3.4 A retirement plan for true leaders
The roar of combustion engines fills the air. You stand up and look in the direction of the incoming pack of mechanical beasts. The dirty and outright filthy savage contraptions draw ever closer as you wave your hand in their direction and shout.
A small pickup truck is among them, its body is covered in metal sheets which was most likely added to protect the passengers and driver from bullets. Either that or it is some kind of tribal vehicular ornamentation, possibly a symbol of fertility meant to attract the females. You never know with savages, they always had odd custom design choices for their vehicles.
At the very least you know they have noticed you, that is the good part. The bad part is that the motorized mob of smelly natives, dressed in patchwork clothing that somewhat resembles military camouflage, is pointing their guns in your direction. The pickup truck stops and a fairly large man comes out of it, his face is covered is scars.
“What do we have here?” The scarred man asks with a grin on his face. “A lone traveler out in the ruins?” He adds.
“It’s dangerous out here don’t you know?” Another savage starts talking, this one carries a rather large shotgun. “Bandits roaming around the area, mutated beasts, the occasional tax collector…”
So which one of them are they?
“Ah, you’re not as dumb as you look. At the very least you know better than to try to fight.” The scarred one says while pointing at the other talkative barbarian. “Check him for weapons.”
All their guns are still pointed at you, you kind of got used to this sort of thing over the years. The savage approaches, he smells so awful you want to puke on him but considering the gun he’s holding that may not be a very good idea.
“Well well, what is this?” He says with excitement as he grabs you laspistol after frisking you. “Looks fancy doesn’t it guys?” He shows it off to the rest of the biker gang.
“Tie him up. The boss will want to see this.”
They put a sack or rag over your head and tie you up. All you can hear is the sound of engines starting, the pack moves out in an unknown direction.
*
The convoy has stopped, from what you can tell the ride wasn’t particularly long. You are being dragged somewhere. Finally they take off the filthy bag off your head. The scarred savage is watching you closely as he grips his pistol ready to shoot you, should you do something suspicious.
Before you is a crude desk, behind it an older man with a face you think you saw somewhere. You seem to be in some kind of tent or other simple shelter. You can also see a map pinned to some kind of wooden board and what looks like a trophy.
A very familiar trophy at that, a reptilian skull exposed as if it was some kind of holy relic. Was it one of those Lemurian chimeras?
“You are familiar with those beasts?” The man behind the desk asks with an all too familiar accent.
You now know who he is. General Hector Pariakis, retiring amongst the natives in the wilds? The scarred savage is confused, it doesn’t look like he knows what you just said or in what language.
“Ah you are a fellow citizen and I see you have heard of me.” He replies in atlantean. Tell me, what do they call me back in the homeparallel now? The worst traitor to Civilization ever since the last of the machine-thralls was killed?”
More or less that is what they call him. Still you do wonder, why did he do what he did? Did the Chairman or one of the major factions refuse to give him more power or money? As a general he should have already had tons of it…
“You fool!” He shouts furiously, clearly you must have struck a nerve. “Do you honestly think it was all about money and power?! No, I wanted to fight a plague that was corrupting our society.”
Somehow you think this will be a long speech, you remain silent letting him continue.
“Atlantis is civilization, the apex of human society. Outside of it lies only barbarism. Is that not what they taught us? Are those not the opening words of the Articles of Civilization?”
You nod your head in agreement.
"Do you know what I wanted to do? I wanted to protect that, after all that is the oath I took when I put on this uniform. To protect the citizens against our enemies. But they wouldn't let me."
The former general picks up the skull trophy. "Do you know what this is?” He asks as he presents the skull to you.
You feign ignorance.
“This is what they don’t want you to know about. Evidence of the inconvenient truth. That somewhere out there, beyond the dominion parallels, exist powers that could possibly destroy us in a direct confrontation.”
The scarred savage continues staring like an idiot at the two of you, completely baffled as to what his “leader” is talking about. Hector ignores him and continues his tirade.
“We have time, not a whole lot of it, maybe a decade or two. Expanding from parallel to parallel takes time.” Hector continues. “We had more, I wanted to use that. Have every citizen trained in combat, guerilla warfare and sabotage as part of citizen militias. Have the best trained as militia officers waiting to take command when the day comes, have massive networks of orbital and ground defenses around key industrial and military sites. Far more than the token defenses we still had when I was forced to run.” He pauses.
“But the Chairman and his band of sycophants said the plan I presented to them is insane. Too costly, the rich families would object to having their sons serve at least 2 years in the army or fleet. And the idea of women in the army, trained to kill like men at that? Preposterous, blasphemous even.”
So that’s why he and the others staged the coup? Surely the Chairman recognized the threat posed by these enemies.
“You don’t know a thing really, the army has been stretched extremely thin occupying the nearest savage earths. There is a regular war going on somewhere in the Multiverse not that far off from us, pioneers bring us reports, recover machinery or bodies occasionally. Everything is covered up and locked away, so that all but the few top-ranked people in the army and government know about it. Then there is the case of Mr. Ajax...”
What about Ajax does he know really? Last time you heard he was dead, even if you do know the truth already…
“A man who outsmarted everyone, faked his own death after he fell out of favor with Taurus, although he also did do some things which were most likely a violation of the Articles. He spent the rest of his life building his *legacy* in self-inflicted exile, arming a bunch of militant savages with our technology and some of it being most likely forbidden as well. They blew up a dreadnaught and that was decades ago, Gods know what those barbarians can do now! Our probes and pioneers get intercepted almost immediately if they get into their territory...”
Well that certainly is enlightening, but what about you yourself? Are you supposed to stand here tied up like that all the time?
“Almost forgot.” He comes up towards you and takes off your vest with the RGM inside of it. “You see, I like to have insurance. Normally I would either make you a slave or let the repulsive lot under my command have their way with you, you know to improve morale. But you are a citizen caught in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”
Will he give you the damn thing back or not?
“In time, I need a favor first.” He turns towards the scarred savage guarding you and starts speaking in English again. “Jack, give me a status report.”
“Well sir.” The savage replies like a properly drilled recruit. “The scouts sent west said they noticed an odd group.”
“Define odd.” Hector orders irritated by the vagueness of Jack's report.
“Very organized, moving in a formation resembling a small military unit. Scouts observed them for 2 hours, they didn’t pick up a single word spoken by them despite using the microphone.” He explains nervously.
“Are they here as well?” He mumbles as his face gives off signs of concern.
“Sir?” Jack asks uncertain if he should.
“Never mind. Anything else Jack?”
“That old APC we found, the one with the clogged cannon, the slave refused to touch it. Nails had to shoot him.”
“Go on…”
“Fixer says he can’t work on that as he’s working on that plane, says the damn thing will fly even if he has to make the parts himself out of old chopsticks.”
“He has been saying that for the last two months.” The General scoffs irritated by the news. “I can’t have him fiddling with that damn contraption the whole time. Tell him I want results by tomorrow morning or I’m going to torch that pile of junk myself. We need that APC!”
“Yes sir! I also wanted to report that we captured a scout from Fort Hope. He didn’t say much, just that Colridge will get us eventually. Jackhammer did his best but the scout refused to say anything else before he died.”
“Barely an officer and a savage to boot! He thinks he can get me.” He says in Atlantean and laughs. Jack tries to hide his confusion. Then the general’s face turns from a grin into anger once again as he realizes something.
“Wasn’t he supposed to be old, sick and dying?! Cancer or something like that?!” He barks at Jack.
“I’ll check with jackhammer immediately and clarify the situation sir!” He answers nervously and runs off. The general just stares at the map in silence for a few minutes.
Jack runs back into the tent. “Well sir. Apparently Colridge got better sir!”
“What do you mean he got better?! How!? We’re in the middle of an post-atomic hell!” Furiously the general shouts angered by the news. Jack on the other hand is becoming more and more nervous with each second.
“Find Jackhammer,” Hector says with a calm and very serious cold tone emanating from his voice, “and bring him to me. He will be punished for not reporting this fact to me personally.”
“Yes sir!” Obviously scared Jack runs out of the tent in search of this Jackhammer fellow.
“Now about you.” The general once again turns his attention towards you. “Do you have any suggestions as to how you can be of use to me?”
You will help the General’s merry band of post-nuclear savages by….
A)…investigating the odd squad you previously encountered in the ruins. You have better gear than the savages, might as well use it to learn something.
B)…fixing the APC’s cannon. Surely old Hector will be pleased by that.
C)…checking up on Fixer and lending him a hand with the aeroplane. Maybe you can make it fly.
D)…investigating the matter of Colridge’s illness. This sounds like something that the General is very concerned about for some reason.
The old general knows things which might be of use to you, perhaps you might persuade him to tell you more by…
1)…claiming you were sent to find him and get the “traitor” generals together.
2)…you represent certain factions, from the underworld of Atlantean society, that could help his cause.
3)…telling him that you saw Lemurians subjugating a nearby parallel.
4)…telling him that you are a smuggler and can supply him with things from the homeparallel as a favor.
5)…well actually you won’t try to do that. Why risk it?
By the way, they kind of still have your laspistol with them. Maybe they could give it back to you…
V)…because it was a gift from your grandfather.
X)…for self-defense. There are dangers outside, they can’t just send you unarmed can they?
Y)…because you could use it to cut or weld some things.
Z)…or maybe perhaps not. Why risk pissing the former general off?
Vote now.
Your current inventory: Stun Rod, Structural Scanner, Adaptable Tools, about 38 gold coins (Solidii), a piss-stained rock wrapped in a newspaper.
Well, this turned out to be long as hell. Congratulations, you picked the most safe options for a change. Although technically running away got tied with just confronting them but D got an earlier vote so that was the tiebreaker. Needless to say running away from a bunch of post-apocalyptic bikers isn’t a good choice, well not in Heracles’ malnourished, and suffering from withdrawal or something, position. Otherwise maybe he would have a fair shot.
You were pretty much screwed with your choice to go towards the ocean at all cost. Had to get food or something first really, some of the other options guaranteed that while other were FUN in the DF kind of way. Don’t worry, whatever you choose to do Heracles will get a meal first before he runs off to his latest near death experience.
It could be his last