ICC- Fallout Chapter 2- The Wastelands

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Dwemer and Melvin walked past Inne and Sam, into the flooded room.

For the most part the room was just a large store house filled with shelves with boxes and other materials. If there was a sign of dangerous waste, he couldn't find it.

Still there was the sound of scurrying on the walls, in the shadows, all around them but in the darkness. With the lights of their helmets they could see little as most of the lights in the warehouse had burnt out.

Melvin had climbed into a large Hauler, a yellow machine that was shaped like a man but built for carrying large cargo. He checked out the switches and, with a slow buzz, the machine came on. "Hey check this out." As he began to walk the Hauler about. THen he turned and began a Moondance, which to everyone's suprised, made Inne laugh.

Dwemer ignored this and went to the far side of the door. "Robot, were is the biological waste that was placed on this level."

"Special Containment section of the Warehouse 5." Said the robot. "South corner."

Dwemer looked about and followed the walls around until he found the south Corner. There were two doors- one was a large loading door and the other a smaller door into a room marked "Control Room."

He tried the door but it was locked. But as he felt it for a catch he came to notice something else- the door was metal and such, had moisture all over it. He knocked on it, and the knock came back hollow. Then something very strong hit the door on the other side.

"I think we should check the control room."
Caribe provided cover as Dwemer went in. Again scurrying sounds that hid from the light. Vague shadows moving quickly on many legs.

The control room was rather small, with a long panel along one side. In front of the panel was sheet of thick glass. Dwemer began to wipe the glass away to see what was on the other side.

Water. The flood which had done damage to this level had virtually filled the containment room. It was deep as well, almost as high as Dwemer. But the water was smokey and unclear.

Dwemer cupped his hands to look into the darkness but saw little. he blinked.

"See anything?" Asked Caribe.

"Nada."

And then something, long and big, swept past his view. It was there, he was sure of it, and a blink, and it was gone. Dwemer backed away from the window, as if expecting the creature to come crashing through.

"I think something is in there. And I think it wants out."

OCC- He Zoe, I think the bot will probably not be allowed to follow. It's just a maintenance bot which is programmed to fix things on this level.
 
Vedpose and Zeke were taken a small building near the front gate. They were thrown into chairs of an uncomfortable nature and given the first degree. Most of the question were directed at Zeke who had already piss Seth off.

“Tell me, why did you come here?”

“Well, it certainly wasn’t to be asked stupid questions and be shot at by people like you.”

“You were attempting to come into town and steal yourself some supplies weren't you?”

“What the hell would I want to steal from this shit hole?”

“So you admit that you came here to steal our goods!?”

“No, I admit that I sick of you asking me all these fucking questions. We didn’t come here to harm you or your fucking town, so shut the hell up and let us go.”

“You came into our town armed. Therefore I believe that you came with the intent to harm us either with treats, stealing, or physical violence.”

“Right Fucknut, we came in here with holstered weapons that we have to have to protect ourselves in the wastes and no armor, and you are trying to tell us we came to harm you. I want to speak to the real person in charge here, not some second class deductive idiot like you.”

“Yes, I think that would work rather well.”

Seth left the room and the guards waited outside the building while Seth fetched the head man. Vedpose looked at Zeke like she wanted to kill him.

“What in the world are you doing Zeke?” Ved’s voice sounded more like a hiss than a human voice.

“I…”

“No, you are going to shut up and let me handle this. Okay?”

“But....”

“Hush.”

“I was…”

“Not a single word.” Vedpose’s voice of very firm,

Seth walked back into the tent and behind him followed a tan skinned man in dark robes.

“I understand that you wished to speak with me.”

“Are you the head of this village?”

“Yes, I am Aradesh, elder of Shady Sands.”

“It’s about fucking time. I’ve had to deal with his stupid goat fucker who thinks he knows everything.” Zeke motioned towards Seth.

“Seth is only doing his job, as he should. We recently had what we believed to be a raider attack and we have stepped up our defenses to counter any future attempts.”

“Well, whatever you are doing you should fire that asshole.” Zeke again motioned towards Seth with a big grin of his face. Vedpose rolled her eyes in disbelief of Zeke’s reckless attitude.

“Seth thinks that I should detain the two of you overnight. At this point I am tending agree with him.”

“What are you….”

“Zeke shut up!” Zeke and everyone stood in silence for a moment.

“Elder, I would much appreciate it if you would detain Zeke while we discuss this.”

“What?!?!”

“Zeke you can’t keep your mouth shut so I am asking the Elder if he will shut it for me,”

“Very well, Seth, take this man to the detention cell.”

“It would be my pleasure”

“I knew your plan to get me alone Seth, but don’t think that I am putting out after the treatment you gave me.” Zeke’s words flowed with sarcasm is much as his face flowed with enjoyment at taunting Seth.

Zeke and Seth left and Ved and Aradesh began their discussion.

“So, why have you come to Shady Sands?”

“I am a merchant looking for one of my clients. Last I heard she was heading to this village so here I am.”

“What kind of product are you delivering to this client?”

“I am afraid that I cannot give out that the information elder. Client/merchant agreements forbid it. I can tell you I don’t have the item on my person. I am only here to deliver conformation that it has arrived for pick up.”

“And who is this client of witch you speak?”

“Her name is Samantha Solo.”

“I am sorry; I have never met such a person. When was she due to arrive in our village?

“Honestly, I am not sure.”

“She may have left on the expedition to destroy the scorpions. They should be back very soon.”

“Okay, I guess we will wait it out. What about Zeke?”

“He is free to leave his cell upon your request”

“Fine let’s go get him out before Seth decides to try and hurt him.”
 
"So what are we going to do next? I, for one, am not jumping at the idea of opening up a door to a room flooded with toxins. I do have an open wound on my leg, you know. And even healthy, I probably wouldn't go in there without a HAZMAT-suit." Richard said.

This probably sounded as if he chickened out.

This might ruin his 'knight in shiny armor'-image he hoped Sam had of him, but it was just common sense. There was no telling what those toxins were and what they would do to the human body. This was possibly the source of the radscorpion mutation for crying out loud. Walking in there unprotected would be plain dumb. Unless of course the toxins had already been cleaned out by the water that came in through the breach.

The possible beast in the room worried him far less than the chemicals...

"Isn't there a way around this? An alternate solution? Come to think of it..." he said before turning towards Inne's pet bot. "Any HAZMAT-suits available in the base, robot?"

"Negative, no such suits were supplied to this base, as it was never intended to store hazardous materials." the bot clarified.

"Yeah, well, that would've been too easy, I guess." Richard mumbled to himself.
 
OOC- I know you can get killed for being stupid with this but please don't kill me for what I am about to do.

IC-

Zeke was sitting in his cell with a pissed off look on his face when Seth and Vedpose walked up.

Seth deeply sighed." Ok jackass you are hereby freed by the will of This Merchant."

The door opened with a rusky screech and Seth grabbed Zeke's vest."Don't you cause any-"

Zeke roughly shoved Seth back" DO NOT touch my fuckin' vest."

Seth had been waiting for an excuse and this shove was it. He promptly hit Zeke in the right temple with the but of his rifle.

"AWWW FUCK THAT HURT!" Zeke picked himself up and was holding a hand firmly to his bleeding temple.

Seth was halfway through telling Zeke to never hit a guard when Zeke kicked Seth as hard as he could in the balls.

Needless to say Seth quickly fell over cupping his groin.

Zeke rubbed his temple."If you ever......ever hit me again the next kick will land twice as hard. Understood?"

Seth groaned.

"You wuss, all you do is dish out pain you can't take it can you."

Zeke collected his things after conveying his message and walked out towards the bar to grab something for the pain.

Along the way he was stopped by Vedpose who looked furious.

This would not turn out well.................
 
Rich's logic had distracted them from the dirty glass in the control room. What he said made sense. Who knew what kind of substance was out there.

"But if the stuff is in the water, and the whole facility is flooded, might we not already be exposed?" Asked Dwemer.

No one gave him an answer to that.

No one had time.

Something large hit the glass.

"What the fuck?" Said Caribe.
Melvin stepped away from the glass. The dirty smudge on the screen looked different, the water more turbulent.

They were watching the screen when something came through the murky water and slammed into the glass again. This time harder.

They could see the glass plate shake. THe sound of the thump clearly audible.

"I don't think it wants to stay there." Said Sam.

She had barely finished when it hit a third time. ANd like the others it disappeared before anyone could really see it.

But this time it left a crack in the glass.

"I think it's going to come around again." Said Dwemer.
 
Richard was about to say he was kinda hoping this water wasn't the same as in the room, since the water level in that room seems higher than in here, simple physics would say water level should be equal if the water was connected.

Unless of course the water in the room was being replenished quicker than it could flow to the next rooms, but he didn't say that out loud. It would've been bad luck.

Anyhow, they didn't have much of a choice left anyway...

"How about we shoot the glass next times it rams it? We might be able to take it out that way. The glass will break eventually anyway..." Richard suggested.

He didn't want to think about what happened, if the beast got through intact. Everybody would be washed away by the water, except maybe Melvin with his new toy...
 
Dwemer shook his head.

"No way. If we break that glass in this place will flood. That room is bigger than this one and if it's flooded so high, the force alone will knock us back. I vote we get out of here before it comes through."
 
Another pounding of the glass. More cracks.

A trickle of water began to run down the side of the glass panels from where the cracks had begun. The cracks were growing, like some obscene spider's web, across the panel.

And still they had not seen the beast inside.

"Let's go, let's go."

Outside, Melvin was still experimenting with the lifter and had not realized the others were in trouble.
 
"Go. Go. Go. I'll provide cover." Sam said as she slowly stepped backwards with her assault rifle aimed at the cracked glass.

The others hurried out as fast as they could, but running in water was no walk in the park... Richard was the first out, but stopped to take a look at the control rooms door. Melvin was surprised at the sight of the others running out like that and wondered what to do.

"Fuck, it's breaking! Mov..." Sam yelled as she stepped out of the control room. Only half her sentence could be heard because the sound of her firing assault rifle drowned all other sound out.

Richard closed the door and the sound of something heavy hitting metal filled the small warehouse. He wondered how to block this door since there was no real lock on it, just an electronic 'open&shut'-button. The beast only had to accidently bump into the button on his side to open the door.

The door was starting to yield. The dents were getting bigger and bigger, pushing the door outwards.

"Let's hope this works." Richard said as he simply shot the button to pieces with his pistol. A rash act, but as always, luck seemed to be on his side and the door stayed shut.

The group was already well underway towards the exit of the warehouse, except Richard and Melvin who was still half confused about what was going on.
 
OCC- Welsh here, making edits-

ICC-
Move it, Dweemer!!! Inne said, after explaining in few words that a kind of monster was about to escape to catch them.

Dwemer made sense of that. "Inne the elevator is all fucked. The only way out will be to climb."

Another loud banging. Sam, still at the door to the control room thought of something.

The lights. Their helmet lights. THat was what was had drawn the creature to the window.

Bam. Another impact against the glass.

More spider web cracks, more leaking.

Sam turned and began to run. But she was suprised when she heard another banging at the glass. Whatever had attracted the creature, not it was working on it's own.

She passed Melvin who was struggling with the buckles that strapped him into the loader.

Inne had gotten to the elevator and only then did it dawn on her to listen to what Dwemer was shouting. Yes, the elevator was broken.

She got her rifle ready, tense but bravely, ready to fight to death while she kept an eye on the waters ahead while her companions were in disarray.

The robot had followed her down the hallway, but would not enter the elevator. "Protocols restrict service to this level."

Down the hall, she heard a loud crashing and then the flow of water.
 
Sam didn't have time to get out the door, when she heard the crash and the flood of water coming through the control room. She quickly threw herself at one of the large shelves and began scurrying up to the top.

The warehouse had been a large room with almost cathedral ceilings. While the bottom rungs of the shelves were underwater, the upper shelves were still dry although often cluttered with boxes. Like a monkey, Sam climbed up high.

Rich and Dwemer, seeing Sam did much the same, only to see that Caribe and Rob had already beat them to it.

Melvin, stuck in the load-lifter was still struggling with the straps and constraints when the flood of water gushed from the control room, the water spilled around the legs of the lifter and for a moment almost pushed him down. But the flood only climbed up to the first joint in the lifter's leg and Mevlin regained his balance.

The robot began to increase it's height as the flood rushed through the room and into the corridor. The increased surface area of the water had a telling effect, lowering the depth of the flood, the further it spread. Even so Zoe quickly climbed up through the trapdoor on the roof of the elevator, then ducked her head back in.

"Robot, what's with all this fucking flooding." She asked.

"Emergency drainage is non-functioning."

Rich, was close enough to hear the robot. "Can you fix it?"

"Affirmative but it will take time."

"Well do it." Yelled Zoe.

Melvin was looking at the others who has scurried up the shelves. "Yo, What the fuck?"

That was when he suddenly felt a tug. Looking down he saw a greenish brown tentacle wrap itself around the leg of the lifter. It was soon joined by another leg, then another.

Then rising out of the water Melvin saw the maw of the creature open, it's rows of short but harp teeth widen, tentacles wrapping here there, now finding new places to touch and grip, moving, it's eyes, many eyes, opened and blinking. One of the tentacles climbed up the lifter, and Melvin could see it had sharp claws on the end as if to give the tentacle grip, surrounding a soft pinkish sucker.

And there were many tentacles, as the creature began to move into the room, tentacles now whipping out, reaching for Sam, for Dwemer, Rob and Caribe.

Curt, on one of the lower rungs, and already taken out a shotgun and fired into the creature. But the shotgun had no telling effect. The bullets seemed to disappear into the creature's body. Curt rechambered a round, but before he could fire it, one of the tentacles whipped around and struck him down with a fierce blow.

"Man ya ugly." Said Dwemer, as he took a swipe at the creature with the lifter's arm.
 
Vedpose didn’t know what to do to Zeke other than shoot him. He just walked off to the bar to get drink without a second thought. Ved walked up to him as he took a drink of some foul smelling concoction.

“What do you think you’re doing you ignoramus? I’ve had enough of allright!”

“Hey, that bastard needs to learn when to not mess with people.”

Vedpose pulled out her 10 mm and shoved in Zeke’s mouth after he had swallowed his gulp of the drink.

“Give one good reasons why I shouldn’t pull the trigger.”

“ Mumble mumble mumble” Zeke said with a mouth full of gun.

“I agree that Seth is an asshole who got he had coming but this is not your town. You don’t make the rules Zeke but you can answer to them. That’s strike one.”

“ Mumble mumble mumble”

“What?! What the fucking hell makes you think that I to….with you! Eghh, that’s disgusting Zeke! Strike two!”

“ Mumble mumble mumble”

“I guess your finding food for me is valid enough reason to keep you around. Plus you killed those raiders when I was out of it. And you are also growing on me like a fungus.”

“Friends?” Zeke stuck out his hand.

Vedpose rolled her eyes, “Friends.”

“Now how do you expect to get off with the town?”

“Hey, I’ll apologize to the village head.”

“Fine, let’s see if we can get him to let you off, but first you need some medical work.” Vedpose said as she examined Zeke’s head wound

“This might hurt a little bit.” Ved poked the needle and thread into the gaping whole in Zeke’s head and began to stitch it up.

“God dammit that hurts!”

“Stop jerking and it won’t.”

Ved finished stitching him up and they went to see Aradesh. Still lying on the ground near the detention cell was the moaning Seth. Ved picked up Seth by his arm and dragged him back to the building where Aradesh still stood.

“What has happened here?”

“Zeke and Seth went at it right after I got there. Zeke returned Seth’s cheap shot with one of his own. Here are the results.” Ved motioned to Seth.

“So he attacked Seth?”

“Seth pushed him, he pushed Seth, Seth hit him with his gun, Zeke kicked him in the testicles, end of story.”

“If Seth started it, you are free to go, but I would like to have a word with you once the group returns from the radscorpion job.”

“Fine.”

Ved and Zeke left the building and wondered what to do until the other group returned. Ved still needed to talk to Sam after all.

“Hey Zeke, show me how to find my own food out there.” Ved looked out at the wastes.

“You mean hunt?”

“Sure you can call it that along as I don’t have to kill anything. Vegan, remember?”

“Right.” Zeke paused.

“How do you survive out there if you won’t kill anything?”

“I kill what will kill me if I don’t kill it, nothing more. Can we go now?”

“Yeah, let’s go”
 
"Fuck this." Carib unloaded his pistol right into the beasts' tentacles, keeping the suckers at bay.

Grabbing the knife he carried, he dug into the creature's tentacle as it grabbed Melvin. "Let... my brother.... Go!" He tore into it, but was like trying to carve up volcanized rubber.
 
Vedpose was sleeping peacefully at two in the morning when she was rudely awoken.

"ok get up it is time to learn to hunt"

Surely enough there Zeke stood perfectly ready in full gear. Vedpose assumed he had already eaten breakfast,shaved,took a dump,and made ready for the day. She was still in bed with frayed hair and groggy as hell.

"what time is it Zeke?"

Zeke chuckled."It doesn't matter, now get ready or you can go as you are."

After 10 hurriede minutes Vedpose was suited up and they left for the wastes on the outskirts west of Shady sands.............
 
The robot removed a panel from the side and began working at the electronics inside. It's were movements precise and quick, and in a few moments in finished, replaced the panel and moved into the warehouse.

Inside the battle was raging. Rob was shooting at the creatures eyes, but it was moving so fast, few of the shots struck home. Most of the bullets tended to disappear into the creatures skin. The few that hit home turned eyes into purple colored muck.

Caribe was digging his knife into the creatures tentacles, when one, then another wrapped themselves around his body and lifted him off the shelves and into the air. He would manage to cut one tentacles through when another would grow.

Sam was also firing, but much of her time was spent ducking the tentacles that were aimed at her direction. Rich, crawling on hands and knees, was able to get to Curt. A nasty red bruise was growing on the old man's forehead, but Rich could find a pulse and no trace of broken bones.

Dwemer was about to push one of the severed tentacles off shelf, when it moved on it's own. He stepped back muttering "What the fuck?" The thing was growing legs and crawling away towards the brownish poluted waters.

Melvin was having more luck with the loader. By using the controls he found that the lifters mechancial hands could easy crush a tentacle. Moving back, he found that he could force himself loose from a few tentacles, but the more that wrapped themselves around him, the more difficult it became to escape.

What was worse, the creature seemed to be growing.
 
Curt had been damn lucky. Such a violent strike could've easily cracked his skull or his spinal column. As Richard looked up, the creature seemed different. It was not because of the severed tentacles, but the creature itself was getting stranger by the minute.

Richard blinked, not believing his own eyes. The beast had actually changed in the little time Richards eyes were closed. It was adapting to his new environment. This wasn't possible, animals and plants adapt themselves, but not in a couple of seconds or minutes, it takes months, years, decades... Or at least it should.

Richard observed the creatures reactions to his aimed shots with his dual delta elite pistols. Very little seemed to really harm the beast. However it's behavior near the brownish foul water, that was now flowing out of the controlroom, was odd. It never seemed to want to move away from the dark tainted oily water into the clearer, but also dirty water that had been in the warehouse at first.

Then an idea flashed through Richards brain.

Richard stood up from his crouched position and yelled "Protect the droid!" at the top of his lungs. If the droid succeeded in draining the water, the group might have a chance. Except, of course, if the creature just mutated again. But Richard decided not to worry about that possibility just yet...
 
Carib cut himself free and fell on his side. The impact knowcked the air out of his lungs and he couldn't help but gasp for air and curse under his breath.

"Fuckin' freak." He aimed at the tentacles, keeping the creature busy as best he could. The droid needed to drain the water.

"Richard... I'll divert the creature best I can... Sam... Got any grenades, 'cuz this would be the best time."
 
Sam did have a grenade, but the thought of throwing it didn't seem wise. Not with the tentacled thing dragging Melvin towards it, the creatures tentacles now wrapped around the loader as Melvin tried to work the arms to smash and break the creature up.

And that seemed to be distracting the creature, for the most part at least. Melvin had closed with the creature, poking at it with his arms, crushing parts of it with the loader's pinchers. Yet even as it was regrowing eyes, the creature was evolving to fit the environment.

Meanwhile a tentacle was carrying Rama over the creature's head. ANy moment Edden expected the creature to begin slamming Rama against the roof of the warehouse.

Where the hell was Inne?

Rob was reloading his rifle, when one of the tentacles snatched his weapon out of his hand and threw it away.

Dwemer had also disappeared, at least momentarily, looking for something useful on the shelves.

Happily the water was beginning to drain. But would that make a different.

"Rich, I'd like to hear your idea because right now we're in pretty deep shit." Said Sam.

Dwemer returned with a box full of glass vials. These he quickly began hurdling at the creature, where the glass broke, it spread a liquid that started to burn the beast.

On the box was word, Acid.

But Sam doubted it would be enough. They needed to do something, and fast.
 
"Ideas? I'm fresh out, honey." Richard replied.

The only thing going through Richards mind was a scene out of a movie he had seen back home. It had a kind of seamonster like this one. They killed it by jamming a harpoon into a darkish spot underneath the beast. Unfortunatly, it was fiction.

Hopefully, with the water draining, the beast would be confused and vulnerable. Out of its own habitat. However, it might just grow normal legs and become even more dangerous.

Richard had now emptied 2 clips into the tentacle holding Carib, to no avail. He did notice however that the acid did not heal, or at least did not heal as fast as other wounds. The acid did only minor superficial damage. Another story flashed through Richards head: to kill a hydra, you need to burn the wounds, so it wouldn't grow a new couple of heads.

The water was now almost drained, but the battle was getting desperate, nothing the group did really harmed the beast... Desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Dwemer! Throw me some acid!" Richard yelled out as he holstered his guns. They had proven useless up till now anyway.

Dwemer threw a jar of acid, Richard took Curt's spear and dipped it in acid, barely avoiding being knocked off by a renegade tentacle.

Richard jumped into the water, armed with an acid dipped spear and a jar of acid. This was madness. Richard ignored the stinging sensation on his knee when he hit the water, he would probably regret this later on.

Richard was not quite sure what he was doing in the water armed with a spear. He was terrible in melee combat anyway... Was he there to try and free Carib? To attack the beast and try to blind it with the acid? To pierce the creatures head in the hope to hit its brain? Or was he there to find out if the beast really had a mystical dark spot underneath it?
 
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