The team was hiking west through the woods as they returned to the location where they stashed their truck. Ahead of them, thirty feet through the bare trees of January, they saw the light of a headlight - it was a Martian trooper!
Scout immediately turned off his flashlight, dropped low, and found cover behind a nearby tree. The Martian moved closer and used his stunner against Rex but missed. Felix fired a shot from his hunting rifle, striking the Martian in the chest. Scout followed with a short burst from his assault rifle. The Martian fell to the ground with two bullet holes in his armor.
They had killed their first Martian invader!
Chapter 5 - Officer Steve
What follows is a play-through of an adventure scenario I'm writing for Overlords of Dimension-25. The scenario is a survival hex-crawl where the player characters and their entire town are transported to a strange new dimension, only to be attacked by armored invaders intent on rounding up the townsfolk for a mysterious and nefarious purpose.
This week, the team reunites with Officer Tucker and head downtown to the police station to rescue Officer Tucker's colleague, Officer Steve.
Dramatis Personae
- Officer Bocephus "J.T." Tucker - Williamsburg police department - Level 1 Warrior
- Rex Werthy - construction worker - Level 1 Engineer
- Professor Thadeus Putnam - retired professor of anthropology - Level 1 Expert
- Felix Silla-Rossi - 15 year-old juvenile delinquent - Level 1 Rogue
- Scout Thomas - 16 year-old outdoorsman and YouTube personality - Level 1 Scout
- Vera - elderly lady with a broken leg - NPC
- Mabel - Professor Putnam's elderly housekeeper - NPC
Who's Kareem Abdul Jabar?
"Should we take his armor?" asked Scout.
"Are you Kareem Abdul Jabar?" asked Rex, "That guy's seven foot tall at least!"
"Who's Kareem Abdul Jabar?" asked the teenaged Scout.
"Never mind. Anyway, the armor has two bullet holes in it." said Rex.
Felix interrupted, "Hey, take his helmet and any radio it might be attached to. Maybe I can listen in on their radio chatter."
Rex looked at Felix, the juvenile delinquent, with incredulity, "What do you know about radios?"
"Yeah, what'd you do, watch Stranger Things and want to join the AV Club?" teased Scout.
"He used to listen to police broadcasts on his scanner to know what the cops were doing." said a voice from the darkness. It was Officer Tucker.
Felix smiled. Officer Tucker was right. "I know a lot about radios."
Rex grabbed one of the dead Martian's arms, "Alright. Officer Tucker, help me drag Andre the Giant here back to the truck. We can strip him there."
Professor Putnam picked up the hand weapon and examined it. It seemed to be some kind of sonic weapon.
Felix asked, "Anyone mind if I take the laser rifle?"
Rex looked at Officer Tucker. Officer Tucker shrugged, "Sure. Go for it."
"Sweet!"
Back to Town
The team took two trucks back to Williamsburg. It was 9pm at night. They parked a quarter mile east of town and walked to the industrial center. The Martian checkpoint that once blocked the highway in front of the industrial center was gone. Lights could be seen at the Martian camp to the south near the high school.
The industrial park consisted of a large structure made of corrugated steel and several smaller concrete structures. The large structure was home to a fully-equipped truck repair bay with a machine shop and parts warehouse. The smaller structures contained welding equipment, HVAC and water heating repair, a propane supply tank, a maintenance shop, and other small industrial applications.
They split up and each searched a different building. While searching a supply closet, Professor Putnam found four other survivors hiding within - all women.
- Ivana Soraya, elementary school teacher
- Auguste Kristijan, locksmith
- Qarma Blaze, teenager and retail sales clerk
- Farah Subhash, retiree
The team told them they were there to help. They shared food and water and offered to take them to the Wasteland Trading Post where it was safe. However, they had to stop off at the police department first.
Self Storage
The group, along with their four new members, crossed the highway and entered the self-storage facility. The local self storage facility consisted of a dozen buildings, each subdivided into ten storage garages. The facility was surrounded by a security fence topped by razor wire that been previously breached by the Martians.
Rex said, "The units are locked with padlocks."
Felix smiled and said, "I got this." He produced a small palm-sized device with a trigger. He inserted one end into a padlock, pulled the trigger a few times, and the lock opened.
Rex hissed, "Where'd you get that!"
Felix smiled, "Back at the Industrial complex! Pretty cool, huh?"
A quick search of a few units turned up some old electronics, one unit contained a ghillie suit and a rifle suppressor, a new Mercedes Sprinter van, a stockpile of canned and preserved food, and a bunch of boxes filled with dirty towels. They put everything they were carrying into the van.
As the team, accompanied by their new recruits, crossed the highway interchange past the bank and convenience store, a helmet-mounted spotlight caught them accompanied by the amplified voice of a Martian, "Stop! Surrender!" They took off running towards the northwest and didn't stop until they were out of sight and on the railroad tracks.
They took the railroad track south and cut back east towards downtown. As they hiked along the tracks, Felix fiddled with the Martian's helmet radio in order to listen in on Martian radio traffic. As he did so, he accidentally deleted all its channels. It would need to be reprogramed.
DM- He rolled a critical failure on his Radio Operations skill check.
The Police Station
The police station was located in the first floor of the city management building one block east of downtown. They approached the police station from the west. As they neared the street, Scout noticed movement in the upstairs window - the glass had blown out days earlier during the incident. It looked like they had a rifle and were monitoring the street. Scout signaled the others and and they huddled against a nearby building.
Officer Tucker laid out the plan - he and Rex would storm the upstairs via the emergency escape on the side of the building. The others would cover their approach.
Officer Tucker and Rex darted across the street while Felix entered the abandoned building next to them and found a position from which to fire his rifle. Professor Putnam followed the teen.
Two people in the upstairs windows opened fire, missing. Felix returned fire and hit one of the snipers.
Officer Tucker and Rex stormed up the old metal stairs on the side of the building. Officer Tucker used his keys to open the fire exit door. He heard someone approaching around the corner to the left at the end of the hall. He drew his pistol and covered. He ordered the man to surrender.
The man shouted back, "Fuck you! This is our shit! You ain't taking it!" He ran around the corner and Officer Tucker opened fire. The man fell, shotgun in his hand.
Officer Tucker heard shooters repositioning themselves from the window. He holstered his pistol and took out the two grenades that were taken off the Martian soldier. He tossed one down the hall. It exploded in a strange blue flash and vibrating electric hum.
He glanced around but saw that it had no effect.
DM- Both targets rolled 20 for their saving throw vs. stun. I felt like I had to apologize.
Rex and Tucker stormed the hallway. They entered into hand-to-hand fights with two of the occupiers. Rex took a rifle butt to the face and fell to the floor unconscious.
Meanwhile, Felix heard the gunshots and saw the blue flashes through the upstairs windows. He had no visible targets so he decided to run across the street and enter the building through the front door. Professor Putnam followed. They left the four ladies in the abandoned building behind them.
Felix entered the front door and saw a man running up the hall from the rear of the building, shouting, "What the hell's going on up there?" The man was burly but unarmed. He saw Felix and ran at him, fists swinging.
Felix defended himself with his rifle. Professor Putnam was knocked unconscious.
Meanwhile, Scout had run upstairs and had joined Officer Tucker in fighting the two occupiers. Scout checked on Rex. Rex was slowly coming around. He regained consciousness and Scout helped him to his feet.
Rex picked up his shovel and ran into the room where Officer Tucker was fighting off two occupiers. The fighting was arduous but the two occupiers were eventually shot to death or knocked out with a shovel.
They heard a heavy metal door close shut in another room towards the front of the building. Officer Tucker said, "Someone just closed the vault door. Scout go check it out."
Rex and Officer Tucker heard the fighting downstairs and ran to help. They found Felix locked in a similarly exhausting struggle with a muscular man. The professor lie unconscious on the stairs.
Rex leaped off the stairs and onto the muscular man. Rex ran down the stairs and attacked with his shovel. The man was soon defeated.
Officer Tucker recognized the occupiers - they were looters who had been arrested the night after the event. They had been locked up in the two holding cells in the back of the station. How did they get out?
Scout called from upstairs, "There's a guy locked in the vault. He's not coming out. He says he's injured and he doesn't want us to kill him."
Officer Tucker thought, "That answers that." He called back to Scout, "Leave him. We're secure down here. I'm going to go get Officer Steve."
Officer Tucker went to the garage at the back of the building. He found a kennel and opened it. A German Shepherd leaped out and began licking Officer Tucker's face.
Officer Tucker immediately gave the dog some food and water. "Gentlemen, this is Officer Steve. My partner."
"Unfortunately the gunfire is likely to draw some Martians. We don't have time to search. Lets get out of here."
Edit: Felix uses a hunting rifle, not an assault rifle.
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