Z3ke (Original Poster)
The guard at the front gate waved us through and Jackie steered our jeep to the biggest building around. Our slow crawl through the facility had heads turning our way.
When I was down in the factory in the Under-MIZ, I’d kinda gotten used to seeing their people wearing those creepy porcelain masks. It’s a ridiculous uniform choice, but I do understand the idea behind it.
The masks are more than just armor protecting the face. It’s meant to be an intimidation tactic. If you’re talking with someone and you can’t see their face or read their emotions, then you don’t know where you sit with them and that can really mess you up. I get it. It’s understandable. But what isn’t understandable is why the hell they would force their mechanics and workers to be wearing the masks? It’s gotta be horrifically uncomfortable.
All the soldiers in the facility were decked out in masks. The mechanics were wearing them and the motor pool people were wearing them. Hell, I even saw a guy pushing a handcart across the yard wearing one of the masks. Maybe there was a practical reason for it that I just wasn’t getting, but to me it just looked weird. It felt like we’d just driven into a military base staffed by creepy-ass mannequins.
We rolled up to the warehouse and I could feel all the masks tracking us and I couldn’t even blame them. We looked beat to shit. Our jeep was coated with layers of dirt and dust and mud from the Deadlands. One whole side of the jeep was dented and scratched from where we’d taken a beating from the storm. There were dozens of bullet holes on the jeep, some of which had been there from before Jackie had stolen it out of the repair bays, but many of them were newish.
Jackie was behind the wheel and Elnor was seated in the back with his shotgun resting across his lap and his head swiveling around, trying to track all the new “faces.”
We’d barely parked when a pair of mechanics wandered over to us. One stood in front of the jeep and the other went to the rear and they both slowly circled us while shaking their heads at all the damage we’d collected. While they were doing that, a soldier approached the passenger door and hovered near me.
“You need to come with me,” he ordered. “The quartermaster is going to want to speak with you.”
“Yea, that’s fine,” I agreed. “But before we get to that, I need to make sure my people are taken care of. Also, we need gas for our jeep.”
Even with the mask on I could tell the soldier was biting back a sigh. He’d probably gotten orders to escort me to the quartermaster and, instead of making his job easier, I had started ordering him around.
“That’s up to the quartermaster.”
“No it’s not. I told the guy at the gate that I’ve got a bunch of info you’re all gonna want to hear, but that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna give it away for free.
The two mechanics who’d been circling our car stopped and looked over at me. The soldier stood completely still and I could just imagine him trying to decide if he should pull me from the jeep and frogmarch me to the quartermaster.
“We’ve been on the road for days now, driving through a section of the Deadlands that seems to have gotten way more dangerous than it used to be,” I continued. “We’ve been shot at and had to dodge half a dozen ambushes. We’re low on food and fuel. I’m not speaking with anyone if I know my friends are gonna be out here sitting hungry in an empty jeep.”
My mouth was running faster than my brain and once I’d caught up with it, a brief flash of worry popped up. I started thinking that maybe my Persona skill had finally misjudged things and had pushed too hard. I was just about to try and smile and clap the soldier on the shoulder and tell him I’d meet up with his quartermaster when he finally turned his head and motioned to some nearby workers.
“Get them some fuel,” he ordered.
Jackie let out a little sigh next to me and I saw Elnor through the rearview mirror just shaking his head. I climbed out of the jeep while workers began hauling equipment over. A few Pale Regiment soldiers appeared and took up positions around the jeep, trying to look casual about it.
While the mechanics got to work, the soldier escorted me through the base and towards the largest building. It was part hanger, part warehouse, and part garage, and the whole place was packed with vehicles and random crates that had been stacked along the wall.
I was led through the organized chaos towards an office tucked into the back of the building. Inside the office was a large table that took up most of the space. It had a detailed map of the Deadlands stretched out on it and I was able to make out a few towns and roads and outposts and various other locations marked on it.
In the corner of the office were two more Pale Regiment soldiers who, I’m guessing, were the head honchos of this place. Neither of them acknowledged me when the soldier guided me into the room. I took a seat at the table and the soldier left.
Since nobody was badgering me with questions at the moment, I figured I had some time to spare. I quickly pulled out my tech slate, typed up everything that had happened in the base, and sent it off to the forum. As I’m writing this, the two officers are still talking in the corner and I’m just waiting on them.
I’m gonna switch the slate over to speech-to-text mode. Assuming the Pale Regiment doesn’t just confiscate the tablet or get annoyed that I’ve got something sitting on my lap recording everything, I’ll post the transcript when it’s finished.
CrushDaddyXx
Now’s your chance Zeke. Just wail on them. Go ham. Take their masks and tell us what’s behind them.
GnomelandSecurity (Proctor)
Zeke, I know you’re smart enough not to do everything Crush tells you to, but I really should add: DON’T DO THAT. Just give them the info and get your fuel and get out of there.
Wolololololo
Don’t tell them anything Zeke. I know Null said speaking with the Pale Regiment was a good idea…but they’re creeps. They’re the worst. Just walk away.
Ridiculously_Average_Guy
^Wolololololo If Corva needs metaphysical weight to sacrifice to summon up echoes of his wife and daughters…lmao, he’s going to kill the Eaters. The villain heroically saving that town, lol.
SpicyShoyu
Oooo. And Zeke keeps getting forced into doing the wrong thing by this forum. He killed the Reclaimer and then the Janus Storm and now Corva.
Malv0lio
Lads, it’s Corva. Everything he touches gets killed. He’s not heroically doing anything.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Unknown Male: [unintelligible]
Unknown Male 2: [unintelligible]
Unknown Male: I don’t care what the reports say. Tell the runners I want constant updates. The moment they hear anything, they bring it to me. We’re already spread too thin and I’m not happy with our patrol coverage.
Unknown Male 2: Understood
[footsteps]
Unknown Male: This him?
Unknown Male 3: This is the man who approached the gates claiming to have information. We’ve already confirmed his identity as Ezekial Mercer. He’s responsible for destroying Experiment 12-B in the Under-MIZ and has documented dealings with the MIZ chapter.
[chair scraping across the floor]
Unknown Male: Alright then. I’m Quartermaster Vicks and this is Operations Officer Haynes.
Unknown Male 3: Officer is fine.
Quartermaster Vicks: I understand you have information you wish to sell? Well, let’s hear it.
Zeke: I do. But first we need to talk about my payment. I’ve got a jeep outside that needs fuel so we can get back to The MIZ, and my people need food and water. I think what I’ve got is worth all three.
Quartermaster Vicks: It’s my understanding that fuel is already being transferred to your vehicle. That means whatever information you are carrying had better justify the expense, otherwise we’ll have to discuss alternative methods of reimbursement.
Zeke: Well…that sounds vaguely threatening.
Operations Officer Haynes: Are you here to shed light on recent incidents in the region?
Zeke: Uh…maybe? It depends on what you mean when you say recent incidents. Most of what I know is connected to the House of Seasons.
Quartermaster Vicks: The House of Seasons?
Operations Officer Haynes: I was briefed on it. It’s folklore, mostly. Stories about a house that only appears to certain travelers. It is supposedly inhabited by an old woman who predates the Fracture. Tales say travelers would bring her unusual items and receive goods or knowledge in exchange.
Quartermaster Vicks: Are you trying to sell me folktales?
Zeke: No. And for the record, the House exists. Or, well, it did exist. It’s gone now.
Okay, we’ll start with the short version. There’s a man named Corva who is working out of the Glens. He’s old, and by that I mean he’s old enough to have been living before the Fracture. At least, that was what I got from him.
Uh, I should probably start at the beginning. A few months back, I think, I joined up with an expedition headed out into the Deadlands. There’s a guy named Cole back in The MIZ. An academic. He can back up everything that I’m telling you right now.
He put together an expedition looking for this place called the Valley of Echoes. He hired me and a couple other people to help out. One of the guys he hired was Corva. When I first met him I thought he was just a guide or a scout or someone who knew the land better than the rest of us.
He was basically in charge and made sure we were all pointed in the right direction and didn’t get killed walking through the Deadlands. When we got to the Valley we got…well, a bunch of dangerous shit happened. People got hurt and Corva got injured and was bleeding out. We tried healing him but he pushed us back and then went fucking nuts.
Operations Officer Haynes: Nuts how?
Zeke: He’s a body-hopper. I don’t know the actual, uh, professional term for what he is. I know that when he gets injured or he’s about to die, he finds another body and takes it over.
He tried doing it with me but it didn’t work so he tried stabbing me and he did stab another guy on our team called Pell. Got him with this wooden knife of his. Pell dropped dead, we killed Corva, and we thought that was that. Then, a few moments later, Pell got up and pulled the knife out of his chest and his face changed into Corva and he started attacking us again.
[silence]
Zeke: I’ve gotta say, you’re both taking this much better than the other people I’ve told this story to. Those guys cursed me out.
Quartermaster Vicks: Continue.
Zeke: Right. So, we thought we killed him but I guess he had some kind of backup body or something, because the next thing I know he shows up at the House of Seasons.
Uh, your boy there said that the House is a folk tale but it’s not. It’s run, or…it was run by this woman called the Blooming Witch. I honestly don’t know where to start with that. I’ll just say she was obsessed with memories and echoes and rebuilding people from fragments of who they used to be.
It’s not important. The important thing is that Corva went looking for her because he was trying to resurrect his wife and daughters.
Operations Officer Haynes: Resurrection? Like with restoration?
Zeke: I don’t really know about that. Maybe? He works with a school of magic called animancy which Cole said wasn’t really taken seriously but…I guess he got it to work because it’s what is letting him hop bodies.
Anyways, he went searching for the Witch for help and to find out what she knew, but she refused to help him and he killed her. I showed up at the House after the fight was done and it was breaking apart and the Witch was dead, but she’d had enough energy to leave me a message to tell me what Corva was planning next.
He’s headed off to the Glens to meet up with the Eaters. Whatever he’s trying to do is bad enough that a centuries-old witch spent her last bits of energy warning me about it.
[sound of writing.]
Quartermaster Vicks: The Eaters?
Operations Officer Haynes: Another regional folktale.
Zeke: Hmm, kinda a bit more than that. I’ve seen them and folktales don’t eat people. A few months ago I was out in the Glens and the whole place was creepy as hell. I managed to get my ass out of there and boarded a train headed to The MIZ. While I was running it felt like I was being tracked by a…presence or something. I don’t know how best to describe it.
I got on the train and we were off and then an hour or so later we were attacked and they tore through the place and ate a bunch of people.
Operations Officer Haynes: What train? Which rail line?
Zeke: Uh…I don’t know.
Operations Officer Haynes: Do you know where it picked you up from?
Zeke: Somewhere near the Glens…that’s probably not helpful is it?
[silence]
Quartermaster Vicks: What else can you tell us about the Eaters?
Zeke: Not much. They’re…uh, from what I’ve heard they’re out in the Glens and they eat weight and there were a bunch of stories about people going there and losing bits and pieces of themselves.
I can tell you that they’re fast and horrible and smart enough to coordinate an ambush. They tracked the train and attacked when we least expected it. One moment everything was fine and normal and the next the windows were exploding and they were in the train. They tore through everyone. Most of the passengers never had a change.
Operations Officer Haynes: Describe them
Zeke: Uh. Big. Fast. They stretch weird.
Quartermaster Vicks: Stretch weird?
Zeke: Yea, that’s…okay it’s probably not helpful saying they stretch weird but it’s a good description of them. They attacked this one lady and they stretched out to her and their arms were longer than they should be. They latched onto the woman and just sucked her dry.
Operations Officer Haynes: Numbers?
Zeke: I don’t know.
Quartermaster Vicks: Just an estimate will do.
Zeke: I…I really don’t know. Enough to overwhelm a train but beyond that I couldn’t tell you. I wasn’t exactly standing around taking attendance.
[sound of writing.]
Operations Officer Haynes: Do you know where they come from?
Zeke: The Glens, mostly.
Operations Officer Haynes: Any specific locations? Any settlements under their influence? Anything more you can tell us?
Zeke: Uh…I don’t know. They mostly come out at night, mostly.
[silence]
Quartermaster Vicks: They’re nocturnal?
Zeke: Sorry about that, it’s…uh. Yea. Maybe. That’s when I saw them attacking and moving around. [unintelligible]
Operations Officer Haynes: How about migration patterns? Anything you can tell us about that?
Zeke: No. I definitely don’t know that.
Quartermaster Vicks: Anything else you can tell us about them?
Zeke: Only that Corva is looking for them and he’s trying to build some kind of relationship or an alliance of sorts. Maybe alliance isn’t the right word. I mean, they’re nightmare creatures and I don’t know how a normal person can have an alliance with something like that.
But he’s searching for them instead of actively avoiding them which anyone with a brain would do, and that should be reason enough to be worried.
Operations Officer Haynes: How many followers does this Corva command?
Zeke: I think it’s just him.
Quartermaster Vicks: He’s alone?
Zeke: Did you…did you forget that I told you he was an immortal body-stealing crazy man? I mean, how many followers does he need?
Operations Officer Hale: Do you know where he’s getting supplies? Does he have any known associates? Safe houses? Bases of operations?
Zeke: Sorry, I can’t really tell you more than he killed the Blooming Witch and destroyed the House of Seasons and now he’s looking for the Eaters because he’s trying to resurrect his family.
[silence]
Quartermaster Vicks: You are not giving us much to go on. You understand why we’re frustrated, right?
Zeke: Yea. I get that. Honestly, I think the idea of coming here and laying everything out to you sounded a lot better…in my head. Look, I’m not trying to be difficult or anything. I’m not a scout and I’m not a spy. Most of what I know comes from surviving shit that should have killed me.
You guys are asking questions expecting me to be a scout team and I get that it’s frustrating I don’t have those kinds of answers to give you. I’m kinda out of my depth. I know Corva exists because I met him. I know the Blooming Witch did exist because I met her. I know the Eaters exist because I was chased by them and watched them tear through a train filled with people.
Hell, I watched a guy cut his own eyeball out of his head so he could feed the Eaters. I know something bad is happening out here in the Deadlands. What I don’t know are the answers to your questions about troop counts and known associates and all that.
[sounds of writing]
Operations Officer Haynes: Have you encountered any evidence that Corva is working with local settlements? Informants, sympathizers, recruits?
Zeke: No. I haven’t heard anything about that. Like I said, I just know about him because I worked with him before and he killed the Blooming Witch.
[silence.]
Zeke: Huh.
Quartermaster Vicks: What? Did you remember something?
Zeke: No, it’s not that. It’s just…I realized something. You all are asking me these very specific questions and something about it was twigging me.
Quartermaster Vicks: I don’t know what ‘twigging me’ means.
Zeke: It means that you’re not treating me like I’m a crazy person. Neither of you is pushing me and asking me if I was just imagining it. You’re also not downplaying the info. If anything, you’re really pushing. You’re not saying I’m suffering from heatstroke or seeing things or making me think I’m losing my mind. You’re just taking notes.
Operations Officer Haynes: And that is weird to you?
Zeke: Well…kinda. If I were in your place, I’d be telling the strange guy who showed up at my base that he’s sounding kinda insane. I mean, an immortal psychopath hiding out in the Glens trying to strike a deal with eldritch horrors that eat people? I’d assume that whoever was tell me that was either drunk or delusional or trying to scam me.
Quartermaster Vicks: We are taking you seriously.
Zeke: That’s my point. Neither of you is acting like you just heard some craziness. You’re treating this like actual intel. Whenever I talk about the Eaters being dangerous, you guys steer it towards locations and logistics and shit. It means that you’re treating my story like it’s real. Which…the only reason I can think of you guys doing that is if there was already a bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes. That’s what’s been bothering me. Why are you taking me seriously?
[silence]
Zeke: You guys know that I can’t read your faces behind your masks, right? Why are you two looking at each other? What’s going on?
Operations Officer Haynes: We were deployed here by the Pale Regiment approximately two weeks ago. That was roughly around the time you spoke with The MIZ chapter and told them about a cult operating from the Glens.
Officially, our purpose here is regional investigation and stabilization. Unofficially, we’ve been sent to determine why an increasing number of reports from this region have become unusual.
Zeke: Shit. Unusual how?
Operations Officer Haynes: Initially, we believed the situation was relatively straightforward. The Deadlands has its fair share of cults. There were reports of disappearances, which is a pretty tell-tale sign of cult activity. There was nothing particularly unusual to the reports by Deadlands standards.
Zeke: Well that’s kinda…depressing.
Quartermaster Vicks: The Deadlands are depressing.
Operations Officer Haynes: Then the incidents started increasing. Over the past two weeks, a merchant caravan vanished while traveling between settlements. No survivors were recovered and no wreckage was found. The caravan simply disappeared.
Shortly afterward, a train was hijacked. We still don’t know exactly what happened to it because there were no surviving witnesses. We once again chalked it up to either cult or bandit activity, but something about the train hijacking felt wrong.
After that, we established patrol routes and began conducting reconnaissance operations throughout the several surrounding territories. Unfortunately, we don’t have the manpower to patrol the entire area. Several of our scouting teams have failed to return and, more recently, communication gaps have become increasingly common.
Zeke: So, merchant caravans going missing is enough to get the Pale Regiment involved?
Quartermaster Vicks: Missing supplies get our attention. Missing soldiers gets even more of it.
Operations Officer Haynes: Our original assumption was that we were dealing with a territorial monster. You’d be surprised at how often that’s the answer. Half of this job consists of discovering that some mysterious threat was actually a large animal that became hungry.
Every investigation begins the same way with reports of cultists, raiders, or local folklore. Nine times out of ten it turns out to just be an animal. The point is, we initially approached this situation the same way. We assumed there was some unknown monster somewhere in the region.
[door opening]
Unknown Male 4: Sir, I have a report.
[chair scraping back abruptly]
Quartermaster Vicks: What is it?
Unknown Male 4: Another patrol has filed to check in. Overdue by several hours. No signal and no confirmation of position.
[silence]
Operations Officer Haynes: Which patrol?
Unknown Male 4: Recon unit Seven-Delta
[door closes. Silence]
Quartermaster Vicks: That makes…how many now?
Operations Officer Haynes: Four missing units in the last nine days.
[Silence]
Operations Officer Haynes: I’ll have comms recheck the relay schedules. This is likely a training issue. Signal discipline has been slipping since we’ve been posted out here.
Quartermaster Vicks: We’ve already tightened patrol protocols twice this week.
Operations Officer Haynes: Then they weren’t followed properly.
Zeke: Okay, um, I probably shouldn’t have been listening in but you guys were standing right there so it was hard for me to not hear, and now I’ve gotta say something that it feels like you’re both thinking and just don’t wanna say out loud.
Monsters don’t hijack trains. They also don’t selectively target merchant convoys. You’re…you just had some dude coming in here and telling you that another of your patrols is missing. Four units isn’t something that a single hungry monster is gonna be causing, right?
I’m just saying that this sounds like the work of something intelligent. We are near the Glens right now. Have any of your people seen the Eaters yet? Have you poked around the place? I’m not sure where they live or if they’ve got any kind of hive or something, but I can tell you that I didn’t really see them until they were chasing me and had stormed onto the train.
I get that nine times out of ten it’s monsters. You said that. But…that means there’s always the one.
Operations Officer Haynes: You are arguing this is a coordinated attack.
Zeke: Um…I mean, isn’t it? I’m not trying to tell you all how to do your jobs, but that’s what it looks like from where I’m sitting. You’ve got missing patrols, missing convoys, and a hijacked train. Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but that doesn’t really sound random.
Quartermaster Vicks: Which brings us to known actors.
Operations Officer Haynes: The Black Teeth?
Quartermaster Vicks: They are the only group in the region with the capacity to conduct sustained attacks on our patrols. They understand supply chains. They understand disruption tactics. They understand how to bleed an outpost without ever engaging it directly.
Operations Officer Haynes: They are not active in this sector though. The last intelligence reports we received indicated most of their forces were being recalled.
Zeke: Oh…uh, okay. I might actually know something about that too.
[silence]
Quartermaster Vicks: Explain.
Zeke: Okay, but I’m gonna warn you now that this is probably gonna sound insane too. A little while ago I was in The MIZ and I got kidnapped. I was forced through a portal or something, and the next thing I know I’m in this place called the Chapel Pit. I was told it was the main base of the Black Teeth. Or at least, one of their main bases.
I was there with Jackie and Elnor, uh, the two people out in the jeep outside. We were prisoners and we were all held in these holding pens. Then, uh, things got crazy and there was a riot and a prison break. Jackie managed to steal the jeep and we all went in and took off. We’ve been driving ever since, trying to dodge their patrols.
Operations Officer Haynes: The condition of this facility when you left?
Zeke: Uh. Bad. I don’t know who won and I don’t know if they were able to stop the riot or what happened. What I do know is that they were pissed and there were a bunch of them there. You’re saying that you’ve been dealing with missing patrols and stuff for two weeks? Well, we were out there a couple days. So I doubt it was the Black Teeth.
[silence]
Operations Officer Haynes: That aligns with available intelligence. Their last confirmed movements place them too far east to be operating effectively in this region.
Quartermaster Vicks: But our communications have been shoddy lately. I’m not ready to fully discount the Black Teeth. If it’s not them, it leaves us with an unknown variable.
Zeke: Or Corva. I mean, I feel like he shouldn’t really count as an unknown variable because I just told you all about him.
[unintelligible sounds]
Zeke: What’s…what’s that?
[door opening]
Unknown Male 4: Sir! Vehicle inbound! One of ours, we think. It’s damaged and moving fast. It looks like it’s barely staying together.
[chairs scraping]
Quartermaster Vicks: Which unit?
Unknown Male 4: We can’t tell from this distance. It looks like maybe it is Six Delta, but the markings are damaged.
Operations Officer Haynes: Survivors?
Unknown Male 4: Unknown. They’re still approaching the gate.
Quartermaster Vicks: Get med teams to the gate. Now.
Operations Officer Haynes: Lock down the perimeter until we identify the vehicle. Nobody enters and nobody leaves without authorization.
Unknown Male 4: Yes sir.
Quartermaster Vicks: If that is Six-Delta coming back, we may finally have something concrete to work with.
Operations Officer Haynes: Mr. Mercer, you are coming with us.
Zeke: Uh. What? Why? I gave you my info. That’s all I’m supposed to be doing here.
Operations Officer Haynes: You are currently the only individual in this facility who has personally encountered both Corva and the Eaters. If this incident is connected to either of them, you may recognize something the rest of us miss.
Zeke: Oh, come on! Why…you got people, right? Why do I have to be there?
Quartermaster Vicks: Because it pays for your fuel.
[footsteps. Multiple chairs pushed back.]
Zeke: I feel like I should warn you both that whenever I get involved in shit like this it usually becomes so much worse.
Operations Officer Haynes: Noted.
Zeke: Oh. Good that you’re still taking me seriously.
[various sounds]
Unknown Voice: Medics are moving!
Unknown Voice 2: Clear the central lane.
Operations Officer Haynes: Keep formation. No one breaks until we identify the vehicle.
[alarms]
Operations Officer Haynes: That’s…what is that?
Quartermaster Vicks: Weapons ready.
Zeke: Jesus. Why am I here? They’re gonna shit all over me. This isn’t my fault.
[audio distortion detected]
Unknown Voice: We’re hit!
Unknown Voice 3: Front Gate! Front Gate!
Operations Officer Haynes: DOWN! EVERYBODY DOWN!
Quartermaster Vicks: CONTACT FRONT GATE!
Zeke: God dammit.
Unknown Voice: Vehicles burning!
Unknown Voice 2: MEDIC! WE NEED A MEDIC OVER HERE!
Unknown Voice 3: RETURN FIRE!