Colossus By Design: Season 2 - Log 68

[March 7, 2166]
[110 N. Moore Street -- Firehouse]
[New York City Ruins]
[Former American continent]

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The ruins of New York City, the former Big Apple. At one point, it was the crown jewel of the United States of America, but it's now a decrepit stretch of abandoned and ruined buildings.

The streets are constantly patrolled by a wide assortment of military personnel, drones, and Guardian Sentinels due to the city's important status as the location of the climax of the Legion Invasion 15 years ago.

However, a few buildings remain somewhat intact, including an odd firehouse in the downtown area that once served as the headquarters for a group of psychotic individuals whom believed they were eliminating paranormal beings back in the late twentieth century. "Spectre Deflectors", or some other odd name.

Despite the high quantity of surveillance being done around the abandoned city, at most, only a few drones patrol this particular stretch of the neighborhood. This has proven ideal for scavengers and fugitives from the law to find a home in the area, as they make use of the large variety of old underground subway tunnels to navigate out of the range of the military presence topside.

On the first floor of the firehouse building, a small metal hatch is lifted up ever so slightly, but it's immediately closed up when a surveillance drone makes a sweeping scan of the surrounding area.


(Surveillance Drone): Area clear of sapience. Moving on to section eight.


After the drone leaves the immediate vicinity, the hatch opens up fully. A group of scrappy-dressed scavengers comes out of the opening one by one, totaling around seven: two older men, three Synthetics, and a teenage boy and girl. The group slowly walks in tight formation, making sure to keep their distance from the patrolling automaton as they watch it.

The more ramshackle Synthetic nods to the teenage girl, who quickly teleports on top of the drone in a puff of smoke; she rips out its vital components, causing it to shut down and fall to the ground. After dispatching the mid-sized machine, the teenage girl scoops up its pieces and teleports back to the group.

All seven of them start to take a look at the patrol drone's mechanical parts. In particular, the more modern-looking Synthetic pulls out a large canister-looking object from the machine's innermost region; it appears to be leaking a black fluid somewhat similar in viscosity and flow to blood.


(Isaac Conrad Wiener): Well, is the core still good?

(R. Williams-63): Looks to be the case, oh captain my captain!

(Isaac Conrad Wiener): Don't say that. You know that always gets me. And YOU.


The group's leader, a tanned man in his eighties with an unusually unwrinkled face, points directly at the teenage girl, who responds with a look of complete astonishment.


(Karen Wagner): ME?!

(Isaac Conrad Wiener): YES, YOU! You could've easily disabled that patrol drone without damaging the core! I would know, since I've seen you do it the past nine times!

(Karen Wagner): Well, it's not like we've been lacking credit data to buy food-- OH WAIT! WE HAVE! Your "connections" haven't been back in weeks!

(Isaac Conrad Wiener): Well, pardon my French, but WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK MANAGED TO GET US A GROUP THAT PAYS ENOUGH TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE?! Anybody? No? I didn't think so! WE WAIT!

(Karen Wagner): Ooooooh, big scary Order of Homo Novus gonna come get us if we don't respect the--


All of a sudden, the Post-Human terrorist leader who calls herself "Bloody Mary" steps out of the shadows in a manner that doesn't seem physically possible; she's a thin but fair-skinned redhead with bright red lipstick and messy bangs covering her eyes. The terrorist leader walks up to Karen Wagner, speaking to the young post-human with a reserved but menacing tone.


(Bloody Mary): So, you don't think we're deserving of respect, huh, little one?

(Karen Wagner): I-I didn't think you were--

(R. Williams-63): Uh, Ms. Mary, if I could interject...... we have your core here, as well as the others we've collected over the past few weeks since your people last visited us.

(Bloody Mary): Very good, machine. I'll be taking those.


Bloody Mary takes the drone cores from Williams-63 and stuffs them into a large duffel bag hanging on her shoulder. She takes out a datapad and presses a few buttons on the holographic interface; the device shoots a small red laser at the datapad being held by Williams-68. The numbers on the synthetic's screen shows a large increase of around seven-hundred thousand from the previous quantity of five thousand.

This monetary transfer astounds the whole group, especially the leader.


(Isaac Conrad Wiener): Wow, just..... WOW! Not that I'm complaining, but you usually pay us about three-hundred thousand worth of credit data for this many cores.

(Bloody Mary): Consider it a bonus. After all, it has become much harder to obtain these cores, and they're so very important to our cause. Don't spend that credit data in one sitting. Laser money doesn't grow on trees you know.


After paying the scavengers, Bloody Mary steps back into the shadows, disappearing as mysteriously as she reappeared.


(Isaac Conrad Wiener): Kid, let me tell ya...... she might pay really well, but she gives me the damn creeps.