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?"
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 08:34 pm (UTC)Keeping his own curiosity in check, Michael sweeps the rear before sliding closer to the stranger firing into the guards. He swaps over to the sniper and crouches down to angle one shot straight through the skull of the closest raider and then lines up the next.
"Like ducks at the fair," he mutters with a half-smile.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 08:39 pm (UTC)She so should have brought a sniper riffle. Next time for sure.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 08:44 pm (UTC)Shifting his weight back onto his braced foot, he's able to get a slightly better angle when he braces the rifle. It's a stance he could take all day if he needed to - which was doubtful the way they were mopping up raiders.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 08:47 pm (UTC)Of course the guards know there's more than one potential shooter so it's not likely to work, right?
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 08:49 pm (UTC)Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 08:52 pm (UTC)And then he looks a lot dead.
"That was fun..." he glances back toward the tunnel - still empty thankfully - and then back up at the woman; "rush 'em?"
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 08:54 pm (UTC)But, being Thor, his general attitude is enh, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Anyway, none are in evidence so far! And Invincible's notion is a good one: to draw the fire away from their more fragile (and more stealthy) comrades.
Accordingly, Thor took the start of this fight as an opportunity to stride out after Invincible into the clear center of the room. Getting hit with a lot of bullets is kind of annoying -- it doesn't hurt, but it's like being pelted with paperclips -- but the minor annoyance is worth protecting his human companions.
He does hurl Mjölnir into the largest cluster a couple of times, though. And summons it back to his hand before it hits the wall or grating; Ellen might want the raiders' plunder intact.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 08:58 pm (UTC)"Holy shit," she says. "Maybe next time?"
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-21 10:45 pm (UTC)"Nice," says Invincible to Thor, slightly envious. "But be careful. I really don't want to dig out from under a cave-in."
He notices the grating off to the right. Curious, he drifts over for a closer look. He increases his speed just enough to catch one of the slower slavers, and pops a quick jab into his face before the guy can react to having a superhero in his face. He goes down like a poleaxed steer, gun clattering to the floor.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 01:23 am (UTC)It's not as startling as Felix's world had been, but it sure ain't Texas, John's world, or that of The Waco Kids'. Kate finds her eyes going wide both in awe at what the superheros can do, and in fear at the sheer power of these people, good and bad, and their weapons.
(Her snake anklet begins to writhe, helping her stay calm.)
Enemies down the middle are dropping like flies, so she turns toward the cavern on the left where Andrea and Michael have helpfully thinned out the hostiles, moving toward those suspicious-looking bars.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 01:39 am (UTC)Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 01:45 am (UTC)Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 01:52 am (UTC)"K used some special kind of goop t'burn away the lock on the slave pen; he may have more, unless y'think y'can handle this on your own."
She then looks back at the prisoners, and drops her voice to a soothing tone.
"Hold tight. Nobody's gonna hurt you."
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 01:57 am (UTC)There's a BANG from the other side of the cavern; she flinches and pulls back hurriedly.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 02:21 am (UTC)(Not that she thinks there are any, but slacking off in enemy territory always, always bites you in the ass.)
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 02:24 am (UTC)"We're here now, and we're doing our best to make sure this all ends."
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 03:24 am (UTC)"I'm not concerned about pulling this open; I know I can do that," he says. "I'm concerned about bringing the roof down." Then, something occurs to him, and he grins. "Watch yourselves," he says to the people inside. Then, he draws back a fist, and punches the lock.
There is the discordant SPANG! of metal stressed beyond its tolerances, and the entire lock assembly is torn free of the door and bounces across the cell to shatter against the back wall, just over the heads of some of the prisoners. "Sorry," says Invincible, sheepishly. "Everyone alright?" He pulls on the door, and it swings freely, a fist-sized hole where the lock was.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 03:35 am (UTC)And then, a few minutes later, the shooting is done with; there's no one left upright except the ones who came in with Ellen, and the ones who were just freed. "Everybody okay?" Ellen calls out, the electrical sword still in her hand.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 03:53 am (UTC)He scans the roomful of guns on the right and, well, what do you know. "This must be one of those disintegrator rifles you mentioned, Ellen." K looks it over. "You'll find a lot like this type all over the Virgo Cluster, every two-bit pawn shop you walk into. Always the same story, 'Must've just fallen out of the airlock, I dunno, it just turned up.'"
He taps a couple of buttons, then slaps it. "This one's not doing a damn thing, though. Not without a few hours of refit."
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 04:00 am (UTC)"I heard one of them mention the name," one of the female prisoners says hesitantly. "When they- I heard that name."
Ellen looks up at that. "Did they say anything about him?"
"Just that they wanted a crack at him instead of us, for once." Her face twists briefly. "For a change of pace."
"... you know, if caves were flammable and if we didn't have to get out of here alive, I'd say we just torch the premises," Ellen mutters. "Okay. Well- look, we're going to see what we can do about what's left of these people. Do you guys know anything else?"
"Main chamber's that way," says one of the men, and jerks his head towards a dimly powered lamp at the end of the cavern. "Anyone's left, they're in there."
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 04:07 am (UTC)She turns to the five liberated prisoners.
"If you can find your way outta here, there's a guard tower jus' outside where the other slaves are tucked away safe. If y'head out that way, y'should be safe until we're done cleanin' up the rest of this mess. Then we'll come an get you."
She smiles softly, and shows them where to go.
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 04:21 am (UTC)Ellen doesn't say anything. She just hands each of them whatever reasonably-easy-to-fire weapon comes to hand as they pass, with the appropriate ammo. The way she sees it, they deserve it, and she'll pay Harith later if it's coming out of his stock and he's still around. Once they're out of sight she says, "I was going to offer to leave whatever raiders might be left alive, and send them out of the Wasteland in their skivvies, with one gun and one clip of bullets among them. I don't think I'm going to do that now."
She's not quite up to quoting Genghis Khan, but she's pretty close, regardless of how calm she might look.
"If everyone's ready, let's move."
Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 04:23 am (UTC)Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 04:25 am (UTC)Re: Below the Factory
Date: 2013-03-22 04:30 am (UTC)Drawing out his scanner again, he gets a radar read on the walls of the last chamber and angles the holographic display so Voodoo can get a look before the Man in Black flips the unit shut again and stows it away back inside his Suit pocket.
The Deatomizer's powering up sequence is a damn sight faster than the plasma cannon too. It's ready to go by the time K falls in a few steps behind Voodoo.
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