“That’s right I’m amazing, nothing new.” Alfonse runs over with a roll of bandages. Taking them from him, you point to Grubs stand. “And that betting money is confiscated.” You quickly wrap your arms to quell the bleeding. Tying off the end you continue what you were saying. “Now, get Helga up and bring her here. Now!”

As you yell the last word everyone snaps into action. Helga is helped off the floor and guided to you. The rest of the group quickly disperses, taking Detlev along with them. A short moment later Madlen arrives with some supplies.

You sit and watch while Helga checks over Tag. Once she has finished she informs you of the situation. “Alright, well, he’s going to be fine. But, this episode has really done a number on him.” Reaching down she begins to lift him. “Help me with him will you.”

Taking the other arm you lift Tag to a standing position, and move him to Helga’s medical jeep. Laying him on the bed of the vehicle, Helga begins to search around the jeep.

Now that Tag isn’t trying to bite your face off, he looks kind pitiful. His skin is as white as snow, his body shining with sweat. Hollow-cheeked with deep sunken eyes, he looks like a corpse.

Helga pulls what she needs from various boxes in the jeep. An arm full of blood bags are dumped on you, while Helga hooks one up to Tag.

Steadying the bags in your arms you question Helga. “I thought he wasn’t supposed to have blood?”

Forcing the needle through the tough skin of Tag’s arm she answers you. “That’s when he isn’t dying. But in this condition it can have all the blood it needs.”

“You’re saying it. You’re not talking about Tag are you?”

Gently squeezing the bag to start the blood flow she gives you a look of disappointment. “Did you even read the report?”

You shrug. “I skimmed it. Helga I don’t really have the time to read often, I have an operation to run.”

She huffs “God, you sound like a child. You really should read that report, but I’ll explain the basics to you. So, first things first. The disease is caused by a parasite that infects the body, and over time it drains the blood from its host. But, it doesn’t want to kill its host, otherwise that would mean the end for the parasite. So it sends signals to the brain that makes the host want to consume blood. Why it doesn’t do something like make the body produce more blood fast I don’t know, but hey, I’m just a field medic.”

“But what about the whole enhanced strength, and super speed?”

“That’s just adrenalin, and his fight or flight responses kicking into over drive. Like I said, I’m just a field medic so I don’t know how all of this works. I just put on a comforting smile and stich’em up.”

You stand, taking another look at Tag. “How long until he’ll be back to normal?”

“Oh, I’d say about a day or two. But he won’t be in fighting condition until he’s back on his routine medication.”

“Ok, thanks for answering my questions Helga.”

Sliding off the back of the jeep you call Alfonse over to you. “Alfonse, what’s the mood in the camp?”

“It’s disturbingly normal. How can people watch someone so calm and collected break down in front of them, then go back to acting as if nothing has changed?”

“Everyone here has seen some fucked up shit, Alfonse. After a while, you become desensitised to these sort of things.”

It’s around afternoon when the fighting ring is finally cleared, and the sleeping area is set up. The crew are still acting as they always do, but you know that this event is going to linger in the back of their minds for a while.

Cook won’t be starting dinner for a good time yet. Is there anything you’d like to do before then?

>>221626
Play some game. Knucklebones, cards or something.

>>221626
>Cook won’t be starting dinner for a good time yet. Is there anything you’d like to do before then?
Check on the troops. Make the rounds to feel the mood. How is Atto's and Midget's progress?

>>221841
Can we continue the journey the next day or is the giant machine not ready yet?

>>221841
>Check on the troops. Make the rounds to feel the mood
Scrap that - Alfonse already did... reread that. Just do the captainy stuff: Talk to Atto, look at supply situation, lay down a bit to heal more.

“Alright, I’m going to roam for a while, get a feel for the mood myself.” You walk off leaving Alfonse behind. As you move through the camp you decide to check in on a few people. First you visit Grub and quickly confiscate the betting money that he was attempting to stash. After a short back and forth about his rights as a bookie you finally remove the money from his possession, and slip you fair share of ‘winnings’ into your bag before throwing the rest into your tent.

After that you check up on Atto and Widget. As you wander up you notice Widget laying inside the machine a gentle glowing coming from within. Meanwhile Atto is up on the roof of the machine welding a turret down.

You call up to Atto. “You let Widget weld?”

Atto jerks suddenly crashing his head against the gun. Quickly recovering, he leaps down and grabs Widget by the ankles. “What the hell are you doing using a-“

As widget slides from within the machine she comes into full view. Her hands in a submissive pose, the welder nowhere to be seen.

Atto snaps around to face you, his face red. “Bloody hell Captain, don’t scare me like that!”

You mimic Widgets pose. “What I honestly thought she was welding, there was glowing and everything.”

“Glowing?” Atto gives you a funny look. “What do you mean glowing? Widget, why were you glowing?!”

Widget props herself up by her elbows. “Why else would I glow, I was doing the thing.”

Atto has a look of confusion on his face, along with you. “But wait, you don’t normally glow when you do the thing.”

She gives a cheeky grin. “I do when I’m weldin’ stuff.”

Atto is about to restart his yelling when you stop him. “Wait, wait, wait, what in the hell is the thing?”

Atto rubs his eyes. “It’s when she talks to the little robots.”

“Little robots?”

Widget jumps down off of the machine. And runs up to you. “Yeah, the little robots. Watch I’ll show you.”

Widgets stands dead still as her eyes fill with a light shade of blue. She grits her teeth and a high-pitched noise like the sound of scraping nails radiates from her. As she does this all around her tiny dots of light form in mid-air. Then the arrange themselves forming a short sentence. Hello, Captain!

Then widget stops and the lights fade away. “Pretty neat, huh?”

You give her an unsure ‘yeah’ and a thumbs up, and you look to Atto for an explanation.

He shrugs. “I’m not sure what it is. We think that she might be a Gem, but no one’s ever seen anything like it. I tried asking her about any memories she might have but she can’t remember squat. And I can’t find any records on her either. All I know is that one day he appeared on my doorstep, with a drone that I’d just thrown out that morning, fully repaired. So I took her in and trained her as my apprentice.”

You look back to where Widget had been. But she had wandered off back to the machine half way through Atto’s explanation.

Looking back over to Atto he lowers his welding mask. “Anyway, got to get back to work. I’ll have her finished by tomorrow morning for you Cap.”

“Ok, keep up the good work, I want to be moving by sunrise.”

Atto gives you a Thumbs up as he climbs the ladder.

You return back to camp, and check on the current supplies. Looks like you have a respectable amount of rations left, and the ammunition hasn’t worn too thin either. Supplies shouldn’t be too much of an issue for a long while.

Checking over the supplies had you thinking about the upcoming checkpoint. If you remember correctly, wasn’t your old Major stationed there? It’d be good to see him again. After his injury he got transferred to The Port, the Green Sea’s main checkpoint.

Anyway, now that you have checked up on the progress of the APC and the supplies. You still have some time left to do something else.

What would you like to do?

>Go check on Detlev and talk to Madlen about Widget.

>Relax and play some games for a while, see if you can hear any roomers going around.

>Continue with your Captainly duties and arrange a meeting for tomorrows continued expedition.

>Write in

>>222137
>>Go check on Detlev and talk to Madlen about Widget.
Gems seem to be really useful - and a bit unstable or childish.
Ask Madlen what she can do besides talking for Detlev. Does that ability have a range?

Hopefully that Major didn't die of boredom yet. It will be nice to meet him again.

>>222278
He'll be suitably impressed by that giant APC and our light casualties.

After a short walk you locate Deltev and Madlen. After the fight they had both moved to a tent over on the quitter side of the camp. All three of them are sitting round a table, playing cards. The game doesn’t look to intense and they don’t appear to be betting.

As you approach Detlev stands and gives you a salute. “Thank you Captain, I’m grateful you pulled me out of that. And, I fully regret antagonising a fellow crew member, I will not do it again, sir!”

You return the salute, more out of mercy than formality. “Calm down Deltev, it’s fine, it’s just as much my fault as yours for letting it get out of hand.”

The bald trooper visibly relaxes and sits down. Madlen gestures for you to sit in one of the spare seats. Sitting, you watch as Thunk slowly places one of the cards into a pile in the centre of the table, smiling to himself.

Madlen then places her cards down and turns to you. “So Captain, what can we do for you?”

“Well I’ve come over to talk to you about Widget, and find out more about what Gems can do. Oh, and how’s the arm doing Detlev?”

He gives you a silent thumbs up. Madlen continuing her convocation with you. “You wanted to talk you me about Widget? Why?”

“I have a suspicion that she might be a Gem like you.”

Her face lights up. “Really? What can she do? I’ve never got to talk to another Gem outside of training before.”

You explain the light show that Widget had demonstrated to you. But you just get a look of confusion from Madlen. “I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”

“That’s what Atto said.”

“Are you sure she’s a Gem? Has she been tested?”

“She hasn’t as far as I know. But what do you mean by tested? I thought Gems are all born naturally.”

“Yes they are, but sometimes Gems get lost or abandoned. And because it is so difficult to tell the difference with some of them. The city had set up a testing program. But I guess Atto wouldn’t have gone through with it, they tend to take you back to your, erm…” Madlen struggles to get the next word out. “Creators.”

“This is interesting. So it is possible for her to be a Gem?”

“Yes, I’m sure you could confirm it if you looked up her records.”

“That’s no good, Atto already checked, according to the city she has never existed.”

“How interesting. Maybe I will have better luck finding out. When I get back to the city, I’ll check with some of my old trainers, see if they know anything about it.”

“Ok, good. And now for my next question.”

“Yes, you’d said that you want to know the extent of my abilities. While I am linked to Detlev. This isn’t my only power. I also have the ability to temporarily alter the minds of my opponents stunning them, or even leading them to attack another target. I can also alter people’s minds in other ways too. For example, I can make anyone I want to look invisible to someone that I target. But it’s not proper invisibility, anyone that is out of my line of sight will still be able to see the cloaked person. There is a few other powers I’m working on too, but I haven’t got the hand of them yet.”

“Be sure to tell me when you do. You’re powers sound handy.”

“Will do!”

You continue to chat with the three while they play cards. The convocation turns to Detlev and Madlen’s relationship. It turns out that they are in fact, technically brother and sister. Madlen was created by Detlev’s parents using their own DNA. And they had grew up together in the cities spire. You hadn’t pegged the two to be from a rich family. It’s not very common for the aristocrats you interact with the Vanguard in anyway other than in lucrative trade deals, and underhand artefact sales.

Your leisure time comes to an end when the sound of Cooks diner bell goes off. The sound of an old world air raid siren echo’s through the camp, until it is abruptly shut off. You join the rest of your crew in the mess hall and eat a good meal. Then you retire early to get some rest. Your wounds still hadn’t healed properly, and that fight with Tag today did a real number on you.

The next day you are awoken by the sound of a roaring engine. Getting dressed and stepping outside you spot the source of the noise. Atto and Widget had finally finished the APC, on schedule, just as you had ordered.

Meeting up with Atto you two have a quick chat about the specs of the machine. Overall it’s still a labour machine. But, Atto and Widget had managed to attach a few belt fed manual turrets to the roof of the vehicle. And create a makeshift cargo bay that can store the supplies, freeing up a few of the jeeps for more personal space. Congratulating Tag you head off to have breakfast and then begin preparations for the journey through the Green Sea.

A few hours later you’re standing atop the new APC, and ordering the advance. You hope that traversing the Green Sea will be merciful, it’s a volatile place. It’ll either eat you up or stand by as passive as the old world’s forests.

Roll 3d100 to see how the Journey through the Green Sea goes.

Last post for tonight. I'll hopefully be running a bit earlier tomorrow,but if not, i'll be running around the usual time.

Rolled 68, 23, 96 = 187 (3d100)

>>222598
Stealth is out of the question with our new toy. Let's hope it scares away everything nasty.

>Last post for tonight.
Thank you again for running this quest! Looking forward to Green Sea monsters, that supply camp/checkpoint and of course the mysterious artifacts!

>>222588
>[Gem] Creators
Sounds ominous.
>>222892
Would be interesting to know why that checkpoint Major didn't try to repair that machine himself.

Sorry for no post yesterday. RL dragged me away from my PC.
The labour machines saws spin to life with a high pitched whine. There's a sudden jerk as the handbrake is released, and the machine slowly rolls forward. The distinct sound of metal mincing wood fills you ears. Ducking down through a trapdoor, you escape into the protective shell of the labour machine. Saving yourself from the splintered debris.

At first progress was slow. The trees making a never ending wooden barricade, that the machine struggled to demolish. At the rate you were moving, you were left wandering if maybe the original team had just ran out of rations and abandoned the project.

After the first day of disappointing progress. Atto and Widget got to work on the actual labour part of the machine, altering the mechanism to improve efficiency.

The second days progress was ten times better. The pair's alterations made slicing through the thick treeline a breeze. The downside was that the increased speed lead to real encounters with the forests wildlife, but it wasn't anything the machine itself couldn't take care of, and any stragglers were quickly mopped up by the rest of the crew trailing behind.

Fortunately when the machine was deactivated for the night, encounters would also die down. This allowed a significant time for rest and relaxation.

It was the third day: today. That you located something of interest within the forest.

Currently, you are standing at the entrance to an old world military base. It was Flint that had located the building, when he had driven through a clearing while chasing down what he claimed was his diner. It seems your luck just keeps getting better and better. A military base is a goldmine of old world tech, and sometimes even an artifact or two.

You scrutinise the building. Large, angular units built mainly of concrete stand at angles, titling towards a centre point. You guess that some sort of cave in due to the growth in the surrounding area.

You are pulled from your thoughts when you are tapped on the shoulder.

Turning you come to face Flint, a grin spread across his face. "So, what do you think Cap? It's a good find, right?"

You nod. "It sure is. I'm surprised that Green Sea checkpoint hasn't looted this place yet."

"Yeah, well, it is quite a jaunt from thier base. Maybe they haven't got around to scouting this far yet."

You stroke your chin. "Maybe. Oh well, they know the rules. First come first serve." You now turn to Alfonse, who has been diligently standing by for your orders. "Ok, go grab Grub and his buddies. I want this thing cracked open asap. While they are on that I'll be putting an excavation team together."

Alfonse salutes. "Y- Yes sir!" Alfonse begin to return to the crew but quickly stops himself. Fumbling with the papers in his arms. After a few seconds, he returns and hands you a file. "I- I made this for you sir. It's a file on the crew, to help you with team building." You take the file and Alfonse quickly escapes your gaze.

You open the file and look over your crew members.

Pick 4 team members to make up the exploration team.

You

Flint

Detlev(lite injury) & Madlen

Quad

Thunk

Eckard

Litwick

Grub

Atto

Widget

>>230437
>You
>Quad
>Widget
>Eckard
The captain is just interested in finally doing something, Widget is useful to look at old world stuff we find, Quad for muscle and Eckard is expendable...

>>230432
>RL dragged me away
I can fully understand that! No problem!
I appreciate you taking the time for this quest!

A short while later, you, your team and a few other crew members are standing at the now open entrance to the abandoned military base. The ominous void of black stares out from deep within, giving you an unnerving feeling.

You adjust your watch, and look at Alfonse. “Alright, if we’re not back in two hours contact us on the LRC unit. If there’s no reply, send in a recovery team. I’ve instructed Eckard to ping you every ten minutes. Don’t worry if the ping doesn’t come, it either means we’ve entered a dead zone, in combat, or Eckard forgot.”

Eckard objects to your lest statement. “Hey, I ain’t that incompetent.” Then quad quickly silences him with a smack.

Alfonse gives you a salute. “Alright Captain. G- Good luck!”

Giving him a thumbs up you turn to the exploration team. “Alright team, we don’t know what the hell is in there so I want rebreathers on at all times, got it?!”

The team replies with a mix of salutes, grunts and ‘Yes Sirs’ as they fit their rebreathers. You give one final check to the equipment and head into the base.

The inside of the base is dark, dank and generally unpleasant to be in. Like most ruins of the old world, it has become overgrown as the plant life slowly takes over these forgotten tombs of technology and information.

After a short march down the initial corridor you come to a crossroad. Not wanting to move on without some semblance of direction you check for signs. Upon the ceiling a small rectangle of concrete hangs above you listing the nearby rooms.

Straight ahead is labelled command centre, but when you open the doorway you are greeted by a large sinkhole where it used to be. Next you check the left hand door, it opens into a long corridor a sign listing the nearby rooms is bolted to the wall, from what you can decipher from the rusted plaque the common room is somewhere down this corridor. Finally you check the right hand door. Once again you find a plaque directing you to the training facilities.

Which way will you go?

>Left

>Right

>Or explore the area around the sinkhole

>>230663
>>Right
The training facilities will hopefully have equipment, maybe something Midget can get to work again.
We can't expect a common room to contain much besides very old couches... or is this some old world trick? The sinkhole... well, I could order Eckard to go down there, right?

“Alright team, we’re moving right.”

You and the team advance down the corridor. The lack of debris is odd, normally places like this are full of random boxes and other miscellaneous items. Finally you reach the end, a doorway labelled training room stands to your right, while the corridor turns to your left.

Carefully you open the door, rifle at the ready. Too many times have you ran into hostiles in what you first thought was an abandoned building. The door comes to a stop with an audible creek as your flashlight illuminates the room. Training equipment litters the area. Weights, treadmills and other mechanical exercise devices are dotted about. Advancing further into the room your light glints against the back wall. It’s made of glass. Checking near the corner you discover a second doorway. You move through the cluttered room and reach it, performing the same manoeuvre as before.

This room is much longer, a row of cubicles that look out onto a large open area. Searching the room further you discover a row of metal lockers. You break the lock off of one, and search its contents.

You pull a dusty rifle from its stand and show it to the team. “Widget, what do you think? Salvageable?”

Widget shrugs. “I don’t know, but if I can get a better look at it later, I could probably work it out.”

You shrug and pass the rifle to Quad, how delicately places it into a duffle bag. You grab some magazines too, old world weapons can be hit and miss, but if this turns out to be useful it wouldn’t hurt to have some extra ammo for it.

Exiting back out through the doorway named Training room, you advance further down the hallway. Once again you came to a set of doors, one once again leads to the sinkhole.

Eckard looks down through the open door. “What do you thinks down there?”

Quad grumbles at him. “I don’t know, you want to find out?”

Eckard lets out a yelp as Widget sneakily gives him a false push. You attempt to stile your laugh as you order the team to stop dicking around. You check the sign for the door opposite the command room. ‘Cleaning facilities’ are the words you can make out on the metal rectangle. You consider the possibility of a water purifying system, they’re rare but not impossible to find.

Suddenly to hear a high pitched clang and the team shines there flashlights down the corridor. You catch something scuttle way around the corner, long thin limbs disappearing before you can take a good look.

Widget comments. “Wow, spooky.”

You consider your options.

>Enter the Cleaning Facilities, it may lead to the water storage and even some interesting tech.

>follow whatever you had spotted turning the corner.

>Head back around and check out the common area.

>>230808
>>Enter the Cleaning Facilities, it may lead to the water storage and even some interesting tech.
Critters are irritating but don't warrant us following them around. If it comes too close, we'll just blast it. An old-wold water purifier artifact, preferably portable - that would be a great find.

Sorry guys, RL continues to kick me in the nuts. I'll be starting the game back up on Friday, and run on the weekends.

So see ya later m8s

>>231038
Sure, see you then!

>>231038
archived: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/221616/