Z-Day + 1 - 7:06 AM Central Time - Near Brooks High School, Omaha, Nebraska On the street- Officer Jerome Hooper and Officer Samuel Kensington led the small group north away from the school, following Detective Gretchen Ehrlich's directions. She and Special Agent John Lake brought up the rear. Between them walked Megan Petrovich and Jimmy Kowalski. They were passing through a deserted residential neighborhood near the school.
OOC,Everyone, please roll Listen. The base skil is 25%.
Samuel Kensington,[b]Samuel[/b] heard a muffled shout of "'Ak'eed!" from within a house on the right side of the street. The voice sounded female. It was impossible to see inside, as the windows were boarded up.
[spoiler]Please make a Know roll to see if you recognize what language the shout was. You may also make an Other Language roll if your Know roll succeeds, but you'll only have the 1% base chance.[/spoiler]
OOC,You do not have to roll since someone else succeeded, but it's in your interest to do so anyway. Successfully using the skill earns you a check in it. If you survive to the end of the chapter (which is by no means certain), you may be able to improve it at that time.
If you do succeed at the roll, you may also click on the spoiler button above, read the text, and follow the instructions.
Samuel Kensington,[b]Samuel[/b] found the language vaguely familiar, and he recalled having heard something similar in the movie [i]Windtalkers[/i], which was about the Navaho codetalkers in World War Two. He had no idea what the word meant, however.
[spoiler]Know roll succeeded with a roll of 51 (70% stat).
Other Language:Navaho roll failed with a roll of 91 (1% base skill).[/spoiler]
Samuel Kensington,[b]Samuel[/b] caught a glimpse through a window in a house a short distance up the block. The windows on the ground floor were all boarded up, but the upstairs windows were not. It was through one of those that he spotted a young woman with obvious Native American features. The house was also the one from which he had heard the shout before, which confirmed his suspicions. No sooner had he pointed than she ducked out of sight,
On the street- Gretchen nodded. "Sounds like a good idea," she said. "Whoever's in there survived the night and can wait a while longer." She led the way further north. They proceeded on the opposite side of the street to the house in question, using the cars parked along it as cover.
Outside the warehouse-
About a mile from the school, the group arrived at the correct address by following Gretchen's map, a warehouse that looked much like the others in this commercial district. There were two closed garage bay doors in front, with a boarded up doorway just beside them. There had formerly been a door there, but it was gone now.
Outside the warehouse-
There was an alleyway to the right of the warehouse, between it and another warehouse, that led back. The left side of the warehouse was bordered by a street heading north.
Outside the warehouse-
"I'll go," said Special Agent John Lake. "It's too bad the radios aren't working any more after that EMP. I'll have to come back and report what I see." He slipped into the alley, but he wasn't as quiet as he had hoped.
Samuel curses and coves him, looking for some sign of an assailant coming out of the building. He'll shoot first, ask questions later, if they so much as look hostile.
Outside the warehouse-
There was no sign of any movement, from the warehouse or elsewhere, apart from John Lake. The DEA agent moved down the alley and soon reached the end of it, where he disappeared around the corner. He was on his way back when everyone felt the ground shake briefly. The tremor was fairly gentle, not powerful enough to do any damage, and was over within seconds.
Kowalski stays at the front of the warehouse and covers the boarded up doorway as well as the garage door with his revolver. If someone tries to get out that way, he´ll be ready.
Outside the warehouse- John Lake returned. "The alley out back is clear," he said, "but the back door is gone and the doorway is boarded up, just like the front. We could get in through either or both of those entrances with some effort, but it'll make noise. Was that an earthquake I just felt?"
"Did it move for you too?" said Gretchen in a lightly teasing tone. John blushed, and she giggled.
"Might been a quake... With all these thing happening that won´t surprise me."Kowalski closes in on the barricaded front door. He points at it and tries some of the boards to see if they are loose.
Outside the warehouse-
The doorway had been boarded up pretty securely. Whoever had done it knew what they were doing. It could be forced open with some effort, however.
Officer Jerome Hooper shook his head and motioned for Jimmy to move away from the door.
OOC,The boards have a STR of 15. Up to two people can try at the same time, combining their STR scores on the Resistance Table. You have only a 25% chance to do it by yourself. If you want to enlist someone's aid, let me know who. If it's an NPC, you'll need a Fast Talk roll to convince whoever it is that it's a good idea. If it's a PC ([b]Samuel Kensington[/b]), his player will have to agree with you. Laraqua hasn't posted in a long time, but I'll wait to give her a chance. This thread isn't in sync with another thread in this section that you're both in, so I'll want to slow this one down anyway until that one catches up.
Jerome Hooper/Samuel Kensington,No need to roll, I'll just give this to you since you've been specifically trained for it in SWAT. There are two main ways to breach a building: stealth entry or dynamic entry. Stealth relies on the suspects not even knowing you've entered until it's too late. It doesn't seem very feasible here, as the front and back doors are boarded up, and it will be hard to remove them quietly. There are also the large bay doors, but they are most likely locked and would make noise when opening manually. WIth dynamic entry, making noise doesn't matter. In fact, you often want to make loud noises to disorient whoever may be inside. The key to dynamic entry is speed and surprise. If you move quickly enough, you can overwhelm the suspects before they can react. SWAT teams have a portable battering ram, which [b]Jerome[/b] is carrying. That should be able to smash through the boards, especially since there is no actual door backing them up. It may be possible to burst in through both the front and back doors simultaneously if you have a way to synchronize your actions, but that would be difficult with no electronics working.
"We'll need to make a dynamic entry," said Samuel. "Be as loud, terrifying and in charge as we can. Jerome can smash in through one set of the boards. Be best if we could come in from both ways. Maybe if we had a bell or something? In this silence, anything could be heard far and wide. Not quite as good as the first thing they hear being the boards busting, but it's best if we can take two sides at once. Jerome can take Megan and John. I'll take Gretchen and Jimmy." He looks around for something that could help jemmy the boards to give him an edge against the boards as he doesn't have his own ram.
Samuel Kensington,[b]Samuel[/b] heard a faint sound from deep in the warehouse that might have been muffled gunfire. There were also footsteps in the distance behind the boarded up doorway, again fairly faint. He was lucky to have heard them at all.
"Now or never, I hear gunfire, let's go, teams, into positions," says Samuel, then breaks into a run to his self-assigned doorway. "People, with me, let's get this open!"
Outside the warehouse-
"I'll give you time to get into position," Jerome told Samuel as he readied his portable battering ram. Megan and John stood on either side of him, and John had his gun in hand. Jimmy and Gretchen followed Samuel down the alley between the warehouses, weapons drawn.
In the alley- Samuel, Jimmy, and Gretchen raced down the alley. The alley that ran behind the warehouses was visible up ahead.
Samuel Kensington,[b]Samuel[/b] could hear the sound of metal on wood coming from behind the warehouse, as well as the faint sounds of more gunfire, if that's what it was.