Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Europareich 2057 - A Cyberpunk CYOA

Arpad

Educated
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
248
B 1 IV
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,773
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
The tally:

aa
bbbbb
c
d

11111
22

444

IVIVIVIV
vvvvvv

B1V in short, expect the update tomorrow.

And now I will patch up them plot-holes give you more lore:

brasiliatribune8v1.png


Yes, Russian sub-based and land-based nuke delivery systems sucked, at least compared to what America introduced prior to the Oil War.
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,773
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
Some appropriate music (it gets louder fast after the quiet beginning, a heads up on the volume):



Chapter XII

„We’re going offroad, head north into the forest!” You shout into Paul’s ear.

„Are you crazy?” He replies, needless to say he isn’t pleased with the plan.

„I am your superior officer, that is an order!” You swiftly remind him.

“Very well.” The Unteroffizier acknowledges reluctantly. “Good thing I recorded a new farewell vid before embarking on this suicide mission.” He grumbles.

Two old Japanese cars, pursuing you like a pair of sharks that just smelled blood, their sirens wailing mercilessly. Deceleration, a sharp turn – the van is off the ring-road and heading north. Its pursuers – relentless, still on its tail.

“They’re still after us, can’t we go any faster?” You pester Paul.

“We can if you give me a damn Spacetech rocket booster!” He replies sarcastically, while pressing the gas pedal as hard as possible.

“Shouldn’t we try shooting them?” Sven asks.

“Not yet, if we use weapons we’re guaranteed to piss them off. It is better if we only resort to that if we fail to lose them.” You explain.

A persistent cacophony rings inside your head, the sound of the van’s roaring engine mixed with the wail of the pursuing Maibatsu Striders. Toledo becomes more distant with each second, the last of its lights disappears over the horizon in the van’s mirror. It is only you and the two cop cars, caught in a dangerous chase.

Another sharp turn followed by a bump in the road, your head hits the roof of the van.

“Watch it!” You yell at Paul.

“Better hang on then, this road isn’t getting any more comfortable in the near future.” Your driver replies.

You look in the mirror again, a cloud of dust obscures the silhouettes of the two police cars, their lights are barely visible from behind the dusty veil. But they are still there, trying to hunt you down.

“Scheisse!” Paul curses as he makes a sharp turn, the centrifugal force launches you straight into the van’s right side.

“Fucking visibility, almost hit a damn tree, damn Spaniards should have cut that thing down!” He adds. A loud crash echoes in the forest soon afterwards.

“Ha! The asshole must have missed that. No match for my driving skills now wasn’t he?” Paul gloats.

“I don’t see the other one.” You comment.

“They probably stopped to help.” Oskaras suggests.

“Where did you learn to drive a van like that?” Sven asks, that is indeed a good question – you think.

“I picked it up somewhere along the way.” He answers vaguely, is there something he doesn’t want to tell you about? At times it seems like everyone in this damn squad is hiding something.

You lost them, soon afterwards you resumed your travel towards the southern coast. After about an hour the van stops at the side of some backwater road.

“What happened?” You ask Muller.

“We’re out of fuel.” He answers.

“Already, how?” You query, annoyed by what Paul just said.

“Probably hit a snag and punctured the tank, you know, during that chase and all.” Paul explains.

“Then check it and fix it.” You order.

“You do realized we’re in the middle of nowhere with no fuel?”

“Yes and do you realize you are talking to your superior who just gave you an order? Cut the crap and show me respect or at least fake it.” You scold him. “Now check that tank and fix it.”

“I’m going.” He sighs before leaving the van with a toolkit at his side.

Paul dives beneath the van with a flashlight in his right arm, making a lot of noise as he keeps hitting various metal parts on the vehicle’s underside with it.

“I told you to fix it not to completely demolish it.” You comment irritated by his lack of progress.

“Don’t panic, I have this under control, not the first time I fixed something like this. It’s a ridiculously small hole, I’ll just plug it.” The Unteroffizier replies annoyed. “There, all done. Now we just need fuel.”

“We have a back up canister in the back, should last us until the nearest gas station. Now let’s just get moving.” You say. “I have had enough of Spain for a lifetime.”

The engine starts, the van resumes its journey south. This time you take the wheel while Paul guards the hacker in the back.

*

You drive south down the road, a pair of lights appears in your mirror. It accelerates getting closer and closer before driving to your side. A dirty Maibatsu Rancher pickup, two people sitting in the back, one of them waving his old QBZ-3 assault rifle around, both of them have their heads covered in dark rags. The driver in the front is accompanied by another towel-wearing scumbag with a rifle, he seems keen on pointing it at you.

“Pull over!” The other desert-dweller in the back yells, as he keeps making hand gestures, just in case you fail to hear him over the sound of your engine. Might as well see what these morons want before you shoot them. After all, their kind seems very susceptible to not expecting you to fight back, if you don’t start shooting the second you see them. The team knows what to do, they’re ready and waiting for your signal.

“Go ahead Sahir, see if you like anything.” The armed militant tells the one who told you to pull over. Sahir walks up to the driver’s side window and stares at you, after he takes off the rag covering his face.

“Ah, so nice, pretty.” Sahir muses as he gazes upon you lustfully. “A rare jewel, one I should seize for myself this night.” He says with a grin on his face as he touches your hair. He is a dead man.

Before Sahir even notices your move, your right arm is right in front of his face. He wonders why it stopped just centimeters away from it, why you didn’t just break his jaw with it. His curiosity is satisfied when the SMG hidden inside its frame exposes itself, and makes a bloody mess out of Sahir’s face. Yeah, that’s not how you should talk to a lady Sahir, at least not one as armed as you – you think after witnessing his bloody end.

“Kill the infidels!” Zafir, the jihadist driver, shouts.

Paul and Oskaras jump out of the van’s back. Paul fires at the rifle-armed islamist in the back, the raghead’s chest absorbs his three-round burst. Ali thinks of all the virgins he’s supposed to get in Paradise, just before he loses consciousness due to all the trauma he just suffered.

The Lithuanian shoots at the Arabic driver with his rifle, just as Zafir tries to jump out of the vehicle, however the driver manages to get into cover behind the pickup just in time.

Sven jumps out of the van as well, he hides behind the front right wheel of the van before unleashing a deadly storm of bullets. Ahmed, who was sitting next to the driver, now feels a sharp pain in his shoulder, he grips the wound with his hand grimacing in pain, before dropping his weapon on the pickup’s floor as he expires.

“Ha! You Alis make for easy prey, I’ve seen Elk that’s harder to kill than you!” The Swede mocks his enemies.

Only one target remains, he hides behind the Maibatsu Rancher, pinned down by the shower of bullets. Armed only with a machete, Zafir attempts to grab his dead comrade’s rifle, unluckily for him, as dark as it may be, you see his foolish attempt thanks to your SMG cam’s night vision. His brain gains a new projectile-drilled ventilation shaft soon afterwards.

“Well, that’s the last of them. Check if any is still breathing, put them out of their misery. I’ll see if our guest of honor is ok.”

You tell the team.

The Spanish woman lies tied up in a corner. You remove her gag, she takes a deep breath.

“Are you alright?” You ask her.

“Yes, no, I don’t know.” She answers confused, terrified.

“Are you hurt?” You ask again.

“No, I think.” She’s still shaken, not really sure of what is happening.

“You look fine enough, here have some food.” You hand her one of the energy bars you took with you. She stares at it suspiciously for a moment before finally grabbing it.

“Hey boss, Ali and Ahmed donated fuel to the war effort.” Paul announces. “We’ve got enough to reach the coast now, no need to stop at a station, I just need to finish pumping it.”

She stares at Paul, a puzzled look appears on her face. She doesn’t understand German it seems.

“I did my part, you paid me the other half. I would give you back the money, if you’re not satisfied. I know I didn’t do all that you wanted, thought we were good, since you transferred the second half of the payment. No need to grab me like that, we could have just talked it over.” The hacker whimpers.

You ignore her, she doesn’t need who you are or why you took her, at least not until she’s in Europareich territory.

“Eat, we’ll talk about that later.” You reply after a moment of silence.

“It’s not about the money is it, are you mercs hired by the DSE? Shit, should have figured they could hire some, even if it is a small corp. But I did nothing in the end, just took a stroll in the network.” She mumbles, scared.

“*Eat*, this is the last chance to do it for a while. Enjoy it while you can.” You tell her again, this time in a harsher tone.

Once she’s done you gag her once again. The van heads out.

*

Daylight, you’re about halfway to the southern coast. The van moves lazily towards the south along the filled with holes roads. You can see it clearly now, signs that there is a war going on out here. Abandoned homes, gardens turned into a lunar-like crater field. Things that ordinary people worked a lifetime for, only to be turned to rubble by a bunch of fanatics hell-bent on killing infidels. But it matters little who is fighting who, you guess, in the end the people caught between suffer the most.

You notice something in the rear-view mirror, it looks like a Chinese jeep rip-off. An RPG launcher hangs outside of the right-side window. Somebody fires a rifles in the air as a warning.

“Halt and your lives will be spared!” Somebody yells from the vehicle behind you.

“We can’t stop here, this is jihadist country.” Sven jokes, quietly.

“Well, you know the drill.” You tell him with a certain tone of boredom noticeable in your tone. You haven’t seen this many Ahmeds since you left France.

“Of course.” Gefreiter Borg says as he prepares his submachine gun for another firefight.

The van stops at the side of the road, the jihadist vehicle stops in front of it. A towel-covered militant with an RPG launcher exits it as his friend keeps pointing his rifle at you. The rocket armed goon approaches the driver’s side window.

“What do we have here, foreigners? Your governments will pay use a nice ransom yes, make Abdul rich man.” The wannabe kidnapper muses. How ironic, kidnappers running into kidnappers. Too bad Abdul and friends don’t know that, probably would have avoided you like the plague if they did.

“Check the back Ali!” Abdul orders his comrade.

Ali walks up to the van’s rear door, he opens it. To his surprise he does not see a pile of German cleaning products, such as the “Schmutz Raus” dish washing detergent, but a Lithuanian and a German, both armed with assault rifles.

“Curse you foul djinn!” Ali yells just before falling under a barrage of automatic fire.

You punch Abdul with your cyber-limb and hit the gas pedal as he falls to ground. The vehicle runs into a slight bump as it moves forward, probably ran over Abdul’s toes with the van’s rear left wheel you guess.

Paul locks one of the rear doors. At the same moment Sven attempts to shoot Abdul as the van is moving away, he hits one of his legs crippling him even further. Needless to say Albdul isn’t going anywhere for the rest of his life.

The van rides away leaving a sole survivor behind to bury the other jihadists.

*

You’re getting closer to the coast, the driving is becoming rather monotonous as you travel along a single road between some hills, not even a single turn leading elsewhere for another 5 kilometers. The van makes a sharp turn behind yet another one of them, as you quickly realize a most troublesome sight is hidden behind it.

“Scheisse!” You curse. “Damn Spaniards put up a checkpoint here!” You yell upon the sight of two jeep-like lightly armored vehicles, with soldiers standing in the middle of the road between them thus blocking it.

“What now?” Paul asks.

“Well, think fast. We can turn back but it will look very suspicious. They’ll definitely chase us, maybe call in drones for support or a patrol. It’s going to be a hunt for the great white Raul’s Cleaning Goods van. We can’t just let them search the damn thing, they’ll see the hacker and get suspicious after all.”

“Hey, I can be very persuasive, maybe they’ll fall for my obvious charms and let us go.” Muller interrupts you.

“Can’t we just ambush them and shoot them like with the other natives? They can’t call back up if they’re dead.” Sven suggest a blood-thirsty option as usual.

“If you want to deal with pissed off politicians we could, probably a better choice than spending the rest of your life in a Spanish jail caught in some diplomatic bullshit. The Ahmeds there like it when you drop the soap I hear.”

“Ram them. Full speed, now or never.” The Unteroffizier suggests as he gets another idea.

“And you said I was crazy.” You reply to Paul’s idea.

“If we’re lucky they’ll think this is a kamikaze jihadist truck and run away. The element of surprise will increase our odds of success.” Muller adds.

“Or they’ll be wannabe tough guys that fight till they die, probably showering us with lead until then. They’ll probably call back up afterwards.”

“Or they may run away and be too afraid to mention to their superiors, that they soiled their pants as they *let* a vehicle past their checkpoint.”

“Might as well just ram the guard rail at the side of the road and tumble downhill. Go out with a bang, you know.” Oskaras suggests, you’re not sure whether he is joking or not.

Decisions decisions.

You will deal with the checkpoint by…
A)…turning back and seeing if this van can ditch them as they attempt to follow you.
B)…going through it like a good citizen. Bluff or bribe your way out of having to submit to a search.
C)…ambushing them. Political ramifications? Better that than Spanish prison.
D)…using the “Adama Tactic”. That is to say, ram the frak fuck out of the checkpoint, full speed.
E)…going downhill. See them try to chase you down there*.

*you have no fucking idea what is down there. Could be a minefield for all you know :troll:, ok I’m not that sadistic. The fall is at least ten meters downwards, could be as much as 30 or 40.

Note, if you fail to lose them odds are you will need to make use of your weapons anyway. Unless you just want to surrender and call it a day, thus putting an end to Ida’s military career.

Ahmeds and Alis are the kobolds of Europareich 2057....
 

Bloodshifter

Educated
Joined
Jul 7, 2012
Messages
542
Location
Somewhere with dead bears
B doubtful the hacker would attempt anything while IN the van also we have some skill in bluffing

Edit:
D an ol fashion shoot out might end in their favor seeing as the Jihadists are grunts then the Police Officers can be seen as Elites or low leveled Orcs? I mean we are shit deep in Jihadist Territory meaning that they are at least higher leveled then the Terrorists
 

Monty

Arcane
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Messages
1,582
Location
Grognardia
It would be great to bluff our way out of this but a van full of armed soldiers, with a tied-up captive just doesn't seem like something we could explain away. Turning back doesn't make sense either - would we really outrun them and where would we go? E makes no sense whatsoever. So that leaves C and D. I suppose it comes down to how motivated we think the soldiers are, D would be preferable if we can get away with it as we would leave no Spanish casualties, but if we're going to have to take them out to escape then C would be better as we'd have the element of surprise. I'm tending towards taking a chance and going with D, but am open to counter-arguments.
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,773
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
She's gagged nice and proper, not to mention tied up and guarded by two soldiers (even if they're both rookies, Paul is in the front next to you).

EDIT: Just to make things clear, the bluff attempt here is to have them let you go without a search. I corrected the description of the choice in the chapter. Obviously trying to explain the hacker as a prank or whatever wouldn't be a good idea.
 

Seerix

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 31, 2012
Messages
235
I don't think that C is good idea. They are real soldiers on a checkpoint in the war zone. They are probably experienced or at least aware of the tactics our team employed with all the ragheads so far. Plus, random civilian van in the war zone? That's already suspicious and they'll definitely want to search it, so bluffing our way trough is out of the question, unless we want to completely rely on our luck. There's no way but the hard way. Ram the fuck out of them!


D
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Off-topic, but I'm pretty certain that Muller may have been a criminal prior to joining the army, which is why he's so cryptic about his past. Another thing I'm curious about is his lack of augmentation mentioned in the beginning of the CYOA.

Anyways, regarding A, I'm not sure that it will be possible to lose these guys so easily in our van when we were only able to lose the two shitty Japanese cruisers because Paul's skills ensured that we lost them in the forest. Hellraiser, what are these drones that they use and what are their capabilities? I have a feeling that they'll be a lot tougher to shake off than those cop cars were.

Also, how close are we to the coast?

You’re getting closer to the coast, the driving is becoming rather monotonous as you travel along a single road between some hills, not even a single turn leading elsewhere for another 5 kilometers. The van makes a sharp turn behind yet another one of them, as you quickly realize a most troublesome sight is hidden behind it.

Shaking them off seems pretty unlikely given that this has been the only road we've been driving through for the past few kilometers, so I don't see how we can lose them at the moment.

“It was set up in anticipation of an investigation into the affair, should one ever happen.” The SysOp explains. “The assumption was you get out of there with the target, the local law enforcement gets notified of the person’s disappearance somewhere in the future, they investigate and we cause a sudden memory failure if they find anything causing them to lose everything. It is a singular use resource, if we opt to use it now any signs of your inefficiency discovered in the future won’t be annihilated.”

I also don't see bluffing our way out working so well. Remember that Path V has a lot of jihadists coming through, so the soldiers at this checkpoint are almost certainly way more alert and less tolerant of bullshit than soldiers in a safer area would be. If it were a secluded place that sees very little action, sure, I guess I could see bluffing our way through working, but not here.

Ambushing them and killing them is certainly a solution, but these guys are probably soldiers who are accustomed to being attacked. Hellraiser, isn't it likely that if we kill the checkpoint guards that the government would simply think that it was jihadists behind it? If we manage to off them and cover it up successfully, why would it cause political ramifications?

However, it seems to me that ramming the place is our best shot despite the risks. It would use the soldier's alertness and familiarity with terrorist tactics against them, plus it would utilize Muller's driving skills. The van probably sucks for getaways, but it's sturdy as hell and can probably take a significant amount of gunfire, so it's useful for something like this.

D but I might flop to C if we can cover up the ambush successfully.
 

Seerix

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 31, 2012
Messages
235
Choosing the most violent way out of country already covered up everything for us. Smugglers and jihadists are norm there, only some conspiracy theorist would think someone else is responsible for destroyed checkpoint there. Unless we leave some obvious evidence like insults in german written in blood, or something stupid like that.

Of course, it may look a little bad on our report that we had to kill several spanish soldiers at the end of pretty cleanly going mission.

Problem with bluffing our way trough is that it seems to have very low chance of success and when it fails we will end up at C but with serious disadvantage.

And D is as I understand it like C but with more reckless surprise. Otherwise it means we are forcing our way trough armed checkpoint and hope to get to the sea before our van turns into a swiss cheese(unless there are only like two soldiers and we manage to run both of them over? :lol:).

If the latter is the case then I may flop to C, too.
 

Smashing Axe

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,835
Divinity: Original Sin
Hey, Spain is a third world country now, isn't it? Do we have much money on us? We could try bribing them.
 

Smashing Axe

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,835
Divinity: Original Sin
Also, reading this really makes me want to play a cyberpunk PnP game. It's nice to get some perspective on how it could be run.
 

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,849
All of our options seem really shitty, to tell the truth. A might work temporarily, but it's likely we'll simply get caught a bit later. B is very unlikely to work. C is obviously dangerous. D is likely to get us riddled with bullets before we can ram anything. And E is just crazy.

Let's go with C.
 

Rumsfeld

Scholar
Joined
May 19, 2012
Messages
116
Location
Bilderberg HQ
I'd be more tempted by D if we had a sturdier, quicker vehicle, not just a van which we already damaged simply by going on a dirt road. If the "jeep-like lightly armored vehicles" come after us and we end up in a vehicle to vehicle firefight I think we'd be sitting ducks in our tin can. B is tempting but too risky, I think C is the only way we can be certain of getting through (although a casualty or two is likely).

C
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,773
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
Here's the deal with the ambush, if you kill them fast enough they probably won't get to send a message out that they have been attacked. You don't look like the average Ali and Ahmed that stir up trouble around here, that is your advantage. If they do, odds are it won't be more than "we're under attack", unless the fight really drags on and they'll start mentioning details about the white van of doom. Even then, with luck, you could probably avoid another encounter with the military until you reach the extraction point. Or fight your way out of one. Depends how much of a mess you want to make on your way out, in addition to somebody getting shot (and how badly).

As for the drones, this is Spain so they're not as lethal as they could be. They may just send an unarmed one to stalk the van so that a "manned" vehicle finds it. They may send an EMP one if it's one of the few places where they have those stationed (damn thing is one of the more expensive things in the Spanish military), considering this is the jihadist-infested south, those odds of that are far greater than normally elsewhere in Spain, even if they're still low. If you really piss them off, they'll probably send one armed with laser guided missiles, which they save for "definite" military threats. Then you should pray the Spaniards picked the cheap targeting option or bought crappy missiles in Congo, as the van is unlikely to survive such a thing hitting it directly.

As for the bribing idea, it makes sense and I like the idea considering the thirldworldia status of Spain. Should bluffing fail, you will try to bribe them with what is equal to 4 months of a Spanish soldier's salary. The reason for that is that IMO you could probably easily lead a "surely we don't need to be searched" conversation into one about "financial incentives" and "donations". Now the question is if the checkpoint is manned by poor conscripts, corrupt soldiers or damn fine soldiers with morals. You be the judge here.
 

Monty

Arcane
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Messages
1,582
Location
Grognardia
Yes, I'm having second thoughts about D given the vehicle we're in - if we accelerate at the soldiers in the middle of the roadblock they could just step aside and pump our van full of bullets, then pursue if necessary. The bluff/bribe is tempting but if it fails we've lost all elements of surprise. Having said that the chances of these being fine upstanding soldiers seems slim, just a guess but Spain seems like a bit of a failed state (as Smashing Axe said) so bribery must have a better chance of succeeding than somewhere like the Reich. So I vote for B, we'll try to bluff/bribe the soldiers to avoid a search, but let's have everyone in the back ready to come out firing if the soldiers try to open the back.

B for me.
 

Smashing Axe

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,835
Divinity: Original Sin
B - Considering that failure to bluff would have a bribe follow-through, and with that failed, likely impromptu combat, I'll go with this option.
 

Bohr

Arcane
Joined
Nov 20, 2012
Messages
1,878
The B bandwagon.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom