Fri April 6 2012

Fri April 6 2072 Meanwhile… north of Barstow, Deadeye Bill, California Ranger, has a bit of a problem. He's rigged into his Ford F-1050 Pickup truck.. you know, the kind with the mudflaps, smokestacks like a big rig and the grill that could catch a cow, grind it to hamburger, grill it on the engine block and then serve it with fries? Yeah. That truck. But he's got a problem. Down in the valley, there's a tanker truck and it's sucking up water out of the goddamn Mojave River. And the truck's got the markings of the Bakersfield Cal-Guard. Minton's boys. Zooming in his sensors, Bill spots the two Imperial Marines with the Cal-Guard. "Son of a Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch." drawls Bill, narrowing his eyes. "Shit just got more complex. Patch me through to Sulu." "Sorry, Bill." Says Sweetwater Jane, crotchety female voice of the drone brain of the truck. "I can't get an outside line. There's too much interference. "Fraggen Japs. And Fraggen Minton. What's his angle?" "Acute." "Cute. Shaddup and configure for combat." "Affirmative, Bill." With that, the powerful Caterpillar engine powering Sweetwater Jane comes to full strength and the truck, with it's armor plating and state-approved missile racks, comes charging down the side of the wash. Playing across his loudspeakers, is 'California Dreaming', the 2034 remake by Dead On Awakening. "Yeaaaaaaaaaaah HAW! LIGHT EM UP, JANIE!" Deadeye Bill and Sweetwater Jane are never seen again. What is found, about 3 days later, is the crashed micro-drone that launched on the destruction of the truck. High Quality images show up on NewsNet, showing the Imperial Marines working with the southern Cal-Guard. And it lights up the California Resistance like nothing else. There is fury flying across the trix, with resistance groups in utter conniptions. There will be blood. Collaboration is word thrown around, along with treason and 'lynching'. Sometimes, hard choices have to be made. Word filters out that down in Barstow, faced with a supply shortage and needing a truck, Sandman went hard core on someone. Theres a man with a broken nose in a parking lot crying because he's just been robbed of his every worldly possession.