Fallout: Great White North

[Aarah]

"But we can't just leave them. And Jan's in there too, what about h..." Chris was cut short by the sound of a bullet hitting rock.

He quickly ducked down and strained his eyes looking Northwards.

Gotta protect Anderson and Luke. Stay sharp. Stay focused.
He gripped his laser with purpose.

[Baloth-Kul]

Rick hurried after the eager soldier heading upstairs, but did not quite match his pace. Gotta keep my eyes open. Gripping the pistol with both hands, he scanned the upper floor for threats.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Lester, who had stayed with Chris and Luke to keep guard as they helped Anderson, heard the sniper shot and immediately retreated behind the cover of a tree. "I'm going to see if I can get any closer to that sniper," he said to the others.

He began making his way northwards through the woods, in an arc so that he would hopefully end up at an angle somewhat behind the sniper, trying to stay quiet and behind trees. He figured that if he could close the distance between them and attack from within the woods, he would have a change against their assailant. That is, if he was able to find him in time, and not get caught before he got close enough. If he heard another shot, he would pause where he was and assess the situation.

[The SheoDovah]

"At the moment, it's either risk being ambushed or...." A gunshot interrupted Grace and Chris. "Damnit!" She immediately ducked and was next to Chris. "Move!" She commanded, knowing that it would be a quick way to die if they remained here. "Get behind something." With that, she would attempt to move to something she could use as cover.

[Unionhack]

Luke had finally decided on his opinion of Grace, and it was far from positive. There was little time to be concerned, however, as the shot that rang out startled him. He ensured that Anderson was safe, and then took cover on the south side of a tree to block himself from the shooter. He held his plasma defender loosely in one hand, waiting for the sound of crinkling foliage or something of the sort.

"Lester is moving ahead to circle about our new 'friend'... you should work with him." he advised Grace. Two combat-minded persons moving in a pincer formation would certainly flush the shooter out.

[Aarah]

Upon advice, and once Luke had ensured that Anderson was safe, Chris picked a tree for himself and hurriedly ran to hide behind it. He peered around the trunk, the nose of his pistol doing the same.

[Kerr]

Rick and the soldier scaled several sets of stairs, they went up a number of stories but there were only doors at the top and bottom. The soldier kicked open the door at the top of the stairs as Rick was halfway up the final row and stepped out into the loft.

The loft was wide and open with no furniture in it. Opposite the door back downstairs was a corridor which turned off to the right. To the left were several windows looking out on the rest of the logging camp and lying dead in front of them with her head split open from a rifle shot was the sniper who'd gotten in a duel with Sophia.

To the right was a balcony which overlooked the lower story of the logging building where the truck was currently parked. The safety railing was at mid-torso level, with a single wooden railing at the top and empty underneath. There were two raiders wearing heavy clothing but no real armor looking down on that lower level, the one closer to Rick was holding a double-barrel shotgun and the one further away had an assault rifle. The shotgun wielding raider turned as the soldier kicked open the door and they both opened fire on each other, the soldier was hit in the upper left leg with buckshot and fell sidewards to the ground, the thug with the shotgun was hit several times in the chest and fell on his rear. The raider with the assault rifle hadn't turned around yet, he was still firing on the people below.
---
Grace, Luke and Chris all took cover but couldn't see the person who'd shot at them. Lester however due to his looping around was able to catch sight of the shooter and flank him, the man was carrying a bolt-action hunting rifle and standing up straight behind the north side of a tree. He was still about 10 meters away from Lester but hadn't seemed to have noticed the rebel yet.

The raider was wearing a fedora, black trenchcoat, metal armor and sunglasses. Given the dress sense, everyone bar Grace would recognize it as the outfit the abrasive mercenary 'Tuck' had been wearing. Although given that this man was a ghoul and at least half a foot shorter than him, they could tell it was a different man.

[Baloth-Kul]

Rick took a knee, aimed, and fired upon the enemy rifleman with a burst from his auto pistol. He didn't stop to look at his fallen comrade--distractions could be fatal, but that didn't mean he was unaware of his plight. Hang in there, kid.

[Kerr]

Rick shot the rifleman three times in the torso, the man lost his grip on the rifle and dropped it over the side. He collapsed, first slouching over the handrail before falling to his knees and then sidewards to the ground. The man wasn't moving.

The shotgun wielding raider hugged his weapon towards his chest and rolled sideways underneath the handrail and off the balcony. Rick knew it would be a 5 story drop to the floor below.

[Baloth-Kul]

Stepping towards the railing, Rick pointed the pistol at the fallen rifleman's head, and squeezed a single round off. He took one glance over the railing and the inevitable mess at the bottom, before hurrying to his fallen comrade's side.

"Hang on, kid." The Black Car holstered the pistol and attempted to assess the state of the man's injured leg.

[Kerr]

Rick shot the rifleman in the head. But during his glance over the railing, he didn't spot the ghoul who'd rolled off the side. He just wasn't there. Rick's eyes were keen enough to spot a shotgun lying on the floor just to the right of the truck and he deduced that given the distances, it was possible the ghoul had bounced off the truck's canopy but still, it was quite a drop and he'd already been shot. "All clear down here!" Rick heard Constance shout.

"Uhhh, gah, I think the armor got most of it." said the wounded solider as Rick examined his leg. The soldier's wishful thinking seemed to be more or less correct, he was wearing combat armor which absorbed most of the blast, the small amount of buckshot which pieced his skin was a surface wound. Rick wasn't a doctor but the damage looked far from life threatening or even crippling.

[Baloth-Kul]

"Sweep by the truck!" Rick shouted to those down below. "Ghoul fell from up here; make sure he's dead." He offered a hand to help the wounded soldier up.

Hidden:

And then the soldier shoots Rick, fittingly.

[Kerr]

Rick helped the soldier up and they went downstairs. Rick noticed a trail of blood leading from the shotgun out the front door and continuing towards the palisade to the south. The US soldier who had been carrying a service rifle had been killed in the fighting and Rick followed the blood while everyone else performed a sweep of the entire lumber mill, finding it to be all clear. Following the blood, Rick discovered who the naked man who'd suffered impalement at the hands of The Restless Dead just outside their walls had been, Tuck. He may have been naked but Rick recognized him from the hair, beard and massive size. It around this point Rick lost the trail. They could try tracking the ghoul further if they wanted but Constance advised against it, instead they reconvened in the center of the camp
---
The logging camp was no longer under raider control, their forces had been thoroughly routed. Most had been killed, 4 were taken captive and from what they could tell just under a half a dozen fled, including the one Rick had seen shot. 10 minutes after the raider had fallen from the 5th floor, Rick and Constance were talking in the square. They were both sitting down, Constance had taken the helmet off her armor.

"Cattle seem fine, except that weird one with two heads, but I suppose it's not your fault. You were a few days behind schedule though, might have to dock your pay for that." said Constance with a smile. "This lot can hold the fort down here, we can go back up and reconvene with Bravo team. I'll give 'em the debriefing. They're probably worried sick about you, Riel always gets like that."

[Baloth-Kul]

As Rick sat with Constance, he splashed a bit more water onto his face, to wash the rest of the blood off.

His ears pricked up as she mentioned Riel.

"...Riel never left the cabin. Plague took him by the time we got there. I'm sorry, Constance."

[The SheoDovah]

Grace knew from experience that the sniper could kill them all or use them as bait and assumed Lester could get a beam on him. "Keep him focused on us!" She ordered the others as she prepared to fire at the direction of the sniper. "Doesn't matter if you miss as long as he thinks we are dumb enough to try to kill him from here." She explained and if there were no objections or a better plan, would begin to fire her revolver from behind the tree at the sniper.

[Aarah]

Chris hesitated to fire his weapon after Grace shared the plan.

He took another look Northwards.
"I can't see Lester anymore. What if we end up shooting him by mistake? I don't trust my aim to hit a tree."

Besides this, Chris didn't know where exactly the shooter was positioned; he hadn't seen the bullet hit the rock, so couldn't make an educated guess based on the projectile's trajectory. All he knew was that there was a ghoul in the forest...somewhere.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Lester was prepared to close the distance into melee range, as was his instinct, but he knew that there was a safer route (for him). Behind the tree he was using for concealment, he drew the Desert Eagle. He took off the safety, and brought the gun up to chest level in order to minimize the amount of movements he'd have to make while aiming.

Then, stepping out beside the tree, he aimed the gun at the shooter's upper torso, then fired three shots in succession, keeping his grip firm and applying force to attempt to compensate for the recoil.

[Kerr]

"He... no." said Constance. Her joyous composure disappeared as tears ran down her face, she tried to wipe them away but to no avail. Her sorrow quickly turned to anger. "Vault [&@%!], they would have done this to all of us if they could. And that [&@%!] who came back with you acting like she's a victim, like she's doing us a favor? If she asks for a reward again I'll [&@%!] kill her Rick, I swear to god I will." Constance was brimming with rage, her hands clenched into fists. She paused for a second. "Who was the other one? Earlier you said we lost someone else."
----
Grace fired blindly in a northerly direction three times. As she did so Lester took aim at the raider with his desert eagle. His first shot hit the raider in the upper left arm, the impact caused the ghoul to drop his rifle. The second bullet missed, flying past the raider and becoming embedded in a tree. Lester didn't get a chance to fire off a third shot as Chris's fears came true and he was interrupted by one of Grace's bullets. Miraculously however the bullet didn't hit Lester, instead it hit his desert eagle which caused the rebel to fumble and drop his weapon to ground.

With his free hand the raider held down on his wound. "I give up! I give up!" the raider shouted as he got to his knees, still behind the tree and still clenching his wound as he did so.

Hidden:

I had written a better post but internet went out and it got lost.

[Baloth-Kul]

He considered counselling Constance against murder, but who was he to preach?

"The kid, ah, what was his name... ...Jan." Rick said, voice full of regret at the young man's death. His dying words echoed in Rick's ears.
R...i..i..i...i...c...k... ...R....u...u...u...n...

"He saved my life. ...We need to get him out of the cave, once we've seen to our wounded. Give him a proper burial."

[Kerr]

"He was 18 last month." said Constance, her anger had returned to melancholy. Constance looked around at the camp before turning her head back to Rick. She sighed. "This better have been worth it."

[The SheoDovah]

Grace was unaware that she hit Lester's gun and was about to fire a fourth round until the sniper spoke. "Stay where you are!" She ordered as she kept her revolver aimed in the direction of the fiend. "Keep an eye out for any threats." She told Lucas and Chris as she began to make her way towards the sniper whilst keeping a low profile in case there were more of the raiders near by. She kept her revolver trained in the direction of the sniper and if he did not obey or tried to attack, she would shoot him.

Hidden:

Then Kerr kills me off. Again.

[Kerr]

The man was leaning up against the tree, still holding his wound. "Look, I was just trying to get out of there. And with all the shooting going on, didn't exactly think you'd be friendly." said the ghoul. "My name's Joey, I'm a trader from the north, I just got here, have nothing to do with all this. I mean, do I look like I'm with those guys?" He gestured towards his outfit. "I'm innocent, I swear on my life I am."

While his eccentric outfit certainly made him an outlier, all of Bravo team bar Grace would recognize his outfit as what Tuck had been wearing. No doubt that indicated that his story was, at least in part, a lie.

Hidden:

Why do you keep calling him a sniper? He's not a sniper, he was just using a rifle. Not even a sniper rifle.

I know a lot of other TSD PCs did, but I can't remember if Grace said she'd summarily execute any Restless Dead they came across.

[Unionhack]

Luke nodded to Chris and left his position of cover behind his chosen tree, keeping his defender drawn as he moved over to where Grace went.

Not about to let some loose-cannon vault firebrand execute someone who surrendered.

His recent impressions of the Vault we're obviously colored negatively, and Grace's attitude wasn't helping.

[Kerr]

Luke moved out from behind cover and went over to Grace and 'Joey.' He could see plain as day that the ghoul was wearing the same outfit as the foul mouthed Tuck.

[Aarah]

"Be careful!" Chris said in concern to Grace and Luke.
"I don't trust him. That story sounds hinky."

Chris stayed behind the tree, alert for any sudden action from the shooter's area.

He glanced over at Anderson.
"You doin' alright there, Anderson?"