MISSION: LOZANO PART ONE
Billie Stone was always the loudest, hardest working one around. She was always lending a hand, laughing, boisterous. It gave her a sort of natural charisma - she would never call herself a leader, but when called on to make a decision, she never hesitated.
When she joined the military, she wanted more for herself. Coming from a backwoods place in Tennessee, there wasn’t much in the way of education, much less work. Her father had fallen ill and passed away, leaving her Mother to fend for Billie and herself. She worked long hours at the nearby Tyson-Pepsi plant being a packer for synthesized 3D printer proteins of various sorts. Tennessee was one of the United States leaders when it came to making proteins due to the abundant chicken and soy bean farms; she had learned that 3D printer proteins were generally made from the “waste” products generated from things like chicken butchery. Real food very much existed, but it came at a premium for most.
So Stone joined to ease the burden on her mother, and find herself. She knew a little about Babylon, but never put much thought into it. She’d do the best she could under any circumstances, come hell or high water.
But now being here… seeing what all this was, it had her second guessing herself in a lot of ways. She was always around nature, always outdoors, and while technology was integrated into most everything, she was old school - she would try and find paper books to read, go for a walk in the evenings. She was never a big fan of how people could waste away in Sims, and how so many lived a life she saw as wasteful.
She now understood why this could be so addicting. It was like living a novel, every single day of your life. It was exhilarating and terrifying, and she couldn’t wait to read the next chapter.
As she led her small team, Riggs and Stovall behind her, she found herself musing on this. She received a message, breaking her from her thoughts;
PRESCOTT TO TEAM STONE: My assistant was able to get us a bit of information, seems like Lozano may be holed up in a small abandoned fuel depot just north of the base. It's outside of the blue teams control zone, thank goodness. Seems like its not too far from one of those caches Watson's team drew on that map they gave us.
STONE TO TEAM PRESCOTT: Roger, lets head there first.
The fuel depot was less than an hours jog from where the three teams had met up. The teams were jogging through another sparse, craggy forest, when they could see it in the distance. The forest ended and a few hundred yards out it was clearly a small outpost; there was a winding road coming out of the forest, and entering a gate of some kind. The gate looked like it had been blown off its hinges, sitting on the ground now, with part of the wall missing where it had been mounted.
Bullet holes and scorch marks littered the walls around the small depot. It was obviously the site of some sort of battle some time ago, and the depot had been left empty since that time. There were no signs of life here, the tire marks on the road long ago weathered flat.
The two teams inched their way to the edge of the forest, keeping an eye out for any movement. Sadly both teams were woefully unprepared for this, only a few of them had unlocked any sort of skills, and none of them were combat related. Plus… well, both teams hadn’t actually fought anything, running away isn’t exactly “fighting”. But Stone believed in her teammates, and they had to learn one way or another.
“Alright,” Stone broke the silence, “I want you to take your team over that way, to the south east, following the trees. See if you can spot any of them Recon team bastards. If you don’t, rendezvous with us inside the outpost. My team, we will sprint toward that outpost there; we can’t see inside, or whats on the other side, but luckily the surroundin’ areas pretty flat. So we should be able to see anything outside. We will meet on the west side of that wall there, then we will work our way inside. Understood?”
Everyone nodded, Prescott giving silent orders to his team as they walked away down the tree line. Stone took a deep breath, steadying herself; while it seemed like it was clear and they could just walk there, she wasn’t willing to take any chances.
STONE TO TEAM CHAT: On the count of three, we need to haul our butts over there. Don’t stop, and don’t look around. If you hear any shootin’, just dive on the ground and we will sort it out. Got it?
Riggs looked incredibly nervous, Stovall having a odd expression on his face. Stone raised her left hand, dropping fingers one at a time. Her team exploded into motion, aiming directly for the west wall as planned.
The run took all of five minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. Stone expected to start hearing gunshots at any minute, and her heart raced. But nothing happened as she arrived at the wall, well behind Stovall and Riggs. She was never the strongest runner afterall.
Her team stopped, panting to catch their breath. All that PT over the past five weeks was really paying off! Before she had arrived here, she never would have been able to do that in one go, she would have stopped halfway at least. She most certainly wouldn’t have been that quick, either. As they took a pause to catch their breath, Stone looked around their surroundings; nothing. It was just a flat lifeless expanse, with rolling hills and craggy dunes in the distance. This place was so bare and ugly compared to where she came from.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
After a few moments, they proceeded south around the wall, following it the entire way. The forest could be seen in the distance, and Stone found herself wondering how far Prescott's team had gotten. It was obvious they hadn’t found anything yet, as there were no gunshots or anything to be heard.
As they rounded the edge of the wall, Stone in front, and Stovall in the rear, Stone raised her hand. She tapped her head with one finger, Riggs and Stovall giving her a blank look. She rolled her eyes;
STONE TO TEAM CHAT: I’ll make that signal if i’m gonna message you on here. We gotta work out some sort of system after this.
RIGGS: Agreed.
STOVALL: I could have told you that…
STONE: Well why didn’t you then smarty pants?
Silence fell for a few seconds, Stones glower at Stovall challenging him - ‘say something smart, I dare ya!’
STONE: ANYWAYS… Once we get near the gate, I’m gonna duck in immediately, and follow the wall to the right - i’ll be inside the west wall. I want you two to go to the left, follow that wall around the east side of the compound. We need to clear the outside, then we can go into each buildin’ one at a time once Prescott’s team gets here. Got it?
They nodded, and with that, they executed the plan. Stone slipped in, following the west wall, while Prescott and Riggs went east as planned. Suddenly Stone received a message;
MRS. SCOOTYBUTT’S MAJESTIC MESSAGES
YIPPIE BILLIE! You unlocked yourself a fantastic new skill, Shot Caller. This gives all party members a 10% boost in movement speed when executing an action planned by you! You have serious Boss Girl energy!
She paused for a second. This was her first skill, and she was ecstatic to go ahead and equip it. As she did she suddenly got the absolute worst charlie horse she had ever experienced in her life, causing her to crumple to the ground. Thankfully the agony lasted only a minute, but jesus… that was awful. She received a tip from her assistant, mentioning that all skills would feel like this. “Thanks for the heads up!” she found herself thinking. She resumed what she was doing, finding that her new skill made her move much quicker. 10% didn’t seem like much, but in reality it felt like a substantial boost.
The fuel depot/outpost was small, but pretty crammed. There were fuel pumps in the center of the depot, leading from the gate. There was a small gatehouse that operated the now missing gate, and just three other buildings; one had to be some sort of fuel storage, and she guessed one was a sort of barracks, and maybe a restroom? In all the small outpost was maybe a hundred feet squared, if that. It took her no time to scout the west side, meeting up with her other team mates on the northern wall.
STONE TO TEAM PRESCOTT: The outside is clear, ya’ll find anything, or you headed our way?
PRESCOTT: We haven’t seen anything at all, its dead as dead can be. We are currently enroute, maybe five minutes.
STONE TO TEAM CHAT: They’re on the way, lets meet at the gate quick, and we will clear the buildings.
As the two teams met at the gate, they quickly devised a plan to clear the three buildings. Having never been trained in tactics for these sorts of actions, both Prescott and Stone leaned heavily on the advice of their assistants; while clearing the outside was a cake walk, doing things like ‘breaching actions’, staggering entrances, and more would take some practice.
Clearing the first two buildings, the fuel storage area and what ended up being a restroom/dining area, were simple. The fuel storage was mostly empty, looking like it had been raided after whatever battle, only a few empty barrels remaining and a bunch of stacked pallets. The dining area was a bit more precarious, having a few small side rooms, but it was mostly empty. It looked like whatever generator had powered this was looted, so the buildings were incredibly dark. Poking around the teams managed to find a few items, a couple of FLASHLIGHTS, one BASIC MEDICAL KIT, and a small stash of ammo for the M-4’s.
The Flashlights were interesting, in that they weren't equipment in a traditional sense. Once you placed it in your inventory, you just needed to think about turning it on, and a bright beam would come from a clip on flashlight that would appear on your head. It was really strange at first, a sudden burst of light coming from a turban on your head, but after a few tries it was pretty seamless.
Finally the teams assembled outside the largest of the buildings, the one that Billie thought was a barracks. This had to be where Lozano was holed up, if Prescott’s assistant wasn’t leading the team astray. Maher was in charge of opening the door, as she was the only unarmed member of the team. At the count of three, she pushed open the door, and the team filed in; Stone in the front, and Prescott taking up the rear.
The Barracks building was as expected; rows upon rows of bunks. Mattresses, metal bunks, and sheets were tossed everywhere. There were numerous metal lockers around the periphery, and many were topped, contents spilling on the ground. As the team filed in, Prescott and Stone made a cursory pass over the room, their flashlights illuminating the darkness.
There was… nothing.
Prescott spoke up, calling out. “Lozano, you in here?”
Silence.
“Well, either your assistant heard wrong, or hes moved on,” Stone said, moving to start searching the room.
There was suddenly a bang, startling everyone. Guns pointed in all directions, as the teams looked for the sound. It sounded out again, and it was obviously coming from a locker on the far side of the room. Stone nodded, taking point to move to the locker, and the rest of the team spread out, all weapons aimed on the locker in question.
Stone sidled up to the side of the locker, and looking out to the team nodded, as she pulled the small metal handle. As the locker swung open the team was greeted by… a small man tucked inside. He squeezed his way out, hands in the air.
“Uh… hey, I heard you guys were looking for me?” Lozano said, squinting against the bright flashlights.