Worse Than the Disease 2 IC

[Volthawk]

Richard's still recovering, but he joins the returning soldiers for the debrief and overhearing the Rangers mention "Troubleshooters" piques his attention. He joins the conversation after taking a few moments to consult his relevant notes and raider intel, and asks for more information about these people. The name had come up before in intel they'd captured, alongside the Rangers and some other groups the exiles know about, and the hadn't been able to put any information to the name. If nothing else, the raider army seemed to put them in the same category as the Rangers and some of the other more organised groups the exiles had come across, so he could see the cause for concern. Still, he couldn't help but be curious. What were the Troubleshooters involved in, beyond that base? The name made him guess...mercenary work?

[u-b]

Sean does not know any details about the recent trouble with the Troubleshooters, but maybe remembers something about the gang itself. He also has its radio frequency. He is not sure if he wants to get involved or if the Rangers want to get him involved, but if they don't mind, he'd rather get some intel on those Troubleshooters and maybe then make some informed decisions. Of interest:
1. History and origins of the gang.
2. Businesses the gang is involved in.
3. Employer(s) of the gang.
4. Apparent allies and enemies of the gang.
5. Composition of the gang (preferably in detail, what sort of men add to what total number).
6. Equipment of the gang:
6.1 Travel equipment (vehicles, animals, ...).
6.2 Combat equipment.
6.3 Other notable equipment, if any (radios, computers, workshops, labs or what not).
7. Location(s) of the gang.
8. Stated goals of the gang.
9. True goals of the gang as seen by the Rangers' intel department.

Sean would also like as much detail about the potential conflict as he is cleared to receive:
10. Where and what is that fortified building?
11. Do the Rangers want to use the building? If so, (why) were they not using it before the Troubleshooters took it?
12. Or maybe Rangers just want the Troubleshooters to vacate the building? Will they care if the building gets otherwise occupied?
13. What is the timeline of this conflict?
14. What is the history of two gangs' relationships?
15. Would the Rangers mind if Sean and Richard get involved and try to negotiate?
16. If so, what would be the Rangers' negotiation position? Optimum outcome? Minimum acceptable outcome? Demands? Potential concessions?

Right now, Sean does not mind if the Rangers mostly leave to protect their vital interests and proposes the following, which can be further amended:
17. All of the Rangers, except the officer heading the militia will return to their duties until the gang feels safe again, when we will discuss further plans.
18. The Rangers are to take their current gear, use it by themselves and maybe eventually return with what's left of it.
19. The Rangers are to leave what of their old gear is allocated to Radar Base militia with Radar Base militia. We will talk if they'll want some of it back.
20. The Rangers take no major loot from the last raid, but from now on can ask Sean for any amount of any specific gear they need, and Sean will do his best to provide it.
21. Sean assigns Lemus as their officer's personal bodyguard.

Spoiler

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Also, do we get any experience from the last raid?

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean vaguely remembers that The Troubleshooters is a large militia that controls and protects part of Vermont's central west.

The Rangers explain a bit about them.
According to them, The Troubleshooters are a bunch of thieves that hit the big time 9 years ago by invading a Shelter and taking all the Old World tech for themselves. They mostly exploit their technology by running extortion rackets on surrounding settlements. The gang answers to a single leader, a brutal and savvy warlord named Black Alice. They work with drug dealers all the time, but they are otherwise independent.
The Troubleshooters are allied with small local rogues - spy networks and criminals paying tribute to them. So far, only the Rangers have risen to oppose them.
The Troubleshooters are 40 strong, a mixture of men and women.
The Troubleshooters are equipped with riding animals, bikes, and a few cars. They prefer fire (particularly petrol bombs in bottles) and explosives as weapons. They also have advanced Old World energy weapons and combat robots, poached from the Shelter. They also have surprising expertise with Old World computers and robotics. Their gang uniform seems to be a red jumpsuit.

The Troubleshooters have their home base around the western border of Vermont. Not many know the exact location. They have a light presence all around the middle of Vermont, usually towards the western half.

The Troubleshooters have no goal beyond profit and power, at everyone else's expense.

The base in question is a Old World police station in a partially restored town. The Rangers hoped to claim it in order to keep an eye out for threats coming in from New York state. They couldn't get to it before now because certain flare-ups of a disease and mutant raids made the region too dangerous. The Rangers want to take the building as their own specifically. The conflict technically started 5 weeks ago, but it only really started getting hot 1 week ago. The exact details are known to other squads, who were personally involved in the dust-up. The Rangers did not even know the Troubleshooters existed until 3 months ago. 2 months ago, The Rangers actually ran into squads of Troubleshooters, who demanded they stay out of their territory. The Rangers ignored them, and the Troubleshooters failed to notice until recently. Once the Troubleshooters noticed, fights between the factions started happening. The Rangers prefer if outsiders stay out of this conflict, it's a sensitive topic. Just let them handle it.

The Rangers are fine with Sean's proposal regarding the stuff. Lemus helps out.

(OOC: every Player Character earns 3 bonus Character Points from raiding the underground lab under the gas station and saving some mutants.)

[u-b]

Sean proposes the Rangers pack and leave tomorrow morning or something and we'll use the time to sort through the gear (they probably want less NBC suits and more 40mm grenades, Sean will try to arrange that).

Eventually, in private with Richard and with the radio off, Sean asks if Richard can have a chat with Funny Platoon and get their take on The Troubleshooters:
1. First to double-check on the infos we got from the Rangers.
2. Then maybe get any additional info.
3. And then to have Gunmetal's stance towards the gang (like, if they want them well, ill, quo or don't care).

Spoiler

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I have intended to assign Lemus to the only Ranger remaining here at this base. So, not sure how much he helps out other than preventing possible incidents. Or did they mean assigning Lemus to their main force? That can be done too, I just want to know which it is.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Lemus can act as someone's bodyguard, no problem.

(OC: Richard may need to make a reaction/skill roll for both radio calls when fishing for information.)

[Shoot Da Moon]

Richard gets on the horn and spends 5 minutes working the knobs, seeing if the Funny Platoon can be persuaded to help with inquiries.

One of them is free at the moment and okay with sharing information, lucky for him.

The contact takes in what Richard tells him, and is a little put out. He comments that The Rangers are clearly biased and jumping to conclusions. The Troubleshooters are not some gang or raiders, they protect communities when they are called upon. They do seem to keep to themselves, but they are not thieves or marauders. They are not criminals or involved with criminals. Their leader is Black Alice, yes, but she is simply a commander of decent character.

The Troubleshooters have little contact with Gunmetal. Gunmetal seems to distrust them for having advanced tech and a home base in a Shelter.

[u-b]

Sean mostly leaves it to Richard to do actual negotiations, but if consulted, his proposal would be roughly like this:
1. We inform "our" team of Rangers that the intel does not add up, what the Funny Platoon intel is and that Funny Platoon probably has better intel over a longer timespan.
2. We inform "our" team of Rangers that because of the above, and because our common enemy sees both Rangers and Troubleshooters as their enemies, we feel pressed if not intervene, then at least investigate.
3. We start investigations right now, calling Major Chalmers over a secure channel and describe the situation, including the Funny Platoon intel and our reasoning as above.
4. We also tell Chalmers that we've seen more than two cases of neutral an allied forces being fed cooked intel to instigate conflicts.
5. We ask Chalmers to strongly advocate not doing anything rash or irreversible until the Ranger's intel and the channel of its delivery are double-checked.
6. We ask to be informed of how it turns out and if we can further help in any way.
7. Optionally, we request a clearance to contact the Troubleshooters. Sean understands "our" team of Rangers told him not to get involved, but he's seen the effect of cooked intel at least twice already and he strongly dislikes the idea of another externally-provoked conflict.

[Shoot Da Moon]

(OC: Alright, Richard, you can roleplay that out however you choose. You do not need to roll anything again for it, you've done that already.)

[Volthawk]

With the information from the Funny Platoon on his mind, Richard returns to the Rangers on base and asks more questions about the source of their intel - he doesn't outright say that they're being fed false intel, not yet, but just asks a little more on what the source of the intel is. By the sounds of it, contact between the two groups has always been quite limited, so does that mean that they were getting this information on the Troubleshooters from third parties, informants and passers-by, that sort of thing? Or have Rangers come back confirming that they saw them doing this kind of criminal activity first-hand? He does mention the Funny Platoon having contradictory information, but not as an accusation, presenting the other side and seeing what they have to say about it, doing a little fishing to see what details he can get. After all, if it was being fed to them by a third party, this whole thing may be one of Mailer's attempts to sow division between factions on the surface, but if Rangers themselves are coming back claiming to have seen it all...then that means either the Platoon was wrong or some Rangers are on Mailer's payroll, and neither is a topic he intends to suggest unless he has as much information as he can get.

When he gets on the radio to Chalmers, though, he speaks a little more freely and lays out both accounts of the Troubleshooters as plainly as possible, trusting the man to not take offence but see the awkward position the exiles are in when it comes to understanding the reality of the situation. At Sean's suggestion, he does mention the wider context about Mailer's spies running operations to insert false intel, and suggests that may be to blame here - it depends on how exactly the Rangers got their info, of course, but there's always the risk that, say...the locals they talked to and learned about the extortion racket from may have been misrepresenting the situation. On the whole though, he's mostly happy to just hear the situation from someone a little higher up the heirarchy from the guys in the squad here, in case there was context he was missing. In any case, he advocates for deescalation and not trying anything too drastic for the time being. Naturally, Richard also mentions that the exiles are around and willing to help if the situation requires, and he inquires on whether the exiles paying the Troubleshooters themselves a visit will be something that will cause serious problems with their relationship with the Rangers. He'd be delighted if the Rangers were willing to sign off on them going on a fact-finding and information-gathering mission - given that by the story Richard was told, that sort of thing didn't happen when the Rangers made contact with the Troubleshooters, and instead the situation rapidly escalated between two groups wanting a piece of territory, a sticking point that doesn't apply to the exiles - but ultimately at the end of the day the exiles were their own people and would likely be going regardless. That said, Richard personally is hopeful that his people and the Rangers can still remain in each others' good books even after they go and pay the Troubleshooters a visit.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The Rangers claim they got their information on The Troubleshooters by area traders and concerned citizens residing in the Troubleshooters' turf. The Rangers simply brush off Richard's concern about misinformation. They seem to think he's just ignorant. Richard wonders if this is just a knee-jerk reaction. They do indirectly admit their source is not first hand.

Chalmers, meanwhile, simply accepts that their intelligence is lacking, maybe even wrong. But he also implies that he can't do that much about it, considering his current position and the higher-up's recent decisions. It may be too late to do any more intelligence gathering. The exiles and their allies won't be able to get a meeting with his superiors, they keep themselves distant from outsiders. Whatever the exiles do, they're going to have to do on their own.

He thanks the exiles for their concern and their help anyway.

The radar base settlement continues to go about their assigned work as the exiles plan out their next move. The sun will be going down in a few hours.

[u-b]

Sean lets the doc have an exclusive use of the fridge and asks him to interview the rescued mutants to see if they can be of any use to him. They have been working in a bio-lab, so even if they don't have the exactly matching specialties, maybe they have at least the right background to be able to assist with this or that. In either case, they probably need medical attention and Lemus does too, so the doc is asked to supervise that and choose a plan of how everyone to be treated, which will be executed by some other doc(s) here at the base.

Sean then thinks what we should do with the situation between Troubleshooters and Rangers. He suggests that maybe we should radio the Troubleshooters over their open channel and then use some fancy way to establish a secure channel... Sean is not sure this can be done, he is not a cryptographer, but we can consult with Simone and the local radio men about the details. We won't be able to guarantee we talk to the men we want to think we talk to, but that can be to some extent inferred from the talk itself, both before and after the channel goes secure. Of maybe even better, Waffle House men already have a secure comm with Troubleshooters, given that both sides radios are supposed to be capable of that. If we can do that, we tell them somebody on their territory is badmouthing them and trying to pull them into some totally unnecessary and potentially armed conflict. We then also tell them who we are and that we would like to meet with them and discuss trade, war and politics.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The doc appreciates the fridge. The mutants will make good assistants and colleagues, too.
The medical examination reveals the rescued have some light injuries, usually bruises and other hurts typical of beatings. The treatment of such wounds is routine, nothing special. Mostly ice, ointment, bone-setting, and bed rest.

The radiomen will try to contact the Troubleshooters, but it may take some time to learn the right frequencies from other community broadcasts. Give them a day to skim scuttlebutt.

[u-b]

Sean approves a day to contact the Troubleshooters. He meanwhile contacts Gunmetal and asks if they can do electronics and plastics. Namely, investigate the IFF tags and fix the drone (which is fine, systems-wise, but the plastic is broken). If they cannot do one of the other, Sean tries to contact the person from which we have bought the drone and ask them the same.

Sean does not bother the doc with the prisoner, preferring to practice handling his wounded himself, but even with some extra care does not seem to make things any better (or worse) than they already are. This takes the rest of the day.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The patient is beyond Sean's uncertain care. He may need to practice his medical treatments more...

Contacting Gunmetal is easily done. They curtly inform him that they can certain trade in what goods and services he is interested in...but he will have to compensate them at a mark up. Prices for these matters can only go up. This is specialty expertise he's asking for, after all. It will also take time.

(OOC: next day? Tomorrow's gonna be DAY 87 if so.)

[Shoot Da Moon]

The exiles bunk down for the day. They rest as well as they can while their allies carry on their assigned tasks.

The rest of the day goes by peacefully. The night is unpleasantly cool, but nothing bad seems to happen during it.

DAY 87

The next day begins peacefully. It's quiet, no bad weather.

[u-b]

In the morning, Sean does the following things:
1. Check with the Rangers if they are okay leaving 6 bikes Sean has previously allocated to them to use by the militia. They've previously mentioned they prefer bigger vehicles, so maybe they are? That would make the militia that much more mobile. Whatever their decision, Sean wishes them luck and once again asks not to initiate anything irreversible.
2. Check with Waffle House people if they are okay running delivery to Gunmetal and back, to be paid off Sean's account balance with them.
3. Inform the Gunmetal we won't be taking the mission to investigate the building for reasons of having neither the drone nor the troops ready at hand (and we probably won't have either in time to complete the mission).

Spoiler

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The bikes in question are line 316 in the doc, as opposed to the Rangers' own bikes on line 295.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The Rangers are feeling a little reluctant to give up the bikes. They want to haggle about keeping them. How many of the bikes does Sean NEED?

The Waffle House people can scrounge up mercenaries to make the delivery, no problem.

The Gunmetal dispatch curses a little at the update.

[u-b]

In fact, Sean totally does not mind if the Rangers have the bikes as long as it's understood they should not be sold unless necessary (maybe we can come up with another arrangement if they just need funds or gear). He has expected they already had enough transportation without those bikes (at two per bike, but still), but if they can think of any solid use-case (like Sean has originally issued those extra bikes to allow for transportation of rescued / captured men), they are welcome to have them. Sean has all the bikes he needs at the moment, even if he parts with those six.

Sean then attempts to contact the person from which he has bought the drone and ask if there is any known way for him to have good Late Old World radio surveillance equipment. He's willing to pay a ****load of goods for the best of its kind, or might be inclined to do something dangerous.

Sean asks the radio men if there was any special fuss anywhere they are aware about anything that happens yesterday. He particularly expects it would be Bread Basket area or Raiders frequencies. Or, for that matter, any other news.

Sean hands Waffle House men the whole drone set and 3 IFF tags and tells that they can be on their way wherever they find convenient (no huge time pressure, but Sean would like either expected delivery time or a notice when they actually depart).

Then Sean plans to spend the day with militia and candidates, helping to sort the men into full-time, part-time and unfit, as well as by skill.

Spoiler

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Not sure what skill Sean heeds to help the Rangers Officer sort the militia. Sean has Detect Lies 13 and if we use just that, Sean won't be doing most of the talking, but will still have some understanding of what we're ending up with. He can also test skills he has, like shooting.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The Rangers have no plan to sell the bikes. They want to ride them.

The radio contact informs Sean that trying to get his hands on Old Tech is very difficult now. Gunmetal policy frowns upon it, and everyone else either does not have it for sale, does not want to annoy Gunmetal by selling it, or will outright sell it for even higher prices. A markup of x2.5 is common, and the merchants are hard to find and impress. It may take a day or two, at least, before anyone bites on Sean's call out.

The radiomen note that a lot of chatter on regional gossip channels has already mentioned Sean's latest adventure, yes. There's currently a real ugly "gold rush" of scavengers flooding in to pick over the bones, see what was missed. Already, there's been a shootout between greedy wanna-be thieves.

The Waffle House men handle the goods tenderly. They set off, prepared and well-armed.

The militia appreciate Sean's calming presence. Their nerves have been wracked a little.

(OOC: I think the Leadership or Administration skill is what you're looking for?)

[Shoot Da Moon]

Time passes, and Sean is called over by the radiomen in the evening. They got in contact with The Troubleshooters.

"Alright, what do you want, mister...Pyres, was it?" The voice on the other end asks, a chirpy and confident young male cadence.

(OOC: Sean, lay out what you want to talk to the Troubleshooters about, and then make a roll reaction to see how it was received.)

[u-b]

Sean was intending to fetch Richard first, but having the Troubleshooters man already on the line, opened like this:

"Sean Pires of the Radar Base Guys. We'd like to establish a contact with you and arrange a meeting to discuss trade, war and politics. We can receive or send a delegation or do it right over the radio if you do trust it well enough. Specifically, there is a large well-known group that wishes ill to both of our organizations as well as some other organizations and we have learned they are increasingly active trying to instigate armed conflict between those they wish ill to. We have a man who can provide all the gory details. But besides that, we might have more common interests. Shall we name place, time and method?"

[Shoot Da Moon]

The voice on the other end seems unconvinced.
"Okay. Let's talk over the radio, for now. No harm in talking..."

There is a pause. Probably the radio operator putting his hand on the mute button while he informs his superiors of Sean's offer. When the person talking on the horn comes back, he seems a little stressed, a little annoyed.
"Tell me about this enemy of yours. What's their uniform, their name? Whatever you have, your witness, present it to me if you can. Our organization has indeed had trouble with another, several in fact. With one enemy, it's been to the point of skirmishes. The violence has been escalating. Do you know anything about that?"

There is chatter in the background. People are arguing a little, trying to keep it down. Maybe he just said too much to an outsider?

[u-b]

Sean sends one Waffle House guy to fetch Richard and tell him to bring intel papers with him.

"Something. It is a pressing matter and we will speak of that. But we'll start with the long story first, about our real enemies. Those don't wear uniforms and go by a number of names, like Gamblers, Snake Eyes, and others, depending on the tattoos on the backs of their necks, but we refer to them collectively as Raiders or Slavers. We have not sure if you've had any problem with those, but in these parts they have been recently causing the following trouble, in addition to their usual business of capturing slaves: they have incited some mutants from Springfield to attack a neutral settlement near that town, they cooked some intel to incite the mutants of the north of the state to attack various human settlements and they have captured a mutants' bio lab to have mutants produce artifical horrors to release into the wild. You see the weak part in here is the mutants, who are disorganized and don't know any better, but the active part is the Slavers. We, you, and Vermont Rangers are on their priority target list, among with a few other groups. We are not sure if you have been fed stuff about the Rangers group, but Rangers definitely have been fed stuff about you. We are thus rather worried. Here is Richard, our intel guy, he'll provide additional background and answer any questions you might have in as much of detail as we are able."

[Shoot Da Moon]

The Troubleshooter on the other end pauses, and then confirms; "We do in fact have problems with raiders and slavers, with tattoos on their necks. Five playing cards in a row; Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10, all of which are spades."

There is muffled discussion. And then;
"Okay, tell us more about these guys. We think we have the location of a hideout that belongs to them. But we have not managed to organize an attack on them yet. If you want our co-operation, pulling off a takedown would convince us that you're on our side, I guess. There's a bounty on them, we can pay you."

[u-b]

Sean has the mic off for a moment then tells Richard: "Tell them about the slavers, then confirm we are in, then ask if they'll want to post two or three men of theirs to authenticate both sides and to observe it first hand. We'll post bigger team and will do better part of the action."

Spoiler

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I guess Richard can roll just Diplomacy to keep things perfectly safe. Richard's -2 is better than Sean's, but he still can roll lower.

[Volthawk]

Richard nods and takes the radio. "Well, where to start...we have a personal emnity with these guys, you see - one of their major players likes to play games with people and set them up as prey for the raiders to hunt down, and we just happened to survive well enough that we could build ourselves up and retaliate. We've been getting involved in other bits and pieces to make allies and get supplies, of course, but the ultimate goal of it all is kicking their whole army out of Vermont and getting our hands on Mailer, the one I just mentioned being the cause of our personal problems. We've taken a few prisoners over the last few months and captured intel here and there, building up a picture of their reach, and they're quite spread out throughout the state - they've got a factory and mining operation up north, that's where most the people they enslave end up, they've got several Shelters under their influence, either through conquest, trickery or...well, we're pretty sure they originate from at least one Shelter, and a whole load of camps, minor bases, and staging points spread all over. We also recently found out they have some presence in the Gutter too - that was the lab Sean mentioned. Best we can tell, their agenda is destablisation with the ultimate goal of conquering the whole lot, and the important thing is that these guys appear to just be scattered gangs but are part of an organised outfit, and have spies everywhere - they've been feeding people false intel all over the place with the intent of causing chaos. There's a possibility that's part of the reason behind escalations you've been seeing recently."

He sighs, leaning back in his chair as he thinks it over. "Point is, if you've got a group of them that need taking care of, we're there - we can send the bulk of the raiding force and take care of most of the fighting if you like, and you can bring enough men to satisfy that we're being above board with this and to confirm what we've been saying about this enemy. And if you want more information, I've got the intel we've collected in front of me so we can discuss details. Just...be careful about escalating things with any of the other factions near you at the moment, there's a risk you're being played."

[Shoot Da Moon]

"That's quite a tale." The Troubleshooter seems convinced. "The threat goes deeper than we thought...Send over the intel."

The Troubleshooter tells Sean and Richard about the hideout they found. It's what the Old World used to call a "motel" and it is a structure where travelling people used to stop at for the night to rest and recover. The Troubleshooters think there's about 15 bad guys holed up in there, having fortified their position with overwatch, landmines and barricades.

The Troubleshooters agree to have three of their men sent over to assist and observe.
They warn the exiles that they've heard unconfirmed reports of an invading army from outside the state that has attacked both the raiders AND the innocent people of Vermont, for unknown reasons. This supposed invading paramilitary has Old World tech at its disposal and have committed horrible sadistic crimes. They call themselves "The Sacred Snakes" and wear a green uniform.

(OC: the hideout location is 87 miles from the radar base, going south-west.)

Tariq gets to work on weaponry in the meantime.

[u-b]

Sean makes sure the following is communicated:
1. Time to meet with Troubleshooter men (we propose to meet early evening tomorrow).
2. Place to meet with Troubleshooter men (presumably somewhere not far from the motel).
3. How we are to recognize each party (visual descriptions, special signals and approach protocol).
4. Anything else Richard wants communicated.

Then Sean goes to the Rangers officer in charge of militia and together tries to assemble a small band of volunteers for undisclosed combat mission tomorrow. The officer won't be going, but it's his militia, so he'll have a say.

Spoiler

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We have Bart and three long-standing militia men, which, I presume, are going, but checking for any new men too.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The Troubleshooters agree on early evening tomorrow, there is a decently quiet town ruin near the motel that can work as a meetup place, they have an entire book of codephrases and gestures to help identify friendlies. Not to mention an uniform; a red jumpsuit.

The Rangers officer gets to work rounding up fighting men. He thinks he knows a few good candidates.

Bart and the three reliable militiamen are right with Sean. They are confident in their duties. They are proud to be loyal.

[u-b]

Sean has no other plans for the rest of the evening, so has a short nap, but during the night, when the conditions are especially good for the short-wave radio transmissions, he goes to the radio room and spends good four hours there while the radio men try to contact any stations outside of the state and invite them to chat.

Spoiler

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I guess the radio men roll their skills a few times and Sean makes a few reaction rolls and we play it out a bit sort of thing. How many contacts are established would depend on a number of things, including whether the Waffle House personnel already know whom and how to contact, and how many stations there are listening and able to reach us.