Journey to Nowhere – 1200 hrs, 01.06.00 (Update 12)
The group of seven was within hours of the safehouse, but the safety of said safehouse was questionable. However, without an alternative, the group pushed ahead, dropping their excess weight and taking as many measures as possible to be stealthy.
Within a few hours, their worst fears were realized. A full Vlatixan unit was stationed at the outpost, with at least 20 soldiers. Once everyone was in position, Alen fired the first of two rockets, taking the guard by surprise. Everyone else sniped down the visible opposition, and surprisingly, they retreated into the woods, thinking that the rebels were much better armed than they thought. After a quick check of their surroundings, the rebels left their cover to move towards the safehouse and find the escape vehicle.
Just then, the Ronin spotted a missile coming in from the sky. He shouted at everyone to take cover, but it was too late.
Selena Demas was directly hit and killed, and the Ronin and Dr. Richard were wounded by the splash damage. Only Dickie and Alen were completely uninjured, though Mike Hammer and Terni Hans were healthy enough to stand up and fight.
At that point, a high-ranking officer and at least 20 soldiers emerged from the woods behind them, guns drawn. The officer then spoke:
“I’m sure you’re wondering why we would spend so many resources just to catch you rebels, who would have been out of our way in another few hours? Or why we bothered to destroy Areville and its massive industrial potential just to destroy a little rebellion? Well let me tell you something—we like to set examples. Rebel against us, and we will hunt you down, even if it would be cheaper to let you go.”
“I’m guessing you knew Benjamin Cook? The least efficient spy we’ve ever had. Too busy getting drunk to give us half-useful information. But he was lucky enough to run into you guys, and lucky enough to get half of you killed. Thanks to those radios you picked up at the old outpost, he got some of us to attack. Sadly, small special ops groups were no match, so we had to step it up a bit.”
“So, I’ll stop rambling on now. Since we like to pretend we have justice in this Empire, we’re going to have to jail all of you now. I hope you’ll cooperate, or you may be short a few heads…”
Just then, the Ronin yelled at the healthy rebels to escape, and Alen launched his last rocket, killing the officer and several of his soldiers. Alen, Dickie, Terni, and Mike ran for the safehouse, firing back at the remaining Vlatixan soldiers once in a while. Mike got inside, and immediately saw the train car the Ronin was talking about. It looked like the rebels that were there before took the front car of a train, and got rid of everything else.
Then the Vlatixan soldiers, realizing that the rebels were about to escape, aimed their guns at the wounded rebels,
Dr. Richard and
the Ronin, and fired, killing them immediately. The story about jail was a complete lie. Then one of the soldiers shot and killed Dazzler, Dickie’s dog, and Dickie shouted in pain when he saw it happen. However, he realized that he had to move on, or his journey would come to nothing.
Mike started up the engine, and the other three rebels got inside. The Vlatixan soldiers were closing in, and so Dickie, Alen, and Terni aimed their weapons out the windows, firing shots at the last remaining soldiers. The train then started moving, and accelerated to full speed within a few seconds. The soldiers couldn’t catch up, and the rebels zoomed off into the distance, beginning their train journey to nowhere.
So that’s Journey to Nowhere. If I get around to making Journey to Nowhere II, it’ll be starting from this point. So, the thread is now open for everyone to talk about what happened from their point of view. Soon I’ll post my thoughts as GM of this game, and some of the especially hilarious events that happened on my end.