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Danse Travel to the North is, actually, relatively peaceful, especially if one follows the crumbled remains of what were once paved roads. The permanently sleeping trees, though sometimes covered in browned vines and resilient moss, provide little cover that a would be ambush could use. That's not to say that wildlife is absolutely absent: Further afield, sometimes movement can be seen. In one case, what look to be mosquitos mutated with gigantism are picking clean the corpse of a two-headed elk or deer, while similarly enlarged flies are waiting their turn. At another turn of the road, a creature whose ancestors were probably of the ursine persuasion, a scraggly-hided Yao Guai can be seen napping in a half-collapsed country cabin. Its ears wiggle lightly at any footsteps that pass by, as it lets out a low, throaty grumble. It doesn't seem to be on the hunt, though, and you know the old proverb about letting sleeping bears lie. Then, there are the crows. It was said that cockroaches were the only things that would survive to reclaim the Earth after a nuclear strike, but they didn't give these beasts enough credit. They're seemingly everywhere you look, and in decent numbers.

    This particular sector, save for some unremarkable features in the center when it branches off toward the coast, would be completely novel even for those that had been in the Commonwealth before. Some of the more fascinating sights and sounds would include what was once a power plant -- with melted down fuel still inside, if any one's geiger counter is to be believed, which probably explains why basically nothing seems to have approached close in the intervening centuries. At this same crossing, there are two settlers that just seem to be trying to get by, tilling a fenced in field of Mutfruit, and apparently living in a sheet metal shack. Further off the road and to the west of this busy spot, there is also what looks to be a deserted US Army facility, judging from the military trucks parked outside it, the signage, and also a decaying STOL aircraft still on a landing pad.

    All interesting sights to take in, to be sure, though the goal is ultimately further north, along that lonesome road. Even though no time table had been set, research serums tend to degrade, especially if they're left out in the unforgiving sun for too long.
Kyle Katarn     "Man, this stuff would be ancient even for Tattooine." Kyle muses, as he pokes through the remains of that STOL. There can't be much to salvage from this thing, even for a seasoned group of adventurers as it is. Not far from the STOL is a pile of dead radroaches, blaster bolts sizzling in their bodies, though some may have been cut into tiny pieces by a lightsaber's deft strokes.

    Clearly they didn't take the hint that Radscorpion did way long ago, as Kyle's racked up about seven roaches so far on this trek. He knows the objective's further north, but poking around some scenery won't hurt any right?
Rory White Rory's traipsing along, periodically stopping to adjust her outfit or long plume of blue hair. She's nearly tripped seven times on the uneven ground and once had to tumble and hop and awkwardly brace herself against Kyle.

    The girl's just not used to walking in places like this. Running on even ground is one thing... but there's debris and crud here everywhere, and nothing even close to a usable road or sidewalk.

    She makes note of the military site while passing by. And also the power plant. Hrrrrrrrrm. That's worth a second look later! In fact she makes note of this vocally.

    "That power plant may be salvageable. Looks like it was an old-style uranium fission plant. The heavy radiation contamination is a nearly foolproof defense against raiders... Though... a power plant isn't much use without distribution infrastructure... that also needs plenty of repair."
Kotone Yamakawa So the job was a simple request to find someone that had gone missing, who was on a delivery job. Kotone had been warned this was death claw country and thusly? She was toating along a minigun today, she was not going to mess around with this, trip. She also was busy on the comm line even as she moved across the wasteland that was Boston now was on this world. She took a deep breath as she moved on.

She knew what she'd had to do there, but that wa for later for now they are here she pauses for a moment looking at Rory for a moment.

"There's a lot to fix here, but little steps, right? The water plant is a good start, everyone needs water that has a flesh and blood body."

She took a moment to also launch several scout drones to keep a eye out for trouble a head given what's said to be out this way.

"We should check the military remians we might find smething there and we should check out the settlers once the job's done they might need a hand."
Raylene Dunwich     "Getting ahead of yourself, there, aren't you?" Raylene teases Rory. "All in due time." Though she's wearing a dress and dressy shoes, the young girl has kept up with the group without any trouble... as has the mystical presence following her around. She must be tougher than she looks, since she doesn't look like she's worked a day in her life. She is kind of circuituitously avoiding mud and dirt though.
Danse So far, besides the roaches, nothing else asleep in the Army facility has woken up. Yet. The old Vertibird is outwardly relatively intact, but Kyle would find that the actual internal mechanisms are indeed basically useless, having long succumbed to the one-two punch of lack of maintenance and the weather. There is a sealed door a bit further north on the grounds, that seems to been implaced into a concrete bunker, though time might become a factor before getting to crack that open. Perhaps something to mark for later investigation, and there may still be some things worth scavenging in the depot building, itself, since judging from some of the skeletal remains still sprawled around the collapsed parts, there wasn't much time for evacuation.

    Rory's once over of the old power plant was accurate. It's basically a modernized take on an age old design; fission core, steam turbines, and further afield it can be seen to have water exhaust tunnels leading straight down the flood plane to the river. ...well, okay, that feature might need some changing, if she wants to remain an ecological neat freak. Still, besides the fissile fuel, something must still be alive in there, since among the few transmission lines that do branch out from it, and remain intact, sparks can be seen coming from one dangling cable. This world's engineering can be suspect at times, but there's little doubt that it was built to last, against all odds.

    Kotone's scout drones wouldn't see much beyond what was immediately available to the others, though the aerial view does at least allow her to keep better tabs of the creatures roaming around in the wilderness. That would be fairly important in the case of Deathclaws, which were among the promised megafauna, further to the North. The settlers take a break from tending their fields to stare up at one as it whizzes by, but they don't seem to be too panicked.

    As for Raylene, it is quite a task to keep from tracking through mud and grime, especially in the hellscape of the Commonwealth, but the roads, broken as they are, afford the best chance to skip over such things. The unseen presence likely cares a bit less about it.

    Further along the road, things start to get even more interesting, though, and since Rory seems to be interested in the functional facilities that the Commonwealth may still offer, it seems this particular neck of the woods is a real jackpot. The road turns close to what looks to be an old steel foundry, and judging from the exhaust plumes of its surprisingly intact chimneys, the fires still burn, even if the soul doesn't. The reason why would be easily spotted through mild magnification: Raiders have claimed it as their territory, as they stalk around its immediate grounds as well as the catwalks on the roof of the main building. They seem a bit distinctive, though; their skin looks rather raw, as though freshly burned, and they're covered in barely healed wounds like a hot iron touched them. Where they aren't scabbed and burned, their skin is still blackened with soot. Gross!

    And then, in the very distance, the actual area being headed to, and the very obvious landmark closest to it. The Parsons State Insane Asylum is, like many of the buildings in this part of the Commonwealth, still standing and with decent structural integrity. Even the walls surrounding it only have a few breaks in them, though none seem to have been made in recent times. The knowledge of what this building is would be fairly disturbing, though at least two people in the party would possibly feel something tugging, nagging from a different direction. To the east, specifically, to those with the right mystical senses, there is a faded murmuring, if only for a moment. The draw of something wicked and terrible, trying to beckon those that can sense it closer.
Kyle Katarn     Kyle nods after some thought to it. "You thinking we can fix it up at some point? It'd be better than just sitting there, irradiating everything. Might be best if you guys tackle it, I don't exactly wanna take my chances at my hair falling out if I go there without gear." He says, grinning cheekily.

    As they wander along, Kyle takes cover behind a boulder when he spies the steel mill. "Tangos. Lots of them." He says, sensing them immediately, pulling out some electro-binoculars to spy. He frowns, noticing the burns on the resident Raiders, this is why going without protective gear in a mill is a bad idea, folks, 'cause it looks like these people have their share of bumps.

    They carry on, making it to Parsons, and Kyle feels something gnawing at his gut, the whispers and the murmurs just begging for his attention.

    He's felt it before, and fallen for its charms. "Dammit. Just like Drummond Kaas." He mutters tiredly, before he presses on.
Raylene Dunwich     Raylene glances at Kyle when he mutters, then she tsks. "Not really the time to worry." As if she knows what he's thinking. She doesn't, but she can guess. The rest? She doesn't seem to care, though she watches with academic interest.

    Well, she does have one thing to say. "If they're that into self-mutilation, I'd assume they aren't all that easy to reason with."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa does take notes of the settlment here and does notice they don't seem paniced, tht's good, she doesn't delay long other than to map the area a little for later. Kotone is also keeping more of an eye out for Deathclaws, seriously those things could rip apart an Chryalid in combat to be sure.

She would keep with the group as they moved forward towards the objective she did take time to get an idea about things.

"Look Kyle? I have a bit of rad away if things become a problem so don't worry too hard right? We won't let you glow in the dark."
Rory White Rory's gaze lingers on the steel mill for some time, eyes narrowing and irises spinning almost imperceptibly revealing the focusing lenses of her telescopic optics. After noting the bandits, she dispatches one of her several Saucers to drift that direction and settle down to nestle on the planet's roof in some out of the way spot that's hard to reach. If it can do that when nobody's looking.

    The more information she can gather on those people for later, the better.

    For now though, she keeps tromping towards the PArsons asylum. Except.. for a brief pause. Rory begins rifling through the deeper pockets of her robes, pulling out a fairly thin but flexible... folded up cloth? It's a full-body suit? And it shimmers an odd whitish-silver. What's the thing even MADE out of?

    "If you need radiation protection, Mr. Katarn... try putting this on? I'll activate it for you once you do."

    There is almost no way in hell this flimsy piece of fabric that isn't even fully sealed is a spacesuit... right?
Danse Judging by the amount and the uniformity of the burns and scarring, it is almost certainly as Raylene guesses: That the injuries are self-inflicted, or at least are consented to, possibly as some kind of ritual behavior. See, civilization is rebuilding itself! Complete with horrifically self-destructive behavior as rites of passage. That's something to pursue another time, perhaps. Even if they notice the group moving through what could possibly be part of their territory, they don't seem to be moving out from their headquarters to pursue anyone.

    Speaking of things to investigate later. That sinister calling to Kyle, the Horror, and possibly Raylene eventually quiets, as well, from the direction of Salem. Whatever it was seemingly has decided to bide its time, instead, and things like that typically have plenty of it to spare. This whole part of the Commonwealth, despite the outward serenity, seems to be a hotbed of activity, not that this likely comes as a surprise to someone with a name like Dunwich.

    However, onward, to the Asylum itself! The courier that was to bring the serum originated from nearby here, and it's likely that it's where they became lost, or worse. The roads grow slowly more pock marked and reclaimed by mud, as well, though it's still navigable. Within the mud, one can see depressions of tracks that haven't been washed away by rains or winds yet; most of them seeming to be from human feet, indicating there is some travel to and from here. However, there are also decidedly inhuman ones, including those that have apparently been made by a very large, and very heavy, reptilian biped. That would be the Deathclaws, most certainly.

    At the Insane Asylum itself, out on the grounds, some relatively well equipped mercenaries seem to be on patrol. They had heard by radio to expect this group of people, and accordingly dont' instantly assume the worst about them, though they still give out some eyeballs. It seems that Jack Cabot isn't only depending on spookiness and obscurity to chase away intruders. "You all are here about the shipment, right," the senior mercenary, a thirty-something woman, volunteers once they're within earshot. "The courier decided to take the long way around to hopefully avoid those Forged maniacs, at the old Saugus Ironworks, but that's the last we saw or heard from him. If you're heading through Lynn Woods, be careful. There's some serious shit out that way." As if the tracks and warnings from before weren't enough.
Raylene Dunwich     Forged, eh? "The burned ones?" Raylene guesses with a frown, but she isn't actually a good representative of the group. "Don't look at me, I'm just along for the ride as the scrappy kid to inevitably get these folks in trouble when they need to rescue me. We're just looking for the courier."

Yeah, she really is going to let the others field the chatting, but mostly because a barely teen girl interrogating the group of mercs would probably seem weird.
Kyle Katarn     Kyle can't help but shrug. "Can't be too careful, not like we're going after them tonight." He says to Raylene, mentally checking that off.

    He continues toward the Asylum, before he sees mercenaries, waving a hand to them. "Safety's on, folks! Yeah, Cabot hired us to look into this place. He hire you too I take it? I'm Kyle, that's Raylene, Rory, and Kotone, we've been called to investigate. Anything about the asylum we need to know about?"
Rory White It might well be best to let Kyle handle the heavy lifting in this encounter. Or Kotone. So Rory reasons as she strolls up, eyes on the guards who seem leery of them. Rory is not traveling unarmed in the wasteland, but her weapons are well concealed under those robes...

    Hard to call the bluenette 'of a threatening demeanor' either. She looks almost blankly at the guards while they explain. Her presence is worrisome only through sheer incongruity....

    Who wanders around the wastes unarmed and dressed like THIS? ... And has natural blue hair for that matter? There's PLENTY of oddities about her appearance in this scenario... but oh well.

    "We saw a Yao Guia on the way here. Sleeping, thankfully. I can imagine."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa sees how well geared the guards are, combat rifles, and armour and most of it looks in very good shape and she sees the lay out is fairly secure for what it is and it's good to know that their employer seems to have his act togehter on terms of personel. She does look at the Insane Asylum. She hears about the warning on the Forged, she supects thing with the raiders might go badly but for now they need to find the missing courier right?

"Right, thanks for the warning by the way."
Danse "Yeah, they burn themselves...for some reason," the head merc shrugs vaguely, seeming to catch the hint that Raylene isn't too interested in chit-chat with hired guns. Seems like a nice enough kid. What she's doing here, and what Jack Cabot must be thinking to have allowed her to do so, is really none of her business, as long as the caps and food supply stays steady. She turns next to Kyle, offering a light smirk, while the others stop their gawking and go back on patrol shortly after. Unlike the raiders, they seem decently fed and armed; those are real, pre-war weapons in their hands, not the cobbled together pipe guns most typically seen in the Commonwealth. "You guessed right, though Deegan's usually the one that actually comes up to give us our marching orders. This is Jack Cabot's show. He's a little kooky, but to be honest, but most of them science types are." No apologies made to Rory or Kotone at all. "As long as he pays, I'm more than willing to let him rattle on about his weird ideas."

    Her eyes pivot out from the grounds up toward an increasingly broken road, that runs past what looks to be an old creamery on a hill. Through some not-quite-dead tree branches, one can also see what looks to be a stone block tower erected there, looking somewhat out of place. She gestures in that direction, "That's Lynn Woods. Used to be a little settlement out that way. Haven't seen them entering or leaving lately. It's basically a coin flip on what might have got them, the deathclaws or the raiders, or the bloodbugs with the long odds." She seems pretty callous about it, having obviously no attachment to them or the area at all, but in her line of work you really can't afford to. "Courier was headed through there, too. Usually, as long as you watch, it isn't too bad, but the raiders have been getting kind of brave lately. I'm guessing you aren't going to find him alive."

    On the topic of the Asylum, she gives out a light groan. "No matter what anyone or that dork on the radio might have told you, it's not haunted. Cabot apparently keeps a lot of experimental stuff down in the basement, but like I said, he pays, I don't ask questions. You seem like nice enough folks, I wouldn't poke around in there. You might ruin a good thing, plus I'd have to shoot you." She says the latter in that distinctly, matter-of-fact tone of hers. "Yeah, there's stuff meaner than any yao guai," she notes to Rory, additionally. Since Kotone was courteous enough to thank her for the warning, she throws in a bonus: "The deathclaws don't usually come bother anybody, as long as you don't get too close. They got nests back in the hills there. Make a loud noise and they come running, though. I dread having to get into an actual fire fight with anybody."

    Still, they've rambled on long enough. "You guys got a job, right? I'll let you get to it." She backs off, then, stepping around to sit down in one of the old guard posts. That leaves the road ahead relatively clear for further investigations, as that tower and old creamery loom closer. There are only sparse abandoned and rusted out vehicles, every so often, as the traffic that had been trying to leave the city when the bombs fell falters off. At one point, a skeleton can be seen at the back of a pickup truck, having succumbed to radiation exposure while desperately trying to push it out from the mud, the ruts the tires had dug in still just faintly visible. And then, further along the road is something conspicuous and fresh. A dead body, to be precise, dressed in road leathers, and with a lockbox next to them. They're scored over by several bullet wounds, and the lockbox has been broken open; at least some of the contents, apparently glass vials, smashed by the frantic assailants trying to smash the container open. Yet there was originally room in the box for 8 vials; there are only the remains of 3 apparently accounted for.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa says "Sounds like they have gone full on tribal, and crazy." Is all Kotone has to say about the raiders but she does think they will end up being a problema nd she can't aruge about teh science types comment,m but she doe snot comment about it. She'll move to send the drones out to map ahead for the courier and she nods. There's no reason as of yet to go digging about her employers property here right? Se doesn't think more on it.

"Thank you for the warning I herd stories about those things and will try to avoid a fight if I can at least."

She falls in with the rest of the party to head out of the compound and head after the missing courier.
Kyle Katarn     DIALOGUE TREE EXHAUSTED

    Kyle gives the mercs a nod in respect, "Thanks. We'll keep Lynn Woods in mind. You guys stay safe out here." He says, offering a salute before he and the others take off. The suit Rory offers does get a raised brow, but he takes it anyway. Could help, at some point.

    He gently nudges the door open, Bryar pistol in hand, and Kyle notices something. A body, with road leathers. That just screams an unlucky traveler up ahead.

    He jogs along before he gets a better look, the Force nudging him to investigate. "Huh." he approaches the smashed lockbox, and pulls over the body with a frown. "Could be the courier they mentioned. What are these vials for?" he picks one up, trying to look close and see if anything's still inside the glass shards. "Whatever was in this package had to be important, this poor guy didn't go quick." He says, looking over the Courier once again, mostly the numerous bullet wounds he sustained.
Rory White "Noted. We will take care. You as well... strange things are always happening around here." Rory bows simply to the guards before about-facing and facing the path the group must now walk with.

    When the group comes to the unfortunate corpse Rory kneels down without showing any sign of disgust or discomfort. After all, she cannot smell it and has no relevant instincts to be deeply revulsed by death. Only sympathy and consideration cover this topic!

    Which means she wastes no time examining the body for the cause of death, checking every pocket and scanning thermally to look for any hidden goodies in those clothes that might be useful which the original assailants could've missed...

    Of course the smashed lockbox and glass shards are quite a discovery. "Highly likely this is the courier in question. Most likely the vials were accidentally broken when his assailants used force on the lockbox. Which means they have no idea what they took. ... Or are just stupid. If they knew what was in here and were after it they could've just taken the box with them. But they must have taken the rest."
Raylene Dunwich     "Thank you for the help," Raylene says as the merc turns away. "A deathclaw? I've heard of these. If you do find one, I'll pay hansomely for the corpse. Even more for a live one. I don't have caps, but I could give you several crates of ammunition of just about any type you'd like." She curtseys lightly. "Please let us know."

    Turning around she hurries after the others, but lets them, once again, do the 'work' of this... at least initially. Without any fear of being cut up, she pokes at the broken vials, specifically to get a hint of this serum and work on analyzing it. THAT is something she can do to help... though the results may not be clear given the short time span.

    "Where are the nearest raiders? Does this look to be the work of those Forged fellows?"
Danse As Rory investigates and quickly concludes, and Kyle inspects visually, this guy got shot up really bad. Judging from the dried up pools of brownish-red, he probably actually survived a while before finally dying from the blood loss. It also fits with the position he's found sprawled in. There's nothing that can be done for him now, though, absent necromancy (or console commands). While not intending to, he did leave a little bit of a clue for the investigators to find, by way of the ridiculous amount of blood his still beating hard had spilled. Raiders are not exactly the cleanest assassins in the world, you see, and bloody bootprints lead off from the scene of the attack in two directions, one up the hill toward the creamery, and the other along a dirt road toward that conspicuous stone tower, which from this close has shacks built around a depression in the center, and an active bonfire piled in the center of it. There's no immediate trace of life from either, at least from the outside.

    All but the tracest amounts of the smashed vials' content is long gone, either seaped into the soil or evaporated, probably a mixture of both. There is a strange sense to the residue that remains, though, that Raylene would be able to pick up on, though perhaps not pinpoint given the urgency of their task. It's essentially exactly as Jack Cabot had described it, that strange feeling it gives -- alien was a good way to describe it, though not of little green men. Rather, those ancient unknowns that prowl around at the edges of human imagination. There's definitely the scent of that kind of thing to them, but any deeper scryings of its identity or purpose is impossible, at least with these degraded samples.

    It also doesn't put them any closer on figuring out which path to take, though that decision might become easier as there's movement up by the creamery. Another raider, though of the seemingly more common variety rather than the Forged from before, steps out of the old cargo doors to light up and have a smoke. It takes the edge off this great stuff they happened to find. His head pivots down to notice the unwelcome company, too, and he tries to quickly dash back inside, probably to alert the others.
Kyle Katarn     Kyle sighs, doing that thing people do in movies all the time where they close the dead guy's eyelids because apparently when you die your eyes are just wide open. It's not much, but it's the best he can do in this situation for the poor guy short of a burial, and they don't have time for that.

    He does consider the smashed vials, and Kyle looks to Rory. "Hey, do you think you can get a look at these?" Thankfully he has gloves on, which means any of the serum these may have carried won't get all over his fingers Force-willing, and he lets Rory handle the sciencing for now.

    He does sense something about the vials, that weird, alien unknown feeling of some bygone ancient entity looking at this stuff. Any thoughts he does have are jarred as he hears the Raider in the creamery, "Oh sithspit, there goes stealth." He says, his hand going to the Bryar Blaster on his hip, drawing it.
Raylene Dunwich     "That requires a level of security most don't have," Raylene is arguing with Rory, while she ponders the tiny trace amount on her finger. Interesting. A glance up sees the raider making a break for it, and Raylene... stays right where she is. Except that there's a slight shimmer in the air, as if a muggy heat wave had hit just her, and then...

    More tracks in the earth, with a sudden thud, as the Horror manifests. It's still invisible, but now it is material, so the heavy weight of the beast is making footprints in the soil, and the low and gutteral growl is certainly audible. "Go take care of them, please."

    The footprints rapidly multiply in a broad-striding dash toward the shed.
Rory White Rory ceases arguing on the radio the moment Raylene summons some kind of... creature. Its presence triggers an immediate widening of Rory's eyes. With the uncertain motions of a person unused to their own skin and handling weapons, she draws a pistol clumsily from her robes. It's a sleek, black design with no obvious moving parts except the trigger. It's an Argonaut design laser pistol, perfect for dealing with light targets that expose their flesh.

    But she looks left and right at the others and their actions...

    "Will nobody even attempt diplomacy?"
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa trrust in her companions to figure ou the nature of death on the courier and looks to follow the clues as it were, she frowns a bit as she looks down the road and understand this isn't good but there's a chance some of the viles might havebeen taken by the attackers right? She sends her drons ahead high up in the sky, while she reaudis the mini gun and gets ready to move out.

"Rory I'm going to trust you on that." She doesn't know anything /about/ the supernautral feelings as she's got raiders to deal with and she has the mini gun ready which seems to weigh almost nothing in her hands. Then Kyle does his thing kotone just kinda /stares for a moment.

"Those things have stun settings right?"

The minigun was for death claws she does have a pair of old clone wars erta blasters on her hips but she'd have to swap weapon and the thret of a heavy mini gun might cow the raiders.
Danse As soon as Kyle notices they had been, likewise, noticed, his worries come to life. Several more of the Raiders are soon stepping out of a hole on the upper level of the building, which by now barely looks like it's standing, but it serves their purposes as a hideout to ambush travelers well enough. It gives them an excellent vantage point on the road below, as well as a decent amount of cover to lob one improvised explosive into the air. It seems to be an old Vault-Tec lunchbox that they've basically stuffed full of finely ground fertilizer and a couple of fistfuls of bottlecaps. It's also, quite possible, that someone shoots it right out of the air, or even more hilariously, that it clonks against the Horror, now rapidly stomping up and besides being invisible to their eyes, making no secret of its approach.

    For a few moments, the Raiders turn to squeeze off shots from their ridiculously mismatched and cobbled together weapons, now that they've used their one big surprise up. But then, as the whole creamery starts to rock and weave precariously, they have something else to deal with, as from inside, several pieces of aged lumber and other debris can be seen to be jarred loose. "Is it one of them," calls one!? Another instinctively glances back in the direction of Lynn Woods, or rather, just beyond and to the side of it. "No! I don't see shit! Wait, look at the ground. What the fuck is that?" They're familiar with large beasts in this neck of the woods. And they're cognizant of what a stealth boy is and does. But they ain't ever seen anything that combines both, and technically still haven't.

    While that's bearing down on them, they're likely soon facing fire incoming from Kotone and also Kyle; better shots than they could ever hope to be. The presumed leader, because he's bigger and has more tattoos than the others, obviously, yells out, "Stop crapping your pants, we've got the stuff. We'll get through this!" And with that, he can be seen to jab the end of one of the serum containers right into his jugular vein. Nothing outwardly happens, though he does charge out of the hole immediately after, charging at the Horror, or where he last saw the footprints, with a machete of all things. And the craziest thing is he doesn't seem to get turned into paste immediately. The others, around four, seem to be split on whether to follow suit or just dig in with the hopes the others might do enough, and before long two others are juiced up and leap off the roof, barely seeming to notice or slow down when their legs give a sickening crunch beneath them, "Yeeeeahhhh! This feels INCREDIBLE!" They're battle blinded to only going after the barely perceptible being their boss is going after, with a point blank double barreled shotgun blast and spiked knuckles, respectively.

    Diplomacy is probably out. These people are insane. Those that remain bottled up do still try and take pot shots at the people on the road to keep things honest, but they're obviously scared shitless.
Kyle Katarn     Predictably, diplomacy fails. Then again, diplomacy via invisible horror monster doesn't usually end well, so Kyle draws his blaster pistol, already on the move as he goes to find cover someplace. They have the high ground, which makes dealing with them a problem as Kyle fires a few shots, aiming but not expecting to hit anything worth a damn.

    "They're too dug in. Ray, make sure your pet knows who the good guys are here. I'm going up there."

    Then Kyle switches out his blaster for something else; A hilt on his belt that practically flies to his open hand, and then it lets out a high-pitched whine and hissing sound, as energy forms into existence. A meter long blade of blue-outlining energy forms, and Kyle's lightsaber hums sharply as the Jedi takes off. A dude like Kyle should not be that fast, or able to jump like that, but he still propels himself into the air like a goddamn human missile, doing a flip in the air no less as he makes for the rooftop.

    He'll match the guys on the roof with a full sprint, counting on surprise to leave them too dumbstruck to actually react as Kyle slashes the first Raider with his lightsaber. He ain't intent on letting these guys crawl away under their own power, judging by how efficiently and deeply he cuts, before he goes to the next thug. He's deflected bullets before, same principle as blaster bolts actually! They ought to just evaporate upon contact with that lightsaber, which makes them /safer/ to deal with than blaster shots. Less likely for friendly fire.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa had hoped some level of swense might prevail with the raiders but this seems to be falling along the lines of typical raiders. Still she gets where Rory is coming from and honesly Rory has got some raiders to rethink things so it's not impossible but this lot?They are shooting to kill and Koton is just sighing inside she doens't like to do this at all but she has little choice at this range and ther's no time to weapon swap as one of them us one of the strange drugs she can only /stare/ in shock.

"Did they just pump a chemical they have no idea about i....n?" She sighs and now is moving forwrd a few shots do connect nd it's cler while she's got osme protection it huts she's got a beach here nd there nd she's now trying to fire short controlled bursts from the mini gun even as she gives Kyle covering fire.

<<I swear the rads have sone something to the level of common sense here..>>
Raylene Dunwich     While invisible, the Horror can be hurt... by things as simple as exploding lunchboxes and machetes. And the blood splattering - either from the raider or itself - can make a brief glimpse of the beast before that fades, either sliding off or being integrated into its invisibility. It immediately goes toe to toe with the raider, a vicious swipe trying to disembowel, and the howl that it lets out is... well, inhuman? Raylene flinches, "Whatever that stuff is, it's making them a lot stronger. I'll try to analyze the blood, I suppose. We'll have to deliver anything that's usable." She sighs as the Horror carelessly lets itself take damage. "Oh well. At least this is a year's worth of food for it."

    It does NOT messily feed on the kills though, just passively absorbing their moments of death.
Rory White Rory, spotting the makeshift bomb, decides to dive behind the nearest boulder for cover. She is NOT going to charge like a moron into the killing field. She hunkers behind the boulder and waits for those first few critical seconds to pass. those first critical seconds in which combatants have picked their targets and strategies.

    Because that decisive moment is the perfect moment to pop out and take aim and fire at exposed flesh or centers of mass. She's avoiding lethal shots as best she can, but if she cooks someone's arm then oh well.

    The raiders aren't exactly worth preserving.
Danse There's something weird with how the lightsaber cuts into the first raider, as while they try to frantically fire at the incoming force leaping man, their shots are likely easily deflected to clear the way. They hadn't hit the juice like the three that jumped down and are trying to engage an unspeakable, unseeable horror are, but from purplish marks on their veins, it's clear that they had at least tried some of it in the past. Perhaps some of those physiological effects make themselves known, as the cut isn't quite as clean as it should be, given the usual way congealed laser blades tend to. Instead, there's a bit more resistance than normal flesh should have, and as it goes through, it's almost like it's actively trying to knit itself back together. Ultimately, despite that kind of thing, they're still normal-ish enough humans, and not very trained warriors. The first one collapses into a heap, having been slashed from side to shoulder, yelling in intense pain made even more ironically agonizing by the fact his body *is* trying to immediately heal, before the screaming finally stops.

    The other on the roof/second level actually has the reaction speed to wheel away, just out of reach of the light saber, mostly owed to the juice she'd taken before. Unfortunately, that just puts her in easy reach of Kotone's covering fire. The same as the one before, though not to the degree as the ones on the ground, the shots are fatal, but not immediately. Instead, she slides off the ramshackle surface onto the ground below, gasping for air and cursing violently that they'd ever found this stuff. Of the ones in the immediate vicinity, she's probably the most immediately retrievable, assuming she doesn't lose too much more blood.

    The ones that are fighting the Horror...well, they're still obviously outmatched, but whatever was in that serum makes it so that they don't seem to really care. The Horror's claws gouge deep into their bodies, damage that is relentless enough to eventually overwhelm them, but that they're still standing with wounds of that degree is a definite clue that Raylene's hunch is correct. In addition to the psychological effects, something fundamental has changed about their bodies. Rory's shots barely register with them mentally, it seems like, but that just leaves her open to pick further pick them apart, and basically leave them to be dropped by their own body's failing integration. As the last one finally goes down, he seems to have a strange moment of insight and clarity, before he goes into the final bout of system shock. "Haha...HAHAHA. That's IT. It makes, so much fucking sense now! It was all lies, all of it, from the beginning. What a cruel fucking joke..." Then he likely gets stomped on or mauled, leaving what final truths had uncovered a mystery.

    If there were a glass of water around on a relatively stable surface, it would register more heavy footsteps approaching. From just over the crest of the hill, several tall, scaley beings with horned heads, and enormous claws, turn their eyes to the goings on below. Despite any fears that this might get even messier, though, they actually don't come any closer. Instead, they behave sort of like pets that won't come into a house that's suspected haunted, perhaps not caring much for the smell that the serum-tainted raiders and the Horror itself are wafting around the area. They will defend their nesting ground, if it absolutely comes to it, but it's a rare sight -- the concerned and cautious deathclaw.

    That leaves the immediate area free for examination. Inside the Creamery building, itself, traces of raider occupation would be easily found. A burned out campfire, with what looks to be a half-burned mole rat that they tried to cook. Other cans of food and other waste that they had discarded in the same building without concern on sanitation. And, of course, loads of different kinds of chems, most of it already consumed. In the safe, however, two still reasonably intact, but partly used, vials of the serum,
Danse That leaves the immediate area free for examination. Inside the Creamery building, itself, traces of raider occupation would be easily found. A burned out campfire, with what looks to be a half-burned mole rat that they tried to cook. Other cans of food and other waste that they had discarded in the same building without concern on sanitation. And, of course, loads of different kinds of chems, most of it already consumed. In the safe, however, two still reasonably intact, but partly used, vials of the serum, and among the two that were on the roof, two more. The one that the boss had used is completely drained and useless, though...he seemed to take more of it than the others.