Rifts Internal (duct tape can't fix everything)

Woke up this morning after dreaming about a beautiful tall motherly woman. (but she didn't have pointed ears. Surely she isn't mine.) Lets just add it the list of weird shit that randomly happens to me. I feel well rested, so I guess that is a bonus. The "Captain" has some serious Dad on a road trip energy. We're packed up and God damn it we are leaving on time, with no breaks!
 
Tempers are randomly flaring in here as we deal with the new reality. We're facing a nuclear style winter. Acid rain started to fall and now the Cindy's shields have to run full time to keep up safe.
 
Our "Captain" suddenly got a shit ton of messages from his superior. Its pretty questionable. At the end of the world, why is this guy yelling at a Sargent? His mission can't be so crucial that he can't be replaced. I'm wondering if he is who he says he is?
 
Jaxion decides he need to check in at the nearest point, otherwise the BRN will be on our asses. We need to figure out what the hell is going on. Echo, Silas and I agreed that we need more info. Xoya was so frightened she tried to hijack the Cindy. (I'm installing a kill switch as soon as we get out of this rain. I instructed MAT to stop anyone who tries to change our course. She is rightfully afraid. We find out that she was to be kidnapped into a super soldier breeding program. Jaxion is skeptical of all this, and not immediately willing to abandon a system his family has participated in for generations. Fair enough, but he needs to start asking questions. He seems willing to do so and he flat out said that he won't abandon the Kid. She's so scared she keeps trying to take control of the situation. I'm getting pretty sick of this shit. If it wasn't for the acid rain, I swear we would all be walking. I feel like a parent who needs to take away a toy. My patience is fraying and my trust is waning.
 
Our butler bot is currently driving while I weld tracks to the top of the Cindy. I'm trying to play the middle ground. The kid has been treated like shit. The "Captain" has made sense of the world through his work. Echo and Silas are pragmatic like me. Lux, is scared too. She is afraid the others will be discovered, in spite of our plan to keep the Cindy out of danger. She tried to kick Jaxion and the others off my ride and I had to set some boundaries.
 
I feel like a rift is growing between me and half of the party. I want to keep everyone safe, and I'm not willing to take sides. Right now the Kid and Lux are bonding. No doubt Kii will comfort them too and I'm left working and pretending it's fine. I'm just one of the guys, again. I know they'll have my back in a fire fight, but outside of that... well it would be nice to feel like I had friends not just allies. I guess Echo sort of feel like a friend. Its only been a few days, but already the other women of our party seem pretty close.
 
I did my best to repair some rifts with honest talk. We need to realize that all shots fired hit someone. It is a strain to stay in the middle, but it is important. I think Silas is also a good voice of reason. We understand that consensus is best. That we will do all we can to make sure everyone is safe.
 
It is heart breaking to see the level of devastation at the blast sight. So many refugees. Many more dead. Even if we do succeed, it will take years for the world to recover from this. I hope we can reshape things for the better, but right now we are focused on survival. As I watch the soldiers helping the survivors and think about all we have learned today. The fact the the BRN, Black Axe, and portions of Kiquo have been compromised, I sincerely hope that we can trust each other. Does everyone else realize that in this chaos we really need to cling to each other?
 
 
 
 
 
 
We finally got the majority of people to agree to approaching an unexpected check point after we siphoned fuel (now I need new hoses). When we reached the check point everyone was already dead.