The Malton Star/Issue 2

Foulkes Village Recaptured By Nuabreed The capture of the Henley NT in early September has signaled a turning point in the conflict in Foulkes Village. Ferocious counter-attacks failed to dislodge the survivors pouring into the area and despite the constant break-ins, the defenders fought on for three weeks, buying that most valuable commodity, time. As the battle drained the suburb of most of its effective zombies, refugees surged back to reclaim their home area. Building after building fell into human hands as the wider zombie defence collapsed suburb-wide. Even an all-out effort to bring down the Henley in reprisal saw the building held by zeds for a mere two days before a counter attack scattered the squatters to the four winds. Foulkes Village appears to be at peace again. Tikhon General Changes Hands By Nuabreed Following the announcement of a "a gut-busting, tastebud-frying, Texas-style,No Holds-barred chili cook off free for all" in the building, Tikhon General Hospital in Ruddlebank was entirely overrun by a zombie offensive. Although the defenders withstood the earlier attacks, the rapid escalation in zombie numbers and resultant break-ins surprised the occupants and had a corrosive effect on the morale of the less fanatical defenders. Despite the fall, the surrounding area was strongly contested and a counter-attack drove the remaining zombies from this crucial resource site. But the siege continues with Tikhon Medical rapidly adapting to the rigours of a siege. The conflict appears have attracted what little remains of the zombie menace in the area as they throw themselves into a desperate struggle to break the tightening survivor stranglehold in SW Malton. Combat Reviving By Anton Larsen Allow me to pose a scenario to you. You just cleared your safehouse out, giving the last zombie a taste of good old NecroSerum and unceremoniously dropping it out the window. You shut the doors and barricade the entrance, knowing that there's no way you'll be hit during the night by anything but a big, coordinated attack. During the night, an irritated death cultist stands up and adds your profile to his contact list. He enters through the same entry point as you normally do and searches the area until he finds you, kills you, and destroys all the generators in the area for good measure. He then finds a hideout and continues to do so over and over until someone finally kills him. Then he'll just get back up and play zombie until he gets combat revived again, which will let him, arguably, do more damage. This happens more often than you think. Before my home area, Foulkes Village, became a target of interest for zombies, these traitors to humanity were the only threat. However, I couldn't help but wonder why I almost never saw them in zombie form, assuming that somebody who woke up to find them in their safehouse would have shot them repeatedly and dumped them. During the recent fighting, while scouting one of the targets that the Legion was going to hit, I noticed that most of the usual traitors were there in human form. Now, this would not have surprised me as much as it would have if the NTs in the town were fully operational and safe. However, they were ransacked and had been amough the first buildings in the suburb to get ruined. Someone may be covertly giving them revives during the peaceful period, but since we recently retook the sole NT in Foulkes, I haven't noticed any of the usual GKers, perhaps because people don't have their syringes yet. The reason it's a hurtful process is that it brings death cultists and other forms of survivor-hostile-survivors back up and gives career zombies a chance to pick up Body Building, flak jackets, and other items that they may not have much of a chance to get. Don't Panic By Dr. Bigbones We see it every time. You're holding a building, barricading and healing. The Zombies outside are breaking in every once in a while, no big problem. You clear them out, maybe lose a guy. But then there is that one guy "OMG, Zeds are breaking through, run for the mall!" Stupid. Even if there are nearly as many Zombies in the building as Humans, you still follow the mantra: Barricade, Heal, Kill, Dump. First, get the barricades back to EHB. Second, if you have FAKs, heal the injured. Finally, if no one is hurt and the barricades are at Extremely Heavily Barricaded, kill and dump the attackers. Notice, at no point does the mantra contain the phrase: "Panic and run away while screaming "We're all gonna die!" ". That is because that is bad tactics and tends to dampen morale. Sieges happen because survivors need resource buildings to get by. Zombies know this, and attack them to mess with us. When a siege is going on, the most important thing to do is keep the survivor numbers up, so it can't be ransacked, and the barricades up. If you don't do that, any zombies you kill are just going to saunter back inside as soon as they rise, and kill you in your sleep. Death is a minor inconvenience, sure, but losing an important resource building (especially Necrotechs) can be fatal for a suburb. So hold. Hold or be damned. And if you're gonna chicken out, do it quietly. We don't need doomsayers sapping our resolve- You're not helping and hey, you could have used that AP for something useful, like barricading. -Dr. Bigbones, 12.56, 20 Sept 07 The Red Doom By Nuabreed The tide of undead which swept through northwest and central Malton has appeared to have finally broken. Although our cursed enemies showcased their staggering offensive capabilities, smashing through suburb after suburb, driving vast numbers of refugees from their homes areas, they eventually overstretched their forces. The more organised and territorial survivor groups launched a disjointed strike against the rear areas in a bid to reclaim their homes. Although initial losses were heavy, mainly due to a small but efficient counter-insurgency effort on the part of the zeds eventually weight of numbers began to overwhelm their efforts and most areas were reoccupied. The hordes appear to have surged ahead of the feral support they need to truly devastate large regions. Despite the scattering of the feral elements, the organised core of the walking dead remains active and poses as great a threat as ever to survivor strongholds. But after the storm has passed, reports of the great Red Doom appear to have been a touch exaggerated. Fan Fiction: Escape By Jalius The car gathered speed as it whipped down the ridge towards the barrier, one unfortunate Infected got caught between the car and its goal. As the vehicle collided with the being, it bounced up onto the hood of the car and smacked into the windscreen leaving a big bloody smear, it then went up and over the roof impacting on the road with a heavy thud. Then there came a sickening crunching sound of bones breaking beneath the car, yet another Infected had gotten in the way of Brian and his goal. The car was almost at the barrier when Brian noticed that at the base of the opening there was a small pile of rubble that could act as a ramp. “You guys might want to hold on!” Brian shouted out just before they hit the rubble. The car went straight up the small mound of debris with ease before flying off the end and through the opening, not before one of the rear vision mirrors was shorn off as the side of the car bumped the barrier. As the car became airborne a serene mood washed over Brian, his mind had been working in overload for so long and now there seemed to be some hope for him. All of this was quickly pushed out of his mind as the car hit the asphalt. He swerved across the road trying to keep the car under control. Finally he managed to bring it back under control and hastened as he knew there was an off ramp soon that would take them off the highway and out into the country side that lay between Malton and Meardoth. “God damn it! Where is that off ramp?” “It should be just ahead, I think...” Jackie responded with unease “There! Just ahead to the left side! Can you see the big green sign?” she exclaimed, erasing all concern from her mind. “I can see it, I’m not blind you know” Brian checked the fuel gage, half a tank. How far would that get them before it ran out? “Keep your eyes open for a petrol station guys, we don’t want to run out of fuel when we’re on the road” Brian turned sharply taking the off ramp, but to where? Brian hadn’t been outside of the city much and when he had he normally just stuck to the freeways. “Hey does anyone know much about the route through the country side? Because I’ve never been this way” Mal spoke up “It’s pretty straight forward, you just stick to the main roads and follow the signs pointing to Meardoth” “Oh ok, doesn’t sound that bad” but Brian was worried though what the country side would be like. Would it be crawling with Infected just as the city was? Only time would tell…

News in Brief Malton Giant dead zone collapses as survivors counter-attack Ruddlebank Tikhon under siege. Foulkes Village Retaken by resurgent survivors New Arkham Extremely quiet. No major fighting. Wykewood Rebuilding after massive destruction. Lockettside Remains calm, safe and shiny.

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