Day 25: Down in the Hollow (Five Klicks)

From the Journal of Maya Ceros, Day 25.

    I don't know how they got into the caves. Another entrance, maybe? All I can say for sure is that they were crazy. Absolutely driven mad by something. Maybe something in the caves?

    The crystals clustered into the cave walls were red and resonant, glowing and disturbingly warm. I could tell just by looking at them that they were dangerous.

We were quick on our feet, moving fast through the cavern.

There were terminals in the cavern, portable computers carried down here long ago for some purpose I may never understand. The data in them seemed to be corrupted, unreadable.

I could hear them before we saw them, shouting and babbling in the darkness.

I saw Polybius rush into position, ready to take the fight to the enemy.

Kassandra and Dora were eager, checking consoles for something, anything that might be useful.

The consoles yielded nothing we could make sense of, but at least the corpse in the tunnels was gripping some useful chunk of scrap.

I heard more shouting, some sound like excitement, then more babbling.

And that was when I saw Polybius take a bullet to the face.

In seconds, they were among us, pointing their rusty guns at us.

I lost it. I think we all did. Nike was the first to shout, the first to fire, wounding the one who had put a bullet into our fallen friend.

Merlin's grenade went further than I think he intended, but it blew up right in the face of one of the scavs.

The one that had shot Polybius shrieked and ran, rushing back into cover.

I heard the bark of rifles, heard Sally's shout as she let bullets fly.

But it was Nike who pushed on faster and more aggressively than the rest of us.

With a shout, she advanced and dropped another scav before anyone else could move.

The sight of death startled another of the scavs into hiding almost immediately.

And then Kate put down another one, spraying him to the ground with her heavy machinegun.

Covered in bits of his fallen ally, one of the scavs broke and ran, sprinting back into the darkness.

The push came quick, everyone crowding together among the shadows.

The scavs threw themselves at us in one final push, but none of their rounds bit deep enough to drop any of us.

I feel almost ashamed to write this, but even as I pointed my machine pistol at the closest of the scavs, it only stuttered and jammed.

Fortunately, it's not the only weapon I carry.

Turning my SAW on the closest scav, I dropped him with a quick burst, and scared another of them into hiding.

Holding back, we let the scavs come to us.

And as they came at us, we cut another one of them down.

Knee deep in the dead, we gathered for the final push.

Holding back again, letting the enemy close up.

Letting them take their shots. . .

And then rushing in to obliterate the last of them.

When we rushed back to check on Polybius, the diagnoser Kate carries revealed the worst. He was in critical condition, near death. She did her best to stabilize him, but without a decent working knowledge of his unique physiology, she might have done more harm than good. Terrified that we were going to lose him, I ordered him bundled up in a preserver pack, but even Daedalus wasn't hopeful we could save him. In the end, he very nearly died. It was by the grace of his grit alone that he survived.

All told, the salvage was hardly worth the near loss of Polybius. None of the gear that the scavs had brought to bear was worth picking up, but in one corner, we did find a decent sniper rifle and some scrap.

*

Nike is MVP

All others gain +1 XP

6 AP spent on training.

Loot (1): Water Crystal

Special Module Loot: Upgraded Sharp-Shooter's Rifle

+2 Scrap for Settlement Event and for find on the battlefield.

Trade (5): Machine Pistol, Bipod, Scrap Cannon, Travel Ration, Wasteland Currency.

Convoy does not level up

Polybius leveled up! +1 to Initiative!

Recruit: A Rookie

Progress Toward finding Factory 17: 0 (1 of 3)

Big Jimmy prepares a dose of Sprawlwort to give Daedalus an advantage in fighting fish. He then goes in search of herbs and finds a patch of two herbs: Asafetida and Ash Valerian. One of these is an all new herb for Big Jimmy, so he adds it to his garden, bringing him to 11 herbs in total. He does not run into trouble.

Daedalus goes fishing and finds a Secret Spot with four fish he can try to catch. Fish 1: 6/3; Fish 2: 2/3; Fish 3: 6/2. Fish 4: 3/6; He attempts to catch Fish 1 and it nearly gets away before he hooks it. He tries to reel it in, but it breaks away and nearly escapes. He then hooks it again, and drags it in to shore. He then goes for Fish 2, fights it, and at the last minute, it breaks away and snaps his fishing pole. Feeling defeated, Daedalus packs up and heads back to camp. He does not run into trouble. At the very least, it's a good thing that Greene offers him one unit of scrap for his catch.

Henrietta goes in search of hogs to wrestle, but finds none. She does not run into trouble.