I can’t believe we made it out.
I am so, so sorry. For everything. I should have seen this coming, but I was so sure I’d thought of everything.
Fleetwood never intended for us to leave the Citadel alive. And the coordinated attack by Toecutter’s stooges couldn’t have been a coincidence.
I’m a fool, and I nearly got you all killed. I thought Fleetwood’s affection for me was real, that he’d never harm the girl he thought he’d raised. We’d kept our stories reasonably straight without sounding like we’d rehearsed them. Most Drivers he interviewed said yep, we’re goin’ to Mars, that’s all we know. A couple of people blew him off with noise about flying to Andromeda or getting into the pizza business, but it all served the same purpose: making him think we were completely focused on the rocket with no regard for the jumped-up furniture dolly we’re pulling her on.
Blazer tells me Toecutter’s guys got through, and one of them probably got off a quick TCB message before dying. We need to find out exactly what was said. We put a good-sized dent in Fleetwood’s operation, but Fleetwood himself and a goodly number of his retinue got out of the Citadel before the roof totally caved in, just as we did. He won’t try to be subtle next time, especially if he knows the truth about Marion. We can’t speed up our progress, but we must be prepared for his next move. I just hope we can figure out what it’ll be before he makes it.
But first, I need to try to make up for everything you all just went through. I put every last one of you in harm’s way, and not one of you chose to cut and run. The Mission One Drivers drove and fought most heroically by my side, the Mission Three folks braved zombies and Raiders to find the clues to save the collective asses of those of us on Mission One, the Mission 2A Mechanics hacked up a storm while under enemy fire to provide the Mission Three Drivers with the intel needed to find their clues, and the courageous ones who stayed behind on Mission 2B didn’t go out looking for glory and LPs and action, but stayed with the Ark to protect our ride out of here, to protect what may be the most vital artifact humanity has ever produced, and coincidentally to protect my own family.
I took a fair bit of damage at the Citadel myself, not as bad as some of you guys, but not just cosmetic damage either. I’m optimistic that one of the UAW Brotherhood can set me up okay, but first I need to thank you all personally for what you’ve done.
Just before Rideword pushed the raving Knife out of the Citadel’s ruins, he spied a bundle of useful-looking gear just inside the kitchen doors. I don’t know where Fleetwood got these, nor why he was storing them in the kitchen, but they appear to be hood-mounted railguns. I want the Mission Three guys to have them, if they want them. You might not want to use them in every scenario. After you install one, if you decide to employ the gun in a given Round, it’ll boost your FP by 20 for the duration of the Round, but due to the strong electromagnetic pulse, some of your armor plates will fall off and have to be manually collected, meaning your AR and SP will diminish by 10 each for the duration of that Round. But check this out: it has an Emergency Overdrive setting whereby if your HP falls below 5HP, your FP will spike to 100 for the rest of that Round.
Which ain’t too shabby.
The Mechanics on Mission 2B are in dire need of more offensive and defensive gear, so I scooped these chafing dishes off the caterer’s table next to the DJ:
When installed upon your heads (and beaten gently with a five-pound sledge until a comfortable fit has been achieved), these will afford you with +10AR. Also, you get these cans of Sterno.
Mounted above your headlights, on rear quarterpanels, and screwed directly to the beaten chafing-helmets on your noggins, they will provide you with +5FP, and also serve as a useful worklight for nighttime repairs, allowing you to raise your Repair level (if it was limited to 75% in some circumstances) up to 80%.
Mission One took a toll on us. Because of the lengthy games we had to run, everyone on the Mission used up more fuel than we’d anticipated. Take a look at your gas gauges; fully half the fuel you had when we left for the Citadel has been consumed. This will be a problem soon if we don’t address it. I’ve had a private word with Knife, and he has knowledge of a convoy of fuel tanker trucks driving in from the Republic of Texas, but they may be headed too far out of our way to be a practical target, especially since we should only need enough gas to get us out to Edwards. We’ll talk more about that later, but for now, keep your eyes open for potential fuel supplies.
But Mission One was still useful. Not only did we hurt Fleetwood bad, when we knocked over the catering table we discovered a useful property inherent in the chili: it has somehow increased the MaxHP of the Mission One drivers by 15HP. Weird, huh? I guess we should hunt for that recipe.
No, Junior. The effect does not stack. You’re only gonna hurt yourse… oh, for the love of God. Will somebody get a mop?
De’Ath and Bertie Gomez, my debt to you is personal, as well as professional. The transmissions found by Desmond Balthar turned out to be NOS (that is, “New Old Stock” for you non-hotrodders; brand new parts that have sat in their boxes, unopened, for years and years) Borg-Warner T56 gearboxes, as originally designed for first-generation Dodge Vipers.
Throw them in your rides, and you’ll immediately feel a +15SP increase. That third transmission is missing a planetary gear, so we’ll hold onto it for spare parts. You two will also get a combat bonus of +10LP on top of the 20LP you got for signing on to the mission.
Now I hope you’ll excuse me while I recuperate for a bit. My chassis took a hell of a beating.
NOTE: as of this posting, the stats board still needs to be updated for Fuel, and for some inactive players’ HP. None of the above upgrades have been incorporated yet. The +15MaxHP for the chili-splattered will take effect immediately; most other upgrades will take effect upon declared installation of the upgrade.
