Underhive: Stacksburg

…arbled transmis…

jjackunrau — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:51:31 +0000

It’s been quiet recen…aven’t written much…ive quakes…rutes and Disciples traded some jabs a few weeks ago…Roelof singlehandedly captured two Redemptionists in a massive display of hand to hand prowess…promptly killed in the rescue…flaming corpse was worked on by the Brute medics but …ther clashes have included some shooto…Pan-Africanists routed…Decay…ave snazzy new coats.

Worki..new transmission point…more info…follow.

-KRJ

the other kind of ambush

jjackunrau — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:47:00 +0000

The Brutes wanted to plan their next attack on Decay very carefully. They’d scouted out an area and put the word out that two little Brutes were holed up behind the old precincthouse. OPh woe is them! It looked like a trap. It was a trap. The entire pack of smelly mangy disgusting Scavvies came to make an example of the two lone fighters, while Willem, Cornelus and the new guy positioned themselves to blast the horde with grenades as they funnelled through the narrow street.

Sadly for the Brutes, the mutants had some inside information about an impending power outage.

The lights went out and all Roloff could hear was shambling and wheezing. This wasn’t good. Willem couldn’t see anything but he tried to get close enough to blast away at the rear of the mob. No one up top could tell exactly who was who as they got closer. It was impossible to see if they were shooting zombies or fighters.

Willem let a grenade fly but overlooked an overhanging wire that caused it to skitter harmlessly away. Cornelus’ grenade found a target in the mob, taking one mutant down, scaring another, but doing absolutely nothing to the vanguard of zombies. A poor showing.

Decay dispersed and counter-attacked mercilessly. Zombies went after the fighters on the ground while gunfire was rained down on the two fighters on the roof next to them. Pym and The Sauce charged Willem, but The Sauce mistakenly believed Willem was a ghost and couldn’t move. Pym acquitted himself beautifully. No beautifully is the wrong word. It was a clumsy horrible fight, but in the end it was Pym who stood over a fallen body.

Derleth and Cassilda sprinted forward with zombie support to dispatch the two ground level fighters while everyone shot at Cornelus, taking him down. As they lurched out of the area in the blackness the shambling wheezing noises were joined by cackling..

-KRJ

quite bad blood

jjackunrau — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 05:09:00 +0000

The Furies were smarting over the loss of their (never once used, but sentimentally important) tunnels. They couldn’t find the mutants but the Brute Squad was easily locatable for a quick ambush.

As is so often the case, the Brutes were not fighting at full efficacy. Willem was sitting the battle out. He must have learned something about leading from afar from Brom. In any case the Furies backed the Brutes against a wall like pigs in a barrel. No wait, that’s a horrible simile. Meh.

The big problem Engill and the girls faced was one of ammunition. No one brought any. After the initial volley of fire, which dropped a couple Van Saars, three fighters were reduced to using strong language and Eldur’s bolt pistol had exploded. Cornelus was still standing but they’d scared off one of his companions. Cornelus turned to the tower that Notra was occupying with her heavy stubber and unleashed fiery death, dropping her easily. More return fire put two more Eschers on the ground and the ambush was looking like a really bad idea.

But just when all hope seemed lost, Engill managed to rally her troops. Shotgun shells and bolts of plasma raced through the gloom and the downed fighters staggered to their feet. Notra got shot again, as did Isa but not before they dispatched the few fighters lying on the ground with quick stabs. Cornelus got shot and there was no one left to fight. The Furies had emerged victorious.

In the aftermath Frode (one of the Brutes) died. Everyone else involved in the fight was bitter as hell. Grudges have been formed, not least of which is Fried, who was Frode’s twin brother. Vengeance has been sworn. And the violence can only increase.

-KRJ

delinquents

jjackunrau — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:53:00 +0000

The Furies have been trying to do that upstart young punk thing recently. Getting into fights for the hell of it and generally playing with the big boys. Yesterday they ran into Decay who were out prowling.

As seems to be usual, the Scavvies were accompanied by a handful of zombies. Furies got involved trying to gun them down right from the start but were ineffectual. On their other flank Pym and the midget known as The Sauce were spotted as they tried to get behind Notra, one of the Escher heavies. They were spotted by Isa and Eldur. Now, Isa and the Sauce have a history of epic battling. Once they spent an entire gang fight trading and dodging attacks on the roof of a warehouse. This time Isa tried to gun him down, but even though her shotgun blast hit, the Sauce kept on coming. He charged Eldur and Pym, his trusty sidekick, charged Isa. The secondary players were quickly dispatched and the real fight began.

And ended with a quick mutant victory.

Up above that fight, Notra had opened up on two sprinting Scavvies, Derleth and Cassilda, but only hit one. Derleth ran and dove behind cover, doubting he’d be so lucky again. While he hunkered down behind a ferrosteel barrier, encouraging Cassilda to get over there with him, he heard that noise that only an angry dwarf makes when he’s launching himself up and over a ladder at a heavy whose back is turned. The Sauce made quick work of her and the Furies decided to retreat. Their flank had been rolled and they were about to face a huge mass of mutants that hadn’t even been touched. It wasn’t a difficult choice.

The victory was quick and decisive for Decay and they proceeded to stomp through all of the Furies neglected tunnels, smashing and destroying the access points one by one. You can tell which ones the Sauce did by the graffiti: Little Guy, Huge Cock

-KRJ

oddity

jjackunrau — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 01:55:00 +0000

There’s a weird rumour going around these days. They say a secret team from uphive is working in the Beanstalk site, back on the mass elevator project. Now with Decay throwing their (its? Are they trying to say they’re all one organism with that verb for a name? I know it’s a noun too, but geez, talk about pretentious for a bunch of sewer living degenerates) weight around you’d think that they’d be all over smashing up those softies with their shiny equipment and stuff. They don’t seem to mind fighting anyone else down here, contributing to their eponymous condition.

But the people who’ve seen the surveyors (or who’ve heard of people who’ve seen the surveyors or further down the chain) say that they’ve gone completely unmolested by the Scavvies. While the Guilders must be happy about that it seems odd. Wrong somehow. I’m going to try learn more.

-KRJ

fubar

jjackunrau — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:01:00 +0000

With the Brute Squad is back on the street, they decided their best course of action would be to attack the new gang that had been throwing its weight around, Decay. A blitz on the mutant territory seemed in order.

Now Decay’s leader, the Carcosan, is accompanied by a pack of zombies that he seems to control. This makes it hard to get close on something like this as zombies seem to be able to scent humans and their delicious brains quite easily. Nevertheless the Brutes set up to attack the water still the mutants had placed. They were in excellent position and you could tell that it would be an easy in, blast and leave. Cornelus pictured the surgical precision in his mind and it was very satisfying. Quick, too. But reality had other plans.

Brutes moved in on zombies right away to get them out of the picture, clearing the path for the assault proper. Two batches of fire missed, leaving a pair of zombies uncomfortably close to their gangers. This wouldn’t be a problem since Cornelus had a clear shot to the still and the Brutes would be gone before the zombies even had a chance to react. Bullets were unleashed and sparks flew, but the still was much tougher than it had been in Cornelus’ mental dry run.

At this point the Scavvies saw what was going on and tried to defend one of their only functional bits of technology. Two zombies lurched into combat while one got into Cornelus’ path, blocking his line of fire.

The Brutes easily dispatched the undead shamblers in combat but the distraction zombie proved more elusive. A web pistol missed its shot and two more gangsters had to unload on it before bringing it down, opening the lane for Cornelus. Who again did not destroy the still.

This was not how it was supposed to happen. Scavvy reinforcements arrived. Noah and MiGo (the Scaly mutant) marched on and clobbered the two Van Saars who’d cleared the distraction zombie out of the way. Pickman, the three armed man with the archaeotech pistol shot Cornelus down from the tower he’d been shooting from. The Brute heavy had recently managed to find a grav chute so was unhurt by the fall, though he was completely exposed to more fire.

At this point the Brute Squad realized they had to change tactics. Willem and Fried began firing at the still with their bolt pistols, hoping to damage it so they could escape. Another ganger ran to help his friends who were being attacked by the Scaly, but he was too late.

Noah attacked the webpistol ganger, easily taking him out, while the Carcosan himself shot down the juve that was assisting Willem in the still assault. More reinforcements arrived in the form of Derleth and Cassilda and they sprinted after Willem to try and intercept him before the damage would be done. Cornelus lay on the ground getting shot from multiple directions but hanging in there with an inordinate amount of light wounds.

Willem tried again to shoot down the still. He could hear the zombie crawling under a massive pipe for him as well as see the shots being fired from the roof of the building. He’d already been hit twice and didn’t know how long he could hold out. This had all gone so horribly wrong.

Cornelus was finally taken out of action by Pickman, with a lot of support. Derleth and Cassilda charged Willem and with a swing of his new power sword dropped the Van Saar leader to the ground. Decay packed up and moved on, taking only a ganger named Frode. When Frode was quickly ransomed back, he carried a message: “Brom’s Widows’ future is nothing but destruction and Decay.

-KRJ

opportunistic showdown

jjackunrau — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:28:00 +0000

The Pan-Africanists were looking for a fight they could win. When four of their gang happened upon two Scavvies wandering the streets, it looked like they were in for a good time. There was a tense standoff as the gangsters slowly approached each other. Eventually the pan-africanists broke for their guns first.

Derleth, one of the Scavvies squeezed off a shot from his stubgun, dropping a Van Saar immediately. Then the PAs opened up on the two men. Three shots on two guys usually means a fight is over, especially at that range. Surprisingly to the Van Saars the two mutants dropped to the ground bloody but weren’t letting their blood leak out just yet. Their courage wavered; one of their numbers had already fallen, but no, they could take care of two shabby men. They were just men after all. The mutants stood up to faced more fire.

This time the heavy unloaded his heavy stubber at the two men, but only one was dropped bleeding. More gunshots were ineffectual. One Scavvy was on the ground and the other was ready to fight back. Seeing the resilience of this one fighter broke the Pan-Africanists. They ran, squandering their advantage and letting the Stacks see their shame.

-KRJ

vengeance quest

jjackunrau — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:17:00 +0000

Now I mentioned that the Pan-Africanists are poor, right? Evidently they didn’t have a tonne to deal with the Brutes for their captured gangster, so a rescue was initiated.

Kwame Nkrumah, the PA leader seems to despise Cornelus. I don’t know why. But as the rescue attempt opened, while the rest of the gang was hiding and sneaking up to the tower where Selassie was being held, he was on the other side of the battlefield lying in wait for the Brute heavy. Ostensibly this could have been a good plan. Cornelus on the high ground is a horrible thing to deal with. So out of the darkness, with the element of surprise Nkrumah attacked.

Sometimes things just go wrong. Swordplay was helping Nkrumah against the (admittedly effective) fighter who was burdened with a heavy bolter. And then he pushed too hard. An overcommitment on the final killing lunge gave Cornelus an opening he had to take, and he smashed Nkrumah hard, taking him out of the fight. This sounded the alarm and the rest of the Pan-Africanists were shot by the sentries in other areas. No one even got close to rescuing their juve and they slunk off.

Even though the PAs scraped together enough cash to ransom back their fighter eventually there’s now even more bad blood between these rival gangs from the same house.

-KRJ

the vultures are beaten back

jjackunrau — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:58:00 +0000

Since I missed Brom’s death I felt I had to do something. Lots of people were feeling the same way. He was a big badass who wasn’t afraid of zombies or flame or skittering darkness. Willem became the leader of the Brutes and immediately withdrew into the HQ. Sure, the gang was making appearances to collect from their businesses, but they weren’t wandering the streets looking for trouble. They seemed weak. And the scavvies took advantage.

Decay has been terrorizing Stacksburg. They maraud and steal and generally harass any civilian they can find, and then melt away when a gangster tries to stand up for them. It’s despicable. People were getting demoralized, and the lack of comment from anyone in the Brute Squad wasn’t helping. It was like everyone had just been abandoned.

So I decided they needed to throw a party.

Willem and I argued about it a bit but it was important for people to, if not actually see Brom laid to rest, to celebrate what he meant. Finally Willem agreed. We set up in Bugs’, sealed up the hole in the roof and proceeded to reminisce with a few dozen civilian representatives.

And then the Pan-Africanists struck. They hadn’t been seen since they beat up the Furies a while back. Now this gang has had some serious problems. Back in the day Jomo Kenyatta was kidnapped and sold into slavery and I don’t think they ever really recovered. They’re poor and for the most part not very effective fighters. There’s a lot of envy there for the Van Saars who are almost the exact opposite I guess.

In any case, the PAs tried to take out the sentries that had been posted around the party, with their leader sitting out. They struck from cover but were spotted by eagle-eyed Frode. Shots were fired a grenade was thrown and everyone had ducked for cover. Willem bolted out of the bar while Cornelus tried to fight his way through the crowded party. The Pan-Africanist heavy was covering the main exit and Willem showed his different approach from Brom. He grabbed a party-goer for use as a human shield against stubber fire which proved ineffective. The fire proved ineffective I mean.

The young pan-africanists did their best to injure the sentries but when one of them got webbed and the heavy was out of ammunition, they decided to run. The party had been disrupted so if that was their only goal I guess they succeeded. It was a shame to see them attack a party though.

Happily, it seems like this shook Willem out of his shell and means the Brutes will be back on the streets. The webbed PA was brought back to Brute HQ for safe keeping.

-KRJ

brom’s death

jjackunrau — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:46:00 +0000

Okay, so the story seems to be that a few weeks ago the Brute Squad was ambushed by four other gangs in an attempt to seize the streets for themselves. Three bunches of Outlaws (Decay, the Claws of Ra’Gesh and the Disciples) and the Furies all converged on the Brutes. Evidently Brom made a miscalculation while charging the flamer equipped crusaders and ended up exposed to fire from one of the cultists. He was horribly injured and the fighting continued. When the Brutes realized Brom was down for real, they bolted. From there everyone else also ran until the Rats and the mutants were the only ones left on the field of battle. They both slunk back into their respective darknesses, mission accomplished.

Back at the Brute HQ, the medics were frantically working on their dear leader. Things were going poorly, massive internal injuries, 1st degree burns to his arms and torso, the whole deal. Supposedly all you could hear was Willem cursing while the new gangers kept everyone backed off.

In the end, they couldn’t save him. And the Stacks lost a hero.

And I wasn’t around to get the story right.

-KRJ