>survey the scene, loking for social clues on how acceptable this sort of behaviour is

>Remind myself why these gentlemen might want to hire me.

>>1489840
The man in the suit replies, leaving his hand to hang limply in the air at breast height. "Sir, would you please come with me for questioning." What a lucky day this has been, this is your second chance to seize on an opportunity to do some field work. With the peacemakers having had to leave for the the front, you've been racking up mediated dispute fees all week with impunity. Sure maybe one of these companies might retaliate, but that's not your problem. You are the government after all. Of the people left in the terminal once this scene started there are seven others there aside from you, Clair, and the two men. You survey the scene and find that three men, likely mercenaries, have taken out their own weapons and point them at the ground. Two of them hold handguns but the third has what appears to be a grenade launcher. You take a step back from the man with the launcher and he look to you, anxious. The other two men look back and forth between you and the businessmen.

The man in the shirt replies while cocking his gun. "I will not be coming with you for questioning." The man in the suit moves quickly at this remark, his raised hand shoots out as he suddenly lunges forward. He grabs and breaks the wrists that holds the handle of the gun, but he gets shot in the shoulder in exchange for this disarmament. The man shouts as his wrist is broken. "I am the government!"

The now bleeding man shouts as well pulling out his own weapon, a sawed off shotgun, from within his suit-jacket. "I must insist!" The disarmed man dives for his weapon, and by doing so manages to avoid the shot gun blast which instead of killing him harmlessly impacts the wall behind him. The man is on one knee now, holding his weapon in his good hand, and aiming at his attacker.

"No, you must desist." Is the only reply of the man on the ground. They hold a silent standoff like this. Now is your chance, the possibilities are all so lucrative. You could hire a mercenary and demand, at gunpoint, that the two men pay for the emotional damage this even has caused you. You could offer one or both of them your services in hiring a mercenary to resolve this themselves. You could offer, for a fee, to mediate this dispute. Yes, being an accountant has many perks, but this is your favorite one; when people need to make high danger transactions like these, an accountant is simply a necessity.

>Hire a mercenary from the crowd.
>Survey the situation. (looking for what?)
>Wait to see how this plays out while talking to Claire.
>Ask if either men would like to purchase your skills.
>Offer one, or both of the men your services.

>>1489882
>>Wait to see how this plays out while talking to Claire.

>>1489882
Claire is nearly as used things like this as you are but you still wrap a protective arm around her shoulders. She doesn't seem to mind. "This is getting interested isn't it?" You agree and she goes on to ask you in an excited tone. "Which one is which, do you know?" You aren't quite sure yourself and you tell her so but she continues on. "Supreme Beverage is a customer of your firm isn't it? Shouldn't you be trying to find out which one of them is their employee so you can help them out?" She makes a good point, all things considered, but it doesn't really matter, you aren't obligated in any way.

Middle aged woman standing nearby overhears you and offers to reveal which company the man in the suit works for, in exchange for a small fee. You turn away from the two men pointing guns at each other for just a second to transfer 5 data credits to her data-card. A shot is fired during this exchange, and you turn back to the men to see that the man with the handgun shot and missed, but he's now standing. The woman says that the man in the suit works for Peerless Beverage Co. She hurriedly picks up her things and moves a bit farther away from you. You didn't catch her name.

So you reply to Claire. "No, it doesn't matter what I do here. If anything. I think I might be able to get something out of this situation here, just not sure what it is yet."

"Well, I'm glad you think so, because the hyper-rail will be here soon and I can't afford to miss it." You know her well enough to understand that this means she expects you to buy her a full day pass if you cause her to miss the last train.

"Claire, that's not fair, you can just take the train if it gets here before this is over." She looks up at you and pouts. Damn, why does she have to be so cute. "OK, fine, whatever." At least you know Claire will stay with you in any case. But time doesn't stand still, the man with the shotgun probably won't wait much longer to use his seconds shot, and it will be over soon after that happens. Once he fires he's either won or will die soon after. Its time to step in now and make some profit, or give up and take the hyper-rail when it gets here.

>Hire a mercenary from the crowd.
>Ask if either men would like to purchase your skills.
>Offer one, or both of the men your services.
>Ask the woman her name and how she knew who the man was.
>Take the hyper-rail and leave.

I'm going to sleep now, guess no one was interested.

>>1489953
>>Offer one, or both of the men your services.
Lets see if we can start a bartering match

>>1489953
The hyper-rail enters the station at 11:55 sharp, with five minutes remaining until day passes expire. The doors open on the opposite side from you and you see passengers leave the train through the windows. Their eyes must be straining in the bright light of the platform judging by how dark it is on the train. The middle-aged woman from before, one of the mercenaries with a handgun, and the three people who needed to make this train even at peril of getting caught in stray gunfire all quickly enter the hyper-rail the moment that its doors open to receive them.

The Supreme Beverage employee, the man in the shirt and tie, gives the train quick, longing, look but doesn’t take his eyes off the other man for more than an instant. The two begin to slowly circle each other, one trying to get closer to the doors of the hyper-rail, while the other tries to block the path. Claire and the remaining two mercenaries look to you to see what you will do. You pull out a small handheld loudspeaker and finally make your move. “Hello gentlemen, I have here with me these two bloodthirsty mercenaries who would love to have me hire them for either of you. I’m sure either of them will be able to resolve this dispute. Are either of you interested in purchasing my services? I’m a capable guy.”

The two men’s heads both turn in your direction and then back at each other as they scramble to maintain their positions and aim on one another.
The man in the suit, the Peerless Beverage Co. employee, is the first to speak up. In a tone of desperation, he must have lost a decent amount of blood by now, he makes a pragmatic offer. “Hire one of them for me and my company will compensate you a 150% return on the cost, 200% if you help me take this scum alive.” A tempting offer that will likely net you some easy funds; you almost take it immediately but decide to hold out a second longer.

The Supreme Beverage employee throws his offer out but rather than desperate, he just seems frustrated. Frustrated and in a hurry more specifically. “I would prefer we take this discussion onto the hyper-rail, I have somewhere I need to be. Hire both if you need to, just get this lunatic to stop pointing his weapon at me and we can talk terms in transit. Help me please.” What an odd proposition. In any case you must act quickly, the train leaves in less than two minutes.

>Accept the Peerless Beverage Co. employee’s terms. (Hire which mercenary?)
>Accept the Supreme Beverage employee’s terms. (Hire which mercenary?)
>Give one of them a counter-offer.
>Hire one or both of the mercenaries to take control of the situation your own terms. (Hire which mercenary[ies]?)
>Just take the hyper-rail and ditch these chumps.

>>1490909
>Just take the hyper-rail and ditch these chumps

>>1490909
You glance back and forth between the train and the mercenaries. That grenade launcher is more trouble than it’s worth in this area, and upon closer inspection you see that the other guy’s hand trembles now that he’s so close to having to actually fight. Looks like you’ve misjudged the situation. You pocket your loudspeaker and turn to the mercenaries to address them, making sure to sound significantly contrite. “Sorry boys, looks like I won’t be needing either of your services this time.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” The mercenary with the handgun replies, both relief and disappointment flashing across his face. He stores his weapon and exits the platform into the open doors of the train. The man with the launcher simply shrugs and tosses you his business card, unemotional, expressionless. The card reads: Mark the Merc - Killer instinct at a competitive price. It also has a contact number and V-mail account name on the back. He steps onto the hyper-rail without putting away his weapon. You and Claire follow him, ignoring the cries of the businessman.

“You bastard! You damn idiot, do you know who I am?” Supreme Beverage shouts as the doors begin to close. He makes a desperate lunge for the door and is shot in the back with buckshot almost immediately. The lights turn off on the platform as he hits the ground, he must have been the purchaser. You can now only barely see what you are doing by the almost non-existent light coming from the hyper-rails micro-transaction screens. This line should have you back to your office apartment within twenty minutes, it’s convenient living above a station.

>Purchase lighting (Y/N) (Budget 20 data credits, Standard 50 data credits, Premium 200 data credits)
You have 1745 data credits right now.
--
>Talk to one of the Mercs.
>Talk to Claire.
>Talk to the Middle age woman.
>Talk to the one of the other passengers. (write in a description)
>Do something else.
>Just wait until you arrive at the destination.

>>1491082
Decided to stay up and keep posting if anyone is interested.

I have a detailed setting btw, just trying to reveal it naturally and not to info dump.

>>1491082
Lets just get standard.

>Just wait until you arrive at the destination.
It's probably best to just lay low until we can get a better grasp of ourself

>>1491120
You approach a monitor and wave your data-card in front of it. The screen becomes marginally brighter and displays a list of amenities and goods available for purchase. You locate illumination quality and select the standard package. The monitor displays the standard level thank you message and gives a short beep, while also displaying your current balance of DC 1695. You also purchase budget seating for 2 DCs. A sheet of metal slides out of the wall a way away and you go to take a seat. You sit as far to one side as you can so that Claire can take a seat as well. There’s very little room but she squeezes in next to you. She smiles at free seating, always happy to the system out of a few credits. The two of you have been standing for the last few hours and so she sighs in contentment at being able to take a rest. “Thanks Mike, you mind if I nap?” She asks, and you tell her to go ahead. She leans her head on your shoulder and is out like a light. You take out your written ledgers once again and spend the rest of the trip reviewing them in silence.

After fifteen minutes of travelling at 600 mph the train arrives at the station you live above. Today was decent, it’s just too bad that situation at the last station didn’t work out. Being an accountant is hard, stressful, and complicated, but you’ve always loved the work. Intrusive thoughts take you for a moment, and you wonder if it’s actually possible to earn enough to leave this place. Here in the border-city is really a dangerous place to be but it’s all you know. For weeks at a time the peacemakers have to leave to fight in the war, and during your life here there were many times that it was thought the enemy would take the city. You realize that you’ve spent precious minutes lost in thought and quickly wake Claire before the doors close and you’re extorted into buying new day passes for the two of you. You shudder at the thought, its 12:18 a.m. and at 10 credits per hour that works out to over 470 credits for the two of you. “Claire, Claire, wake up. We’ve got to get off this train.” She mumbles something about five more minutes and so you pull her gently to her feet.

“Alright, alright. Let go, I can walk.” She sleepily mutters. You release her arm and the two of you exit onto the platform, pushing past people trying to enter as you’ve missed the window for the exit doors. The two of you get out just as the doors begin to close, and you sigh in relief. “Where are we going?” She asks.

Cont.

>>1491361
It’s been a while since either of you have eaten, and you’re tempted to spend some of today's profits buying a nice meal out for the two of you. Claire’s definitely earned a meal, she found your most lucrative client earlier today. You don’t know where you would be without her tech and hacking skills. But another part of you just wants to grab some food at home and get the rest of today’s work done. You are also reminded of the need to go shopping for a new weapon today as you were mugged after lunch, and though you escaped unharmed and with most of your belongings, the mugger managed to take your gun in the struggle. At least Claire manged to take a picture of him before you both fled.

>Head to your office apartment.
>Go buy a nice dinner.
>Go shopping.
>Hire a private investigator to find that mugger.
>Write in.

Sorry OP, but your writing is like teflon to my eyes.

Anyway, good luck in your wait for players.

>>1493313
Thanks for the luck.

Would you mind giving me some constructive criticism? I

can only assume most people agree with you at this point.

Now this is interesting. Lemme catch up.

>>1493313
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/verbosity

A well-penned poem can have more meaning than a novel. Also, there are punctuation problems, and a "Tell don't show" style of exposition.

>>1491367
>>Go buy a nice dinner.
Treat yourself

>>1494654
Thank you. I will try to do better.

>>1491367
>Go buy a nice dinner.

Let's treat Claire, I hope you don't get disheartened OP I am digging the setting so far and looking forward to seeing more. Writing is a bit unpolished but not too bad, there's a lot to bite down on and that's more than I can say for most starting OP's

>>1491367
"Hey Claire, how about we go and get something to eat."

"That sounds good."

The two of us take a short walk to the elevator and you pay a data credit to open its doors. A quick ride and a short walk later we arrive at your favorite restaurant, Ribs and Ramen. You are seated at your usual table by your friend Glen.

"Hey Michael, you want the usual?"

"You know it. So how's business going?"

"To be honest I don't know what I'd do without my regulars."

"Asian soul food fusion is underappreciated genius." You nod sagely.

Glen soon returns with your order, a rack of miso ribs and two bowls of blackened oxtail ramen.

"Thanks for the meal!" Claire must have been starving because she starts devouring the ribs in a way that makes you worry for her safety.

"I can't believe I got mugged again, what is that the fifth time this week?" You think out-loud to yourself while breaking apart your chopsticks.

"Sehventh achuully."

"Don't talk with your mouth full. Wait... Shit, really seven times? Ah whatever." You happily slurp away at your noodles without a care in the world.

You reach for the ribs when the sound of a huge far-away explosion stops you. Suddenly you are sent flying along with everything in the room. You land painfully in a pile furniture and are smashed by more falling on top of you.

"We've been hit! Fucking Commies!" You hear Glen stating the obvious at the top of his lungs.

"Mike where are you?" Claire's voice comes from outside the pile.

"I'm trapped under here, help me!"

Glen and Claire together scramble to remove tables and chairs and you are quickly freed. The three of you stand on what was just moments before a wall, but now the floor. The entire station building must be on its side now.

"Are you OK?" They both ask.

"I feel pretty bruised but nothings broken, I think. We have to get out of here soon this whole place could collapse in on itself."

"I had a customer in the smoking section, I'll be right back." Glen sprints away and climbs through a sideways doorway.

Wait for Glen
>Look for a weapon
>Have Claire check your injuries
>Write in

Leave immediately
>Write in

(Let me know if this style is any better.)

>>1495088

>Look for a weapon

Formatting will probably make it easier for folks

>>1495088
Various noises can be heard over the sirens; gunfire, screaming, reinforced concrete cracking and cables snapping among the most terrifying.

"Are you sure you're OK, you should sit down." Claire has her gun out and gives a wary look at the entrance to the restaurant, now fifteen feet above.

"I'm fine, we have no choice but to deal with this. Help me find something to defend myself with."

You search for a few minutes and manage to find what you were looking for in the kitchen.

Fire ax in its box, the glass already broken from the fall, you take it and sling the fire extinguisher over your back as an afterthought. A meat cleaver catches your eye and you grab it as well.

"Claire, where are you? I found what I needed!"

"We're in here." Glen answers from the main room.

You hurry over pots and pans and climb through the doorway to see only Glen and Claire in the room. He notices you are confused.

"She didn't make it. I went and grabbed some rope from the back though. You good to climb?" He holds up a meat hook tied to the end of a length of rope.

"No problem."

"Alright lets get out of here."

He sticks the throw on the second try and you all enter the hellscape that is the outside corridor. It is deserted aside from a few corpses. Electricity sparks up randomly from broken tech. Chunks of concrete fall sporadically.

>Try to get out of the building by stealing a vehicle.
>Head to The Firm and see how they plan to deal with this.
>Find and hire mercenaries for (looting, saving people, write in)
>Write in.

>>1495455
>Head to The Firm and see how they plan to deal with this.

Something this big I would like to hear some direction on, plus we'll be able to at least start the paperwork on levying a claim against whomever did this

Also be sure to assure Glen he has access to our services at a very reasonable fee, I would hate to see his Asian soul food pass into legend

>>1495731
"We need to get to my firm, if we can make it there alive they'll know how to handle this."

"Sounds like a plan." Claire takes point with her weapon and the three of you start walking. You all manage to avoid getting crushed, electrocuted, or a fall through the 'floor' before you make it to the elevators.

"You know, I just had five more payments to make and I would have owned that place!" It seems Glen has calmed down enough to consider his misfortune.

"I make you this promise. I will do everything in my power, for a very reasonable fee, to make sure that your food career does not go down with this building. That's what friends are for." He's nearly moved to tears at your kindness.

"Guy's we have a problem. All of these are sealed, and I'd normally just hack the door, but they went into protective sleep mode." Claire sits in besides an elevator, her duraslab tablet attached to an open computer terminal by several wires.

"You can't turn them back on?" You desperately look to Claire for an answer while Glen wanders off on his own.

"There's no way, from the inside maybe."

"Can we pry open one of these doors then?" You heft your ax.

"Not a chance."

"Get over here you two! There's someone in the elevator over here!"

You sprint over leaving Claire to remove her attachments. "How do you know there's someone in there?"

"I heard banging." You place your ear to the door and hear some muffled bangs. Claire finally shows up flips open the terminal.

"Yes! This ones still functional because of the occupant." She gets to work hacking the system. In around a minute the doors slide open.

Unprepared and standing in front of it, you now stare down the barrel of a carbine.

Your first instinct is to jump away but your sense take over. "I am with the government, and I'm here to help." You give him your most winning smile and drop the ax.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know what to expect." The man is short and wearing practically rags. He lowers his weapon slightly. "Kick the ax to me."

"But I just saved you." Claire and Glen are out of his view and he think you are alone, this could go a lot of ways. Claire motions tossing you the gun.

Roll 1d20 (best of three if I magically get more players)

"Tough times are tough, give me your stuff and I'll let you live."

>Kick over the ax, but try to grab his gun from him.
>Kick over the ax, but attack with the cleaver.
>Offer to take him with you to your firm instead.
>Write in.

(Going to be back in 45 min.)

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>1495740
>Kick over the ax, but attack with the cleaver.

Time to get a little murder-y up in here

>>1495795

Or not

sombody plz help

>>1496225
"We can talk about this."

"Talk is done, kick it over now."

You kick the ax his way but he doesn't even look at it, never taking his eyes off you.

"Good now toss over your data card, and all your tech." He sounds cocky, more relaxed, now.
The the moment you were waiting for arrives. His looks down at the ax and you lunge forward immediately, grabbing your cleaver to pull it from your belt and slash his throat. But to your dismay his head shoots back in a planned motion. He expected something like this! He fires, hitting you squarely in the chest.

"No one fucks with me kid!" Your bulletproof vest saves your life. But shooting pain becomes your world for a second and you stagger. The next shot misses your head because of your erratic movement, but the third shot lands in your left shoulder.

You throw your cleaver at his head in desperation but he blocks it with an arm, getting a nasty cut in the process. "Die!" He shouts, cleaver sticking out of his arm.

He flips his gun over mid-strike, and slams the butt of his gun into the side of your skull. You fall to the ground losing consciousness, carbine pointed at your head. "You should have just cooperated. Now I gotta kill you."

The last thing you see before passing out is Glen tackling the man to the ground.

You regain consciousness some time later and get your bearings.

Glen stands in a corner, carbine at his feet. He holds his jacket, now stained red, over right arm. He's tied a tourniquet with the sleeves. You see the handle of the cleaver sticking out from the folds of the shirt.

Claire holds her gun to the mans head. He kneels in front of her, defeated and bleeding.

>Kill the man and take his Gun
>Just take his gun and leave him here.

"Thank goodness, I was so worried Mike." Claire looks shaken, but the hand holding the gun is steady.

"How long was I out?"

"Not more than a minute."

"Glen, you saved my life. Are you going to be OK?"

"What are friends for, right?"

"I never knew you were such a bad-ass." The three of you share a weak laugh.

>Break through the ceiling of the elevator and travel through the shaft on foot.
>Try to contact someone from your firm through the computer system
>Look for a vehicle.
>Write in

(I waited in case someone else would roll, it didn't work.)

>>1496232
>>Just take his gun and leave him here.
Chaotic Neutral

>Look for a vehicle.
We outta here

>>1496232
"I need to stop the bleeding, give me a moment." You pull off your jacket good arm first and tie the sleeve as tightly as you can around your hurt shoulder. It hurts like hell and you almost pass out again. You reach down to pick up the Carbine, then grab the ax and sling it through your belt.

Claire goes to the terminal to connect when she sees you can cover the man. You take her place and point your gun at he man's head. "I can't get the elevator to work horizontally, the safety override is not hack-able without better gear. We can probably break through to the elevator shaft, but its a long walk."

"We need to find a quicker way to get to The Firm. Glen and I won't make it on foot at this rate." You wrack your brain for an answer. "Lets try to steal something fast I guess. Something must be lying around in all this chaos."

"Speaking of you two shouldn't we be looking for a medical practice instead?"

"No, they are probably all full right now, or closed. The firm has a med bay, we just have to get there." She pouts but accepts your answer.

"What are we going to do with this bastard?" The look on Glen's face is absolutely hateful.

"We'll lock him back in. You, get up now. Stand in the corner, hands up. Now means now move it." He gets up and does as he's told.

"Better than he deserves." Glen walks out of the elevator muttering to himself.

"Claire can that thing pick up wireless signals?"

"Yes, checking for vehicles in the area as we speak. I have a few hits. There's a jumper about a mile from our position on this floor, back the way we came from. A hover-copter... give me a second." You see he pour through a few holo-maps.

"Got it! We'd have to go three shafts over and two floors up'. Go in though that floors elevator, and take a bit of a walk." She goes back to the search page again.

"Hey, there's a emergency room somewhat near here, closed for repairs. But there's a medical air lift in the vehicle bay there, and it might have something to close up those wounds too."

"How do we get there?"

She looks worried. "Well it looks like there was substantial damage so we might have to adapt out route as we go, but its five floors 'up', we can get to the floor from this elevators shaft."

Harrowing.

>Head for the jumper.
>Head for the hover-copter.
>Head for the medical air lift.

>>1496414
Meds.

>>1496414
"You're a lifesaver Claire, maybe literally. Lets go break into an emergency room and steal an ambulance." She gives you a slight smile.

"I'm downloading as much data as I can in case we need it."

"Why do you think we'll need it?"

"I'm locked out of the wireless network unless I'm connected to a terminal."

"I'll go get Glen and tell him, cover this jerk for me." You head outside and see Glen slumped against the wall, good arm still applying pressure below the tourniquet . "You OK buddy? You good to walk?"

"I'm fine. Probably going to lose this arm though. Better than dying." He laughs hollowly.

"I'll buy you a new one when this is all over." This earns a true laugh from him. "Come on inside Claire found us a ride."

Inside Claire has already hacked the ceiling hatch open. She closes the door after you enter.

"Alright, other side, slowly." You direct your prisoner to the opposite corner, away from the hatch. "Lets get going, Claire, lead the way."

"Sure thing, I'll help you two through the hatch."

"I'm fine." You and Glen say in unison.

"Ugh. Men." She slips through the hatch dexterously. You manage it with a bit of finagling and a few swears. Glen does fine with one arm, his wound no longer bleeds but is now very pale.

You begin the trek, and make it three floors before it happens.

"I smell gas." Glen notices first.

"I do too, this is bad."

"Everyone stop. Claire wheres the closes exit, please don't tell me we have to backtrack a full floor." She looks into her tablet for what feels like minutes but is probably only thirty seconds.
"Not trying to rush you, but we have to get out of here now."

"We go forward twenty-five feet and turn right. Service door, I can't remote hack it though."
"Lets try it. I'm feeling a bit lightheaded." Glen doesn't look so good.

You get to the door and see its just made of chain link with a metal frame, where ever ot leads to is probably full of gas, but it's too late to turn back.

"That's not the door, the door is in that room." She must have noticed your anguish.

The gate is locked and purely mechanical. "You could probably smash through it with the ax, but if the leak is bad enough, any sparks could ignite the gas. Your call man I'm tired." Glen leans into the wall.

You lift the ax. "Lets just turn back, we can go back a floor and go into the elevator." Claire is practically begging. "Please."

"Claire, calm down. Look at Glen. If we turn back there's no telling if he'll make it." She bites her lip but says nothing more.

Roll 1d20 best of three (who am I kidding, best of 1)
>Break through the gate.
>Turn back.

>>1496506
Going to bed.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>1496506
>Break through the gate.

I have returned QM, it won't be dying poor choice of words here, I might kill everyone with this roll on my watch

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>1496506

I'm gonna try one more roll, ignore it if you like

>>1497051
I'll allow it.

>>1497080

You are too kind friend

>>1496506
"There's no turning back now!" The chain links shear apart and deform as your swing the ax with all your might.

"Nice." Glen slides down the side of the wall into a sitting position.

"I'll go ahead and try to get the door open." Claire slips through the gap you've made in the
chain link, widening it in the process. She turns the corner slipping out of view.

"Glen, lets go." He's unresponsive. "Come on, don't do this buddy. Get up." You do your best to lift him with your good arm, and it seems he still has a bit of strength left.

He's up now, leaning heavily on you. He whispers barely audible. "Just... leave me." You strain under your his weight, but manage to squeeze the two of you through the broken fencing.

For a short moment you panic as the cleaver stuck in his arm gets caught in a chain link, but you manage to untangle it. He didn't even seem to notice.

"Claire! This is really bad, he's barely conscious!" No response. "Claire!" You quicken your pace as much as Glen can keep up. You find her on the other side of a turn in the hallway, typing furiously on a mechanical keyboard.

"Claire. Claire!" She finally notices your presence and turns to you. "He's in bad shape. How far is the emergence y room?"

"I'm going as fast as I can to get this door open, one thing at a time, Mike." The click-clack of typing resumes mid-sentence. You lean Glen against walls in the corner of the room, still supporting him.

They say patience is a virtue, but it feels like several excruciating minutes pass. You feel ill. The dizziness sets in just as Claire gives a triumphant shout. "I did it, I actually did it!"

The door slides open with a hiss and the three of you hurry through. Claire uses her tablet to close the door. "I have wireless access now." She answers the look you give her simply.

"Claire we have to make a hard choice. If we leave Glen here we can come back with the med lift. But there's no guarantees."

"What if we bring him with us?"

"I don't know, I really don't."

>Leave Glen here and head to the emergency room with Claire.
>Leave Claire with Glen, but take her tablet.
>Take Glen with you.
>Write in.

>>1497142
Sorry for the wait, if you're still around.

>>1497578
>Leave Glen here and head to the emergency room with Claire.

Speed is more important here considering we have nothing that can help him on us, no worries man thanks for coming back for little old me

>>1497578
"Glen, listen to me buddy." His eyes are unfocused but you try to believe he's listening anyways. "We are coming back for you." You punctuate each word with finality.

You turn and walk over to Claire who is flipping through page after page of holo-maps. "What direction do we need to go in no matter what?"

"Forward."

"Alright read and walk, lets go." You carry Claire's handgun now, Ax slung through the loop built into the small fire extinguisher you carry on your back. The carbine tucked through her belt. "Got a route yet?"

"Not sure, just keep going forward one more floor and I'll have to decide." She walks following you by what you would have to guess is sound.

The ill feeling from the gas earlier hasn't left you. "I have to stop for a moment." You stop walking and rub your temples. Claire bumps into you, dropping her tablet.

She lets out a high pitched shriek of frustration as it clatters on the ground.

The thing is a Duraslab brand duraslab, so there's a better chance of it breaking the floor than the floor breaking it, but there's still a nonzero chance it's ruined. "Please tell me you didn't break it."

"Me break it? That was your fault."

"I said I had to stop."

"Wait for a response next time!"

"You've trained me to not expect one!"

"I'm doing my best, you... you..."

"I'm sorry. We are both under a lot of stress and I know your doing your best, you've completely saved me today." Her expression softens at your apology and you enjoy a moment of feeling slightly less dread.

"Lets just see if its fine and move on." Claire suggests after a few seconds of silence. You need a break more now than when you went to take one. Surprise, surprise, the tablet doesn't have a scratch on it.

"So whats the route, you have one now?"

"It's just over that pile concrete and down the hall."

"Why do we fight over nothing?" You can't help but think out loud.

"I thought we were moving on."

"Oh, right. Thought you meant to the emergency room." You rub your temples again to try to clear out the headache you've developed.

"I can mean both." You decide to let her have the last word this time.

A climb and a walk later you finally arrive at the doors to an emergency room. Yellow and black stripes cover the large double doors.

"What did you say this place was under repairs for?" Your curiosity matches only your paranoia.

"I didn't. I have no idea." Wonderful.

"You can hack it right?"

Cont.

>>1497721
She just begins tapping away on the doors. They open immediately, but salvation doesn't wait for you beyond them. A two meter tall security android stands sentry in the small room, a set of identical doors behind him. His head moves so fast it appears to flicker, staring now directly at Claire's tablet.

"Unauthorized user detected. You have two minutes. Please input authorization code or surrender your illegal property. You have tw..." Without the tablet, you will have no chance of stealing the med lift.

A synthesized female voice repeats the same message. The synthesized voice seems as if it was designed to be calming, but the perfectness of it instead just makes it intimidating. You wish you had an EMP.

"Can you hack this thing, yes or no."

"Yes. No. Maybe." She takes a deep but quick breath. "I can probably knock it out of full function mode. You could walk up and shoot it in the neck until it dies if I can manage that. It's possible though."

Roll 1d20 best of three (You can roll a second time if no one else rolls in 20 min.)
>Try to hack it completely.
>Try to hack and kill it with guns.
>Search frantically for anything that could be used.
>Close the door and run, look for another entrance.
>Write in.

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>1497727
>Try to hack it completely.

>>1497735
You think when I make second thread, if I write a good summary of this one, I'll get some more players?

I have no problem writing for one, appreciate you.

I just can't help but wonder if my original prose in the first few posts is making people avoid this, or if I just suck at this.

Also, nice roll.

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>1497727
>Try to hack it completely.

>>1497761
>>1497735

There's another

I think there will be an uptick, unfortunately for original ideas and settings a lot of /qst/er's don't like to stick around and figure things out as it moves along, or they just follow QM's who's name they recognize. I've seen a few very good quests get the same chilly reception but if you stick with it and have a good idea it should pick up

>>1497727
"You have this Claire. I've always believed in you, even if I can be harsh at times. I believe in you one-hundred percent."

"I've got this." She places her tablet on the floor putting it in full holo-mode. A projection fills her view, thin laser lines targeting her fingers. She flies into a flurry of activity like you've never seen before; typing, switching windows, voice commands with barely a moment of pause.

You may have an amplifier implant in your inner ear, but she has retina implants. Lines of code fly past at speeds you cannot keep up with at all. Less than a minute thirty left when she began, it feels like several minutes have passed.

"I trust you too, Mike." You reach over to take the carbine from her belt, switching her handgun to your bad arm.

"You have failed to comply. You will be made to comply." The android is no longer still. In the blink of an eye its in position to snatch the tablet.

You fire the carbine, the round impacting the A.I. right between its glowing blue eyes. Its body spins.

"Hostile detected, re-prioritizing." It lunges at you mid sentence, you've already gained some distance in the short time you had.

You fire again and again to little effect. Once the android determines you are no real threat, it turns again. "Re-prioritizing."

You toss the carbine, switching to Claire's weapon. "Lets see you shrug of this you rust-bucket!" You can barely feel the pain in your shoulder. Claire has an ammo of choice, which you normally consider extreme overkill.

The depleted uranium round shatters one of the androids eyes as the bullet impacts the back of its head before slight exiting through the dent your first shot caused.

It turns its disfigured head. Single eye, now a burning red, staring murderously into your soul.

"Re-prioritizing." It spins mid stride, kicks off the ground with a crash, and sprints towards you. The sight is absolutely horrifying, but you just keep firing. This time the homicidal machine takes no risks, destroying it hands to deflect or block the heavy slugs.

You make peace with death in the time it takes for the android to raise its arm. The arm, too quick to see in motion, you are already dead.

You aren't dead. You open your eyes.

The androids mangled hand is frozen an inch from your nose. Its eye glows blue. You fall to your knees, and see Claire in a similar position on the other side of the room. She's breathing heavily, tears streaming down her face.

You both stumble across the room to each other wordlessly. The hug feels right.

END OF THREAD ONE

Thank you everyone who voted for putting up with me.

I would love any constructive criticism or advice.

If anyone has any, I'd love to hear any thoughts or questions.

>>1497920

The world seems fascinating and as I said up >>1497780 that unfortunately might be why people didn't jump in, I would imagine people are more comfortable with the universes they already know the rules to, which is understandable. I wouldn't say you have to change it, I like new universes and being a bit of a fish out of water with it all.

I am looking forward to learning and picking up more as time goes on.

I think you've got a strong handle of characterization and I also don't mind the walls of text, though the improved formatting did help with reading.

What is the structure of the city we're in, is it a city-state or part of a larger Nation?

Are you new to /qst/? Have you read any other quests here?

>>1497957
There are only two nations left on this planet of constant war; Dystopia and Utopia.

The nation the story is set in so far is Dystopia.

Dystopia is a vibrant and varied nation, with a completely decentralized government.The constitution of Dystopia is a single line of text: YOU ARE THE GOVERNMENT.

From this there has sprung up individual societies which range from liberal democratic city states to total anarchist wastelands.

They have only one thing that unites them, nationalism, and the need for survival against the constant war being waged on them by Utopia.

Utopia can be summed up as essentially: fully automated luxury communism that still manages to be completely totalitarian.

Utopia was born when in this timeline the United States was subverted into communism after WWI.

Germany has the time to develop the nuclear bomb in WWII because America does not join the war until Germany drops an A-bomb on Stalingrad. Japan was converted to communism by join American and Soviet pressures.

All communist nations of the world became a superstate after WWII, forcing the losers to join them. They called it Utopia.

Eventually, America has a civil war and the rest of the worlds non-communist countries join them, ironically adopting the name Dystopia, the constitution allowed the countries to essentially keep their sovereignty.

Eventually the freedom got out of control and the nation became mostly anarcho-capitalist, with pretty much every government form also being represented. With exception of communism, as their neighbor nations would rise up and destroy them.

The 'civil war' has been going on for over 2000 years, and tech has been stagnant for over 1k of that. War has become so normalized that most people couldn't imagine peace on a grand scale.

>>1497957

The micro nation we are a part of is the Dystopian Moon Colony, which controls about half of the moon, though is really several thousand smaller nations all under one banner.

The moon is seen as deciding factor in the war as the moon is the key to affordable space travel and colonizing other planets from earth, and achieving "space superiority" and so is a hotly contested place.

They are heavily supplied by patriotic Dystopians from around the world because of this.

The city we live in is on the border of the no-mans-land between Dystopia and Utopia. The city is a mega-structure dome built over a large crater.

The dome is filled with enormous skyscraper like buildings which are each like a self contained city, with different levels or groups of levels containing micro-nations.

The buildings are connected by thousands of individual hyper-rail companies who range from a single tower to tower, or entangling itself throughout the whole city.

We live(d) in one of these buildings, towards the middle.

>>1497957
Also, I'm not new to quest threads, just writing them.

I didn't expect it to be like this, getting maybe two votes that had more than one voter, but I had a lot of fun writing.

Thanks for the questions.

>>1498154

Thanks for the answers and for the larger picture as a whole, a brief summary in the intro of the next thread would probably be to your benefit but I can guarantee you've got at least one maybe 2 solid players.

I was going to say it reminds me of the way the Moloch started his Northern Beasts quest, original world and being sort of dumped in it along with the longer, more descriptive posts

File: ancap.jpg (14 KB, 640x601)

14 KB JPG

https://twitter.com/AnAccQM

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/1489840/

>>1498154
This was a very cool start for a quest, like the writing and the setting. Hopefully you'll continue this later on.

>>1498952
I plan to, hope to see your there.

>>1498965
also enjoyed this, but it was kinda cryptic without your explanation in the end
but this definetely has some potential and your writing is pretty good

>>1499081
Thank you.

>>1499099
New thread tomorrow.

>>1489840
I have gone through all the text of the thread and edited out all the mistakes.

Also fixed the formatting and reformatted all my earlier posts. Will be posting this next thread.

https://pastebin.com/4fS2jZ3F

New thread up: >>1505854 →