Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – The Electric State Part Six

Read the previous chapter here

One Year Ago
Stella Shaw lays on her back, combat boots up on top of one of several monitors she’d spent months scavenging for. With a little help from Lester, a local tinkerer, the teenage girl constructed a makeshift antenna she installed one of the watchtowers in the compound for the best possible reception. It was just her luck that she picked up a broadcast of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air coming from somewhere to the west. Down in what Stella’s aunt nicknamed her “hidey-hole” she was quite cozy. These series of reinforced tunnels might have triggered claustrophobia in the adults, but they were the perfect fit for Stella. 

The quiet idyll is broken by the sound of gunshots and engines revving. Screams. The Crooked River Bandits were making their move. After months of threats and attempts to find weaknesses in the walls around the compound, the raiders were making their move. The sound of metal screeching & tearing caused goosebumps to ripples across Stella’s arms. This was a moment she had thought a lot about and it was time to make her move.

Stella slid on her neurocaster and synced up with the monitor she had set aside for her computer. Digital security was iffy in the compound, enough that Stella was able to hop in and take control of the defensive systems around the walls. From her perspective in the neuroscape she was in the cockpit of a sleek starfighter, her weapons systems were the mounted guns along the compound walls. In a stunning display she quickly targeted fuel tanks and knee caps resulting in a bloodbath. 

The people of the compound would never know what was responsible for their sudden defeat of the Crooked River Bandits. Stella felt strange about how good it felt to watch these attackers suffering, lying in the waste outside the compound bleeding and on fire. The Exclusion Zone was not like the world she saw on her television shows where people were happy and solved problems in thirty minutes. Here it was about how much blood you drew from your enemy. The adults, who remembered the time before the war and founding of the Zone, would speak in hushed worries about the children and their penchant for violence. Stella worried about herself sometimes, how easy it was to hurt others.

Present Day
Event: Stop Countdown Event #1 – The Threat Shows Itself

Stella was attempting to sleep at the Palantine Ave homeless shelter. It was one of few places Bakersfield’s Sheriff Bonner hadn’t shut down in his mad crusade. In the bunk above hers, Crystal was snoring. They wouldn’t let Taco sleep with Stella. He was still recovering from his injuries received from Randy James and the Children of the Eclipse. Tammie, the nice old lady at the front desk, had called her brother, a veterinarian so he was in good hands. 

Maya was sleeping on the bottom bunk across from Stella. Tammie had quickly ID’ed her as a “junkie” which led to everyone in Stella’s group of travelers getting searched. Thankfully, Uncle Miguel had taken them to a spot where they could stash guns and other contraband that would get them kicked out of the shelter. Everyone looked squeaky clean. 

Men and women slept in separate areas of the shelter, per the rules. Stella had noticed a growing tension between Crystal and Wyatt. She expected Wyatt would want to part ways with Crystal once they made it out of Bakersfield.

Somewhere in the distance Stella could hear a garbage truck’s gear whirring with a clunk. Cars driving. Tammie and chatting with Brenda, another shelter worker, and Izayha, the security guard. Things seemed “normaL”, or at least as normal as could be compared to the Exclusion Zone. Then the roof came off the building.

The next few minutes were blurry. When Stella finally came to her senses she was crouched beside a crumbling walls. A large metal arm was reaching into the shelter and sweeping beds aside, searching. It was Bonner’s drone. The operator announced over the robot’s loudspeaker: “We have reason to believe this establishment is harboring terrorists. You will turn them over at once or we will find them. We will bring this building to the ground if we have to.”

Agility check(6) – 1 success – Stella slips out through the loading dock in the kitchen as the drone smashes the shelter apart sending its inhabitants scattering.

Stella tries to find her companions in the chaos
Tilt: Low Good for the Travelers – Stella is able to find Crystal, but not Wyatt. Luca and Maya are taken by Bonner, but Uncle Miguel finds a spot to hide in.

Stella offers to neurocast and try to take down Bonner’s drone, Crystal feels uneasy about this, Stella assures her she’s done it plenty of times. Walking past a partially scorched pile of commercial drones in the shape of smiling children with large heads. The trio finds an abandoned neighborhood and crash in one of the houses. Stella gets out her neurocaster and gets set up.

Stimulus Go
Processor: +2 | Network: +2 | Graphics: +1

Information on who operates Bonner’s drone – Difficulty: 2
Neuroscape Environment: Oracle: Mourn Blood – World War I trench warfare scenario

Stella is overwhelmed by the sudden explosions when she opens her eyes. She’s wearing a doughboy outfit and sitting at the bottom of a trench. Somewhere in the darkness around her she hears a pained groan. The trench winds like a snake in both directions. She can hear boots shuffle against planks as men in long coats and helmets rush past. Another boom and burst of light somewhere in the distance.

Stella attempts to find her way to the avatar in charge

Wits check(3) + 2 Processor – 1 success, Gear loses-1
Shift: Morning

She feels her way through the trench, almost stepping on a mob of rats who swarm by and sees light down one path. At the end of the path is a tent. A mustachioed man sits at a table, looking over a map of the battlefield. He glances up as Stella enters.

“Have we had any breakthrough along the western arc?” he asks the bewildered young woman.

“It’s…going great,” Stella struggles to respond. “I wanted to know about the, um…juggernaut. Who is the pilot and how can we get them here? Our forces are getting totally blasted.”

Wits check(3) + 1 Processor – Failure, Gear loses-1, Bliss +1
Shift: Day

The mustache man raises an eyebrow at Stella. “How in the bloody hell do you know about…the juggernaut? That is classified information, soldier. Are you a spy?”

Stella attempts to bluff her way through this, proclaiming she’s part of a covert squadron embedded here. The commander will need to keep it hush-hush, just between them.

Empathy check(4) + 1 Graphics – 1 success
Shift: Evening

The commander leans in, whispering now. “I see, I see. Well, to my knowledge the juggernaut is held in a barn sixteen kilometers to the south. The pilot is staying at the adjoining farmhouse. From what I hear, he’s an ace. Good luck in retrieving him. That will truly turn the tide if you can.”

Stella searches for a motorcycle she can use to get to the farmhouse faster

Wits check(3) – Failure, Bliss +1 – Push the roll – 2 successes
Shift: Night

Stella finds a motorcycle and heads south. Around 10 km, she spots a barn and farmhouse on a nearby hill. Her neurocaster beeps, letting her know it’s been nearly 24 hours since she went in. She needs to pull out now.

Event: Conversation – The War – with Crystal

Stella shares that the drone is kept warehoused and the pilot is always nearby. Where is a place that could hold the drone and not be noticed?

Stella shares the WWI style of the neuroscape, asks Crystal what she remembers about the War

Oracle: Locate Health – the hospitals all being shut down, no one to go to if you had an emergency, story of a family member dying of a heart attack because they had no one to call. Stella checks on Taco who is doing much better.

Can Uncle Miguel think of a place where the drone could be stored and the pilot could live there?

Tilt: Medium Bad for the Travelers

The drone could be stored out the outskirts of town. Miguel knows about a warehouse where the cops keep their arsenal, stuff leftover from the war. Miguel is still healing and can’t go, he draws a crude map for Stella & Crystal. They leave Taco with Miguel and head out. Miguel also provides them with some explosives he brought along.

Wyatt is being interrogated by Bonner and two of his men. They are interrupted by the masked figure who wants to speak with Wyatt privately.

Stella attempts to slip into the warehouse while Crystal creates a diversion with explosions outside.

Agility check(6) – 2 successes

Stella is able to slip through a hole in a fence and finds a back door propped open. Her presence is missed as the deputies inside rush outside with their guns to respond to the series of explosions around the facility. She hears screams from down one of the hallways. Moving down the hall she comes across a room and looks through the window in the door to see Wyatt strapped to a chair. A weird masked man dressed all in black has a tray of surgical tools and is cutting her friend.

Stella thinks she might be able to hack the military drone with her neurotransmitter. She’s done it before back in the Exclusion Zone, but those were civilian drones cobbled together from spare parts. The security on Bonner’s drone is likely to be much higher, but she thinks she can do it…maybe.

Finding the drone isn’t too hard, it’s the largest thing in the warehouse, kept in the large stock area.

Tilt: High Bad for the Travelers

Not only is Stella not going to be able to hack the military drone, it’s actually being brought online to likely help with the explosive diversion outside. The mission has changed into a rescue of Wyatt. Stella decides to pull the fire alarms in the building to see if it drives Wyatt’s torturer out of the room.

Wits check(3) – Failure – The alarms don’t seem to have an effect, so Stella starts a real fire in a utility closet using some chemicals she finds laying around, Push the Roll – Failure, Lose 1 Hope

As Stella is trying to set the fire she feels a powerfully strong hand come down on her shoulder. It swings her around to face Wyatt’s torturer and his grotesque mask. She feels his other hand strike her across the head and everything goes black. 

To be continued…