EVENT ★ GHOST TOWN

[futurologists]

BONEYARD JUNCTION Thanks to efforts from your teammates, the path to Boneyard Junction, the abandoned town at the end of the rail line, has been cleared. The train will not go this far, so recruits will have to walk the rail from the next stop over at the Fracking Fields. Most of the danger has been removed, but there still may be a few straggling giant lizards or bandits along the way, looking for a quick meal or an easy robbery. The ghost town itself is smaller in scope than Perdition's Rest, with several familiar-looking buildings -- the mayor's office, the sheriff's office, a general store -- but the main difference is that the town is halfway sunken into the desert. The ground here is shifting and unstable, with sinkholes and quicksand a constant threat. Venturing inside the crumbling buildings, left to rot in the desert for the past thirty years, is equally dangerous; there's a good chance that upper stories will simply collapse underfoot or overhead, and many venomous, aggressive reptiles and arachnids have moved in since the Qorral moved out. The Qorral have not been back here since abandoning it, so there is a lot to scavenge, from tech to money or tools to toys, both businesses and residential buildings are ripe for the plundering. The bandits have been through here in the past three decades many times, stripping the town of many of its valuables, but determined recruits ought to be able to find secret caches or overlooked boxes. Those who venture into the lowermost parts of buildings, however, will find objects of the greatest value, though not necessarily monetarily -- familiar-looking tech, corroded with sand and rusted with age, is littered about basements filled with sand and debris, as if the further the buildings sank into the desert, something beneath the town rose up to meet it. Upon further inspection, the tech will react when placed next to jewelcomms, lights blinking and static-filled screens turning on: this tech once belonged to ALASTAIR, its age clearly dating it much further back than the Qorral's arrival on this planet. But before Audentes can investigate further, there's an interruption . . . AMBUSH There's a sudden cacophony of shouting and gunfire from all sides of Boneyard Junction as heavily armed figures storm in, on the attack. They aren't from Perdition's Rest. They could be bandits, but bandits usually ask for money first -- plus, these people seem much too well-equipped to be bandits. Their clothing isn't haphazard, their weapons are well cared for. If recruits survive the initial onslaught (better be good at dodging bullets!) and pay attention to the shouting that can be heard above the gunfire, the identity of the attackers may slowly become clear: they speak of salvation and digging deeply. These are the Deemers. Previously unseen and ostensibly peaceful, the Deemers are now showing themselves to be anything but. They fight recruits with a savage intensity, injuries seemingly not slowing them down. Their only weakness appears to be injury to the head, after which they will immediately disengage and attempt to flee. Though they shout about salvation as they attack with a religious fervor, they also occasionally say something about recruits getting too close to something -- perhaps something in Boneyard Junction itself. Jonathan Black, leader of the Deemers, makes an appearance, spouting fire and brimstone in an unnaturally loud voice that can be heard above the gunfire and screaming. Any attempts to confront him will be met with vicious attacks from his bodyguards, a pair of shrouded Deemer women who fight with curved swords. Eventually, though, one recruit manages to break through. Once Black is dead, the Deemers will fight with more desperation than before, now trying to flee rather than attempting to kill recruits. Any Deemers that are captured will not share information, even under torture; they will only babble about deliverance and redemption found through drilling deeper into the planet. After they are driven off into the desert (or disposed of in other ways), the rest of Boneyard Junction is free to be explored without interruption. Perhaps collecting more ancient ALASTAIR technology will bring answers. OOC NOTES IMPORTANT: After the Deemers have been driven away, upon return to Perdition's Rest, Miz Poppy and a vast majority of the saloon workers have mysteriously vanished. The remaining workers have no idea where they've gone. All entertainment at the saloon has been postponed. Please direct all questions pertaining to the mission to the dossier page to keep questions and responses in one place for easy player reference. General game questions should be directed to the FAQ. If you haven't already, make sure you check out the Bounty Board for side missions! Remember you can also request bounty missions or submit player plots at any time.

Comments

[secondnature]

Yeah, we have to be sure that whoever comes here after us, they won't be cleaning up whatever mistakes we made. I don't think it's good to say that we should make it hard on them, but ... you know. We should do the right thing.

[Oddly enough, Keith feels more at ease for having spoken to Haise about his worries than not. He hadn't been able to really grasp what happened in Nalawi, but it's not hard to feel uneasy about this whole situation.]

[ex_adept136]

[Pausing in front of a bookcase, Haise peers at dusty titles faded to near-illegibility with time and neglect]

I'm in agreement with you there. If we do things the right way, there won't be need of another team to clean up any messes.

[Considering the job they've been tasked with and the enormity of ALASTAIR's overall objectives, repeated dispatch to the same worlds to fix mistakes made by their own operatives is a problem in more ways than one.

Better that they do right to start with and avoid needless harm. Now they just have to decide what the right thing is]

[secondnature]

I just hope we agree on whatever is the "right away." [Keith has a feeling that there might be some contention there, but if it's an end result that involves saving more people rather than hurting them, that's what he's behind. He knows that there are darker outcomes that are easier to achieve, but he's realized that his cynicism only leads him to taking those paths when he's scared or desperate.

And he can't be ruled by either of those feelings.]

Anyway ... I just wanted to say that I, uh, I'm glad I got to talk to you about this. [After their talk on Zeta-12, he had been thinking about this stuff for so long that it's good to go back to the source.]

[ex_adept136]

[Haise can only hope the same. He was too late to do anything back in his first mission, but this time he's been here from the onset, just as Keith has been. With any luck, this time they can help avoid a darker outcome. From what he understands, their team is at least amenable to discussion.

They were, at least, in Nalawi. It was just a case of the decision having already been made.

It comes as a surprise to him that Keith is glad that they've spoken, something betrayed by the way he turns and stares owlishly for a beat. He recovers in the next moment, offering his teammate an easy smile]

I'm glad too. It's a complicated situation we're facing, but at least we're not alone.

[secondnature]

Yeah, that's what teammates are good for. [Keith isn't quick to smile in situations where things are tense, but he offers Haise one here. He emotions ahead to where they need to keep going. Considering that something just fell in front of them, they might need to be careful. But, as teammates, they'll have each other's backs.

It's a reassuring feeling.]

Come on, let's keep looking around. I hope we can find something useful.

[ex_adept136]

Right.

[It's how Haise has always felt about teams and teamwork. That notion wasn't always uniformly agreed upon back home, there were enough instances that encouraged his line of thinking.

He's glad that, thus far, some of his fellow recruits share those sentiments]

Lower levels might be a good place to start...so long as we're mindful.

[This building does look worse for wear, after all]