The Rejects (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)

Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Dr. J. Turk (CommJunkee)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Lenny Leonardo (Melissa)
Romeo Sylvester (Rigil Kent)

The One Where They Took Over

1 Sep 2162

In the month prior, following the Rejects’ pact with Dashwood, Sly had gone on a Hearts-and-Minds campaign, swinging all but a handful of security personnel, and much of the citizenry of the Tower, to Dashwood’s favor, who was assumed to be Tenpenny’s successor should the worst occur. The plan thus far was to remove Tenpenny from office as quietly as possible, through weight of numbers against him. They had also discovered, through Lance’s listening-devices, that Tenpenny and his personal guard had been making plan, in the event of a coup attempt, to secure the armory, food storage, and water processing facilities in the Tower.

Now a month later, as the Rejects were coming in from their regular duties and bedding down for the evening, and explosion was heard (and/or felt) rocking the Tower from below; a bomb had been detonated in the basement, the location of Dashwood’s office. The Rejects scrambled, trying to make contact with Dashwood and the security team, and trying to organize the residents of the Tower into an orderly evacuation of the building. Dashwood finally responded, saying he had been injured, but was otherwise fine.

The Rejects individually made their way down to the security office to meet up with Dashwood and his crew. Lance was already in the basement at the maintenance bay, and decided to stay put to defend against attempts to seize the water processing unit; he prepared his Mr. Handy murder-bots for action. Some were caught in the elevator on the way down, as it was hijacked by an unknown party; unable to prevent it, they forced their way out and took the stairs instead. Colt went back to his room for his rifle and gear, and caught back up with Bob at the stairs on the way down. Lenny, already in the security area of the basement, reported “shots fired” at the armory, and later, the mess hall.

• Sly arrived first at the armory, solo, followed by Lenny, to join a few security guys locked in a firefight with some of Tenpenny’s personal guards and a couple of like-minded citizens. Tenpenny’s force was dropped before they could cut through the armory door
• A couple of Tenpenny’s guard tried to force their way into the water processing room where Lance had barricaded himself
• Colt and Bob diverted to the water processing room after the “all clear” was given at the armory, and sneaked up behind the guards trying to break in, intending to subdue them. As they sprang out of hiding, coincidentally, Lance opened the door, setting off a fire-hose trap he had constructed, intended for the guards—the lot of them were sent sprawling by the rush of water. One of the guards was (accidentally?) injured by Bob in the process, but were otherwise unharmed, and surrendered themselves; they were taken to the brig nearby. As Bob and Colt were leaving the brig area, Bob went back for a second and, when nobody could see, slit the guards’ throats to the bone, dead.

A bit afterward, Turk went to check on the prisoners and found the two with slashed throats. Other security personnel arrived to find him holding a bloody knife over their bodies—only briefly did they think him responsible, though none of them knew who was. The bodies were removed to a temporary morgue to make room for more prisoners.

Dashwood and his crew were dusted off, and assembling to storm the penthouse; the Rejects all joined them. Together, they went upstairs, and stacked up on the Tenpenny’s door, as Lance picked the lock. They kicked in the door to find one of Tenpenny’s personal guard on his knees, hands up in surrender; in the corner was Tenpenny, shot dead by the guard, who apparently realized which side would prevail and did what he could to save himself. Dashwood looked around and said, “Well, I guess I’m in charge now…”

In an instant, Bob produced a knife and slashed Dashwood’s throat, severing the carotid artery. The others in the room stared dumbfounded as the former security chief bled out on Tenpenny’s carpet; Bob showed no emotion at all, simply saying that he didn’t think he should be in charge. As the room began to recover their wits, Gustavo matter-of-factly declared that Dashwood and Tenpenny had killed each other, and everyone agreed it was so, and looked to Sly to give the sad news to the citizenry.

With the residents of Tenpenny Tower already gathered in the courtyard outside, Sly emerged, followed by what remained of the former administration of the Tower, and delivered the very sad news of the death of their dear leader, and gave a rousing speech about how they must go on, stick together, and get through the difficult times ahead. It was very moving.

At no time did Sly declare himself to be in charge. But they all seemed to look to him for leadership anyway…