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Patiently waiting for the OP to come now...

>A radical Catholic cult claiming the papal throne and supporting itself via meth trade.
Very based

>>4514185
Love the * by the way, mate.

>>4514185
Best stuff on /qst/ in a long time. Keep on rebuilding Jesus's one church.

>>4514185
Good long until we can crusade against the Mormons?

>>4514568
>Until we can crusade with the Mormons on our vehicle as shields of faith Mad Max style

Fixed it for you mate

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>>4514185
>>4514190
Thank you for being the OP. Also, shout out to last thread's OP, whom I forgot to thank last time IIRC. The 4chan formatting ate up some of the line breaks, but it's legit fine.

To fill in anyone wondering wth is going on, I basically asked for one of my players to post the OP instead of doing it myself. Why would I rob myself of control over when the thread goes up and forgo access to advanced text formatting? It is in the vain hopes that I can escape the QM Curse that kills just about every quest. Including this one, which had its original QM drop (hence the strangeness of early thread 1 and some of the weirder parts of the setting I had to find creative ways of working around). I try to aim for a decently sizable update or two once a day and promise not to ghost. I may miss a day from Internet issues or drinking, but if I ever hiatus/drop, I'll make sure you let you guys know exactly what's going on w/o just disappearing

>>4514840
I mean, he did say "against the Mormons." And to answer the original question, there aren't really that many Mormons in this area (single digit percentages from what I could find), so I wouldn't hold your breath on it. If you guys make it all the way to taking control over Arizona and really expanding, well, that's a different story.

Anyway, enough preamble, let's get into the actual quest...

pic related is a rough map of the local area based on what you guys know. Probably shouldn't be taken as 100% accurate

>>4515247

The air in the newly captured Native American base begins to clear for the first time since the assault. Both literally in that the tear gas that had fogged up the base has dissipated, and figuratively in that the frenetic miasma of active battle is easing away. The defeated are being herded up and checked for hidden weapons. A squad is in the process of clearing non-combatants from one of the buildings and taking valuable first aid supplies. Said supplies are also being distributed to others in your group who are administering basic aid to those on your side who need it. Cardinal Dick Mueller is spotted in the shade knelling with a rosary in hand, praying to calm himself after his rampage which helped secure victory.

And all of that newly emerging calmness has been dashed by this unexpected radio call.

"This is Carl Redfield. There's some shit that's about to go down in Maricopa," it begins. You wonder how your trusted diplomat Cardinal Musella definitely NOT a D.E.A. agent managed to stand being around this man, let around winning his trust, given his boorish attitude, scatterbrained tendencies, rankly unprofessional nature, and his strange obsessions. Seriously, how can one man spend an hour talking debating if a chimpanzee could kill a wolverine or whatever garbage he talks about in his radio broadcasts? Still, he is your best insight into Maricopa's current situation, and what he says worries you.

"You see, I got a guy on the inside, let's say I have my sources" he says. "M.M.P. is mobilizing. SWAT armor, armored vehicles, you name it. I got some conflicting stuff on where they're going. I've heard Harrah's Indian Hotel and Casino, others saying they're going up to 347 and preparing for a big fight." You recall Harrah's being the "gateway" between the Maricopa and the reservation essentially attached to the town. You also recall that the 347 is the highway that connects Maricopa to the city of Phoenix.

He continues. "I'm saying this because I like you guys and I know you guys are involved in some kind of-," he leans away from the mic to hiccup and burp, the consummate drunk he is. "Some kind of shit with the political big shots. Wait, is that somebody screaming or moaning in the background there? Did I catch you at a bad time?"

You look around to scene of dead bodies and forceful occupation before you. "No, you called at a great time."

"Alright. Anyway, keep this all under wraps, confidentiality, privileged info, yadda yadda, I'm sure you know how this sort of journalistisming procedure shit works. I got a segment to run in about, uh, forty five seconds, so yeah. If you guys want to see shit go down or make an impact or, give me a sec," he says as he burps massively into the mic. "Sorry, I had a few beers. If you want to influence how things go down, I'm just letting you know. Just give me the good, juicy rumors once we're done, yeah?"

[1/3]

>>4515248

[2/3]

"God bless you and keep you," you tell him as you cut the connection. What a strange man. In any case, what he's saying about Maricopa is certainly to be noted. If there's a fight about to break out on the 347, that means an attack from Phoenix. Or maybe from another area that also uses the 347? It could just be heightened defensive activity along the highway for any number of reasons. You really don't know. And on the topic of Harrah's, that could mean aggression from the Natives just as easily as it could mean activity done against them. The only thing you can be sure about is that your attack of this settlement had something to do with all of this.

"Messenger, we have the documents," one of your gas mask clad soldiers tells you. In tow is a number of electronic devices, folders, books, and other assorted documents. You have no doubt that many of these and the information therein will be useless to you. A thorough search of these will be needed to figure out just what has been going on, and you are the only one you'd trust to do this by virtue of being the most intelligent and competent person in your faction present.

As you rest for a moment and get your bearings, you also think about the monumental task that is right in front of you. There are many, many prisoners. Easily more than all three platoons at full strength when you account for non-combatants. And your forces have suffered many casualties who need not just medical attention, but spiritual attention. Your presence and attention would be a great help to this mundane, but important task...

>>4515251

[3/3]

And another thought crosses your paranoid mind. If Maricopa's being attacked now, it's because of your actions here. But why attack Maricopa and not attempt to retake their base? Why not do both? What if the real fight is yet to come? What if you should be transferring weapons to the northern entrance and hunkering down? This may be paranoia, but sometimes paranoia is right!

You must make the choice of what to do now that the base has been captured and keeping in mind whatever's going on in Maricopa or elsewhere. You decide to:

>Keep some troops, Mueller, and the Mobile Infantry here to keep order. Take who you can and ride out to the 347 using the short way from the northern side of the mountains. If there is immediate danger to Maricopa from the outside, you have to be there.
>Keep some troops, Mueller, and the Mobile Infantry here to keep order. Take who you can and ride out to the Native Americans in Maricopa and either diffuse things or end them decisively. If there is immediate danger to Maricopa from the inside, you have to be there.
>Stay at the base for now. Pour through the documents and figure out exactly what is going on here before doing anything rash.
>Stay at the base for now. Focus on the men under your wing and help with the smooth processing of prisoners, captured supplies, and casualties.
>Command the manning of defensive positions to the north. Keep watch for a potential counter attack until your paranoia is calmed...
>[Write-in]

If this update seemed to go over a bunch of things that are already known or seem redundant given what's happened before, that's kind of intentional. I wanted to provide more of Pope Walter White's mindset and way of thinking about things that have already been revealed in other PoV's. That, and I've had a few beers already, so there's that.

And if it isn't obvious, I like spoilering things as a way to either emphasize or make something seem like it's "under the surface" or w/e. It's one of the only text formatting options I have available as a not OP QM!

>>4515260
>Confer with Mueller on the likelihood of an internal police action against the Indians in Maricopa or troubling reports on the 347. As he was there recently, and impressions and intel should've fresh in his mind.

I doubt it would be an internal policing action against the Indians (unless the Council fucked up, but even then, I doubt the majority of Indians there would go along with their shenanigans), as the MMP needed had intel against the Council to commence with the policing action. Which lends credence to an attack on the 347. By who, I wouldn't know, but any aid give would be a boost to relations and look good on us.

Either way, talking with Mueller would illuminate the situation abit, before we commit to a course of action.

>>4515260
The funny thing about paranoia? You get unusual ideas for unique situations.

>To sate your paranoia, order some scouts to provide some early warning in front of the Northern road, then order some of the men to set up IEDs and some ambush positions in case of an enemy attack. Mueller would have experience in these matters.

This would also necessitate trying to process and load up the prisoners, supplies, and casualties as fast as we can in case we need to bug out. We could then go over the intel at our leasure later, when we'd have the time.

>Stay at the base for now. Focus on the men under your wing and help with the smooth processing of prisoners, captured supplies, and casualties.

>>4515260
>Send 1 man to oversee the battle in Maricopa, hopefully from already Mobile as it is closer. Depending on the outcome of the battle, instruct this man to ask Maricopa for reinforcements to help in transportating the prisoners.
>Send a few men to take up a high position to oversee any sort of counter attack.
>Have W-, I mean The Messenger go through the documents
>The rest will oversee the prisoners

>>4515260
>To sate your paranoia, order some scouts to provide some early warning in front of the Northern road, then order some of the men to set up IEDs and some ambush positions in case of an enemy attack. Mueller would have experience in these matters.
>Stay at the base for now. Pour through the documents and figure out exactly what is going on here before doing anything rash.
Moving out without information is foolish. Also, Maricopa has sent us here to kill the Estrella Base, we cannot be everywhere at once. If they want assistance, they can radio us, otherwise we are putting our necks out for a non-integrated settlement.
If they call for our aid, then great, we get more integration.
If it's a nothingburger, then we defend from the counter-attack.
Kinda scared Pheonix or the Chinese might move in

>>4515307
>>4515315
>>4515382
>>4515478

You decide that whatever's going on in Maricopa, you need to steer clear of it. At least while you don't have all of the information. At least in the vulnerable position you find yourself in. For all you know, they might be sending in fighters for a counter attack as you think about this. If the tip off is to be believed and there is supposedly an attack on Maricopa along the 347, there could surely be a group sent in to retake the base.

You need to consult with Mueller about this.

OPTION SELECTED:
>To sate your paranoia, order some scouts to provide some early warning in front of the Northern road, then order some of the men to set up IEDs and some ambush positions in case of an enemy attack. Mueller would have experience in these matters.

You find him still kneeling and mournfully knelling over today's deaths. You give him the courtesy of waiting a half minute or so to finish the prayer he's currently on and wonder what kinds of demons are eating away at him for him to be able to go from rampaging killing machine to this state in such a short time.

"I have received word that Maricopa may be under attack," you tell him. "There might already be a group being sent here to retake the base; we need to establish defenses. Early warning, ambushes, maybe even IEDs planted, all of these may be needed. What do you think?"

"I see," he says, standing up. "Realistically, we're not going to make IED's and plant them. Total waste of time, and we have a lot to do. Early warning is something we're in a great position for. I'm sure you can get a great vantage point in these mountains, and anyone coming would go past open desert kicking dust their entire way here. What do you think of sending somebody from the Mobile Infantry with a radio and just having him keep watch with a buddy? If they spot somebody, we'd have more than enough time to move machine guns into the right spot and set up a killzone."

It's a major scaling back of your original plan. But it's admittedly much more realistic. "I trust your judgement. If you believe it is the right course of action, then that's what we'll do. God willing, they don't even send anyone."

"Yeah. I'll go to one of the Mobile Infantry and get them on it. I'll finish the Rosary after."

"Blessings upon you." You dismiss him, thankful that your advisors haven't yet turned into nodding yes-men.

With that out of the day, you make the choice of organizing the aftermath of sifting through the treasure trove of information.

OPTION SELECTED:
>Stay at the base for now. Pour through the documents and figure out exactly what is going on here before doing anything rash.

You decide that with all of the chaos, figuring out what's really going on with this base is everything. It's time to get yourself an info dump...

[1/4]

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>>4517008

[2/4]

You try to log into one of the laptops, only to find it password protected. You check another one and find the same issue. Pulling out one of the confiscated phones, you find it also locked. Rather than brute forcing the passwords, you decide to play it smart.

Sifting through the paper documents, which range from A4 paper in binders to what might as well be napkin scribbling, you find something very useful...

"COMPUTER PASSWORDS LIST:
IBM Laptop (Awan): BigBoobies6969
Dell (Ben): 123456
Apple w/ craked screen (Tehya): ilikemonke
[...]"

Going through the laptops, you immediately find files on some of their desktops that in one way or another grant access to other devices. Files of scans of driver's licences reveal birthdays which unlock passwords due to "high quality security." You can't get into everything, but you do gain access to quite a bit. And it's definitely revealing.

First off, you figure out who exactly these people are. They are Native Americans from the Gila River Reservation located between Maricopa and Phoenix, which is larger than and mostly unrelated to the reservation attached to Maricopa. It's home to multiple tribes, one of which is the same as Maricopa's Indian Reservation, although there seem to be differences between the two you don't have the time or motivation to learn. They apparently tried outreach to the Maricopan reservation with results being mixed ("some are onboard, some are pretty cold" according to one memo").

Continuing, you figure out from memos, audio recordings, and other such sources why this base exists. It used to be private property of some sort that was then built up as a compound in case the 2020 insanity ramped up into a full blown war. This turned out to be an exceedingly good idea, since the country is currently in a state of civil war. It was already equipped with walls, a water well, creatively acquired firearms, and other necessities by the time the official order to deploy the military against civilians was issued.

Worryingly, you piece together just what they're doing. These raids have been mostly targeting not Maricopa, but rather Goodyear. Goodyear is part of Phoenix that is controlled by the right wing coalition and the areas being attacked are agricultural areas. These wide open spaces are vulnerable to the mobile fighting style of the Sierra Estrella based fighters and these raids have been successful at winning valuable food supplies. Apparently the defenders at Goodyear's southern ranch area are a strangely well equipped doomsday cult/paramilitary labelled the "Boogie Nights Boiz" (you can't tell if this is some kind of cheeky joke). These raiders are being compensated by the Phoenix Occupied Zone, although you can't tell if this is a voluntary relationship for the Maricopan Indians. Some of the logs/documents show emphatic support for the Proletariat Revolution, while others are very tepid and imply that this is all under threat of invasion...

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>>4517010

[3/4]

During this deep dive, you hear the occasional gunshot. At some point, it becomes a bit too much, and you're forced to put this on hold. You'd have been radio'd if there was a counterattack, but you're still concerned. You ask one of the crusaders what's going on and get an interesting response.

"Messenger! We're having to pacify them, sir! Some of them aren't following the orders to round them up, saying they're 'tired' or 'wounded' or whatever other nonsense," the eager fighter tells you. It's evident that these battle-tested warriors, while good at combat, have no idea what they're doing when it comes to dealing with prisoners. Thank God they weren't on meth, or they'd have needlessly killed more prisoners. Maybe all of them.

You proceed to wrangle the troops and oversee them as they finish transferring the prisoners into a central area where the Mobile Infantry can easily deal with them. The conditions are terrible with insufficient facilities or provisions, and you can tell there will be wailing and the gnashing of teeth if they're held here for any real length of time. Such is the nature of taking prisoners during wartime.

You are also given word on the current strength levels. Both platoons are weakened, with total strength being about one and a half out of two. Not all of the half platoon that's unavailable are dead. Some of them are merely wounded, such as having broken bones from flying off of a truck going at high speeds when it was shot at. The medical supplies raided from here have made a difference in reducing casualties, as have the high quality SWAT armor the crusaders are equipped with.

On the topic of raided supplies, you're informed that there is quite a bit of stuff raided, although they mostly threw things onto the back of vehicles haphazardly. No attempt was seriously made to systematize or inventory anything, and figuring out just what was here or how much this is worth will likely have to wait until today's chaos is sorted out. On the bright side, you are assured that most valuables are still intact. It's not like you blew up the base or relied on explosives, and the enemy didn't have time to retreat or destroy much or otherwise deny you of your rightful spoils.

Also, it's been a good while and there is no word of any enemies coming towards here. Thankfully, your paranoia was just that, and nothing more...

>>4517013

[4/4]

Now, the question is, where will you go? It's not like the events in Maricopa have stopped, but at some point you'll have to get to Mobile and deal with the aftermath of this. There's always the potential of staying here just a bit longer and fishing out some more information from the treasure trove of documents you were going through before you were rudely interrupted by having to deal with war crimes being perpetrated by your men. You decide to:

>Leave the Mobile Infantry here and take your mechanized platoons to the 347. Given what you know, there is possibly a battle going on you might want to at least show up for
>Go back to Mobile and begin processing everything and everyone. Figure out what to do with the captured base and how to proceed
>Leave the Mobile Infantry here and take your mechanized platoons to Maricopa's Reservation. Given what you know now, you might be able to prevent needless violence. Or direct righteous violence depending on how things are going.
>Stay at the base and keep pouring through the information until you've gotten everything possible from this info dump. All of the potential information must be obtained, even if it means having to delay things.
>[Write In]

Long update, but hey, you guys did basically select [Info Dump] the option. And I do appreciate the write ins, even if it can make it kind of tough to wrangle them all into a semi coherent narrative. And I hope this update wasn't too "dark' with some of the stuff implied... it can and probably will get worse depending on where you guys choose to go and what actions to take, because, you know, civil war

>>4515478
>Kinda scared Phoenix or the Chinese might move in
Always very valid fears and things that can/could've happen(ed) depending on luck and other circumstances

>>4517014
>Leave the Mobile Infantry here and take your mechanized platoons to the 347. Given what you know, there is possibly a battle going on you might want to at least show up for
Let's get into the thick of it. Urban warfare also suits pervetin charges.

>>4517014
>Go back to Mobile and begin processing everything and everyone. Figure out what to do with the captured base and how to proceed.
>Send out a scouting plane over Maricopa. If there's fighting, they'll see it and report back to us where it's located.

Accurate information is important, and we'd seen clear signs of Mobalization from the air, no matter the direction.

This is starting to seem like the raiders response on the 347. I don't mind assisting, but we'll need accurate information on the ground to make sure it directed appropriately, or even necessarily.

>>4517014
I'm also a bit surprised Mueller allowed these incidents to happen, considering he's the second-in-command here as well as his PTSD-informed moral code.

>>4517057
supporting this.

>>4517057
+1

>>4517014
>Leave the Mobile Infantry here and take your mechanized platoons to the 347. Given what you know, there is possibly a battle going on you might want to at least show up for

>>4517021
>>4517519
I wouldn't mind this option on the face of it, but the problem I have is that we're effectively operating in an information vacuum here, not to mention all the other stuff we have to process (intel or otherwise). I'm all for blitzing to Maricopa to help out right now, but we just don't know where would be the most advantageous position for us, considering our limited resources and obligations atm. Frankly, we need some reconnaissance.

>>4517057
Not sure if I made this clear, but heading back to Mobile will take a while since it'll involve multiple trips going back and forth hauling loot and people etc. I can see how it was a bit vague with "how to proceed" which meant dealing with having a huge amount of prisoners and the implications of the info on factions etc. That'll all come anyway, but there's always the risk/reward from trying to be present for whatever's going down in Maricopa. Not trying to make it seem like one choice is "better" than another or whatever, just making it clearer how transferring everyone/everything back to Mobile is actually a big deal that'll have to take a while.

And sending out a recon plane is a valid write in btw. They're not going through mountains or anything and are just taking a look.

Actual update coming later today, just posting this after I checked in

>>4517963
Ah, thanks for the clarification. I guess then that we should probably either head for Maricopa while recon is enroute or continue to pour over the intel.

And I assume it's clear that we need the POWs alive for interrogation. Wouldn't want to make an example of one of our lads atm...

>>4517678
Reconnaissance in force.

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>>4517021
>>4517057
>>4517060
>>4517308
>>4517352
>>4517519
>>4518197
I'll add some clarity on deciding this given the previous misunderstanding and how the vote's close. Based on the comments in the >>4517057 vote, I'm going to assume the spirit of the vote as something like this: figure out what's going on with a recon plane and send support to Maricopa if it would be needed/influential. This fits in with the opposing votes because... it'll be apparent.

With that out of the way, back to the "regularly scheduled" /qst/ing...

OPTION SELECTED:
>Send out a scouting plane over Maricopa. If there's fighting, they'll see it and report back to us where it's located.

It's clear that before making the choice to either go over to Maricopa or start the sizable task of transferring everyone and everything to Mobile, you need to know what's going on in Maricopa. Luckily, you have access to an air force. Yes, the air force may consist of a crop duster or two, but that's more than enough for current purposes.

You radio over to Mobile. The guard who's operating the radio gets it over to the mayor. "How's it going?" he asks on his way to the pilot. "Your guys made it back and got the prisoners. I think we might be able to handle keeping them. Did you guys manage to cripple that base?"

"We slaughtered the defenders until they totally surrendered. The base, and everything in it, is ours. Once the situation in Maricopa is confirmed to be clear, all of the loot and people there will be transferred."

There's a long pause before he responds. "Oh. Well, good job? You sure you can't keep everyone there for a while, maybe?"

"Likely not. It will be difficult to keep them here for long. Mobile's the base of operations and where we'll have to have the men stay and thus where the prisoners will probably be kept."

He doesn't have much to say after that. It's obvious that dealing with the influx of people and securing them will be a major effort involving temporary shelters and rationing supplies. Still, you are fully confident that it should be an easier task than taking the base in the first place was.

The mayor gets the radio to the pilot, who you tell to conduct aerial reconnaissance over Maricopa, going south from Mobile to the reservation and rounding up to Maricopa's urban and suburban area along the highway before returning. You inform him to be careful since there might be fighting...

[1/3]

>>4518232

[2/3]

He agrees and begins the process of getting the plane up off of the ground. Within fifteen minutes, he's already up in the air, and within 30 minutes he's able to get you a good idea of what's going on. In the reservation area, there seems to be a bunch of police vehicles around the hotel, although not much else is visible. It's north, along the 347, that the more visibly interesting stuff is seen. There are apparently evident signs of fighting along the highway. Vehicles are left burning on the side of the highway and a mass of vehicles is seen in the suburban part. The pilot tells you previously untouched, well off suburbs are now the site of fighting as the mass of raiders has penetrated deeply.

>Secret Roll Result: Positive
>Nothing bad happens...

The pilot manages to fly low and get a good view of things while also avoiding gunfire. You were worried he might have gotten shot at, but any shots went far and he manages to fly back unharmed. You thank the pilot for his help, and can tell that this is where you might be able to make a difference.

>Leave the Mobile Infantry here and take your mechanized platoons to the 347. Given what you know, there is possibly a battle going on you might want to at least show up for

Your forces are doing fairly well despite the earlier fighting, and you're sure that you might be able to leverage your presence at the battle on the 347 into further rewards or benefits.

During this time, half of the crusader platoon arrives at the base. They're way too late to participate in fighting for the base, but they're just in time for the "reconnaissance in force" operation to be carried out as one man put it.

With the recent reinforcements, there are about two platoons worth, each slightly under strength. Your men are tired, but the battle earlier ended quicker than expected and there has been a period of rest.

You give a speech about how it is the collective holy duty to aid their allies under attack, and how this is pure desperation on the enemy's part, no doubt a result of today's decisive victory! You mention how a strong showing in this final battle of the day will surely result in a great reward. You know this to be true not out from any earthly evidence, but from a divine feeling in your being.

Machine guns taken from the base are put on the back of trucks and your forces ride out east, confident that no attack will come and the Mobile Infantry can keep things in order. The northern road turns towards the east and goes downhill. The road leads to shallows in the Gila River the modded vehicles are easily able to ford. Driving along a back-road, plumes of pitch black smoke signal that you're on the right path and almost there...

>>4518235

[3/3]

You radio over to Redfield. For a while, you hear a bunch of incoherent, but vaguely patriotic screaming and gunfire until he picks up. "WE'RE COMIN' FOR YA, TRAITORS," you hear him yell as he seemingly fires a bunch of shots into the air (at least you hope it's in the air).

"I am the Messenger, you fool. We're on the 347, here to help. Tell the mayor so he doesn't accidentally shoot us," you say, bringing the speaker away from your ear to prevent inevitable hearing loss from listening to him.

"WE WILL NEVER RELINQUI- wait, it's you? Hell yeah I'll tell Preis! Hey, you got any info on this?"

"Your neighbors to the north are very pissed off. Thank you," you tell him, not wanting to get dragged into a needless conversation you could be having at any other time. You briefly wonder why he would think an enemy would contact him on his own secure radio, but you dismiss the thought. He was probably under the influence of dangerous quantities of alcohol, patriotism, and God knows what else. At least you're somewhat sure Maricopa's forces will now know you're here and not do anything stupid.

Soon, he mechanized platoons find themselves near the entrance of Maricopa's northern part. You must select the general strategy to be employed.

>Careful Prodding: Go down the 347, taking stock of what's going on and taking easy opportunities to kill looters and raiders. But be ready to bail on the first sign of trouble. [Lowered effect, but significantly reduces failure severity]
>All In: Go down the 347 as fast as possible, looking to overwhelm enemies not expecting to be attacked from the back with speed and decisiveness. [High risk, high reward?]
>Ambuscade: Keep forces back, and prepare to unleash an ambush on any forces reinforcing or fleeing along the highway. [More likely to have a one sided fight, if positive, or maybe not encounter anyone]
>Back-road Patrol: Send the platoons to the back-roads to the east of here, looking to cut raiders off if any of them choose to use these routes on their way out. [High effect if this is actually what the enemy plan is, pitiful effect otherwise, ???]
>[Write In]

>>4518237
>>Careful Prodding: Go down the 347, taking stock of what's going on and taking easy opportunities to kill looters and raiders. But be ready to bail on the first sign of trouble. [Lowered effect, but significantly reduces failure severity]
If we see they might win pic this. Not our responsability. We only need them alive insofar as they owe us money and materials like they promised they would give us.
If we see that they're losing, pick this:
>All In: Go down the 347 as fast as possible, looking to overwhelm enemies not expecting to be attacked from the back with speed and decisiveness. [High risk, high reward?]

>>4518237
>All In: Go down the 347 as fast as possible, looking to overwhelm enemies not expecting to be attacked from the back with speed and decisiveness. [High risk, high reward?]
>Ambuscade: Keep forces back, and prepare to unleash an ambush on any forces reinforcing or fleeing along the highway. [More likely to have a one sided fight, if positive, or maybe not encounter anyone]

>>4518237
>All In: Go down the 347 as fast as possible, looking to overwhelm enemies not expecting to be attacked from the back with speed and decisiveness. [High risk, high reward?]
>Ambuscade: Keep forces back, and prepare to unleash an ambush on any forces reinforcing or fleeing along the highway. [More likely to have a one sided fight, if positive, or maybe not encounter anyone]

>>4518259
>>4518285
I assume this to be a smash and trap strategy, here? Like we punch them with one hand, but if the fighting gets tough, turn back for the other punch?

I'm just assuming, I don't really know.

But I do know we still have our HE and tear gas grenades...

>All In

I have faith that the Lord will be merciful... to us.

>>4518237
>All In: Go down the 347 as fast as possible, looking to overwhelm enemies not expecting to be attacked from the back with speed and decisiveness. [High risk, high reward?]
>Ambuscade: Keep forces back, and prepare to unleash an ambush on any forces reinforcing or fleeing along the highway. [More likely to have a one sided fight, if positive, or maybe not encounter anyone]
Meth will likely be used in this battle.

>>4518248
You know, when I first read your post I thought you had a pic that didn't post with you. Now I realize you meant pick.

Even if they're losing, the battle isn't lost yet. If this was a boxing match, we're the surprise punch, the hidden bronze knuckles. Even if our knockout blow fails to incapacitate, we got more tricks up our sleeve.

QM phoneposting here. I forgot to put the prompt to
>Roll 2d20
since you guys are participating in a battle. Yes, I'm kind of retarded.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>4518773

Rolled 3, 4 = 7 (2d20)

>>4518773
No problem mate.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>4518794
Rip OP

Rolled 19, 19 = 38 (2d20)

>>4518773
wrong dice?

>>4518248
>>4518259
>>4518285
>>4518342
>>4518566

OPTION SELECTED:
>Ambuscade: Keep forces back, and prepare to unleash an ambush on any forces reinforcing or fleeing along the highway. [More likely to have a one sided fight, if positive, or maybe not encounter anyone]

You decide that the 347, being the main artery by which the attack is being conducted, is where you will put your focus. The vehicles are ordered to move back along a backroad and take advantage of a line of trees to obscure them while a scout provides advanced warning and general information. When the signal is given, the full impact of your crusaders will descend on them and deliver a hopefully decisive first blow, whether they be fleeing or advancing.

Your men are tired from the previous fighting today, but not totally exhausted. Their zeal and devotion to the cause, a relative strength of your faction, more than makes up for this.

>-2 from exhaustion
>+3 from zeal

Due to the previous fighting, your platoons aren't at full strength, which necessarily will lower your effectiveness. However, the addition of machine guns provides a major boost to firepower. In addition, the grenade launchers were returned in the time after taking the base, so you have smoke grenades and even a few HE's to be used in case of emergencies. You would say it's a wash, if a little bit in your favor. At least if you don't lose any more fighters.

>-3 from being under strength
>+3 from better equipment

The vehicles lie in wait, ready for the moment a band of enemies come as reinforcements or flee northwards. Time passes, a half hour maybe, and you begin to lose hope. It's very likely that no more combatants will be coming from the north, maybe because they sent everyone already. As you mull this over, the radio comes to life.

"I'm seeing a group. Yep, some armored cars with guys on the b-, wait, what?" the voice tells you. "They got a big rig or something, maybe a couple? Yea, they got two of 'em. This is it, get ready," he says. You order your guys to get ready and tell the radio operator to get the launchers ready.

The engines are turned on and you're mere moments away from beginning the rush. The hope is that the cover isn't blown prematurely and that this goes off without a hitch.

>Rolling in secret to see if the enemy spots you guys...

[1/3]

File: God forgive me for invoki(...).jpg (60 KB, 267x374)

60 KB JPG

>>4519376

[2/3]

>Positive Outcome!
>+3 stealth bonus (would've been bad if the roll failed)

They're evidently unaware of your presence as they drive past the scouts on foot and the first back road where Mueller's platoon is. Exactly as they reach a billboard, everyone pops out and unleashes the first strike. Your group in the "front" lay down suppressive fire and stop the forward movement of the vehicles. Mueller lays down a devastating barrage of automatic fire, and the scouts in the back coat the back of the area with smoke to make retreat difficult.

>Final Result: 11 + 4 = 15
>Success

The opposing side is immediately devastated as a hail of gunfire greets them, immediately inflicting casualties. They're disoriented and taken aback by the ambush. It's clear to you that they weren't expecting any resistance around here. The machine guns obviously do a lot of work, but the smokes in the back have a surprising amount of effect. One of the big rigs tries to back up and get out of the fighting, but it ends up going over the road in its blinded panic. But they don't take it lying down. They return fire, even if it's largely ineffectual. They do manage to immobilize one of your vehicles, but you can't tell if they've done much more.

The armor on their vehicles allow them to take the first strike without being totally immobilized. They take advantage of this and begin to hit the gas. They rush down the highway as fast as possible, protecting themselves by creating distance. They're leaking engine fluids (and probably biological fluids as well) as they flee.

You make the snap decision to pursue the rout.

>All In: Go down the 347 as fast as possible, looking to overwhelm enemies not expecting to be attacked from the back with speed and decisiveness. [High risk, high reward?]

You're letting go of a safe victory on the highway and doubling down on this, heading deeper into Maricopa. The full strength of your group is not able to follow you, whether it is because they're immobilized or simply because they're busy repositioning themselves. Nonetheless, the raiders you're chasing don't require all that many men to finish off. On the straight highway without much room to maneuver, outgunned and outnumbered, they're neutralized. But that's not the end of it...

>>4519378

[3/3]

During the pursuit, you covered a lot of ground, and are now very close to a major hotspot. In an outdoor shopping center, groups of raiders are in firefights with the defenders of Maricopa. Judging by their progress, you think the raiders are winning, but that they're also outnumbered by Maricopa's militia (but easily outnumbering your forces) and likely to lose if cut off from support and without the ability to escape. You're not familiar enough with the town layout to know how easy it would be for them to leave without the highway, but it's likely there are alternative paths. You can see they've broken into a bank (Southwest Country American Mutual) and are also looting boxes of food.

In the chaos of the urban fighting, you don't think you've been noticed yet. Nobody's shooting at your direction at least. But that could change any moment, and you need to make a quick choice on what to do.

>Lay down suppressive fire from afar. Interfere with them and deal easy damage without getting sucked into a quagmire
>Take the forces to the bank and deal with the might of raiders there [specify if you will dismount from vehicles] [specify if you will take supplies for yourself in the process]
>Take the forces to the grocers and deal with the might of raiders there [specify if you will dismount from vehicles] [specify if you will take food crates for yourself in the process]
>Try to cut off likely paths of escape
>Fuck this, you've done more than enough already. Head back and wait for this all to end itself [Guaranteed nothing happens, result of roll irrelevant]
>[Write in]

>Roll 2d20

>>4519286
Two separate rolls of d20 are fine. I've accepted it before this quest, so I'm taking that 11. Good too, since that 3/4 would've resulted in you guys suffering some pretty bad losses (worse if the detection roll failed).

>>4519379
>Take the forces to the bank and deal with the might of raiders there [specify if you will dismount from vehicles] [specify if you will take supplies for yourself in the process]
hopefully we would get some of the valuables as reward for the defense. Might be useful for purchasing foreign arms from our mystery contact.

Rolled 31, 12 = 43 (2d100)

>>4519379
>>Try to cut off likely paths of escape
this. fuck bleeding for these guys. We already contributed some casualties. Let's make sure we kepe our losses short. Defending some path seems like the safer option.

Rolled 12, 11 = 23 (2d20)

>>4519534
whoops wrong rolls

>>4519382
>Try to cut off likely paths of escape
>Lay down suppressive fire from afar. Interfere with them and deal easy damage without getting sucked into a quagmire

We're not stealing from our allies, because without us, they'd be toast, and they know it.

Make sure we cut off likely paths of escape before laying down suppressive fire. The enemy would be surprised and demoralized, while the defenders suddenly get a shot of adrenaline and moral. In this fight, panic among the enemy while the defenders get that final boost will help immensely to winning the battle.

>>4519382
+1

Rolled 18, 18 = 36 (2d20)

>>4519379
>Try to cut off likely paths of escape

>Lay down suppressive fire from afar. Interfere with them and deal easy damage without getting sucked into a quagmire

Rolled 20, 16 = 36 (2d20)

>>4519379
>Take the forces to the grocers and deal with the might of raiders there [specify if you will dismount from vehicles] [specify if you will take food crates for yourself in the process]
>Try to cut off likely paths of escape

>>4519534
>>4519614
>>4519717
>>4520002

OPTION SELECTED:
>Lay down suppressive fire from afar. Interfere with them and deal easy damage without getting sucked into a quagmire

You've already shown up, cut off support, and have done more than would be expected. You don't need to risk the lives of your increasingly weary men in a dangerous fight being fought for territory that isn't (yet) yours. You won't commit to any close fights and keep your distance. The high caliber rifles and machine guns have good range and penetration, but more importantly the chaos of the fighting means the raiders aren't able to properly react to being hit from behind.

>+5 from surprise and flanking

A sort of battle line has emerged, where rows of shops and chest high walls are being used as cover. Unfortunately for them, it mostly protects from the south and west where the Maricopan militia is attacking from and not from attack from the 347.

>-1 from enemy defenses (mitigated)

What's to your disadvantage, however, is the lopsided numbers. You don't have nearly your full strength present, and even if you did, you would still be heavily outnumbered. Probably more than three to one. You're coming in hard, with high morale and great positioning, but you are under no illusions and know that the real fight is between them and the Maricopans.

>-6 from lopsided numbers
>+3 from morale
>-3 from exhaustion

>Final Result: 12 - 2 = 10
>Decent effect...
>But will it be enough?

>>4520120

[2/3]

>Secret roll made for raiders...
>Bad roll for them!

>Secret roll made for militia...
>High roll for them!
>Adding in bonus from your intervention...
>Successful repulsion!

The tide of battle turns. Whether it's just the result of your intervention or purely due to events between the two main powers, the raiders begin to fall back, quickly ceding ground and reorganizing themselves. There's a mad rush to take whatever they can easily & immediately grab followed by a quick loading up of the loot. What vehicles aren't already on get their motors running and start to vacate the area. The Maricopan defenders, many of whom seem to be wearing police or SWAT uniforms on closer inspection, begin to advance.

Instead of continuing the ranged assault, you order your forces to spread out and cover some of the roads leading out. Your numbers are relatively small, but it only takes a few men in the right positions to cut off a road. You order the entrance to the 347 to be flooded with smoke, making it suicidal to pass into. This part of Maricopa is very suburban and open, but you're able to do a decent job of harrying their retreat.

You find your best advantage is confusion. Your guys are all equipped with Maricopan SWAT armor, with the bold letters of M.M.P. (formerly of the Maricopan Municipal Police) making the raiders scatter. They must be thinking the defenders have them flanked. Like rats, they begin to scurry through the suburbs towards the eastern farmlands. They're now spread out enough to make it impossible for you to continue as one effective unit...

>>4520121

[3/3]

All in all, the crusaders have done a good job of being the ace in the hole that let the Maricopan defenders push through before too much damage was done. This is a good opportunity to stop further fighting, declare this a win, let the Maricopans mop up, and touch base. On the other hand, there are still some raiders that have managed to slip away with cargos of loot. You may be able to chase them down and take valuables for your own faction. You might even split up your forces and chase them along multiple routes, trusting Mueller and other leaders to handle things without your direct presence and God to protect them from a defeat in detail.

You decide to:

>Pursue one of the groups of fleeing raiders, taking their loot and nominally helping the defenders
>Go for broke and pursue as many as possible for maximum potential loot. Nothing ventured nothing gained!
>Just take the fucking win and not risk it any further. Touch base with M.M.P. and wind things down [Ignore roll outcome if you pick this]
>[Write in]

>Roll 2d20

>And stay tuned for special bonus content later today!
Yes it will be election related (in universe, not IRL). No, I won't be telling you guys to get out there and vote... I think it's a bit late for that!

>>4519536
>>4519717
>>4520002
>Rolls get progressively better, but only the first two dice matter
It just keeps happening! Although you guys still made it out fairly well due to the very good dice rolls for the defenders and raiders. If they were swapped (i.e. raiders rolled well and defenders botched the roll) then it would have been very different...

God fucking damn it computer, why do you choose to crash just as I'm about to copy paste the update!? Thank God the site I type on automatically saves it to the Internet

>>4520122
>Pursue one of the groups of fleeing raiders, taking their loot and nominally helping the defenders
We can return some of it. this last little push should be enough.

Rolled 16, 3 = 19 (2d20)

>>4520122
>Go for broke and pursue as many as possible for maximum potential loot. Nothing ventured nothing gained!

Rolled 13, 16 = 29 (2d20)

>>4520122
>Go for broke and pursue as many as possible for maximum potential loot. Nothing ventured nothing gained!
THE GLORY OF GOD IS AT HAND!

Rolled 13, 4 = 17 (2d20)

>>4520125

>>4520122
>Go for broke and pursue as many as possible for maximum potential loot. Nothing ventured nothing gained!

All in.

>>4520122
I will mention, these later numbers for the battle are weirdly organized.

A sign from God?!?!

>>4520122
>Go for broke

We picked all in, right?

File: Icon of Saint QM Chrysipen.png (1.94 MB, 876x1080)

1.94 MB PNG

>>4520122
>mfw the players are choosing the crazy retarded yolo decisions instead of being fucking normal for once
>mfw the dice gods, both on /qst/ and not, bail them out
AAAAAAAA. I'll leave the vote open, but I'm pretty sure I know what I'll have to write for the next update, enough to have done the roll already. Pic related

And with that out of the way, time for the scheduled bonus content...

For no reason in particular, you start remembering the days around the 2020 election, the election that started the domino chain that led to civil war.

The year 2020 was a year that changed everything. While the political divide in the U.S. has existed since the founding of the country, the late 2010's exacerbated it to levels not seen since the 1800's. Elements within the opposition party and non governmental organizations began the process of opposing the head of state by unorthodox means, including supporting violent opposition through barely legal means. The president and his inner circle began the process of attempting to purge their opponents in response. As the elites fought, so too did the masses. Cities burned as rioters vented their frustrations and participation in paramilitary groups rose to match.

To everyone's surprise, the event that accelerated this beyond control didn't come from an anarchist mob or militia group. It was some random idiot in China who decided to eat bat soup. It took a while for people to notice, and even longer for people to take it seriously. But the plague didn't care, it just kept spreading. Soon, the world economy was crippled by this new disease people called Wuhan Viral Pneumonia. A disorganized, schizophrenic response that vacillated from denial to doom-saying not only failed to stop the spread, but also devastated the world economy. Fragile supply chains broke down and financial institutions were brought to their knees. Thousands lost their jobs. Then millions.

With millions of unemployed people frothing at the mouth in anger at their fellow citizens, there had to be a reckoning. Normally, the country would be able to handle this using the mechanisms of democracy, but once again, disaster struck. The opposition party candidate fell ill to Wuhan Viral Pneumonia. First it was denied and called a conspiracy theory. Then he was sequestered. Finally, he died drowning in his own lung fluids. It seemed like the incumbent president was secure in his reelection. Then the Ridgefield Bombing Incident happened...

[1/???]

>>4520269

[2/???]

In one of the most evenly split counties in the country, the incumbent was making a speech in a small town. It was almost a formality, since one of the candidates had deceased and the opposition party was scrambling to replace him. In a total shock, a bomb was found during the speech. The Secret Service attempted to evacuate the crowd and president, but the bomb was detonated, killing hundreds and severely wounding the president. From this point onward, everything must be called into question because the stories each side believed in completely diverged.

According to multiple federal agencies and major media institutions, the vice president was killed in the blast and the president was guaranteed to die from severe radiation poisoning by an unknown agent at his hospital bed. This incident was the result of foreign agents from Russia attempting to destroy the American system of democracy. Military forces were recalled to the US and prepared for a defensive action in East Europe.

According to smaller outlets and certain sources claiming to be close to the incumbent, the vice president was allowed to die because of the actions of rogue security agents and the president was transferred to a secret bunker while on life support. The story about Russian assassins was the result of an internal memo based on speculation that got spun into crazy rumors by malicious actors. The military buildup was a distraction and reason to keep the military available for domestic action.

No matter who was correct, the result was the same. Anarchist revolutionaries claimed this was the death of late stage capitalism and time for the Proletariat Revolution. The White House was stormed and federal security agents did nothing to stop it. The congress building was taken soon after as well as other major sites in Washington D.C. According to all accounts, a battle occurred at Capitol Hill. The military was called to secure order, which of course meant everything went to hell...

>>4520271

[3/???]

According to those sympathetic to the opposition, the battle was started by right-wing paramilitary groups who wanted to take over the country and institute a fascist state. Security forces only barely managed to stop them and had to call in U.N. peacekeepers to stop a complete fascist takeover of America. The military was called to keep order by suppressing paramilitary forces looking to destabilize the country under emergency orders by the new commander in chief, formerly the speaker of the House.

According to those sympathetic to the incumbency, the battle was started by federal agencies who decided to open fire against concerned citizens looking to counter the actions of the anarchist revolutionaries literally destroying the country's capitol. U.N. peacekeepers were called to simultaneously invoke the idea of a destabilized, failed state and to grant a veneer of legitimacy to the coup/takeover. The speaker of the House is just a puppet of a decentralized network of federal agencies and other non-elected institutions.

Again, no matter who's right, the effects were the same. The country rapidly destabilized as the election was postponed to some indefinite time in 2021. First law enforcement agencies failed to preserve order and allowed for local powers to emerge. Whether this meant warlords, anarchist occupied zones, or local governments that had to continue without a real federal government, this meant chaos. In this chaos, the military was called to ensure order. In all likelihood, they would have done so, if it weren't for a rogue agent among them.

The military was almost totally in favor of the U.N. forces and opposition led government. The conflict was almost over before it began, except for a Marine Corps general who was ordered to pacify the Midwest. By force of charisma, he managed to convince his peers to follow him over the federal government and also somehow get key anarchist organizers on his side. He became the sole authority in the region and created his own de facto country. This emboldened other military leaders to create their own states. In the case of the Navy, they went completely independent, forming what some have called an aircraft carrier based coalition of pirates. Among themselves, they prefer the name Sailors Without Borders...

>>4520275

[4/4]

After this, the country was completely shattered and in a state of total war. While some of the more rural areas might have been able to keep things essentially normal, the chaos would spread to them in due time. In your particular area, California, peace was established when local level leaders, acting as puppets of tech oligarchs, voted to declare independence using obscure laws from the 1800's. Subsequently, this new state declared its allegiance to the "International Order" of the "Great State of China". In essence, the largest and most powerful state in the union became a puppet of China, seemingly by its own free will. You suspect there's more going on behind the scenes, but you had no way of confirming this. You were too busy first growing your cult, and then evacuating out to a secure site from where to build power, the Promised Land of Mobile, Arizona.

By this point, the time of an organized U.S. with election concerns was gone, and the era of the 2nd American Civil War was in full swing. Feuding "timocracies", as one of the ancient scholars would put it, was the order of the day. To you, this is a sign from God to use any and all means available to usher in God's ideal order and the purification of the Holy Church. After the farcical tragedy of the so-called Holy Papacy, there truly could be no other way. But that is a story for another time.

Your attention returns to the battle at hand, concluding your trip down memory lane.

>End of today's Election Day bonus content

>Continue voting as normal until the next update (even if the vote is basically locked in already)

>>4520269
Kek. I must say, I enjoy your religious interpretation of recent events (rolls). My vote is inspired by your post here...

>>4520122
>Pray. The Lord's light on his chosen people is humbly recognized and appreciated.

>>4520277
>Continue voting as normal until the next update (even if the vote is basically locked in already)
I'll change my vote to go all out.>>4520125

>>4520277
I will mention that going after the raiders like this is going full Mad Max on them.

>>4520269
We're methed out fanatics. I would be surprised if were restrained.

File: finally lost faith in the(...).png (280 KB, 671x747)

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>The raiders' faces when they see methed out MMP Crusaders block off their exit and prepare for mass executions.

>>4520269
Wait, does this mean our batshit insane decisions are working, or is this God's way of giving us a second chance?

>>4521286
*panic*

we're losing way too many people as of recently. After this we will have to double our efforts on converting once we receive our payment and make our lab operational.

>>4522053
Honestly, our reputation we've built up as insanely successful religious fighters will help immensely to that end.

>>4520297
+1

>>4520130
>>4520132
>>4520152
>>4520158
>>4520297
>>4520304

Pursuing these raiders whom outnumber you through unfamiliar terrain while exhausted and under-strength is a foolish idea. Doing that while splitting up is downright suicidal. That said...

OPTION SELECTED:
>Go for broke and pursue as many as possible for maximum potential loot. Nothing ventured nothing gained!

That said, you have a good feeling about this. Against all odds, you tell your men to form "squads" which consist of two vehicles of screaming crusaders. Any normal army would probably be very hesitant about this. You don't have an army, however, you have a crusader order that remains eager and zealous in spite of the threat of death. Maybe even because of it.

>+4 Morale Bonus

Unfortunately, they are pretty exhausted from today's fighting. Weathered and worn down over the course of today's fighting, they aren't able to perform to their fullest.

>-3 from Exhaustion Penalty

And furthermore, your crusaders are still fairly outnumbered. The raiders have split up into small groups that are enough to present a threat. They're armed and obviously desperate to get out. They are dangerous opponents.

>-5 from choosing to be outnumbered

Splitting up doesn't just reduce the battle to a bunch of closely fought running skirmishes between groups on improvised fighting vehicles. It reduces the battle to said skirmishes fought without your direct leadership. There simply not enough Messengers or Muellers to properly lead this group, so most of them are left to lead themselves. Needless to say, they are not very good at this in their present state.

>-2 from lack of leadership

In general, you have to admit that you have no real clue where you're going. Literally. For all you know, they could be setting up some sort of trap, where they manage to consolidate numbers in such a way as to perform a defeat in detail. Or possibly they have forces lying in wait somewhere else ready to strike. Even if none of this manifests, you have to prepare for it, forcing sub-optimal decisions.

>-3 from lack of info
>-3 from disadvantageous position as pursuer

And there's always the factor of chaos. Taking this strategy leaves things out of your hands and puts them in God's. And somebody once said "not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." You pray, literally, that they be loaded in your favor. But you have no way of knowing until it's already too late.

>?????????

The more you think about this, the more you realize this is a pretty terrible decision that hinges on luck and a million things going right.

Don't care, still going for broke...

[1/???]

File: Boomer Ex Machina.jpg (84 KB, 1280x720)

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>>4522568

[2/???]

You rev up the engine and gun it for one of the bands of "rats." Having already committed to the pursuit early, you're actually well positioned for this, already near them. You and the rest of your group have good access to the rest of the town from this artery of the town's road network. Slamming the gas, you begin your pursuit, one of many.

>+1 for previous decisive commitment

It doesn't take long for the raiders to figure out what's going on. Their black masked fighters begin to shoot at you, forcing you to take a chaotic path, zigging and zagging along the wide roads of American suburbia. They do the same as your men start shooting them. You're totally focused on the road, paying attention to their movements and trying to find patterns. Avoiding gunfire is a near thing, with the only saving you being the difficulty of firing at semi randomly moving targets on the back of a truck with armor slapped on it.

To your advantage is the equipment. While using grenade launchers is very difficult in this scenario for obvious reasons, the high caliber rifles and the machine guns, for those who have them, is a godsend. While actually getting hits off is a problem, you know that your weaponry is more than capable of punching right through any armor they have on their vehicles By comparison, the opponents seem to be relying mostly on lower caliber weaponry, maybe .223's at the highest with a decent amount of shotguns and sidearms. It's still enough to pop a tire and damage an engine block, but you hope the tire skirts and armor welded on the front will be enough.

>+2 for better equipment

The fight goes on for uncomfortably long. You think you heard one of your fighters get hit, and the machine gun did stop firing for a while. You really can't pay too much attention on that with the chaos of the road, your focus necessarily being demanded by shifting gears, braking when necessary, and steering away from the stream of death being fired at you.

You slam the brakes and swerve as one of the vehicles in front of you suddenly veers off and nearly crashes into you. You hear a storm of noise from one of the lawns nearby. You see a couple of middle aged or elderly folk with guns shooting at the raiders. You might have said that they look goofy, but you're not complaining. You also hear a bunch of unintelligible yelling from them, but you're too busy hitting the gas.

>Boomers with guns show up out of nowhere
>+3 bonus from spontaneous support from locals

I couldn't find the actual image I wanted. I swear this was the first result that came up for "boomers with guns" and it was too funny not to go with.

File: Boxes of Food.jpg (120 KB, 970x727)

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>>4522571

[3/???]

As this happens, one of the vehicles breaks off from the group for seemingly no reason. It then tries to go back, but has lost a lot of speed and distance. It's easy prey for the machine gun. You're not sure what exactly is going on, but it's clear that as disadvantaged as your side is, these guys aren't doing so well themselves.

>Result of chaos factor revealed
>+4 bonus from enemy disorganization
>Very lucky roll

>Final Result: 16 - 2 = 14
>Against all odds... success

To even your amazement, you manage to mop things up from here rather successfully. Between fanatical zeal, enemy discombobulation, and the luck of the boomer, you manage to successfully take out this band of raiders. Stopping in the middle of the deserted road, you check the situation. One of your men is dead, slumped over near the position of the machine gunner. Another fighter from one of the other vehicles in your group is sporting a blood drenched arm. The somber sight slightly mutes the pleasure you take in the loot you're about to take. Slightly.

You walk towards the back of one of their vehicles, eyeing a crate. On the way, you notice a blood soaked man slowly, almost imperceptibly crawling towards a pistol. You notice him. He notices you notice him.

"Ugghh," he groans out. "Mercy, please," he says, his glassy brown gaze focused on your eyes.

"Granted," you tell him. He looks almost confused, as you begin to pray. His eyes dilate for a second as he sees you pull out your sidearm. A streak of blood heralds the entrance of the .38 Special hollow point. "May God have mercy on your soul."

>BATTLE OVER

Back to the issue of loot, you obviously can't inspect it all fully (nor is it necessary) but you get a basic idea of what they took. First of all, they took a bunch of food. Ever since the collapse of USG and the shock to supply chains, food has been at a premium. Here in more rural America it's not as valued, but in more urbanized areas, such as the Phoenix warzone about half an hour away, it's a different story. You also see other miscellaneous supplies such as solar panels, consumer electronics, books, etc. Even if not directly useful, these random items will provide valuable wealth.

Hours pass, and you eventually manage to get most of the crusaders back in one place. The losses are significant. It's not because the individual fights went poorly. They went quite well actually, similar to yours. You don't hear any stories about boomers appearing from the bushes, but there's the general theme that the attackers really weren't prepared to be doggedly chased and fell to forces they really should have been able to defeat if they knew what they were doing. Some of the rats probably escaped, but it's hard to complain given how well your faction came out of this...

>>4522572

[4/???]

Mueller offers to deal with the loot. He proposes driving out north, off road of the highway, and stashing away a good portion of it there for later retrieval. You would meanwhile present the rest of the cargo when the situation arises and "return everything" to them.

You might normally expect this sort of thing to be brought up by Musella the money launderer. Through confessional services, however, you know that Mueller did some less than savory work in his time in the Marine Corps involving hiding crates of poppies. You would never talk about it or act on the information given how you treat the faith (you are, after all, the Pope), so you accept it and let him quickly do the work while there's still plausible deniability and while the chaos of battle hasn't quite worn off.

Another portion of your men, the wounded, are transferred. In this case, it's via Maricopans acting as a sort of emergency ambulance service. The dead will, by the end of the day, be transferred to Mobile for burial. You hope that the number of dead on your side does not increase any more. You also know that Maricopa will likely prioritize their own.

During this, you aren't really interrupted by anyone. There are a few civilians peeping about, but they're easily scared off and of no consequence. Any groups of M.M.P. or government officials must be busy, which makes sense given today's raid. Your mind wanders onto the subject of just what is going on. It's too much of a coincidence that there's a major attack on Maricopa that overwhelms their highway defenses, devastates their interior, and almost got away with it. Hell, they probably would have, even with your intervention, if they kept their cool and didn't mistake your faction wandering in for a larger force. You'll have to think about this later, when you're in a better state of mind and body. If you didn't have extraordinary willpower and God's help, you'd have collapsed a dozen times over already...

>>4522573

[5/5]

Now, you have to decide on what to do with your time here. You have never actually been to Maricopa before, but you hear that there's plenty to do from those who've been here. Your time is limited, so you might only have time for one or two things depending on how things go. In the end, you:

>Stay lookout on the 347 to cover for Mueller's loot laundering. If anyone asks, run interference and make it look like you're just looking out for any raiders along the highway
>Go to the hospital and make sure they don't do your wounded crusaders dirty. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.
>Try to get a hold of the mayor and talk to him. Figure out what's going on and get the rewards for the mountain base quest and the surprise defense.
>Go to the Native Reservation area you heard about before. It sounded like there was something important going on there.
>Find Carl Redfield. If anyone knows what the hell is going on, it's unfortunately him.
>Get to whoever is in charge of the defenders, the M.M.P., and find out what happened with the fighting. Get some more info on the relative strengths of both.
>Ignore all of this stuff and go home to Mobile. Your men are tired and the important stuff can be sorted out after the fact.
>[Write In]

Sorry about missing yesterday's update! Chalk it up to technical difficulties, perhaps. I beefed up this one a bit to make up for it. It does mark the end of today's fighting (unless you guys do something monumentally stupid/awesome/insane) so it's probably fitting. Hopefully we can get to shorter, maybe even more frequent updates.

>>4520500
It's not even blocking off the exits. It's going straight into the mass executions! I mean, you only executed one wounded raider asking for mercy, but hey, details!

>>4521286
It means you guys took a very risky "trap" option, in that it was statistically going to get your men slaughtered for nothing. In a stunning turn of luck, the enemies rolled very poorly and you guys rolled pretty well, so it actually did work out. And here I was thinking I would get to show you guys the real brutality of civil war. Go figure! Although you guys still did lose a very significant amount of guys. How many is still to be determined since the wounded are still being treated, but I'll say that >>4522053 has a very valid perspective.

>>4522574
>Stay lookout on the 347 to cover for Mueller's loot laundering. If anyone asks, run interference and make it look like you're just looking out for any raiders along the highway
>Go to the hospital and make sure they don't do your wounded crusaders dirty. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.
Two most pressing issues, everything else can be done later.

>>4522574
>Stay lookout on the 347 to cover for Mueller's loot laundering. If anyone asks, run interference and make it look like you're just looking out for any raiders along the highway
>Go to the hospital and make sure they don't do your wounded crusaders dirty. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.
I agree with anon

>>4522574
>Go to the hospital and make sure they don't do your wounded crusaders dirty. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.

First priority, even before the loot. I trust Mueller with stashing the loot.

>Go to the Native Reservation area you heard about before. It sounded like there was something important going on there.

Frankly, the importantace of this shouldn't be understated, and should be the second priority. Our diplomacy with the Native Americans are tenuous at best, and should be seen to as soon as reasonably possible.

>Get to whoever is in charge of the defenders, the M.M.P., and find out what happened with the fighting. Get some more info on the relative strengths of both.

Frankly, the leader or second-in-command may do wonders for getting our troops proper care and sorting out the Reservation situation, as well as gaining info on the battle and raiders (as well as a good distraction for the leadership, to deal with the leadership of the Crusaders while trying to focus on their side of the battle mop-up).

>>4522574
>Stay lookout on the 347 to cover for Mueller's loot laundering. If anyone asks, run interference and make it look like you're just looking out for any raiders along the highway
>Go to the hospital and make sure they don't do your wounded crusaders dirty. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.
We can come back to ask what the hell happened later.

>>4522574
>>Go to the hospital and make sure they don't do your wounded crusaders dirty. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.
After that
>Ignore all of this stuff and go home to Mobile. Your men are tired and the important stuff can be sorted out after the fact.
I want to give a strong impression to the Mayor of Maricopa by coming to get our loot by bringing our prisoners in a display of power, and maybe have a talk with the Sheriff after that.

Just checking in early and want to say that it's great you guys are planning ahead, but you as a human being can physically only do one thing first. Depending on what's selected and what you guys do, there might not be time for a second one before you guys have to go back (you guys did do a lot of stuff today). I will treat votes as if only the first selection exists. Update should be coming later today, as normal, but I wanted to clarify what's going on since it seems like a pervasive error (and therefore me not being clear enough on things)

>>4523466
Nah man, we're just greedy on the choices. Call us selfish. It's fine if you go with my first choice btw.

>>4522661
>>4522751
>>4523253

OPTION SELECTED:
>Stay lookout on the 347 to cover for Mueller's loot laundering. If anyone asks, run interference and make it look like you're just looking out for any raiders along the highway

You take your men, or what's left of them, and dedicate them to the task of covering for Mueller. You took some pretty big risks for that loot and got pretty lucky on hitting a major payday, so you feel like you should protect your winnings. You patrol around the 347 and its entrances, occasionally stopping and checking for incoming raiders. Nobody comes, which is to be expected. No raiders at least.

You do have a few visitors. The crusaders who hadn't come back around get back. A few of them are wounded and one of them is dead. One of the ones who returned is a medic, the same one who worked on the "Ondrejko" character. He has already done basic first aid to the best of his ability, but requests medical supplies from the loot for further treatment. You allow him permission and give him the needed supplies before they're hauled off to Mueller's Loot Stash.

For the dead man, you administer last rites and pray for his immortal soul. While you are supposed to administer them before death (and he is dead with a large hole in his neck), you argue that one cannot be sure when a soul departs from the body and so should err on the side of caution.

During your lookout, you encounter a group of M.M.P. An officer flanked by a duo of visibly tired and haggard lackeys.

"I don't believe we've met. Which unit are you from?" he asks.

"The Sun Belt Crusaders," you bluntly tell him. He looks surprised and is visibly trying to come up with a response when you continue. "We were hired by the mayor to help deal with raids. We got word there was something happening around here and came in."

He keeps up his confused look, before his face shifts. "Wait a second. Were you guys the, uh, you know, at the market district? They started fleeing out of nowhere and we heard that there were M.M.P. that got them from the back, but there couldn't have been anyone. We fell back after what happened at the highway defense line, but they were dead sure they saw our uniforms out there."

"You're welcome."

"I think I remember you guys. The ones from Mobile, I think. I'm not sure how nobody saw you guys coming, but I guess the chaos at the Harr-"

"We got here from the north. By "deal with the raids" I meant eliminating the mountain base. Which we did."

His eyes widen in surprise, not sure if he should believe you. "You mean the Sierra Estrella bastards? How in the goddamn-, you know what? Never mind. I won't ask for details, I'll just say thank you. I recommend you talk it out with Brig. Gen. Greger, or at least Preis. I guess I'll leave you guys alone."

>Negative encounter that was rolled for was avoided
>Loot fully secured

[1/2]

>>4523915

[2/2]

After that, nothing more happens here. Mueller manages to stash the loot securely, and by tonight you should be able to send out members of Mobile's garrison to retrieve it. Whatever you have left you'll return to Maricopa and tell them that it was all that could be retrieved. By the time it's all over, the sun is starting its descent down. You and your men are dead tired and everyone just wants to get back to Mobile.

But you could maybe, just maybe, push for more. You may want to go to the hospital area and make sure your men are being cared for with a plan to get them back. And you were told to speak with either the mayor or military leader. With everything that has happened today, both at the base and in this town, it would be a good to talk to them. There was something going on around the Indian Reservation around here you heard from the officer. Or are you misremembering that in your tired state?

As night approaches and you will be forced to go back, you decide to:

>Go to the hospital and make sure they treated your crusaders well and sort things out. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.
>Try to get a hold of the mayor and talk to him. Figure out what happened and get the rewards for the mountain base quest and the surprise defense.
>Go to the Native Reservation area you heard about before. It sounded like there was something important that happened there.
>Find Carl Redfield. If anyone knows what's really going on and has the details nobody else does, it's him.
>Get to the Greger guy in charge of M.M.P., and find out what happened with the fighting. Get some more info on the combatants.
>You're done enough, just go home to Mobile for God's sake! Your men are at the breaking point and you can deal with things later.
>[Write In]

>>4523491
I appreciate the blatant greed, but you're not going to be able to be in two places at the same time. Not unless Walt invents a time machine or cloning vat...

>>4523919
>Go to the hospital and make sure they treated your crusaders well and sort things out. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.

>Not unless Walt invents a time machine or cloning vat...
A tempting thought. But I doubt it to be possible.

>>4523919
>Go to the hospital and make sure they treated your crusaders well and sort things out. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.
Veterans acquired

>>4523919
>Go to the hospital and make sure they treated your crusaders well and sort things out. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.

Take half a pill of meth maybe? Or Muller the type to not take "pep pills"?

>>4523919
Well, I would love to do other things, (especially the Native Reservation) but the men come first. Even if they would be treated like the MMP due to the armor.

We can let Mueller or Bob handle the rest, when we have time.

>Go to the hospital and make sure they treated your crusaders well and sort things out. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.

>Have Mueller take the bulk of the men home. They deserve the rest. Keep the least tired men with you as an escort for when we head back to Mobile.

>>4524574
Supporting. It was a long, exciting day after all. The men deserve a bit of rest.

>>4524369
It's fine. We'll worry about the rest after a good night's sleep.

>>4524035
But Walt Disney has a time machine.....

>>4524035
>>4524274
>>4524369
>>4524574
>>4524729

OPTION SELECTED:
>Go to the hospital and make sure they treated your crusaders well and sort things out. Doggedly advocate for their help after you have yours.

There are many things you want to get to, but you decide that before nightfall, you'll pay a visit to the wounded. You hope they are treating your crusaders well after everything they've done. And if they aren't, you'll use your overwhelming presence to make them. As calloused as you are to death at times (you have to be in order to lead the crusade), you honor them and want the best for them. In a way, all that you do is for the flock, of which they are the foremost members of. As you drive towards the hospital, however, you see an ominous plume of black smoke.

The approach to the hospital area, which contains multiple buildings dedicated to medical services, is filled with a disorganized mass of vehicles, some of which are M.M.P. labelled and a few of which are firetrucks. The aforementioned black smoke billows out of the husk of a vehicle that has smashed itself into the hospital. The area around it is filled with concrete rubble from the hospital, although the structure remains. The fire is in a controlled state of burn, where the firefighters have successfully put out fires around it and are just letting the petrol burn. They're focused on recovering those caught up in the blast.

"What the hell happened here?" you hear Mueller ask himself as everyone has sort of stopped and started observing the scene before them.

You ask around and find out that there was apparently a vehicle that slammed into the hospital and blew up. You and your guys must have been too far away from the blast when guarding the 347 to have heard it. You've heard of some insane terrorism happening and are no stranger to brutal tactics yourself, but suicide bombing a hospital is truly vile. You wonder whether you should consider yourself lucky you weren't there or whether if you were there you could have stopped it, somehow. Then it hits you...

[1/3]

>>4525282

[2/3]

"Where are they, our men?" you ask one of the emergency respondents. "Wearing M.M.P. SWAT uniforms, armed, talking about Christ," you say feeding him details until he gets who you're talking about. It takes some more precious time to find them, and they're not in good condition. They haven't received much any treatment, and definitely aren't going to with the state of crisis currently going on here. At least one of them has already died of his wounds.

Fuming with rage, you have them loaded into the vehicles and taken towards Mobile as soon as possible. While Maricopa does normally have much better medical infrastructure, this is anything but a normal time. Everything else can wait, you need to save as many (of your men's) lives as you can. Nobody objects when you do this, there being the tacit understanding that the fewer persons to take care of, the more resources can be put towards everyone else.

Your group rushes to the highway defenses and hurriedly "returns" the portion of the loot decided to be the minimum needed to keep appearances. The skeleton crew guarding the defenses is happy to receive the goods, but can't really say or do anything else. You would have liked to return them personally to somebody of authority, but there are simply not enough hours in the day. As it is, you've done a lot.

On the trip back, the sun has started to set. You think about the events of this day, especially about the raid. Who did this, exactly? You know this had to have been related to the successful taking of the mountain base. But that doesn't mean it was necessarily done by the Native Americans. Whoever was doing this, they were dedicated enough to send in infiltrators to commit what appeared to be a suicide bombing on a hospital. And they were competent enough to pull it off. As your weary mind begins to ruminate on this, you get a call...

>>4525283

[3/3]

"Hello? Uh, Messenger, do you copy?" Judging from the voice, it's one of the Mobile Infantry.

"Loud and clear."

"It's getting late, sir. If you want us to transfer these guys to Mobile, now's the latest we can do it. If you guys want us to stay here, we got the food and supplies, but we could really use a change in shift. Maybe swap some of us out with some of the garrison?"

Oh yes, that large group of prisoners you have. You almost forgot about them. You have to figure out what exactly to do with them short term, which is a very minor decision, but one that has to be made. You choose to:

>Relieve the Mobile Infantry and send in the platoon at Mobile to replace them
>Transfer the prisoners and whatever loot you can to Mobile
>Tell them to stand by and stay at the base until at least the morning
>[Write In]

Perhaps more importantly, this reminds you that you have to figure out what to do with the prisoners for the foreseeable future. This would include the prisoners taken from the ambush currently at Mobile.

SET PRISONER POLICY:

>Forced Labor: Use prisoners for involuntary labor, generating W.P. over time at the cost of dedicating a platoon to watch over them
>Capture then Release: Find who exactly they belong to, and then return them so you don't have to spend food on them and to gain goodwill.
>Total Slaughter: Order prisoners to be executed as soon as possible to avoid
>Psychological Warfare: Engage in a slow process of converting some prisoners to the cause, spending extra W.P. to do so
>U.N. Protocols: Feed and supply prisoners, taking as good care of them as possible in accordance with international law
>[Write In]

And if you guys think I'm trying to needless torture you with this, there were hidden rolls to determine the outcomes at certain places. That M.M.P. officer, for instance, only came because you guys got a bad outcome. Maricopa got horrible rolls all around, including a critical failure that resulted in that terrorist style bombing on the hospital. You'll see the rest of the results soon enough most likely.

>>4525284
>Transfer the prisoners and whatever loot you can to Mobile
We can hand em off to another person when we get there, all our guys are tired.
Turn some of them into infiltrators.
>[Write In]
Hand em off to Maricopa They probably have a prison, and they can take any people we don't want.

>Psychological Warfare: Engage in a slow process of converting some prisoners to the cause, spending extra W.P. to do so

>>4525284
>Relieve the Mobile Infantry and send in the platoon at Mobile to replace them. Tell them to take as much as they reasonably can when they are relieved.

Might as well start processing our bounty. We'll deal with the rest of it in the morning.

>Psychological Warfare: Engage in a slow process of converting some prisoners to the cause, spending extra W.P. to do so

Sensible. I sense some fertile ground here...

>>4525284
>Relieve the Mobile Infantry and send in the platoon at Mobile to replace them
>Psychological Warfare: Engage in a slow process of converting some prisoners to the cause, spending extra W.P. to do so

We're gonna need to start building more farms again.
Good news is after this we get to start diplomacy with all those other towns we couldn't get to before.

>>4525284

>Relieve the Mobile Infantry and send in the platoon at Mobile to replace them

>Psychological Warfare: Engage in a slow process of converting some prisoners to the cause, spending extra W.P. to do so

Today's update is probably going to be delayed, as a heads up (phoneposting QM if not apparent). Also, dat unanimous agreement to have a policy of psychologically breaking and brainwashing, probably with a mix of drugs, torture, and more creative methods... not sure whether to be disgusted or proud. Probably proud given the faction we're playing

>>4526678
Mostly drugs, I can imagine.

>>4526836
The drugs are probably a significant part because they leave the person vulnerable but the torture and brainwashing are also important so that we actually can make them our troops

>>4525284
>[Write In]
>Relieve the Mobile Infantry and send in the platoon at Mobile to replace them
We will send them back to Maricopa as soon as we can. They can decide what to do with them.
PRISONER POLICY:
I would normally want to do Psycological Warfare, but these men are unrecruitable, not because they cant be converted but because we are allied to Maricopa, and they wouldnt find it funny that some of our men were to be former Sierra Estrella soldiers.
For now,
>U.N. Protocols: Feed and supply prisoners, taking as good care of them as possible in accordance with international law

>>4528077
Well, we can split our POWs into groups and treat them based off of politics.

Communist simps get the conversion treatment.

>>4528431
why, who cares. we're sending them back to Maricopa asap

>>4529834
Future policy. We may end up fighting those who goal may align better with us than most. But that shall be determined by more than circumstance.

>>4529949
so far it seems like betting for the whites to win has been the most succesfull course of action.
i dont want Maricopans to antagonize us if we start recruiting people who have most likely killed many of ther own. Remember how brutal civil wars are. Worst-case scenario would be for someone to point a finger at one of our men (former Sierra Estrella native) and cause an outrage.

>>4515247
didnt notice this picture, thats amazing

>>4530370
You know, racializing the conflict is playing right into the hands of the Marxists.

>>4530371
I thought mobile would be larger. not just spread out and sparse.How we defended such a spread out area is beyond me. Like there is hardly any infrastructure, and it is desert pretty much.

>>4530405
still doesnt make it any less true.

>>4525530
>>4525784
>>4525802

OPTION SELECTED:
>Relieve the Mobile Infantry and send in the platoon at Mobile to replace them

"Understood sir, we'll keep our eyes peeled for them. Over and out!" The man on the other side of the conversation seems happy to hear the news. Anyone would be if he had to wake up early in the morning to hike up a mountain in a roundabout path in the Arizona sun (under the threat of death) to participate in a battle and then start managing a POW camp. Speaking of POW camps, you get a good idea about what you'll do about these new prisoners.

>Psychological Warfare: Engage in a slow process of converting some prisoners to the cause, spending extra W.P. to do so

While you built up your initial following with more willing recruits, you might have a few tricks up your sleeve to turn some of these men and women (mostly women probably) into loyal followers. Fanatical ones, even. You have some ideas for how you could achieve this.

First of all, some percentage of prisoners will naturally become sympathetic to their captors and willingly collaborate if Stockholm Syndrome holds true. Given proper stimuli and doses, psychedelics can cause intense experiences that are able to sway people towards the supernatural. God did create these chemicals and allow man to experience these effects, after all. Of course, there is always the possibility of just giving them methamphetamine or other addictive substances and forcing compliance, although this can come with certain negative side effects, such as cutting into drug supplies for sale. Cruder tactics are also available, such as torture to break a person's willingness to resist or forcing people to fake acts and sayings of allegiance until they subconsciously believe it. So many options...

>Construction Option Unlocked:
>Oubliette: Dungeon like room for basic interrogation/conversion. Unlocks conversion (brainwashing) oriented construction options. - 100 W.P.

So many options, and yet you have few resources to actually do any of this. You barely have the facilities needed to keep everyone sheltered under supervision. Come to think of it, a similar situation might be emerging in Mobile, where the first batch of prisoners was taken. You should probably build some facilities for this before something bad happens like escapes or riots. Or even just a plague from lack of sanitation.

>Construction Option Unlocked:
>Holding Cells: Large area for securing prisoners with (the barest of) communal facilities. Lower risk of revolt, plagues, and other negative events. - 70 W.P.

[1/4]

File: Decent Living Quarters.jpg (75 KB, 996x570)

75 KB JPG

>>4533816

[2/4]

The journey home is short and uneventful in stark contract to the rest of the day. Part of you expected a hero's welcome after the decisive victories today. Taking the base was a major accomplishment and in many ways is a watershed moment. You now own two pieces of territory, although what you're going to do with the base is up in the air. Even abandoning it isn't out of the question, if you for some reason choose to. Driving back the raiders are Maricopa has probably bought a lot of goodwill among their community and will cement your faction's reputation of fierce fighters. Even if that fight was in no small part won by enemy incompetence and a lack of morale, it was will and decisiveness that allowed your forces to capitalize on it where the Maricopans failed to do so. Alas, the streets are mostly empty and the tired few only manage to give salutes and praise while you unload the wounded and get them in the hands of people able to administer some medical attention. Thank God you got them out of the hellhole that was the bombed hospital in Maricopa, even if Mobile's facilities are inadequate.

You arrange for the loot to be recovered in the dawn and meet with the mayor of Mobile. He congratulates you on your success, especially in getting rid of the base without real losses among his men, and promises to do more At the same time, he's also visibly concerned about his small town's ability to hold everyone. Space is one obvious concern, with there being hardly enough room for everything, even with the active rebuilding going on. With some of the new followers from Maricopa and especially with the prisoners, the food balance is now in the negative. There are sufficient stores for now, but long term you're going to need to reclaim some more of the abandoned farmland or start buying food from elsewhere.

"Or get rid of mouths to feed," you think to yourself. You would of course rather have as many as possible with more than enough food to feed them. With the reserves and the food that should be coming in from the loot, you're not worried about anyone starving in the near future.

At the end of the day, you will your tired body to your bed and retire for the night. Your king sized bed with luxury sheets and pillows is easily the best accommodation in town as far as you know. But it's a shadow of what you deserve as the Messenger of God and the true leader of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Apostolic Palace should be yours, not occupied by the current "Pope" sat there. You would even settle for the old palace in southern France. All in due time, you suppose...

[END OF WEEK 4, HALF 1]

>>4533819

[3/4]

[START OF WEEK 4, HALF 2]

You took the liberty of sleeping in. When you wake up, you find that the remaining mechanized platoons managed to head up to the base and down to the stash of loot. It was recovered successfully, and represents quite a nice boon. Along the way, they managed to transfer some of the goods from the mountain base. It seems that they too had quite a stash of food, although they were curiously light on the random supplies and equipment that would constitute wealth points.

>LOOT OBTAINED:
450 W.P.
180 Food Units
I'm telling you, you guys got lucky with this one

Situation in Maricopa is unclear
State of recruitment is in limbo
Mobile is still under the process of full repair
Nothing has happened at the base yet
Need to return to Maricopa to claim quest rewards

>Available Manpower:
1 full strength Mechanized Infantry Platoon (can swap to Light Infantry freely)
2 half strength Mechanized Infantry Platoons (both slowly recovering as some wounded heal and via training followers)
1 Garrisoned Mobile Light Infantry [Mountain Base]
1 Garrisoned Mobile Light Infantry [Mobile]
~100 followers
~120 prisoners

>Wealth:
500 Wealth Points
+20 WP per half-week from followers
+15 WP per half-week from Mobile contribution
186 Food Units
-20 Food from consumption per half week
+12 Food from 2 farms

>Projects:

>Construction: Unless stated otherwise, assume 1 week to complete. Select at most 1:
Improved Housing: Can support a larger population. Slightly improves morale. - 25 WP
Farm: Makes more food. - 35 WP
Chemical Plant Level 1: Allows for large scale meth production. Unlocks chemistry options. Required for further factory upgrades. - 100 WP
Training Fields: Upgrade an existing firing range to allow for training with higher tier weaponry. - 50 W.P.
Mobile Repair: Boosts Mobile townsfolk W.P. generation. Will be a major help in integration. - 170 WP (Cost will slowly decline over time, representing townsfolk independently doing repairs)
Broadcast Tower: Sends messages far and wide to anyone with a car or receiver. Massive boost to propaganda. - 150 WP
>Oubliette: Dungeon like room for basic interrogation/conversion. Unlocks conversion (brainwashing) oriented construction options. - 100 W.P.
>Holding Cells: Large area for securing prisoners with (the barest of) communal facilities. Lower risk of revolt, plagues, and other negative events. - 70 W.P.
Nothing
[Write-in]

>Toggles
Purchase advertising for Maricopa's radio to help with recruitment/outreach - 5 W.P. per half week [CURRENTLY OFF]
Send Cardinal Mueller out to the Reservation to preach. - 5 W.P. per end of the (full) week [CURRENTLY ON]

>>4533821

[4/4]

>Diplomatic Action: Select at most 1:
Envoy: Send a diplomatic envoy to a location to engage in trade, propagandize, or make agreements. Better at getting deals than scouts, but has no stealth and is worse if a fight breaks out. Select from the Gila Bend, Maricopa, or a [Write-in] and specify what you specifically want them to do. [Highly Recommended: Send an envoy to Maricopa]
Scouting: Have the group organize a scouting party and explore a location. Stealthy and decent at a fight, but not very good if diplomacy is needed. Select from the Gila Bend, Maricopa, or a [Write-in] and specify what you specifically want them to do.
Raiding Party: Send forces out to a location and attack them for loot and dominance
Missionary Outreach: Send missionaries to a location to recruit people into the totally legitimate religion. Could anger the locals if you don't have permission! Select from Gila Bend, the Indian Mountains (?!?!), or [write-in]. [Will automatically toggle Mueller off of the reservation]
Nothing
[Write-in]

>New Action Type Unlocked!
>Flexible Action
Due to the increased follower count, new territory, and increased support from Mobile, it is now possible to do an extra action, either in diplomacy or in construction.

>Select construction, diplomatic, and flexible actions (and optionally, toggle changes) for this half-week

>Roll 2d100 for local and global events

Wew, sorry for the massively late update guys. I really didn't plan on this much delay, but my professional life decided to throw a temporary setback in the way. I would like to say it won't happen again, but it's very possible it'll happen again in about month. I'll see if I can at least keep access to /qst/ at the time and at least get some smaller sized updates out if I can't do full ones. Hopefully, everything should proceed as normal from now on. Well, maybe not normally in universe, that's up to you guys.

>>4530950
Mobile's a pretty small village, comparable in population to an obscure Catholic sect in a civil war. Although it is larger than that lighter colored section on the map which I think is the airport area. It extends down to the highway, at least. There's some infrastructure and buildings, like an airport, a school, and a firefighter station, but it's pretty hard to make out on a satellite photo. You guys defended it by seeing the attackers coming and immediately shooting the shit out of them with some good rolls. Even then, they managed to fuck up the defenders a good deal.

>>4527260
If the Symbionese Liberation Army taught me anything, it's that brainwashing (and probably also psychological torture and drugs too depending on who's testimony you believe) are always great ways to get new recruits for your cult of domestic terrorists!

Rolled 95, 54 = 149 (2d100)

>>4533819
I've had a change of heart. We're keeping the prisoners. They might be useful in the future for the following reasons: 1) Once we convert them they will be great converters that we can send to the Reservation. 2) They have connections with the marxists, we might be able to pull something off.
We have an additional problem we have to deal with. Mobile's population issue. Originally I was thinking of abandoning the Sierra Estrella's base, but I've had a better idea: It can be used for our future's prisoner colony. This has the following advantages: 1) We fix Mobile's population issue and keep the Mayor happy 2) It allow us to potentially in the future build the Oublietter and Holding Cells there where we can operate there undisturbed without having Mobile's townfolk look around.
Let's get onto Construction.
We now have a lot of cash. We can spend it in many ways. I think these should be our priorities from highest to lowest:
>Mobile Repair: Boosts Mobile townsfolk W.P. generation. Will be a major help in integration. - 170 WP (Cost will slowly decline over time, representing townsfolk independently doing repairs).
Will helps us in further inntegrating Mobile.
>Chemical Plant Level 1: Allows for large scale meth production. Unlocks chemistry options. Required for further factory upgrades. - 100 WP
This will make us further cash, and we'll be able to start making business with the Neonazis.
>Oubliette: Dungeon like room for basic interrogation/conversion. Unlocks conversion (brainwashing) oriented construction options. - 100 W.P.
>Holding Cells: Large area for securing prisoners with (the barest of) communal facilities. Lower risk of revolt, plagues, and other negative events. - 70 W.P.
These two are obvious. They will be necessary for the future integration of the prisoners.
>Farm: Makes more food. - 35 WP
This one will eventually have to be done, but for now we have a good supply of food.

>Toggles
>Send Cardinal Mueller out to the Reservation to preach. - 5 W.P. per end of the (full) week [CURRENTLY ON]
I would turn this off. So far our effectiveness is minimal there, especially after the conquest of Sierra Estrella. We'll come back there once we have brainwashed Native Americans for better effectiveness.
>Diplomatic Action: Select at most 1:
For now, let's send an envoy to Maricopa. But it would be interesting in the future to contact the 'Boogie Nights Boiz', they will be glad to know that we got rid of one of their enemies.

>Flexible Action
Let's use this extra Action for construction, so we can build,
>Mobile Repair: Boosts Mobile townsfolk W.P. generation. Will be a major help in integration. - 170 WP (Cost will slowly decline over time, representing townsfolk independently doing repairs).
Will helps us in further inntegrating Mobile.
>Holding Cells: Large area for securing prisoners with (the barest of) communal facilities. Lower risk of revolt, plagues, and other negative events. - 70 W.P.

>>4533894
Didn't we already do the mobile repair option?

>>4533821
>Construction: Unless stated otherwise, assume 1 week to complete. Select at most 1:
Holding cells
>Toggles
This can remain the same
>>4533822
>Diplomatic Action: Select at most 1:
Send Musella leading an envoy to Maricopa
>Flexible Action: Construction
If my calculations are correct we have about 23 half-weeks until we run out of food. SO we should build Improved Housing for our growing population.

>>4533821

I support >>4534098, except on the toggles. We have a reserve of WP, and the sooner we get mot converts the better.

>Both toggles ON

Otherwise...

>Con- Holding Cells
>Dip- Bob to Maricopa
>FA- Housing

Two more things, I like >>4533894 idea of a Black site being set up in the Mountains, though it needs to be secured first. Second is we need to double down on Missions, possibly setting one up in Maricopa proper.

I would like to send a Diplomatic envoy to Gali Bend after this, though.

Been seeing Maricopa on the news. Coincidence or Prophecy?

>>4534325
>Been seeing Maricopa
Both!
Funny enough I saved a link to share, but I felt it was to political so I dropped it.

>>4533894
I can support this so long as we do not "mix" too much with the natives.

>>4534325
Support. Being the Vanguard of God requires a lot of manpower. I'm mean, it takes a lot of plebs to kick this much ass, am I right?

>>4533894
>>4534098
Yes, you guys are in the process of repairing Mobile and already paid for it. I completely fucked up on the copy+paste+edit on the turn. I also shouldn't have had the new options greentexted, but I might keep that to highlight it. Anyway, I will not have you guys pay for repairs twice, that would be nonsensical. If you want to get the job done faster, you can just say that you use the time/effort that would have been used on another job to just get the job faster at no cost (other than the opportunity cost of the action).

That update, in general, was completely botched on my end. In particular, I'm ashamed to have written "who's" in place of "whose". Somewhere, an English teacher is irrationally angry, and I am sorry for it.

Oh, and on the topic of Maricopa on the news, I don't think I've actually seen Maricopa the city, but I've seen the county. It's confusing, but the city of Maricopa is not in Maricopa county. Maricopa city is in Pinal county (not to be confused with Pima county to the south, that's where Tucson is). Maricopa the city is just south of Phoenix, and Phoenix actually is in that Maricopa county everyone's talking about. Again, if this all seems confusing, that's normal. It took me a while to figure out what's going on with the names/counties. I'm sure there's some guy living in Arizona laughing at us all...

If you guys are referring to the vote counting... situation... thing... then it's almost certainly Maricopa county. Maricopa, the city, is solidly Republican and has had no issues/controversies with voting or anything else newsworthy as far as I'm aware. Maricopa county (i.e. Phoenix) on the other hand is a complete fustercluck, I have no idea what's going on over there.

I swear, this quest is going to make me an expert on Arizona's geography.

And another 95 on local events!?! What's going on with the dice this quest!?!

>>4534639
The dice love us. God obviously approves of our shenanigans, otherwise why would the Lord bless us so?

>>4534325
i like your answer but i don't see the point in improving housing if we're planning on moving the prisoners back to the mountains anyways.
i would use the FA for Oubliette or Chemical Plant, preferably the latter.

>>4534731
>but i don't see the point in improving housing if we're planning on moving the prisoners back to the mountains anyways.
I think we've actually needed improved housing for a while, moreso due to the increase in recruits/converts adding to our population. Now we just have some downtime to build it, so we should take advantage, especially before we get even more converts due to our missionary work.

>>4534325
>>4534098
I'll support turning both toggles on, you make a good point

>>4534731
Housing is for our own lads benefit. I don't want them sleeping in some burnt out shack, a proper barracks is necessary! The Oubliette will have to wait until the Black site is fully secured, and resources for the Chemical Plant is part of our reward for dealing with the bandit problem, so that will help immensely in its construction.

>>4534098
>>4534325
>>4534475
>>4534525
>>4534763
>>4534817

GLOBAL EVENT: 54
>UNKNOWN
You recall the post election era escalation. After the initial burst of riots, but before the military was called in to force the peace, the U.N. was called in. It was a controversial move, but the "acting president" decided that international peacekeepers would be needed to preserve order. The result was disastrous, as numerous state governments refused to allow the peacekeepers, citing the acting president's inability to rule since the current president wasn't declared dead or incapacitated beyond the ability to serve. Deployment of U.N. troops was also too slow to placate certain states, who were so desperate for security they were willing to sell themselves to just about anyone. In California's case, that was China and the mega corps. In the case of Oregon and Washington, well, that's a topic for another day.

In other parts, the U.N. was welcomed with open arms. After a disastrous initial deployment, their forces consolidated in key areas and formed their own protectorates. One of these ended up becoming the continuation of the original U.S. government controlling much of the Mid-Atlantic (sans New York) and ruled from the same Beltway. It suffers from many of the problems of the old regimes, including the bloated government filled with useless functionaries and bureaucrats. It did however benefited from being able to project a sense of normality that few factions would be able to, even as it conscripted men left and right to hold on against the advances from the north. The other two protectorates you remember were in southern Florida and one somewhere around Kentucky, you think.

You have no idea what's going on with the U.N. territories around, but you can make some good guesses. You're pretty sure they're not expanding, since their initial advances were totally rebuffed by surrounding powers. Their plan of rolling through urban and suburban areas to be welcomed as liberators totally fizzled out. The "Provisional U.S. Government" was quickly reduced to the "Provincial U.N. Government," a mocking name they couldn't shake. Nonetheless, you have full faith that they will manage to sustain themselves in a stagnated state for quite a while, neither losing nor gaining territory.

OPTIONS SELECTED:
>Holding Cells: Large area for securing prisoners with (the barest of) communal facilities. Lower risk of revolt, plagues, and other negative events. - 70 W.P.
>Improved Housing: Can support a larger population. Slightly improves morale. - 25 WP

You get the opportunity to assess the prisoner situation. It's quite bad, or good depending on your point of view. From one perspective, there are a lot of mouths to feed for little gain. The facilities for holding these people is basically nonexistent and all sorts of bad things might happen. On the other hand, taking prisoners like this is a symbol of your faction's might and an opportunity to make some converts...

[1/4]

>>4535604

[2/4]

You devise a system where the prisoners are divided into groups with leaders and made to do menial work in construction projects. The point isn't the extract as much value out of them as possible, in fact, the conditions are fairly good for a prisoner of war camp in the middle of the desert during a civil war. The point is to induce a sense of obedience and to create a wedge in their numbers. The "leaders" of the groups are provided with better food and conditions along with promises of "performance bonuses" for sufficient work. It costs a bit of W.P. on net, but it helps get things done quicker and is the first step in a process that will hopefully end in them opening their hearts to God.

>-5 W.P. from prisoner policy

The prisoner labor and the general efforts of the faction, including the new arrivals, are put into building facilities. In the case of the mountain base, which some of your men are already calling a "black site," this takes the form of facilities for communal holding areas. There is already space in the base itself, but it has to be modified to make for more open areas to make it easier to guard. This means that any expectations of privacy or decency (including private restrooms) are now denied to prisoners. The work is slow and inefficient, but it's coming along decently. It helps that this can be rationalized as being a graceful act, not only providing them with what they need, but also valuable work. Idle hands are the devil's playthings.

In Mobile, the process of renovating abandoned housing and temporary shelters are underway. With active recruiting and the flood of prisoners from before putting living space on everyone's mind, it's very much welcome. Improving housing for now is fairly cheap, since easy repairs like fixing roofs and adding insulation can go a long way. You suspect that once this is done, further attempts at improving housing will be marginally more expensive, although still probably worth it. With the injection of cash from the looting and some of your plans to generate wealth, you imagine the main issue won't be resources, but labor.

After spending the morning issuing orders, you call together a few of your cardinals and figure out what to do next, with Maricopa being the elephant in the room. You decide that you should send Musella to negotiate with their government and collect on the quest. He was the one who introduced your faction to them, and he did a very good job with securing those resources early. In a way, he won the battle before it even began. Also, you decide to send in Cardinal Mueller to preach, but also to figure out just what's going on with the Indian Reservation.

During the meeting, you are interrupted by one of your men. According to the Mobile Infantry, there's a large armored group coming from the northwest. Immediately, you pause the meeting and head out. You pray this isn't going to be yet another battle while your men are still recovering from the last one...

File: The Faces of American Dom(...).jpg (310 KB, 1242x1228)

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>>4535608

[3/4]

LOCAL EVENT: 95
>Good Neighbors

You gather with the defenders in the north part of town. The need to police some of the prisoners who haven't been transferred to the base combined with the casualties mean the group is significantly under strength. Still, a line of rifles form in the desert, ready to unload on any attackers. A few warning shots are fired.

One of their vehicles, a modded out off-roader, slows down and you hear a voice speaking from a megaphone. "We come in peace! Unless you guys want to change that!"

The vehicle stops, and a man steps out. He's wearing some kind of army vest over a garish, multicolored silk button down with a pair of short shorts and army boots. "HEY! You're the motherfuckers that took out those god damned Injuns, right?"

You step forward, confident that God protects you. "We are the True Holy Catholic Church. And yes, we successfully counterattacked them to secure peace." You keep stepping forward, much to the discomfort of your companions. "Tell me, were you their friends?"

The man smiles like a fiend as the two of you slowly the distance. "Fuck no! We're not some commie fucks! We're just some boiz enjoying the Boogie!"

You stop yourself and maintain a decent distance from him. Close enough to have a proper conversation while keeping your distance. "You're the people at Goodyear, correct?"

He stops as well, taking the hint. "Hell yeah, Boogie Nights Boiz for life! Those bastards were giving us some real problems, and we were paid to guard the area. Thanks for taking care of that one, we can kick back a little now."

Your companions have caught up to you, and some of his men have closed the distance as well. The atmosphere is a bit tense, but so far all weapons are holstered.

Mueller speaks up. "What do you guys want? If you're looking to start some shit, I'll tell you right now we'll be the ones to end it..."

>>4535610

[4/4]

The man at the head of this newly met faction begins to laugh. "Oh man, that's fucking based. I like you guys already! You know, we first thought you guys were too well armed and organized and shit. Like those fed agent fucks we had to put down a while back!"

Musella's hand quickly shoots over to his holster before you raise your hand to halt him. "At ease Musella. These men likely had good reason to do what they did. Like we did. They're no threat to us for now. But do keep an eye out. Armed societies make for polite societies." You understand why he's paranoid. It's really strange for them to so casually mention killing law enforcement at this time. Even the normally cool under pressure can get a bit uneasy at these things.

"Yeah, that's the right attitude to have! So, I'll get right to it. Since we're getting paid no matter what and since you guys seem like you'd be good friends, we're willing to give you guys a favor. We could give you a moderate cut, or we could help you guys fix some shit, looks like you guys got some kind of project going on. Or maybe come by our place and we could let you guys check out what we got and buy some good shit. Us Boiz stockpiled on the good shit not even the fed fucks thought to keep on hand. What do you say?"

These people are by far some of the strangest you've met, and you've literally dealt with Hollywood drug cults. You still don't know what a "Boogie" means, among other things. Still, good neighbors are hard to find, and this seems like a stroke of good luck you might not want to pass up on. You respond by answering...

>"A cut of the reward sounds fair" [W.P. Reward]
>"Help on construction would be very nice" [Accelerated Construction]
>"We would like to peruse your wares" [Opportunity to buy rare goods]
>"A favor in the future would be sufficient" [Can call in their support in an emergency]
>"Nothing. We want nothing. Getting rid of those troublemakers is reward enough" [Goodwill, ???]
>[Write In]

>>4535612
>>[Write In]
>"Fuck it, let's talk it at your place and we'll discuss it there."
I wanna see what they can sell. If we see that something that we like, we'll pick >Opportunity to buy rare goods. If not, we'll pick something else.

>>4535612
>"Getting rid of those troublemakers were good enough."

Frankly, I don't know how to handle this. My thoughts are going five ways to Saturday on this. Sort of want that military favor for later, but the weapons are tempting. Then there's the fact I wanna see where Goodwill will lead us here. *shrugs*

I'll leave the choice up to you, lads.

>>4535612
>"Nothing. We want nothing. Getting rid of those troublemakers is reward enough" [Goodwill, ???]
We'll be sending a diplomatic envoy to goodyear later. This will help.

>>4535817
Though now that I think about it, maybe helping with housing and the holding cell isn't a bad idea after all...

*shrugs* It's still up to you lads.

>>4535873
Supporting this. Be sure to let the Boogie envoy know that we appreciate the offer.

>>4535708
>>4535873
>>4536054
Funnily enough, all these are not opposed, just means our diplomatic action next round will be centered on Goodyear. If anyone isn't opposed to it, of course.

>>4535817
>>4535873
>>4536054

OPTION SELECTED:
>"Nothing. We want nothing. Getting rid of those troublemakers is reward enough" [Goodwill, ???]

The colorfully dressed operator cocks an eyebrow. "Interesting. Well, what can I say, keep doing what you're doing. If you're ever in the mood to visit Goodyear, give us a call while we're still around. It'll be at least a few weeks until the contract ends and we might be called somewhere else. Here, let me give you our radio frequency and encryption key..."

>Contact gained: Boogie Nights Boiz (Phoenix)

"So, you guys said you were part of some kind of new spiritual movement or something?"

"No," you say firmly. "We're the Catholic Church."

"Oh, you guys are part of the Catholics. Yikes, sorry about what happened out in Africa, you know I heard rumors that-"

"We aren't 'part of' the Catholic Church. We are the Catholic Church. The only legitimate one."

Before the visibly confused Hawaiian shirted gentleman can formulate a response, one of your Cardinals butts in to soften things. "You know, it's not the first time that happened. There were once at least three potential popes at the same time, maybe more, before things were sorted out. And with the old one basically disqualifying himself... All I'm saying is, we're living in some weird times."

"Uh huh," the faction representative says, nodding his head. "Weird times alright. Anyway, my nom de guerre is Gangster Frankenstein. It's a long story. You're The Messenger, right?"

You nod.

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you guys. Any last questions?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. What is with that name? What does 'Boogie' refer to?"

"Oh, that's a long story. We had to change our names a few times. You know, the algorithm." He notices your evident confusion. "Anyway, the 'Boogie" is what's happening right now. This war was inevitable, so why not have some fun with it..."

[1/2]

>>4536911

[2/2]

And with that he heads off. You think you hear him saying something as he leaves, maybe something about 'boomers.' You get back to preparing to launch the diplomatic envoy to Maricopa. You're not quite sure what to make of them, and neither of your advisers. Cardinal Mueller has a positive opinion of them and had a somewhat in-depth conversation about firearm accessories with one of them while you were getting the contact info. Musella, on the other hand, has a very negative opinion of them and thinks they're nothing but trouble. Either way, you're on this faction's good side, which is probably for the best.

You select some people to escort Musella and Mueller for their trip. It's mostly the same people as before, but with the recent casualties, you had to make some replacements. They are also given a little extra firepower, just in case. If they can get a terrorist truck of explosives into the town, they might be able to get an infiltrator into the town to commit an assassination. It's unlikely, but you like to be well prepared.

Normally, this diplomatic envoy would be headed by just Musella. With the choice to have Mueller attempt to continue preaching, this means you're effectively going to have two separate groups dealing with two separate issues.

SELECT WHICH POV TO TEMPORARILY SWITCH TO:

>Musella visiting Maricopa proper, figuring out what exactly is going on and meeting the mayor for the quest rewards.
>Mueller visiting the Indian Reservation, dealing with the aftermath of whatever happened yesterday and maybe meeting with their council.

>>4536912
>Mueller visiting the Indian Reservation, dealing with the aftermath of whatever happened yesterday and maybe meeting with their council.

I chose this first because we're likely to get a bigger picture/more information from Musella with the Mayor and the higher ups there, so I'd like to avoid meta-gaming too much and start with the Indian Reservation, which would have less info on the Maricopa situation but is more at the center than anyone would like it to be.

>>4537169
Supporting this. Raises a good point.

>>4537169
+1

>>4536912
>>Musella visiting Maricopa proper, figuring out what exactly is going on and meeting the mayor for the quest rewards.
Let's try to get some good deal.

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171 KB JPG

>>4537169
>>4537215
>>4537225

OPTION SELECTED:
>Mueller visiting the Indian Reservation, dealing with the aftermath of whatever happened yesterday and maybe meeting with their council.

You lean on your car and take a drag from your cigarette as you think about how you're going to approach things. Nominally, you're just going back to the preaching routine. You feel like you've been getting through to some people, especially former Catholics left behind by the strange direction the illegitimate papacy went in. This time will be anything but normal. You're not sure in what way, but something big happened around the reservation after taking the base. Part of you wishes the Messenger had checked the place out while things were happening. But you can't argue with the importance of dealing with those raiders (and liberating those resources) and especially not the need to check on the hospital. If you guys didn't check on the hospital, no doubt most of them would have died in the post bombing chaos. Maybe it's good you're not the one making the big decisions.

"Mueller, we're good to go!" one of your guys informs you. You take a final drag of the cigarette and snuff out the butt under your shoe. Getting behind the wheel, you wait until Musella's vehicle passes in front of yours and you start down the 238.

The ride goes smoothly. The only odd thing is that, listening to True American Broadcasting, you notice there hasn't been any news. Redfield's the kind of red blooded American who would have starting yelling about all of the details and cursing out anyone in the raider's faction listening. Probably while shooting into the air and ripping his shirt off. All you hear is music and that one woman introducing the songs without referencing to any recent events. Strange.

There's only a skeleton crew manning the highway defenses. Musella does most of the talking, as the leader of the actual diplomatic envoy. You just get a fear for the atmosphere, which is best described as "on edge". You try to carefully get some details from one of them. You get a feeling they're not going to say much if directly asked about the Indian situation.

"Hey, you know about anything going on with Harrah's? My back's been killing me, I'm wondering if they're still doing massages," you ask, hoping you could infer something based on what's going on in the neutral zone.

"Harrah's?!" the M.M.P. member says with some nervousness. "Uh, yeah, I, well, maybe talk to an officer about that when you get in Maricopa. I'm not sure I can say, I mean, I don't really know anything."

"Escalating it to the manager, eh?" you think to yourself. "Something's going on..."

[1/2]

>>4538270

[2/2]

Musella and company drive off, and after a rather sloppily done search, you do too.

While driving, you can tell the town is less active than normal. There aren't as many people out and the general atmosphere you feel from those who are out is one of unease. You expected this to some degree, since there was just a major attack on this otherwise peaceful town. It's one thing to suffer the odd attack from fast moving bandits stealing food. It's another thing to have the "front gate" overwhelmed and attacked with as of yet unseen brutality. It's also possible that there's something more going on.

You think about how you're going to approach this situation. You choose to:

>Go to the entrance to the Reservation and proceed as if nothing happened
>Wander around town a bit and ask around for details
>Go straight to the M.M.P. and get some answers
>Fuck it, visit Harrah's and get that massage
>[Write In]

>>4538271
>>Go straight to the M.M.P. and get some answers
Mueller is a military man, and the M.M.P. consist of military men. We can pull the right strings, bond with the right people. We're in the know.

>>4538271
>>Go straight to the M.M.P. and get some answers
Envoy coming through

>>4538271
>Go straight to the M.M.P. and get some answers
Has Walt or Musella sorted through the evidence yet, and if they did what did they find? I vaguely remember there not being a connection to the Maricopa Indians but I'm not certain.

>>4538271
>Go straight to the M.M.P. and get some answers

Probably got some respect we could utilize, as well.

>>4538754
I assume so, but it will be shown to us when it becomes relevant to us, I bet.

>>4538271
Go straight to the M.M.P. and get some answers

>>4538980
What techno-magic is this

>>4538272
>>4538722
>>4538754
>>4538816
>>4538980

OPTION SELECTED:
>Go straight to the M.M.P. and get some answers

You're not going to pretend that everything is fine and continue trying to preach. You want some answers. You're going to visit their HQ and get some answers from whoever's in charge. You haven't been to there yourself, but you know where it is from one of the guards that escorted you the first few days (back when they felt the security theater was warranted).

You pull up in front of the police headquarters turned militia/gendarme center. With your experience in the military, you can tell that there were some defenses that have been recently moved. For instance, one of the sandbag emplacements was clearly supposed to have a machine gun placed there, but there isn't one there now.

As you approach, you get a few weird looks. Approaching further, you're motioned to stop.

"I'm Mueller, from the Sun Belt Crusaders. I have some important business with your boss," you say with your hands just barely in the air.

"Sun Belt Crusaders? Wait here," you're told by somebody in a group of guards. One of them goes inside, and in about a minute or so, you're allowed in.

Your guys are made to wait outside. They're not all that surprised with the situation, and understand the necessity of this. You're given a pat down search and they take away your weapons.

"You forgot this," you say as you roll up one of the legs of your pants. You pull out a thin knife secured to your lower leg and hand it over. "Always make sure you're thorough."

You're ushered in and made to wait for a short while. In that time, you strike up a conversation with your escort.

"So, why'd you join the M.M.P.?"

"Join? I was a police officer before this all started, so I didn't 'join' like some of militia people, if that's what you're asking," she said. "I noticed you pull that hidden knife out, what's your background?"

"I'm a soldier. A soldier of Christ, working to bring His glory to the masses. Before that, I served in the marines..."

[1/2]

>>4539878

[2/2]

Soon, you get on the elevator to "Brigadier General Greger's" office. On the topic of rank, you're guessing that's an "M.M.P." only rank. Brigadier General is a really high up position in the Army (or any other service), O-7 if you remember right, and there are only a few hundred of those. No way he wouldn't have been taken in with the Sentinels, Paxtonites, or U.N. holdovers. Willingly or by other means. As a high up Marine Corps NCO, even you were pressured pretty hard to get involved. If you weren't loyal to God first and foremost, you'd probably be in Midwest with Paxton, subduing warlords and fighting other U.S. military remnants.

Pushing away stray thoughts and idle musings, you open the door and enter his office.

"Mueller of the Sun Belt Crusaders, I've heard a lot about you," the leader tells you from behind his large desk. "I wasn't expecting you to come over here, but it's a welcome surprise. What's on your mind?"

You obviously want answers, but there are multiple ways to approach this. How do you choose to go about this?

>Grill him on details from yesterday. Be aggressive if you need to.
>Ask some questions and let him do most of the talking. Just try to get his side of the story.
>Start telling him what you know about the info dump from the base. Maybe this will get him to open up.
>Portray yourself as a jingoist incensed at the potential of an attack from the natives. Make him overshare by pretending to be a mad-dog.
>You have another plan [Write In]

>>4538980
>>4539005
Dat OP only text formatting ( [red] text [/red] )

>>4539879
Grill him on details from yesterday. Be aggressive if you need to.
Gotta stay IC

>>4539879
>Ask some questions and let him do most of the talking. Just try to get his side of the story.

>>4539879
>Ask some questions and let him do most of the talking. Just try to get his side of the story.

Trying to make no sense of what happened yesterday. Want to fill me in?

>>4539879
>>Ask some questions and let him do most of the talking. Just try to get his side of the story.

>>4539879
>Ask some questions and let him do most of the talking. Just try to get his side of the story.

>>4539959
>>4540130
>>4540205
>>4540302

OPTION SELECTED:
>Ask some questions and let him do most of the talking. Just try to get his side of the story.

"A lot's on my mind after yesterday. But there's a lot of chatter about something going on in the Reservation. I want to hear things from the horse's mouth as it were. What went on?"

"Ah, I'm glad you came to me first," he says. "The situation out there was, is actually, tense. We got some guys stationed around the hotel and casino. Just a few guards to make sure there isn't any trouble. It's a good place to put some of the less experienced militia and to keep tabs. Then, some time after that attack on the base you guys did," he leans in a bit. "Don't worry, Preis told me all about it," he interjects before continuing as normal. "Some time after that, a group of armed natives came across Farrell Road."

"By Harrah's?"

"Yeah, the whole thing kind of happened at Harrah's Hotel and Casino."

"Kind of happened?" you think to yourself, but you let him keep talking.

"Anyway, our guys went over there and asked what they were doing. Things got a bit heated, and one of our guys got shot at."

"Shot at?" you interject, surprised. "They actually started a firefight with you guys on the in-between area?!"

"That's what my men told me. The witnesses around there give conflicting accounts, but they're Natives, so you can't trust 'em. Anyway, when reinforcements came to back them up, they found the damned Injuns took my men hostage! I knew they were up to no good," he's visibly angry at this point.

"Uh, why would they take hostages again?

"They said they were just keeping 'the aggressors' 'detained' until they could get promises we would punish them."

"Did you?"

"I sent in a group and told them if they didn't stop fucking around and hand our guys back I'd bring out the explosives on their precious fucking casino!"

You have an urge to probe into this. "So, playing hardball with them. You wouldn't have done it though, right?"

"I'm a man of my word, of course I would have."

>Choice influenced by Veteran/Shell-Shocked traits

"Listen here!" you say, slamming your fist on the deck. "I know how important it is to look our for the guys under your command. Not to be the asshole pulling ranks, but I've led Marines out in Afghanistan and gotten in situations that make this shit look like a bunch of fairies playing pretend! And all that time, I wouldn't have for a fucking second thought about BLOWING UP EXPLOSIVES near a hotel with civilians in it. We're the ones who chose to be warriors, not them, leave 'em out of this shit." You pause, and calm yourself down. "Anyway, that's assuming you mean blowing holes open in walls or lobbing grenades, instead of just using breaching charges to open up a door or something. I'm going to assume it's the latter."

You end your rant and let him speak again...

[1/2]

>>4542091

[2/2]

He doesn't seem to be particularly angry, even though you sort of chewed him out. You chalk it up to deference to your rank or experiences.

"Yeah. So, we went back and forth with them. We got our guys back, including one of the wounded guys. He died later."

"Of his wounds?"

"He got caught up in a bombing at the hospital. Would you believe it that they had an infiltrator here, just waiting to slam a truck of explosives into the hospital? You want to talk about a complete disregard about civvies, look to them."

You remember the incident. If you weren't busy getting people out of there and not passing out, God knows what you would have done.

"So, what's going on with the Indians now? Things better?"

"No, not really. They don't want M.M.P. anywhere near them, and they've refused to communicate since. I think the timing was too convenient, something's going on. I think I'll get the proof for that soon enough."

You know what he's referring to. There's some kind of deal Musella set up with him to get info on the Indians and if there was a connection with the people at the base. From the meeting you had, you know that no such information has been found. That could mean there is no connection, but it could also mean that the evidence just hasn't been found yet. There really hasn't been too much free time to pour through the information after the first go at it by the Messenger.

There could be merit to bringing up a lack of a connection and trying to work towards mending things between the two factions. Whatever happened, this is not a good time to have a house divided. On the same note, you may want to visit the Natives and find out what their side of the story is. Given only what Greger has said, you feel like there are holes in the narrative.

How do you choose to proceed?

>Tell him about the seeming lack of connection between the two and try to salvage relations
>End the conversation here and go to the Reservation and investigate things from their side of things
>Continue the conversation and press him on the strange/inconsistent elements in his story.
>Lie to him and plant false information to manipulate him in some way [What?]
>You do something else [Write In]

Sorry about the delayed update btw, unexpected stuff, etc etc

>>4542093
>Tell him about the seeming lack of connection between the two and try to salvage relations
>End the conversation here and go to the Reservation and investigate things from their side of things

Musella's the diplomatic one, so he may be the better pick to salvage relations between the two of us, but it may be advantageous for us to put it out here in religious terms so Bob can keep in 'collusion' with the MMP leadership secure. Plus, it does us no good to pick apart the official narrative that the MMP are running with atm, but I'm sure Bob will pick up on it. Perceptive guy, almost like a detective, Bob is.

>>4542093
No problem, mate. I hope your doing well, if busy.

>>4542093
>End the conversation here and go to the Reservation and investigate things from their side of things

>>4542093

>Tell him about the seeming lack of connection between the two and try to salvage relations
>End the conversation here and go to the Reservation and investigate things from their side of things

>>4542186
>>4542549
>>4543043

OPTION SELECTED:
>Tell him about the seeming lack of connection between the two and try to salvage relations

"I'll give you a preview of the proof right now," you tell him. His eyebrows raise slightly and he leans in slightly. "When we assaulted the base, we found a bunch of documents. We couldn't pour through them all since we were helping you guys out and busy with all sorts of shit. But we did look into things. From what we could tell, the two of them are separate. I think they might have attempted to communicate, but we've found nothing about any sort of involvement."

The head of the M.M.P. is silent for a while. "But then... hmm," he pulls up a piece of notebook paper from his desk. "This thing here says, from a witness they shot first. And I'm pretty sure my guys wouldn't fire without good reason to. And I've heard they've always been thinking of striking at us if we got weak. If they weren't looking to cause trouble during the raid, why come?"

"What did they say themselves?"

"Them? They told us to, quote, fuck off. I kind of wanted to say the same myself."

"With all due respect, sir, the last thing you guys need is an enemy in from within. From my experiences among them, the average Native is probably glad to be part of the greater community here. They'd sure as hell take it over the war-zone formerly known as Phoenix. I think you two should try to salvage relations."

"I'd love to, but they've sort of shut the border down."

"Wait, what? Nobody told me about this," you say in surprise. Would he really put total idiots on the highway defenses?

"Oh, well, I guess the fresh recruits over there forgot to mention that. The 238 is the lowest on the priority list, what with you guys being on friendly terms and real good at kicking ass." You take that as a yes. "Anyway, you might be one of the few allowed across with everything going on. You're a third party, and you got property over there, right?"

"A storage space with Bible study materials, but yes, I do."

"Then I recommend you head over there yourself if you want to sort things out. I'm happy putting guards by the crossing and letting this situation continue. It's the threat on the 347 I'm worried about most. If they so much as make a serious threat though, I'll overwhelm those little shits..."

[1/2]

>>4543340

[2/2]

>End the conversation here and go to the Reservation and investigate things from their side of things

"You know what, I think I will. I want to hear things from their side. Not that I don't believe you, but they say there're always three sides to a story. Being in law enforcement, you probably understand. Well, anything else before I go?"

"Yes, actually. What did you do as a 'gunner sergeant" in the Marines?"

You ignore the mispronouncing of "gunnery sergeant" and answer him. "All sorts of things, but mostly in logistics and commanding a few dozen in a weapons platoon. Before that, I did a lot of what you might call 'grunt work,' mostly in Afghanistan. Why?" You neglect to mention the involvement you had in some of the shadier things the U.S. military has done overseas.

"Just curious. Good luck with those Injuns," he tells you as you leave.

Leaving the M.M.P. building, you can't help but shake off the feeling that something seriously wrong is going on. And unfortunately, you might be one of the few who can actually do something about this without worsening the tensions.

You consider how to approach dealing with the Indians now:

>Take the direct approach and go up to whoever's guarding the border area and ask to speak to their higher ups
>Ask to continue your preaching routine as a way in and start asking people from there for details
>Go to the Hotel and dick around with your crew. Live a little!
>[POV SWITCH] to Musella
>You have another idea in mind [Write In]

>>4543343
>Ask to continue your preaching routine as a way in and start asking people from there for details

We got contacts there we can tap, then we can get to the official story from the Council.

>>4543378
Though I will say, the employees were probably witnesses here, so I wouldn't be opposed to Beach Episode 2: Electric Boogaloo, the Sherlock Home mysteries blend of relaxation.

>>4543343
>>[POV SWITCH] to Musella
Honestly more interested in setting up a good deal with the Maricopans.

>>4543343
>>Ask to continue your preaching routine as a way in and start asking people from there for details
Sounds like a good way to go about it.

>>4543343
>Ask to continue your preaching routine as a way in and start asking people from there for details

>>4543378
>>4543456
>>4543624

OPTION SELECTED:
>Ask to continue your preaching routine as a way in and start asking people from there for details

"Where to, boss?" one of your men asks as you get in the car.

"To the park, like always. I'm thinking today we might do some door-to-door as well."

"Even with the, you know, the situation?"

"Of course. Crises are never excuses to skip work. Besides, the ban is only for Maricopans, and we're from Mobile," you say as you turn the ignition and head on out.

Driving to the Reservation, you encountered some guards blocking the road with a line of police interceptors. As you slow your vehicle to a stop, one of them comes over to you.

"Reservation's closed until further notice," the officer tells you, leaning on your car window. "They decided to kick out Maricopans, even from Harrah's, after the i-"

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but I'm aware. Just got back from speaking with the M.M.P. head, and we're good to go. We're from Mobile."

"Mobile? Oh, you must be that preacher, uh, Miller, right?" before you can correct him he continues. "Rumor around our circles is you guys were the ones who showed up at the defense of the market district. You fuckers really scared them good coming in from the back."

"Nah, it wasn't us, it was Christ that did the heavy lifting. Gotta stay humble, right?"

"Whoever you want to get the credit, those assholes got scared off real fast once they saw their route north was blocked off. It's a shame they took as much as they did, but we made 'em pay for it in blood."

"Oh yeah," you say, nodding in agreement. You neglect to mention that you guys took a lot of it, but you justify it as the rightful spoils of war...

[1/3]

File: Mueller Suit.jpg (66 KB, 1653x688)

66 KB JPG

>>4544604

[2/3]

You're allowed past and head over past the hotel & casino. A couple of vehicles block the road ahead along with menacing riflemen. You stop the car, tell your guys to keep cool, and adjust your suit as you step out, slowly. "I'm Mueller, the preacher from Mobile," you say as you confidently walk up. You have the sense to keep your hands where they can see them.

"Orders are not to let anyone coming in from Maricopa," one of the riflemen, a tall, gaunt figure with what looks like an AR-15 tells you. They've clearly brought out some competent guards instead of that one youngster from before.

"I understand. We're from Mobile, totally independent from them. We've been preaching our faith since well before yesterday's incident, which we had nothing to do with. We've met with the council and everything. We even got a storage space!"

"Hmm, wait here. No sudden moves," he says as he and a few others form a small huddle. There are still a couple people watching you, of course. After a couple of minutes, they get back to you.

>Reuptation with Ak Chin sufficient to enter under lockdown and keep preaching

"You're allowed in. Thank your friend here," he says pointing to Joseph, a guy you made friends with during your time preaching. You met him when you put your reputation on the line by challenging him to a push up contest to prove Christ was real by showing him the strength he has granted you. You won, of course. The years of Marines training also helped, but you only got through those years via your journey to His light, so you don't consider those two separate.

"If you're off by six, meet me to shoot some hoops at the park!" you shout over to him. "By the glory of Jesus Christ, I verily will cream you on the court again!" You don't mention that you'll also ask about certain subjects related to your investigation. At least not in front of everyone else.

You return to your car and drive to your storage space, where you grab your stuff and begin preaching. Part of being an effective preacher as opposed to some doomsaying lunatic on a soapbox is making friends in the community, so you actually have a diverse set of acquaintances, if not outright friends. One of the benefits of a civil war and the collapse of global communications is that people go outside a lot more and are often bored enough to chat with their local Catholic (cultist) preacher. You'll be tapping into the small network of contacts you have, one of whom is apparently a volunteer for their guard.

Doing this will take time though. As you go through the slow process of figuring out details about just what went wrong, your stalwart companion, Cardinal Robert Musella, is dealing with the mayor of Maricopa. You pray that Musella speak with such elegance that if were as if his mouth was made of gold, that he negotiate with the wisdom of Solomon, and that his heart be free from the temptations of the Evil One, he who is the Deceiver of the Whole World and the Father of Lies...

>>4544606

[3/3]

>TEMPORARY POV SWITCH TO CARDINAL ROBERT MUSELLA

You sit in the large, comfortable chair in the waiting room to mayor Preis's office. Despite the well decorated interior and plush seat, you can't shake off a sense of unease. You weren't present for the Battle of the Sierra Estrella nor the subsequent relief of the Maricopan defenders. What you hear disturbs you. The picture put by the returning troops, one of women choking on toxic gas and getting skewered on bayonets, and with prisoners rounded up into small areas and summarily executed for minor noncompliance, is a horrifying one. You're taken aback at how most of your "friends" don't find this disturbing, but rather the righteous actions of men enacting God's will. They may not have been completely innocent, they were raiders after all, but as Americans you feel everyone should have some standards.

That isn't the worst of things, however. You've seen some absolutely shocking stuff before and rolled with it. Your experiences in Baja California proved that. What scares you most of all, however, is that day by day, you find yourself agreeing with them just a little more. There's a voice in the back of your head telling you that this is maybe a little justified. That there is something genuinely righteous going on. God told His people to slaughter the Canaanites, and Christ is to return with a sword. Sometimes, it's like something, or someone, is speaking to you. You can't tell if it's some kind of paranoia, or your sanity slipping, or Christ, or Satan, or who knows what else...

"Musella, the mayor is ready to speak with you," the secretary informs you in her sweet voice, breaking you free from your thoughts.

"Thanks," you tell her, flashing a winning smile to her as you enter the mayor's large room.

The mayor welcomes you with a firm handshake and a smile, although he does slip into a more neutral, even solemn, face momentarily. "Good to see you. Sorry about the delay. Paperwork. So, Musella, we got a lot to talk about. Tell me, which order of business to get to first?"

You'll get to all of these topics if you want to, but you choose to open with:

>Big Political Situation: Figure out what the political aftermath of yesterday's chaos was. Find out what's going to happen.
>Material Assessment: Ask about casualties, damage done to the town, and the general state of things.
>Brass Tacks: Turn in the quest and get the rewards sorted out [Roll 2d20 if selected]
>Pleasantries & Oddities: Make small talk and chat about random subjects.
>Sit-Rep: Tell him about what you guys did and were up to separate from the quest.
>Nothing: Let the mayor choose for himself. See where he takes things.
>Other: [Write-In] [Always Encouraged]

Multiple options will be accepted and executed in the order inputted.

>>4543431
You got your wish! Mostly because the selected option took time in-universe. I was up to do drunken antics with Nic Cage. It might not have been a bad idea?!

>>4544607
>Nothing: Let the mayor choose for himself. See where he takes things.

We'll learn what's on his mind. Undoubtedly, we'll get though most of these options eventually. You also never know, we may learn something unintentional.

Rolled 14, 10 = 24 (2d20)

>>4544607
>Pleasantries & Oddities: Make small talk and chat about random subjects.
>Brass Tacks: Turn in the quest and get the rewards sorted out [Roll 2d20 if selected]
>Material Assessment: Ask about casualties, damage done to the town, and the general state of things.
>Nothing: Let the mayor choose for himself. See where he takes things.

>>4544607
>Nothing: Let the mayor choose for himself. See where he takes things.

>>4544734
You forgot the Political situation, lad.

>>4544607
>>Nothing: Let the mayor choose for himself. See where he takes things.

Rolled 9, 20 = 29 (2d20)

>>4544607
>Nothing: Let the mayor choose for himself. See where he takes things.
This. Eventually he will come to mention not only how we completed his assignment, but how we defended Maricopa even though we had 0 incentive not to (also good to know what's currently going on through his mind). If he does not mention it, go straight to this:
>Brass Tacks: Turn in the quest and get the rewards sorted out [Roll 2d20 if selected]

>>4544607
>>Pleasantries & Oddities: Make small talk and chat about random subjects.

>>4544619
>>4544885
>>4545253

OPTION SELECTED:
>Nothing: Let the mayor choose for himself. See where he takes things.

"Oh, I see," the mayor says before taking a deep breath. "Well, let's get into it then. I want a rundown on what happened in the mountains. What happened? What'd you guys find? That sort of thing. Save talk of rewards until later, I need the plain facts about what happened"

"Early in the morning, we sent out some men from Mobile armed with grenade launchers and told to just keep an eye out..." you begin. You continue describing the events to the best of your ability, relaying the information second hand since you stayed back in Mobile at the time. The exception to this is when you describe what happened after the ambush when the first round of prisoners arrived.

"Did any of those prisoners you placed in the buildings under construction say anything?" he asks.

"No, but I'll get to what we know later. Anyway, once the main force got up to the base, the Mobile Infantry covered the area in..." you continue. You're pretty frank about everything. There's no reason to lie about anything. The details are somewhat gruesome, but this is a civil war.

"That document stash," Preis interrupts. "Go on about that. Tell me everything..."

"There was a lot of stuff. The Messenger managed to get into a lot of the laptops and other devices, but there's still a lot to go over. After they got back to Mobile, I looked over t-"

"Please, just tell me what you guys found."

"Alright. From what we can tell, they were indeed not operating independently. They were taking orders from the POZ. They had a route to the north they were using to transport loot and..." you continue. The mayor is sweating and visibly uncomfortable. "There was an alliance between the POZ and some Native Americans on their south side, the Pima or something. I forgot."

"And are the Natives in our community working with them?" he asks.

"We're trying to figure that out. So far, we have no indication of any cooperation. We think they made some attempts, but we haven't found any evidence. We might find something later, but we haven't so far."

The mayor is silent, his hands clasped to his face in concentration. "Do you, a Christian, swear to God that everything you're saying is truthful?"

"Yes. It is," you tell him, somewhat confused. "What's going on here?"

"You've just confirmed some uncomfortable truths for me. That base was set up as one of the POZ's proxies. Attacking it was, to them, an act of war. We might not have attacked ourselves, but they think we have, obviously. They're mostly right, since we were the ones who hired you guys. This town's in serious danger. That raid? It was their doing. And there's more where that came from..."

[1/4]

File: POZ Flag.png (26 KB, 960x640)

26 KB PNG

>>4546732

[2/4]

"The POZ? War against Maricopa? Are you sure you're not overreacting?" you tell him, trying to be reasonable. "We fought them off. I might not have access to all of the info, but I'm pretty sure they took more casualties and next time you'll be more prepared. Besides, why would the POZ take Maricopa when they're still fighting for Phoenix?"

"Tell me, do you know the population of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area?" Before you can hazard a guess, he answers. "It's over four million people, even removing us and Casa Grande from the count. We're about fifty thousand. Even assuming only a quarter of that is under the POZ, a low estimate, that's still 20:1. They could crush us like a bug if they wanted to. It's only their fight against the right wing coalition that's keeping their attention away. And they might be setting their sights towards us." As he's saying this, he's pulling out pieces of paper and referencing notes. He's clearly thought a lot about this.

You listen with intent. You don't have much to say against this, but you choose to ask him some questions anyway to get some more info from him. "Mayor Preis, with all due respect, what does Maricopa have that Phoenix desperately needs? I don't see any great weapons foundries or anything here that they couldn't get simply from taking more land in Maricopa County."

"It's food. We got some great agricultural lands here on the outskirts, and the POZ is mostly urban. They probably can't feed themselves without raiding others. Taking Maricopa would help with their supplies. Even if the infrastructure got blown up in the fighting, they could always replant and rebuild well before the winter. Of course, there's another option," he ends it off with.

You've heard enough to see where this is going. "You mean paying tribute to them?"

"That's the message I got from them. Pay up, or face the consequences. It won't be all of our output, but a good amount. We'd have to tap into our stores, and everyone would tighten their belts, but we'd make it. We have two weeks to decide before they send in another group. One that's a lot larger, from what they say..."

>>4546735

[3/4]

"Are you actually going to go through with it? Become their tributary?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I have a couple of weeks to decide. They're real pieces of shit. Raiding set aside, those fuckers bombed a hospital. I'm sure their twisted ideology justifies it to them, but being there myself, it's inexcusable. I don't want to do it on principle alone." He's visibly angry, his fist clenched. "But, if they win the Metro, then we're going to be under them either way. From what I understand about the situation, they're slowly winning. Ceding to their demands now would save a lot of bloodshed if they end up winning."

"I don't mean this to be rude, but why are you telling me about this? I'm just the representative of the Sun Belt Crusaders."

"Because I want some advice I can trust. The POZ has their agents here, I know it. How else would they have a bomb laden vehicle in our territory just waiting until after the battle? How else would they have known our patrols and when our defenses were at their weakest? Plenty of people here worked remotely or otherwise went up the 347 a lot before we decided to shut the borders down. You guys on the other hand? I know you guys are a bit out there, but I know you're not informing for the POZ on the side."

"And how do you know that?" you tell him, pressing him for just a little more information (and hoping you don't give him any bad ideas).

"Because I don't think the POZ even knows you exist. I don't think really anyone does. As far as I can tell, you guys just showed up from thin air, set up shop around Mobile, and started doing whatever you're doing. Unless there's something really elaborate going on, there's no reason they would have over a hundred of their proxies killed or captured. As strange as it sounds, when Robert Musella comes to my office and tells me he represents a bunch of neo crusaders, I am 100% sure that it's Robert Musella I'm talking to. Does that make sense?"

"Yes. I am Robert Musella," you tell him, lying through your teeth. You wonder why it is that people keep trusting you. "So, what would you like from me? What is it you want from the Sun Belt Crusaders...?"

>>4546737

[4/4]

"What I want is to know where we stand. Obviously, I'd like the full, unconditional, support of your faction. You guys have proven yourselves to be reliable and effective fighters. I don't think anyone in the M.M.P. would have had the guts to even think about a tear gas bayonet charge, let alone do it effectively. I had my reservations, but if even half of what you guys said is true, you're our best fighters. But I do understand if you guys want to stay more independent and keep things more contractual. I obviously won't be willing to provide as much support, but we'll put less responsibilities on you guys. Hell, I wouldn't blame you guys if you wanted out of this whole thing and decided to go back to Mobile. But I want to know what I can expect from you guys going forward so I can figure out what steps to take on my end, for my people."

Well, where do the Sun Belt Crusaders stand?

>Total Alliance: Promise absolute support from the Sun Belt Crusaders in whatever the Maricopan government does, effectively acting like a military for them and becoming partially embedded in them. Maximum aid from their faction and unique opportunities open up.
>Defensive Pact: Promise them help if they're attacked and continue with compensated offense services if requested. Moderate aid.
>Walking away: Withdraw from getting too much more involved with their political situation, being content to trade and recruit from there.
>Betrayal: Promise [Total Alliance] to them. Then go to the POZ next opportunity and stab the Maricopans from the back. Will gain standing with left-wing Arizona and open up some very unique options.
>Reveal: Tell him you're actually D.E.A. Agent Robert Mazur, and you're tired of living this lie! You will tell these insane Christians anything for the mayor somehow arranging a plane trip back to D.E.A. HQ in Springfield Virginia! [Obvious trap option]
>Other: [Write-In]

Big update with a lot of political info, explanations for how things have been happening, and a choice on which "side" you're going to be supporting. As should be apparent, faction loyalty will become important once you guys start setting your eyes on Phoenix, which you absolutely will have to at some point. As Mayor Preis alluded to, over half of Arizona's population is in the greater Phoenix area, so if you meth slinging crusaders want Arizona, you'll have to take its capital.

Will you choose to go deeper into the Phoenix Shitshow? Will you back away from the deathtrap that is a metropolitan area during a civil war? Will people finally stop trusting D.E.A. Agent Mazur!?!

Next update should be shorter and quicker. Granted, I wanted this one to be like that, but the people around me keep roping me into crazy shit and I came to the conclusion Preis wouldn't wait to get into what he considers the big topic, hence the length.

>>4546738
I'd rather retain independence. We go with a total alliance, and they become the big dog. I'd rather grow our band of religious tweekers ourselves, and prove ourselves to an extent that Maricopa begins integrating into our group. If we are, by extension a military for their government, resolving the situation with the Maricopan natives might become a lot more difficult, if not impossible. We were only let in there because we were not from Maricopa, if I recall correctly.

>>4546753
To be fair, the likelihood of us ever becoming the biggest dog quickly was always low: we're Christian Cultist Drug-Pushers of a branch of Christianity that has lost most / all legitimacy in the eyes of the people.

The real question is this: if we're sufficiently imbedded into the Maricopan military and society, can our efforts to convert, subvert and control bring them under our heel? Simple fact is that people will listen far more to "guys who saved us from the mad communists" than "crazy Christian cult" whenever we're trying to gain new faithful.

Plus, ">Maximum aid from their faction and unique opportunities" means we can probably get the wealth needed to upgrade our chemical production, maybe even get production of firearms up too. At that point we've the ability to produce ammo, guns, drugs and common utility chemicals / basic chemical medicine which would let us seriously augment our performance (disinfectant and painkillers alone making troop recovery from fighting far better).


You do have a point however regarding the natives and our outreach there but given we've proven to the Maricopan government / MMP that the natives aren't (or rather, weren't) working against them, chances are they'll try to recover the situation which'd let our preaching go ahead even if they saw us as one-and-the-same. Alternatively, we just reduce our involvement from Total Alliance to a Defensive Pact.

Worst comes to worst we have to pull out from the natives but in return, we improve our ability to recruit Maricopans, gain better relations with our nearest ally and get a lot of aid to grow our own power.

>>4546758
You have a very legitimate point, and seeing as I totally forgot my actual vote, I'll support total alliance instead. Well said anon.

>>4546738
>Total Alliance: Promise absolute support from the Sun Belt Crusaders in whatever the Maricopan government does, effectively acting like a military for them and becoming partially embedded in them. Maximum aid from their faction and unique opportunities open up.

Keep it a bit under-the-table for now and by the time the POZ figure out just who is causing them so much trouble we'll hopefully be whittling them away visa fighting and drug dealing. Though I must say, I'm sort of tempted to on Betrayal (not realistically, but it would be interesting to see how that would've shaken out), but that leaves an interesting alternative for potential covert operations against the POZ, which is an interesting idea.

Now, the situation between the locals and the natives is fluid, but that only means we can influence it to our advantage. The Council will be shitting themselves wondering what the MMP's response will be. Given our (as they know it) independence from their organization, and our potential intel on collaborators, plus our (new) network of people in the Reservation, we have a lot of potential influence with the Council, and in a crisis like this one... well, as they say, never let a good crisis go to waste. Especially with a population that doesn't want to pick a fight with the MMP.

Now, we're going to have a lot to do in the next two weeks. We're gonna need to prepare defenses, build up our forces and converts, try and build some sort of coalition with the local powers against the POZ, potential covert/drug dealing operations- its going to be a busy two weeks. We're going to need to visit Goodyear, Gali's Bend, potentially the right-wing coalition... it's gonna be really busy soon.

What we need is time. We're going to need to see if Preis can stall for more, anything he can give us. Maybe he can even accept the deal after the stalling, then just betray the commies in a trap/surprise attack. Given our relative anonymity and potential organizational leaks within Maricopa, we can work it to our advantage.

>>4546753
I'll jump in briefly to make a point on the [Total Alliance] option that might not have been clear. The part on "effectively acting like a military" meant that despite doing things that you would expect a military would do (launching attacks, organizing a defense, etc etc) you're not technically part of the government in a formal sense. I can't think of any good real world examples off the top of my head, but in fiction, the Space Marines of Warhammer 40k might be an analogue. Space Marines are separate from the Administratum (government) and have immense autonomy, even having their own planets for the purposes of recruitment in many cases. But they rely on the wider Imperium to equip/supply them and seldom carry out major operations (ex retaking a planet) without them. They can refuse an assignment, but pressure can be exerted on them to make not cooperating costly. I'm not saying you guys are Spess Mehreens (not yet?!?!), but it's an example of the sort of "parallel authority" thing you might get into by accepting that option.

Based on that, you guys would still be independent, so I wouldn't see a reason for the Natives to change what they're doing. What happens with them is probably going to be more affected by the Mueller subplot (in the short term). I will say, you guys have taken a lot of "good PR" options, and are surprisingly well liked so far.

The effects of any option wouldn't be immediate, since there are behind-the-scenes considerations the mayor has to make before he fully commits to a policy. For all you guys know, he might decide to become a tributary of communist Phoenix to spare the potential conflict or pull out some kind of crazy wildcard.

>>4546799
Fair enough. Thanks for the explanation, man.

>>4546799
A mercenary company might be the closest comparison or perhaps a (ironically) Crusader Order: self-directing but working for / with an actual nation; has its own chain of command and leaders but is meant to assist and sometimes obey their employer.

Another example would be Privateers: technically not a member of a nations military but working for that nation; expected to fight but not actually under the command of that nation's government.


Also, QM, would the Maricopans have any objection to the use of gas artillery? Since it occurs to me that we can almost certainly produce some toxic gas with upgraded or present chemical facilities in our town and I can't imagine our Crusaders having many moral objections.

>>4546811
>Crusader Order
Why didn't I think of this myself? That's what the crusaders operated as (from what little I know of the time) and the name of our faction.

And whether people freak out on using gas will have to be uncertain until it happens. As a general rule, your crusaders are pretty blasé as far as war crimes are concerned. Based on past performance (technically not a guarantee of future results) they actually prefer the war crimes. Others are more sensitive of things though and might require the right "PR" to accept the righteous necessity of such measures. They'd probably be a bit squeamish if you, say, started flooding their streets with poisonous gas in some kind of defensive maneuver for whatever reason. But the situation's always fluid, so who knows!

And I don't think I have said that the chemical plant will have an upgrade revealed upon getting an explosives workshop that will allow for the production of phosgene or other chemicals that could be used in bombs. That is only something I would be able to say once you guys start upgrading the plant... but it would be a very, very reasonable inference.

>>4546823
>That is only something I would be able to say once you guys start upgrading the plant... but it would be a very, very reasonable inference.
Just felt like checking the actual moral side of things, I mean shit if Maricopa has household cleaning chemicals we could shit-rig chlorine gas but I want the proper shit and didn't want to invest in making it only for them to complain about human rights and not causing unneeded suffering.

Especially because we've those lovely "imported" mortars, shouldn't be too hard to turn some HE shells into chemical delivery shells with technical assistance.

>>4546738
>Total Alliance: Promise absolute support from the Sun Belt Crusaders in whatever the Maricopan government does, effectively acting like a military for them and becoming partially embedded in them. Maximum aid from their faction and unique opportunities open up.
Guess we'll have to bring up our connection to the boogie boiz as well and think about whether trying to get help / organize with the broader right-wing coalition would help suppress phoenix.

>>4546811
>gas
+1 for delivering "the right PR" to have people support us using gas weaponry on godless commies

>>4546799
>>4546811
>>4546823
>the crusaders start to live up to their name and OP picture

Damn. I'm never been so proud of you lads. I guess we've upgraded from meth-fueled cult to a proper Crusader Order (with a bit of a drug problem).

I do expect to subsume everyone eventually, or atleast be the power behind the throne (of US Presidency).

>>4546835
>>4546842
Eh. If you spin the PR the right way, I wouldn't mind the gas, but you lads will have to figure out the PR beforehand before I support a gas attack even if the commies deserve it.

>>4546758
>means we can probably get the wealth needed to upgrade our chemical production
remember we were already promised this as a reward.

honestly i dont think it makes a lot of sense to commit ourselves to a Total alliance. We have so many things to get done, and it feels like there's no point in commiting ourselves as a Maricopan military. Especially considering our numbers are no higher than 100 (which btw these numbers will keep on decreasing if we commit ourselves to pulling off raids) . Let's not pick a side yet.
I suggest for this to be our future policy instead:
>Set up the black site for future manpower + native american converters that can be sent to the reservation.
>Start dealing meth to the neonazis (or to whoever wants to pay for it)
>get rich
>Set up a defensive pact and offense services with Maricopa for further rewards.

For now, picking
>Defensive Pact: Promise them help if they're attacked and continue with compensated offense services if requested. Moderate aid.

>>4546852
I can give a biblical quote justifying their deaths, and therefore within reason the use of any method that shall enable their death, assuming the following are true: Deuteronomy 24:7 or Exodus 21:16 both kinda fit, although Exodus comes with the assumption they've taken men as slaves.

If this is the case though, we could swing it to the Maricopans that they'll certainly enslave them all to work in the fields to feed the POZ, since it is the main draw of this region to the invaders. In the choice between slavery or war crimes, I imagine most will make the choice. Which given the communists always make gulags or work camps or indoctrination centres, shouldn't be too hard to convince them of.

>>4546871
I mean upgrade it even further, to my understanding there are multiple levels of chemical production as well as attached industry (e,g being able to produce explosive doesn't mean we can make artillery shells unless we've the proper facilities for metal working too). Plus we'll want the resources so we can equip further military units and further accelerate the repairs in our town.

Perhaps we should get the chemical factory up and begin selling drugs into the POZ area. I'm sure city-goers have plenty of taste for drugs, and if they go to war with us, they'll have to face mass withdrawls, causing civil unrest.

Money for us, soft-power over POZ. With our brain, we can bring the next greatest meth operation to Arizona, just like in California.

Also,
>>4546738
>Total Alliance: Promise absolute support from the Sun Belt Crusaders in whatever the Maricopan government does, effectively acting like a military for them and becoming partially embedded in them. Maximum aid from their faction and unique opportunities open up.

>>4546952
>Perhaps we should get the chemical factory up and begin selling drugs into the POZ area
Definitely. I have no reservations about pushing meth on them. We should absolutely make sure that we have a surplus, and can afford to sell enough to them while still covering the Nazi bikers meth needs. The Maricopan mayor said it himself, the POZ guys don't know who we are yet. We can keep dealing to the POZ area under wraps, and avoid them finding out who we are, if it becomes an issue. However, word is bound to get out eventually. We should be cautious on who exactly we deal to, the right wing coalition might flip out on us if they find out the POZ combatants are fueled meth through us, and the POZ guys might begin gaining ground even faster. At least until the withdrawls hit.
We should absolutely deal through proxies, or avoid letting them know where the supply is coming from, if they're undergoing withdrawls, they may hit Mobile with force to try and help themselves. We aren't really in much of a condition to deal with a coordinated attack from them just yet. We got lucky, and hit them from behind last time.

>>4546962
this is why i dont want to get involved too much on politics or picking sides this soon, id rather have us stay on a mostly defensive alliance.
Getting our factory and black sites working has to be our main priority for now.

>>4546738
>Total Alliance: Promise absolute support from the Sun Belt Crusaders in whatever the Maricopan government does, effectively acting like a military for them and becoming partially embedded in them. Maximum aid from their faction and unique opportunities open up.

>>4546885
Offering Slavery is just giving the commies more ideological ammunition, bad PR, and probably against God, considering the 'every man is equal' thing came from the Bible and was the main reason why the West abolished slavery (and everyone else didn't). I'm fine with treating the prisoners as unpaid labor for the duration of their sentence, but I believe slavery isn't a case we can spin and still win.

>Other: [Write-In]
>start off with offering a defensive pack, and tell them we will speak to some people and see if we can make this into a total alliance. We will get him an answer before they arrive.

>>4546799
So..... Knights Templars?
Awesome lets doo eeit!

>>4546823
>>4546852
We doing it?
We DOING IT!
YEEAAAH! CRUSADE TIME!.

>>4546842
I'd like to go for a hybrid option mainly for narrative and story purpose, Claim to offer a defensive pact for the time being while telling him that we need to consult with our leader and our community before commuting to total war. I'd like to get a few scenes of us talking to the leader and some of our fellow church goers, before we have a meeting with the right wing elements, and organize a plan to help them turn the tide with things like organization, and helping unify the right militia groups.

We have a very good option right now to win unexpectedly with a hidden trump card that I don't think anyone realized just yet.

>>4547480
Oh? Please, do go on. You've got my interest.

>>4547480
I can get behind this reasoning
(Changing from >>4546842)

>We have a very good option right now to win unexpectedly with a hidden trump card that I don't think anyone realized just yet.
*interest intensifies*
Is it meth?

>>4547493
I assume you mean the plan?

Well its simple, we trap and ambush them. The Mayor just told us all we really needed to know.
They are sending a large force to intimidate the good people of Maricopa into submission in two weeks from Phoenix, so we know when they are coming, where they are coming from, and what direction. We set up an trap for the incoming group and take em out either on the highway or as they get into the first few blocks of Maricopa.

Now Preis also said the POZ is slowly winning, The Militia groups probably want to change that. This is their best opportunity. We make contact, and offer to help them turn the tide of battle back into their favor if they help us. We get enough of them to help and to bring heavy weapons and set up to trap the enemy force and wipe it out.
We can do this all without telling the Maricopa people to maintain OPSEC if necessary, just get the Police chief to help us set up the road blocks because we will help them defend the town and because of orders and for his men to be "ready for anything".
We also have the element of surprise, no one really knows we exist outside of a few people and the defenders and leadership, and no one would be expecting the Right Wing Militias to show up either. This is made easier by the fact that we have Maricopa police gear and can "blend" in with the defenders.
We can also speak to our Russian friend for heavy weapons ASAP. Tell them to just parachute drop them into a farmers field while flying over the farms.

If possible, we can also seek about the Meth Nazis for help and give them a years supply of Meth.

TLDR, get Heavy weapons from "Russia" Help from the Boogs Militias, and maybe Meth Nazi's, our own Crusaders, and the Maricopa defenders, with the information we just got from the Mayor, and surprise.

And yes, there will definitely be meth

>>4547561
Also we can lure them into the trap and box them into a daisy chain IED road using the police to block off the exits and turns off under the guise of "clearing the way for them".

I'm curious to know if water and electricity has been cut off to Phoenix yet, and how much of the population remains, since I doubt most of the people wanted to stay when they say the writing on the wall.

Last part I forgot to add, was part of the plan I cut out. We pretend to pay tribute but we end up spiking the food we send, either with meth or just out right poisoning them.

>>4547561
>>4547593
>>4547597
I love it. Full support.

You know, when I originally threw in the bulldozes, I wasn't just thinking about construction...

A couple a Killdozers can be created in (relative) secrecy, and quite quickly given the resources available to Maricopa. If Preis lets us handle the security and operation of the Killdozers covertly, then by the time the leakers figure out what we're doing with them, it'll be too late to tell the POZ properly, let alone warn them before they could prepare after committing to the intimidation tactic.

I love how this plan is shaping up already.

>>4546760
>>4546780
>>4546842
>>4546952
>>4547156

OPTION SELECTED:
>Total Alliance: Promise absolute support from the Sun Belt Crusaders in whatever the Maricopan government does, effectively acting like a military for them and becoming partially embedded in them. Maximum aid from their faction and unique opportunities open up.

"We, the Sun Belt Crusaders, stand with Maricopa a hundred and ten percent. Whatever you want end up doing, we'll be supporting you. If you want us to attack somewhere, or defend a spot, or scout somewhere, or whatever else, just say the word, no questions asked. How you want to handle the situation is up to you, of course, but you can count on us like a second military if you need it." You're taking a fair risk by taking this position, since you're undermining your faction's independence. But you know that no matter how hard the crusaders fight, they'll ultimately be limited by their lack of numbers. The attack on the base proved this to you. While a success by all metrics, it still took a large toll on your numbers and now means the already small forces will be spread thin. The future of the Sun Belt Crusaders will have to be reliant on Maricopa, at least in the short term.

"I see," he says, still in visible contemplation. "To be clear, you're offering to become a semi-independent de-facto military service for Maricopa, right?" You nod in agreement. "I didn't expect that. But I appreciate it."

"The arrangement is a lot like the one the early crusaders had with the Christian powers. We're more than happy with it."

"I was going to tell you we were going to have to postpone the rewards for dealing with the base, but given this arrangement, I think we can spare it. We'll repair any damaged vehicles and body armors, as well as granting ammunition and grenades. And seeing as you guys are a sort of second military now, I'll allocate some general resources to send to you guys. It'll take a few days to get that started, and a good portion of it will be in food. That's fine, right?"

"Yes," you say nodding your head. "That would be reasonable." You weren't expecting it, but you'll gladly take it.

>Negotiation for full reward automatically passed
>Maricopan contribution secured

[1/3]

>>4548215

[2/3]

"So, I guess I owe you a bit of an explanation on the political situation going on in our city. As I said earlier, I'm certain that there are infiltrators and spies in our midst. What you've said about the documents all but confirms the Gila River Native Americans are working with the POZ. They're northeast of us, and "between" us and southern Phoenix and spread out over a large area. Most of our troops are keeping watch around there as a 'screen' to be able to react against larger attacks. The 347 highway connects us to Phoenix, and is where we've got the largest concentration of guys. It wasn't enough last time, as was evident."

"What about the south?" you interject. "How are the defenses against attacks from the south, around Tucson?"

"Light. Again, it's a situation of being spread thin instead of being able to mount real, concentrated defenses. Knock on wood, the south hasn't given us much trouble though. We're not too sure what's going on there, except it's kind of chaotic. We sent one group of 'scouts' down there, but they got robbed by some bandits. We've written it off as not worth it. And to the west, that's you guys. What can you guys tell us?"

"To our west? When we fled east from California, we noticed a bunch of smaller communities along the freeway, but we just sort of powered through them. No trouble from places like Gila Bend or anywhere to our west. To our north is Goodyear, which is under the protection of some friendly mercenary types loyal to the broader right wing coalition." You're omitting the part about the Hawaiian shirts and other odd details for now. "The south just seems like empty wasteland, nothing's going on there," you tell him. It's mostly true, except for the downed plane with the "Russian agent" filled with military grade hardware.

"I see, so there's no reason you guys wouldn't be conducting operations out in the east, right?"

"No, if you need our services, just ask. Do you have anything in mind?"

He scratches his chin. "I'll tell you later, when I've had a chance to discuss things. I'll get a direct line between us established after this talk."

>Contact gained: Maricopan Government

"Thank you," you tell him. You really feel like you shouldn't be asking this next question, but you can't help it. "So, don't you think you're trusting us a bit too quickly? I mean, we don't really know each other all that well, don't you think?"

Almost immediately after saying that, you feel a sense of regret. Why would you jeopardize things at the last second, just as things seem to be going so well? You feel like you might be projecting or something. Of course, it's too late to take it back, so you can only listen to Preis and hope he doesn't get too suspicious...

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>>4548216

[3/3]

"Honestly, I don't have much choice. I have a bunch of anarchist crazies who attacked my city and dealt significant damage. Not just physically, but in morale. The troops, mostly militia and law enforcement, aren't exactly enthusiastic. And speaking of troops, sometimes I wonder what the hell is going on with the M.M.P. Don't get me wrong, they're the reason why we haven't been rolled over by the anarchists or bandits or whoever else. But damned if I'm not stunned by their actions. Not naming names, but who decides that, God knows why, the middle of the largest raid we've seen is the best time to start picking fights with the Natives. And speaking of the Natives, I have no clue what to expect from them anymore. I'm up to my neck dealing with all of the nonsense of trying to manage a city when most of the country's gone to hell. Do you know how hard it is to just keep basic order?"

He's quite animated by this point. You can't exactly blame him, though.

"And one day, I get word our neighbors to the west are actually a militant cul-, err, religious folk and that they just sort of showed up and offered their services. And they're actually able to get shit done. I don't need to micromanage them or anything, I just tell them, 'hey, those raiders in the mountains, get rid of them yeah,' and they do it. Was I hesitant about arming them? Of course. But it worked. Hell, you guys even bailed us out at the end there on the 347. I'm still not completely sure how you guys managed it, but you did. You guys may be small, but you're pound for pound the most reliable, most effective guys I got. Am I being a bit too quick? Maybe. But you've been proven reliable, and this war isn't giving me much time."

You allow for a few seconds of silence to cool things down. "Thank you. I'm glad we could be of service. We'll get you info about what's in the document stash once we've gone over everything. Again, there's just a lot to get to in a very small amount of time. And we'll put the construction equipment and industrial supplies to good use. We've already got plans for that."

By this point, you've gotten a lot of information about the situation in Maricopa and elsewhere. You bound the Sun Belt Crusaders to this town in a way that has almost certainly locked in the short term future of your faction. You've gotten not just the full quest rewards when circumstances would have forced partial rewards, but you've gotten some extras. Ending the meeting off here would probably be sufficient, but there's always the option of asking about something else or making a comment or whatever else.

You:

>End the meeting here. This is enough.
>Ask for specifics about Maricopa or a faction [Who?]
>Make a specific request [What?]
>Inform him of something in particular [Specify]
>[Write-In]

>players discussing which Bible quotes they can use to justify war crimes, how to peddle meth to their enemies for fun & profit, and motherfucking killdozers among other shit
>mfw

>>4548218
>End the meeting here. This is enough.
I'm satisfied here. I assume with the materials provided, fixing the factory to level 1 will be for free, we'll just have to build it which will take time. We have so many things to do now.

>>4548218
>Make a specific request [Killdozer logistics]

I'd like it to be a surprise if we have to fight the commies again in Maricopa, so don't tell him the specifics, just clear up the basic logistical support, specialized labor, operational security, and our authority here as needed to start production in Maricopa. I'm sure Carl will get a kick out of it when he hears about what we have planned.

Otherwise, we're golden.

>>4548234
Supporting this.

>>4548218
>[Write-In]
Offer to help root out the spies in the town if he can tell us all he knows or can about what information has been known to have been passed, how they communicate, how many he thinks are there.

Then ask him, to make us a list, a very naughty list of people who went to Phoenix for work, supply runs, have family, friends, or activities there, who goes for supply runs or used to go to the city frequently before it was shut down.

Then we look at how they communicate, are phone lines and cellular still up? Do we have radio listening devices? Its likely similar communicates to what we recovered from the Indian base, we just have to look it over and interrogate some prisoners.

We also look at any security footage of the bombing, what car type and plate was on it, where did it come from, who owned it, what type of explosives were used, who may have said precursor materials for them, and is they have any sympathies for the POZ people.

>>4548218
>Try and convince him to lease a church to us, as faith binds a community together. Trust in God.

>>4548218
I want to discuss whether he would like to open communications with Goodyear / the right wing coalition for safety and support.
>>4548301
+1
We already have preaching permissions and it might be nice to have an "embassy" for a permanent presence in Maricopa (as well as hopefully gaining new converts).
>>4548272
+1 to this as well

>>4548234
>>4548301

Supporting these two