We Sons Of Daley [Manhattan Blues]

Psychic powers! TIME STOP.

What psychic powers?

Climb out the window!

The ones your dream may have obliquely hinted you now have! Try flexing your forehead, I dunno.

Or uh just-- just get ready and go, I guess. Hurry. Are you locked in? Is that the issue?

The ones your dream may have obliquely hinted you now have! Try flexing your forehead, I dunno.

What? You don't remember any of that from your dream. You remember EYES LIKE OPALS and a WOMAN and WATER... FRESH WATER, that was VERY COLD. You certainly don't remember anything about PSYCHIC POWERS.

All your friends manifested way before seventeen, anyway. The idea that you'd start MANIFESTING POWERS NOW is SILLY.

Or uh just-- just get ready and go, I guess. Hurry. Are you locked in? Is that the issue?

Yes, being locked in is rather the problem. It's almost like they want to MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GET ON THAT COACH for some reason.

>Well then, break down the door!

Is it a long drop from the window?

Is it a long drop from the window?

You look out the window. It's about a story, onto hard ground.

Use your clothing bag to cushion your fall!

Climb out the window!

You gather up your dry washing from last night and your clothing and your PAPERS. Checking to make sure they're all in order- there's the SHINY MARK the ESPER made on your sheet to confirm that you're a NULL- you gather up your clothing and open the window.

You hang out of the windowsill. Someone is WATCHING you.

Use your clothing bag to cushion your fall!

In fact, they watch you DROP RIGHT OFF THE INN'S SECOND STORY WINDOW TO THE GROUND.

Wow, that HURT a little more than you thought it would, but you seem to be in one piece.

A GIRL is here, about your age, who has ICE-BLUE EYES. She STARES at you, for a moment. "Joining the GRAND ARMY?" she asks.

"Yeah."

"Hm." She nods. "It's not a bad life, if you survive." She walks away. You're pretty sure you've never seen her before. And you've never seen the HORSE she rides away on, either.

You make your way to the station and get on the coach. There are something like ten other RECRUITS in the coach with you, and most of them don't seem all that HAPPY to be going. Must be CONSCRIPTS.

For the next three nights, your dreams become more and more vivid. You become certain your MENTOR has RED HAIR. But she leaves you with a warning the day before you arrive. "Until you leave BASIC TRAINING, you must not wake up."

When you arrive at the main TRAINING BASE, you are organized into a GROUP OF TWO HUNDRED.

"All right, move that way, everyone give your papers to the man at the desk... your MOS will be decided soon..."

The OFFICER looks you over, nods. " ."

You hand over the PAPERS. (OBJECTIVE COMPLETE!)

"Hm... Seventeen... Volunteer!?" He does a double take. "Welcome to the Grand Army, Private Arlington... Hm... No Gift. All right. NEXT!"

The next six months, your dreams are distant and lost, like a fog of memory over your mind. And then you're assigned to Special Operations Training due to your DETERMINATION and ACCURACY. You also gain some skill with a TYPEWRITER and SEXTANT.

Special Operations Training... Well, it's more accurate to call it 'small force tactics' than it is to call it 'Special Operations'. You're trained as part of a RAID TEAM, the team's LONG-RANGE ATTACK, a physical SUPPORT UNIT to the MAGISTER and the ESPER. You learn to work in close ranges as well with 1911s, alongside KI-USERS. Slowly, steadily, if shakily, you begin to gain the USE OF KI, though you're nothing compared with a lot of the TECHNICIANS here.

Special Operations typically work in FIVE-MEMBER TEAMS- a TECHNICIAN, a MAGE, an ESPER, a NORMAL, and a FIFTH MEMBER who makes up for the rest. You train to fill the last two positions, and the training regularly breaks up your TEAM so that you are FORCED to work with ANYONE. You discover a TALENT FOR RESOURCEFULNESS UNDER FIRE.

And your dreams come back, each night more vivid than the last, each one ending with the warning that you must not wake up yet. At least, until the last night.

"I've taught you all I can in DREAMS," your MENTOR says. "Anything you do from now on, you need to AWAKEN for. If you awaken- no, with the life you've chosen... It's WHEN you awaken... Seek me out. For the sake of YOUR NATION. For the sake of the WORLD'S REVOLUTION, you must WAKE UP."

That morning, when you awake, you are holding a small, blue crystal. You hastily PUT IT IN A POCKET. No one notices.

Not long after you leave Special Operations Training, it is time for your first mission. You're excited. The past year has all lead up to this!

It's a bandit raid near the north end of the territory, out in Minnesota. You'll be supplying raw firepower on this mission; the mage and Esper will work together to field intelligence, while the fifth member- another mage, of an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SORT than the first- keeps everyone in communication.

You already know where the bandit base is... In fact, you're already overlooking it. It seems to be a three-walled compound, built around a cave system.

As to why the main infantry isn't here cleaning up this mess... Well, that's simple as well... There's hostages, from a nearby village, or so you've been told. That must be those WOMEN AND CHILDREN here.

You each have an M4 RIFLE with FOUR SPARE CLIPS- TWO, in your case. The MAGE is equipped with a DARK GRIMOIRE and an EXTRA CLIP. The KI-USER is TRAVELING LIGHT with 1911s. The ESPER, as usual for espers, carries NOTHING. The FIFTH MEMBER has a LIGHT GRIMIORE in addition to his rifle.

You have a TYPEWRITER, a PAIR OF 1911s, and an M4-S SNIPER RIFLE.

You are observing the compound. Objectives are simple: rescue the hostages, make sure all your members survive, and eliminate every one of the bandits, destroying the base.

Simple.

What do you do?

>Throw typewriter.

Wield the sniper rifle and look for good vantage points. Anywhere you can pick off a bandit without another one seeing, do so. Thin out their ranks.

After offing a few of them, send at least three members of your squad in to start on the hostages. You can either keep sniping, or go with them.

>Throw typewriter.

What? Are you INSANE!? You have TWO DRUMS IN RESERVE for that thing. You didn't learn to STITCH A HEM IN A WALL to just THROW a TYPEWRITER. Ugh.

>Wield the sniper rifle and look for good vantage points. Anywhere you can pick off a bandit without another one seeing, do so. Thin out their ranks.

You take a look through your Scope. Hm... Looks like they're not expecting an attack from the cliffside. That's not too surprising, the overhang makes it almost impossible for most people to climb down.

Luckily, all of you have some KI USE, including the technique of ELIMINATION OF WEIGHT. The DROP will be NO PROBLEM. You mention this to the rest of the SQUAD.

"Heh. And here I thought our POLITICAL OFFICER would be USELESS," the ESPER says.

"Can the chatter," the LIGHT MAGE adds. "That's useful information and a good point of entry, but we'll need to work to make it USEFUL."

"Understood. Deploying SCAN MATRIX now..." Your KEEPSAKE vibrates a little in your pocket when the ESPER deploys his SCAN MATRIX, but you don't pay it any mind. "Hm... looks like they have some MAGI in there... One ESPER..."

"Hm..." The TECHNICIAN pauses. "About four have AWAKENED CHAKRAS. One of them's on the towers. As an aside- you're difficult to spot, Arlington."

The ESPER nods in agreement. "Must be because he's got an alarming amount of NOTHING. Barely even has any Ki."

"All right," You nod. "Let's get to the clifftop, we'll see what we can do from there."

Once you're at the top of the cliff, your VANTAGE is excellent. You SCOPE OUT a few of the GUARDS. Hm... Which one's the AWAKENED one? You're not sure, to look at them. If you can, you'd like to take that one out. Unfortunately, the plan requires you to SPLIT WITH YOUR SQUAD at this point. You're going to be the biggest PAIN IN THE ASS you can manage before they GET THE HOSTAGES OUT.

Not knowing which one is the TECHNICIAN, you pick one of the lookouts who seems to be about your age and OPEN FIRE.

You feel LITTLE REMORSE. BANDITS like these made HARD WINTERS for you and your FAMILY for a period of YEARS before the GRAND ARMY showed up. The TEC-9s are a dead giveaway.

You know that with that your position is forfeit, most likely, but you take another shot at a LOOKOUT just to make sure they know where you are. The place looks like an ANGRY ANTHILL.

Time to start kicking.

What do you do?

>Get moving before they figure out exactly where you are and start shooting back!

Keep mobile, keep in cover. You're hard to detect, so use that to your advantage.

Keep mobile, keep in cover. You're hard to detect, so use that to your advantage.

Try to keep sniping at them whenever you get a chance. Better wasted bullets than wasted lives.

Keep mobile, keep in cover. You're hard to detect, so use that to your advantage.

Try to keep sniping at them whenever you get a chance. Better wasted bullets than wasted lives.

You step back from the cliff just in time for a bunch of return fire to impact against it, sending up dust. You retreat into the FOREST.

One or two have arrived at your PREVIOUS POSITION and you SNIPE one casually. The other starts moving QUICKLY TOWARDS YOUR POSITION! He is starting to GLOW. This could be bad if you let him get in close!

BLAM. He drops to the ground. What's going on!? There should be no one else here. This could be bad... You take to the trees and drop into the CAMP, picking up the 1911s. That... Those sound like 9mms, not .45s.

NOBODY MAKES 9MM SEMI-AUTOMATICS ANYMORE.

What's going on!?

Click.

Damn it, someone's spotted you.

Run for cover, then double back into an inobtrusive spot!

Look all around you, ready to open fire in a nanosecond.

Is someone using their gift to track you? Is there anything you can do to nullify that?

Evasive! Maybe use your WEIGHT ELIMINATION and a nearby object -- like a rock or a tree or a cliff wall -- to leap a great distance along the ground.

Is someone using their gift to track you? Is there anything you can do to nullify that?

You can't tell, and even if you could, there's not a hell of a lot you can do to stop it, short of letting them find you and TAKING THEM OUT OF THE PICTURE.

Evasive! Maybe use your WEIGHT ELIMINATION and a nearby object -- like a rock or a tree or a cliff wall -- to leap a great distance along the ground.

Eh, that's not quite what WEIGHT ELIMINATION does, but... You go ahead and start running DOWN THE CLIFF WALL. (-1Ki, Will WP Ki remaining: 15) You look to your right, and a FIGURE IN BLACK is doing the same. It LOOKS AT YOU, and ICE-BLUE EYES BORE INTO YOURS.

You both leap off at the same time. You didn't pick a good landing place. Many of the BANDITS are here.

This could be bad-

One of them lowers his TEC-9. "Oh. It's GRAND ARMY. What, you tryin' to be extra convincing this time? You could have just said 'GOOD WORK BOYS' and sent us on our way to the next set, you know."

... What?

Bluff like you know what they're talking about.

Play it cool, man. Play it cool.

> Shrug and say "YOU GOT IT!" (finger/real guns optional)

Play it cool, man. Play it cool.

> Shrug and say "YOU GOT IT!" (finger/real guns optional)

No. Need to act serious. Grim grin, tell them, "Can't let you get too lazy. I was told to receive a full report, by the way."