Remove ads

Ice (steampunk, slo-mo apocalypse)

Reader mode
Remove ads
Lives before Leagues
  • Threadmarks
    • Both reckless and over-cautious are sins in a good Captain. Right now you have no need for speed, conserving lives now will mean that you can spend them in the future (if needed). The train comes to a halt, the skater cars spread the great wings of their tents, the kitchens feed everyone a meal, and you prepare to wait it out.

    Afternoon and night pass with the howl of the wind to keep you company, but before the sun is over the yardarm the next day it is easing. About mid-morning you are preparing to move once more, and you get the news. Some idiot, despite all the warnings and precautions, has succeeded in getting themselves frostbitten. Right foot. The usual option is amputation, but Graf Anette tells you that she could use Electroconvulsive therapy to restore the limb. She will need to set up apparatus, you have used enough supplies to clear a car as an infirmary.

    Frostbit - [] Heal them
    4 of 5 hours (once-off) , 2 hours spark time per week. Science!!!.

    Frostbit - [] Nothing doing
    Amputate and move on.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Frostbite.

    Short and therefore somewhat inaccurate summary. When the core temperature of the body drops too low, it responds by pulling in blood from the extremities. This keeps it alive, but if bad enough the finger (or hand or ear or whatever) can die due to cold, lack of oxygen etc. The real problem arises when the sufferer warms up again. Dead tissue is still connected to the blood circulation and dumping necrotic products into the bloodstream.
     
    Frostbit - [X] Heal them and have Graf record her findings throughout the process to see if the procedure can be replicated by conventional technology
     
    Paths taken
  • Threadmarks
    • You are the Captain. If you wish to watch the procedure then you watch. The injured woman sits on a table with the bad leg immobilized between two electrodes. Switches are thrown, a brief howl of power rising, and lightning arcs through the foot. The patient screams, but a minute later she is wiggling her toes, and the black marks that had been tracing up her veins are gone. You have something that can cure frostbite. It seems that the spark is required however.

    The train rumbles East across the Baltic, soon you will have to make another choice. Scouting reports people in St. Petersburg. The river there will serve you as a highway to Eastern Europe, as it has done for countless others through history. Taking the train into the close terrain of a city, however, could result in sudden conflict. You could bear north to the Finnmark, or south just enough to avoid the city. Either way you are leaving the advantage of (iced over) water for land with it's inevitable complications.

    Path - [] Through the city.
    Possible recruits, easy navigation (follow the river), possible conflict.

    Path - [] Go around
    Deal with hills and such like in preference to humans
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Paths taken 2
  • Threadmarks
    • The initial passage along the frozen river is quiet, frozen docks and river walls echoing only the flat chuff-chuff of your engines. Then behind you the rapid crackle of rifle fire and the scream-hiss of Wanderer's heat ray. Locals hopped out and abducted some of your skaters before being driven off.
    Examining some of the bodies they do not look hungry, but neither are they uniformed. Still, they have snatched some of your people.

    Response - [] Punitive expedition
    Six-inch fire and heat ray as you cut a path of devastation towards your abducted people.

    Response - [] Rescue
    Deploy marines and militia for a measured, precise response.

    Response - [] Abandon
    This must be a trap of some kind. Move on, leaving the lost behind.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Rescue

    Usually, the [] is at the beginning of the line, so it would look like:


    [] Punitive expedition
    [] Rescue
    [] Abandon

    If keeping the reaction is in place, it's like:

    [][Response] Punitive expedition
    [][Response] Rescue
    [][Response] Abandon
     
    Paths Taken 3
  • Threadmarks
    • The population here behave oddly. Some, as expected, recoil from armed and uniformed men moving in a rush - quickly seeking other places to be. Many more simply watch with calm disinterest, stepping aside only if pushed and otherwise continuing their routine tasks.

    Your force reaches a market square and now you know why. The fist-sized hexagonal cells of mindwasps in clusters near the centre of the square.
    Herded near them - your people, still under guard so presumably not yet subsumed. Your troops close in and discover that the cells are both empty and dusty, having released their cargo long ago. Rifle butts strike down abductors and bring people back, probably uncompromised, probably.

    [] Quarantine and check
    Have your sparks build a mindwasp checker and check all abductees and troops before resuming.

    [] Load and go
    Get out as soon as possible, check later when this place is several miles behind you.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top