ic Soviet Kitsch

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

The Rat crouched, scanning the joint. Particularly the trailer, the dog, and the warehouse. 

 

"Well it all looks suspiciously quiet" she said, as the her cybernetic eyes spun across the scene, measuring angles, lengths, IR heat signatures and so on and so forth. 

 

"Bar one dog and one guard. I quite like dogs. I don't really fancy putting a boot up canine ass" she explained. "I don't suppose you have any nice warm steaks laced with ketamine do you?" she asked the brain in a jar. 

 

It was an unlikely scenario. 

 

"Never mind. I'm just going to have to sneak past, I think..."

[TheAbsurdist]

The bear and the bot remain with the car.  Fortunately, the Doctor was able to access her link, before she got too far away. 'TROTSKY DOES NOT APPROVE OF ME HAVING KETAMINE, NOEKA.'

 

Rat had an advantage.  Her abilities were sufficiently capable of carrying her through (-ahem-  Superior!) the obstacles to get her to the door she had chased the DJ out of the night before.  Of course, with her extra visual acuity (Superior visual data gathering), she was able not have to worry about the canine, or the 'guard' sneaking up on her before she made it to the door. 

 

She got a disgruntled sound as communication from the Doctor, regarding his 'pleasure' with SLAVE, something about it's heavy handed methodology.  But a larger commentary would wait for later.  Fortunately, while sophisticated, SLAVE would take every opportunity to gloat and be gleeful in besting the decadent west (as much was possible given what SLAVE was).

 

As she skulked about, she would come across the space that people had been and there was signs.  Beer cans, bottles, and harder alcohol.  Also vials... and without the immediacy of the concussion she could see the lay out of the speakers, and that the area the people had been in was saturated with them.  From the rafters, and boxes, crates, support beams, and there was even a built up floor when had them under it, to conduct the sound and the effect through it.

 

Drugs and sound.  It was matching what the Doctor had said.  And as she got to the the box, she'd seed the things that had been left there.  Of course, the Doctors admitted that the people under the influence were not precisely able to do overly complicated tasks.

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

Sound's like a bad beat...

 

The Rat turned the events over in her mind, now free (at least she supposed) from the cobwebs of concussion. So, someone is experimenting with sonic weaponry...mind control....drugs....maybe not even experimenting now. Practice? or even further...the group last night were a target. But what for?

 

The consolation, although spartan, was the set up looked intricate. Carefully placed speakers, plus the apparent need for psychotropics. But in the right environment, such as a disco club or some such venue, it could be potentially devastating. 

 

Superior Soviet Technology indeed. But was was the game?

 

She approached the box and flipped it open. More sonic technology. 

 

Spinning her newly recovered guns into her thigh holsters with an elegant wild-west turn, she tapped the ear piece into her ear. 

 

"Doctor? Are you picking this up? I've got a load of beer bottles and speakers here. Any suggestions?"

 

[TheAbsurdist]

'SLAVE IS INTERFERING, A SHOCK I KNOW, HOWEVER I STOPPED THE PROJECT, WHEN I DEEMED IT'S EFFICACY WAS LESS THAN... DESIRABLE.  IT WORKED ON SINGLE TARGETS.  WHOEVER HAS IT IS TRYING TO EXPAND IT'S INFLUENCE TO A GROUP.  WHICH, NOT THAT I NEED TO SAY THIS, IS BAD.'

 

This shall help lead towards a new revolution, it will show the workers here that they are enslaved by the bourgeoisie, wanton, avarice inflicted capitalist swine!

 

'I WAS NOT AWARE SOMEONE SEEMS TO HAVE GIVEN THAT PROGRAM A THESAURUS. LET ME SEE... LYSENKOISM IS A BUNCH OF HOGWASH  ' <redacted for innacuracy, correcting... correcting....>

 

Lysenkoism is the only appropriate model of biology.  It's plastic view of life that was consistent with the plastic view of human nature insisted upon by the truth.

 

'I... AM NOT SURPRISED, FRANKLY.'

 

With all of the distraction from the doctor and SLAVE she did not notice anything abnormal, until the loud bark of the dog pierced through the argument regarding outdated, and possibly incorrect, scientific understandings, as interpreted through Marxist-Leninist dogma.  It wouldn't rattle her, but it did alert to the fact that she wasn't alone in the building and now would have do something, with the large dog in the door way, and presumably the human caretaker not far after it.

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

"Down with the Capitalist Scum etcetera etcetera" mumbled the Rat through the ear piece. "Debates on communist philosophy are great, of course. But right now, a dog is barking and trouble is coming" she explained. 

 

Although, she realised with a grin...

 

"Trouble might also give us answers" she concluded, drawing one of the guns. 

 

Autoweaponlink active: Load Sedative Dart...bzzzt!

 

The guns had a nice little link to the computer in her head, rapidly changing the ammunition fired. 

 

"Have a nice sleep!" she whispered to the Dog, taking careful aim and firing a dart which duly whizzed through the air into Canine mouth. 

 

With that, she turned heel and started to run...

Edited August 15, 2017 by Supercape

[TheAbsurdist]

The dog took the hit from the dart, and it started to charge her, though it made it about ten feet before it's legs went out from beneath it, and the dog slumped and skidded on the ground.

 

Leaving her room to dart through the main door.

 

'IT WOULD APPEAR THE GUARD IS AWARE OF YOUR BEHAVIOR.  PLEASE HURRY BA-'

 

"Hey you!  Whatchu doin'?"  Game the gruff voice of the guard, who was jogging, or running as fast as he could to her.  He was a larger fellow, so it was not hard for her to avoid, before she made it back to the van.

 

"Uh, wow...?  Okay..."  Louis had it running, and this being Bedlam, he just peeled back out and hit a j-turn to get the hell out of here, and following the GPS towards Shenandoah.

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

"Good to have you back, my friends!" said the Rat, giving each gun a kiss. And giving the driver one too. "Nice work, hot wheels!"

 

IR and X-Ray analysis swept over the Superior Soviet Weapons. All seemed fine. 

 

Superior Soviet Technology Never Fails! proclaimed SLAVE with total confidence. 

 

Well, these babies always seem to do the job! conceded the Rat. 

 

Slotting the guns back in holsters, she turned to the Professor. 

 

"And Shenanandoah? What lies there?" she asked. Not for the first time, she wondered how much the strange man (or sort of man) was telling her. Or, more accurately, how much he was not telling her. 

[TheAbsurdist]

"Wasn't planning on staying..."  Louis said as he gunned the motor and sped away from the warehouse, though easing back into a slower clip once they were a safe distance from there.  He frowned a little bit, as this happened.

 

There was no immediate response from the Doctor, before he communicated back to her via other channels, 'I DON'T KNOW.  POSSIBLY SOMEONE WHO IS OUT OF THEIR DEPTH.  POSSIBLY SOMEONE WHO IS WELL PREPARED.'

 

That was really all he could say. Maybe.  Though Louis was looking at her like she was mad, talking to the canister and the bear.  But then, this was Bedlam, so he had certain expectations.  

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

"Or possibly both. Which is a fearsome combination" added the Red Rat, fingering her guns. 

 

People who were out of their depth were unpredictable. And people who were prepared were effective. Unpredictable and effective. Not somebody you would want to meet. 

 

She looked out the back of the van, scanning to see if they had been followed, or spotted. The coast seemed clear. But then again, she was a spy. Things were not always as they seemed. 

 

She slumped back down. 

 

"Well, no use fretting over what might be at this point. May as well grab a coke and an iced lolly for the ride..."

[TheAbsurdist]

20 minutes later

Northern outskirts of Bedlam.

 

It was shaping up to be dreary, in the humid, muggy, semi-overcast sort of day, way.

 

Shenandoah was a dreary place, one of those 70s-80s era trailer parks that were ramshackle to some degree, with sprinklings of new one.  This wasn't where the American Dream went to die, this was it on life support, while in a persistent vegetative state.

 

Once there, the back door opened, and the weight shifted as the bear, and the bot got out.  As since they encountered Louis, the Doctor had reduced it's communication to just radio form.  And Rat could swear that Louis let out a slow sigh of relief once the van popped up from the weight leaving, his head dropping forward to leave against the steering wheel.

 

'I'D RECOMMEND PAYING HIM.'
 

In the early morning air, heaving and leaden, there was the faint chirping chorus in the background.

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

Louis did deserve payment. And with money, rather than imaginary balloons. And yet, lamentably, the former was in rather short supply (compared to the the latter, at least). 

 

The Rat cleaned herself out paying him. She hoped she could find some tinned spam somewhere. If she didn't eat, she noticed than she tended to get hungry. 

 

"Thanks Louis. Stay frosty"

 

Thanks were free, of course. 

 

She didn't like the zombie scenery. But looks were deceiving. She flipped her cybernetic eyes over the horizon and gave the prof a radiowave ping. 

 

"Isn't it beautiful? Anything I should be looking for...?"

[TheAbsurdist]

Louis paused for a moment, but took the money, and shook his head, before he pulled away.  It was going to be weird, and he obviously did not want to be involved.  'I AM SEARCHING, BUT THERE IS SOME INTERFERENCE...'

 

Which she would notice immediately, it was background IR and some other.  She'd recognize it some of it as some layers of lead paint on the buildings and something indicating... something else.  But she could see that this place was inhabited.

 

Trotski shifted a little bit on his paws, as he lifted his head and sniffed at their environment, before growling.

'I RECOMMEND THAT WE GO TRY THE CLUB HOUSE.'

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

"I recommend that's a good idea"

 

She pulled out both guns. This smelled liked trouble. And when in trouble, check your ammo clips....

 

Configuring non-lethal ammunition...came the feedback via SLAVE and the cyberlink with her handy weapons. The bullets would vapourise on impact, leaving a nasty bruise and maybe a broken rib. But not exploding through vital organs like regular ammunition. Perhaps the tranq darts would be wiser, but she had an inkling that this was dangerous ground. 

 

"Lets see if Trotski can sniff out some atomic trouble. And...errr....let me know if this place is radioactive, huh? I don't mix well with radiation. And I'm not just talking baldness and pancreatic cancer" she explained. 

 

This really smelled like trouble. But she might as well embrace it. Kept her pulse beating. 

 

So off to the Clubhouse it was...

[TheAbsurdist]

Trotsky seemed anxious.  He shuffled and moved about, with a sort of contained nervous energy as his nose wrinkled and his ears twitched.  It was distracting, being near something that big, that was positively radiating tenseness, his flanks and haunches twitching as he moved. 

''THERE IS A LOT OF BACKGROUND NOISE.'  The doctor stated the obvious on the radio communications, though it was getting a bit distorted and fuzzy as they ventured closer to the club house.  'ALSO I AM NOT SEEING ANYONE ACTIVE.'

 

As they ventured closer and closer to the building Trotsky's discomfort grew until finally he made a growl, and turned away before bolting into a dead run towards a copse of trees that encircles the west end of the park.  With a long swear, the doctor turned and gave chase.

 

'CONTINUE INVESTIGATING THE BUILDING.  WILL STAY IN CONTACT.'  The only sound was that of Trotsky's flight, his heavy paws slapping and thumping against the ground, as well as the sound of the treads of the Doctor's body.

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

"What was that? Rubin the Radioactive Rabbit?" asked the Rat through her ear piece. Trotsky, it seemed, had all the primal instincts of an ursine hunter, and the intelligence of one too. She hoped the Doctor could keep his pet under control. 

 

"Ah, never mind" she muttered more phlegmatically. 

 

However, caution was of the essence. Why run into trouble when you could sneak up on it and plant a taser bullet in the back of its skull?

 

With this prudence in mind, she dropped to a half crouch, and silently slid towards the club house, keeping her magnificent emerald eyes sharp. Magnificently sharp, thanks to superior soviet technology!

[TheAbsurdist]

The building was open, though only the emergency lights and the exit indicators, as it was early.  But still.  At least the incessant buzzing from the bugs out in the heavy, still air wasn't in here.  As she crept in, she'd notice someone slumped in the recliner in the main room, facing a television that was off.

 

If she drew closer she'd see the rise and fall of the person's chest, indicating they were alive, though asleep.  A middle forties year old man, his eyes closed, and wearing a threadbare white t-shirt, and worn jeans.  He still had builder's gloves on.

 

The proletariat exhausted from his efforts supporting the bourgeoisie!

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

Thanks to the Bourgeoisie! Asleep was good. 

 

As far as she could tell, there was no threat. She holstered her superior soviet pistols and took a closer look at the club house. What was the man doing here? A caretaker, perhaps. Presumably not a member of the club. But he looked like he had been renovating. 

 

Building something? Or knocking something down, of course. Two sides to every coin. 

 

This deserved an X-Ray scan of the building. If only she had studied Architecture at university. More useful than politics and philosophy - especially when the courses where all Soviet doctrine. 

 

She gave a quick X-Ray glance at the sleeping man too. Wouldn't do for him to have a pistol stuffed somewhere unmentionable...

[TheAbsurdist]

She'd see something on his person that was metal, but it looked like a stick, or something close, versus a gun.  It was wedged between him and the arm of the chair he was passed out in.

 

As she scanned, she's see a maintenance closet, with some odd distortion. disruption in her modified senses.  It only got worse as she got closer, a slight keening in the back of her head  It was distracting, though was it the residual concussion or something else?

 

Though, as she inspected, there was no recent work visible.  Nothing to indicate why the guy was there, just that he was.  Of course, she was playing with mind control, so things out of the ordinary, like the people listening to EDM earlier, who looked nothing like people one would expect to be listening to the stuff.

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

Sound control! Thrumming in her head! And not just the computer lodged their. 

 

No, this caused for a modicum of caution and a pinch of smarts. She didn't want to fall subject to some bad beat. 

 

This time, she found a bag of salted peanuts. Yummy. But no time for snacks! Instead, she gave the bag a few robust taps with the handle of her gun, and stuffed the crushed remains into her ears. 

 

The world went dull and muted. 

 

Not as good as some ballistic industrial headphones, but better than my fingers!

 

Armed with her aural-nut defences fully in place, she went to the mysterious closet. It seemed to be the source of distortions and head noise. And she was going to open it...

 

Carefully, but open it still the same...

[TheAbsurdist]

They didn't help, it felt like pressure behind her eyes and nose, teeth rattling, and discomfort. 

 

When she popped open the door, which was not locked, she'd see a small box there, with she could identify as the source of this sensation and subaural projection.  It was warm, to the touch and under infrared, plugged in to the wall, and thrumming insidiously before her.  

 

Any attempt to connect to it would not work, it was not WiFi enabled it seemed.  SLAVE identifying the serial port on the side that someone would use, presumably, to set it up.

 

All angles and old guard communist malevolence.

 

...Superior... asset-citizen Von Neumann, we must retrieve the device.  It will be most useful for our ends.

It would seem that SLAVE was going into business for itself.

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

Bzzzz went her teeth. That didn't feel nice. Maybe a trip to the dentist later. 

 

Yes yes, I am sure this device is totally benign and has no nefarious purpose whatsoever she sighed internally. "Asset" indeed. Well she was on asset, she decided, but only to herself. 

 

I'm not plugging this into my skull you can bet on that. Let's see if the Professor can handle it...

 

She was not entirely sure that she could. She picked up a serving tray, plastic, with a little bit of silver, and shuffled it underneath the box. 

 

Not touching it if I can help it!

 

Buzzing and vibrating, she decided to take it back to the professor and his bear. Served up on a tray like some tea and biscuits. 

 

The earpiece wasn't working. Wait, that was the peanuts...

 

A second or two of peanut evacuation later...

 

"Professor, professor, can you read me? I've got a...I've got a something. Box. Buzzing. Buzzy Box something" she explained, hoping the frequency was not jammed or blocked. 

[TheAbsurdist]

It was hard to tell if the tray was helping, or if getting closer was making it harder. 

 

'TRYING TO... TROTSKY... DAMNABLE...' The words distorted a bit as he tried to respond, but it might be distance, in addition to this.  No visible power plug on the box, she could feel the vibrations through the tray.  When she turned to leave the room, the man was stirring from the chair, and holding up the hammer as he did so.  Looking at her with a tired, vacant expression, before he start to surge towards her.

 

From her vantage she'd see the front door open and another person was there, a housewife of the kind she'd expect here.  With some shadowed formed behind her.  Like some sort of trailer park centric zombie movie...

 

Driven into discontent by the oppressive capital pig-dog regime!

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

"Tea, M'lord?" asked the Rat, through buzzing teeth, giving a courtesy. 

 

It wasn't going to wash, of course, but it seemed a suitably absurd witticism to a suitably absurd situation. 

 

The man, and presumably his wife (or some such relationship of similar ilk) had surely been controlled by the buzzing box thing. Or perhaps they didn't like intruders. And what was behind the woman?

 

In any case, the threat assessment was clear. Blinking colourful HUD analysis of the situation agreed with her. 

 

She dropped the tray, and pulled a gun. She was almost tempted to shoot the vexatious box at her feet, but she needed Trotsky to analyse it. 

 

"Goodnight, sweetheart!" she smiled, and fired a knockout dart into the man with the hammer...

Edited September 7, 2017 by Supercape

[TheAbsurdist]

They surged.

 

En masse.

 

The man with the hammer was closer, he raised it up as he advanced.  His eyes vacant, then coming into terribly focus as they sharpened on her.  Staggering towards her, he made a small noise as the dart squarely hit him.  He kept advancing, hammer upraised, as he rounded the corner to the desk, and towards her.  Before his knees buckled, and the sharpness left his eyes before he slumped against the counter, and the plywood side of it.

 

Superior Soviet technology.

 

The hammer clattered, and her box shaped problem was looking like a nail.  But there were more people coming, and while they seemed in something resembling a daze, there was more than enough of them coming through the door, that she was likely going to be unable to make a stand here.  And there was no Stalin rearguard to ensure her courage, either.

[Supercape]

The Red Rat

 

Superior Soviet Technology May Not Be Quite Superior Enough....at least this time. Might have to rely on flesh and bone, wits and brain. Although superior soviet technology might just help...

 

Activate Concussive Explosive

 

As her head sent the message to her gun, she felt the little whirr and click of the weapon, as the round was modified. High Explosive, non-lethal. The "Zombies" might want to eat her brains (may they feast heartily on SLAVE if they did), but they were unwilling innocents. 

 

With one hand, she scooped up the box. With the other, she took the briefest of aims; accuracy was not an issue here, and fired an explosive round at the door...

 

Barely had the round left the barrel, and she was sprinting across the room to dive through a window...

Edited September 11, 2017 by Supercape