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Aberrant: 200X - [Gods of War] Intro: Building the world[FIN]


Dozer

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May 10th, 2011

Dozer put down the lumber stack he was carrying, and wiped the dirt from his face. His eyes darted along the treeline, searching for any threats to the construction crews under his care. His mind wandered as he walked around the perimeter of the construction zone, thinking back to his meeting with Ms. Dreyfuss.

That lady definitely knew what buttons to press to get me out here. Imagine, me in a war zone, protecting someone from raiders, nova elites, and wild animals. Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my.

Dozer smiled as a breeze picked up, bringing with it the familiar smells of fresh sawdust and recently cooked meat. He reached up, stretching out his back, a small series of cracks issuing forth. Then, he headed back to the staging area for the crews to get some more lumber. As he passed the work crews, he waved and shouted "Keep up the good work, guys. We'll be finished before you know it."

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The other workers on the school and wind-farm project looked up and smiled at the American as he went past, a little awed by Dozer's size, strength, and untiring endurance. A mixture of locals and foreign specialists willing to take the moderate risk for the extra financial incentives being offered by the U.N.'s 'Third World Infrastructure' initiative, they were torn between an instinctive liking for the big friendly nova and equally instinctive envy/fear of his power.

This small but bustling town, roughly 100 miles from the city of Kamina in the southern Katanga province, was the first step in providing both education to the rural youth and in bringing electricity deep into the countryside. Hyper efficient nova-designed wind turbines would produce more electricity than the town would ever need, and the school would come with OpNet capable computers and a satellite uplink, connecting those that lived in the village to the world with the ease of touching a screen.

At least, that was the press hype. Dozer thought it was a great idea in theory, but his first sight of the 'city' that served as this province's capital had been a shock. The place was barely big enough for the railway station he and the other workers had come in on, but right next to it was a major Congolese Army training base. The soldiers had been everywhere, eyeballing Dozer suspiciously as though he'd been a secret forward agent for an invasion force or something, but they'd left Kamina without incident and headed off in their trucks and jeeps, down jolting dirt roads into the jungle and savannah. And bam, just like that they were cut off from civilisation, the wilderness all around them.

Dozer had kept his eyes open for wildlife - that was supposed to be one of the plusses of visiting Africa - and hadn't been disappointed. He'd seen zebra, a leopard lazily sunning itself on a tree branch and the ubiquitous crocodiles lazing on the reddish banks of a river they'd passed. No elephants yet, but he felt sure he'd get to see some before they were done in this country.

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Dozer smiled as he grabbed a hyper-ration bar and began eating it while looking around the small village. After finishing the ration bar, he put the wrapper in his pocket, and sat down on a small pile of lumber, watching the tree-line. He sat there unmoving, except his eyes, for a good couple of minutes.

I wonder, what's going to happen to this village when we leave. Will it thrive, will it burn? will it's people thank us, or will they curse our names?

His eyes then alighted on the frames for the wind turbines, and their height. Dozer got up, and with a look of purpose on his face, he jogged over to the framework helping those who are building the turbines to reach the top. Climbing up the framework to the top, which at this stage was only about 15 meters high, Dozer relished the wind blowing through his hair. He looked out over the village when he reached the top. Dozer sat down, and began to whistle tunelessly to himself, watching the sun as it prepared to set.

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A distant roar of engines alerted Dozer on his lofty perch a few moments before the baseline workers likewise picked up the sound and began warily looking down the dirt road that was the only path into or out of this town. Squinting off to the southeast, the big man could make out a cavalcade of jeeps and trucks approaching and softly cursed. There had to be at least 4 jeeps, each with a mounted gun, and the 3 trucks behind them carried men in fatigues. Dozer shinned down the half-built tower and moved over to the supervisor, an Algerian veteran of Third World relief projects called Pierre.

"Army." the dark-skinned man said, his French-accented tones studiously neutral but his dark eyes showing faint distaste and worry as he watched the vehicles approach. "Here to 'inspect' us and our work, no doubt." He spat onto the dull red earth and moved to the forefront of the gathering crowd of workmen.

"Go and have your dinners." he called in French to the assembled men. "And you lot, put those damned rifles away." he pointed at a small knot of the men armed with bolt-action hunting rifles that were, on paper, to defend against wild beasts. "They'll soon be going on their way. Have your papers handy, all of you. Now move."

The convoy came to a stop, the uniformed men jumping out whilst on the jeeps one man remained behind on each gun. They drew up in a loose semi-circle around the building site, weapons to hand but not pointed at anything - yet. All in all, it was a fairly typical 'We're the boss here' intimidation move that Dozer had been briefed to expect. The senior officers of the Congolese army were all cronies of the Asani regime, and they in turn promoted their friends and family members to plum posts, one of the perks of which was being able to throw your weight around with the full backing of a lot of men and guns. As long as you didn't overstep the fairly wide mark you could get away with a lot, especially in the hinterlands.

A tall man wearing a red beret and a gold-embroidered khaki uniform shirt stepped out of the lead jeep, a polished ebony swagger-stick under one arm that gleamed in the setting sunlight as brightly as his boots. A small group of armed men with him, he crossed to where Pierre and Dozer waited and tapped the brim of his beret with the stick in casual salute.

"I am Major Celestin Makanga of the Congolese Army." he said by way of introduction in French, his eyes on the formidable-looking Dozer. "Who is the supervisor here?"

"I am, Major." Pierre replied, offering his papers. "Foreman Pierre Rashid, contractor working for TWI on behalf of the United Nations. This is Dozer from Peacekeepers International who is here to assist in the building effort. You will find that all of our papers are in order."

"I am sure." Makanga replied confidently, waving the papers away. "We are here simply as a formality, to inspect this site and the materials to ensure that nothing dangerous is here that could be used by seditious elements." The formal way he delivered this statement was a surefire indicator that he'd rehearsed it.

"Of course." Pierre said, nodding. "I can assure you that all we have here are materials for a school and for power generation. They have already been cleared through border customs, and I have those papers also."

"With respect to the border officers, the fluid nature of the situation here is my responsibility." Makanga said firmly. "Tell me of these generators."

"Wind turbines only, Major." Pierre said, leading him over to one mostly completed assembly. "A nova design from Project Utopia, one can turn the wind into enough electricity to power a small town. There are no combustible materials or anything a terrorist could use to make them." As they talked, Dozer noted some of the other Army officers poking around the supply area, inspecting the customs labels on the crates and boxes. One nudged his fellow and pointed at one crate, murmuring something that Dozer was too far away to catch before turning and calling out "Major!"

With a sign that Pierre and Dozer were to remain behind, Makanga headed over and for a few minutes conferred with the other two, peering at the labels and nodding, before coming back. His expression was set into one of stern authoritarian resolve.

"The crates with the OpNet computers and the satellite uplink equipment will be coming with us, Foreman." he stated. Pierre sputtered.

"But Major! Those are hardly dangerous-"

"I disagree. They are dangerous - to you and your workers. Terrorists and bandits who know nothing of wind-power would still kill readily for such items, with which they could contact the outside world and cohorts in other nations. A mobile satellite uplink makes the computers a very tempting target, Mr Rashid. No. They will be coming with us." Makanga finished firmly.

"Don't you mean 'with me'?" Pierre inquired angrily. "We will never see that equipment again, and you know it Major." The officer stepped forward and leveled his stick at the angry foreman.

"Do not forget in whose country you are a guest." he said in a low, threatening tone. "You can very easily find yourself an unwelcome one." Behind him, some of his men gripped their guns tighter, whilst over at the supply area more were working to pick up and load the crates onto one of the trucks.

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Dozer sighed, and reached down to pick up a 2x4. He grabbed both ends of the long side of the piece of lumber and squeezed towards the middle, his face not showing the least bit of effort. The 2x4 didn't just compress or squeeze, it splintered as if it was balsa wood. Then Dozer smiled an evil smile, looking right into Major Makanga's eyes. Dozer stepped in front of Pierre, hiding him behind Dozer's formidable frame. He focused his quantum energy into his hands, and formed it into a sledgehammer made of glowing plasma.

Here goes nothing...

In French, Dozer said, "Major Makanga, This project and all it's people and equipment are under my protection. If you want to remove ANYTHING from this site, you're gonna have to go through me. And I doubt that you have enough firepower to do any such thing. Now I'm not gonna say this part twice. Get the hell out of my face. And DON'T come back."

Click to reveal..
Str + Intim(Brutish quality):

Dozer *rolls* 7d10: 5+9+3+9+4+10+7: 47

Dozer *rolls* 1d10: 10: 10

Dozer *rolls* 1d10: 3: 3

MStr:

Dozer *rolls* 3d10: 10+4+6: 20

8 sux, all total.

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Fifty pairs of hands tightened on weapons. Fifty pairs of eyes widened at the impressive display of nova power. Fifty men were torn between wanting to open fire and wanting to run away.

No eyes were wider than those belonging to the fifty-first man, Major Makanga. He gazed at the seething energy of the plasma sledgehammer, and at the towering nova who, right this moment, seemed to brush the sky with his shoulders. His eyes went so wide that they seemed ready to pop out of his skull, his lips moved spasmodically as he tried to form words.

Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he keeled over backwards like a felled tree in front of his astonished and dismayed men. On the crisp pale khaki pants a dark stain appeared at the crotch and spread slowly, and a faint smell of fear-loosened bowels filled the air.

For a long moment, there was silence.

Pierre stepped forwards, laying a firm hand on the granite-hard forearm of the huge Dozer as several of the Major's men approached, shouldering their weapons and picking their commander up. A few orders were issued but otherwise without a word, but with many varied glances back, the soldiers climbed into their vehicles and started away, leaving the crates behind. The workers nearby, who had witnessed the whole exchange, cheered and laughed at the retreating Army vehicles and clustered around Dozer, clapping the big man on the back and reaching out to touch him in simple reverence.

"Enough!" Pierre said, clapping his hands. The older foreman did not seem to share the exuberance of the others. "Get all of this tidied away. Night is almost here." As the men trailed off, he grabbed Dozer's arm.

"Though my heart cheered at the sight, my head is clouded with worry. I wish you had not done that." he said in a low tone. "Makanga has sorely lost face now - if he does not act quickly word will spread and he will become the laughing stock of the Army. It will be a disgrace to his family as well. I can only hope the bully is so much a coward that he will take his own life rather than attempt revenge, my friend."

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Originally Posted By: Einherjar


"Though my heart cheered at the sight, my head is clouded with worry. I wish you had not done that." he said in a low tone. "Makanga has sorely lost face now - if he does not act quickly word will spread and he will become the laughing stock of the Army. It will be a disgrace to his family as well. I can only hope the bully is so much a coward that he will take his own life rather than attempt revenge, my friend."


"I'm sorry, Pierre. I just couldn't stand by and listen to that anymore. If they are so afraid of information getting out, then there is something majorly wrong with this regime. If you or anyone else wish to leave, I'll take the fall for my actions." Dozer sighed and looked out in the direction the Army convoy left. "Maybe I bought us some time, at least. And if not, I'll take care of you all."

Dozer smiled a mirthless smile, and headed for his home in the village. With the sounds of the workers finishing up their packing for the night fading, he laid down in the ultra-large bed. His dreams were fitful and almost feverish and his thrashing on the bed was twisting and tearing the sheets. In his dreams, Dozer replayed the events of the encounter with the Army, but instead of going away, they opened fire on not just him, but the entire village. Waking up in the middle of the night, Dozer got out of bed, dressed himself in jeans, and work boots, then walked out of his temporary home. After walking to the edge of the village, on the road leading into and out of it, Dozer looked back at the village, watching the glow from the various homes.

I wonder... should I go now and leave the village, in case Makunga wants revenge? Or should I stay to protect these people from his revenge? I wonder what Pax would do... he'd probably go to the army base and take it out. Nah, that's not my style. What would happen if I apologized? That would probably make it worse.

Dozer shook his head to clear his thoughts and slowly moseyed back into the village, waving to everyone he passed by.
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Over the course of the next couple of days, Dozer had managed to dismiss most of his worry due to the infective nature of the villager's good cheer. He still had occasional moments of doubt, however. During those moments, Dozer could be found atop the nearly completed wind turbine, staring off into the distance. The other workers would look on in worry when he first started doing this, but came to accept it as a quirk of the large Nova's. Dozer joined in on the celebrations that took place in the village the night after his intimidation of the Major, but with a contemplative look on his face. He was approached by no less than 3 young ladies inquiring if he would join them for the evening, but he turned each one down politely. After spending time at the celebration, Dozer went back to his temporary home and slept fitfully, his dreams still haunted by the potential revenges he would have to confront.

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A week had passed, and the wind farm was nearly complete, the school just as near to being finished. After a few days of wariness that had led to no sign of attempted revenge, much of Dozer's unease passed. Still, he'd be happy when they moved on to the next job in another district.

It was midday, the workers were taking the usual two-hour break that was customary during the hottest part of the day here. Most napped, having already eaten while Dozer was just getting warmed up with his meal. The big engineer was just opening another can of beer when he heard a scream.

She emerged from the treeline about a hundred yards away, a slender girl with bare feet flashing as she ran frantically for the safety of the huts. Dozer didn't recognise her, but as she came closer, sobbing in pain and fear, he could clearly make out the welts and bruises on her tear-stained face. She had a khaki army uniform jacket wrapped around her torso, her hands keeping it closed as though it were a shield, and her eyes were mindless with panicked terror. It was plain she had been assaulted.

She couldn't have been more than twelve.

She ran towards the men around the wind-farm, calling out in a babble of French and Swahili, broken disjointed pleas for someone, anyone to help her.

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Dozer, when he realized what the young girl was shouting for, spit out the beer he had been in the midst of drinking. He stood up quickly enough for the chair he was sitting on to topple over. Then, in a deep bellow, Dozer called for Pierre to get the village elders. In French, Dozer called out to the young girl, motioning for her to come over to him, while also offering her a warm welcoming smile. When she got closer, he called out again, "We mean you no harm. I will make sure no harm will come to you."

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Aidez-moi! Aidez-moi!" the girl wailed as she came closer. Pierre began to run off to fetch help, and Dozer stepped forward, still beckoning the girl towards him. The other workers drew close, some with rifles nervously scanning the treeline for whoever had done this. The girl reached out now, the coat she was huddling around her flapping open. Time suddenly seemed to slow down for the big nova as something wrong intruded on his consciousness. Under the coat, she was wearing what was left of a torn and bloody white dress.

Flap

And something else.

Flap

Dozer's mind froze, unable to accept what he was seeing for a long moment.

Flap

There was something strapped to her, blocks of something. Surely nobody would...

Flap

Dozer's eyes widened and he started to shout a warning, but the girl was six feet away now.

"AIDEZ-MOI! the girl screamed in panicked anguish as a beeping sound suddenly came from under the coat. And then she simply exploded.

Dozer caught a final glimpse of her body as the explosion tore it apart, the five kilos of plastic explosive and the bags of ball-bearings attached to them shredding the slender figure in a nano-second. A second later, the blast hit everyone else.

Fire engulfed him, the shockwaves of the explosion pummelled and deafened him, and he felt the impacts of dozens of steel bearings driven at terrific speeds. His clothing was burned off and shredded, but Dozer was unharmed. The same could not be said for the other workers, or the two nearest windmills. The blast waves and steel fragments ripped through flesh and aluminum mercilessly, taking only a second or two to reduce twenty men and two completed structures to so much broken flesh, bone and metal.

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Dozer dropped to his knees, a scream of pure anguish issuing from his throat. He crawled over to the spot where the little girl ceased to exist, and began to cry. Within a minute his tears were drying, and a truly demented look crossed his face. Dozer began to scribble a note in the dirt, away from the remains of the men, the girl and the buildings. The note read, "Going to work. Be back later."

Dozer rose to his feet, and began running down the road leading from the village at top speed, still in his shredded clothing. His mind was racing but not a thought could penetrate the haze that had descended over Dozer. Every few steps was punctuated with a single phrase muttered over and over, "Playtime is over, Major." He kept running down the road towards the nearest military installation, ignoring everything around him, save one thing. If any military men crossed his path... well, that road would be crossed when he encountered one.

After an hour, Dozer spotted something up ahead. It was a military roadblock set up by the Army. There were men in jeeps with machine guns aimed down the road, an APC with a heavy cannon, and several rocket launcher equipped troops all focused on the road Dozer was running. As Dozer ran towards the roadblock, he aimed directly for the APC. When he got within range a voice was broadcast from a loudspeaker, "Freeze. You are approaching in a hostile manner, and will be shot ---" Before more words could be spoken, Dozer roared at the top of his lungs, and sprinted right at the APC. The troops opened fire upon Dozer with every weapon at their disposal. All it seemed to do to Dozer was shred his clothes further and slow him down slightly. Dozer focused his quantum energies into his muscles, increasing their mass slightly. The troopers began to scatter, and the driver of the APC had just finished extracting himself from the vehicle, when Dozer punched the APC's front armor. The APC was launched into the air, and came crashing back to earth about 100 yards away, heading into the forest along the road. Dozer grabbed one soldier before he could run into the forest. Dozer, with a quiet and pleasant tone of voice, asked, "Where is the Major known as Makanga?" The soldier, his eyes wide with fear, replied, "At the army base near Kamina. Please don't kill me. I... I'm just... I'm trying to help my family." Dozer patted the soldier on his head, "Stay out of my way. I've got a meeting with Makanga in my near future." The soldier nodded and ran off. Dozer continued his run toward the Kamina base.

Click to reveal..
Spending 1 quantum point on Irresistable Force.
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Dozer ran, his long legs eating up the ground in a tireless sprint that he could keep up for days, if necessary. Anger fuelled his strides, drove the pumping of his arms as the massive nova followed the red dirt road. As his initial fury cooled after the catharsis of knocking an APC about and smashing the roadbock like kindling, Dozer considered cutting across country, but discounted the idea. He didn't have a map, didn't know the land, and didn't want to waste any more time than necessary on the travel portion of this trip. He also didn't want to think about anything too hard, because if he did think, his mind would turn unfailingly to the sight of that girl, her teary eyes wide as she reached for him-

He growled, fresh anger spurring him on, forcing down the bleak miserable urge to curl up and cry with red hot rage. Meanwhile, over his head, radio waves chattered back and forth from the roadblock behind to Kamina.

The big nova was on the way to kill Makanga, and he was seemingly unstoppable.

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Dozer felt the red rage receding from his mind, yet he continued his run. Now, his run was driven by the cold calculating revenge that Dozer had in mind for Makanga. Every couple of miles eaten up by his stride was marked unconsciously with a replay of the last moments of the little girl, and of his fellow workers. The fresh pain of these images only served to steel him to his purpose. When he was only about 10 miles away from the base, Dozer paused. While not out of breath, or even breathing hard, Dozer checked to make sure that he was on the right path. During this pause, he noticed a couple of unique sounds, the high pitched whistle of incoming artillery fire and the deep whup-whup-whup of some kind of helicopter. It seemed that the welcome wagon had been rolled out early, but Dozer was fixated on the task at hand. He'd take out whoever he had to to make Makanga pay.

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Dozer had never been in real combat before. He'd no idea of the sheer destructive force of baseline weaponry - he was a construction engineer and a damn good one, not a hardened elite.

So it was that the artillery barrage was somewhat of a surprise to him.

The shells came whistling down from the sky and turned the entire area into a hell of explosions, fireballs and flying shrapnel. Roughly a dozen French-made 155mm guns blanketed the area in sixty shells over the course of the next twenty seconds, blasts capable of shattering steel and concrete throwing Dozer to his knees as the earth bucked underneath his feet as though God had smote the ground in fury. It was a dozen times worst than the bomb blast at the village, leaving him battered and bloody, but unbowed as he rose once more, his ears ringing.

Ahead of him in the sky, flying a hundred metres above ground level and in loose formation came six helicopters, old model Huey's with door gunners. They roared overhead and split, circling on individual flight paths as some of the gunners opened up with their weapons. Bullets flattened and ricocheted off Dozer's skin as he regarded the flying nuisances, spotting something that caused him some concern. Two of the choppers were armed differently: some manner of high-tech weapon that he didn't like the look of. His eyes widened as he realised that they were weaponised lasers, adapted from mining technology for the 21st century battlefield, and he threw himself flat as one gunner took a bead on him. The line of red heat drew itself across the ground where he'd been standing, turning the blasted earth to glass in a single line before winking off.

This is bad. Dozer jumped to his feet and went for a nearby rock, rolling once more as another laser beam cut through the air where his head had been. He reached out and grabbed the rock, fingers splintering the hard surface as he gripped the man-sized chuck of stone and hurled it with all his might at the helicopter that had just fired upon him.

Thank you, high school football he silently cheered as the rock clipped the suddenly-evasive helicopter, shearing off the tail assembly and sending the whole machine hurtling into the ground with a rending sound of protesting metal but, disappointingly for movie fans, no fireball.

He whirled to find another rock as the other laser-armed craft took a bead on him, but the pilot's sudden interest in self-preservation ruined the gunner's aim, and the red pen-stroke of light seared the air about ten feet to Dozer's left.

Click to reveal..

A lot of rolling done in chat by Dozer and myself.

Dozer has taken 3 Lethal damage from the artillery.

Dozer, it's over to you. The remaining laser-chopper's evasion roll is:

2 succs

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Dozer grabbed a roughly three and a half foot chunk of rock and wound up, aiming at the remaining laser chopper. He released the rock, and it flew straight and true, smashing into the engine cowling, taking the turbines out. Not taking the time to watch the chopper auto-gyrate and descend, Dozer resumed his run, this time at a full-out sprint. Overhead the other helicopters scattered and began returning to base. Once he arrived at what he thought was a safe distance away from the previous point of bombardment, Dozer concentrated and focused all his quantum into his legs. After about 30 seconds of build-up, he jumped into the air, almost flying as he soared through the air.

As he looked around at the top of his leap he spotted the base where he was heading. He began descending, and Dozer began calculating distances in his head. After a minute or so, he realized he was going to over-shoot the base by about 2 kilometers. When he landed, he turned around and resumed his sprint, this time with the base nearly in sight down the road. Fighting down an urge to rampage through the base taking out everyone who would dare to stand in his way Dozer approached the gate, and ran straight through the barricade. He then stopped, and ran back to the gate where he looked into the guard house. Upon catching sight of the guard, he shouted, "Where is he? Where is Makanga?" The guard, his eyes wide with fear, said meekly, "The command center, organizing this exercise." Dozer then began jogging further onto the base, looking for a building that fit his mental conception of a military command center.

,,
Click to reveal..
Dozer is maxing his Mega-Strength to gain the enhancement Quantum Leap for 1 turn. Total Quantum Spent = 4

Str+Might:

Dozer *rolls* 8d10: 4+4+6+6+2+8+9+1: 40

MStr:

Dozer *rolls* 3d10: 5+9+10: 24

Max distance: 42 Km. Jumped distance: 18km.

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Click to reveal..
Dozer, don't forget to mark 1 temp taint on your character sheet if you haven't already. smile


A squat, squarish building two stories high was topped with aerials and a couple of satellite dishes. Figuring that they probably didn't have a T.V. station inside a military base even in the Congo, Dozer surmised that meant the building was, if not the command center, then certainly a command center.

Thirty seconds later, as the giant man ran straight across the parade ground area ignoring the bullets that flattened against his body as though raindrops, the command center gained some extra ventilation.

Like a metal-toned Kool Aid Man, only considerably less jolly and a lot scarier, Dozer ran straight through the outer wall of the command center's ground floor. Unless the place had a basement, which might be likely from what he knew of military construction, he had two floors to search in a building maybe half the size of the average high school. It became apparent that Makanga probably wasn't going to come out and take his medicine like a man...
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Dozer ran throughout the building's first floor, looking for the likely places for the structural support beams. He found what he was looking for after a couple of minutes of searching.

Do it. You know that everyone here is guilty.

Dozer focused his quantum into his arms with a supreme effort of will, and feeling the power flowing through his arms, he punched at the vulnerable point in the support beams. The shockwave from the punch traveled up and down the supports, causing the beams to fail. He then braced himself for the inevitable collapse.

Click to reveal..
Engineering roll to determine the weak points

Dozer *rolls* 7d10: 3+4+8+8+6+8+5: 42

Maxing power again, this time to get Shockwave for one turn.

3 more quantum spent, 8 total, another temp taint, 2 total.

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The steel-rebarred concrete supports exploded under Dozer's resonating punch, the blast stronger than that of the bomb they'd strapped to the girl back at the village. Concussive waves stronger than steel radiated from the impact point and pulverised the entire building, hurling chunks of debris out and away as the sky appeared over Dozer's head. The command HQ building collapsed like a house of straw in a hurricane, slablike block falling on those inside, only one of whom was capable of withstanding the crushing impact.

There was a groan underlying the thunder of masonry as the ground, too, began to cave inwards. Dozer realised that there must have been an underground portion of the building, probably a bunker, but the Richter-scale punch had undone the careful protections as, with a thunderous roar of collapse, the whole building slid into the foundations, carrying Dozer along with it and burying him in the rubble along with the screaming baselines.

To those outside, a huge cloud of dust obscured the building as, below ground level, Dozer was cradled in the debris of the building he'd brought down, waiting as the final rumbles faded and the tons of rubble settled around and atop him.

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Dozer shook his head, and chuckled to himself. He then began clawing his way towards where he remembered seeing the sky. As he pushed his way up through the rubble, Dozer growled and muttered to himself. Dozer, getting closer to fresh air, began sneezing as the dust settled back around him. When he was done sneezing, he resumed his upward trek. Breaking through the final layer of rubble, Dozer let out a loud roar, attracting the attention of all those who had come to the command center when it collapsed. The soldiers began to slowly back away from Dozer. He then ran towards the south edge of the base, and the road south to the construction site.

When the gate guard headed past Dozer towards the command center, Dozer then began his long, lonely run back to the scene of the massacre in the village. Dozer stopped at the scene of the artillery barrage and closed his eyes, but instead of seeing black, or a calm image, Dozer was plagued by the image of the little girl running towards him and exploding right in front of him. He resumed his run, never closing his eyes again until he reached the village.

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He wasn't the first to get there. Transport helicopters with Peacekeepers markings were parked on the clear ground to the east of the blast site, Red Cross field hospital tents already set up and administering to the wounded. Shouts of recognition indicated that someone had spotted him, and a moment later the shell-shocked elite was confronted by an obviously irate Madeline Dreyfuss, her bush jacket and khaki pants neatly pressed and clean as though she'd just come from a fashion show.

"Dillon!" she shouted over the roar of a chopper lifting off, clapping her brimmed hat to her head as the downdraft kicked up. "What in the name of God did you just do?"

The huge nova just blinked at her, and Ms Dreyfuss shook her head, sympathy tinging her anger as her omnipresent shadow, Aegis, stepped forward and wrapped a large blanket over Dozer's shoulders.

"We've lost the security contract, Dillon." Madeline told him quietly, stepping closer and looking up at him with a mixture of anger and sadness. "The Congolese government wants Peacekeepers out of the country, and they also want you turned over for trial. Not that I plan to cooperate in that, at least. Pigs." She shook her head and stared hard at him, undaunted by his size and strength. "You weren't supposed to confront the Congolese forces, Dozer. You were here primarily to aid in the building, and to deal with bandits and wildlife, not start a war. This building contract is likely going to be paused indefinitely."

"They... they tried to take-" Dozer started, feeling the ground sway under his feet.

"I don't care." Madeline wasn't screaming, but her disappointed tone was just as bad. "That equipment was insured, and we'd have filed a theft claim and replaced it." She sighed, and placed a gentle hand on Dozer's arm. "Let's get you out of here, Dillon. You're hurt."

Two medics led the huge man away to a waiting chopper, and Aegis looked at Madeline gravely.

"Are you going to fire him?" he asked her, his youthful features sad. Madeline shook her head.

"Of course not. But I want him to undergo a full psych screening and re-training. I didn't think to give him the conflict resolution course because, well, he was just supposed to be a builder here." She looked pensively out over the ruined windfarm. "It's a horrible, crying shame that this place made him something else."

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