Okay, I've got 4 players, and you've all picked Items, so I can't wait anymore-- it's time to start the Preliminaries.

As you know, you live in The Tunnels, a large network of tunnels (originally created by the Scav) beneath the largest section of wasteland that MegaCorp, Inc. has created.

This, of course, means you have a way to come out near a wide variety of target locations...

Leader: I'm gonna say that the leader of The Tunnels is Dr. Blubbert Glubner, an aqua scientist who's more commonly called The Chief.

His main goal: Drive MegaCorp, Inc. off of the planet Warren.

Then the rules say: At this point, each player should tell a quick (I'm thinking 100 to 500 words?) story of how their character came to work for/with The Chief, or of a defining experience they have had.

Each of you do that now, please, in this thread.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:47, Wed 28 July 2021.

In a dark and cramped duct just off of a dark and cramped supply closet, just off of a dark and cramped maintenance access hallway which branched off of a pleasantly designed and spacious robotics lab that was now atypically dark due to intermittent power failure, worked engineer Smith sweating profusely.

He could hear voices outside of the closet somewhere behind him just before the door was thrown open and something reached into the barely man-sized duct to grab him by his standard issue black work boots. With one swift tug Smith was abruptly hauled back into the closet, his startled yelp did nothing to faze the oversized security goon that tore the engineer from his laboring. Smith's helmet light illuminated the cold look of another man as well, a power tie and charcoal colored sport coat left nothing to the imagination; it was dreaded High-Corporate and it meant a million miles of bureaucratic red tape had culminated in a reckoning.

Smith was halfway out the door, and mid-air, before he finally made sense of the mile-a-minute corporate jargon he'd been  assaulted with while being practically carried to the exit by security. He was the unfortunate scape-goat of the very power problem he had nearly fixed, after days of toiling in the building's labyrinthine underbelly. As Smith crashed hard onto the steps he was subsequently pelted by his tool bag containing the standard issue MegaCorp NterActiv ScanTool 4®, technically his because MegaCorp writes them off as a bonus perk, and two other small items hidden in various pockets.

"Well... shit."

In the deepest depths of the tunnels, where synthcrete and steel gave way to stone, worn smooth by the centuries, there was a cavern. It didn't show on any maps. Indeed, there were no maps of this deep in the caverns at all. It was the great dojo of those who studied the ancient art of Chuck-Fu, and currently home to its last great master.

Chukk'Chee sat alone in the center of the cavern, his eyes closed, his breathing slow and regular. He hadn't moved in days.

The cavern was perfectly round, with a low ceiling that would be comfortable for a Scav, and maybe allow an Aqua to stand upright. But for the human who came bearing the message for Chukk'Chee, it was either crouch uncomfortably, or proceed on all fours. And that was how his visitor chose to approach.

"Mister Chee...?"

Chukk's eyes didn't open, but one of his ears flicked in the direction of the stranger. He took this as an invitation to keep talking.

"You know whom I represent, I assume."

*flick*

"He's putting together a team."

"I'm not interested," Chukk said plainly, his eyes still closed. "Now go away."

"You can't keep fighting this war on your own, Mister Chee. Your last attack nearly got you killed. He's putting together a team."

"I lost my family, and he expects me to care about a team?"

"We've all lost family."

"...true enough. But I don't want or need a new one."

"He told me you'd say that."

"Then you know this errand is pointless."

"We have nuts."

Chukk'Chee stood. He didn't stretch or crack joints like a human might after so long without movement. He just turned to face the human.

"Lead the way," he said.