Quote Originally Posted by Lychee View Post
Nico was a different pokemon yesterday, so he highly doubted anyone would catch on to the fact he was going to talk his way into the Exacta Military compound again.
This time, the other side!

He quietly lumbered off to search (14b) Western Side Aurorawatch Military Bunker, passing a vaguely familiar Heatran on his way out.
You decide to head south to the Exacta Military Compound tonight, enjoying the fact that the wind and dust isn’t a nuisance like it was earlier today. For one thing, you figure no one will ever know you were the Cinccino that was there yesterday.

As you slowly walk down, you eventually arrive at the western side where Aurorawatch has their center of operations. Even at this hour, many Pokémon are standing guard and keeping a vigilant watch on things. However, it seems as though they’re mainly on the lookout for ghouls and chimeras, not necessarily normal-looking Pokémon, which does give you a bit of an advantage.

When you get to the large, metallic bunker door, you see a battle-hardened Furret with combat armor and holding some kind of hand-held cannon armament. She looks a bit tired, as if her face says she’d rather be out in the field hunting ghouls rather than just standing here doing nothing. Meanwhile, a younger Aurorawatch Jolteon is there sitting beside her, looking like he can’t wait until his shift is over. You lumber toward the Furret, who looks a bit more alert when you arrive.

“Sup,” she greets you. “Need something?”

“Yeah, uhh, I’m a little lost,” you tell her, shrugging a bit. “I’m looking for Paladin Crez regarding the Aurorawatch Reserve Officer Training Corps program, but they didn’t tell me where I needed to go.”

“Bloody hell, yeah, I’m not surprised,” the Furret sighs. “But really, you’re meeting him at this hour?”

“Yeah,” you shrug, looking away a bit. “He mentioned this was the only time slot he has available for a preliminary screening interview and I’m already running late. Have either of you seen him lately?”

“Nope, can’t say I have,” the Jolteon replies with a skeptical look on his face.

“Same, me neither,” the Furret adds. “He’s probably inside. If you ask around, someone might know where he is and can probably help you out.”

“Okay, thanks so much,” you reply to her.

She then lets you in and you start your investigation. From what you can see, while they tried to make this look and feel like a more authentic military compound with mess halls, bunkers, training areas, fitness rooms, and all the other facilities Aurorawatch’s soldiers would need, it still looks much more like the hotel it used to be. They haven’t changed the aesthetic very much and despite all the repurposing they’ve done, the building’s original purpose is definitely still very much apparent.

Thankfully, it doesn’t look like too many soldiers are moving about, which allows you to explore freely. While some activities are still going on tonight and you can still find occasional Aurorawatch soldiers going about their nightly business, most of the rooms and facilities are locked down for the evening. Still, even despite that, you don’t find too many things out of the ordinary.

You soon arrive at the quartermaster’s area, as well as the military supply holding and storage. A good portion of it seems to be under tight scrutiny to avoid theft. From what you can see, Aurorawatch’s main issue isn’t lack of weaponry or equipment. They definitely seem to be quite well-stocked as far as that goes. What they’re really lacking in is overall staff and manpower.

Around this area, you also find an equipment and resource salvaging center. Most of the desks and workbenches seem to be empty, though they’ve left a lot of scattered equipment around. Broken weapons, armor, and other technologies are also here, but you come across one circuit board that seems very suspicious.

From an outside glance, nothing seems wrong with it, looking like an average circuit board for a “Wall Vault” system. Some of the capacitors and transistors look like they’ve been burnt out and need to be replaced. Still, what stands out the most about it is the fact there’s a noticeable Stalker’s dark aura drifting from it. That definitely raises a red flag.

You’re not quite sure how this piece of equipment got here, but it’s likely that Aurorawatch might have found it out in the field and decided to recover it to see if it was worth salvaging, repairing, or repurposing depending on the kind of circuity it has. Still, they probably aren’t aware it has a connection to the Stalkers in some way, and they may end up scrapping it without realizing there’s something deeper going on.

You look over your shoulder to make sure no one’s watching, and you decide to take it. You figure better to take it and have another Emissary repair it rather than leave it here and later on discover Aurorawatch disposed of it, never realizing the truth…

[Damaged “Wall Vault” Circuit Board: <Repair>] has been added to the Team Inventory.

You continue to search throughout the rest of the compound, but you don’t find anything else that stands out as being suspicious. You decide to head back and as you head out the door, you see that the Furret and Jolteon are no longer there, likely having fulfilled their shift for the night. Instead, you pass by an Aurorawatch Unfezant that doesn’t say a word to you as you go out and leave.

Once you walk away from the compound, you head back up north toward the steel mill, making sure no one’s watching you tonight either. You definitely don’t want a repeat of what happened last night…

Nico the Snorlax (L: Normal)
Health: 24/24 | Sanity: 20/20 | Purity: 16/16
Battle Stance: Ferocious
Perk: Diplomacy | Abilities:
EQUIPMENT:
Attack Weapon: [|AW| Rogue’s Dagger] (Adds 3 damage to successful attack rolls)
Defense Armor: <Empty>
Jewelry: <Empty>
Utopian Aspect: <Empty>
MERCENARIES:
#1: <Empty>
#2: <Empty>
PACK:
  • $325 Sochas$
    [OMEN Sample Collection Jar]