Wastelands ~ The Game's afoot

Post Reply New Topic

((Don't worry, that's the last time I will get the 'jump' on your character...))

((It's a shame it's slowing down. I'll still be on it though. Just a bit less. But I as of right now have been able to be on in the evenings.))

((I think we really could have used a larger turnout. ))

((It seems that people like to spectate more than participate. But we shouldn't let this end a good RP now should we?))

Virgil woke up with a massive headache, he had the weirdest nightmare. Sydeny had come back from the dead and stolen his gun. Along with some weird speech about death being good therapy. Picking himself up he rubbed the dust off his camo and checked his holster - the gun was gone. Those stupid cultists probably stole it from him while he was knocked out. "Virgie, that really was Sydney!"

"Shut up Cam! I don't need dead people who feed me crap like that!"

Grumbling Virgil retreated back into the bunker again and went to Sydney's lab. Taking about an hour to break all his security he had all the files copied to his own lab and formatted the drive. Going down into his own lab on sublevel six he archived Sydney's old files and tried to see what he could use in his own projects.

Combining the DEWs power control devices and his knowledge of railguns he managed to finish his blueprints on Project Gauss. This was his pet project in the bunker - an attempt to make railguns that could act as shotguns and rifles.

All of his previous prototypes had been racked with problems that would've killed the user. They would either explode or shock the user on firing. But with these DEW modifications he could make the weapon safe for the user and ultra deadly for the victim.

Once the plans for the Gauss shotgun, Gauss Assault Rifle and Gauss Sniper were redrawn he printed them out and got right to work. Using parts from other weapons and equiqment he had the shotgun operational in about five hours. It fired a shell filled with tiny needles that would easily kill a dozen people in a few feet of him. It looked similar to a regular shotgun - it was shaped like a tradional shoulder fired stock shotgun. The major differences were the power cable running to a small box on his hip and the presence of "fins" (Powerful Elctromagnets) on the sides of the barrel.

Giggling like a japanese school girl he brewed up a batch of shells - each filled with hundreds of titanium needles and bolted to the surface to try his new toy.

Going outside again he spotted another mutated bear, Perfect Virgil thought to himself.

Loading it with six shells he plugged it into the battery pack and waited for the light to turn green (which took about three seconds) with that the "fins" along the barrel started to vibrate and align themselves when that was done about two seconds later he pulled the trigger.

The shotgun made an omnious scream like noise as it fired - the needles flying everywhere. The look on the bears face was of sheer terror (or he thought that was the face, never can tell with the mutants) within a pictosecond the bear looked more like quilled beast and it bled from every each of it's body as it collapsed into a pile of bits.

Virgil roared like Rambo and jumped for joy "f**k YEAH! I HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH A SHOTGUN FROM HELL! HAHAHAHA!" and kissed it. "Now I wanna see those cultists come, I'll make them look like fracking pincushions!"

Retreating back to his lab he began feverish work on the Assault Rifle and Sniper rifle, giggling the whole time.

((This is the last time I shall post tonight. G'night everyone))

Ha, take that splicers! Adam thought to himself while playing Bioshock 3, Dumb splicers, they're easily fooled by my traps... At that time the Xbox 540 turned off on its own. Damn it!, he thought to himself.Well, I should be getting off it anyway. He left the room and went to see what everyone else was up to. He couldn't find Saldana anywhere, probably thinking about what our next move should be, and Nidia was somewhere else in the bunker. He saw Virgil working in his lab and so decided to go in.

"So what creation are we working on this time Virgil?" Alan saw the blueprints. "Ahh, railguns! Very interesting and powerful weapon. This could help us greatly when we leave the bunker."

"And they are damn fun! Turns a mutant bear into a porcupine mighty quickly." Putting the modified barrel on the assault rifle he wasn't quite pleased with alignment of the electomagnets and pulled it off and went back to work on it.

Sydney watched Virgil use the strange gun. He had woken, refreshed, and had heard some noise outside, he looked outside just in time to see a bear perforated by a railgun's bastard offsrping with a shotgun. Using his own DEW's technology.

Crap. He thought to himself. I better not go near Virgil while he has one of those things. He touched the magnum pistol in his pocket. He'd forgotten he had actually taken it after all that excitement....

((I was certain that I chucked the magnum over the edge of the warehouse roof, but I must've forgotten to write that in.))

Virgil contiuned working for hours but the end results were worth it. The assault rifle was only semi auto but it was powerful and long ranged. The sniper rifle had an onboard computer that would perfectly compensate for wind and tempature, not mention a scope that would let you put a round several miles down range in pitch black and had the option to switch to thermal sights.

The main problem with weapons lie with the ammo, it would take significant amounts of time to make the unique rounds used by each of the three weapons. He settled on ten shotgun shells with needles and two with U-238 slugs. Five 20 round clips 2mm FMJ rounds for the assault rifle and three clips of 10 5mm AP needles for the sniper rifle.

Each one would run on the hip battery and the hip battery could enough juice for 200 shots with either the shotgun or assault rifle. Only 120 with the sniper rifle (the onboard computer was an energy hog)

When he was done with those he put them up and locked them in a case that required his DNA signature and a passcode. Deciding to carry the hip battery just in case someone did somehow get in that case. Shutting Down his lab he made sure his keycard alone could open it.

Cameron was back again and looked hurt and dejected. Now she was in a black dress that made her look like she was going to a funeral.

Virgil stopped by the armory and picked up another Smith and Wesson Model 500, H type this time. It had a massive barrel that made him feel like Dirty Harry and it was comforting in his hand. Sliding it in his holster he went off to try figure out how to introduce the people of wastes to the bunker.

As Virgil walked, Nidia stepped across his path. "Good timing," she explained with a half-shrug. She looked him over, thoughtfully, for an eternally long fraction of a second. With her typical veiled expression she then cut to the chase.

"You know you've got my loyalty and you know why. I want you to upgrade my access." She raised her keycard, pinched between the tips of her index and middle fingers. "Obviously you don't have to give me what I want, but I don't like my restrictions and I think it would be mutually beneficial, if I were... more content. And in the loop."

Her intrusive gaze studied him still. "Secondly," she strode on, "the Colonel was telling me about the sickness, and about the creature that attacked right outside here. Here's what I think." Her voice intensified and lowered. "Virgil, I've been out there. I've seen it. And I think there's nothing, nothing out there that's quite so dangerous as the people. Not any sort of mutant or monster. There's only one kind of law out there right now, as far as I can tell, and it's too wrapped up in fear to see straight. I've seen the effects of it before, a long time ago. I've seen how the terror of the Blue Hand changed the face of a country. I've seen the aftershocks of the Sandinistas and the Somocistas." She had leaned against the wall and was pulling intermittently at the skin of her decidedly pointy chin. This gesture betrayed the nervousness she refused to show with her expression.

"Most of all--though I love my homeland--I saw it there, in El Salvador." Her steady voice had been lent a measure of ferocity. "Years later the land was still enduring the effects of a government that crushed every man who got in its way, and the Nationalist Republican Alliance's death squads. You read about these things in the papers. I've seen it with my own eyes. And I'm almost certain it's happening right here, right now, in whatever's left of this country we're standing in. Human nature doesn't change. Things are out of control out there, and it seems that there are too many people who think that the answer to a lawless land is to control others by making them afraid. Or dead."

"I've considered that they might be right, but..." She paused and looked away. "I don't think so. I don't know what sort of plan you have, or if you've got one yet, but I'm betting you'd make a better one than I would. I know what I'm willing to do, and I know what I'd rather die than do, but I don't know how to make it all come together. I want you to tell me what's up. I'm also quite frankly betting my ass you're not the type to give in to the likes of what's out there."

She straightened and crossed her arms casually. "'cause if you are that type, you know, I'll probably have to try to kill you in your sleep." The power disparity between the two--and the fact that Virgil, in spite of his short stature, still towered over her--were the only hints that the last comment had been made in jest. Her face had returned to a state of stony unreadability.

Virgil rolled over Nida's words. "I know what your saying, I was watching the warehouse earlier and saw a tank drive across the horizon. And worse I could make out two sides firing artillery at each other. We have at least two large warring nations out there." Virgil took on a form he rarely did as he thought - humanitarian. "And an encounter with a military patrol from one of the sides was disturbing. The man was warm and friendly. Would you be nice to a random man with a gun if you thought he was a threat? To me it reeks of dicatorship and control through fear."

Virgil thought a bit more as they walked and choose his words carefully "We don't have the weapons to fight those two directly but we can try and open our bunker doors to survivors and start a trading post and sort of missonary at first, I'd rather try to take down those two through the use of money and diplomacy."

"Well, unless your hiding a PMC somewhere near here. Which I kinda doubt." He pulled out his smokes and lit up, his face was older and wiser looking then usual. "And I see your point about the card to, I'll upgrade your access to gold. You'll have access to the armory, freezers, storage, workshops and medlab supplies. Also, I'm cleaning out Sydney's lab and if you think you can find a use for it it's all yours."

Smiling at Nida he added "Thanks for the talk, I needed it I think."

"Yeah..." Nidia did not smile outright, though her face and voice softened.

"Money and diplomacy," she repeated. "Any other way, and we'd be stooping to the same level. I wonder if it's possible to avoid that, like you say. They might easily blow us off the map before we ever get that far. But I know you're right about our numbers. There are risks to it, but we need more people here. If we can all manage to stand for the same thing."

She fell to studying his face again, in silence, as if another look would make him tamer and more understandable. More predictable. The clean, dependable surroundings of the bunker had done her no small amount of good, even in spite of the upset Sydney had caused. Still, the only feeling she experienced reliably anymore, since the bombs dropped, was a deep longing for something or someone to make sense. It couldn't be Virgil, of course.... he talked to things that weren't there. But she'd never liked leaning on herself and he'd simply have to do.

"Right then. Fix my key. I'll come, too. Then I'm going to bed."

Sydney woke with a start to find a flashlight in his face.

"Who're you?" barked a gasmasked figure. There were three of them. Each holding a rifle.

"Me? Are you talking about who I am now, or was?"

"Do not bandy words with me! Identify!"

"Hmm. Very well. Call me.....Vagus." ((pronounced like 'vegas'))

"Vegas? You mean like the casino city?"

"No, you dense sod, I mean V-A-G-U-S. It's Latin."

Another, with a medkit on his back, spoke up. "It's the name of a nerve, Captain. It means 'wanderer', it's where the word vagrant comes from."

Sydney (as he still thought of himself) asked "What's your outfit. You that United Church of the Apocalypse?"

Anger. "No! We're the Citizen's Army for Post-Apocalyptic Reconstruction."

The third soldier, no more than a teenager by the sound of his voice, piped up. "The UCA is our enemy."

The first soldier looked at Sydney. "Well, Mr Vay-gus, you are lucky you found us. Where do you come from?"

"Nowhere." Sydney had to protect the bunker. As much as he loathed those inside, getting them drawn into this fight would be bad.

"We detected machinery and movement down here. Are you lying?"

"I met another group of survivors who were stranded. I sent them on their way."

"Where?"

"Who knows? I didn't ask them."

The third one snarled. "Damn, we needed the manpower!"

"What're you talking about?"

The first one replied, "We need all able hands in conscription. Combat, labour...."

Sydney saw the truth behind those words. "Ahhhh, slaves you mean...."

"Those people you let away could have better lives. We would give them food and water."

"Like you did to those poor people in that car?"

"They were mutants. They carried the disease, warping humanity...."

"Forging humanity. Reshaping is a better word. But blame the blacksmith before you blame the tools."

The second one, the medic, was incredulous. "What're you talking about?"

"The disease, it affects the immune system primarily. But it is also an extremely psychosomatic. In other words, the mind and will of the infected is what influences it. It is triggered by low blood oxygen levels, but requires direct injection into the blood stream. When someone dies or slips into a coma, the cells multiply, reviving the victim. The process is painful. Animals react, instinctively, thinking they need new eyes, new mouths, new organs in general. Not truly consciously, but there you go. People who are infected, however, can be mutated, but if they know the secret behind the disease, and if they're strong enough, they can actually influence the disease's progression. Like I have."

The third soldier raised his rifle. "Goddamn freak!"

Sydney smiled. "I will stop what has consumed the Earth. War is a hangover from when we were apes, screaming at strangers, a remnant of our genetic xenophobia. Conflict is inevitable, but war is not."

The first soldier snapped. "That's enough. We have orders to shoot mutants on sight."

"Even those that are still walking and talking?"

"Humanity must remain free from filth."

"You're standing in it yourself." observed Sydney, who just let himself move, grabbing the rifle's barrel and slamming the stock into the first one's gasmask. The second and third raised their own rifles, but Sydney merely slapped at a specific point on each rifle. The cartridges fell out. The two looked at him.

"Monster!" snarled the third soldier.

"He's still alive. And conscious too, though he'll have a hell of a concussion. Take him and go. Stay away from here."

The two soldiers pulled their leader up, and started moving.

"You're not quick enough. Run for your life! RUN!"

Sydney fired a quick burst over their heads. He would not use the gun himself later, but he was having fun scaring them.

"I said, RUN! !! !! !"

After they ran away, Sydney smirked, and wrote a note.

Two factions-

One a religious cult nut job bunch.

The other a citizen militia turned, well, militant.

May be others. Big on purity. Hate mutants.

Have these weapons. No use to me. They will come inevitably. And you may have to fight to portect yourselves.

The drums are calling. The call to war. And you have to not just think you are right, but know you are right.

I will be watching.

-VAGUS

He laid the note on the gun and put it near the entrance to the warehouse

Virgil went into the main command center with Nida in tow. Switching on the main computer he ended in a password with at least 25 characters (nobody could keep track after that yet) and activating his access to the keycard controls. He brought up the file "NIDA_F_LATIN" and added two new strings.

"GENERAL_ACCESS_STORAGE/MAINTAIN and "GENERAL_ACCESS_ARMS"

Once that was done he finished dumping Sydney's access and medical files. (He needed the space anyway)

"There, you have access to all non-vital/non-private areas. You still cannot enter the reactor, my private lab, Alan's lab, the commands centers and the private rooms." Handing her back her card it turned gold in her hand.

((BTW, there's the grand explanation. Just before confronting Virgil, Sydney injected some of the isolated T-Cells. I'll think of some weaknesses for Sydney soon, but ATM, his main weakness is the fact that he doesn't have true control over his abilities yet, a bit like Leto II when he first gained power from the santrout in the novel Children of Dune. Leto was tripping over and stumbling and stuff....))

Nidia nodded and clasped her fingers tightly around the card. "That's all I required."

Turning to go, she said, almost cheerfully, "...and you know, if you ever get tired of talking to things nobody else sees, I've got two ears."

((I've got a 16 hour shift tomorrow and will probably not be on. Use Nidia as necessary.))