Slums [Open]

[Simon and Marion]

Simon was looking out into the damaged part of this area of the city, using binoculars to look farther in. He watched as Grinders marched through the streets, ruling over this area. A lot of people figured that Brigand would do something soon enough and push more Grinders out to attempt to take over more of the city.

But for now it was pretty much fact that these areas were completely under Brigand's control. But that made Simon feel terrible. There were possibly people there yet, so that made him want to go in, go and fight. But he knew they really couldn't.

[John Seagel]

John went next to Simon as he looked over the carnage, he wished he could do something for the oppressed people, but right now he couldn't spare any resources on something like this. He could not lose any more men in their fight against the AI, he sighed, "It really p***** you off doesn't it?" he asked, "I wish there was something we could do."

[Simon and Marion]

"One of the NEXT Rangers went in there before. Black, I think. I know that he said it didn't do much good in the long run," Simon said, looking to John, "Yeah. It's terrible. Anyone in there needs us. The people closest to this area need us as well, because at any time Brigand could attack by letting his forces move and leave a new path of destruction in their wake."

[John Seagel]

"Really? Gotta read that report then," John said talking about the NEXT Rangers operation, "then again I'm not in charge of that so I'm not sure what they really do in the long run. That's the problem, we have too many people to protect and not enough manpower to protect them, it's time like these I wish we had some hard hitting firepower like some tanks or bombers, but I know the AI will just turn them on us. What we need to do is to get rid of their production facility, I mean they gotta have a forward base around here somewhere, no way they're marching troops from one end to here," John said analytically.

[Simon and Marion]

"I think they would," Simon said, "I think that's how Brigand started. Creating the Grinders, then marching them into position like this."

[John Seagel]

"We can't get ourselves be cornered, once we do we're done for, we gotta keep a clear line of retreat," John said scanning the area for said path, "you know...I keep thinking about the Terminator movie franchise, how they turn one of the Terminators against Skynet...wonder if we could do something like that," he said with a chuckle.

[Simon and Marion]

"Never saw it," he commented, "We know that we can get technology working. Brigand isn't able to corrupt everything. But I'd think that even if we could get past it and make a Grinder ours, what good would one Grinder do us?"

[John Seagel]

"Espionage, subterfuge, I can list a whole lot of spy things," John said, "if not then," he shrugged his shoulder, "least our techs and scientists would be able to gleam something off of it."

[Simon and Marion]

"Maybe," Simon commented, "I don't know."

[John Seagel]

John sighed, "Me neither, me neither," he said.

[Simon and Marion]

Simon looked out through his scope again, "There's something strange."

[John Seagel]

"What is it?" John asked.

[Simon and Marion]

"I think it was a person..."

[John Seagel]

"What? That can't be," John said taking the scope and looking through it, "no living person should be out there."

[Simon and Marion]

"Some might have gotten trapped when the Grinders took control of the area," Simon said.