(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #53 - The Stone Pavilion, Part Four

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers,  are exploring outside the KIA Academy, have finally recovered Charley Onyxhoof from wilderness and are attempting to claim their reward.

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Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades.

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.  Previously "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies, but recently has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.

Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.  No Name has recently been fitted for a artillery device of the Ancients that chucks spears further than any human.  Looking for trouble in all the right places.  Former jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.  He's recently been struck by a weapon by a strange race of people and transformed into... something else.

RHA-9: A lab assistant piece of "Living Metal" that seems to have befriended the group... for now!  Currently getting repairs done by the Restorationists.

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The explorers led Charley back to his work headquarters: Station Petro.  Going through the giant service doors, they encountered the entire service crew lounging about.  Most of the workers recognized their missing co-worker, even if his human portion of his body was covered in horse's hide.  

A few had run back to grab Vinn, the Station Manager.    

"Charley.... is that really you?"

"Yes, it is me,"  Charley spoke with a slur and a stutter.  

Vinn turned the group, "What happened to him."

Sonny replied, "Some group of blue-skinned creatures attacked him with treasures of the Ancients.  Turned him into stone, stripped his mind, and we managed to use one to turn him into that."

Station Petro

Realizing the power of this device, Vinn second-guessed himself, "Wait, that guy wasn't green, was he?  Was the worm furry? Were you a Dandelion?

"I was a sunflower. Still am? We're the same fellows you originally met."

Vinn let Charley punch out of work finally and go home.  Charley galloped away.

"There was something about a reward?"  Pete inquired.

"There was!"  Vinn answered.  He raised a hand, and a crew member returned with a blue and white plastic cooler, filled with 5,000 domars.  

The explorers tried to negotiate some advanced tools from the work crew.  Sonny did end up with an old and dented toolbox full of modern non-powered tools. 

Pete was more interested in refueling used power cells.  Vinn does have the technology, but it would hamper their production on their contracted jobs from the KIA Academy.  The collection of cells would all be filled within ten days. Vinn rejected a number of cells, mostly ones Sonny had tried to use with the Children's Alchemical Laser (CAL). 

Lathar tried to bribe Vinn to push back the department's normal projects, but Vinn feared the folks inside the KIA Academy, more than he like random gold.

Sonny had been looking for scientists to help him fix the CAL, but the group got horribly lost with less than helpful directions.  They did manage find a random shopping district, very little window shopping was done, as the attention was largely direction to the numerous news screens. 

The person on the screen was a female mutant housecat with bold orange and black tiger striping...

Blaze Shadowpaw reporting.... Attack by outsiders rocks KIA Academy.  Reports of a new faction of uncivilized scum  encroaching on the Academy have been confirmed, and now they're attacking civilians.  Video here [Video is a bird's eye view of the clearing around the stone pavilion] shows our dedicated public servants at ALLA CARTE RENTALS as their recovery team was retrieving a misplaced E-Cart.  Dozens of these blue skinned beings assaulted the team and murdered them all with a mixture of primitive weapons, gifts of the Ancients, and dark pagan magicks.

Blaze Shadowpaw, KIA Academy Reporter

Pete, We should probably head over there and reconcile the cart rental

The group navigated out of KIA Academy and back to the Great Overpass and the cart rental next concern for the group was the e-cart rental.  Black banners hung in the windows, mourning the loss of most of the staff in the unfortunate attack.  Pete decided to stay outside and let the others deal with the e-cart issue.  

 A person now stood behind the counter, a hardened older man, with minor physical mutations.  His name tag bore a hastily written "DEX" on it.  

Yeah, what do you fellers need?

We rented one of your carts, and went from a human into something different because your cart turned into something different.  I'm looking for restitution...

Dex....

Dex was non-plussed by this customer service issue:  Do you have a rental agreement number?

Lathar fumbled a bit, and Dex followed procedure.  The e-cart's signal had terminated outside the agreed rental service area, forcing the recovery team to be dispatched, and ultimately losing all of the their lives.  Stinky Pete had signed for the cart, and his bio-metrics were forwarded to the Academy.  

Lathar stumbled to find proper words, Our friend Pete, died out there....

Dex: My condolences, but your dead friend Pete did sign for the insurance. 

Lathar pushed some of the gold domars in front of Dex, What can we do to close out this horrible experience for our dearly departed co-workers and your friend.  

Dex, palming the gold:  You will lose the deposit, there's nothing I can do about that....   You pay off the daily rate, and you fellers are clean in my book.  You folks have a great day! 

GM Notes:  This was a largely bookkeeping session, tempered by some technical difficulties.   The group is intrigued by a "Repo Men of the Rental Cart Facility" future campaign.

Next:  #54 - Horse's Asphalt