Over the last few weeks there had been reports of Maulers turning up outside their normal habitat, and moving around in the south east area of the wastelands. Runners had turned up in Plaza 1 and 2 with serious burn injuries and broken bones. One runner, who was treated in medicare described her experience as follows.

"...hordes of maulers popped up out from nowhere attacking us and vanished as they appeared! Absolutely volatile!"

For weeks it seems City Administration did not have any official answers to the problem, and runners had to turn to unofficial sources of information for updates. One unofficial source was from the clan Dark Reign, who had identified the mauler population was spreading rapidly to other areas around Tech Haven and Military Base.

The final straw that broke the Drom’s back was when the missing Fallen Angels Faction Assistant, Alex Conlaoch turned up suddenly at the GeneReplicator in Plaza 1, looking very ragged and injured.

Alex Conlaoch was treated on the spot for his injuries by the excellent medical staff of Medicare in Plaza 1. While he was being treated, he was able to give an account of his story to the gathered crowd and also to Giovanni Mori, who had turned up once he had heard the news that Alex Conlaoch had returned.

Alex Conlaoch gave this brief account to what had happened.

Alex Conlaoch - Faction Assistant, Fallen Angels:

“The scientific research output was destroyed by a pack of maulers that just appeared out of nowhere. Years of research lost. City Admin do not seem capable of keeping the populations under control”

When pressed by runners to what the scientific research was about and where he had been for the last few years, Mr Conlaoch declined to be drawn further on the subject.

Giovanni Mori decided to act on the spot by requesting help from the runners of Neocron to deal with the overpopulation issues. Many volunteers immediately stepped up, to gather a large task force at Outzone Station.

The small task force ventured straight into sector A08, where they was meet with a small pack of Maulers, which was quickly destroyed by the well armed force. The group then moved one sector north to sector B08 to pick up a trail of more Maulers coming from the east in the direction of Sherman Bay and McPherson Factory.

As the task force moved east, the number of Maulers increased considerably and so did the injuries to the runners. However the runners equipped with medical equipment, did a tremendous job in patching up the wounds and burn injuries sustained to the group.

Once the task force reached McPherson factory in B10, a serious problem was emerging. Ammo supplies were running low, weapons and amour was breaking. It was a real fear that the task force would have to pull back, allowing the Maulers to surge back closer to Neocron.

However a little luck was on the side of the task force. The packs of Maulers started coming from the South which gave the task force valuable time to re-supply and repair their equipment at McPherson Factory before following the trail of Maulers south to sector A11.

As the task force approached the beach in A11, it become clear that there was a big problem. More maulers were culled by the runners in greater numbers than previously met in the other sectors, before a great nest of Grim Persecutors was spotted just off the beach in the water.

Straight away the task force unleashed all their firepower at the nest, which almost proved to be deadly. The Grim Persecutors reacted with ferocious fireballs, and massive stampedes to knock the attacking force off their feet. However the medical teams and passive psi users in the task force worked overtime to keep the rest of the group alive, and in some cases, bringing back fallen runners from the dead.

The fight raged on for several hours, before the last Grim Persecutor fell and the only noise that remained was the sound of the waves. Giovanni Mori and Alex Conlaoch declared victory on the spot, and the task force headed back home to Neocron.

Since City Administration was not offering any payment to the runners of the task force, Giovanni Mori opened up Electric Vibes to offer everyone free drinks and “special” entertainment to help them relax, in lieu of any payment by City Administration.

Thanks to the runners of Neocron, the wasteland is once again a safe place to travel in. However there are still some unanswered questions to why the Mauler population got out of control in the first place. Did City Administration’s population control policy fail, or is the Fallen Angels latest scientific research connected to the mauler population increase?

Eddie Walker

Neocronicle