The Right Track (Kathy)

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

Tabath's yell echoed throughout the plaza. No response, save perhaps the wind picking up a bit, but that's clearly a coincidence. Once again, no movement from the glow, hostile or otherwise. The coast was as clear as it was going to get.

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

Tab quietly walks out the door and goes to check on the random thingy.

(meh, patience with encounter wearing thin.)

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(Well, its kind of hard to keep showing something isn't a trap)

Only a few steps into the plaza before she was able to see the cause of the noise and glow. A miliary aircraft, or atleast part of one, had crashed sometime earlier on one of the side streets, luckily comming in right down the line, else it would have taken out a building. Perhaps it had come in from the direction of the plaza, and was thus the cause of the burning cars.

Either way, here was a medium sized piece of the plane, part of the weapons assmebly it looked like. About every five seconds the componate tried to do something, Tab could see moving parts on the outside lurch forward, only to get jammed from damage, resetting, then trying again. The glow was comming from a hole near the service pannel. A strange blueish orb of plasma was "stuck" in the machine, several wires were sticking into it, though clearly a freak occurance, there was an impact patern. By luck, this seemed to be powering whatever special equipment the jet had been carrying. With Tab's skills, she could perhaps figure out what it was ment to do with a closer inspection, though care would be needed, the orb was emitting quite a volume of heat, and who knows what else would happen if it was disturbed.

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(You actually completely went off on a tangent with the freaking building falling apart instead of just letting it known that whatever it was wasn't responding to anything Tab did. If I was a monster roaming around a city that's in the process of falling apart, or a military presence, I wouldn't chase down every stray sound of collapse either.)

As Tab (Finally) figured out the thing wasn't alive or responding, she quickly headed out to see what it was, moving in close once it seemed generally safe, and discovering the rather unusual weapon system, or at least what she assumed to be such. Unfortunately, a jet-mounted gun was not the kind of thing that someone could easily pick up and start using on their own, and the only thing Tab could think of to do to the thing was power it down to prevent any risk from it shooting off randomly and hurting someone, as she gently pulled the power cables away from it, noting that since the weapon itself seemed to have a built in safeguard against the plasma discharging in a dangerous manner.

"Well this was a useless find." she muttered quietly to herself, staying WELL out of the way of the exposed side while she gently tugged the cables from it, in case her disabling of it caused the heat to vent out from the side that was open, or worse, for the plasma to discharge entirely out the exposed side.

With the utterly useless broken piece of machinery noted and disregarded, Tab was left, once more, with the irritatingly limited options of merely going to the police station or not, as nothing else had presented itself, still.

Given such few options, Tab quietly continued down the street, stalking up on the station that she'd spent the better part of a day trying to get to.

(Useless object is useless.)

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(Eh, I think this is more of an issue about how we visualize the surroundings. I generally don't know of any windows on doors that open, but I tried to comply with the request anyway. I'll just try to be a bit more detailed)

(And sorry for having to disregard the latter part of your post, but you'll probably want to respond to this instead of walking off. For your OOC information, you just disabled one of the militaries last attempts to combat the monsters, the principals of which I won't go into yet, for fear of giving a spoiler, though if you investigated it closer you might have found something out. That plasma ball was NOT part of the weapon, but something that was shot at it by a monster and got stuck)

The machine crackled as Tabatha disabled the only working machine in who knows how large a radius.. The wires made small static electricty discharges against her fingers where the insulation had melted away, though nothing even remotely painful. She had to remove quite a many wires to disable it, more so then would seem to be needed to power it at first. Even after the whirling stopped, the ball of plasma held for a second, though when it went, it went with a bang. Freed from the magnetic force generated by the looping circut, it quickly destabilized, exploding where it was. The shape of the damage to machine was such that Tab was shielded, mostly, the impact crater the ball was lodged in diverted the force mostly out in a cone shape, though the noise would have her ears ringing for a good while.

Tab was stunned by the force of the energy released right next to her for a good ten seconds. She was just regaining her senses when a loud howl was heard from several blocks away, echoing across the landscape. As soon as it died down, another was heard, and then another, and another. They were comming from all sides, but still quite far off. The monsters sure had intrest in the area now!

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(okay, definately poor explanations -_-; the way you said it made it seem like there was one or two downed wires that were accidentally powering something, not something purposely setup to be powered. Of course she's not going to disable something that's been rigged on purpose for whatever reason >_<

"several wires were sticking into it, though clearly a freak occurance" sounds like it burst open a ground wire during it's crash that accidentally was trying to trigger the thing. Not like something deliberate that would take "She had to remove quite a many wires to disable it, more so then would seem to be needed to power it at first."

The way you were describing it, the wires were accidentally powering a dangerous military weapon, that's only reason for not exploding was some kind of safety measure. NOT something someone purposely rigged to try to do something.)

(p.s. the way you described the window in the back was that it was in the wall, not in a door. Also a failure of descriptions. That's why she was attempting to open it to look out/yell out. If it was a door, she would've just nudged the door open a bit to have yelled out.)

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(There was a back door with a small window was the key part there. There is only one interpretation if this that is gramatically correct.

While you seem to have found the other key part for the machine, that was simply an alternate explanation, and it could indeed look like that, but messing with it was still probably a bad idea. However, the thing was not rigged to explode, it just did. It was luck that it hadn't exploded before)

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

Tab ran as soon as she'd finished disabling the dangerous machine and quickly distances herself from the device as it exploded. After the explosion, Tab quietly nodded to herself, content that she did a good deed, as any machine that was still operational in this kind of situation, after everything else that had happened, was bound to be a bad thing. With monsters starting to come out of the woodworks, undoubtedly pissed off at her actions and stopping their nefarious plans, Tab quickly slid on her roller skates and took to the streets at high speed to escape the area, using their distraction to, for the umpteenth time, attempt to reach the police station without further hindrance, turning down a couple side streets for good measure and ducking into a shop whenever one of those things sounded unusually close. If everything was distracted with the evil device, then she was sure she would have no trouble entering the police station without further hassle by the strange monsters.

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

It was even more obvious now how dumb the monsters were. Tab could easily see the monsters walking in straight lines towards the source of the noise. Her skates were not a very stealthy means of travel, but she could also outrun them. Most of the time it wasn't nessisary, turn a corner, then another, and the monsters would keep going in the direction they last saw her moving, not bothering to look down any new paths. It took time, but Tab was able to close in on the police station in a reasonable ammount of time. As she got within a block, Tab was once again forced to halt and switch tactics. Not all of the monsters ran from the area, enough were left to be a threat, but as long as she was careful she'd probably be okay.

From her vantage point down an ally leading off from the station's parking lot, no monsters could see Tab, giving her a moment to think. The police station had three visible ways in. The main doors were barricaded, but the windows next to them were knocked out, and one or two infected were wandering by them, perhaps injured, slow moving for sure. To the right down the building was an external stairwell to the second and thrid stories, probably intended as a fire escape but good for normal use as well. Tab could probably reach it without alerting anything, but it looked like it had sustained a bit of damage, perhaps using it would cause it to break. Last, way across the parking lot was a ramp to an underground parking garage. Tab would have to either be stealthy or make a dash past the infected to get there, but once inside could potentally lower the bay door to block more creatures from following her.

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(Knowledge Get!)

Having learned of how stupid the creatures were, Tab didn't 'risk' going straight in with stealth, but instead decided to make some noise. She turned to a nearby trash can while her skates were still on, and kicked it over hard, causing a huge ruckus while lifting her top to flash the things and sticking her tongue out, anything she could do to taunt and encourage the group to give chase while she was just over a block away, and once they began running after her, she turned to bolt down a side-street, if her skates let her easily outpace some of the other monsters, then a few humans that seemed to have transformed and be shuffling around would be a breeze to move faster than. This doubled it's effectiveness as the amount of sound and fuss she was causing, hopefully alerted some of the stupider beasts from inside the station to come out and see what was going on, emptying the station before she ever had to deal with it.

A quick rush off a block to the left, letting the beasts give chase as she kicked over another can and mooned the things, another block out... she glanced down an alleyway, ensuring it was safe before rushing down it. Quick as she was on the skates, if nothing got in her way, then as long as no unusual new creature appeared, she'd soon have doubled back and come full circle, being much quieter on her return trip and sliding the skates off and shoes back on for the final half a block, content that she'd mislead the foolish beasts.

As long as her plan worked and nothing remained guarding the entrance (and hopefully just inside the building), she would rush towards it, pistol and darts at the ready, slipping in through the front door with the stealthiest approach she could manage.

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

Tab's plan worked like a charm. The infected let out a howl and gave chase right away. An outside observer would have quite the laugh watching their misguided attempts to track the woman. She safely made it all the way around the block, despite attracting a few more monster's then expected. Some assorted spiders, infected, and a few things Tab hadn't seen before were about, but easily avoided with this tactic. She even saw a leaper, but unused to such fast moving prey it overshot its target, landing comically in a dumpster. Though a close call, dwelling on it would not help the situation.

Back at the station, Tab found her way into the main lobby. No monsters were here right now, and some emergency lights were on, a good sign, but there were many things to discourage her as well. Blood was smeared over much of the floor, all the waiting benches were flipped over and the main information area was utterly trashed. Beyond trashed, really, there were signs of ordered defense, a defense which failed, a few doors were fortified, but smashed. Oddly no bodies here, though.

Tab had a few options on where to go now. The info kiosks might have something usefull, but it would be hard to search in its current state. A large sign indicated that to Tab's left was a garage and service area, there were probably back ways into other sections from there, as it would make a natural hub. The same sign also said that to the right were there stairs and elevators to the offices, as well as the bathrooms. The more secure areas of the building were no doubt kept hidden from the public, and more searching would be required to find them.

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

Tab quickly realized that an information kiosk would be useless, as if would be meant for social order information and updates on where to go to meet certain people... As already figured out, meant for public use, or for when the building was operational. She quickly disregarded that as an option.

Likewise, the bathrooms, while useful to know where they were, weren't a priority. She'd found functioning water many times before already, so checking one more wouldn't help. Just as the garage was likely useless too... all modern police vehicles would have electronics inside it that would make even starting the cars impossible, only the most backwater cities on the planet wouldn't, in this day, and in a big city like this one, it would make the cars way too easy to steal... a rather ironic twist, as the very thing that 'saved' the cops from losing their cars, quickly rendered their vehicles as good as stolen for what use they were.

So Tab was left with the option of moving towards the back into a more central hub, or upstairs into the offices. Realizing that either was a good a bet as the other, it came down to guesswork and deduction...

Tab quickly examined the area near the stairs and the way to the back, to check which section seemed better fortified. (Glance, nothing thorough.) Whichever section was better guarded against the monsters would likely be the path towards weapons storage and various other useful goodies. Evidence lockers that would quickly turn stolen guns into a last line of defense... It would be what the desperate police and civilians of the area would fall back to. And as this area had fallen... the weapons would've fallen as well, meaning that unless a final holdout was going strong somewhere deeper in the building, she would have easy pickings of as many guns as she could get her hands on. If she was lucky, perhaps even a military grade gun or two that had to be confiscated by police!

(Actions: Head towards whichever area looks like it was most fortified / is now most wrecked. Gun/Darts at the ready, as always.)

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

The ground floor didn't look particularlly fortified. Tactics for this situation, well, the closest comparable situation, taught that high ground was a very good thing to have. The thing was, without going up the stairs, Tab really couldn't fully get a feel for that direction as well. No one would defend ON the stairs. As such, she'd have to go on what she could see from down here.

The way to the back was mostly clear. Infact, if it weren't for a row of about seven or eight bullet holes, it might look almost normal, the emergency lighting being almost as good as the normal lights, once the area became less furnished and public. Tab couldn't see all the way down there, just down the first hallway or so, but it seemed most doors off of it were heavy and made of steel. They all had small, flashing red lights on a pannel next to them, perhaps meaning they were locked. The best sign she had that the area was fortified. However, it also ment Tab couldn't get in that way either. She could perhaps disable the lockout if she tried, but was it worth the time?

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(wait wut. No one would defend ON the stairs? You've gotta be kidding. Shooting down bodies climbing up stairs is almost an assured victory when you hold the high ground. It forces your opponents to need to climb over their defeated when coming after you. If she sees the stairs and nothing thrown down them, and few bloodsplatters/bodies there, then it's a fair sign no battle took place there. Also: I love how electronics were supposedly wiped out, but dozens of random things just work for no reason. Like the lights here on a control panel.)

Guessing wildly that the station was somehow fortified against the EMP... though how or why she couldn't fathom, Tab approached the doors and waved down any cameras nearby. If there were people inside, they would undoubtedly be watching the screens for danger of another attack and preparing themselves for the worst, while seeing a survivor, like herself, would get some major attention and likely have the doors opened from the inside.

She'd attempt this for a couple minutes, Trying to show several signs that she wasn't just a mindless beast, and quietly knock at the door as a gesture of wanting to come in, though if no one answered, she'd eventually move on, deciding that with these doors sealed, it either meant everyone inside wasn't going to respond to her, or everyone inside was turned into a monster already, and breaking in would only cause a flood of angry, and probably hungry, beasts, to come pouring out, right on top of her.

(Actions: Attempt communication method of entry. If failing that, head up the stairs.)

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(There's reasons for everything. Part of this is trying to figure out WTF is going on. If I told you instantly why the lights on the pannels were working we'd miss a big element of the game.

And eh, I was talking about on the stair stairs, not the landing, which I agree with. The point was I making was the part of the stairs Tab could see were pretty clean.)

Moving down the hallway, Tab got a better view, as well has her first look down some of the side passages. Most of them weren't very long, only having one or two doors on them. Down one was a fairly large bloodstain, with a tool kit in the middle. Nearby was a large hole in the wall, leading to the garage it seemed. Not just some random damage, either, this had been cut on purpose, the edges were smooth. As further evidence, a small power cable had been run through the hole and was conencted into a pannel on the other side of the passage. Hard to see at first as it was stained with blood, and therefore blended in, but a thin red streak sort of stood out in its own right. Despite the clear indication that something had gone horribly wrong, atleast the survivors had tried to make some repairs. It might be worth checking out where the other end of the cable went, sooner or later, though preferably when well armed.

A few of these doors had a glass viewport on them, though the glass was tinted a bit. Tab could see through them if she got close and squinted. On the other side of most was nothing at all, beyond normal supplies and support equipment, water heaters, a laundry room to do the clothes from the cell block, that sort of thing. However, on the other side of a few were blood stains. The last door was different however. Full on blood stains and a coupled of dead officers on the other side. Somehow the lack of a visible attacker made it all the more creepy.

Seeing as no one was left alive on the other side of the secured doors, Tab went to Plan B, hustling back to the stairs. The way they were designed blocked line of sight all the way to the top, or even up to the next landing nearly. The first sign of the defense was as she reached the first landing. The first thing that caught her eyes was two dead bodies in the door to the second floor offices, positioned as if running desperately to get away from something. But besides those two, there were very few signs of struggle at that exact location, and the offices beyond looked in pretty good shape. But then Tab smelled where the real battle had been...

Wafting down from above was the sent of several bodies decaying. On the next set of stairs up, just out of view from where she had been standing, were the corpses of around ten zombies, five spiders, and even the husk of a giant land squid. Beyond that was the ruined tangle of a barricade made with desks and bookcases, and the remains of a few defenders. Still with service pistols, the first instance of the defenders leaving behind their supplies.

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

Tab quietly nodded at each group that she found dead... She quickly snatched up tasers, pistols, nightsticks, and anything else that resembled a decent weapon, as well as both metallic handcuffs (with keys snatched up too), and if any of the officers here had them, some of the plastic strap style 'cuffs' that were so popular in modern police forces. Any armament was better than none, and having a bag for carrying it meant she could distribute weapons at a later time if she ever found others to hold up with.

In short order, Tab shifted from a pistol and darts, to having two pistols at the ready, both fully loaded and ready to handle any dangers as she slipped them into several pistol holsters she'd managed to free from dead officers.


While Tab continued to move in deeper, she quietly knew that with this much decay, anything up here was likely long since gone, or here only to feast upon the dead. With no marks on any of the corpses of fresh damage though, that second idea was ruled out, and she knew fairly certainly, that she would be pretty safe up here, since even these strange monsters needed to eat.

(Tab continues searching the second floor, collecting firearms and other weapons, as well as a few tools, and a large flashlight or two if she can find them/they work.

She has one gun out at all times, and two out and pointed down hallways as she rounds any corner to look down it as she explores. For the moment, she ignores where the cords are leading out to.)

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

Tab quickly found two good pistols. They were empty, but the dead had plenty of spares. Probably got overrun while reloading. After organizing how she liked, Tab had two full police pistols and five reloads for each, or ten reloads in total. She also secured a taser and a nightstick. It seemed these defenders weren't big on melee, or maybe those were just the survivors that had fallen back in deeper. No cuffs, maybe there'd be some with the stores or prisoner areas.

As Tab continued in, she found herself with another choice. The offices up here were utterly trashed, including some holes dropping back down to the second floor. There were also three main paths away from the offices. A long hall that lead to some of the big wigs' offices, they seemed to be in better shape, the interrogation rooms, perhaps Tab could smash the glass on the civilian side and break into a secured area, or a path off to side that lead to the prisoners wing, as indicated by a sign. Also, in the event a quick escape needed to be made, the external stairs also were here, leading back out into the street or down a floor, should Tab so desire.

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

Tab never expected officers to have tasers and nightsticks due to melee preferences, she assumed they would have them as part of their regular police gear, and quickly snatched up one or two of the belts that the officers typically wore over their uniform to hold their gun and other side-arms.

Ultimately, if the armament was lacking, she wouldn't press the issue to search for more, knowing that in the haste of battle, any number of things could've happened to their gear.


Interrogation rooms immediately had Tab ignoring that first direction, by the time anyone got there, they would already have been searched and disarmed, and it wasn't likely a very fortifiable location.

Going through the offices... though likely able to find more gear, didn't seem a smart idea either. If she fell down the wrong hole, she could've trapped herself in one of the locked off rooms, and who knew what was still down there.

Her only other choice was to head through the holding area, which she was inclined to believe the best option. Since this seemed to be the civilian approach side of it, it likely meant she could almost casually walk into wherever confiscated objects were, compared to if she was approaching from where criminals came in from.


(Actions: Tab wears a police weapon belt to hold her new array of weaponry, and heads down to holding.)

 

[OAMP]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

The walk to the prisoner area was oddly peacefull. The hall went around the outside of the building for awhile, giving Tab a good view out the windows of the ruined city. The fires burning in the early morning sun would have been even more breathtaking at night, but alas, there were more important things to do.

The hall exited into an area where visitors and prisoners could talk through a screen with a phone system. There'd been a major fight on the other side of the screen, blood was everywhere. There were two doors on that side, one to the cell area, though the cells weren't visible from here, and another to on one side, leading to a small room that connected both sides of the screen. The door on Tab's side was shut, but had a key in the lock, as if someone forgot it there. The door on the prision side, however, was jammed open with... something. Perhaps a serving cart used for meal time, though it was horribly bent out of shape. It too was covered in blood.

In the small connecting room, there was also another door, no doubt leading into a more secure area. It was of the type down in the hallway on the ground floor. Secured, but through the window Tab could see a sign above a door that read "questioning". That's where she'd be if she'd chosen that path, it seemed. If she felt like burning some time, she could go back and try that way, or else keep going into the prison area.

(Note: I'm not trying to force a path on you, I'm just giving you the layout of the building.)

 

[Kathy]

Re: The Right Track (Kathy)

(Why do I feel like I need a map to figure out where I'm at -_-)

Tab sighed as she walked around the area for a bit, opening that locked door with the key and pocketing the keys quickly. She rushed over to the serving cart and nudged it out of the way to check if the other door could be locked and unlocked with the keys she now had... if so, she had just discovered an easily guarded zone, able to lock off both ways in, it meant anything attacking her would need to break through one door or another, unless it could reach through the screen to attack her.


Tab quietly nodded as she closed the door enough that it looked like it was shut, but kept it open enough it wouldn't lock on it's own, so she had a fast escape route if she needed it, before she continued into the holding area. Despite the blood around, she realized that somewhere past here was likely where confiscated objects were stored... And after she checked on that, she would return to try to find a secure phone line.

(Actions: Take key. Verify locks before letting anything close. Then close the first door and leave the second door ready to close in case of fleeing. (So if she does retreat, she'd be in a safe box).)