Worse Than the Disease 2 IC

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean's gunfire claims another two lives, as one mutant tries some aerobatics to avoid the bullet, but fails.
The direct hits destroy their vital organs, and their limp bodies smack into the ground half a second later. Clear skies.

(OC: Richard, your turn.)

[Volthawk]

Satisfied that the state of the remaining mutants makes this relatively safe for the moment, Richard starts moving forwards towards the power plant.

[Shoot Da Moon]

As Tariq and Richard move towards their desired spots, the two guards who barely survived the onslaught look tom each other for a micro-second before they both shoot themselves in the head with their pistols, killing themselves simultaneously.

(OC: combat over.)

With that, there is no more enemy presence in the area. The mutated dogs who were caught in the edges of the exploding grenades twitch and bleed in an icky fashion, prone and dying.
The guards are all shot down like clay pigeons.

The power plant is a large abandoned building housing a decommissioned turbine and generator, hooked up to a off-line transmission interconnect. A penstock and tailrace lets a diverted river flow through the powerhouse from the hills, where an intake channels it through a forebay and a sediment exclusion bay almost a mile away.

[u-b]

Sean is not too quick to call this over. He tells Richard not to enter the building, then tells Bart to take the dogs and wander around looking for any signs of other groups or individuals. While Bart is thus occupied, Sean reloads with a full magazine and spends some time looking around and at the bilding, in case any more threats surface. In case no threats are found in, like, half an hour, Sean tries to sneak into the building and check it out.

[GnomesofZurich2]

Seeing the combat is done, Tariq will take the time to reload and then just keeps an eye out for any trouble.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Bart gets the dogs under control and directs them to sniff around the area.
Sean, meanwhile, scans the building with his binos.

Their caution pays off royally. They easily detect the telltale signs of nesting and swarming animals going in and out of the building. Bart thinks there's ratdogs afoot - packs of mutant animals numbering 14. Occasionally, a few dire bears wander through the place to predate on the smaller animals.

But that's not all. The building has a lot of its interior infested with mutant plants. Bart recognizes them as spore bombers and venus guy-traps - the first one releases air-borne toxins and the second mimics other plants then lashes out with biting mouths.

Oh, and the other entrances to the building are booby-trapped with tripwires hooked up to noisemakers and fragile bottles full of...water? The mutated humans mostly kept out of the building other than that. Indeed, their presence is relatively light around here. Perhaps the guards the exiles just defeated were simply a stay-behind? Or scouts? Bart certainly doe snot think the primitive camp site the guards had could be for anymore than 15 people.

Sean spies a way in up top, a window on the second floor where the most plants are. The front door is not booby-trapped, but the animals inside would certainly take that as an invasion of their territory. The side doors are not safe, secured by crude guerilla warfare.

[u-b]

Sean discusses the findings with the group. A direct advance seems not very wise. He thinks we should be able to handle the bears, but too many ratdogs, and any spore bombers would be somewhat problematic. Sean lets the group think about it and fetches the cars. Then, while the rest of the team covers him, searches the bodies for loot and for any survivors. Those are brought to the cars. Then Sean proposes we radio our "employers", describe the situation at hand and have their opinions regarding the following:
1. Have they been aware of the situation and, if so, what would be their plan?
2. If not, in what condition do they want this building? We can easily hand it over infested, blasted and/or burned, but if there is any major equipment in there, it might not survive the later two options. Sean highly suspects the building is wanted safe and intact, but he prefers to be sure.
3. When they are expecting to arrive on site?

As for the plan, Sean thinks we can try to get the animals out, with smoke, gas and flashbangs, but maybe we should have a larger team to aid with the shooting, if they can arrive soon enough. Sean is not so sure about the plants.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Two-thirds (10 counting) of the dogs are still technically alive, but they won't last long without immediate medical care.
Most of the mutants are also dead, except for 2 flying men who just barely survived getting shot and falling straight down. Their blood shines weirdly rainbow-ish in the light, like oil.

Going through the mutants' pockets and wraps turns up not much ammo. Aside from the shells and bullets already loaded into the guns, only 5 other shells are loose, for 13 shotgun shells and 28 pistol bullets in total. The five Colt SAA revolvers and the eight H&R Model 8 shotguns are all in okay condition. It seems the guards were running low.
Aside form that, the guards were all wearing mere cloth armor over their unnaturally hardened skin. Tucked into their bags and satchels, Sean finds a bunch of empty plastic bottles (7 of those), three torches (unlit, obviously), two cigarettes lighters with some fuel left, two glass bottles of strong liquor, four lengths of strong metal wire, a screwdriver, two pocketknives, two wrenches, a claw hammer, five bandages, 6 pairs of socks, eight tobacco cigarettes, three small batteries, a pill bottle with 8 pills inside, and a large towel.

Calling up on the radio, Sean discusses things and gives his sit-rep.
They reply that they did not know of any mutants in the area, but gingerly comment that they should have anticipated that the monsters may be around. Their only plan in the case of mutants is to simply avoid them if possible, unless they can be dealt with decisively.
The building must be cleared out AND kept in one piece, or else they will have to abort the whole operation. If they can find a way to get the animals and plants out or dead without damaging the machinery within, that would be ideal. Perhaps some kind of chemical warfare is in order?
They expect to arrive in 3 hours.

[u-b]

Sean kills the mutant dogs, packs the loot, the two live flyers (he spends two bandages to keep them that way and two pairs of handcuffs to keep them from causing trouble) and one dead flyer (the blood is quite interesting and he wants to take a more thorough look inside). Then he reloads the magazine he has used in combat and uses two camouflage nets to camouflage the cars. He uses the third net to set up an ambush site for Richard, Tariq and Bart, which would allow shooting at anyone approaching or leaving the building. Then he leaves the rest of the corpses near the burning cars, throws one flyer ontop of the fire, maybe makes some shots at the lock(s) (but not the traps) to make sure at least one exit facing the burning cars and the ambush is freely operable, takes a hiding spot in some location, separate, but not distant, from the rest of the group, and waits for either the caravan or some movement that can be fired upon.

Spoiler

Show

If burning meat does not attract anyone and no mutants appear from anywhere heading to the site, we just wait those three hours for the arrival of the main group.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Tariq scopes the building and figures the ground floor is mostly taken up by the internal workings of the hydro-electric generator and the turbine. There may be smaller rooms around the edges, but none of particular importance or sturdy interior doors. The upper floor, meanwhile, is where most of the windows are, and there is a larger room (an main office?) dominating the place with catwalks and stairways leading down to the ground floor and up to the roof.

Sean piles the meat up and prepares the camouflaged kill zone. The stanch of burnt death fills the air in less than ten minutes. 30 minutes later, four large mutated animals lumber out of the nearby wilderness to investigate the corpses. The animals are on all fours, furry, extremely muscular and large toothed. Sean recognizes them as black bears that have undergone the unnatural biological changes that so much of the region's wildlife and plants suffer from.

Eager to devour the free food, the bears do not care to look around the area, and simply snack on the dead bodies left out. None of the animals realize the exiles are there...

(OC: how many yards away from the bears have you set the camouflage spot, Sean?)

[u-b]

The animals come from not exactly the direction Sean would expect them to be, but they go after the meat, not after Sean, so that might be just as well. Sean waits for them to get busy together and, before they start dragging the corpses aside, announces his plan over the radio, heard only by Richard. "Mine are left to right, yours are the other way around. Tariq and Bart stand ready in case that won't be enough." If the plan is accepted, he says "Shooting at implied zero... five, four, three, two..." a silence for one and then one long burst.

Spoiler

Show

how many yards away from the bears have you set the camouflage spot, Sean?

Let's say both our spots are some 40 yards away from the building, if it can be clearly seen from that far, making them maybe some 25..30 yards away from the fire? The spots would be, say, 15 feet away from each other (one left and one right) and the cars are some further 30 yards away.

[GnomesofZurich2]

The animals come from not exactly the direction Sean would expect them to be, but they go after the meat, not after Sean, so that might be just as well. Sean waits for them to get busy together and, before they start dragging the corpses aside, announces his plan over the radio, heard only by Richard. "Mine are left to right, yours are the other way around. Tariq and Bart stand ready in case that won't be enough." If the plan is accepted, he says "Shooting at implied zero... five, four, three, two..." a silence for one and then one long burst.

Spoiler

Show

Let's say both our spots are some 40 yards away from the building, if it can be clearly seen from that far, making them maybe some 25..30 yards away from the fire? The spots would be, say, 15 feet away from each other (one left and one right) and the cars are some further 30 yards away.

Tariq will aim at the nearest bear, should his grenade launcher be needed.

[Volthawk]

After Richard relays the plan to the others, he take aim and fires along with Sean.

[Shoot Da Moon]

(OC: I forgot to mention, the bears are SM+1. Sean's burst only wastes 2 bullets, ditto Richard.)

The rifle fire is deafening. The four hungry bears are slaughtered by the shots tearing through their lungs and hearts.
When Sean and Richard lower their smoking guns from their shoulders, they see the ursine mutants are nothing but gruesome roadkill now.

[u-b]

Sean reloads with a full magazine, then goes for part two. He aims at the bottle hooked up to a tripwire across an entrance, makes his shot, and waits patiently.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The bottle explodes into shards and liquid splashing everywhere along the doorframe. Inside, there is some scattered and hurried movement by small creatures, spooked by the sudden destruction. Five minutes pass, but nothing happens. Four dog-like beasts with glowing eyes and rat snouts skitter out of the underbrush near the building, and start nibbling on the corpses of the dead. Circle of life.

(OC: the beasts are SM +0.)

[Volthawk]

Richard nods as he sees the ratdogs appear. "Thought so, same stuff that was used against the Snowbunnies to cause their animal problems. Interesting security system, although a little unreliable. I wonder if the mutants have a way of dealing with these things peacefully so they don't have to fight them off every time someone triggers it."

[u-b]

Sean thinks if he should spend more bullets, but then decides to let the explosives person have some fun. "Tell Tariq he can have a shot at the lot. I wonder why none appear out of the building and if those there are locked in some of the rooms. If so, would be less problematic to handle."

[GnomesofZurich2]

Tariq takes his time setting up the shot, and then fires a single grenade targeting the centre of the ratdogs.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Gore flies as the grenade lands and explodes!
All four ratdogs die as the blast and shrapnel rips them apart.
The pile of corpses is brutally disrupted by the blow up. Entrails and skin are left scattered around.

[u-b]

Sean is inclined to let the caravan appear and the scents disappear before checking the building. He says that and, if no objections, does that.

[GnomesofZurich2]

Sure, Tariq is in no hurry. He will reload his grenade launcher and otherwise just keep an eye on things.

[Shoot Da Moon]

An hour passes as the exiles rest in their hiding spot, keeping watch on the power plant.
Mostly nothing happens. The blood and meat mess made of the corpses attracts birds to peck and nibble on the offal.
The rain increases a little, it is now a bit more heavy but it does not affect sight lines or soak anyone too bad.
45 minutes after the exiles start resting, 10 more rat-dogs crawl out from the power plant building to both feed on the corpses AND attack the carrion birds. The strange ten monsters make a meal of slow birds and wrecked bodies.

In the distance, the exiles also hear a riverboat's engine rumbling and steam billowing further up the nearby river connected to the plant, coming closer to the power plant.

[u-b]

Sean warns Richard about the approaching boat, requests a grenade or two at the doggies and declares his intent to meet the boat as it lands while keeping in touch with the rest of the ambush, which probably should remain put. If/when the doggies are out, Sean plans to approach the river and observe the boat while it's still some way away. The boat's reaction to the explosions is of particular interest.

Spoiler

Show

Sean's speed is 7+1 for most of this movement, then he will slow down to use stealth.

[GnomesofZurich2]

Tariq obliges Sean's request and will put another carefully aimed grenade into the "doggies".

Spoiler: OOC

Show

The damage looks pretty low, he's prepared to launch another one if needed.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Tariq's salvo hits the center of the animals, who are spread out more than previous clusters.
4 of the animals are caught in the innermost blast, injured badly enough to knock them out, flinging them through the air.
The other six animals are merely hurt by the rim of the explosion. They screech and scatter away, as fast as they can.
(OC: the rat-dogs can Move 6 yards every second.)

Sean can not quite see the riverboat approaching, it looks like the explosion does not affect it. Did the crew not hear the boom?

[u-b]

Seeing the flight of the surviving dogs as something unfortunate and not yet worrying too much about alerting the approaching vessel, Sean and Bart spend a few seconds practicing shooting...

Spoiler

Show

Three seconds worth of actions rolled. Will wait for Richard/Tariq/GM to act and resolve what happens. If most or all dogs are out, Sean will hurry to look at the boat ASAP, using stealth on approach to the shore only.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean manages to bulls-eye three of the mutated animals with deadly precision, and Bart the Hunter bags one of his own with a shotgun blast, putting it down and out. Then Bart takes aim at another rat-dog...

[Volthawk]

Given that the ratdogs are more concerned with escape than attack, Richard is content to leave it to Sean and Bart and instead looks in the rough direction of the riverboat. They might still be a fair distance away, and out of sight, but Richard still feels better keeping eyes in that direction at all times - after all, people may have left the boat and began a stealthier approach on foot, and if they're mutants who knows what abilities they may have at their disposal. He was probably worrying for no reason, but he still kept a lookout, just in case.

[u-b]

Sean and Bart target two remaining dogs, after which Sean tells everyone to stay put and quickly moves to some hiding spot near the water where he can see the vessel.