Recovery and Planning the Next Move

Soscaid fell back on her elbows, pistol dropping from her left arm. Her right lay awkwardly on her lap with a disconcertingly squishy feeling. There was blood pumping freely from her leg, and she began to feel blackness creeping in at the edge of her consciousness. She threw up. She heard footsteps hurry past her to her left, followed by the sound of knees hitting the damp earth nearby. There was a sob. As Suskade sank back further, the leafless toothpicks of trees took on a strange perspective, pricking at the starry night sky before swirling to black, the sobbing ringing in her e ars. I can see that this love was meant to be Hello and welcome back to A Wasteland Story, the show where our heroine Soskeid and her little friend just keep trying to survive the nasty, dangerous, and sometime hilarious post- apocalyptic world of the Fallout 2D20 RPG. But they just keep finding themselves consistently and unintentionally involved in the growing tension between the Brotherhood of Steel, the New California Republic, Nasty Raiders, Wild Ghouls , and a mysterious man who apparently wants to take over the world by employing the definitely reliable help of huge mutated super soldiers gone wrong. What's the worst that could happen? In the last episode of the show, Suskade was presented a quest to obtain a sample of the supermutant-inducing substance, the FEV, from the grasp of James Bond villain-esque, definitely not a real Doctor, Dr. Wright. Suskade and Dogmeat rescued Brotherhood of Steel's scribe Hawthorne from the clutches of a nasty raider in a dubious drive-in, and have now tracked a band of raiders on their way to mischievous deeds in the Ghoul settlement of Keshar with the help of none other than Hawthorne's own comrade Ramirez . Huh, that's a lot going on right there . We left our survivors at the edge of the raiders' camp with a set trap, and Soskeid taking a sneaky shot at the biggest and nastiest of the raiders in an annoyingly hangy unresolved role. Will they stop the raiders in their tracks? Will they rescue the rogue brotherhood member Ramirez and make it to Keshar safely? Do they even want to? These are all questions that might actually be answered right now in this episode of A Wasteland Story, so stay tuned as we finally resolve that role for you. Sorry about that. The lightly crystallizing outbreath of Soscaid's concentration dissipated, and time seemed to slow down . had begun their patrol on the other side of the clearing, that Hawthorne was ready nearby behind the cover of a tree. She knew that two fragmines lay in wait for the soon to be oncoming enemies and that Dogmate was by her side, low to the ground and poised for action. But all she saw through her right eye and the simple sights of her hunting rifle was the shadowy face of the huge raider in spiked armour standing massively with his beefy arms folded across his chest. She saw him spit on the ground, and she pulled the trigger. Woohoo ! That is a crit, that is a one and an eight, so we generate an action point. Excellent. We may spend it to do some extra damage . We hit him in the right leg . So we're doing six dice piercing one, and he has two physical resistance. Okay . So we need to do lots of damage . I think we're going to spend that AP to do an extra dice worth of damage. Dog meat sitting there with us as well . Big hit, come on . One, two, three, that is not good enough. Everyone at the campsite ducked as the crack of the rifle disturbed the quiet nighttime air. Suskate had aimed at the leader's right leg She had been hoping for the chance for a second shot. The huge man's hand dropped to the gap between his armor and his thigh. He lifted his hand to his face and inspected it, frowned, and spat once more on the ground before hefting his evil-looking oversized machete onto his shoulder. He growled. And just before Suskard takes the shot, Hawthorne is gonna do a bird call, which is the scout code for Ramirez . And we'll see what he does after this shot happens. Damn it, said Sasuke quietly as she quickly slid the bolt back on her hunting rifle, flinging the bullet casing into the darkness. From a tree nearby, she heard a strange bird call, apparently coming from Hawthorne. Suskade saw Ramirez look up as she lined up another shot on the still stationary leader 's leg a little lower this time. I'm gonna use my last luck point to re-roll these three blanks . Excellent. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. That means we get a critical hit in the right leg, piercing one, so it does six damage to his 21. This time the bullet dropped the man to his knee, and Soskade could see a dark stain forming on the lower part of his leg . The man roared and ripped the now twisted piece of thin metal around his thigh off its buckle and flung it into the night. He looked up. Everyone else was frozen in place, waiting for an instruction. So critical hit to the leg you immediately fall prone as your leg gives out under your weight. You can no longer take the sprint action and the move action is a major action. That is good news. So she hits the raider in the knee in a weak part of his armor, and he screams, swears, and falls to the ground. Can they tell where the shot came from? His perception is eight and let's say sneak. Uh let's say survival. So ten . Yes, they can tell. Over there you fucking Nancy's, the leader roared, go now, or I'll shoot you my damn self. So they know where the shot came from and he points and he says get the fuckers or whatever it is that he shouts. The others start running and then we go into initiative. First things first is of the three left, do they all run towards where the shot came from? I think it's unlikely that they all run ? No, they don't all run. The two raiders on patrol broke into a run towards the treeline. The third took up cover behind one of the logs that had been dragged over to the fire, resting his pipe pistol in both hands on it. Soskade heard a shout of Cun Doggies and turned to Hawthorne's position as she flung the rifle over her shoulder and drew her pistol. She nodded to the shadowy figure and began to retreat back into the side, further into the trees, breathing heav ily. So two of them break off and run towards where the shot came from. Are they both side by side? Yes. And something else happens. That's a 33. Uh there's a random event . I think is how that works. Random event. This could be bad. Could be good. Okay . Let's see what the event focus is. This could be interesting . 4 3 is NPC negative Oh well I think this probably means that Rumirez is gonna get shot. As Soskaid retreated in a half backward scuttle, dog meat unsettled and getting under her feet, she saw the leader stand, pick up his rifle in his offhand, and without looking, discharge it into the chest of the now crouched Ramirez with a fuck you, soldier boy. So I think what happens is the Raider veteran shouts to his and he's got a combat rifle, which is not much good in his short range. So I think he shouts to the one raider that's left behind him, it's that bastard Brotherhood of Steel, take him out. And then the other raider also runs . Soska had lost sight of the camp as she pushed her back up against a tree, determined to be as far away as possible from the mines in the open ground. She heard another shout, What the fuck are you doing, pussy? Get in there followed by a nervous Yes, boss. More footsteps joined the thumping on the dirt, and she swung her pistol around, leaning on the tree for support just in time to see the first two raiders reach the edge of the forest and of their trap. I think that means there's two of them seeing if they can detect the mine. I think it's going to be difficult for them because they're probably pretty well hidden. They're not expecting there to be mines in the forest, and they're just running towards it. So I think it's a difficulty two if they spot the mine . And they would need perception. Sneak or survival doesn't matter. They would need six. Do they spot the mine? Difficulty two Ha they do Wow a four and a five Fuck look out she saw one of the pair shout as he shoved his companion in the shoulder and to the side, slowing as they reached the trees. Suskai had looked down and saw the glint of moonlight on the mine that Hawthorne had placed. Damn it, she thought as the two deftly avoided the trap, separated and reached the treeline unexploded. This wasn't good . Suskeed had been relying on taking one or two of them out before they got into a real firefight. She brought her pistol back to her chest as she slid around the back of the tree. They still had a small advantage for as long as they weren't seen. She hoped that Hawthorne could keep it together and hold her own, and then realized she'd lost track of where the scribe even was now. She took another deep breath and let it out slowly trying to focus her ears on the position of the raiders. Were they already moving? So unfortunately for Soskaid, as they're running up towards it, one of them has the wherewithal and sees a glint of metal and he says, Shit, go around. And they go pince a mov ement, they they split up, they go around the mines , um, and then back in front, and now we need to ask, do they see one of us ? If so, which one? I'm gonna ask mythic that. Do they see one of us? I think now it's likely they don't see any of us yet, so they run around the mines and back together and start looking around, and they're sort of on guard, but that is their whole turn. Sosuke had heard the crack of a stick and heavy breathing somewhere behind her, and a calm out, come out, wherever you are . She tensed. But at least they hadn't been spotted. She had to make an assessment to where Hawthorne was most likely to be and give her a signal to surprise the stalking enemies. If they could take these two out quickly, they might be able to reposition and get the jump on the others. She checked the chamber of her pistol. Not many bullets either, she thought. This was going to be tight.ight, T tight or over . The footsteps of the third raider came to a stop . Where are they? You get him? came a hopeful voice. Shut up, Dickhard, followed the hissed response. Soskade looked again for any sign of Hawthorne, but there was none. Maybe she'd bolted, thought Suskade in despair. No. She had to assume the soldier was holding her position. If she could sneak around to their flank and Hawthorne was where she should be, the group's focus would be split and they might just be able to take them out. Stay there, she whispered to Dogmeat, waited two heartbeats, and then broke off to her left, ducking low between the trees as quietly as she could . Okay, they duck behind trees. The other one gets to the edge of the clearing and ducks behind a tree as well. That is their whole turn. We're still hidden. Do we try to sneak around somewhere and take another shot? Maybe that be might might be the right way to go. Soske had watched her feet in the moonlight, trying to avoid stepping on anything that might make a noise . Three trees. Five. No shouts or shots disturbed the now silent forest. She needed to get a bit further without losing track of where they were. If you have an advantage, do everything you can to keep it, she reminded herself. Okay, so both Suskade and Hawthorne try to sneak around to the other side of the clearing to get another shot, like so that they're behind them and the guys aren't in cover anymore. So we're gonna do another sneak test. I think Hawthorne stays where she is, and Susuke tries to sneak around. I think it's difficulty two now . So we're doing agility sneak, which is uh twelve . Susuke had slammed her back up against another tree a little too hard. She couldn't hear anything other than her own breathing. She had to get it under control. She held her breath, but that only succeeded in raising the relative volume of her own heartbeat in her ears. Had she been spotted? We've got a four and a nine baby. So S osuka successfully sneaks around to the let's say west side of the clearing a little bit more, or to round to the east side of the clearing a little bit more. So she's now in close range. She has slung her hunting rifle back on her shoulders. So she pulls out her 10 millimeter and she takes a shot at one of the raiders. There. A faint moonlit shadow appeared at her feet. Suskia had had to stop herself from panicking. She'd been found , her hands tensed on her pistol, not knowing what to do next. Don't assume and act too fast, she said to herself. She noticed the shadow sway slightly, but there was no one running towards her. She risked a glance around the tree and saw one of the raiders, his back against his own tree about ten meters away. He was also peering around his, but in the other direction. Now was her chance. She took aim and tried to get a sense of where the other two were She saw a second shadow, stalking low, and followed it to its source out of the corner of her eye. It is a sneak attack, so we're gonna get an extra damage. I think that's what sneak attack does. Sneak attack I love sneak attacks have I mentioned. So you reduce the difficulty and it gains vicious. Awesome. Awesome. So that means we don't even have to roll. We get vicious at raider number one . Shooting him in the head. At the last second, the raider in her sights straightened up, creating an easy shot at his head, rather than the shoulder she'd been aiming at. Sasuke had readjusted and pulled the trigger . Four, one, two, three, four, five, six damage in the head . That's gonna hurt. The bullet must have missed all of the major brain parts, although perhaps that wasn't that hard, because the raider clutched his head and fell to his knees, wobbling slightly but clearly still alive. It was only then Susu had registered the sound of her own shot and heard swearing in the shuffling of feet nearby. He has no protection on his head, so he's taking the full six damage and a critical hit in the head. All tests which rely on vision by plus two. Good. So that was Suskade's turn. It should have been the the veteran's turn first, but that's okay because um he's got a broken leg. So he is he stands up and he throws his big weapon over his shoulder and he starts going in the direction. I think he's smarter than that. Does he go straight for them or does he go into the forest ? Does he go into the forest? I think it's likely . Oh extremely yes. Not only does he go into the forest but Suskate out of the corner of her eye just sees him disappear into the clearing, and now she doesn't know where they don't know where he is. No hawthorn, no dog meat, no onslaught of angry raiders. It felt to Suskade like the calm before the storm. As if to confirm this thought, the image of the raider leader's scarred face came into her head, and she jerked her gaze toward the clearing that she was now able to see again. He wasn't there. Was that a shadow she saw slipping into the trees at a distance away to her right. And then we're gonna have to roll each turn to see if he gets the jump on us. It's now Raider 1's turn. He's gonna turn around and try and shoot Susque ed because she just shot him in the head. Shit. She thought and tried to keep another relative position of threat in her head, but she had to focus on the enemies in front of her. Where are you, Hawthorne? She thought, starting to get a little desperate. She needed the raider's attention to be split between the two of them on opposite sides. That was their advantage and she knew they had to keep it. But he's got a roll four dice to hit her. So he's got no hope. Or he's gonna come at her with melee . I think he's gonna come at her with melee. Will he come at her with melee? Likely. No, he won't, so he's gonna take a shot. She had been distracted too long and she flinched in surprise as a bullet skimmed the tree right next to her head. Following it came a shout, I found him! Right there! There was a growl on the sound of footsteps moving quickly towards her position from the left. He needs to get eight . Difficulty four . Nope. So not only does he not hit her, but he rolls a complication. And I think we're gonna get a ricochet. Does the ricochet hit someone ? No, it doesn't. So the bullet rico chet is off and p ung just misses. Um Does the Ricochet hit the mine ? It's unlikely, but cool. Ha ha ha! Exactly, the ricochet hits the mine. So he goes to take a shot at Susqueid who was behind a tree, it hit bounces off the the tree and hits one of the mines, detonating both of them, I think is pretty safe to say All of a sudden the ground shook as one, then the other of the laid mines dead . Through an absolute million-to-one chance, which we all know means that something is almost guaranteed to happen, the raiders' cheap bullet had bounced off Saskade's tree straight into the dormant casing of the previously laid mine. The trees stopped shaking and a ringing bloomed in Saskaied's ears. Then all hell broke loose. Does it hit the three of us ? No, so it only hits the two of them. Happily. 96. Extreme no, so it only hits the two of them. I'm gonna say for half damage because they weren't sitting right on top of it. So for the frag mines, that has six dam age and blast six damage half one two three four five six the first one is one two th,ree, four, five si,x, seven. So he's dead . Soska he'd woke with a start. She was curled up behind her father's towering tool chest next to the workbench. Soskaid ? His voice was far away. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Something felt wrong. Crawling out from behind the chest she looked blearily around the room. It was dark, and there was the taste of smoke in the air. Suskade . She looked around the room lit only by moonlight and the faint light Something was flashing dramatically on the screen. Dad? she replied. An uncomfortable feeling was creeping up inside her. They'd been working on replacing the outer plating down its left side the day before. Then she saw the smoke starting to creep under the roller door of the work area . The door to the workshop slammed open, and her father came tearing in, half dressed, his combat shotgun held by the barrel grip in his left hand. Suscade he said with a sigh of relief. His eyes were glinting, wet. Must have been the smoke, she thought . He walked swiftly to her and held her by both shoulders, straightening her back as he did. We've been attacked, he said quietly. I have to stay and fight, but you have to run. But she stuttered. No butts. Go now. Take this backpack. I didn't have time to collect much, but it should get you started. You have to get out of here and head to the shack near the hunting grounds, and wait beneath the trapdoor. If I'm not there in twenty four hours, you have to leave. Head north and find some safety. But she started again, her own eyes growing wet. I love you, you'll be okay. I'll be there. If I'm not, it's because I'm dead. Dad, she stammered, you will be okay. You are strong. Remember everything that I have taught you. There was an explosion outside and a chanting of Dogs, Dogs, Dogs. Now go, he said, pulling the well maintained chain on the roller door, creating a small gap and pushing her out. I love you, sweet suskade, he said. Before she could answer, the door slammed down in front of her face. She stood in shock until the sound of gunfire in the She flung the backpack over her shoulder, turned, and ran . Suskade's reality came flooding back with the ringing in her ears and what looked like a skinny limb thumped on to the ground in front of her. She reeled back in disgust, and mild satisfaction, and shouted, Hawthorne, where the fuck are you? Attack now. I think Hawthorne can act now because the raiders are pretty distracted by the mind that just blew up in their faces. So Hawthorne is gonna try and shoot the weaker raider with a target number of uh laser pistol target number of seven. She misses. As if in response, the forest glowed a flash of red as a couple of laser charges lit the air. Sosuka had retreated a little more to see if she could get a handle on where everyone was. There were two raiders nearby, probably injured, and she had no idea where the boss was. She couldn't forget about him. At that moment she saw a head poke out from behind a tree to her left. It locked eyes with her and growled, before breaking out and heading off to where the laser fire had come from. So the raider is standing there between he's just his head is ring his head's ringing and then he sees a laser shot come and shoot past his ear, but now he knows where both of us are. In fact everyone knows where we are now. Then is he gonna shoot ? No he's not . That's a 44. That's another random event . NPC action . I think. I think Ramirez is not dead. Suske took two steps to the side to try and get a clear shot at the man's back as he charged towards Hawthorne. She raised her pistol and aimed carefully. A second before she pulled the trigger, there was a roar, and she saw Ramirez come out of nowhere and dive at the raider, tackling him to the ground before flipping him over, the moonlight reflecting off a dark stain on his chest. This guy, the raider pulls out his tire iron and closes in on Hawthorne and just as he's about to swing out of nowhere, Ramirez comes up from behind and tackles the raider to the ground and starts punching him in the head. The Brotherhood of Steel member raised both his fists into the air and began pummeling the halfless prone raider in the face. Fuck you, son of a bitch! He grunted as he pounded the man's head into the ground with his heavy combat gloved hands a few times before grabbing a rock nearby and continuing his passionate assault. The raider's leg twitched and then stayed still. Being very very protective of Hawthorne. Let's just do unarmed stri ke which he hits and he does five physical damage and it was a sneak attack one two three four five six seven eight so he jumps kno,cks over this guy who was about to attack Hawthorne, and just crashes his head with both his fists as he sits down on it. He's sitting on his back or his chest, and with both his gloved hands, he smashes down and just completely smashes this guy's head in. Soskade was still aiming at the raider on the ground as Ramirez rolled off him and collapsed. Shit, she thought. I guess that answers the question of which side he was on. Rami rez lay still, panting . There was a shout from Hawthorne. Caleb Soscaed saw her approach out from behind one of the nearby trees and run toward her now motionless comrade. Going well, thought Soskade as she checked her pistol again, but not out of trouble yet, deadties. And he probably then rolls over and collapses. So we have one raider left, and we have the boss somewhere in the forest. The third raider . I think he's shooting Suskade . So he has to hit defense. Suskade's pretty hard to hit because she has the two defense. Is he going to shoot or charge? Will he shoot? I think no. Unlikely . 59. No, he's not going to shoot. So he charges Suskade and attacks her with his tire iron . Which he hit, he gets a crit. Ouch. The second she had this thought, Suskite felt the movement of air behind her, but too late. Something hard hit her across the flat of her back, knocking the wind immediately out of her. The pain was a white flash in her vision, intensified by the knowledge that she'd waited too long to react to Ramirez's interruption and that it was all her fault. Her face hit the dirt, cheek painfully connecting with her left shoulder as it twisted awkwardly beneath her. She struggled to force her lungs to start working again and tried to roll over to face her attacker. So he rolled an 11 and a 1, so if it wasn't for the 1, you would have missed. But he is doing four physical damage against Suskade. He hits her in the torso with his timeline , doing one, two, three. dam age in the torso happily Suskay id has three damage resistance but I'm gonna make a little mark because I'm I like the idea of the armor getting broken . That was his turn. And now it is the veteran's turn . No one's seen the veteran. From the positioning, it's likely that at Soskade he's gonna sneak up on. I think that's what he's done. I think he's managed to get within the same zone. And we're gonna test to see if Susque had sees him. So we're gonna need perception survival. So that's a 13 . Difficulty one. So there's a thirteen. Yeah she does. Susque finally managed to draw a deep breath. As her eyes focused in the moonlight she saw the skinny raider bent over, hands on knees, panting. There was a movement behind the man, and all of a sudden he was flung to the side, replaced by the hulking figure of the raider leader. You're gonna fucking regret that, he growled, but not for fucking long. Soskehead was ready though and painfully lifted her pistol up in front of her. Uh it's now Saskai's turn and she's now gonna turn and shoot at the veteran. 14 to hit . She hits tag, so she generates an action point. Which I'm gonna spend immediately to do extra damage. So we're doing four plus an extra damage die . We are doing holy shit. One, two, three, four, five, six , seven dam age. He has a defense of two , I think. Being five damage in the head . Excellent. She's a good shot. The bullet hit the raider in the neck, apparently exiting through the back corner of the man's skull, evidenced by a piece of something organic flying off and spinning into the air. He didn't fall. He barely flinched. He only roared . Fear taking over her, Soskade scrambled backwards along the dirt, pistol still in hand, and struggled to create some distance and get to her feet. Five damage to the head, leaving her with six action points and it was a crit, which me ans that he is also dazed. So I think we got this. Then we're gonna give it to the other raider who is still attacking Saskai . This guy is going to get a free hit with his tire iron doing four physical damage ooch one two three four five six damage six damage to the left arm so as she turns around to shoot him her arm's up She managed it and tried to get her pistol up again before the skinny raider got to her. She didn't. She felt a snap in her right forearm as the tire iron came down to meet her rising aim. She let out a small whimper as the pistol fell to the forest floor, and she stumbled further back away from it, wanting to cry for help with the words sticking in her throat. She looked in vague horror as her right arm dangled loosely to her side. Fuck, fuck , fuck, was all that was going through her head as she reached around with her left arm grasping for the knife in its sheath. She had a flash of the rogue security plot in the facility, and for the first time since that awful moment, she felt the sick knowledge of And her arm is broken. Ouch. Bad, bad news. Soskade looked around desperately for something, anything to help her. She saw Hawthorne bent down next to Ramirez on the forest floor nearby. Help me! She wanted it to be a shout, but it came out as a whimper. Hawthorne seemed to have heard or at least realized the situation and stood suddenly, teeth gritted, drawing her pistol and firing at the raider who'd just broken Saskid's arm. Get away from her, you bastard! She shouted through gathering tears. Hawthorne sees this and she's gonna take a shot at him with her laser pistol. He shot another bullet . Target number of seven . Big hit . It's doing one, two, three, four, five damage to him to his torso . Also critical damage. Bleeding heavily at the end of each of your turns you suffer two dice physical dam Nice. Soskaid's head snapped back to the front, following the laser shot as it flew past her head, barely missing. It sunk into the raider's stomach, causing his thin armor to instantly melt away along with some of his skin. Blood started seeping past some of the now exposed organs, and he clutched the wound. Fuck he managed to get out before he collapsed to his knees. Soske had looked up in shock fromed the scene of gore in front of her and saw the huge raider striding forward, machete looking almost comically like an oversized cartoon kitchen knife in the man's massive hands. This was it, she thought, as she was unable to get her knife out of its sheath with her opposite hand. It was over. It's the Raider's turn. The boss, the veteran. And he's coming for her. I'm scared. Sasuke had scrambled backwards again, trying to get her feet around the right way so she could run and get some breathing room. The leader let out a grim chuckle but didn't slow. He brought the machete down in a large backhanded diagonal sweep. Very scared. He's got a machete Fuck. So he's coming in with a machete. Difficulty two Oh no. Suskade saw another flash of white as the wretched blade bit into her left leg. For a brief moment she was surprised that there was no pain, just a warm feeling on her calf as the blood started to pump freely. She looked up in horror as the man pulled the blade free and raised it again. She was frozen to the spot. And then the pain hit. He hits her with the machete. Three piercing, four physical damage in the left leg. Ah, she's just getting cut down. One, two, three, four. And the left leg at least we have physical resistance of two. So the armor is damaged, but uh she only takes two damage. The skinny raider was madly tying a strip of cloth torn from his shirt around his stomach. As he tied the knot he cackled madly, raised his tire iron, and bolted towards Soskaid, kicking something on the ground as he did. Something slid towards her, but she barely registered it. She was starting to feel woozy. Dogmead? Hawthorne! she said weakly, but there was no sign of either of them in her steadily narrowing vision. A blackness was creeping in around the edges. No , she thought. I will fight. I won't give in to these bastards. She pulled herself up onto her elbows, only now realizing she'd been flat on her back. I will fight. Is it the radar next? Fifty fifty . Yes, the raider goes next. I think it's likely he turns his attention to Hawthorne now . Does he turn his attention to Hawthorne? No, he doesn't! Holy shit, he's still going at Suscoid. We're in real trouble here. Uh so he's gonna try and hit her again. Needs an eight . Two eights, and he gets it. He hits her again. Just as she made it up to the heel of her palm, the skinny ra ider swung at her head. She pushed herself back again just in time for the weapon only to connect with her knee. It hurt like hell, but through the padding of her outfit it didn't feel like it was broken, and gave her a second to collect herself and take notice of her surround ings. She had one chance. Saskair has never been in this kind of a situation. Happily, he only does one damage to her right leg, which does have some defen ce so she soaks it up. Man Clearly feeling the tables had turned, the skinny raider knelt on Suskade's chest, painfully shoving his knee to push her broken arm into the ground. Ah she screamed, hope leaving her again. Then she heard a rushing sound behind her. Hawthorne is gonna shoot that raider. She needs a seven to hit him. She misses. A laser shot hissed past the both of them, lighting up its wayward trail in the darkness as it went harmlessly by the crit from Dogmeat, excellent, so we'll call that a hit. Something furry leapt over her prone body. Dogmeat with his full weight and momentum latched onto the skinny raider's neck and tore him off her. She used the opportunity to get herself half upright. She noted with a grim satisfaction the gurgling sound of the man's throat being ripped out. Good fucking boy, she thought and looked up. The boss had taken a few steps back when Dogmeat had leapt, but now he was coming again, and Dogmeat was too far away to help. She heard Hawthorne swear as she struggled to get another cell into her pistol. Suskade took a hur ried breath and then a flash of realisation hit her. She felt something cold touching her now exposed leg amongst the congealing blood. Soskade is she's standing but only just. She has a broken left arm. She had a mach ete to the leg, and this raider veteran is just standing over her, ready to take her head off, basically. He can't see anything but the blood and death of this skinny little girl in front of him who has basically destroyed his whole party at this stage. It is now Sasuke's turn. She had dropped her gun. She's sort of down on one knee at this point She the the raider towering over her with the machete raised above his head. And she uses a minor action to pick up the gun, point it at his goddamn face, and she is gonna use one action point to buy another dice to make sure she hits him, or we can just use it all for damage. The raider boss chuckled now, a cold glint in his eye. Looks like you're out of op tions, he said in a low voice. I'll be taking your pretty head straight to Bath. He likes that kind of thing. With that the huge raider took a final step forward and raised the machete over his left shoulder with both hands. No! Suskade heard Hawthorne shout from behind her, but it sounded a long way away . With very nearly the last of her remaining strength, she kicked out at the man's right knee, the darkest part of the circle of blood in his clothing, her target. Fuck he roared and stumbled just for a second. She's gonna not buy another dice, so we need all we need is please God A uh nine plus We need a 14. Surely we can get a 14 one success. That is a crit. There was a shot. The raider looked in surprise to his cavernous armpit for a second and smiled. Then, without moving, he slowly toppled sideways, machete still raised, the bullet having gone through the side of the man's heart. Soskaid's pistol was held up in front of her, weaving crazily, her remaining good arm barely able to hold it up. She looked at the veteran raider lying next to her, eyes open and a pool of blood forming underneath him. He was still smiling, but he wouldn't move again . She let out the breath that she'd been holding for what seemed like an eternity and slumped back to the ground, unconsciousness finally claiming her. Two successes. an action point we're gonna spend three action points to roll an extra die so we are one two three four five six die and we're gonna take him down one two three four five six seven eight that is exactly enough through his armor to kill him she shoots him just where the left arm joins the torso there and it rips through the weak part in his armor and a spurt of blood flies out of there as he looks like he's still gonna stand and then just crumples to the ground next to her Soscaid came too for just a moment. Her right arm lay awkwardly on her lap with a disconcerting squishy feeling. There was blood pumping freely from her leg, and she began to feel the blackness creeping in again at the edge of her consciousness. She threw up. She heard footsteps hurry past her to her left, followed by the sound of knees hitting the earth nearby. Caleb, she heard Hawthorne say with a sob. The leafless toothpicks of trees took on a strange perspective, pricking at the starry sky before fading to black, sobbing, ringing in her ears. They are successful. Suskade is badly hurt. Hawthorne runs over to Ramirez to check if he's alive . Is Ramirez alive ? He's not . As she goes up to him she rolls him over and she's pushing with Ramirez, Ramirez . Breathe, breathe. And she you know, she's feeling his pulse and whatnot. He's either dead or about to die . Does he tell her anything ? No. Extreme no, he is dead. Cold dead, but he did save her life. Uh she takes his dog tags and the party will pick themselves up, start to scavenge what they can, and probably camp for the night in this campsite. Exciting! The quiet but persistent sounds of the forest slowly returned to Suscade, followed by the rapid return of the pain. Position and she looked down. Her left arm was bandaged, splintered, and loosely bound to her body in a surprisingly professional manner. She looked up as Hawthorne came to her front and knelt before her, watching Suskade with concern. Suskade replied Why doesn't it hurt as much as it should? Hawthorne indicated to an empty stim pack on the ground next to them. I found it in your bag, she said. Marcus was supposed to resupply after we picked up the package, but he she stopped, clearing her throat slightly. It's okay, interrupted Suskade. Thanks . She looked down at Dogmeat, who was happily chewing on a small piece of radar, everything right with the world again. Do you feel strong enough to walk? said Hawthorne. Soska had shrugged but allowed herself to be pulled gently to her feet, wobbling slightly . She gingerly tested her injured leg. It hurt, but it was stable. Thankfully the cut didn't seem to have gone too deep. Yeah, I think so, she replied. So what's the plan now? Said Hawthorne. On the next session, we're going to continue our journey through to Kesar or to Newar k. We do have a mission to get to Newark and sneak in and get a sample of the FEV. I do want to go to Kesha and get prepared for that, so I think we're gonna go there first. And until then . Suske had spent the best part of the next day recover ing in the forest clearing. It felt almost good to stay in one place, by choice, even if it was just for a few hours. The immediate crisis of the raider group invading Keshar had been avoided, although that just brought the reality of the bigger issue closer to the fore. They needed to get that sample, and once they had it, Soska had needed to find a way to get it back to the NCR and not the Brotherhood. She hadn't told Hawthorne that element of the plan, and she didn't know how she was going to manage, but she'd have to cross that bridge when she came to it . If we want to have the best chance of securing that sample, we're going to need some help, Suske had said to Hawthorne as she started collecting her things awkwardly with one hand. She could just about walk, but it would be slow going . At the very least, I will need to resupply and regroup. Hawthorne nodded. And I need a way to get back in touch with the Brotherho od, she said. Suskade nodded and finally managed to sling her backpack and hunting rifle over her shoulder. Okay , she said wincing, and gingerly flexing her fingers on her now reset broken arm. Let's head out, and hopefully we don't run into any more trouble on the way. Hawthorne grimaced. Yeah, that'd be nice. But somehow I don't have high hopes. They looked at each other and laughed, although it wasn't funny. Despite the bleak outlook there was in fact some hope in the air, a comforting feeling of not being alone. This way, said Suskaid, and they started the slow trudge towards where she hoped Keshar would be. Thank you for joining me on another episode of A Wasteland Story. If you're enjoying this show, it would be wonderful if you could take a moment and give it a rate review, post about it somewhere that makes sense, or tell your dog about it. He'll appreciate the dog meat bits. If you want to get in touch with me, you can email a wastelandstorypodcast at gmail.com, find me, PJ Sack, on Redd orit Blue Sky, or put a note in a rusty tin and bury it to be found after the Apocalypse. Join us next time on the show when Soskaid, Hawthorne, and Dogmeat finally make it to the peaceful and uncomplicated ghoul settlement of Kesha, to regroup, mod some weapons, and live happily ever after. Ha, yeah, right. That's it from me today, but until we brave the wasteland once again alone together, remember kids, Nuca-Cola may quench your thirst temporarily, but radiation is forever. Bye .