Evergreen Mills
Mar. 11th, 2013 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The door opens on the interior of the remains of an ancient office building. Most of the walls and parts of the floor are missing, allowing for a fine view of the rubble covering the ground two stories down, but there's just enough exterior wall remaining to provide some cover. Ellen has taken the liberty of hanging a portable chalkboard on that wall; it's got a painstakingly hand-drawn map on it. "This is where we're headed," she says. "We're a little ways north of the canyon; from this floor or what little there is of the next floor up, we have line of sight as far as this bend, here. Note the catwalks on either side of the canyon walls. They're there because the canyon has a railroad track from before the War running down the middle and the raiders who occupy the place have planted land mines on either side. The raiders patrol the catwalks on a regular schedule."
"About here, just before the canyon takes its turn and we lose line of sight, there's a tripwire connected to even more explosives. It's not a very sophisticated mechanism and it could be disarmed without too much trouble if it weren't in plain sight of every raider who could hold a gun. There's another tripwire after it, but since the canyon takes a turn at that point, anyone trying to disarm that one won't have covering fire unless they brought a buddy along."
"Over here is where the minefield stops. The railroad track splits at this point and the canyon widens out. Tracks go off to the left; that area's got a couple of tin-roofed open-air equipment shacks and a lot of old railroad cargo cars. Plenty of cover for the raiders, not to mention most of the railroad cars have some means of climbing up on top for a vantage point. The canyon wall on this side is too steep for them to scale, and there don't seem to be any openings or outcroppings, so there's that, at least."
"To the right the catwalk terminates in a tin-walled guardhouse. That tends to have one or two people in it or in front of it, probably because it overlooks the slave pens, here. I counted five or six slaves when I got in but wasn't able to make contact with any of them. There's a supply shack at ground level past the slave pens and then about five or ten yards of space before the canyon wall."
"This round object here, on your left as you pass the slave pens and supply shack, is the Behemoth's pen. The walls are a good twenty-five feet high and electrified. There's a generator just next to it that looks like the raiders could switch it off pretty easily if they needed to let the thing loose. The mutant itself is eighteen feet tall and doesn't seem to be armed, but there are motorcycles and substantial chunks of metal lying around the area that it would be perfectly capable of picking up and wielding or throwing. I've fought a few of these things before. They've got hides as thick as armor and pain tends to just make them mad. Slowing them down pretty much requires doing enough damage to physically cripple one or both legs, and even then they've got enough rage to them to keep trying to come after you just for spite. The neck in particular is ridiculously thick and tough. Wonder Woman had a hard time snapping the spine of the one we fought in the Capitol building's rotunda."
"To the right of the pen is the main factory, which has wire fencing and sandbags out front. It's built with its back up against the canyon wall. Given that this is the same rock formation that Vault 112 and Vault 87 were built into, and that Lamplight Caverns aren't too far away, I'd be really surprised if there weren't significant underground areas of the place. There are two other outlying buildings past that, further down the canyon. They're smaller and don't look like there's more than one floor to them. I wish I could give you more information than that but I wasn't able to get past the Behemoth pen without it roaring because it could smell me."
"As for the raiders themselves, there's a pretty fair number of them. I don't have an exact count. Most of them are armed with 5.56 millimeter assault rifles and twelve-gauge shotguns. A few of them are carrying disintegrator rifles of alien design- they're all but guaranteed to take apart a man-sized target on the first or second hit. The disintegrators are silver and shiny and fire blobs of energy, so they're pretty easy to recognize. I'm trying to get the slaves out of here and get those disintegrator rifles out of these people's hands before they become a threat to the rest of the Wasteland... anyway, I think that's probably about it. Any questions?"
"About here, just before the canyon takes its turn and we lose line of sight, there's a tripwire connected to even more explosives. It's not a very sophisticated mechanism and it could be disarmed without too much trouble if it weren't in plain sight of every raider who could hold a gun. There's another tripwire after it, but since the canyon takes a turn at that point, anyone trying to disarm that one won't have covering fire unless they brought a buddy along."
"Over here is where the minefield stops. The railroad track splits at this point and the canyon widens out. Tracks go off to the left; that area's got a couple of tin-roofed open-air equipment shacks and a lot of old railroad cargo cars. Plenty of cover for the raiders, not to mention most of the railroad cars have some means of climbing up on top for a vantage point. The canyon wall on this side is too steep for them to scale, and there don't seem to be any openings or outcroppings, so there's that, at least."
"To the right the catwalk terminates in a tin-walled guardhouse. That tends to have one or two people in it or in front of it, probably because it overlooks the slave pens, here. I counted five or six slaves when I got in but wasn't able to make contact with any of them. There's a supply shack at ground level past the slave pens and then about five or ten yards of space before the canyon wall."
"This round object here, on your left as you pass the slave pens and supply shack, is the Behemoth's pen. The walls are a good twenty-five feet high and electrified. There's a generator just next to it that looks like the raiders could switch it off pretty easily if they needed to let the thing loose. The mutant itself is eighteen feet tall and doesn't seem to be armed, but there are motorcycles and substantial chunks of metal lying around the area that it would be perfectly capable of picking up and wielding or throwing. I've fought a few of these things before. They've got hides as thick as armor and pain tends to just make them mad. Slowing them down pretty much requires doing enough damage to physically cripple one or both legs, and even then they've got enough rage to them to keep trying to come after you just for spite. The neck in particular is ridiculously thick and tough. Wonder Woman had a hard time snapping the spine of the one we fought in the Capitol building's rotunda."
"To the right of the pen is the main factory, which has wire fencing and sandbags out front. It's built with its back up against the canyon wall. Given that this is the same rock formation that Vault 112 and Vault 87 were built into, and that Lamplight Caverns aren't too far away, I'd be really surprised if there weren't significant underground areas of the place. There are two other outlying buildings past that, further down the canyon. They're smaller and don't look like there's more than one floor to them. I wish I could give you more information than that but I wasn't able to get past the Behemoth pen without it roaring because it could smell me."
"As for the raiders themselves, there's a pretty fair number of them. I don't have an exact count. Most of them are armed with 5.56 millimeter assault rifles and twelve-gauge shotguns. A few of them are carrying disintegrator rifles of alien design- they're all but guaranteed to take apart a man-sized target on the first or second hit. The disintegrators are silver and shiny and fire blobs of energy, so they're pretty easy to recognize. I'm trying to get the slaves out of here and get those disintegrator rifles out of these people's hands before they become a threat to the rest of the Wasteland... anyway, I think that's probably about it. Any questions?"
no subject
Date: 2013-03-12 02:28 am (UTC)But there he is now, standing next to Kate and giving that chalkboard a good hard look before he nods and gives the cowgirl the trace of a smile. "Looks like fun."
Turning to look at Ellen he adds, "Where do you want me, Tiger?"
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Date: 2013-03-12 08:49 am (UTC)He gently pats the assault rifle on his chest, feeling the easy weight of the laser blaster on his back should he run out of ammo.
About to suggest they split teams like the last time he was there, he figures it's best just to hold his tongue. Not his mission, he's just there to add his expertise any way he can.
"Where do you want me?"
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Date: 2013-03-13 01:12 am (UTC)On the other hand, this is her world. And she did ask them to come here, and come they did.
(And if we are being truthful, having Thor address you by rank like that... kinda goes a long way in the starch-in-the-spine department.)
"Odinson, Invincible- I'm going to want you both on the mutant," Ellen says, tapping the enclosure on the chalkboard with one armored finger. "I'm not going to lie- the raiders will probably take it as an opportunity to come out and shoot at you. Even if they don't, we're talking about raiders here, not disciplined troops. They're going to be distracted, and if we're really lucky abandon their guard posts to come and watch."
"Michael, you and Voodoo take the right-hand wall of the canyon. The guardhouse is an elevated vantage point and I really don't want anybody nested in it. Besides, we can pull the slaves back and have them stay in there if need be, at least until we can safely escort them out of the canyon altogether. Either way, I don't want anybody in that building or in the area to the right of the main factory."
"Agent K, Kate, I'm going to need you two at ground level. I want somebody on the railroad tracks. Andrea, Annabelle and I will be covering you from the left-hand walkway. As long as you keep to the tracks yourselves you'll be fine, but if you have some means of disarming the mines then by all means feel free to do. We're going to be pressing through to the open shacks and railroad cars to keep the raiders off your backs while you get to the slave pens. If we can't get those people up and into the guardhouse I'm going to need some way of getting them out of the line of fire."
"I want the surface swept for raiders and disintegration weapons before we go into the factory, if at all possible. This is not a situation where any of us need a surprise coming around from behind."
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Date: 2013-03-13 01:58 am (UTC)Without waiting for the question to be asked--it was inevitable--K draws out a spare pulse blaster and tosses it over to Kate with a smirk. "Had a feeling you might be wanting this."
As for himself, K shifts the truly enormous Korlian XT-17 plasma cannon off his back and starts punching numbers into its control panel. The cannon begins powering up with a deep bass hum.
K is one happy Man in Black.
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Date: 2013-03-13 02:16 am (UTC)"You can count on us, Miss Ellen. We'll get 'em out safe."
She then turns to give Agent K a truly resplendent grin. She was rather hoping she'd have him at her side; his ability to read her mind being one primary reason why. She catches the blaster easily, fits it in her palm, and expertly navigates the control panel until the piece is humming rather ominously in her hand.
Did she fail to mention that she's coerced K into letting her use his weapons before?
"Why are your guns always so much bigger?"
It's an offhanded remark, not necessarily meant to be answered.
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Date: 2013-03-13 02:20 am (UTC)(Still pretty satisfying, though. And he can't very well arm the AT4 slung across his back without making almost everyone in the room shit a collective brick.)
"Try and keep up," he says, nodding to Michael.
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Date: 2013-03-13 02:22 am (UTC)She looks to Annabelle with a smile as she loads a chamber of her assault riffle, standard issue for the once great Chinese army of this world. "Think you can keep up?" She challenges.
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Date: 2013-03-13 02:56 am (UTC)"We shall have an enjoyable bout," he promises, half to Invincible and half to Ellen.
As an afterthought: "And endeavor to keep the creature away from those who should not be harmed."
People shooting at them, whatever. He's not worried if Invincible's not!
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Date: 2013-03-13 03:20 am (UTC)The smile fades to a somewhat more professional look behind his sunglasses and he turns his eyes toward Ellen and asks; "Do you have something fitted with a scope? If we clear the ridge I'd like to be able to provide cover fire for the ground team."
Assuming they needed it, it was best to be prepared.
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Date: 2013-03-13 03:41 am (UTC)Because while she has a fair number of weapons in Karkat's storage deck (it will be a very long time before she gets the troll terminology right, but that term is accurate enough), there are only three weapons in there with scopes. The .44 Magnum is nice, but it's a handgun, and the Gauss... that's Ellen's gun, and anyway it dislocates shoulders if people aren't prepared.
So that leaves #3; Ellen produces a respectably tooled sniper rifle and ammo to go with it out of the deck, and offers said weapon to Michael with a hopeful look.
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Date: 2013-03-13 03:50 am (UTC)It's a familiar weapon, not too different from every other scoped rifle he's handled - and the magazine is generous enough to accommodate a secondary weapon.
"Thanks."
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Date: 2013-03-13 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-13 07:00 pm (UTC)"You want point position, Ellen, Andrea?"
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Date: 2013-03-14 01:31 am (UTC)"How about I take point? If I get hit it's not a big issue unless the get lucky." Preternatural healing can be useful.
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Date: 2013-03-14 01:33 am (UTC)And off to the thread we go!