BBeast

Sanctuary

Zachary was still climbing around the pile of wrecked carriages. It was expansive, and so far anything which looked like it might be useful actually proved damaged beyond repair upon closer inspection. He was taking a break from his climbing, sitting on an overturned carriage about half-way up the heap and drinking from a bottle of water, when he saw a small group of people walk slowly into view. This wasn't a band of thugs or even a scavenger gang. This was a family, comprised of a mother, a father, and two young children, aged 6 and 10 if he had to guess. However, something was not right. The father was carrying both of the children, and the parents both walked weakly. He couldn't tell exactly what was wrong from up where he was, but it was obvious that they are in quite some strife.

Easy pickings, huh? said Kaa'is, half-jokingly. Upon receiving a death-stare from Zachary, which is quite a feat considering that Kaa'is is inside Zachary's head, Kaa'is laughed, What're you going to do? Beat me up?

"I was actually thinking of helping them," Zachary answered quietly.

Kaa'is moaned, We've got enough on our hands helping ourselves. Do we have to help others too?

"Yes," Zachary replied sharply.

Shouldn't have asked.

Zachary got up and started climbing down to them. Perhaps it was compassion. Perhaps it was wanting to repay the world for the boy he had killed just yesterday. Whatever it was, Zachary couldn't simply let them walk off and die without trying to help. As he got near, he called out, "Do you need any help?" The family, especially the father, was surprised and afraid at their sudden visitor. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to help," Zachary reassured them. He made it to the street and closed the gap between them. "My name's Zachary."

The father hesitated, then finally replied. "I'm Andrew. My wife here has fallen ill, my youngest is very ill and my eldest has a broken leg. I'm struggling to find enough food or medicine to care for them."

Zachary's engineer mentality suddenly came into play as he attempted to figure out a solution. The mother looked quite weak and her forehead was soaked in sweat. The youngest son did not appear conscious and was quite pale. Zachary was no doctor, so he did not know how to effectively treat their ailments. However, he could probably do something about the broken leg. Zachary laid his hand on the older child's shoulder and peered into the boy with his mind. It took about ten seconds but he eventually managed to resolve an image of the boy. It showed his skeleton, and by looking at the skeleton he could see how the leg was broken. It wasn't fragmented or anything, it was just a matter of getting it into place.

"I'm no doctor, but I could probably set your son's leg for you," Zachary finally said, "Find me some cloth so I can make a stint."

Andrew put his two children down and said, "Thank you."

Zachary crouched down and turned to the boy with the broken leg. "Does it hurt?" The kid nodded shyly. "I'm going to fix it, but this is going to hurt. But I'm going to need you to be a good boy and not move about to much." Zachary turned and grabbed a piece of metal shrapnel that wasn't too sharp from the ground around the heap. He recalled that in days of old, before anaesthetic, doctors would generally have their patients bite something like a bullet. "Here, bite this." Zachary laid his hands around the break and retrieved the mental image of it. He focussed solely on this image has he moved and rubbed the boy's leg to set the bones back in place. On the edge of consciousness he could hear the boy's cries of pain, and his grip had to be firm to restrain the leg, but in just a few moments it was all over and the bones were in place.

Allowing reality to fill is senses again he saw that they boy's leg was now visibly straighter. He also saw tears of pain on the edges of the boy's eyes. "It's all over now. I've just got to bandage it up." Looking up, he saw Andrew with strips of cloth in hand, appearing slightly distressed, which was understandable since those few painful seconds of setting the leg would have been as painful for the father as it was for the son. Zachary stood and and rummaged around the debris for two objects which would make good rods. He soon found a long narrow L-beam which was part of a carriage's broken chassis. Retrieving his tools, be cut it out and into two appropriately sized lengths of steel, then smoothed out the rough edges as best as he could. Returning to the family, Zachary took the cloth from Andrew and then bound the boy's leg in place. "There we go. Give it a, um... few weeks and it should be as good as new," he announced. An idea struck him, and he added, "Give me a few more minutes and I could probably make a crutch for him so he can walk himself."

"Thank you, Zachary," Andrew said as Zachary returned to the scrap heap.

So you've helped one, good job. But soon the mother will get so ill that she will need to be carried around too. The father, carrying around the terminally ill child too, will be too weak to support them. Heck, he's too weak already. Just look at him! And the kid who you've just helped, because he's still dependant on his dad, will starve and die anyway. But good job, you've made their inevitable demise just that little bit less painful, Kaa'is taunted.

Zachary glanced down at the shopping trolley he had left parked. "Actually, there is something more," he responded with a little smile.

Kaa'is moaned, No, not that. We went through enough trouble to get that.

"There are plenty more, and getting another should not be as hard as last time," Zachary retorted.

After jury-rigging a crutch from lengths of metal and upholstery Zachary descended to his shopping trolley. With a great shove he tipped it over and rolled the skyway unit out. He then righted the now-empty trolley and wheeled it over to the family. He handed over the crutch to Andrew, who handed it over to his son and helped him stand up. "I'd like you to have this as well. Something to help you carry your other child, and anything else," Zachary said, offering the shopping trolley.

Andrew was quite surprised by this gesture. Before he could reply, Zachary took the bag off his back and began pulling out food and water. "You'll need these also. I know it won't go far between the four of you, but you can't expect to recover from disease without good food and plenty of water." He unpacked all the food he had in his bag, about enough dry rations for three meals, and the water bottles he had too.

Andrew was speechless at this unexpected display of generosity. After a little while he managed, "Well, you've been so generous to us already. I don't know if-"

"Just take the bloody gifts before he changes his mind," the mother interjected.

Zachary smiled warmly. "This is no place to be raising a family, but I suppose you've got to make the most of it." His statement reminded him of his own family. He didn't know how his parents were, if they were OK. They probably thought him dead. He missed them, but that was no reason to allow any other family to fall apart.

"You take care, of yourself and your family," Zachary said, closing his bag and putting it back on his back.

"You too," Andrew replied, "I can not express how grateful I am."

"Yes, thank you," the mother added.

"It is not a problem," Zachary responded, before turning away and leaving, the image of the smiling family still in his mind. Sure, most of them were ill or injured, but that did not stop the warm feeling of doing something nice from growing inside him.

When he was some distance away, out of earshot, he asked Kaa'is, "Don't you feel that? Gladness for helping someone?"

No, Kaa'is grunted.

"Maybe if you had contributed you actually would."

Kaa'is scoffed in reply. Zachary continued walking, and he felt hunger in his belly. He needed to return home and grab some more food, then head over to the shopping centre to retrieve another shopping trolley. Then he might be able to resume searching for a carriage.

Sanctuary

Ditto. Except I've already started my post and hope to get it done tonight.

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Sage said
My bad brothah I had a lot of other pm's covering it up. Replied.

No problem. I guessed something like that had probably happened.

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While you go talk about anime, Sage, can you please look at your PMs. I've sent you one a number of days ago.

Sanctuary

Zachary ambled through the streets, pushing his trolley. It contained a chunk of machinery the size of an engine block with a very large polarity core in it. The trolley's wheels could barely carry the weight, and to get it over bumps Zachary had to make use of his metal manipulating powers to lift it. But he was making progress without significant effort, which was good. He was now looking for a carriage which he could adapt to his design. There was the odd carriage and shuttle here and there along the streets, but they are all in a bad state and a lot of their kinetic cores have been mostly looted, sometimes by himself. What he wanted was the confluence of the flood waters during the disaster, as that was where a lot of the debris had been washed, including carriages. In that area he would be able to find a carriage of the right size, an engine that is mostly intact and a wide assortment of spare parts all with-in a short distance of each other. And most of it is rubble-strewn trash with little shelter, so there aren't much in the way of permanent occupants to deal with.

Eventually he made it to a place with carriages and rubble jammed into a intersection and against a half-broken wall. While rubble was found in all parts of the city, it is only in places like these that there is a large amount. It towered about a storey above the street level, and looked like a scene from a wrecker's yard. Looking at the mountain before him, Zachary was reminded of the main disadvantage of scavenging in such a place- everything is a wreck. Not many things survived the turbulent flood taking it into this place, where many other pieces of large debris were smashing their way through to as well. However, Zachary had hope. A light carriage like that he was looking for could quite possibly have avoided the roughest parts of the journey by floating. It may be a long-shot, but a carriage from any other location would be a chore to repair as there was not a large pile of spare parts nearby.

Sighing at the size of the rubble heaped against the surprisingly sturdy building, Zachary parked his trolley at the edge of the rubble and began to hike around it. He started walking around the base, for walking along the rubble would be very treacherous. With his eye for scavenging, he quickly spotted something which looked like a one-man police carriage, the kind they use of patrols, near the top. So he began to climb, lifting himself over broken carriages and chunks of concrete. After an arduous climb he made it to the object of interest. It was indeed a police patrol carriage. However, from next to it he could see that the front half, sticking into the hill, was crushed.

This may be harder than you thought, Kaa'is said.

Zachary shook off his kage's pessimism. "There's still many more carriages here. We may still find one of use."

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I think it is a good post, Zeph.

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I'm working on a post now. I'll probably get it done for tomorrow.

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The Red Zephyr said Let it be known that BBeast is my favorite person as of now.

From what I've seen of you this is a huge compliment. Thank you.

But I will say that modern firearms are not that unlikely to be around and prevalent (if we gloss over a little of the OP, which I shall cover soon). As Sage said, we have lots of monsters and there's bound to be some insurgent/terrorist group around somewhere, so weapons would not have gone neglected. Of course, the kinds of weapons you, Zeph, mentioned would have been the most common, but as the military of Aeros have deep pockets and a desire for the latest tech they would fund not only the development but also the production of modern firearms. The only way for a gang to get their hands on such weapons would be by smuggling them out of the army, but a large enough group (such as the Blood Saints) would be quite capable of doing that. You might bring up the concern of finite ammo, but bullets are used in simpler weapons and most of the 'modern' weapons would probably be compatible with those bullets. The fact that bullets are propelled by cores here means that only the actual bullet part is needed, so bullets would not have changed much since the flint-lock days.

The important part which you are concerned about (in respect to guns) is why there are so many of them. To reiterate, the military of Aeros have deep pockets and a desire for the latest tech. As such, the military would mostly be well equipped by the time the cataclysm happens, and so would anyone leaching weapons from them.



Rereading the OP, I can see the source of my confusion from before in regard to the nature of firearms. The OP has two partially-contradicting statements about firearms. I can see Zephyr's concern too.

*The weaponry of Leginia, however, is not as modern. The era of peace that the council brought resulted in an end to the thirst for militaristic advancement. Guns are rare, and function based off cores (most will focus on using a Fire Core to project forward a bullet).
...
-Core Firearms (rifles/pistols): Powered by one of five elemental cores: fire, water, lightning, land, or wind. Water rifles are used by fire fighters. Fire, lightning, and land core rifles are used by authorities/military and fire rounds of the element. Land core rifles shoot strong metals rather than burts of fire or lightning. Wind rifles are usually used in riot control as they have deal no fatal damage, but can create a very strong force by lanching immense gusts of wind.

In the first part, it says they fire bullets. In the second part, however, it instead says they fire elements. And, also, it does say 'guns are rare', and that there was 'an end to the thirst for militaristic advancement'. Those two statements have been mostly ignored IC. This ignoring can be rationalised, but it would not be right to let it go unnoticed or let it continue too much.

In the collab, I at least would have expected there to be some mention of core weapons in use if the OP had been at all regarded. I don't see how they didn't have lightning or fire guns. As we've gone over, the use of the modern guns in that battle can be rationalised and thus doesn't need removal, but for future posts we really should heed the background that has been given.


P.S. Sage, I have a PM for you.

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Sage said
No no no no.
These guns don't work like earth guns either. Remember what you quoted from the OOC OP? How they use a fire core's energy to propel a bullet forward? How HARD could that be to make? I merely said that it wasn't shooting little bolts of fire, but rather, used the explosive energy of that fire to shoot the ballistic rounds. It's not that hard. Plasma rifles are the regular norm, and they are MUCH harder to make since they require core fusion to create plasma. On top of that, if you found a fire core, put it in a waterbottle, filled it up with bullets on top, and then activated bursts of the fire core's energy...Oh no! An assault rifle!

The fire core propulsion only removes the one of simplest of the gun's moving parts and removes the explosiveness of bullets which are lying around. The hard part is getting the bullets in place. If you stick bullets in a tube and then have a controlled explosion in the bottom, you do not get an assault rifle. You instead get something which fires a handful of bullets all at once with no control. To deliver bullets in any weapon which takes more than one bullet per barrel needs some sort of feed, which generally requires well-crafted mechanisms. In manual guns, you still need a good mechanism to move the next bullet in place or it will get jammed. In semi-automatic and automatic weapons that mechanism also needs another mechanism to operate it (typically powered by the exhaust of the previous shot). These mechanisms are non-trivial. Their complexity could perhaps be comparable to a combustion engine, with all its rapidly moving parts. In no way beyond the technological capabilities of this world, but not readily available to just anyone, especially in a quarantined wasteland.

A weapon using a core, on the other hand, needs very minimal moving parts and cores can be found in just about everything, so many core weapons would be more readily available than ballistic firearms. Yes, fancy cores like plasma are not readily available, but lightning and fire and land are some of the most common cores around and could still make pretty decent weapons.

In short, it is quite easy to make a one-shot ballistic firearm, especially using cores to replace chemistry and ignition. But anything which fires more than one shot without reloading is much harder.


But these are gangs, not engineers. They wouldn't build their own guns. Like what Anriu said, they would be supplied their guns by gun dealers, which would have military connections. Unlike what Anriu said, after the apocalypse getting new guns would be all the more difficult because of the quarantine, martial law and destroyed economy. But this is a gang. They would have had stockpiles beforehand, then take weapons from other gangs. Same goes for the Golden Mercenaries, expect their pre-apocalypse connections were probably more legitimate than those of any gangs like the Blood Saints.

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Sage said
No mention of what they were firing was even made, but I wanted you to assume ballistic rounds. These gangsters can't come into contact with actual military - remember, they were more of an all show gang, like the one publicized by mass media. Because of this, they could only get this basic shit made. And yes, Iktomi is OP as hell, but that's because I let him be. These Blood Saints aren't all that dude... the small GM squad wiped out like all of them without losing anyone, until they got to the boss kages.EDIT: For BBeast, hell yes, there are guns that shoot fire lightning and what not. In fact, that's the majority of the military's weaponry. They have plasma rifles.

Really? Did you read the collab?

...
It was only moments after his exclamation that a wave of bullets pelted the ground around them from above. The gangsters wielded a variety of guns - from handguns and revolvers to sub machine guns and shotguns. As the bullets rained upon the squad,
...
The two others closed in, but Kisheto dove in front of Hector, taking two bullets to his upper back and a single bullet to his lower left abdomen.
...
The Saints were pushed back, and two of them were thrust backwards as their bodies met with a wave of bullets.
...
In response, the mercenaries, who had three grenade launchers prepared, fired off one round of their explosive weapons and caused the entire wall to explode into a mess of debris. The second the grenades made contact,
...
and they began unleashing a spray of bullets upon the men who were focusing on Julian.
...
Iktomi's body twisted and turned as he darted along the walls, bullets flying all around him.
...
As he did this, the two Golden Mercenaries fired off the last of their current magazine's rounds,
...
as the Golden Mercenary tried to spin into his deflected attack, he was met with a burst of bullets that ran up his spine,
...

I think the collab explicitly states that both sides used bullets, and absolutely no mention of other firearms (aside from the RPGs).

The argument for core guns being exclusive to the military while the gangs have to use the "basic" guns is unfounded. It is much easier to build a core gun, a length of pipe with a core in one end, a trigger mechanism and a stock to hold it, than it is to build a ballistic firearm, which is quite complex as it requires many moving parts. Zachary's primary weapon, as you've seen, is a wind cannon. It is little more than a length of pipe with a wind core in one end and a means to activate it. The only moving part is the trigger, and the most complicated part is the power supply (a battery and some capacitors to make it come out as a strong pulse). A conventional gun, on the other hand, has many moving parts which have to line up exactly or it will jam, especially in an automatic weapon. The only way around that is to use a musket or similar weapon instead, which again has no moving parts other than the trigger but at the cost of a very long manual reload time.

By your logic, that the gangs can't get the good weapons, means that they'll be stuck with the core weapons (simple core weapons, of course) while military will be the only ones with access to assault rifles and RPGs. The Golden Mercenaries are like the military, so there's no problem with their kit, but you must be careful to not break the world you have made.