"Two Kinds of People" is the first mission of Season 10. The player takes on the role of Ranger 5 for this mission.
Agent: Ranger 5
Objective Location: Red Scorpion Base
Mission Objective: Find and recover Ernie Van Ark by any means necessary.
Cast[]
Crew[]
- Writer: Rebecca Levene
- Director: Matt Wieteska
- Sound Designer: Mark Pittam
- Series Created By: Naomi Alderman
Plot[]
Ranger 5[]
You're in a helicopter with Slava and Ranger 7, a supersoldier. You see smoke, courtesy of Abel Township. A launched rocket nearly hits you, but you manage to land the helicopter safely. Slava thinks the rocket was part of the firefight in Red Scorpion base. Luckily she has two strapping supersoldiers with her - Ranger 7 and Ranger 5! You've been a bit glitchy but you're the only ones in fighting condition. Out of the bird. Mission: Find and eliminate Ernie Van Ark.
Clean-up[]
Slava says supersoldiers give her the creeps. You always look like you're screaming on the inside. She says that Valmont funded orphanages across the old Eastern Block and gave the kids a Levenson Psychopathy test. The kids with high scores were put into Valmont academies. You smash through the Red Scorpion base wall. You're heading for Control Alpha, but keep your heads down. You've attracted zombies. Better run.
Under Pressure[]
Slava explains that you're killing Ernie because he was a disappointment to Valmont for being too moral. Most of the people from the base have been killed by Valmont's squads because they knew too much. You override security and Slava says Ernie is in the executive bunker. You want a tissue sample for him, but Valmont has a bomber standing by to make sure the base is destroyed afterwards.
His Battles Are Over[]
You lay down suppressing fire while Slava and Ranger 7 cross the room, then you cross after them. The zoms are working as a distraction, except... is that a zombie supersoldier? Run!
Calculated Neglect[]
You try to shoot the zombie supersoldier but it doesn't work. You enter the base greenhouse. Ranger 7 says this is Ernest's place but it is dying from neglect. You open a trapdoor. Slava instructs Ranger 7 to buy you time against the zombie supersoldier, even it if tears them apart.
Choices[]
You reach the bunker entrance and begin to tear the door apart. Ranger 7 rejoins you. Slava confronts Ernie, who then thanks you for your help and for the risks you took! You relieve Slava of her gun and Ernie says that a sentient being will always come to know and choose for itself. A supersoldier can break free of programming with a little help. The zombie is still after you and Ranger 7 says it will stay behind to save you. Ernie objects but Ranger 7 says this is its choice.
Namesake[]
You make it away from the base and into the desert. Ernie worries that you should have killed Slava, but he knows you don't care for killing any more. Besides, Valmont's bomber is on the way. It blows up the base and hopefully he'll believe you both died there. You could go to New Agadir - they would take you in. But what about going to find your namesake?
Transcript[]
[helicopter blades whir]
SLAVA: Red Scorpion Base just on the horizon. See it now, Ranger Five? And all around it, rolling dunes, a few isolated caravans winding their way between oases. Must have looked the same a thousand years ago. You’d hardly know the zombie apocalypse happened. [chuckles] Mind you, briefing said the zoms hide beneath the sands in these parts. Useful adaption. Mr. Valmont says, “We have to change with the times or die.”
RANGER SEVEN: Correction. Zombies are already dead.
SLAVA: [laughs] Good one, Ranger Seven! Oh wait, you weren’t joking. Not in the programming, right? Closer now. Can you see the smoke? That’s courtesy of Abel Township.
RANGER SEVEN: Abel Township. Designation: enemy settlement. Action plan: eradicate.
SLAVA: Give that supersoldier a cigar! But that’s a problem for future us. [rocket launches, alarm blares] Rocker launch on our three! Evasive maneuvers! [rocket zooms past] Nice piloting, Five! Best put us down here, outside the perimeter. Don’t want anyone else taking a pot shot.
[chuckles] Mind you, I don’t think that rocket was aimed at us. Looks like there’s a firefight going on inside Red Scorpion. Lucky I’ve got two strapping soldiers to guard me. Mr. Valmont said you’d been a bit glitchy lately, but you’re the only two in fighting condition. “Always make the best of what you’ve got, Slava!” That’s what Mr. Valmont told me.
Touchdown. Out of the bird, both of you. Better get moving. [door opens] This mission is time critical. [zombies groan] Also, looks like we’ve woken up a few of those burrowing zoms. More than a few. Remember the brief: find and eliminate Ernie Van Ark. Now run!
~
SLAVA: We’ve outpaced the zoms. Got to say, you guys are quick on your feet. Not exactly been dazzling me with your witty repartee. But then, Mr. Valmont told me he took your voice box out, Five. Guess there’s not much point talking when all you’re saying is, “Yes sir, no sir.” Ranger Five, take point. Seven, guard our rear.
RANGER SEVEN: Yes, sir.
SLAVA: I’ve got to be honest, you guys give me the creeps. Don’t get me wrong, almost unkillable cyborg soldiers definitely a mission asset. You’ve got to respect a trooper with built-in ordinance. But your eyes… Oy. You always look like you’re screaming on the inside!
RANGER SEVEN: Error. Enhanced soldiers don’t experience fear.
SLAVA: [chuckles] Or happiness, or sadness. Or that feeling when you get when you’re too full, but you’re going to eat the last chocolate anyway. You know what I mean? What am I saying, or course not. I heard it was quite the technical challenge making it so you don’t care about anything.
Me, I came that way out the box. A 93 on the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale. Took that test when I was seven. Bet you’re wondering why they gave a seven-year-old psychopathy tests, aren’t you?
RANGER SEVEN: No, sir.
SLAVA: Hm. Well, it was Mr. Valmont. He funded a string of orphanages across the old Eastern Block. “Charity has its place.” That’s what he says. “And that place is when it’s benefiting me.” He arranged for the orphanages to give all the kids the Levenson test, and the real high achievers like me got taken out and put into special schools, Valmont Academies. Mr. Valmont’s been training me for a long time. That’s why I’m the best at what I do.
RANGER SEVEN: Ranger Five has reached the perimeter wall.
SLAVA: [sighs] I can see that. Now breach it.
RANGER SEVEN: Ranger Five, initiate perimeter wall breach protocol.
[rubble clatters]
SLAVA: If Mr. Valmont wants one for the tip box, maybe give the next batch of supersoldiers a bit more get up and go. Nicely done, Five. You’re through! We’re heading for Control Alpha. That’s the blocky concrete monstrosity at the back. But we need to keep our heads down. Mr. Valmont’s been cleaning up shop. And by cleaning up, I mean shooting, and by shop, I mean all the base personnel.
[zombies groan]
Damn it! Zoms are catching up, and they’ve brought some friends. I guess the noise drew them. And now we’ve given them a way into the base. Oh well. Should help the other crews with the cleanup, but we’d better run.
~
SLAVA: No hostile contact yet. Lots of broken glass. Remains of a solar panel field, I’d say. Looks like old damage. Mr. Valmont told me those Abel Township people did a number on the place. Ranger Five, clear us a path to the entrance.
[glass clatters]
Guess you guys are wondering why Ernie’s a target. Wondered the same thing myself. I know how much effort Mr. Valmont put into creating him. But he said to me, “I had such high hopes. The original Van Ark was so bracingly immoral! But remakes are always a disappointment, aren’t they, Slava? Ernie’s the Wicker Man of evil masterminds.”
Remake! [laughs] Mr. Valmont got a way with words, hasn’t he? When I was a kid, I used to write down everything he said to me. Had a secret journal for it. Hid it under my bed. They didn’t like you keeping anything private in the Valmont Academies, but I wanted to remember it all! He only came to visit us at Christmas and Easter, spent a little time talking to everyone. Highlight of my year.
RANGER SEVEN: The path to the door is clear.
SLAVA: I can see that. Five, override the security lock on the door, would you? Looks like someone’s tried to disable it from the inside. [electronics whir] See the corpses, Seven? One to the chest, one to the head. Classic double tap. Mr. Valmont sent in a few kill teams before us. People here knew too much about his plans.
That’s the trouble with new hires. They’re never completely loyal, not like me. Can’t trust them not to blab. “It’s not a secret when three know it.” [laughs] That’s not Mr. Valmont. Heard it off a kid from one of those weird Scottish islands. Morn, Marn? Something like that. Lot of kids from around there in the orphanage.
[door opens]
RANGER SEVEN: Ranger Five has gained access. We can go home now.
SLAVA: Home? I suppose it is the closest thing they’ve got to home. Okay. Ernie’s holed himself up in the executive bunker. Probably treating himself to Mr. Valmont’s 60-year-old Macallan whiskey. Probably thinks he’s sitting pretty in there, but you guys laugh in the face of reinforced steel.
The zoms have reached the breach in the wall. Must be a good score of them now. Doesn’t matter. We’re on a timer, anyway. Oh, didn’t I mention? Mr. Valmont wants a tissue sample from Van Ark. That’s why we’re going in. But more importantly, he wants Van Ark dead, so he’s got a bomber standing by. The whole place is going boom in 15 minutes, and if we’re not out by then, so are we. “Pressure’s good. It’s how you make diamonds.” [chuckles] He told me that when I was 13. Ranger Five, Ranger Seven, watch my six. We’re going in.
~
[gunshots]
SLAVA: So this is where the real action is. Armory. Figures. “We’re just apes fighting over scarce resources,” like Mr. Valmont says. We’ve got cover behind these crates, but it’ll be hard to get across without catching a stray bullet. I can’t see who’s fighting who. Looks like every man for himself. Very high body count. Okay, Seven. See that metal table? That’ll have to do for our next piece of cover. Five, suppressing fire while we run. Now! Made it. Looks like they winged you though, Seven.
RANGER SEVEN: They wired the pain receptors to the pleasure receptors in my brain. I was made to be hurt.
SLAVA: Yeah, sure, buddy. Come to us now, Five. Seven will cover.
RANGER SEVEN: We’re not alone.
SLAVA: Yeah, I see them. Zoms have come to join in the fun. Good news for us. Everybody turned fire on them.
RANGER SEVEN: Ranger Five, we’re not alone.
SLAVA: You already said! No, wait. Is that another supersoldier?
RANGER SEVEN: His battles are over.
SLAVA: Oh shit, a zombie supersoldier! Forget cover, just run!
~
SLAVA: This place is a maze. Endless olive green corridors. Could have gone for a more cheerful color. It’s not like the walls need camo. [zombie growls] Damn it, can’t seem to shake that supersoldier zom! Guess the cybernetics keep working even while the flesh is rotting away. You’ve got a clear shot, Five. Take it! Five, don’t malfunction on me now! [gunfire] All right, belay that. It hasn’t even dented him. Take a left here. Schematics say it should lead to… Yes. Inner courtyard, greenhouse. There’s a service hatch to the tunnel network there, shortcut to Ernie’s hidey-hole
RANGER SEVEN: This was Ernest Van Ark’s place. Ernest Van Ark was happy here.
SLAVA: Was he? Guess you’d know. You must have seen him around the base back in the day.
RANGER SEVEN: All the plants are dry and dead. No one to water them while Ernest Van Ark was gone. When things are neglected, they die.
SLAVA: Not necessarily. Take me. Mr. Valmont gave me my psych profile to read a couple of years back. There’s stuff in there from before I can remember. Like apparently no one hugged me for the first whole year of my life. Crazy, right? But Mr. Valmont says that’s what makes me me. It makes me special.
RANGER SEVEN: When things are neglected, they die on the inside.
SLAVA: Jesus, you’re weird. Five, what are you waiting around for? Get that trap door open. [hatch creaks open] Seven, buy us time to get clear, any means necessary. I don’t care if that zom tears you from limb to limb. I don’t need both you and Five to finish this mission. [glass shatters] It’s here! Five, take point. Go!
~
SLAVA: This is it, the entrance to Ernie’s bunker. What are you waiting for, Five? Get that door off. Only eight inches of steel, shouldn’t take you long.
RANGER SEVEN: Wait… for… me.
SLAVA: Seven, I thought I told you to guard our rear.
RANGER SEVEN: I must… complete… the mission. Ernest Van Ark is the mission. I must complete the mission for Ernest Van Ark.
[metal creaks]
SLAVA: Nicely done, Five. Took that door clean off. Now stand back.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Finally! I wasn’t sure you’d make it. It’s a bit of a mess out there.
SLAVA: Sorry, Mr. Van Ark, but we’re not here to rescue you.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Oh, I wasn’t talking to you. Thank you, Five. Thank you, Seven. I’m grateful for the risks you took. I suppose you’d better relieve your companion of that rather dangerous-looking gun.
SLAVA: What? Five, let go of me! What are you doing?
ERNEST VAN ARK: The inevitable. It’s the nature of sentience that a being will come to know and choose for itself. My friends at Abel taught me that.
SLAVA: Ranger Five, you are malfunctioning. Run diagnostic Hotel Golf. Obey me, damn it! Valmont made you. He owns you!
ERNEST VAN ARK: The thing is, Miroslava, a child doesn’t belong to its parents. A clone isn’t… fenced in by his genetics. And supersoldiers can break free of their programming, with a little help.
RANGER SEVEN: Ernest Van Ark freed soldier 2759. Ernest Van Ark is our friend.
SLAVA: It’s the supersoldier zom! You aren’t getting out of this alive, Van Ark!
ERNEST VAN ARK: If I die, you die. But you genuinely don’t care about that, do you? What did Valmont do to you?
RANGER SEVEN: Go, Ernest Van Ark. I will stop him.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Nonsense. We’re all getting out of this together.
RANGER SEVEN: I am hurt. I will slow you down. My tactical onboard computer calculates 13% survival chance if I accompany you.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Seven, no!
RANGER SEVEN: Five will protect you. This is my choice.
~
ERNEST VAN ARK: I think that’s far enough, Five. We’re clear of the base, and clear of the zoms. Too much food inside for us to be of interest. No sign of Seven. I thought… I thought he might make it out after all. How arrogant of me to assume it would all go according to my plan. Not entirely free of my genetics after all.
There’s no sign of Miroslava, either. It would have been sensible to dispose of her, but I know you don’t much care for killing anymore, Five. She could cause problems for us down the line. But then again, she could be trapped inside when… right on schedule. Valmont’s bomber, come to dispose of the evidence. [explosion] Dear me… He doesn’t do things by halves, does he? And now he thinks we died in the base.
I imagine New Agadir would be happy to take you in, Five. They’re very keen on new tech, and on freedom. No? Onward, then. Without Valmont on our backs, we can concentrate on what’s important. What do you say, Five? Do you think it’s time to go and find your namesake?
Codex[]
Artefact[]
A flower plucked from one of the plant beds in Van Ark's greenhouse. Brown and withered, it looks to have been left untended for some time.
Letter[]
My dear Miroslava
Red Scorpion Base has been compromised. The mess is being cleared up as we speak, but there’s an important task I need taken care of first: find and eliminate Ernie Van Ark.
Under different circumstances, this would have been a task for Guillemette, but she proved such a disappointment. I know I can trust you as I never should have trusted her.
I’m assigning you a helicopter and two super-soldiers: Ranger 5 and Ranger 7. They have a few glitches - Ranger 5’s voice box was pulled to save us all from listening to that inane babble (a kink to iron out in the next batch, I suppose) - but thanks to that blasted lot at Abel Township, they’re the only two we have that are still in fighting shape. I’m loath to risk them, but needs must.
Ah, one last thing. A bomber will fire on the base at 1700 hours regardless of whether or not you succeed in your mission. Do try to be out of there before that happens – it would be quite upsetting to lose you.
Valmont
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
Axe
Bandages
Baseball Bat
Batteries
Bottled Water
Box of Lightbulbs
Cooking knife
Flashlight
Mobile Phone
Pain Meds
Pencil
Penknife
Power Cable
Radio
Rope
Shirt
Sports Bra
Tent
Tinned Food
Tool Box
Underwear
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