"Castle's Burning" is the thirteenth mission of Season 7.
The desperate battle at Fort Blackmoore rages on.
Cast[]
Crew[]
- Writer: Elliott Gresswell
- Director: Matt Wieteska
- Sound Designer: Mark Pittam
- Series Created By: Naomi Alderman
Plot[]
It Definitely Had Friends[]
The zombie which attacked you looks strange, with yellow eyes and bulging veins. The ANNIE download finally reaches 100%, so you grab the USB stick and hurry to tell Janine what you’ve seen.
Passed a Sign In The Corridor[]
While scoping the situation, you see V-Types digging up graves in the castle grounds, creating more of those ghoulish zoms. Maxine theorises V-Types can sense corpses, so you turn back to warn the medical centre.
Some of Them on the Wall[]
Inside the medical centre you run into Mayor Fallow, with a broken hand, evacuating patients. Suddenly one of the ghoulish zombies breaks in, somehow sensing the Mayor’s injury and heading straight for him, but it’s killed with a syringe needle to the eye.
Greater Odds of Success[]
When you find Janine she already knows about the ‘ghouls’, and their specific behaviours. Everyone’s been evacuated, so you should leave now too, but you can’t let the V-Types or ghouls spread. Janine will cover you, while you throw something called a “Burn Cube” at the remaining zombies.
To the Main Gate[]
Janine tells you this “Burn Cube” you’re holding is a thermal cascade device, internationally outlawed for its unpredictability, but it will completely vaporise the V-Types. You throw it, and hope you can escape the blast radius.
Before the Whole Place Collapses[]
You run into Maxine and the Mayor while sprinting for the gate - they got cornered by ghouls. You all duck and cover as the Burn Cube detonates, taking the zombies and half the castle with it, before making a run for the gate.
A Long Time Before Dawn[]
Once you’re far enough away, you slow down. Burn Cubes leave a toxic residue, so nothing from the castle will have survived. Mayor Fallow thanks you for saving all the kids, but Janine reminds him you can’t keep winning at any cost.
S07E13 // Rofflenet[]
Discussion regarding this mission can be found on Rofflenet
Transcript[]
MAXINE MYERS: Okay, Five. We’re stuck in a castle, trying to evacuate a bunch of teenagers, and surrounded by zombies that might not actually be zombies. Whatever just attacked us, Five, is definitely dead. It has yellow eyes, distended veins all over the body. Ghoulish. What is it?
JANINE DE LUCA: Dr. Myers, are you – [static]
MAXINE MYERS: Janine, can you hear me? Five and I are still in the Mayor’s office with some kind of creature. Five killed it, but from the look of what’s left, it’s not a V-type. [comms obscured by static] Oh, great. Comms are barely working. We need to get to the wall and tell Janine about this.
Five, grab that memory stick. It’s showing 100% downloaded. [monster growls] That thing definitely had friends. I didn’t see anything through the window, but they sound close. Let’s not hang around, Five. Run!
JANINE DE LUCA: Five, you need to be – [static]
MAXINE MYERS: We’re coming to get you, Janine! But comms are borked. Damn this valley! I think we took a wrong turn back there, Five. All those stone corridors look the same. [monsters moan] It sounds like more of those creatures, and zombies! Oh, help me open this window shutter, Five. We need to see what we’re dealing with.
[shutter opens, monsters growl] Oh my God. Janine, I don’t know if you can hear this, but Five and I are in the castle kitchen looking out over the cemetery. There are a lot of recent graves, and I see three V-types followed by more of those yellow-eyed ghoulish things. The V-types are digging at the graves! They are dragging the bodies out! One just bit a corpse! Oh God, that is so revolting. That can’t be right. The corpse is moving, and it has… yellow eyes. Five, the V-types are looking this way. Close the shutter, quick!
[shutter closes] Those things are V-type foot soldiers, and the V-types are making more of them! The first V-types past the wall went straight for the cemetery. Maybe they can sense the corpses somehow? Jesus! This castle has a medical centre. If they have a morgue, the V-types will head there next. We have to warn them. We passed the sign for the medical centre in the corridor. Hurry!
MAYOR: Runner Five, Dr. Myers.
MAXINE MYERS: Mr. Mayor, what are you doing here?
MAYOR: I sort of… broke my hand up on the wall. I was swinging a pitchfork at a zombie and then I tripped. Colonel De Luca sent me here to evacuate the medical centre.
MAXINE MYERS: Thank goodness. There are zombies in the castle grounds. They’re heading this way. Where are the patients?
MAYOR: I just sent the last of the sick and the injured to the castle gate. They should be out by now. The only people left in the castle are us and the defense force.
MAXINE MYERS: Okay. We’re heading up to Janine now. We have to tell her about the ghoulish foot soldiers. [monster moans and bangs on door] Crap! It’s breaking through the door!
MAYOR: What is it? A zombie? One of the indestructible ones? [door breaks open] It’s covered in horrible swollen veins. It’s eyes are bright yellow.
MAXINE MYERS: Five and I have dealt with one already. Five, grab that defib and smash its head. I’ll attack its face with this drip stand. And you stand over there, Mr. Mayor, out of the way. Hey monster, over here! Smash it, Five! [metal clanks] No, no, over here!
MAYOR: It’s coming for me! Help! [glass shatters]
MAXINE MYERS: Over here, you ghoul! Mayor Fallow, grab anything you can. Five, throw the Mayor that tray of syringes.
[glass shatters, MAYOR shouts, needle stabs into monster eye, monster collapses]
MAYOR: Oh God! Ugh, what was that?
MAXINE MYERS: We don’t know. But it died when you stabbed it through the eye with a needle, not when Five smashed its skull with the defibrillator. These things have tough heads!
MAYOR: It came straight for me!
MAXINE MYERS: Even when I tried to distract it, like it could tell you were hurt.
MAYOR: I saw some of them on the wall.
MAXINE MYERS: We have to reach Janine. We have to tell her how to kill them. If they try normal zom protocol, they’ll get torn apart. We have to go now. Run!
MAXINE MYERS: That’s Janine there. Looks like she’s got the defenders camped out at the entrance of the castle keep.
MAYOR: Oh, my poor students. Lucy, Everton, are you all right? Oh, look at the state of you.
JANINE DE LUCA: We were forced to fall back from the wall. Our position there was untenable.
MAXINE MYERS: Janine, is it my imagination or is half the castle wall on fire?
JANINE DE LUCA: Before our retreat, I had the wall drenched with the last petrol from the generator station. The flaming cordon has bought us a little extra time, but not much.
MAYOR: Everyone’s evacuated now. Except for us, of course.
MAXINE MYERS: Janine, there’s something else. Five and I have discovered that most of the zombies attacking us aren’t zombies.
JANINE DE LUCA: Yes, the undesignated hostiles. I’ve been trying to warn you about them, whatever they are. They pursue the injured over any other combatant.
MAXINE MYERS: The V-types are making them by biting corpses. We watched them. But they’re not indestructible. If you stab them through the eye, you’ll bring them down.
MAYOR: There’s been a lot of rain in the valley lately. The graves must have been easy to disturb to create those ghouls.
JANINE DE LUCA: Ghouls… good name for them. Thank you Doctor, Mayor, Runner Five. Your work has saved a lot of lives today. It is time for us to enact our escape strategy. We must prevent the zombies from simply chasing us down, and I cannot leave the V-types to spread. Fortunately, there is one more weapon in our arsenal. Five, unzip my pack. You should find a large black cube inside.
[backpack unzips]
MAYOR: Oh, that’s the paperweight from our supply store. Blunt force trauma to the head won’t kill ghouls, though.
JANINE DE LUCA: This is not a paperweight. It is a Burn Cube. It is a very powerful, very illegal incendiary device. We’re going to throw it at the zombies. Dr. Myers, you and the Mayor get these brave young fighters out through the castle gate. Runner Five, I need your help.
MAXINE MYERS: Janine!
JANINE DE LUCA: Doctor, the undesignated hostiles are like bloodhounds with the injured. You and the Mayor must shepherd our wounded. Five, take this Burn Cube in both hands. I was going to run to the wall and throw it at the enemy myself, but if you’re willing to hold it, I will escort you with my firearm and we shall have greater odds of success. Go, Dr. Myers! Get those defenders out of here. Runner Five, with me. To the wall, and the flames. Charge!
[gunshots]
[flames crackle, monsters moan]
JANINE DE LUCA: Five, I know you’re wondering exactly what you’re holding. [monster growls, gunshots] Dr. Myers was right. The new hostiles are more vulnerable than V-types, but much faster, too. The largest concentration of enemies is pouring over the wall directly ahead. Keep going that way, Five! [gunshots]
The Burn Cube is a thermal cascade device developed by the Russian army and banned by international treaty. According to the Mayor, the locals scavenged this one from a derelict military base. The Mayor apparently thought it was some kind of exotic paperweight! [gunshots]
You must hold the Cube steady, Five. Burn cubes are extremely volatile. They were banned for their unpredictability. Each Cube creates a massive chain reaction, vaporizing anything in a radius ranging from 10 to 500 meters. Very few were ever produced. Somehow it doesn’t shock me that the Ministry managed to obtain some.
[gun clicks] No more bullets, but I believe we’re close enough. Five, depress the button on the rear of the Cube, then throw it at the wall. We will have two minutes until detonation. I have no idea how large this explosion will be. Hopefully, it will neutralize most of the hostiles, but at least the Cube’s vaporizing action means we need not worry about V-type infection. Runner Five, it has been an honour!
[device arms] Good throw, Five! Now let’s pray we can escape the blast radius. To the main gate! Run!
JANINE DE LUCA: Keep running, Five! We’re nearly at the gate. Dr. Myers, Mr. Mayor, you should be out by now!
MAYOR: We were cornered by a group of those ghouls, but Maxine told everyone to go for the eyes, and -
JANINE DE LUCA: No time for explanations! Cover your eyes now!
[explosion]
MAXINE MYERS: That’s the exit strategy, I assume.
[explosion, Runner Five’s ears ring, debris falls]
JANINE DE LUCA: Success, Five! We can look at the blast site now. That radiating circle of light is consuming the hostiles and reducing the castle walls to slag. The blast may not have caught all the zombies, but it has taken a chunk from the castle keep which is about to collapse in this direction. All of you, through the gate before the whole place collapses. Go!
[walls crumble]
JANINE DE LUCA: We can slow down, now. We’re a long way from the castle.
MAYOR: Not much have survived.
JANINE DE LUCA: Burn Cubes leave a toxic residue behind. It’s one of the reasons they were banned. I’m sorry, Mr. Mayor. But we were fortunate. That blast was very large, and any hostiles not incinerated will have been buried under the falling masonry. We’ve ensured they won’t threaten anybody else.
MAYOR: And all my kids got out. They wouldn’t have without you. Colonel De Luca, Dr. Myers, Runner Five, you did the impossible here today.
MAXINE MYERS: It’s kind of the Abel motto. Even under the threat of ghouls, I guess.
JANINE DE LUCA: Clearly the V-types are even more dangerous than previously thought. We’ve contained a group here, but we cannot keep winning battles at this kind of cost. Come along, everyone. We must travel to Abel. We’ve a long way to go, and a long time before dawn.
Codex[]
Artefact[]
Despite it looking more like a fancy paperweight, the Burn Cube is a thermal cascade device capable of vapourising anything within a five hundred metre radius. Do not drop it.
Letter[]
FANTASTIC work today, Five!
I know we should probably feel a little guilty for having completely destroyed an entire castle, and… yes, okay, the sheer power of those Burn Cubes does freak me out, but man, it feels really good to have actually saved those kids today, doesn’t it? And we were able to save the Mayor! Sometimes victories can feel few and far between, but I think you should be really proud of the way you kept your cool today - I know I am.
- Maxine
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
9mm Ammo
Axe
Baseball Bat
Bedroll
Bottled Water
Candles
Mobile Phone
Pain Meds
Pistol
Radio
Seeds
Thermal underwear
Thermos flask
Tinned Food
Tool Box
Toy car
Umbrella
Vitamins
Base Unlocks[]
The following objects unlock for your Base upon completing this mission.
Bonfire
- Description: It turns out camping around a bonfire is a lot more relaxing within the safe confines of Abel's walls. The opportunities for entertainment around the bonfire are endless, from toasting marshmallows to telling ghost stories. If all else fails, Sam can always be counted on to break out his ukulele for a stirring ABBA medley.
- Cost: 20 supplies, 1 material
- Effect: Increases morale.
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