Aftermath of a Light Rain - History Group 1

Invasion

After returning from a tour of duty in Egypt Peg Leg Pete was pleasantly surprised to find himself promoted to Captain. During the celebration Pete was getting excessively Lap Danced at Mons Venus, when entire squad had their pagers go off simultaneously. All at once all of the servicemen (most of the patrons) started to leave the club.

The exodus was punctuated by orbital lasers evaporating entire blocks. One of these blasts struck to near to the squad's AV. The concussive force tossed the AV into a building and then down into the roadway. After making their way down to visual range with the base only to see it being peppered with orbital lasers.

Deciding "discretion's good" they ducked into a gun store where they convinced the owner that they were entitled to armaments. Then they darted over to an Military Surplus store where they found a body shredded by exploding glass. They equipped themselves as best they could and holed up until the orbital bombardment ceased.

After the bombardment ceased a unidentified drop ship flew over the base and dropped ~70 power armored troopers. The armors were not any the squad had heard of. The Armors radiated consistent heat and didn't use thrusters to fly. Two units quickly came up the road peppering the strip malls with arm mounted lasers. They didn't find the squad.

After laying low for a few hours the squad made their way to a scuba shop where they equipped themselves with a set of artificial gills. While attempting to slip into the water they were discovered by a roving Powerarmor Rick was badly shocked but managed to get to the water. Once they were in the water they swam around and approached MacDill from the bay.

Led by Avery they snuck to the repair facility where they took possession of their Powerarmor. But not before some tense moments including a base the size of a large office building landed at MacDill. They did their best job to water proof the PAs and launched for the Bay. Not surprisingly the garnered the attention of a couple of troopers who they exchanged a few shots with including a lucky one by Rick Landry that detonated the Powerplant of one of the troopers. The squad again lost their tail by diving deep. They regrouped in central Florida where they are still discussing what to do.

After deliberation the squad decided to head to //pointer// via the swamps. Along the way they came upon a small saucer. The Captain gave the order to take it out and //roman// destroyed it in a single shot. The squad then dug in to watch the ramifications of their actions. About ten minutes later three enemy powerarmors flew in and reconed the area. They searched the area and released a new saucer. After about fifteen minutes they left heading the way they came in.

After enemy armors had left Avery led the troop as stealthily as possible around the drone. By nightfall they reached the edge of //pointer//. Before proceeding the squad decided to camp for the night. About an hour after a majority of the squad had gone to sleep two enemy powerarmors were spotted by the Capt. and //roman// who were on guard. The Capt gave the order and //roman// woke the squad while he rolled to the left and began the engagement. A minute and half later one of the enemy powerarmors was vaporized and a second shutdown intact. The captain and Avery took some armor damage but otherwise were intact.

The enemy pilot was extracted from his suit and was found to be red with green hair. After the pilot refused to answer any questions, he was knocked unconscious bound, gagged and hung from a tree. A leg, being determined as one of the sources of thrusterless flight was hacked off, and the rest of the suit was thoroughly destroyed by X-ray lasers. In the aftermath of the battle the squad watched the powerarmor heal it's wounds. Over the next day or so the leg was determined to definitely contain biological components. The squad dug in and waited. Right on schedule a squad of seven enemy powerarmors flew into the area. Three did aerial searches, three did ground searches, and the last went directly to the bound soldier and freed him and was performing field medicine. After about an hour and a half they powerarmors left empty-handed.

The squad stayed hidden for the rest of the night and at first light continued their trip towards //pointer//. Once there Pete, //roman//, and Avery went into town on foot. The town was in relatively good shape, no buildings were destroyed, but there was evidence of small and large arms fire. There were two saucers floating above the city. People were clearly trying to avoid being outside. They moved quickly if they had to move, most carried some sort of hunting type weapon. The center of the limited amount of activity was centered around what was city hall.

The recon team stopped at the first occupied house they came to and knocked on the door. The person inside was less then hospitable and never let the team in but they did tell the team some information. Whenever anyone shoots down the saucers powerarmors come and their are reprisals, the local constable died this way. They also learned of a truck stop 15 miles up the road.

The squad headed for the truck stop by dead reconing, they manage to find the place after five or six hours of travel. Pete and //roman// entered while the rest of the squad took up positions around the truck stop. The inside looked like it had been hit by a small riot. There were about a dozen dead bodies littered around the facility. Pete and //roman// headed to the garage where sounds of work could be heard. On the way //roman// heard the sounds of someone in the ventilation system. Popping his head and weapon into one of the ducts he saw a kid scrambling for its life. Attempts to calm it down or get it to come out failed.

Meanwhile Pete entered the garage to find Henry Wallace pointing a gun at him. When faced with a powerarmor Henry immediately dropped his gun, stepped back and raised his hands in surrender. Pete identified himself and Henry was much relieved.

Over the next six hours the squad did several things, they repaired the armor damage to the various powerarmors and recharged all the powercells. They also scavenged the truck stop for food, alcohol (and other tradable items), ebooks, etc. They gained another eight days of food plus 14 ebooks (2 w/audio/video recording capability). They equivalent of three bottles of vodka, two bottles of rum, 2 bottles of whiskey, and case of mixed beer were found mostly in half drunk bottles, and little shot bottles. Three cases of cigarettes, $600 cash, plus 2 nice watches and three good pieces of jewelry.

Henry decided to join them (driving his 18 wheeler) and they headed north never having found the kid, despite their best efforts. Their were saucers every 10 miles of so, the squad carefully avoided being on the road while the saucers were, which made for slow moving but eventually they made it close to Haines City where squads sensors lit up like the fourth of July.

There were at least 15 powerarmors up ahead at Haines City. The squad stopped the column and had Henry play dead while hiding in the woods themselves. After a few minutes the squad picked up a broadcast. "Earthlings, I am fourth commander Strall. The First Commander has charged me with securing this peninsula. Your military is crippled, and you have no defense against our army. Stay inside and you won't be harmed. Anyone found outside or engaging in subversive activities will be killed. Anyone disobeying an order given by a Glaudi will be killed. Glaudi will be coming to register you. They will be confiscating all contraband. Anyone not complying will be killed." The broadcast continually broadcasts the same message.

After a while a mini-van full of an eclectic collection people headed North past the squad directly in to Haines City where they were stopped and spent and hour in a small building before being allowed to enter Haines City. They were not allowed back in their vehicle. A little while later a truck came barreling up the road. The truck ignored orders to halt and was destroyed.

Deciding they couldn't make it through with the truck they gave their best advice to Henry then headed South before circling back up to the north. And that's the state of things as this episode comes to a close.

The squad broke camp in the morning. They circled around to the east skillfully avoiding Haines City. Traveling on foot and away from the roads they headed North avoiding sensor drones and alien patrols.

Come nightfall they found a secluded and hidden place to camp for the night. During the first watch Jacob Knight sees a man approaching. He is painfully thin, his hair is very light blonde, almost white. He's in his late twenties, and his clothes are in rags. In his left hand is a .22, in his right is a rod about 12 inches long at the end are two four inch protrusions with glowing lights

He walked right up to Knight. When he was a few paces away Knight grabbed him. He uses the device in right hand waving it around Knight, then grunts. When Knight wakes the rest of the squad he treats them similarly.

When there is no one else left he noticed he was being held from leaving he turned and tried to shoot Knight (in his powerarmor), however he seemed to be out of bullets. He threw his gun to the ground and tried to stamp on it but he was being held off the ground.

Eventually his face was unclamped and he was allowed to talk. During the conversation it became clear that he's stark raving mad, it also becomes clear that his name is Murdock. He appears to be searching for some mysterious "noise" that's keeping him from doing his work.

He believes himself to be "disciple" of the Great Gustav, who might be the worlds expert on psychic phenomena. It is also possible that Murdock performed some unsafe experiments to re-route his neural pathways, possibly to increase his "PA." What is clear is that this "noise" is driving him to distraction and he can't redeem himself to the Great Gustav unless he can do his work. So for the last five days he's walked through the woods using his sensor seeking the source of the noise to kill it. Yes with an unloaded .22. He seems completely unaware that the world has been invaded, however the noise coincides with the invasion date.

The squad decides to see where this noise hunt will lead. They follow Murdock as he heads West by Northwest. After about half of a nights travel Murdock collapses due to lack of food and sleep. \\George\\ sets him up with an IV and Murdock sleeps until Pete wakes him up 12 hours later. The squad has another talk with Murdock. They convince Murdock to head North to try and triangulate the position.

The Squad head North up to I10 where they feel they need to replenish their power supply before continuing. A gas station is found in a relatively secluded spot. \\Roman\\ and Avery approach the gas station and their hails are replied to with low muffled sounds. When Roman and Avery get close enough to look through the glass they see an man in his 60s. He's missing an arm and a leg and he's bleeding to death. Roman sends Avery to make sure the area is clear while he tries to find out what happened. The only coherent word that he gets out of the old man, before he dies, is "gang."

\\Roman\\ calls in the rest of the squad who conceal their Powerarmors in the repair bays. \\George\\ questions \\Roman\\'s failure to try and save the old man. Voices are raised and it looks like it's going to turn ugly before the Captain intervenes and separates them. \\Roman\\ is sent on guard duty, and \\George\\ is told to take care of the body. The battery charger is set up and the squad begins to recharge the batteries.

Outside while \\Roman\\ walks off is disgust he notices about 12 incoming motorcycles. Everyone is alerted and hidden as the cycles approach. They park their bikes like seem to think they own the place. When they see either the body or the shroud they draw weapons.

The squad deploys themselves and the gang follows orders to drop their weapons, get against the wall hands behind their heads, etc. Inventory of their possessions include: 12 medium to heavy handguns (about 360 rounds), 2 shotguns (50 rounds), 14 minelets (like the devices used to blow the limbs off the old man), really disgusting spare sets of clothes and sleeping bags, and a very limited food supply. In the end the squad also scavenged the batteries from the motorcycles.

\\Roman\\ is uncomfortable of the idea of military justice on American soil and tries to see if any of them committed or participated is this crime against their will. They all claim they did and it was someone else's idea, etc. In the end Avery executes them as he only known agents of law during a time of martial law.

The squad again turns North through the woods and into the swamp. They find Gomer's Bait and Tackle shop where they trade 20 shotguns shells and a handgun for the location of Billy Joe's skiff repair shop and a 6-pack of bad beer. Finding Billy Joe they traded the use of his facility for a week for a shotgun, rest of the shotgun ammo, and the motorcycle batteries.

During the intervening week the paladins had their X-ray lasers crosslinked. They also noticed that their alien powerarmor leg was dying like a wilting flower. \\George\\ tried several solutions that would normally revive plants but they didn't have much of an effect. After their stopover the squad continues North.

Eventually they get far enough North to triangulate Murdocks noise. Given the 2-3 degree error of Murdocks device it ends up being about 115 miles north of where they originally took a reading. The source is about 2300 miles West by Northwest putting it right in the middle of Oregon, not near to anything of any apparent value. Murdock has great trouble with this, the word inconceivable is used.

The squad continues North towards Atlanta. In their travels they encounter a new sort alien base. It has 4 four story towers surrounding a central cylinder/dome that's two or three stories tall. Some sort of shimmering field surrounds it.

While circling West of Macon the squad fails to hide from seven alien powerarmors. The squad is initially very successful until the aliens deploy a laser diffusing smoke screen. Eventually they move out of the cloud. By this time their are only four of them only three that can fly. They surge forward and attempt to grapple the Captain, Landry, and \\George\\. \\George\\ manages to dodge but the other two targets are grappled. They one facing \\George\\ is quickly destroyed. The remaining two detonate their powerplants.

The Captain is killed and Landry's Paladin is heavily damaged. The remaining alien powerarmor is hunted down and killed like the dog it is. Murdock (who never noticed the battle) is gathered up and the squad moves out of the combat area. As the credits roll the squad is hiding in a pond waiting for the search to pass.

The episode opens with the squad having moved North and West towards Atlanta. Jacob Knight remembered that parts of the Paladin are produced in a factory in the Atlanta Economic Zone. The squad found an abandoned house that is still part of the powergrid. Pete Jury rigged the power system so that it wouldn't be clear where the power drain was coming from.

Pete, Knight and Avery Jones headed into the city on foot. Their target was a full days hike the from the "safe" house. When they reached an area need to the Atlanta Beltway they started to see alien troopers. They would operate in two's and just scan the road. The squad would try to avoid them looking for a safe way into the city. Before they found a way the pair of alien soldier saw them and ordered them in to answer some questions. The squad did they're best to act like servile victims of the holocaust. When it became clear that the squad didn't have any "papers" the were gruffly told to go to town hall to be registered. Then they were simply let to go their way.

After marching most of the day, utilizing a slightly wrong course so they would always be heading sort of kinda in the direction of town hall, they came to where the factory was located. It seemed to be occupied by aliens. Avery was sent to scout around to see what could be found. He returned several hours later. It seems the factory has been taken over by the aliens, no humans entered the place. Avery also discovered that the area had a thriving under ground city. There were several distinct subterranean apartment complexes. That's where most of the locals lived and were holed up.

The squad headed underground Into what was essentially a metro station. The station was full of the homeless and miserable. Some people were heading down the tunnels on foot. The squad made their way to the apartment complex. The Lobby was cramped with the injured, sick, and dying. Off of the lobby was an area where people were moving with purpose vs meandering around because they didn't know what else to do. In a room that at one point was probably a room that was rented out for receptions, but now served as an emergency hospital, doctors worked to try and save lives.

Dr. Jacob Knight volunteered his services. He was quickly set up with table and patient who was caught in a cave-in. While Knight was busy operating, Pete found the man who seemed to running this operation, Pete, feigning ignorance, asked to directed to someone who brief him about the current situation. He was directed to the corner and a man named Fitz Jones. Jones was helpful and told Pete that aliens come in multiple colors: Red (soldiers), blue, pink, gray, green, albino. Apparently the aliens are pretty unconcerned about humankind. Registration consists of little more than them taking your name. They usually only bother the humans if they want something with the real-estate they are occupying.

Pete maintained the guise of Florida native who was caught in the country when the invasion hit throughout he conversation. Afterwards he conferred with his comrades and decided to trust Jones. Pete rejoined Jones and told him that he wanted to get into the Paladin factory. After several moments of consideration, Jones said he knew of no way in but if anyone did it was Joseph Griffin. He practically designed the factory, he'd been seen in the tunnels but not in the last couple of days. Pete, and Avery work the crowd to see if they can find Griffin. Eventually they hear a rumor that he was seen down the South tunnel in pretty bad shape.

When Pete and Avery find him he's wrapped in a blanket huddled around a fire and shaking uncontrollably. His respiration is ragged and punctuated meaningfully with noisy, wet coughs. Avery goes back to the hospital to collect Knight. After an exam Knight's best guess is that, however unlikely, Griffin appears to be suffering from an advanced case of bubonic plague. Knight hopes it hasn't turned pneumonic, and immediately shoots up everyone with streptomycin. He also does his best to re-hydrate, and make Griffin comfortable.

After a brief debate they informed the local hospital throwing fear into the hearts of the doctors. Griffin is quickly relocated to a building outside of the tunnels. The bad news is according to him he never left the tunnels. He was also able to tell the squad about an air duct that leads from the tunnels to the factory. After a brief detour to chemist to redope their needler darts with something a little deadlier, the squad heads towards where the air duct is supposed to be.

Avery takes the lead and shimmies up the airshaft. Then drops a rope for the rest to follow. When the coast is clear the squad enters the warehouse section of the factory. Unfortunately Pete's one good foot gets stuck on something and he falls. The squad quickly scrambled to find hiding places, despite questionable luck in hiding the tree guards that came to investigate leave without seeing the squad. They do a quick search and locate armor plating and a sensor array that they lower down the shaft. They cannibalize a couple of sensor arrays to work as spy cameras. Avery places them around the factory then the squad tidies up and slips back down the shaft.

They spend the next day watching the factory. In the warehouse are three guards. The production area of the factory has been demolished all the recognizable human equipment has been piled into a corner. There is a huge lattice suspended from the ceiling. Hanging from the lattice is some 200 pods. The room is covered by alien organic machinery. The room is occupied by three reds, six gray, and 1 albino aliens. Every 20 minutes six of the pods mature and split open depositing a slime covered but perfectly fine alien powerarmor. Reds with green hair come and collect these powerarmors and take them away.

After nightfall the squad enter the factory and catching and setout to ambush a guard unfortunately the guard notices and counter attacks. Eventually they manage to kill the guard but it was a very lucky shot that got through the alien armor. The guards two compatriots join the fray and are dispatched by biotoxin and usurped alien sidearm, but not before Avery's chest is destroyed, and Avery killed.

Running to the main area of the factory they engage the aliens. The only aliens to fight back are the reds the rest move quickly but without panic to the edge of the room to avoid the crossfire. The reds were dispatched but not before Pete lost his peg leg and Knight lost his real leg. Crawling into just hatched powerarmors, they found themselves able to operate by thought it took some effort to discipline the mind to properly control the powerarmor. Another two troopers came in and started emptying clips into the chest of Pete's liberated powerarmor. As soon as he got the hang of it Pete turned the troopers into fine pink mist. Knight was having more trouble getting the hang of controlling the powerarmor.

A couple of powerarmors then came into join the fray Pete and towards the end Knight managed to destroy them. Pete switched armors, then both Pete and Knight picked up a spare suit a piece and they flew towards the suburbs. Along the way they had to fight two more powerarmors but eventually made it to a house they could lay low in. After several hours the buzz of patrols died down. As the credits roll the squad rendezvoused with their other members a suitably paranoid manner..

As the episode opens the squad finds themselves holed up in a safe house with a pair of legless members. Peg Leg Pete and Jacob Knight both lost their legs last episode while Pete only actually lost his peg leg, Knight lost the real flesh and blood thing and is in considerable pain. //roman// and Rick Landry went on a scavenging mission to a local hospital. Then came back with a couple of peg legs as well as a cyberleg that is Knights size.

The squad planned to wait several days for Knight to heal. In the interim time Pete started to mess with the broken Lightening Cannon on one of the liberated alien powerarmors and was surprised to find it fixed. The armor damage also seemed to have been greatly reduce from when he first inspected the damage.

After Knight was healed, Knight and Pete went back into to meet with Fitz Jones. After hobbling their way back into to town and meeting up with Jones again they offered to leave him their four Paladin's. As well as passing along tactical information about the liberated powerarmors. Jones asks for a day to gather a couple of pilots and a guide the get the squad and the new pilot out of town to where the Paladins are stashed.

Their native guide suggests that the best way our of town is to take the sewers to the purification plant, and from their head out under the cover of the river. All goes well until just passed the area that is usually outer edge of the patrol area. The squad notices a bit of "tape" on the wall about halfway between the floor and ceiling. They decide to risk the surface instead of passing between it. The native guide goes up and recons. It takes several hours before he thinks it's a good for the squad to proceed but they do and they make it to the safe house without incident.

When they are ready the squad suits up and circle around to the South West of Atlanta before Heading to the Northwest following Murdock's signal. About 70 miles west of the city they encounter a pair of Alien Assault Powerarmors (which the squad has taken to calling Furies) In a short fight the aliens are quickly dispatched. The squad grabs the remains of one of the aliens and his powerarmor then they find hiding places. Soon six Alien command armors each backed by two Furies search the area. They search for about two hours and then leave as quickly as they came, taking the downed equipment with them.

A field autopsy is performed and the aliens are found to be almost exactly human. Their hair and skin are colored by a natural dye. This dye is made by the hair follicles when stimulated by a gland on the back of the neck. As humans skin turns tan when exposed to sunlight, a similar process turns the alien skin red. Otherwise there doesn't appear to be a radical differences. The squad put Murdock in the shutdown powerarmor.

When the autopsy was done the squad was on their way again. They manage to travel for almost five hours before they were spotted again. This time it's a command armor and three Furies that spots them. The squad concentrates all fire on the command armor which battles valiantly. At one point losing it's lightning cannon due to lucky shot by Knight. At that point in closed with Pete popping an energy sword and shield from it's arms. The command armor was eventually destroyed but not before critically damaging the leg on the Pete's powerarmor. The three Furies soon followed their leader to the grave. The squad scrambles for cover and find a place to hide. When the search team arrives composed of three groups of three. They spend two hours searching and leave without discovering the squad.

Pete and Knight perform some immediate resuscitation on the let of Pete's powerarmor. and get it to start healing again. A similar process is used to get Murdock's armor back online. The squad was planning to wait five days before continuing on their trip but on the night of the third day while Pete and Landry are on watch. They both have mental hiccup, when they become undazed they notice that Murdock is missing. They rouse the others and follow a trail a baby could file for about half a mile before coming upon his dead body. To apparent cause of death. Another field autopsy indicates that he died of a massive stroke. He is given a proper burial.

on top of his pack is a letter written in an oddly coherent manner. In effect it admits to being crazy and not capable of dealing with the intricate situation that the large psychic source suggests. He recommends that before the squad confronts the situation they should find David Gustav. Included in the letter are two addresses for Gustav one at MIT and one in the 10,000 Islands East of Lake Ontario. Murdock also had a journal but it wasn't coherent. The only other thing he had of note was his sensor which still indicates the presence of a large phenomena to the Northwest.

The squad heads North deciding cross into Canada swing around to the East coming onto the 10,000 Islands from the North. Along the way they encounter a craft about the size of a house with five Furies and one command armor as escorts. The command armor and two Furies break off and head for the squad. The fight is joined and the squad quickly gains the upperhand. The remaining three furies are sent into the fray. They arrive just as the last of their comrades are destroyed. As the last of the Furies fall the large ship fires its spinally mounted cannon at Landry and then Pete. Both manage to easily avoid the gun. Before the gun is able to fire a third time the squad managed to get underneath the craft.

They easily cut through the side door. Once inside they cut through the most forward hatch and found the cockpit with two pilots who were cut down like so much fodder. The fore of the craft also contained a room with a chair and a kitchenette. The rear of the craft contained two storage rooms and bus style passengers compartment. In the compartment were 10 aliens with differing skin and hair colors (one blue skinned greenhead, one pink skinned greenhead, two red skinned redheads, two gray skinned redheads, two albino redheads, and two green skinned greenhead aliens.)

The two red skinned immediately pulled their guns a began firing Knight immediately cut them down, followed by all but the blue skinned, and pink skinned alien. He tried to question them quckly and managed to get that the blue skinned alien was a Waedrus which translates roughly to military governor. The pink skinned alien was a Lorad who is a leader. Who's in charge depends on whether it is a time of war or a time of peace. Earth was invaded to "quell aggression" Knight picked the two of them up and they began to flee the site.

A couple of patrols began vectoring in on Knight. He dropped the Waedrus but were still being vectored in on. He dropped the Lorad next. The patrol hesitated a moment then started heading to where the Lorad was dropped. The squad found a place to hide and wait out the search just as the credits were beginning to roll.