Futuristic Forsaken: The Neutral Zone

[Breadman]

1

 

[Infab]

1. Accept the Training
You will be given a crash course in Advanced Weaponry. This will allow you to use Carbines, Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, Light Machine Guns, and Marksman's Rifles. You will also be able to handle two-handed melee weapons more efficiently, such as pickaxes and fireaxes, pipes, and so on. This is a straight upgrade to your Basic Weapons Knowledge, and is mostly a step on the way to higher skill levels.

You think on it for a few moments, eyeing the large rifle, before nodding. Lola holds out the rifle with a smile, before removing the dead soldier's bandolier of magazines. Then, she hands that to you as well. Once she strips the other bandolier off the other soldier, she picks up his gun and secures her own personal rifle onto her back. You do the same with your shotgun.

"Alright. I'll run through the basics. These are Imperium M53Cs. Battle rifles, cut down to carbine length and used as assault rifles... because the Imperium likes to overcompensate." she says, slipping the rifle's stock under her arm. "They fire high-caliber ammunition. Stuff that punches through body armor and sometimes walls. So don't get shot, and make sure they don't shoot the outer walls of the colony."

As she loads her weapon, she continues to explain the basics on the weapon among others like her own. She also shows you how to load yours, and prepare it for battle. "That should cover everything. With these kinds of rifles, be sure to brace yourself for the recoil. Its rough on full auto. Semi-auto is your best bet for ammo conservation, since these only have twenty round magazines."

"Got it. Semi-auto only, unless I need full-auto. Brace for shots. Watch where I shoot. Don't get hit." you say back to her. She gives you a firm nod in response, and pats your shoulder.

"I'll be right here to help out and back you up too." she then says, flashing you a smile before motioning towards the doors leading out of the cabin. "Let's get moving. We're a little pressed for time."

You give her a nod, before moving quietly towards the doors. A peek through the glass allows for a view into the hallway beyond, but only a short distance in either direction left or right. More black-grey, yellow, and red. Imperial utilitarianism. Lola reaches over and touches the manual door control, forcing the doors to slide open. You both lean out carefully, looking down both directions with your rifles raised.

Nothing. The hallway is empty. However, you do smell something terrible... Honestly, it was quite like the smell in the bathroom. Had more people suffered the same fate?

Lola taps you on the shoulder before moving past you towards the right. "...Elevator down to the main section of Administration should be this way." she whispers as she moves by. You follow quietly along, checking behind you every so often to see if anyone might be moving down the other end of the hallway. Still nothing.

The elevator is smaller than those of the Union and the Conglomerate, barely large enough for two people. Likely at the request of the head of the Imperial colony. You don't get many guests if only two people fit in the elevator at a time. The doors are a bright yellow, almost golden in sheen, and emblazoned with the emblem of the Imperium. They wouldn't be for shut for much longer, as Lola reaches over and taps the call button on the wall next to it.

"Mmm..." she mutters under her breath, watching the light above the elevator move across the small black screen. Signifying its position. She glaces back to you after a moment. "...Where would you lock yourself if you wanted to send out messages to the Union and Commonwealth without alerting your allies? Especially in the Administration sector?"

You shrug. "With the way the Imperium likes to do things, they're bound to have cameras and guards everywhere." you say.

Lola nods in response. "I doubt the personal cabins would be a good location to set up. The doors don't lock, and there's a camera in each cabin..." She pauses, as the elevator arrives. The doors slide open, revealing a small bare space that the two of them could occupy shoulder to shoulder on the way down.

She steps inside, before motioning for you to get in. You do as instructed, stepping inside and standing next to her as she taps a button on on the wall. Going down.

The doors shut, locking the two of you inside, before the elevator shifts and begins its downward decent into the colony. As the light above the door moves, this time in the opposite direction as the one before, Lola soon turns to face you. Her bright blue eyes lock onto yours as you glance towards her, the synth peering through her white bangs at you. A moment later, she speaks.

"I've some things to ask you, while we wait." she says quietly, "...And since its just me and you here, there's no distractions."

You give her a confused look, as you turn to face her. Distractions?

She smiles. "...Back at the Conglomerate facility, when you were looking at my old body... Who spoke to you?"

You feel the color drain from your face, your eyes widening slightly. "What?" you ask. Oh fuck. She knows.

"Your eyes glazed over for a few moments, when I looked up at you. I've seen that happen to a few other people, when they conversed with someone else telepathically... Your eyes did it again, in the bathroom back there, when we were looking at the message on the mirror. I could see your reflection in the mirror... I bet you even know what the message said, thanks to whoever spoke to you." she says, her tone never changing. Her eyes, however, shift downward towards your neck.

Her free hand moves up to your jumpsuit's collar, before her fingers begin to smooth out wrinkles across your jumpsuit's chest. Then, they travel to the strap of your bandolier, giving it a gentle pull to tighten it to your body. Securing it. Her eyes then shift back up to meet yours again, her face still wearing the same smile she had when she first started talking.

"So... who was it?" she asks again.


1. Tell the Truth.
2. Lie (Make up an answer.)

 

[Breadman]

1

 

[Worthlessplebian]

1

 

[dikdik]

1

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

1

 

[K0mori]

1

 

[demytra]

1

 

[CHUUYAS_HAT]

1

 

[Infab]

1. Tell the Truth.

After watching Lola crush a man's windpipe just minutes ago, you really didn't want to suffer a similar fate. You then hear Hypnos' voice once more, from the back of your mind. As if she were standing right behind you.

Tell her. If she's referring to what I think she is, then she's already in the know. She's fully trustworthy, and will be your first true ally on this little moon. Besides myself, of course.

Alright... Here goes nothing, I guess.

Lola watches you intently, noticing your eyes glaze over for a few seconds. Then, you speak. You recount what you remember, from waking up in that cabin down in the mines to meeting your eldritch associate in your dreams. Hypnos, the eldritch being buried on this moon, and their sibling Thanatos who's hell bent on keeping them that way. Lola expression shifts to one of surprise as you speak, explaining in detail all that has happened and all that you've learned.

Once you finish, she rubs her chin. "...Fascinating..." she says with a smile, eventually grinning as she looks back towards the door. "...I knew there was more to all of this. Especially the visions."

"Visions?" you ask.

She glances back to you, before nodding rapidly. "My associate... well, really my boss... Fredrick McConnell began having visions just before all of this began. He filled me in on some of the details, mainly for record keeping purposes. The visions were likely Hypnos' way of communicating with him, before they figured things out properly with you." she explained. She flashes you a wider smile, then continues. "The visions were brief, but helpful, still images that would occasionally flash through Fredrick's mind. Being ever the puzzle lover, he figured out what to do with them in no time. They helped him to save almost all the staff from the Conglomerate facility during the attack. I stayed behind in an effort to provide them time to get away."

I'm glad what I provided was able to save so many lives. Perhaps you might run into them in the Commonwealth colony? If you end up heading that way, that is. I can try and send Fredrick more visions, as well, to show him that Lola survived the battle.

"Hypnos says they'll try and send Fredrick more visions to show him that you survived." you say aloud, forcing Lola to glance to you again.

"Please do... I'd hate for him to think I perished." she responds, with a faint nod.

Suddenly, the elevator stops abruptly. Forcing the two of you to stumble into one another. The lights go out, then dim white and red light floods the elevator from slits in the floor and ceiling. Emergency lights.

Lola, already looking for a way out, states the obvious. "They must have cut the main power to the elevator. That means they know we're here, somehow, or they're worried someone might come in the back door. Maybe the Commonwealth team made progress?" she mutters, as she looks up towards the ceiling.

She lifts her rifle up, and begins to poke at different plates on the roof. However, she soon finds there isn't an emergency hatch there. Neither is there one on the floor, after a few moments of her tearing the carpeting up to look. She stands up, frowning. "...Looks like the only way out is through the doors. Hold this for me, would you?" she soon says, holding her carbine out to you.

As soon as you take it from her, she reaches up and begins to try and force the elevator doors open. It takes a few moments, and you can see the synthetic muscle in her arms start to bulge as she forces a crack to appear between the two doors. Then, she slips her hands between them and forces them open wider. What lies on the other side of the doors is as expected. Concrete. However, there is a large vent squarely placed in the middle. Its large enough for both of them to climb in, and after a quick inspection, Lola rips the vent's cover off and tosses it behind you in the elevator.

She takes her carbine back from you, and climbs into the vent. "Let's go. Quietly, of course. Vents make noise... and we don't want to make a lot of that here."

--- --- --- ---
​

"Scott, Lola, you there? Its Filenkov."

You and Lola stop your movement through the vents, and you reach up to your ear. "Yeah, we're here. What's up?" you whisper, taking note of the vent covering nearby that has light pouring through it.

"...This place... Something is very wrong here, man. Reyna and I are finding... a lot of bodies. Skinned, mutilated, cannibalized. This place is beyond fucked, man."

...Thanatos's influence.

"...Yeah, that's probably what the smell is from. Its everywhere." you whisper, looking up towards Lola. "...How's Reyna doing?"

"She's currently throwing up in a trash bin... She said fuck this place."

"Keep her safe. We're in the vents now too. I think we're over the..." says Lola, before easing forward to peer through the slits in the vent covering. "...Yeah, we're passing by the central administration level meeting room. Seems occupied."

"Right. We'll avoid that area, then. We're over on the communications side of the Admin sector. There's some Imps over here, listening to the firefight down in the tunnels. Apparently the Commonwealth is breaching the lines... Must have brought a synth or two with them."

"Probably one of my variants, or another model. We should link up with them once we locate the survivor." mutters Lola into her own earpiece.

"Right. Reyna thinks they might be in one of the computer rooms. Places are like a sauna when everything's running, so hope they haven't passed out or anything."

"They're probably safe if they have an environment suit on. Anyway, be careful. We'll figure out somewhere to meet up soon." you respond.

A moment later, you hear a gunshot in the meeting room outside the vent. Lola glances to you. "...One of them saw a bug and shot it." she whispers, before holding a finger to her mouth. She then motions you closer.

You crawl up, and peer through the vent next to her. Inside, you can see a handful of Imperial soldiers gathered up around a large square table computer. One had his pistol drawn, pointed at a black bullet hole on the wall across the room. Lola smirks, as she glances to you. "It looked like a cockroach, honestly." she whispers, her smirk turning into a grin. Then she looks back into the room.

"Did you see the size of that fuckin' thing? We got mutant freaks, Commonwealth goons, and now fucking roaches the size of my fist!" spat the soldier, putting his pistol away to the laughter of his fellow soldiers.

"Relax, man. Bugs are nothin'. Focus on the muties and Commonwealth." said another, "Union's keeping their shit to themselves, seems like."

"Hope so. Heard a group of them went over to the Conglomerate place. Didn't that place get shot up? Bet the Commonwealth did it."

"Nah, the Commonwealth pours a lot into the Conglomerate's ledgers. No way they'd break their own toys."

Soon, a door on the far side opens and an Imperial officer steps in. The soldiers snap to attention, but are quickly waved off. "Get your asses over to the armory. Captain Anton's gearing up to fight the Commonwealth fireteam. He's gonna need backup, and you chucklefucks just signed up for it."

"Damn, Lieutenant. Why us?"

"Other groups are on mutie extermination, or they're plugging the nutcases. Trying to salvage this fuckin' place, if you haven't noticed."

Some of the soldiers groan, but soon fall out. Moving for the door as they comply with their new orders. Lola glances to you again. "...So there's some actual sane Imperials left. Surprising. Captain Anton, though... I've heard of him."

She turns and begins to crawl forward again. "He was a new arrival here. Hand-picked by the Imperial colony's administrator. Supposedly, he's an infiltrator model of synth. Easy for him to blend in almost anywhere he wants." She then looks back to you. "Looks like he's in charge here now. The Administrator must be dead."

"Fuck... that's not good." you say in response.

"No... it isn't."

--- --- --- ---
​

Eventually, the two of you come to a four way intersection of vents. The left one seems to slope downwards before ending in what appears to be a short drop. You can see light at the end of the vent, meaning you'll emerge somewhere. The right leads upwards into another part of the Admin sector. The path forward? It goes straight a ways, before making a hard right.

Lola looks back at you, as she rolls onto her rear. "Well... we've got a decision to make." she says, before pointing to you. "Really, you've got a decision to make. I trust you."


1. Left.
2. Right.
3. Straight ahead.

 

[Breadman]

2

 

[demytra]

2

 

[dikdik]

3

 

[K0mori]

1

 

[CHUUYAS_HAT]

2

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

1

 

[Infab]

2. Right.

You didn't trust the vent going straight ahead. The left one was tempting, but ultimately, you settled on the one going right. You point to it, and Lola nods in response.

"Right it is, then." she says, glancing towards the upward sloping vent. She rolls back onto her stomach, and begins to crawl forth. The vent slopes upwards at a gentle angle, which increases slowly. It's not steep enough to make it difficult to crawl, but it certainly would be if adjusted just a few more degrees.

The metal of the vent groans a little, the metal warping slightly due to your movements and weight. However, it seems to be holding. These were some well made vents, if they're able to hold both you and a synth. Soon, you hear noises that aren't the vent shifting.

It... sounds like a loud hiss. Like compressed air or something.

Lola suddenly stops moving ahead of you, and looks back to you. She hears it too. "...I smell something burning." she whispers. She looks back forwards, and slowly begins to crawl once more.

You follow close behind, worried about what might be ahead of you now. However, you wouldn't have to worry much longer. As Lola crosses over a connection between vents, the screws and bindings holding the vent to the ceiling break. The screws snap loudly, the binding buckles and detaches from the ceiling. Lola swings downward, falling with the vent as it dropped, and you then hear a loud metal crash.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?"

Hope you're ready for a fight.

​

You quickly crawl forwards, and look down through the new hole to see Lola crawling backwards out of the vent. You poke your head through, looking around the room quickly. It looked like a break room, with vending machines lining the walls and several tables scattered about with matching chairs. The walls were the dark grey common with most Imperial structures, with black tile floors. The tables themselves were also grey, but lighter in shade and with imperial emblems painted squarely in the center of each. Lola and the vent seemed to have landed on one of the tables, shattering it on impact and breaking some of the chairs that had been pushed under it.

A door soon slides open to the right side of the room, and you spot three Imperial soldiers dart in with their weapons readied. One of them spots you, and immediately snaps his weapon up to open fire. You scramble backwards, as high caliber rounds sound off and punch through the vent where you were once perched.

"HE'S IN THE FUCKING VE--" spits the soldier, before bullets ripped through his chest and throat. Lola had managed to slip out of the end of the fallen vent, and released a burst of automatic fire. She sweeps it across sideways, swinging the weapon and letting the inertia from the recoil push the weapon around to nail the other two soldiers as they notice her and go to fire. As they drop to the floor, one of them manages to squeeze off a few rounds, peppering a nearby vending machine and the wall with bullets before hitting the floor with a loud clatter.

"Scott! LET'S GO!" she calls out.

You don't need much else. You crawl forwards, and soon your side of the vent collapses. It falls, part of it remaining attached to the ceiling but the falling part dropping and forcing you to slide out onto the floor with a thud. Lola's quick to react, climbing to her feet and helping you up as well.

"Everyone probably heard that, so we need to move!" she exhales, moving towards the door with her weapon raised. As she crosses the room, the doors open again. Two more soldiers appear, and are quickly ventilated by automatic fire from Lola's rifle.

As you both emerge into the hallway, you come across exactly what Filenkov and Reyna had come across before. Blood, skin, torn off limbs, mutilated bodies, spent shell casings... a true mess. The stench is almost unbearable, and you quickly move your hand to cover your nose and mouth.

"Holy shit." you cough out. It was taking all the strength you could muster not to puke.

Lola seems unfazed by the stench. She does, however, look horrified by the sights around her. "...Thanatos really is determined to kill everyone." she mutters aloud, before glancing back to you. Suddenly, however, she grabs you by your shoulder and moves you out of the way as she swings her rifle up. Two more gunshots sound off, and you hear a woman cry out in pain down the hallway behind you.

As you stumble to the side, you notice at the end of the hall behind Lola two more soldiers. One of them wielding what appears to be a flamethrower, burning the bodies of the mutilated corpses. They really do think this is a contagion or mutation of some sort. You shift your rifle to your shoulder, take aim, and fire off three shots aimed at the flamethrower trooper. One of the shots connects with his fuel tank, and he explodes in a bright yellow fireball that engulfs the soldier next to him.

Lola looks back, raising an eyebrow, before seeing most of that end of the hall on fire. Two soldiers were on fire, thrashing about trying to put themselves out. "Horrific, but effective." she mutters softly, before patting your shoulder. "We need to go. We have to find the others."

Beyond the fire at one end, both ends of the hall seemed to look the same. However, there was a blue line on the wall along with a green one. The blue lead down to towards the end that Lola had shot the woman, rounding the corner to the left. The green line lead towards where the two soldiers were burning. Typically, blue meant security. That wasn't where they needed to be. Green meant hydroponics, at least in the Union colony, but often meant Recreation sectors in other colonies.

Lola glanced to you, then the lines on the wall. "...Security would be closer to the communications sector, I believe. Fastest way to get to the others. Recreation would be the longer but safer route." she comments.


1. Security
2. Recreation

 

[hardcore.munchkin]

1

 

[demytra]

2

 

[Breadman]

2

 

[dikdik]

2

 

[K0mori]

1

 

[Damian0358]

0b1