Private/Closed Bootleg Bros. Ultimate - The Banished Campaign (Act 1)

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six

Blake had managed to grab the Brute's weapon, eliminating the two grunts. But to the Courier's surprise, the brute had survived the grenade explosion! Blake turned, firing off a shot at the Brute, but it was too late. The molten spike ricocheted harmlessly off the energy barrier. What the shit? What type of shitty grenades did these Banished aliens make, that couldn't even kill their own guys? Blake sighed, shaking his head and lowering his weapon.

The brute spoke, laying against the wall across from the entrance to his cell. Blake seemed to be ignoring the alien, turning his attention to the Defiler he had been trapped in. That was, until the Brute mentioned the island was going to be glassed. Blake paused, giving the brute an interested glance, before looking back to the defiler. Using the blade of the Spiker, he attempted to pry open the base of the torture machine's control panel.

"Well, that sure sucks for me, don't it?" Blake said to the Brute. The wastelander was hard at work. This defiler was able to inflict an incredible amount of pain, while keeping him suspended in trapped. Clearly, it was using a lot of energy. Energy that Blake would attempt to redirect back towards the energy shield that was keeping him trapped here. If he could overload it, it could give him yet another moment that he could use, an opening that could allow him to escape!

"So, can I know the name of the clever enemy that has doomed me to such a fate?" Blake asked the Brute over his shoulder as he worked.

 

[comic]

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

Keyes’ lips noticeably tightened together at Copen’s question. The captain gave a glance at Kazaaak, then back at Copen. “M.I.A. right now. Kazaaak didn’t find a body, so I can only assume the kid was reacquired. Only place he could be taken to is our primary target: the Apex.”

Jacob let out a slight sigh. While his team was certainly faring a lot better than anyone could have expected from them in such tilted circumstances, without only three KIA’s and one MIA, they still had a metaphorical mountain to ascend after this, and the bulk of their force would likely run out of steam before the well-rested, well-prepared enemy did.

They needed to stay focused. But with the assault on the apex drawing nearer... There was an opportunity here. Keyes took a brief moment to mull things over in his mind, standing idly at parade rest for its duration, before his chest swelled as he drew in a deep breath. “Okay, our situation isn’t FUBAR just yet. Copen, you’re my fastest. If we’re going to get everyone still in this pit, and rescue Guardian, then we’ll need to split up one more time. I need you to take a fireteam and scout ahead, test the walls of the Apex. You can pick your team.”

With that, Jacob turned toward David and Kazaaak. “You two, you’re nimble. We’ve got a secret entrance here, and my gut instinct says we can use it. You have JULIAN to thank for its discovery,” as he spoke, the captain moved toward the wreck of Kazaaak’s ghost. “I need the two of you to investigate it, see if there’s a way inside the facility. Banished have dug in behind that blast door. That machine you all brought could knock it down, but it’s a fortified position. We’ll lose too many trying to get inside that way. If there’s any way to flank...”

He shoved a chunk of metal aside and dug into the destroyed ghost’s internals, before pulling out some kind of long black tube. It usually operated as a ferry for plasma energy from the ghost’s reactor to the machine guns, so it could withstand immense punishment, while also being generally plyable and elastic. Unburdened it was only five feet in length, but it could easily stretch up to five times that before the tube became too taut. “Use this as a safety device,” Jacob brought the tube toward the pair. “I’ll let you decide how best to use it.”

Now, the captain turned to address the rest. “Dig in marines. Banished reinforcements will arrive shortly, so we’ll hold off on busting those doors to deal with whatever they send our way. Can any of you pilot that machine?”

“Sir, I can,” Kaminski quickly raised a hand.

“Then get on it, private.”

Kaminski gave a toothy grin and waggled his eyebrows at Copen. “Aye aye, captain.”

As he hurried over to the Mantis to take its controls, the other marines began to distribute the new weapons and equipment David and Bisenti had brought back for everyone. “Same goes for everyone else,” Keyes called. “No rest stops for us yet, get moving!”

Finishing giving his orders, the captain moved his way toward one brute corpse. He thought he’d seen something just a moment ago, something useful, and his observation proved fruitful. He scooped up a Banished communicator, giving it a look over, before he turned to JULIAN and tossed it to him. “Won’t offer us any two-way communication, but that’s a back door into the Banished subnet. Think you can tap it, hear their comms channels?”
​

Blake focused on his resourcefulness, digging the spiker into the control panel to dig out its cover as he spoke. The brute outside had left a streak of navy blue blood down the wall, almost black it was so dark. Despite his grievous injuries, he still clung on, at least for the moment to give a bloody sneer. “The Chieftain ordered it so... but don’t flatter yourself... it’s not for you...”

He coughed up some more blood down his front, starting to slump over as his orange eyes closed.

Blake was successful in prying off the console, exposing the innerworkings of wires and tubes. It seemed both familiar, and alien. Familiar in that universal need for wires to connect components, but unfamiliar in that each one connected to a spherical mechanism deep in the side of the Defiler. The purpose of each wire was unknown if they all connected from and led to the same place.

Regardless, it was clearly the power core of the Defiler, its own battery or reactor.​

 

[Captain Cardboard]

Courier Six

Success! Blake was able to access the inner working of the defiler. How ironic, that the instrument of his torture and containment would be working towards his freedom from this place. The brute responded to his question, and Blake shook his head as he worked.
"I was talking about you." Blake said to the brute. "The one that survived a point blank grenade just to fuck me over. Tell me, which is it. Are you one particularly tough bastard, or do you folks just make some shitty bombs?"

It was likely that the brute was unconscious or dead, but Blake kept talking to him anyway. The cowboy sorted through the wires of the machine, nodding.

"I mean, if you're a tough bastard, I get it. I'm one in the same. You know one time, I sprinted 200 yards through mortar fire? That fucking sucked, let me tell you. I ended up hopped up on so many drugs I was seeing shit for weeks." Blake said as he worked. The wastelander stood up and stretched, shaking out his limbs and trying to get his blood moving. If he could just redirect the energy from the defiler to burn out the energy field...

...

A little while later...

"Okay, let's give it a shot!" Blake said, standing up and clapping his hands. He had done his best to change the energy feed system from the defiler's battery to its external points. A lot of the energy had been focused on his wrists and ankles. With the changes Blake had made, hopefully the overflow of the energy would be focused not on the points where a prisoner's limbs would be, but instead towards the energy barrier keeping Blake trapped here!
"One, two, three... Ice Cream!" Blake exclaimed, switching in the defiler to its highest setting!

 

[comic]

THE COURIER​

—Arcturus Pit, Day 2 Early Morning—​

The brute didn’t respond. His wounds had overtaken him, so there was nobody to hear about Blake’s drug habits, unfortunately. Maybe Chubub or Wikpit, if he hadn’t KILLED them!

Not that Blake minded, though. He passed his [Science: 80] check in working on the alien technology, reversing the projected energy to be a little more external than its original intention. Cranking the settings on high, the Defiler started to produce its energy, crimson light shining brightly, glowing brighter and brighter - before the machine overloaded, releasing a great pulse of energy as the battery shattered.

It was enough to throw Blake back off his feet, heat washing over by proximity.

But it had worked.

The one-way barrier dissipated, falling away and leaving Blake with nothing in his way to the exterior.
​