the ablative distractions who were standing around back there. Not too far, as to not hear the others, not too close either.

Cynical, perhaps, but it would save me from one of two scenarios. Which would be that since this is a post-apocalyptic world and resources are scare, it is likely that they would murder us for the supplies we are carrying; worse, eat us after they're done with the rations. Heck, they'd probably eat the droid too.

Bill can't see anything more than Paladin can, I'll put it that way.

The droids don't notice Dus, as they're too busy talking. The leader is making some fairly expressive arm gestures, unusual for a robot.

Finally, whilst the `mechs aren't -talking-, they are broadcasting locally to each other... Bill catches a snippet of conversation, but it seems to be roving bands like crazy. He hears three voices, two deep[/b], and one lighter and more agitated. It's not hard to tell which voices belong to which `mechs.

"...are they real?"
"Of course they're real!"
"It's possible. I don't think they'd attack us."
"It's unlikely that they would, with you two around."
"True."

They don't even notice Malakin moving up beside Dus. However, the SOS gets their attention, and a rather irritated shout - one which echoes a bit - from the smaller one.

"TURN THAT BLOODY RACKET OFF! YOU'RE JAMMING MY COMMAND RELAY YOU INCONSIDERATE SON OF A SLAGMEK!"
(That might not sound rude, but if you knew what a slagmek was, you would be highly offended. You would. Really.)

Seconds later, a shot from the heavy laser singes a hole through the white fabric.

~~Pal~~

Through the scope, you can see that the smaller `mech definitely has less armour, and would probably be taken down by a headshot, if that's where it's 'brain' is kept.

~~

As for the rest of you, you're safely behind cover. For now, at least.

Even a decade later, the sound of gunfire was unmistakable. Crap.

Parsons punched his preset, praying that nobody had gotten trigger happy.

"Folks, do not open fire, but keep weapons ready. Repeat, do not open fire."

He paused hoping that they had heard; the lack of response was unnerving. He hit the preset again.

"Anyone have any way of finding out a specific frequency that those guys are talking on, now would be the time to do it. I'd like to have a bit of a chat."
He dropped to the ground and waited.

A barley audible "eek" is picked up over the headsets as malakin witnesses the cloth have laser acupuncture preformed upon it.. He quickly shuffles backwards further into cover..

Dus'Su turns of the Signal and stuffs the white blanket away. Impatients AI's tragic. "Stay put guys! That was just a warning shot if they wanted to hit me they would have hit me without a problem." Dus'Su slowly turned around and walked over to cover. They now should know that we act in peace, He glances at his assault rifle but doesn't pick it up. He kicks it to the closest shelter instead

Right, no return fire.  Never planned on it... even if they were intent on a serious attack, that's what all of you are here for... I'm just carrying these things for show, I never seriously planned on using it.  Hayden thought to himself as he stared at the gun.

An ear rotated back as he caught the yell from above, not to clear but he understood most of it, "interesting reaction to the sonics, that is something definitely noteworthy.  Worth remembering in case things turn significantly hostile."

Hayden kept to cover and began moving off towards their original intended direction, albeit slowly.

Jonathan moved little, and spoke even less; still he needed to reach the military bunker. Hostile or not, they're just speedbumps that would likely need supplies the group can't spare. He started walking again, east, carefully weaving in and out of cover this time. Rubix cube in his hands and rifle slung away on his shoulder.

Parsons, rather irked, moved toward Dus'Su and Malakin's position carefully. He kept his gun in plain sight, in the sleeve over his shoulder.

Slowly, as not to attract attention Paladin moves out from his cover, still keeping the rifle pointed at the three he moves further east hoping they continue to ignore him.

To the theme of "Brave Brave Sir Robin Bravely Ran Away..."

Hayden, Miller and Sheppard slowly make their way onwards, unnoticed.

~~

The three go back to conferring, the smaller one keeping an eye on Dus and Bill. They don't know that Malakin is there yet.

"That `mech seems to be malfunctioning."
"It's showing extreme personality development, though I suppose that has to be expected in this environment."
"My records indicate it's a Du6.1, Scout Unit v8."
"I forgot you still have the MilDB in your head. Remind me to take a copy sometime."
"Take a copy sometime."
"My, aren't we the witty one today?"

Seeing Shepard with his gun pointed toward the three figures in the distance, Parsons muttered "Rule 1: Never point a firearm at anyone or anything you don't want to shoot. I see that bunker security teaches well." Parsons walked out, gun tucked away, toward Shepard, hoping to get him before something bad happened.

"Hey Parsons!" Malakin whispers after him, "What are you doing?! Your going to get shot or something.."

Malakin calms himself down and slings his backpack over his shoulder again..
Too late.. Thats it, I'm out of here!
Then with his teammates blips on the HUD moving off to the east, Malakin moves east as well.
With ears flat and tail low he makes his way behind buildings and cover so as not to be seen..

Dus'Su sat there looking around the peice of debree he was using for cover. Droid scan complete.... Loading android index... Input accepted... While loading this index Dus'Su looked aorund for a possible escape route.

The three `mechs are too busy arguing, and take their attention away from the merry band of survivors. Bill and Malakin make it away, but Dus might want to move quickly now..

~~

Up ahead for the rest of you, you have a clear view down a long street - looks like it used to be a large main road, a shopping center even - with the looming gates of the military base several hundred meters away.

Dus'Su follows the rest noticing the Mechs arwe to busy to even notice them leaving. Info recieved, Can be aquared at any given point Dus'Su walk at a inhuman speed to catch up with the crew. Info, Un-needed, preserve for later incounters Dus'Su didn't acces teh data, As the mechs where just to busy to pose a real threat at the moment. bad programming, Direct connect would have been beter.

Shopping center. Nice.

Jonathan glanced over the place and brought his fingertips together. Excellent. Probably has a hardware store the geek and I can loot for tools. Granted, all I might find would be SUPERTOOLKIT 5000!, but it's better than nothing. Speaking of whom, where is he? -- He turns around and squints, trying to find the scrawny bugger. "Hayden! Where are you? Can you try and help me find the hardware store?"

Hmm. Doubt there's anything useful in a place like this.

Parsons looked around for one of those high class gadget stores that had those awsomely insane massaging chairs. He seemed to remember that they also stocked binoculars, even night vision ones. Civillian grade, but better than nothing.

A few moments after Jonathan called out to him, the striped marsupial popped up from behind the rubble at the feline doctor's back with an impish expression, "look for the sign that says HARDWARE."  He snickered quietly to himself and jumped over the rubbish, landing at Jonathan's left.

Briefly taking off his sunglasses, he zoomed in on the small mall map located near one of the entrances.  Damaged, but reasonably readable, Hayden locates a Hardware store or reasonable facsimile.

"Come come Johnny, follow me!"

Hayden trotts off towards the entrance area, tossing a rock pillar, that was blocking his egress, to the side.

Malakin slowes from a fast jog to a walk as he reaches the street.. looks up and down at all the ruined buildings and stuff, "what a load of junk.." Then peers at the military gates up ahead, messing with the headset trying to find a zoom function.. "Now this looks intresting.."

"I will catch up with you guys in a few minutes, be right back.. Just going to have a look at the big gates further down.."

Malakin makes his way down to the gates carfully, watching out for any other people that might be about..

"I'll come with Malkin" Paladin follows Malkin after slinging the rilfe over his shoulder, as the .50cal snipers tool was getting too heavy to treat it like a smaller assault rifle. Drawing the Guardian, he keeps pace with Malkin watching posible points for ambushes.

Johnny, pfeh.

With that familiar sneer and pout, Jonathan follows the rambunctious little bugger, as he currently describes Hayden in his mind.

Bill finds a store, the worn sign over the window reading "Civil Appliances". The front window is intact, and the front door is unlocked. It might be worth investigating.

Hayden is no superman, so it's more a case of giving the pillar a rather firm shove until it actually budges and falls aside. Still, the two eventually find a Hardware Store. The sign reads "Engineering Appliances".

Malakin and Sheppard head on toward the not-so-pearly gates.

Parsons opened the door. There wasn't likely to be a light switch, so he poked his flashlight into the store, and began his search for anything useful.

(ooc: oops, I meant to say sheet-rock pillar, typical common, cheap window dressing style junk found in malls all over Southern California.  Typically a large cardboard tube with the stuff plastered an moulded on the outside to resemble corinthian pillars or something similar.)

Hayden manages to get the not so light pillar out of the way and pushes his way into the store, turning on a flashlight as opposed to utilizing his full night optics.  The thylacine peered into the store with great curiousity, his tail wagging in a very canine type manner.

"Maybe I can find enough materials to build a sonic screwdriver!"

Jonathan trips on the pillar as he passes by, muttering some nasty expletives as he gets back up and enters the store.

He quickly dismisses whatever Hayden said without listening, gesturing him away without looking."You go do that." Geek. Then, after rudely bumping the thylacine as he went his way, looks around the shelves for some tools, preferably one in a better toolkit than what the bunker had. Shopping was never one of his strong suits, but as it seems, it's beginning to be a necessity.

Hayden accidentally wacks Jonathan with his tail as he gets bumped, quite a hard and solid thwack for such an appendage.

"Hey careful, there's lots of rubble and sharp pointy things sticking up out of the ground."

He dismissed the action as a mere accident and began searching the shelves and rubble for tools, tool kits or anything remotely useful in repair.  Perhaps he might find useful powercells, flares or other potentially useful items.

~~Parsons~~

For the most part, it's a standard electrical store. Solar panels, flashlights, wiring, electronic locks, and several secure-looking containers, probably for personal belongings.

~~Hayden/Miller~~

Unfortunately, there's no signs of any sonic screwdrivers. Or parts for one. Oh well!

Still, tools abound. Lots and lots of power-tools. More than one can shake a limb of choice at, in fact.

Anything in particular that takes your fancy?

~~Sheppard/Malakin~~

Those gates are still quite a way away.

Unable to locate parts for sonic screwdrivers (:P), he instead looks for parts for an omnitool.

He will climb ladders or shelves to reach top shelf product storage if necessary to locate the following:

Electronics/computer toolkit
Locksmith toolkit
Arc Welding torches/welding lasers/fusion torches

The store seemed rather dissapointing, though Parsons immediately thought of possible ways to get the Massag-o-Max 5000 leather chair back to the bunker. He checked to see if the worker's lockers opened or not.

The store is a disappointment, but then to Jonathan, what isn't?

The power tools would likely be fried, so that leaves the toolkits-- bah. I don't have time for this. Jonathan throws his arms up in the air, and just plucks a random toolkit from a shelf. All these delays are getting on my nerves. Screw it, then. He promptly leaves, taking care that he doesn't trip on the pillar again.

((Blech, excuse the late update. I'm a lazy bum I know.))

~~Hayden/Azzie~~

Most electronical/computering kits use some fairly nifty gadgets. Unfortunately, the EMP hit most of them, making most of the tools in them useless, apart from the very basics. Locksmithing kits are just as bad, although one or two older kits can be found, they look fairly archaic compared to what you'd be used to...

No torches, lasers or welding gear either. Shame. ;)

~~Parsons/Bill~~

The lockers are all electronically controlled, and the EMP has locked them shut. After several years of decay, however, the hinges seem pretty rusty on some of them...

~~Miller/Ink~~

One toolkit, and then you're off outside again... the others can be seen in the distance, Hayden can be heard behind you, and Bill is nowhere to be seen.

~~The rest of the merry men~~

You proceed onwards towards the gates. They're not too far away now. Or are they? It's hard to tell.

*Note: Now using character's surname, like everyone else. Sorry.*

"Hmm. Hinges don't look too good." Federal lined up his shot, and took a stab at one of them with his right foot construction boot.

Hayden grabbed an archaic locksmith kit, one of the same type of kits Miller grabbed and picked out the non-electronic tools from the assembled high-tech computer and locksmith kits.  He stuffed all that wonderous junk in the best remaining synthetic carrying case he could find and slipped it in his pack.

Exiting stage left, Hayden jogged to catch up with Jonathan and managed to trip on the edge of the pillar and bump into him.

"You might want to watch where I am going..."  Hayden scanned the surrounding area and scratched his head, "Where did Parsons get off to?  What a bother..."

Urge to traitorously murder an ally early in the journey, rising--

Jonathan reviewed his situation. His life sucked. His job sucked. His pay sucked. He got stuck in a bunker for nine years with nothing to do but play a rubix cube or draw out weapons designs that might never see the light of day. Tossed into a group of idiots and morons in a desperate attempt to recreate civilization out of scrap metal and caveman tools. Harassed by the collective ignorance and the seemingly circumstancial incidents that had currently occured to him.

He comforted himself with one thought, and one mantra.

I fail at life, therefore I am.

"Please be so kind as to remove the conglomerate of wasted proteins you refer to as a body from my poor aching spine."

Paladin turned at the sound of Hayden falling over Jonathan, cursing then laughing he reached over to Malkin and taped him on the shoulder, pointing back at the two brains stumbling over each other.

Reaching the end of the mall he took up an new position of cover waiting for the group to reform. Holstering the pistiol he brought his rifle back up to his shoulder. Using the scope with its more detailed display and scaners he looked at the base's gates and walls as well as path to it. "Reform here ya recon Malkin?"

OOC: you mean reform not refom, and reckon not recon right ? sorry just that last question was a tad confusing :P

Walking in silence thinking to himself Malakin jumps at the tap on his sholder.. He turns to see what the fuss is about and chuckles at the sight, cuping his hands around his mouth as if to shout somthing, malakin catches him self and decides against it.

At the end of the mall malakin stops with Paladin, and nods in answer to the question..
"Got to wait for them at some point.. Can ya see anything intresting?"

"Actually the composition of our bodies includes carbohydrates, lipids and many other complex chemical substances.  The elemental composition is extraordinarily interesting however, oxygen    43 kg, carbon 16 kg, hydrogen 7 kg, nitrogen 1.8 kg, calcium 1.0 kg, phosphorus 780 g, potassium 140 g..."  Hayden continues to drone on and on listing off the various chemical elements estimating a good deal of their average mass and missing a few as no one could remember the entire list.  <skipping ahead quite a bit>, "...uranium 0.1 mg, samarium 50 µg, beryllium 36 µg and  tungsten 20 µg.  I think that's the full complement.  My composition is radically different what with all the tungsten lacing.  I think I probably missed a few from the average list though."

He does eventually move off of Miller though.

"You might want to have that spine replaced at some point..."

The "HUD" units of the comm sets flashes up the current time, apparently randomly.


~~Feddy Boy/Bill~~
With a satisfyingly loud crunch, the hinges crack and the door of the chosen locker breaks loose, denting quite badly. Seems the rust really had time to set in, too, any rustier and your foot might have gone straight through it! The door is, however, still standing. Moving it might be a good idea?

~~The Inseperable Pair~~
Science-Comedy act, much? Now what?

~~Everyone Else~~
You do have comm sets, you know. ( :rolleyes )

But otherwise you're just waiting for the others. Figures.

Not a word, Jonathan. Not a single word. The curmudgeon tries desperately to stay calm as he gets up again to walk towards the military base. This time, he tells himself, no more stops; convincing himself that the recent trend of encounters is just because he allows time for stupidity to set in-- Jonathan tries to find a stick, along the way, mayble some sort of cane preferably hard enough to beat sense into a person.

Sliping the Hud back over his eyes Paladin drops a waypoint labled 'Rally Point' at his feet.


"Any time you guys are finished shopping...."


He goes back to scanning the area with the rifle.

Hayden followed behind Jonathan as he walked towards the military base, he put on the Comm headset and examined the HUD, there was now a waypoint up ahead. "Parsons Federal, what are you doing... there can't be anything all that interesting in this old mall...?"

Federal keyed his radio.

"Well, Mr. Hayden, I'd be glad to do so if I could get this damn locker open. Be there in a moment".



Federal attempted to pull the loose door off the locker.

Malakin attempts to use the camera function on the headset to see what Parsons is messing with..
"Hey parsons, lets have a look at what you have found!"

~~Miller/Ink~~
There's not much around that would suffice, unfortunately. You head on towards the nav.

~~Paladin~~
Not much to see except ruins.

~~Bill~~
The door comes off easily as it no longer has any hinges, and the lock already expired from rusting, being a small and complex system. Most of what is in the locker appears to be tools, and a change of work clothing, with no nametag. A small picture stuck to the inside of the door shows the locker's owner, presumably.

~~Malakin~~
The cam function is finicky, but you manage to get it running after a minute or two of fiddling. You don't see anything though, because Bill doesn't have his headset camera running.

(( :mowninja *bump*))

((I'm waiting for you people y'know.))

Hayden continues to follow Jonathan.

"What could you possibly find in there?  Anything of real value would most definitely have been rendered useless by EMP.  Any non-electronic tools and equipment, we already have in sufficient quantity.  Now if you consider the effects of time, radiation and weathering, most objects out here will likely be unuseable, this includes long term storage foods and most utility chemical compounds.  Water should be easy to find, but should be tested..." Hayden continues to clutter the airwaves with more chatter.

Paladin sips from his hydropack while he waits for the others to catch up.

God please let him SHUT UP. He tries beaming his thoughts at Hayden.

A rather dissapointed Federal left the shop, and started walking toward that oddly shaped Paladian-shaped dot near the gate.

"Meh, can't have been anything good.." Malakin lifts his headset from his eyes and slouches down against a wall waiting for Federal in silence..

After a short while, everybody meets up at the waypoint and it automatically dispenses of itself, disappearing with little warning. It's only a short way (relatively speaking) to the base now.

Slinging the SM2a3 over his shoulder and unholstering the Guardian, Pal creeps towards the gates scaning the flanks and keeping one eye on the others movement.