Also, while the local university is going to have pretty extensive databases, we'll be wanting to yoink "how to" engineering/etc databases if we come across them. Construction knowledge and capability for all the various tools is fairly high-importance in the long run.
Not particularly strongly committed to this, and I was very nearly swayed by LordsFire's reasoning, but in the end the limit right now is the population that can be fed and housed. While medical tech would be damned nice, being able to get more food and housing produced once the research projects are finished in a few years time will probably allow us to absorb more survivors than we'd save with the medical tech and to avoid conflicts that might otherwise break out over scarcity.
Not particularly strongly committed to this, and I was very nearly swayed by LordsFire's reasoning, but in the end the limit right now is the population that can be fed and housed. While medical tech would be damned nice
Remember this Dark Age of Technology level Medical Tech. Look, even the shitest grunt level gun we have is better then the Lasgun of the Imperium. It stands to reason that the medical tech will be the same. Life extension anyone?
Despite the loss of members, you had decided to bring Sergeant Veldt's squad with you, but they needed a chance to stretch their legs and not feel like failures after their poisoning and subsequent imprisonment. They had also been given the pair of AWs to help make up for their deficiency in numbers, and to make sure that they wouldn't be the ones who would be bearing the brunt of any assaults. Of course they complained about the weight, but they were soldiers so of course they complained.
Your first place to stop was the main hospital, which was technically closer than the farms had been, but a bit more of a bitch to actually get to because it was so much closer to the city core along the side where the starbomb had actually hit and thus the streets were more damaged than your path to the farms last time. Still, you made good time and were in sight of the hospital by nightfall.
Random Roll 20
Hospital occupied
Starting attitude - Unfriendly
You were also in sight of the barricade.
Lowering your binoculars, you frowned at what you saw. Someone had gone to considerable effort to drag wreckage and debris into a barricade around the hospital, which actually had a few lights on - your academics and artisans confirmed that while it would be no where near as large as the one in the farm or the sawmill with their energy intensive grow lights and machinery, respectively, the hospital would have its own backup generator - and the barricade itself was lit up by barrels stuffed with flammable garbage that provided light for the armed men on patrol. You also picked up on men up on the hospital roof who while you wouldn't call snipers were definitely marksmen of some sort and would make most straight on attacks a bit of a bitch to deal with. Overall the efforts were a bit sloppy, but it was clearly that these men were serious about defending the place and you would likely suffer casualties trying to take it from them if you tried to use force.
Moving away, you make your way back towards the rest of your group, who are making camp inside the partially collapsed remains of an apartment block. Your forward scouts had reported seeing the lights and you had joined a reconnaissance team to see what was up. Deciding against trying to engage them during the night for now, you instead make sure the guards remember that there are potential hostiles about and endeavour to make contact in the morning.
The next morning you head out with a squad of your men in open sight while the other two wait in the wings, and several civilians from Shattersaw to try to back up your claims of being friendly and interested in cooperation. You have a flag of parley on display so hopefully they won't decide to just open fire
Rolled 30 + 22 = 52
Barely successful
Initial contact could have gone better, in your opinion, what with the guns being waved in your face, but at least they decided that they were, in fact, willing to talk with you. A gruff man dressed in police riot gear and with a heavy duty riot gun comes forward to parlay, although he has plenty of back up positioned along the barricade. You have your own people stay back while you march forward to talk.
"Who're you?" The man asks.
"WO Dia Stone. I lead one of the communities in the outlying area, and we came to see what we could salvage from Shattersaw. May I know your name?" You ask politely.
Rolled 94 + 22 = 116
Major success!
The man grunts before his posture softens a bit and he says, "Well, at least you're the first of those fuckers to actually be polite. I'm Detective Armin Grace of the Shattersaw PD."
"First of those fuckers?" You ask politely, mildly fishing for information.
He shrugs a bit at that and says, "More than one group from the outlying communities has come out here looking for a fight. Most of them are pretty desperate, but so are we. The polite ones ask and the ones that are the reason we have all the guns out try to take things we don't have. We ran out of drugs a while ago, so no matter how many rads your kid picked up from fallout, I can't do a damn thing about it." There's a certain tense edge there, a weariness of the soul that indicates that Armin has had to harden his heart of late.
"I take it you have something keeping you attached to such an obvious spot for the desperate to show up then," you ask quietly.
Armin clearly frowns behind his gas mask before he says, "It's a big solid building with power and good sight lines down the streets and it didn't get a load of fallout dumped over it, so its a pretty damn good home, all things considered."
"Right, well, I'm guessing that if there are other people from out of own poking around, someone has already made the pitch to you, but I'll make it anyway. My people are in a considerably more defensible location, so would you consider moving out?" You propose to Armin.
Armin looks over you for a moment before he says, "That's full military kit you've got, which is probably better than anyone else in five hundred klicks of here. WO you said? Well, I'm not going to say 'Yes' right away, but let me ask you a question instead: what's your food situation like?" Armin asks.
"We're stable, for now, although we don't have much slack at the moment. I take it you've got problems?" You ask.
Armin nods and grunts and says, "We've been trading food for the services of our doctors - sometimes we give charity, but if the docs starve then that's the end of that - so we're not as bad off as we could be, but about a week or two back some outsiders came in and kicked out the guys who were trying to start to farms back up. At first I was glad to see them go, the previous occupants were a bunch of gangsters who got beaten down previously before rounding up a bunch of starving folk as little more than slaves, but the new guys don't seem keen to share. They've dug themselves in and their general policy seems to be 'join us or starve'. They don't even trade. So, if you can guarantee us food I would be willing to at least trade our services with you. I'm not sure how much we'd be up for just packing up and leaving, but if the offer is good enough, we might."
"How many mouths to feed are we talking about here?" You ask.
"I'm not going to give you exact details, but call it a thousand for the sake of giving you a number to work with," Armin states, clearly not wanting to give away what forces he might have at his command. Ballpark then he probably had between three and six hundred people with him.
"I will get back to you on your proposal then," you say, before you hold out your hand, and Armin takes it in a sturdy farewell handshake.
So, this left you with something of a quest, or at least something to investigate. You decide that if someone from out of town has set up shop at the farms then it would be prudent of you to investigate. Leading your group through the remains of the town, you arrive just outside the main entrance to the farms, which have been considerably changed since you were last here about six weeks ago. There are a few lights on inside, but more than that there is a substantial barricade around the front entrance, with guards posted and even a flag present. While a crude thing, it clearly shows the profile of a yellow dragonfly on a black background.
That's somewhat disturbing. While apparently named after some ancient Terran species of insect, the dragonflies of Dandriss were only similar in terms of body profile and the way they flew but little else, being that their bodies were as long as an adult human's arm and they had a tendency to spit horrible chemicals to subdue their prey. The dragonfly was seen as a symbol of aggressive, even predatory, power and domination. Having a flag like that suggested that the current occupants were both organized and ambitious.
You make a note to sit down and get your own flag drawn up.
You are however left with a decision to make. These guys look like trouble, and trying to go up to them for a parlay looks like it has a good chance to just give away the fact that you are in the area, which would make things harder if you decided to attack. But you don't know if that is truly justified, and making an enemy when you don't need to seems like a bad idea. Also, you don't really need more farming equipment or for Armin and his group to join you, so you could go check out the rest of the ruins and load up on things to haul back instead of potentially picking a fight. Just giving up though rubs you the wrong way. You haven't gotten where you are by backing down from a challenge.
You will...
[] (1.2) Attempt to parlay first
[] (0.9) Leave and investigate first
[] (0.8) Launch a sneak attack
They're weighting. So, since you are Kind and Patient you have a natural inclination to go towards trying the more peaceful options first, so every vote to parlay counts for 1.2. Because you're Ambitious you don't like to back down so just leaving a task incomplete ill suits you, so heading off instead of investigating the farms and trying to get Armin and his people and whatever medical gear he has into your population rubs you the wrong way. Finally, because you're Kind you don't really want to attack someone you don't think has truly earned it.
I am guessing that all the fusion reactors have been claimed, but the Sawmill should be looked at. The police building has clearly been raided due to the armor the hospital man was wearing. If we can confirm the status of the Farms then we can plan out the next move.
[X] Attempt to parley first
So these guys basically walked in after we left and beat the unarmed gangsters? So far they proved they're smart enough to go for the food instead of pretty loot and are disciplined enough to stop the grunts from throwing grain at anyone who would give them shinies, but that may just be a wily leader and not any particular skill or virtue on their part. Ultimately their threat of no food doesn't work on us and we live far enough away that they need actual logistics and someone to keep a lid on everything back home to attack us. Unless we're unlucky enough that we discover this planet's Caesar's Legion, the risk involved in Parleying is acceptable.
We'll wait on them. If they're refusing to trade food, then they'll either be lacking in other infrastructure or will need to expand. If we can coax the hospital people back with us, we can probably empty out the hospital pretty well of equipment.
If we can get a few to come back with us with some equipment for trade (we don't have a bountiful harvest, but we have a bit to spare for now), and who can go back with us on our next expedition to give a report to the rest, then we'll probably want to see if we can't scavenge up some stuff from the sawmill.
On the flip side, if we leave without dealing with the new group, we might come back finding the hospital group taken over by the farming group, which would be unfortunate.
If we do take care of them, then we can loot out the food, trade some to the hospital for equipment and see how many we can coax back with us.
