*mumble mumble*
*bumble bumble*
It's the End of the World as we Know it (But i Feel Fine)
Moderator: Moderators
1000 views!! Yay for me and everything i'm stealing...err "borrowing" things from:
Fallout
Firefly
Fallout 2
Some more things that start with F....
├óÔé¼┼ôBefore you do anything rash, this is a recording├óÔé¼┬Ø The A.I said ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan's clumsy, inelegant and brutish way of shutting me down was embarrassingly successfully├óÔé¼┬Ø. We had already started to run out of the base. ├óÔé¼┼ôI had three millisecond's to set up a repeating .1 defect in the Tokamak's magnetic containment field├óÔé¼┬Ø. We had rushed past the armory, and i stopped grabbed the micro nuke launcher and some ammo for the RFG.
├óÔé¼┼ôIn exactly two minutes, eleven seconds that magnetic field's discrepancy will reach a critical point, causing a mini nova. In Japan there where thirty two Tokamak in Tokyo, powering its factory's and living quarters. One of them went nova, causing a chain reaction that left the majority of the Japanese's Isle under the water├óÔé¼┬Ø The A.I started to ramble.
We ran outside with the micro nuke launcher, PAX 21401, RFG ammo and anything else we had on our self. The A.I was still going on and on about different cases of fission and fusion disasters when the main door slid shut. We ran and ran and ran, past the skeletal frame of the car that the Reavers had ripped apart. Past the corpses of Reavers that had died from a as of yet unknown reason.
We got about fifty meters away from the base and hit the dirt. A minute ticked past. I looked up and at the base. Then i looked at the PAX. Then i remembered it wasn't a watch. Five minutes went by. ├óÔé¼┼ôJammy bastard├óÔé¼┬Ø Cynthia muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôHe had us going├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo wait!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, looking at the sun. Cynthia sighed. After a few more minutes i got up.
Then the ground heaved forward and down, buckling under the sudden lack of the base. A great roaring sound filled my ears as i flew forward. There was crashing. I heard something explode violently. I hit the ground and slid forward, on my chest. Then i crumpled, face forward, into a massive slab of brownish rock. I lay there as small stones rolled around and finally A deafening silence surrounded me.
├óÔé¼┼ôow├óÔé¼┬Ø I murmured, not having the will or energy to move. ├óÔé¼┼ôETHAN!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted Cynthia. I rolled over and looked up. I was at the bottom of a huge crater. The smoke from the blast still made the air almost opaque. Then i saw three figures emerging from the mist. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted Abdul. ├óÔé¼┼ôStop your hollering├óÔé¼┬Ø I murmured. I tried to sit up but felt...off. But it passed.
I stood up, the PAX almost sliding off my too thin wrists, and then began to walk shakily my friends. ├óÔé¼┼ôThat was one hell of a ride├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking at the shredded shirt and severally lacerated skin on my stomach ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd ow├óÔé¼┬Ø. Cynthia hugged me. ├óÔé¼┼ôOw├óÔé¼┬Ø i murmured as she pressed into the wounds. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn, that was some explosion├óÔé¼┬Ø Abdul said, clapping me on the shoulder.
├óÔé¼┼ôHow was it?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, somewhat dazed. ├óÔé¼┼ôBright, but not very long. It lasted about a second, then the ground collapsed├óÔé¼┬Ø Muti said. ├óÔé¼┼ôCool├óÔé¼┬Ø i said and we began to walk up and out of the crater. We got to the top and i turned around to look at the damage. It was huge. The crater stretched over (at least) five hundred meters. Turns out i hadnt hit the bottom, after all. Rather i had hit a outcropping of rocks that had somehow stuck up and out from the regular grain of the crater.
At the bottom the sphere that held the PAX was sitting, cracked open like an eggshell. Surrounding it was the bottom of the base, mainly unsalvageable metal and junk. ├óÔé¼┼ôLet see you come back after that, fucker!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, glee filling me. ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Muti said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut at least the A.I had class├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôClass?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, turning and grinning.
Six rather deadly looking gun barrels where leveled at our collective face's. ├óÔé¼┼ôReach for the sky├óÔé¼┬Ø said a even voice. I raised my hand and looked around the gun barrel. ├óÔé¼┼ôElizabeth?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked back, lowering her pistol. The police officers around her did likewise ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat did you fuck up now?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, her tone playful. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh, renegade A.I, some Reavers. Not too much trouble├óÔé¼┬Ø i replied ├óÔé¼┼ôNow...you tell us your story, and we'll tell you ours├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe had been in PD 1, and then we head the explosion. Then all hell broke lose...as you probably noticed. We holed up, grabbing our guns and putting the emergency lock down on Martha├óÔé¼┬Ø I cocked an eyebrow at that ├óÔé¼┼ôWe knew we where going to move soon, as the area around the PD had gotten hot├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôSo after half the damn department had been leveled by gun fire, and...├óÔé¼┬Ø her voice caught.
├óÔé¼┼ôand├óÔé¼┬Ø she started again ├óÔé¼┼ôafter Michel died we left├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked at the ground. I clapped her on the shoulder and smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked ├óÔé¼┼ôHow did you get here?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth brightened and gestured behind her and I saw the car ├óÔé¼┼ôWe drove the old Chevy├óÔé¼┬Ø. The ├óÔé¼┼ôold Chevy├óÔé¼┬Ø was a ancient APC that pops had unearthed in the cites ruins. It drove slowly, had six machine guns and was armored like a tank.
├óÔé¼┼ôThats the best news i've heard for a long while├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWho are they?├óÔé¼┬Ø asked one of the other officers, his gun half up, half down. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh├óÔé¼┬Ø i started. Mutual introductions where given. Aside from Elizabeth, the other officers where a eclectic bunch. There was Judith, one of the littles women I'd ever met. She was light built, agile and could bluff with the best of them in a poker game.
Riffington was a very tall, lanky red head who barely said a thing. He said all of four words the entire time i had known him. Kieth was a medium built man with gray eyes and hair colored hair. He looked completely neutral, and had absolutely no defining features about his face. He was also one of the meanest knife wielders in the force. Lisa was taller then Judith, brother to Riff but was completely opposite in every other way. She talked nearly endlessly and, rather then being a ferocious close combat fighter, was the best sniper in the force.
Elizabeth always had the weirdest friends.
The Chevy roared to life, its engine guzzling gas faster then a SUV. Muti was arming the only gun on the thing that had an ammo, so he was free to whop at the top of his lungs as the Chevy plowed through the rough terrain of the Wasteland. ├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i said to Riff ├óÔé¼┼ôHavening a nice day?├óÔé¼┬Ø. He shook his head and made a face. We where all standing, as the Chevy's seats had been removed to make room for supplies. We all held onto strips on the ceiling.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo whats the plan?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, yelling over the engine. Judith was driving, but she didn't keep her eyes on the lack of road. Rather she looked over her shoulder at me. Then again, so did every one. ├óÔé¼┼ôFirst things first?├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe get Martha├óÔé¼┬Ø I grinned as Elizabeth started to laugh ├óÔé¼┼ôYour pops said to never take that out after the water riots├óÔé¼┬Ø. I tried to smile. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe did...didn't he?├óÔé¼┬Ø i said.
We drove to the edge of the city and Judith stopped the Chevy and stepped down from the driving platform, which was mabey...a foot above the ground floor. I let go of the strap, my hand sore from holding it in a death grip for three hours. ├óÔé¼┼ôso├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ô Elizabeth, Riff, Judith you come with me. Everyone else circle around to the old bank vault├óÔé¼┬Ø I looked around at each of them ├óÔé¼┼ôRelode these fucking guns then come back to here and pick us up├óÔé¼┬Ø
Cynthia laughed, but she looked really worried. We started to split up, but i stopped by Cynthia and looked her in the eyes ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't worry... with Judith by my side, there is no way Elizabeth can foul us up├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth smacked me on the back of my head. ├óÔé¼┼ôJoking├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôJoking!├óÔé¼┬Ø. I pulled out my RFG. Cynthia grabbed my lapels and kissed me.
I returned the favor, and it lasted for quite a while, as kisses go. Riff coughed (no, thats not a word) and we broke apart. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell...time to go├óÔé¼┬Ø i said and began to move into the city.
Fallout
Firefly
Fallout 2
Some more things that start with F....
├óÔé¼┼ôBefore you do anything rash, this is a recording├óÔé¼┬Ø The A.I said ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan's clumsy, inelegant and brutish way of shutting me down was embarrassingly successfully├óÔé¼┬Ø. We had already started to run out of the base. ├óÔé¼┼ôI had three millisecond's to set up a repeating .1 defect in the Tokamak's magnetic containment field├óÔé¼┬Ø. We had rushed past the armory, and i stopped grabbed the micro nuke launcher and some ammo for the RFG.
├óÔé¼┼ôIn exactly two minutes, eleven seconds that magnetic field's discrepancy will reach a critical point, causing a mini nova. In Japan there where thirty two Tokamak in Tokyo, powering its factory's and living quarters. One of them went nova, causing a chain reaction that left the majority of the Japanese's Isle under the water├óÔé¼┬Ø The A.I started to ramble.
We ran outside with the micro nuke launcher, PAX 21401, RFG ammo and anything else we had on our self. The A.I was still going on and on about different cases of fission and fusion disasters when the main door slid shut. We ran and ran and ran, past the skeletal frame of the car that the Reavers had ripped apart. Past the corpses of Reavers that had died from a as of yet unknown reason.
We got about fifty meters away from the base and hit the dirt. A minute ticked past. I looked up and at the base. Then i looked at the PAX. Then i remembered it wasn't a watch. Five minutes went by. ├óÔé¼┼ôJammy bastard├óÔé¼┬Ø Cynthia muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôHe had us going├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo wait!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, looking at the sun. Cynthia sighed. After a few more minutes i got up.
Then the ground heaved forward and down, buckling under the sudden lack of the base. A great roaring sound filled my ears as i flew forward. There was crashing. I heard something explode violently. I hit the ground and slid forward, on my chest. Then i crumpled, face forward, into a massive slab of brownish rock. I lay there as small stones rolled around and finally A deafening silence surrounded me.
├óÔé¼┼ôow├óÔé¼┬Ø I murmured, not having the will or energy to move. ├óÔé¼┼ôETHAN!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted Cynthia. I rolled over and looked up. I was at the bottom of a huge crater. The smoke from the blast still made the air almost opaque. Then i saw three figures emerging from the mist. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted Abdul. ├óÔé¼┼ôStop your hollering├óÔé¼┬Ø I murmured. I tried to sit up but felt...off. But it passed.
I stood up, the PAX almost sliding off my too thin wrists, and then began to walk shakily my friends. ├óÔé¼┼ôThat was one hell of a ride├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking at the shredded shirt and severally lacerated skin on my stomach ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd ow├óÔé¼┬Ø. Cynthia hugged me. ├óÔé¼┼ôOw├óÔé¼┬Ø i murmured as she pressed into the wounds. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn, that was some explosion├óÔé¼┬Ø Abdul said, clapping me on the shoulder.
├óÔé¼┼ôHow was it?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, somewhat dazed. ├óÔé¼┼ôBright, but not very long. It lasted about a second, then the ground collapsed├óÔé¼┬Ø Muti said. ├óÔé¼┼ôCool├óÔé¼┬Ø i said and we began to walk up and out of the crater. We got to the top and i turned around to look at the damage. It was huge. The crater stretched over (at least) five hundred meters. Turns out i hadnt hit the bottom, after all. Rather i had hit a outcropping of rocks that had somehow stuck up and out from the regular grain of the crater.
At the bottom the sphere that held the PAX was sitting, cracked open like an eggshell. Surrounding it was the bottom of the base, mainly unsalvageable metal and junk. ├óÔé¼┼ôLet see you come back after that, fucker!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, glee filling me. ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Muti said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut at least the A.I had class├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôClass?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, turning and grinning.
Six rather deadly looking gun barrels where leveled at our collective face's. ├óÔé¼┼ôReach for the sky├óÔé¼┬Ø said a even voice. I raised my hand and looked around the gun barrel. ├óÔé¼┼ôElizabeth?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked back, lowering her pistol. The police officers around her did likewise ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat did you fuck up now?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, her tone playful. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh, renegade A.I, some Reavers. Not too much trouble├óÔé¼┬Ø i replied ├óÔé¼┼ôNow...you tell us your story, and we'll tell you ours├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe had been in PD 1, and then we head the explosion. Then all hell broke lose...as you probably noticed. We holed up, grabbing our guns and putting the emergency lock down on Martha├óÔé¼┬Ø I cocked an eyebrow at that ├óÔé¼┼ôWe knew we where going to move soon, as the area around the PD had gotten hot├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôSo after half the damn department had been leveled by gun fire, and...├óÔé¼┬Ø her voice caught.
├óÔé¼┼ôand├óÔé¼┬Ø she started again ├óÔé¼┼ôafter Michel died we left├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked at the ground. I clapped her on the shoulder and smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked ├óÔé¼┼ôHow did you get here?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth brightened and gestured behind her and I saw the car ├óÔé¼┼ôWe drove the old Chevy├óÔé¼┬Ø. The ├óÔé¼┼ôold Chevy├óÔé¼┬Ø was a ancient APC that pops had unearthed in the cites ruins. It drove slowly, had six machine guns and was armored like a tank.
├óÔé¼┼ôThats the best news i've heard for a long while├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWho are they?├óÔé¼┬Ø asked one of the other officers, his gun half up, half down. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh├óÔé¼┬Ø i started. Mutual introductions where given. Aside from Elizabeth, the other officers where a eclectic bunch. There was Judith, one of the littles women I'd ever met. She was light built, agile and could bluff with the best of them in a poker game.
Riffington was a very tall, lanky red head who barely said a thing. He said all of four words the entire time i had known him. Kieth was a medium built man with gray eyes and hair colored hair. He looked completely neutral, and had absolutely no defining features about his face. He was also one of the meanest knife wielders in the force. Lisa was taller then Judith, brother to Riff but was completely opposite in every other way. She talked nearly endlessly and, rather then being a ferocious close combat fighter, was the best sniper in the force.
Elizabeth always had the weirdest friends.
The Chevy roared to life, its engine guzzling gas faster then a SUV. Muti was arming the only gun on the thing that had an ammo, so he was free to whop at the top of his lungs as the Chevy plowed through the rough terrain of the Wasteland. ├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i said to Riff ├óÔé¼┼ôHavening a nice day?├óÔé¼┬Ø. He shook his head and made a face. We where all standing, as the Chevy's seats had been removed to make room for supplies. We all held onto strips on the ceiling.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo whats the plan?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, yelling over the engine. Judith was driving, but she didn't keep her eyes on the lack of road. Rather she looked over her shoulder at me. Then again, so did every one. ├óÔé¼┼ôFirst things first?├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe get Martha├óÔé¼┬Ø I grinned as Elizabeth started to laugh ├óÔé¼┼ôYour pops said to never take that out after the water riots├óÔé¼┬Ø. I tried to smile. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe did...didn't he?├óÔé¼┬Ø i said.
We drove to the edge of the city and Judith stopped the Chevy and stepped down from the driving platform, which was mabey...a foot above the ground floor. I let go of the strap, my hand sore from holding it in a death grip for three hours. ├óÔé¼┼ôso├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ô Elizabeth, Riff, Judith you come with me. Everyone else circle around to the old bank vault├óÔé¼┬Ø I looked around at each of them ├óÔé¼┼ôRelode these fucking guns then come back to here and pick us up├óÔé¼┬Ø
Cynthia laughed, but she looked really worried. We started to split up, but i stopped by Cynthia and looked her in the eyes ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't worry... with Judith by my side, there is no way Elizabeth can foul us up├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth smacked me on the back of my head. ├óÔé¼┼ôJoking├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôJoking!├óÔé¼┬Ø. I pulled out my RFG. Cynthia grabbed my lapels and kissed me.
I returned the favor, and it lasted for quite a while, as kisses go. Riff coughed (no, thats not a word) and we broke apart. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell...time to go├óÔé¼┬Ø i said and began to move into the city.
I just got three nifty ass books for X-mas:
Charicter and Viewpoint, How to write Sci-fi and Fantasy and, last but not least, Plot and Development!
Cheers!
├óÔé¼┼ôBefore you do anything rash, this is a recording├óÔé¼┬Ø The A.I said ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan's clumsy, inelegant and brutish way of shutting me down was embarrassingly successfully├óÔé¼┬Ø. We had already started to run out of the base. ├óÔé¼┼ôI had three millisecond's to set up a repeating .1 defect in the Tokamak's magnetic containment field├óÔé¼┬Ø. We had rushed past the armory, and i stopped grabbed the micro nuke launcher and some ammo for the RFG.
├óÔé¼┼ôIn exactly two minutes, eleven seconds that magnetic field's discrepancy will reach a critical point, causing a mini nova. In Japan there where thirty two Tokamak in Tokyo, powering its factory's and living quarters. One of them went nova, causing a chain reaction that left the majority of the Japanese's Isle under the water├óÔé¼┬Ø The A.I started to ramble.
We ran outside with the micro nuke launcher, PAX 21401, RFG ammo and anything else we had on our self. The A.I was still going on and on about different cases of fission and fusion disasters when the main door slid shut. We ran and ran and ran, past the skeletal frame of the car that the Reavers had ripped apart. Past the corpses of Reavers that had died from a as of yet unknown reason.
We got about fifty meters away from the base and hit the dirt. A minute ticked past. I looked up and at the base. Then i looked at the PAX. Then i remembered it wasn't a watch. Five minutes went by. ├óÔé¼┼ôJammy bastard├óÔé¼┬Ø Cynthia muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôHe had us going├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo wait!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, looking at the sun. Cynthia sighed. After a few more minutes i got up.
Then the ground heaved forward and down, buckling under the sudden lack of the base. A great roaring sound filled my ears as i flew forward. There was crashing. I heard something explode violently. I hit the ground and slid forward, on my chest. Then i crumpled, face forward, into a massive slab of brownish rock. I lay there as small stones rolled around and finally A deafening silence surrounded me.
├óÔé¼┼ôow├óÔé¼┬Ø I murmured, not having the will or energy to move. ├óÔé¼┼ôETHAN!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted Cynthia. I rolled over and looked up. I was at the bottom of a huge crater. The smoke from the blast still made the air almost opaque. Then i saw three figures emerging from the mist. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted Abdul. ├óÔé¼┼ôStop your hollering├óÔé¼┬Ø I murmured. I tried to sit up but felt...off. But it passed.
I stood up, the PAX almost sliding off my too thin wrists, and then began to walk shakily my friends. ├óÔé¼┼ôThat was one hell of a ride├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking at the shredded shirt and severally lacerated skin on my stomach ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd ow├óÔé¼┬Ø. Cynthia hugged me. ├óÔé¼┼ôOw├óÔé¼┬Ø i murmured as she pressed into the wounds. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn, that was some explosion├óÔé¼┬Ø Abdul said, clapping me on the shoulder.
├óÔé¼┼ôHow was it?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, somewhat dazed. ├óÔé¼┼ôBright, but not very long. It lasted about a second, then the ground collapsed├óÔé¼┬Ø Muti said. ├óÔé¼┼ôCool├óÔé¼┬Ø i said and we began to walk up and out of the crater. We got to the top and i turned around to look at the damage. It was huge. The crater stretched over (at least) five hundred meters. Turns out i hadnt hit the bottom, after all. Rather i had hit a outcropping of rocks that had somehow stuck up and out from the regular grain of the crater.
At the bottom the sphere that held the PAX was sitting, cracked open like an eggshell. Surrounding it was the bottom of the base, mainly unsalvageable metal and junk. ├óÔé¼┼ôLet see you come back after that, fucker!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, glee filling me. ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Muti said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut at least the A.I had class├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôClass?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, turning and grinning.
Six rather deadly looking gun barrels where leveled at our collective face's. ├óÔé¼┼ôReach for the sky├óÔé¼┬Ø said a even voice. I raised my hand and looked around the gun barrel. ├óÔé¼┼ôElizabeth?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked back, lowering her pistol. The police officers around her did likewise ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat did you fuck up now?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, her tone playful. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh, renegade A.I, some Reavers. Not too much trouble├óÔé¼┬Ø i replied ├óÔé¼┼ôNow...you tell us your story, and we'll tell you ours├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe had been in PD 1, and then we head the explosion. Then all hell broke lose...as you probably noticed. We holed up, grabbing our guns and putting the emergency lock down on Martha├óÔé¼┬Ø I cocked an eyebrow at that ├óÔé¼┼ôWe knew we where going to move soon, as the area around the PD had gotten hot├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôSo after half the damn department had been leveled by gun fire, and...├óÔé¼┬Ø her voice caught.
├óÔé¼┼ôand├óÔé¼┬Ø she started again ├óÔé¼┼ôafter Michel died we left├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked at the ground. I clapped her on the shoulder and smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked ├óÔé¼┼ôHow did you get here?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth brightened and gestured behind her and I saw the car ├óÔé¼┼ôWe drove the old Chevy├óÔé¼┬Ø. The ├óÔé¼┼ôold Chevy├óÔé¼┬Ø was a ancient APC that pops had unearthed in the cites ruins. It drove slowly, had six machine guns and was armored like a tank.
├óÔé¼┼ôThats the best news i've heard for a long while├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWho are they?├óÔé¼┬Ø asked one of the other officers, his gun half up, half down. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh├óÔé¼┬Ø i started. Mutual introductions where given. Aside from Elizabeth, the other officers where a eclectic bunch. There was Judith, one of the littles women I'd ever met. She was light built, agile and could bluff with the best of them in a poker game.
Riffington was a very tall, lanky red head who barely said a thing. He said all of four words the entire time i had known him. Kieth was a medium built man with gray eyes and hair colored hair. He looked completely neutral, and had absolutely no defining features about his face. He was also one of the meanest knife wielders in the force. Lisa was taller then Judith, brother to Riff but was completely opposite in every other way. She talked nearly endlessly and, rather then being a ferocious close combat fighter, was the best sniper in the force.
Elizabeth always had the weirdest friends.
The Chevy roared to life, its engine guzzling gas faster then a SUV. Muti was arming the only gun on the thing that had an ammo, so he was free to whop at the top of his lungs as the Chevy plowed through the rough terrain of the Wasteland. ├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i said to Riff ├óÔé¼┼ôHavening a nice day?├óÔé¼┬Ø. He shook his head and made a face. We where all standing, as the Chevy's seats had been removed to make room for supplies. We all held onto strips on the ceiling.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo whats the plan?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, yelling over the engine. Judith was driving, but she didn't keep her eyes on the lack of road. Rather she looked over her shoulder at me. Then again, so did every one. ├óÔé¼┼ôFirst things first?├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe get Martha├óÔé¼┬Ø I grinned as Elizabeth started to laugh ├óÔé¼┼ôYour pops said to never take that out after the water riots├óÔé¼┬Ø. I tried to smile. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe did...didn't he?├óÔé¼┬Ø i said.
We drove to the edge of the city and Judith stopped the Chevy and stepped down from the driving platform, which was mabey...a foot above the ground floor. I let go of the strap, my hand sore from holding it in a death grip for three hours. ├óÔé¼┼ôso├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ô Elizabeth, Riff, Judith you come with me. Everyone else circle around to the old bank vault├óÔé¼┬Ø I looked around at each of them ├óÔé¼┼ôRelode these fucking guns then come back to here and pick us up├óÔé¼┬Ø
Cynthia laughed, but she looked really worried. We started to split up, but i stopped by Cynthia and looked her in the eyes ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't worry... with Judith by my side, there is no way Elizabeth can foul us up├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth smacked me on the back of my head. ├óÔé¼┼ôJoking├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôJoking!├óÔé¼┬Ø. I pulled out my RFG. Cynthia grabbed my lapels and kissed me.
I returned the favor, and it lasted for quite a while, as kisses go. Riff coughed (no, thats not a word) and we broke apart. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell...time to go├óÔé¼┬Ø i said and began to move into the city.
Riff stalked over the rubble left by some idjit with a explosive trying to make a new gate in the wall. I followed, backed up by Elizabeth and Judith. I had my RFG out, but Riff was holding nothing. After five tense minuets we had worked out way into the city, our breaths baited, footsteps seeming unnaturally loud.
Then Riff held up his hand, stopping up. I looked over his shoulder and saw a man walking through a ally way, swigging rot gut from a jar. He wore one of those ridiculous Russian hats. You know, the big tall furry one's. Riff waited until the sentry, if he deserves to be graced with the name, was right next to his hiding place. Then the lanky man sprang from cover, his boots making a slight scuffing noise as they churned the dirt.
The sentry was about to yell when Riff's hand crushed his windpipe. Then a backhanded palm strike sent his nose bone into his brain. The sentry fell, but Riff caught him by his shoulders and laid him gently on the ground. I gestured the order to move out. We moved through the city as silently as possible. I had read some pulp fiction about police from the past, and well...lets just say that the police force my pops had put together was more akin to a SFOD-D team.
We had covered more ground in less time then i thought. There were less people on the streets then i had thought. We stopped for a break. Clambering over and through ruined buildings, while making as little noise as possible was tiring. I was cursing my lack of foresight when Elizabeth handed me a very battered, many used plastic bottle. ├óÔé¼┼ôThanks├óÔé¼┬Ø i whispered, drinking a swift gulp.
We started to move out when Judith held up her hand, telling us to stop. I froze, my hand suspended over the RFG i had set down in order to drink. I heard a sound, suspiciously like a footstep. Elizabeth looked at Judith who made the gesture to get ready to fight. Elizabeth maneuvered to fight when. Her foot slipped on a empty bottle and she clattered down as rubble shifted.
├óÔé¼┼ôfuck!├óÔé¼┬Ø hissed Elizabeth. Then the two men where on us. They jumped from a nearby pile of rubble, dressed in black, armed with silencers. There guns coughed and holes appeared in the wall next to me. I dove away from the bullets and fired my RFG over there heads. I forgot the RFG spread in a cloud.
One of the men dropped, half his head missing as tiny fletches ripped them apart. The other finished his roll, landing under some cover. Riff had pulled out his magnum and blew a rather large hole out of the hole above attackers cover. The attacker poked their gun out from behind there cover and aimed. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe's got a gun camera!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted. Elizabeth shoved herself back. A bullet grazed her thigh as she backed up. The bullets followed her as she backed up.
Fortunately, Judith had been aiming the whole time. The enemy's gun exploded as three well placed bullets tore into it. Judith lowered her snub nosed SMG and we advanced carefully. ├óÔé¼┼ôSurrender, and we wont kill you├óÔé¼┬Ø i said slowly. We got closer. ├óÔé¼┼ôYou alive?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, leaning over the cover. I'm lucky that ducked. The attacker suddenly leaped from cover, brandishing a knife. He jammed it into the ground next to my head. ├óÔé¼┼ôMissed├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. His intestines made a rather nasty mess on my shirt as my RFG went off.
├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôI liked that shirt├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Charicter and Viewpoint, How to write Sci-fi and Fantasy and, last but not least, Plot and Development!
Cheers!
├óÔé¼┼ôBefore you do anything rash, this is a recording├óÔé¼┬Ø The A.I said ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan's clumsy, inelegant and brutish way of shutting me down was embarrassingly successfully├óÔé¼┬Ø. We had already started to run out of the base. ├óÔé¼┼ôI had three millisecond's to set up a repeating .1 defect in the Tokamak's magnetic containment field├óÔé¼┬Ø. We had rushed past the armory, and i stopped grabbed the micro nuke launcher and some ammo for the RFG.
├óÔé¼┼ôIn exactly two minutes, eleven seconds that magnetic field's discrepancy will reach a critical point, causing a mini nova. In Japan there where thirty two Tokamak in Tokyo, powering its factory's and living quarters. One of them went nova, causing a chain reaction that left the majority of the Japanese's Isle under the water├óÔé¼┬Ø The A.I started to ramble.
We ran outside with the micro nuke launcher, PAX 21401, RFG ammo and anything else we had on our self. The A.I was still going on and on about different cases of fission and fusion disasters when the main door slid shut. We ran and ran and ran, past the skeletal frame of the car that the Reavers had ripped apart. Past the corpses of Reavers that had died from a as of yet unknown reason.
We got about fifty meters away from the base and hit the dirt. A minute ticked past. I looked up and at the base. Then i looked at the PAX. Then i remembered it wasn't a watch. Five minutes went by. ├óÔé¼┼ôJammy bastard├óÔé¼┬Ø Cynthia muttered ├óÔé¼┼ôHe had us going├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôNo wait!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, looking at the sun. Cynthia sighed. After a few more minutes i got up.
Then the ground heaved forward and down, buckling under the sudden lack of the base. A great roaring sound filled my ears as i flew forward. There was crashing. I heard something explode violently. I hit the ground and slid forward, on my chest. Then i crumpled, face forward, into a massive slab of brownish rock. I lay there as small stones rolled around and finally A deafening silence surrounded me.
├óÔé¼┼ôow├óÔé¼┬Ø I murmured, not having the will or energy to move. ├óÔé¼┼ôETHAN!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted Cynthia. I rolled over and looked up. I was at the bottom of a huge crater. The smoke from the blast still made the air almost opaque. Then i saw three figures emerging from the mist. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan!├óÔé¼┬Ø shouted Abdul. ├óÔé¼┼ôStop your hollering├óÔé¼┬Ø I murmured. I tried to sit up but felt...off. But it passed.
I stood up, the PAX almost sliding off my too thin wrists, and then began to walk shakily my friends. ├óÔé¼┼ôThat was one hell of a ride├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking at the shredded shirt and severally lacerated skin on my stomach ├óÔé¼┼ôAnd ow├óÔé¼┬Ø. Cynthia hugged me. ├óÔé¼┼ôOw├óÔé¼┬Ø i murmured as she pressed into the wounds. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn, that was some explosion├óÔé¼┬Ø Abdul said, clapping me on the shoulder.
├óÔé¼┼ôHow was it?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, somewhat dazed. ├óÔé¼┼ôBright, but not very long. It lasted about a second, then the ground collapsed├óÔé¼┬Ø Muti said. ├óÔé¼┼ôCool├óÔé¼┬Ø i said and we began to walk up and out of the crater. We got to the top and i turned around to look at the damage. It was huge. The crater stretched over (at least) five hundred meters. Turns out i hadnt hit the bottom, after all. Rather i had hit a outcropping of rocks that had somehow stuck up and out from the regular grain of the crater.
At the bottom the sphere that held the PAX was sitting, cracked open like an eggshell. Surrounding it was the bottom of the base, mainly unsalvageable metal and junk. ├óÔé¼┼ôLet see you come back after that, fucker!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, glee filling me. ├óÔé¼┼ôYeah├óÔé¼┬Ø Muti said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut at least the A.I had class├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôClass?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, turning and grinning.
Six rather deadly looking gun barrels where leveled at our collective face's. ├óÔé¼┼ôReach for the sky├óÔé¼┬Ø said a even voice. I raised my hand and looked around the gun barrel. ├óÔé¼┼ôElizabeth?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked back, lowering her pistol. The police officers around her did likewise ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat did you fuck up now?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, her tone playful. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh, renegade A.I, some Reavers. Not too much trouble├óÔé¼┬Ø i replied ├óÔé¼┼ôNow...you tell us your story, and we'll tell you ours├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe had been in PD 1, and then we head the explosion. Then all hell broke lose...as you probably noticed. We holed up, grabbing our guns and putting the emergency lock down on Martha├óÔé¼┬Ø I cocked an eyebrow at that ├óÔé¼┼ôWe knew we where going to move soon, as the area around the PD had gotten hot├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôSo after half the damn department had been leveled by gun fire, and...├óÔé¼┬Ø her voice caught.
├óÔé¼┼ôand├óÔé¼┬Ø she started again ├óÔé¼┼ôafter Michel died we left├óÔé¼┬Ø. She looked at the ground. I clapped her on the shoulder and smiled ├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked ├óÔé¼┼ôHow did you get here?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth brightened and gestured behind her and I saw the car ├óÔé¼┼ôWe drove the old Chevy├óÔé¼┬Ø. The ├óÔé¼┼ôold Chevy├óÔé¼┬Ø was a ancient APC that pops had unearthed in the cites ruins. It drove slowly, had six machine guns and was armored like a tank.
├óÔé¼┼ôThats the best news i've heard for a long while├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. ├óÔé¼┼ôWho are they?├óÔé¼┬Ø asked one of the other officers, his gun half up, half down. ├óÔé¼┼ôOh├óÔé¼┬Ø i started. Mutual introductions where given. Aside from Elizabeth, the other officers where a eclectic bunch. There was Judith, one of the littles women I'd ever met. She was light built, agile and could bluff with the best of them in a poker game.
Riffington was a very tall, lanky red head who barely said a thing. He said all of four words the entire time i had known him. Kieth was a medium built man with gray eyes and hair colored hair. He looked completely neutral, and had absolutely no defining features about his face. He was also one of the meanest knife wielders in the force. Lisa was taller then Judith, brother to Riff but was completely opposite in every other way. She talked nearly endlessly and, rather then being a ferocious close combat fighter, was the best sniper in the force.
Elizabeth always had the weirdest friends.
The Chevy roared to life, its engine guzzling gas faster then a SUV. Muti was arming the only gun on the thing that had an ammo, so he was free to whop at the top of his lungs as the Chevy plowed through the rough terrain of the Wasteland. ├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i said to Riff ├óÔé¼┼ôHavening a nice day?├óÔé¼┬Ø. He shook his head and made a face. We where all standing, as the Chevy's seats had been removed to make room for supplies. We all held onto strips on the ceiling.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo whats the plan?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, yelling over the engine. Judith was driving, but she didn't keep her eyes on the lack of road. Rather she looked over her shoulder at me. Then again, so did every one. ├óÔé¼┼ôFirst things first?├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôWe get Martha├óÔé¼┬Ø I grinned as Elizabeth started to laugh ├óÔé¼┼ôYour pops said to never take that out after the water riots├óÔé¼┬Ø. I tried to smile. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe did...didn't he?├óÔé¼┬Ø i said.
We drove to the edge of the city and Judith stopped the Chevy and stepped down from the driving platform, which was mabey...a foot above the ground floor. I let go of the strap, my hand sore from holding it in a death grip for three hours. ├óÔé¼┼ôso├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ô Elizabeth, Riff, Judith you come with me. Everyone else circle around to the old bank vault├óÔé¼┬Ø I looked around at each of them ├óÔé¼┼ôRelode these fucking guns then come back to here and pick us up├óÔé¼┬Ø
Cynthia laughed, but she looked really worried. We started to split up, but i stopped by Cynthia and looked her in the eyes ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't worry... with Judith by my side, there is no way Elizabeth can foul us up├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth smacked me on the back of my head. ├óÔé¼┼ôJoking├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôJoking!├óÔé¼┬Ø. I pulled out my RFG. Cynthia grabbed my lapels and kissed me.
I returned the favor, and it lasted for quite a while, as kisses go. Riff coughed (no, thats not a word) and we broke apart. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell...time to go├óÔé¼┬Ø i said and began to move into the city.
Riff stalked over the rubble left by some idjit with a explosive trying to make a new gate in the wall. I followed, backed up by Elizabeth and Judith. I had my RFG out, but Riff was holding nothing. After five tense minuets we had worked out way into the city, our breaths baited, footsteps seeming unnaturally loud.
Then Riff held up his hand, stopping up. I looked over his shoulder and saw a man walking through a ally way, swigging rot gut from a jar. He wore one of those ridiculous Russian hats. You know, the big tall furry one's. Riff waited until the sentry, if he deserves to be graced with the name, was right next to his hiding place. Then the lanky man sprang from cover, his boots making a slight scuffing noise as they churned the dirt.
The sentry was about to yell when Riff's hand crushed his windpipe. Then a backhanded palm strike sent his nose bone into his brain. The sentry fell, but Riff caught him by his shoulders and laid him gently on the ground. I gestured the order to move out. We moved through the city as silently as possible. I had read some pulp fiction about police from the past, and well...lets just say that the police force my pops had put together was more akin to a SFOD-D team.
We had covered more ground in less time then i thought. There were less people on the streets then i had thought. We stopped for a break. Clambering over and through ruined buildings, while making as little noise as possible was tiring. I was cursing my lack of foresight when Elizabeth handed me a very battered, many used plastic bottle. ├óÔé¼┼ôThanks├óÔé¼┬Ø i whispered, drinking a swift gulp.
We started to move out when Judith held up her hand, telling us to stop. I froze, my hand suspended over the RFG i had set down in order to drink. I heard a sound, suspiciously like a footstep. Elizabeth looked at Judith who made the gesture to get ready to fight. Elizabeth maneuvered to fight when. Her foot slipped on a empty bottle and she clattered down as rubble shifted.
├óÔé¼┼ôfuck!├óÔé¼┬Ø hissed Elizabeth. Then the two men where on us. They jumped from a nearby pile of rubble, dressed in black, armed with silencers. There guns coughed and holes appeared in the wall next to me. I dove away from the bullets and fired my RFG over there heads. I forgot the RFG spread in a cloud.
One of the men dropped, half his head missing as tiny fletches ripped them apart. The other finished his roll, landing under some cover. Riff had pulled out his magnum and blew a rather large hole out of the hole above attackers cover. The attacker poked their gun out from behind there cover and aimed. ├óÔé¼┼ôHe's got a gun camera!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted. Elizabeth shoved herself back. A bullet grazed her thigh as she backed up. The bullets followed her as she backed up.
Fortunately, Judith had been aiming the whole time. The enemy's gun exploded as three well placed bullets tore into it. Judith lowered her snub nosed SMG and we advanced carefully. ├óÔé¼┼ôSurrender, and we wont kill you├óÔé¼┬Ø i said slowly. We got closer. ├óÔé¼┼ôYou alive?├óÔé¼┬Ø i asked, leaning over the cover. I'm lucky that ducked. The attacker suddenly leaped from cover, brandishing a knife. He jammed it into the ground next to my head. ├óÔé¼┼ôMissed├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. His intestines made a rather nasty mess on my shirt as my RFG went off.
├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôI liked that shirt├óÔé¼┬Ø.
-
Archangel of Death
- Posts: 854
- Joined: 28 Jan 2005, 18:15
RFG at point blank range, sounds messy.If there's ANYTHING i can do in a story, its deliver on the blood and guts factor.
Romance? phooey! Intrigue, drama? bah! characterization? Piffle! Political messages? Social Commentary? WASTE OF SPACE!
Now, onto the story:
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat's that there wearing?├óÔé¼┬Ø asked Riff. I walked over to the more intact man, the one with only half a head, and bent over. The amour looked like black sheaths of leather, until i noticed the wires that ran around and under the skin, webbing it and crisscrossing it. I looked up and down and notice three bulges on the shoulders and belt buckle. I grabbed the belt buckle and felt it. I couldn't budge it, but i did notice the wires centered on the three bulges.
Power packs i thought. ├óÔé¼┼ôRiff, give me your magnum├óÔé¼┬Ø I said. Riff nodded and handed it to me. I leveled it at the amour and fired. ├óÔé¼┼ôwhat the hell are you doing?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth shouted. ├óÔé¼┼ôTesting something├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, kneeling back down. The bullet hadn't scratched it. But the wires...the wires where glowing a faint red. I picked up the left arm of the man and noticed how really hard it was. I let it go and it hung up in the air, fixed in position.
├óÔé¼┼ôthat cinches it├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôits power armor├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôI thought power amour was more like...you know...a bug├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith said ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is more like a ...a ninja├óÔé¼┬Ø. I looked at her, hoping my expression was visible in the dim twilight. ├óÔé¼┼ôNever mind├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, looking down. I looked back down and pushed the arm back to its original position. ├óÔé¼┼ôRoll him over├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, gesturing to Riff. Riff nodded and rolled the dead man over.
The half head was jostled by the rolling, and it fell away by the neck. I jerked back as the bloody half head splotched wound down on the ground. The neck was a sheer cut, covered with the same black material as the suite. ├óÔé¼┼ôAmputation device├óÔé¼┬Ø I said, pointing it out ├óÔé¼┼ôSupposed to cut off a fractured or heavy punctured wound├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôis it supposed to cut off his head?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, looking at the expanding blood seeping from the half head. ├óÔé¼┼ôI don't know├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking down at the back of the dead man. I found the back latch and unclasped it. It unlatched with a slight hiss. Then the man's shirt sloughed off. ├óÔé¼┼ôOkay...it uses the same system as most power amour, unlatch on the back, strip from the top. Do the boots last├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The man was wearing a black skin suit underneath the outer amour. I flipped him over, and was glad his heart had stopped beating. With the outer amour gone, so had the tourniquet. So a little blood dribbled out of the artery...respectively to the fountain caused when a life individual had there throat cut. But i found his badge. It wasn't anything i had ever seen. The Japanese Syndicate and the Russian Mafia both had there own badges. If i had to describe this one i would call it both of them melded.
├óÔé¼┼ôThats the Syndi snake, and the Russian Bear├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôWho are these people?├óÔé¼┬Ø. I looked at Judith, who looked as confused as me. I glanced at Elizabeth. She shook her head. ├óÔé¼┼ôGuess we've been gone for too long. I moved away from the man, glancing at each of them. ├óÔé¼┼ôPlan's unchanged├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôGo to the depot, get Martha and get out of here before the bad guy's find out where here├óÔé¼┬Ø. No one mentioned they probably already knew.
We moved out, even more tense. Every sound was cause for heart pounding staring into the night, which was getting darker, despite Riff's wind up watch saying it was closer to dawn. But we had traversed at least a mile and a quarter of city, and we had gotten a stone's throw away from the depot. The only living thing that hadn't tried to kill us was a mouse that ran away from Elizabeth sitting down for one of our breaks.
It was haunting, to go through ruins that had always held a bizarre form of life, livelihood. Yet it was silent. Empty. I shook off the chill and gestured to continue. After another hour of brain wreaking, nerve fraying stalking through the city i exited a hole in the side of a building and froze.
My pops house. It still had a massive hole ripped in the oval office part, but a scaffolding had been built up and around the hole. The windows that had been shattered had drapes over them, but light shone through them. I listened and heard the sounds of chatter, and life. But...my father had discouraged people from living in the unused parts of the mansion... he had never said why.
├óÔé¼┼ôOh god├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said, shocking me. I jumped and almost cursed, as i hadn't even heard her approach. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe...the Depot isn't that far├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, somewhat distractedly. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said ├óÔé¼┼ôWho's living there?├óÔé¼┬Ø. I counted windows. They where all lit, and i managed to pick out some very dimly lit tents scattered around it. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think thats at least...all of the city's population├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut we need more firepower to reestablish...the government├óÔé¼┬Ø i continued, looking back at my squad.
We moved around the building, but there where no guards...no sentry. There was life, but it wasn't doing much of anything at this point. After ten or so minuets we had reached the depot. The best thing about this depot was that no one KNEW it was a depot. It was the back side of the airplane that Cynthia had set up shop in. The one that had a sign above the tail proclaiming:
├óÔé¼┼ôGirls Girls Girls! Sex Sex Sex!├óÔé¼┬Ø
We entered, relaxing at the relative safety of a semi-intact building to protect us from preying eye's, and i looked around the room. The chairs, the locked door that i had blasted apart a scant week ago. The front desk. The stairway leading to the very real brothel that had secretly funneled money (and free lap dances) to the police and, last but not least, the safe embedded behind the desk.
I walked over to the safe, my RFG close to my hand. I had forgotten the combination to the safe. ├óÔé¼┼ôElizabeth, hand me your pocket knife├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. She nodded and tossed it to me. I grabbed it out of the air and opened the knife. Then i dialed the numbers i had etched onto the back side of the knife five months ago and the safe opened. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey!├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said ├óÔé¼┼ôWhen did you do that?├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhen you took four hours to wake up and you had rolled onto my left arm...needed something to do so i wrote the key code on your knife, composed a sonnet to you and thought of four new├óÔé¼┬Ø i reached into the safe and pressed the hidden button on the top ├óÔé¼┼ôpositions├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth opened her mouth in shock ├óÔé¼┼ôSo thats how you figured out├óÔé¼┬Ø She stopped when she noticed Judith and Riff staring at her.
I stepped back as the entire wall the safe was built into just dropped out of place. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat i was wondering is HOW THE HELL did you get this wall back into place after you locked Martha up?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôPulleys├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, pointing at the celling. ├óÔé¼┼ôPulleys! No one told me about god damned Pulleys├óÔé¼┬Ø i muttered as we walked into the depot.
It was akin to walking into a fully stocked vault, filled with high tech wizardry. But this was stuff i understood much better. Sub machine guns, assault rifles, hunting rifles, grenades and four canisters of napalm. A grenade launcher, mortar and a dirty bomb that we had taken apart. The world already had enough gamma rays running amok. A record number of ammo. Even more ammo. And, in a massive and incredibly expensively vault i had found early in my archaeological carrier.
It had been built to store a block of solid antimatter. Now it was used to store the deadliest sniper rifle known to man. I walked over to the mag-vault and pressed my palm against the scanner. This action turned on the small gas generator attached to the vault, which in turn..turned on the vault, allowing it to scan my hand. Then the vault slowly opened, light spilling from it like an angelic glow.
I reached into it and pulled Martha out, feeling her heft. Martha was a slender, curved and fine. The barrel was two rails, with half a dozen rings set around it. I rested it against my shoulder and grabbed the targeting contact lens and placed it in my eye's. After a few seconds my right eye had the view through the gun barrel and my left eye saw in chrome green night vision.
The right eye's contact showed the bizarre X-ray vision of a gun designed to shoot through a tank and hit the general standing in a tent five miles behind it. I moved the gun around and spotted a massive menagerie of skeletal figures, walking through the dim outlines of rooms. I used my thumbs to manipulate the zoom and targeted the skulls of a view random individuals. Then i opened my left eye and switched off the gun view.
I looked at each of the squad and grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôThis baby kicks ASS!├óÔé¼┬Ø. There where a few laughs, some grins and then we set to work, loading and grabbing guns. We walked away much heavy and more metallic, with all manner of guns strapped to out backs, sides, thighs, ankles, and chests. We moved out, more encumbered but also more prepared for attack. Every once and a while i switched on the x-ray vision and looked around for threats.
We reached the edge of the city a little before dawn, tired, but on the whole we had done good. The Chevy was waiting there, fine and untouched.
The people inside...where a different story...
Romance? phooey! Intrigue, drama? bah! characterization? Piffle! Political messages? Social Commentary? WASTE OF SPACE!
Now, onto the story:
├óÔé¼┼ôWhat's that there wearing?├óÔé¼┬Ø asked Riff. I walked over to the more intact man, the one with only half a head, and bent over. The amour looked like black sheaths of leather, until i noticed the wires that ran around and under the skin, webbing it and crisscrossing it. I looked up and down and notice three bulges on the shoulders and belt buckle. I grabbed the belt buckle and felt it. I couldn't budge it, but i did notice the wires centered on the three bulges.
Power packs i thought. ├óÔé¼┼ôRiff, give me your magnum├óÔé¼┬Ø I said. Riff nodded and handed it to me. I leveled it at the amour and fired. ├óÔé¼┼ôwhat the hell are you doing?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth shouted. ├óÔé¼┼ôTesting something├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, kneeling back down. The bullet hadn't scratched it. But the wires...the wires where glowing a faint red. I picked up the left arm of the man and noticed how really hard it was. I let it go and it hung up in the air, fixed in position.
├óÔé¼┼ôthat cinches it├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôits power armor├óÔé¼┬Ø. ├óÔé¼┼ôI thought power amour was more like...you know...a bug├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith said ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is more like a ...a ninja├óÔé¼┬Ø. I looked at her, hoping my expression was visible in the dim twilight. ├óÔé¼┼ôNever mind├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, looking down. I looked back down and pushed the arm back to its original position. ├óÔé¼┼ôRoll him over├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, gesturing to Riff. Riff nodded and rolled the dead man over.
The half head was jostled by the rolling, and it fell away by the neck. I jerked back as the bloody half head splotched wound down on the ground. The neck was a sheer cut, covered with the same black material as the suite. ├óÔé¼┼ôAmputation device├óÔé¼┬Ø I said, pointing it out ├óÔé¼┼ôSupposed to cut off a fractured or heavy punctured wound├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôis it supposed to cut off his head?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked, looking at the expanding blood seeping from the half head. ├óÔé¼┼ôI don't know├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking down at the back of the dead man. I found the back latch and unclasped it. It unlatched with a slight hiss. Then the man's shirt sloughed off. ├óÔé¼┼ôOkay...it uses the same system as most power amour, unlatch on the back, strip from the top. Do the boots last├óÔé¼┬Ø.
The man was wearing a black skin suit underneath the outer amour. I flipped him over, and was glad his heart had stopped beating. With the outer amour gone, so had the tourniquet. So a little blood dribbled out of the artery...respectively to the fountain caused when a life individual had there throat cut. But i found his badge. It wasn't anything i had ever seen. The Japanese Syndicate and the Russian Mafia both had there own badges. If i had to describe this one i would call it both of them melded.
├óÔé¼┼ôThats the Syndi snake, and the Russian Bear├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôWho are these people?├óÔé¼┬Ø. I looked at Judith, who looked as confused as me. I glanced at Elizabeth. She shook her head. ├óÔé¼┼ôGuess we've been gone for too long. I moved away from the man, glancing at each of them. ├óÔé¼┼ôPlan's unchanged├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôGo to the depot, get Martha and get out of here before the bad guy's find out where here├óÔé¼┬Ø. No one mentioned they probably already knew.
We moved out, even more tense. Every sound was cause for heart pounding staring into the night, which was getting darker, despite Riff's wind up watch saying it was closer to dawn. But we had traversed at least a mile and a quarter of city, and we had gotten a stone's throw away from the depot. The only living thing that hadn't tried to kill us was a mouse that ran away from Elizabeth sitting down for one of our breaks.
It was haunting, to go through ruins that had always held a bizarre form of life, livelihood. Yet it was silent. Empty. I shook off the chill and gestured to continue. After another hour of brain wreaking, nerve fraying stalking through the city i exited a hole in the side of a building and froze.
My pops house. It still had a massive hole ripped in the oval office part, but a scaffolding had been built up and around the hole. The windows that had been shattered had drapes over them, but light shone through them. I listened and heard the sounds of chatter, and life. But...my father had discouraged people from living in the unused parts of the mansion... he had never said why.
├óÔé¼┼ôOh god├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said, shocking me. I jumped and almost cursed, as i hadn't even heard her approach. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe...the Depot isn't that far├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, somewhat distractedly. ├óÔé¼┼ôEthan├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said ├óÔé¼┼ôWho's living there?├óÔé¼┬Ø. I counted windows. They where all lit, and i managed to pick out some very dimly lit tents scattered around it. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think thats at least...all of the city's population├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôBut we need more firepower to reestablish...the government├óÔé¼┬Ø i continued, looking back at my squad.
We moved around the building, but there where no guards...no sentry. There was life, but it wasn't doing much of anything at this point. After ten or so minuets we had reached the depot. The best thing about this depot was that no one KNEW it was a depot. It was the back side of the airplane that Cynthia had set up shop in. The one that had a sign above the tail proclaiming:
├óÔé¼┼ôGirls Girls Girls! Sex Sex Sex!├óÔé¼┬Ø
We entered, relaxing at the relative safety of a semi-intact building to protect us from preying eye's, and i looked around the room. The chairs, the locked door that i had blasted apart a scant week ago. The front desk. The stairway leading to the very real brothel that had secretly funneled money (and free lap dances) to the police and, last but not least, the safe embedded behind the desk.
I walked over to the safe, my RFG close to my hand. I had forgotten the combination to the safe. ├óÔé¼┼ôElizabeth, hand me your pocket knife├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. She nodded and tossed it to me. I grabbed it out of the air and opened the knife. Then i dialed the numbers i had etched onto the back side of the knife five months ago and the safe opened. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey!├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said ├óÔé¼┼ôWhen did you do that?├óÔé¼┬Ø.
├óÔé¼┼ôWhen you took four hours to wake up and you had rolled onto my left arm...needed something to do so i wrote the key code on your knife, composed a sonnet to you and thought of four new├óÔé¼┬Ø i reached into the safe and pressed the hidden button on the top ├óÔé¼┼ôpositions├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth opened her mouth in shock ├óÔé¼┼ôSo thats how you figured out├óÔé¼┬Ø She stopped when she noticed Judith and Riff staring at her.
I stepped back as the entire wall the safe was built into just dropped out of place. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat i was wondering is HOW THE HELL did you get this wall back into place after you locked Martha up?├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôPulleys├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, pointing at the celling. ├óÔé¼┼ôPulleys! No one told me about god damned Pulleys├óÔé¼┬Ø i muttered as we walked into the depot.
It was akin to walking into a fully stocked vault, filled with high tech wizardry. But this was stuff i understood much better. Sub machine guns, assault rifles, hunting rifles, grenades and four canisters of napalm. A grenade launcher, mortar and a dirty bomb that we had taken apart. The world already had enough gamma rays running amok. A record number of ammo. Even more ammo. And, in a massive and incredibly expensively vault i had found early in my archaeological carrier.
It had been built to store a block of solid antimatter. Now it was used to store the deadliest sniper rifle known to man. I walked over to the mag-vault and pressed my palm against the scanner. This action turned on the small gas generator attached to the vault, which in turn..turned on the vault, allowing it to scan my hand. Then the vault slowly opened, light spilling from it like an angelic glow.
I reached into it and pulled Martha out, feeling her heft. Martha was a slender, curved and fine. The barrel was two rails, with half a dozen rings set around it. I rested it against my shoulder and grabbed the targeting contact lens and placed it in my eye's. After a few seconds my right eye had the view through the gun barrel and my left eye saw in chrome green night vision.
The right eye's contact showed the bizarre X-ray vision of a gun designed to shoot through a tank and hit the general standing in a tent five miles behind it. I moved the gun around and spotted a massive menagerie of skeletal figures, walking through the dim outlines of rooms. I used my thumbs to manipulate the zoom and targeted the skulls of a view random individuals. Then i opened my left eye and switched off the gun view.
I looked at each of the squad and grinned ├óÔé¼┼ôThis baby kicks ASS!├óÔé¼┬Ø. There where a few laughs, some grins and then we set to work, loading and grabbing guns. We walked away much heavy and more metallic, with all manner of guns strapped to out backs, sides, thighs, ankles, and chests. We moved out, more encumbered but also more prepared for attack. Every once and a while i switched on the x-ray vision and looked around for threats.
We reached the edge of the city a little before dawn, tired, but on the whole we had done good. The Chevy was waiting there, fine and untouched.
The people inside...where a different story...
they ndont HAVE to be that big. Some people have made railguns that are quite portable, they just take enormous amounts of energy (like an industrial powerpoint type of thing(ok so mabey not enormous, but still larger than your average car battery)). There are some that are as big as a truck, and they are quite good. The only problem with them all is that the rails always degrade after firing a few shots, severly hampering the firing speed of the gun. But who cares. Railguns are sweet anyway.
Mabey. I dont exactly keep a close eye on the development of them. But when I browsed through some sites a few months back, there was some uni student (http://www.powerlabs.com or something) who made one that was very portable (just wheeled it around the campus on a trolley), and i heard about some industrial ones that were mounted on a truck.
EDIT:
Small portable one:
http://www.powerlabs.org/railgun.htm
http://www.powerlabs.org/railgun2.htm
One on a truck (dont know if this picture is real, but oh well.)
http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,1 ... s,,00.html
EDIT 2:
A problem with Railguns and the like:
EDIT:
Small portable one:
http://www.powerlabs.org/railgun.htm
http://www.powerlabs.org/railgun2.htm
One on a truck (dont know if this picture is real, but oh well.)
http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,1 ... s,,00.html
EDIT 2:
A problem with Railguns and the like:
Wikipedia.org wrote:... accelerating a 1 gram projectile up to a mere 1% of light speed would produce enough force to send a 100kg (220 pound) man flying backward at 30 meters per second (98 feet per second). A further difficulty is reaching such high speeds over such a short distance; to reach 1% of light speed over the length of a one-meter accelerator would reqire 4.5├âÔÇö1012m/s├é┬▓ of acceleration ...
I would like to say that the APC, nick named the "Chevy" is a direct steal from a rather cool tank called a "Herkamabattle Jittny" or however you spell it....
When i got close to the Chevy i noticed the odd way it slumped to the side...then it all came in a flash. Bullet holes perforated the side, making the double thick plate armor look like swiss cheese. I ran, full speed, to the Chevy and ran into the door, which popped off its hinges. Inside i managed to breath a sigh of relief. There where no corpses, no blood and no severed limbs. Then my heart sank.
The inside looked like it had been smashed up with a mass of sledge hammers. Plates of armor had been gouged out of the wall, and one rather large piece of metal was propped against the side of the wall. Two booted feet stuck out of the cavity between the wall and the plate. I walked slowly over it, as many people wore boots and if it was a attacker i would want to know before he shot me in the head. With my RFG at the ready, i stepped closer to it.
Then Elizabeth ran full tilt into the door frame and smashed into the floor of the Chevy. I jumped, my RFG discharged into the already damaged floor. A grid of gouges appeared into the floor as the mini-fletches dug into it. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted. Elizabeth groaned as she clutched her head. A rather large bruise bled sluggishly from where she had hit it. The boot hadn't moved. ├óÔé¼┼ôAt lest i know he's dead├óÔé¼┬Ø i muttered and i pushed the now empty RFG into its holster. Then i pulled the plate aside.
Abdul leaped from his position and smashed my jaw with a mean right hook. I spun round, the world ringing. Abdul's war shout rang into the cabin. Elizabeth fumbled pulling out her pistol and fired it into the wall. Riff had pulled out his knife as he ran through the door. Judith ran into him and they both toppled. I completed my spin and fell flat on my face.
We all stood stalk still for what seemed to be an entirety as we took stalk of what the hell had happened. Elizabeth finished pulling out her pistol. Judith and Riff untangled. I rolled over to see Abdul standing over me. A rather large bump was on his head .├óÔé¼┼ôOh...its you├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. Then he fainted, falling flat on top of me. He was very heavy.
I tried to push him off me and failed. ├óÔé¼┼ôhelp├óÔé¼┬Ø i murmured, trying to breath around Abdul's weight forcing my breath out. Elizabeth got to me first, miraculously NOT tripping. Riff and Judith gathered round. ├óÔé¼┼ôHelp please├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. Elizabeth grinned. I concentrated and shoved Abdul off me. I stood and glared at Elizabeth. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked, a look of aggrieved innocence.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, sitting down at the camp fire we had established ├óÔé¼┼ô This is what I've found out├óÔé¼┬Ø. Abdul was draped over the ground, breathing as Elizabeth dabbed his face with a wet cloth. ├óÔé¼┼ôThey did not sneak up, the attackers it is. From their foot prints i can tell they were wearing Power armor, 89 version. Those models are big, intimidating and cheap├óÔé¼┬Ø
Riff nodded, probably thinking of how to disable early model power armor with a knife. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe bullet holes in the ground and the shell casing from the attackers guns show that our guys started firing for quite a while. The enemy advanced, firing continuously and blasting all hell out of the Chevy. Then they blasted into the door and grabbed the others. Shrapnel hit Abdul on the head and he was left for dead├óÔé¼┬Ø I finished, looking at the others.
├óÔé¼┼ôQuestion├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith raised her hand. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, nodding to her. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy didn't we hear em in the city?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell theses aren't mini guns. Silenced machine gun racks, five to ten per arm and over ten thousand rounds in cartridges. So the people inside the Power armor don't deafen any enlisted around them├óÔé¼┬Ø. Judith nodded. Elizabeth moved away from Abdul and checked the bandanna holding a water bottle to her bump.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo whats the plan?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked, wincing as the hard, but cold, plastic bottle. ├óÔé¼┼ôI have no idea├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, rummaging through the rations we salvaged from the Chevy. ├óÔé¼┼ôGood enough...for tonight├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said. I fell backwards and smothered my head with the backpack, screaming into the fabric. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey, the rations aren't that bad├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said.
I took the backpack away from my face and said ├óÔé¼┼ôIts my fault she's taken├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. ├óÔé¼┼ôMuti?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôCynthia!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôYou know, hot Indian woman with great legs who's madly in love with me!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth looked taken aback. I'm sure she had actually forgotten. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets follow the tracks in the morning and get our friends back├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith said. Riff nodded.
├óÔé¼┼ôNo...thats too obvious├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, sitting up. But i had an idea. ├óÔé¼┼ôi have an idea├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking at them. ├óÔé¼┼ôeh?├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe do the opposite├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking at the city. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said. ├óÔé¼┼ôBecause...the Power armored troops are not the problem. They made tracks, going AWAY from the city. But how would they carry THREE unconscious people without crushing them. And if they where going to be crushed, then why not just shoot them?├óÔé¼┬Ø I said.
├óÔé¼┼ôBut first├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôCan the Chevy still drive?├óÔé¼┬Ø
It was a bumpy ride, the Chevy plowing through the rough terrain surrounding the entire city with the subtlety of a train hitting a cow. And the four flat tires didn't help. As my teeth where jammed into my head after hitting a particularly bad pot hole, I looked at the recently recovered Abdul who actually seemed to be enjoying it.
But at least his story was the same as my extrapolation. Made me a bit happier. I looked over at Elizabeth and she flashed a thumbs up. ├óÔé¼┼ôI HOPE├óÔé¼┬Ø she shouted over the roar of the engine ├óÔé¼┼ôTHAT OUR GUNS CAN TAKE THE ENEMY!├óÔé¼┬Ø. I flashed a grin and gestured to the Micro Nuke launcher ├óÔé¼┼ôI think this can handle it!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted back.
├óÔé¼┼ôThis is going to get bumpy!├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith shouted from the drivers seat. ├óÔé¼┼ôEh?├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted. Then the entire Chevy tilted forward. Then it smashed into some thing, hard, sending us tumbling forward. Then the thing plowed forward and up. We slid backwards and hit the back of the Chevy, Judith staying in place by sheer force of will. Then the Chevy leveled out. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it drive AROUND the pot├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted before we hit another pothole, jamming me into the floor rather hard, after a hefty jump.
├óÔé¼┼ôHoles├óÔé¼┬Ø i finished. ├óÔé¼┼ôOkay├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith said ├óÔé¼┼ôi think├óÔé¼┬Ø we hit something that sounded suspiciously like a building wall ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is going to get a lot worse├óÔé¼┬Ø.
When i got close to the Chevy i noticed the odd way it slumped to the side...then it all came in a flash. Bullet holes perforated the side, making the double thick plate armor look like swiss cheese. I ran, full speed, to the Chevy and ran into the door, which popped off its hinges. Inside i managed to breath a sigh of relief. There where no corpses, no blood and no severed limbs. Then my heart sank.
The inside looked like it had been smashed up with a mass of sledge hammers. Plates of armor had been gouged out of the wall, and one rather large piece of metal was propped against the side of the wall. Two booted feet stuck out of the cavity between the wall and the plate. I walked slowly over it, as many people wore boots and if it was a attacker i would want to know before he shot me in the head. With my RFG at the ready, i stepped closer to it.
Then Elizabeth ran full tilt into the door frame and smashed into the floor of the Chevy. I jumped, my RFG discharged into the already damaged floor. A grid of gouges appeared into the floor as the mini-fletches dug into it. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted. Elizabeth groaned as she clutched her head. A rather large bruise bled sluggishly from where she had hit it. The boot hadn't moved. ├óÔé¼┼ôAt lest i know he's dead├óÔé¼┬Ø i muttered and i pushed the now empty RFG into its holster. Then i pulled the plate aside.
Abdul leaped from his position and smashed my jaw with a mean right hook. I spun round, the world ringing. Abdul's war shout rang into the cabin. Elizabeth fumbled pulling out her pistol and fired it into the wall. Riff had pulled out his knife as he ran through the door. Judith ran into him and they both toppled. I completed my spin and fell flat on my face.
We all stood stalk still for what seemed to be an entirety as we took stalk of what the hell had happened. Elizabeth finished pulling out her pistol. Judith and Riff untangled. I rolled over to see Abdul standing over me. A rather large bump was on his head .├óÔé¼┼ôOh...its you├óÔé¼┬Ø he said. Then he fainted, falling flat on top of me. He was very heavy.
I tried to push him off me and failed. ├óÔé¼┼ôhelp├óÔé¼┬Ø i murmured, trying to breath around Abdul's weight forcing my breath out. Elizabeth got to me first, miraculously NOT tripping. Riff and Judith gathered round. ├óÔé¼┼ôHelp please├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. Elizabeth grinned. I concentrated and shoved Abdul off me. I stood and glared at Elizabeth. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked, a look of aggrieved innocence.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, sitting down at the camp fire we had established ├óÔé¼┼ô This is what I've found out├óÔé¼┬Ø. Abdul was draped over the ground, breathing as Elizabeth dabbed his face with a wet cloth. ├óÔé¼┼ôThey did not sneak up, the attackers it is. From their foot prints i can tell they were wearing Power armor, 89 version. Those models are big, intimidating and cheap├óÔé¼┬Ø
Riff nodded, probably thinking of how to disable early model power armor with a knife. ├óÔé¼┼ôThe bullet holes in the ground and the shell casing from the attackers guns show that our guys started firing for quite a while. The enemy advanced, firing continuously and blasting all hell out of the Chevy. Then they blasted into the door and grabbed the others. Shrapnel hit Abdul on the head and he was left for dead├óÔé¼┬Ø I finished, looking at the others.
├óÔé¼┼ôQuestion├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith raised her hand. ├óÔé¼┼ôYes├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, nodding to her. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy didn't we hear em in the city?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWell theses aren't mini guns. Silenced machine gun racks, five to ten per arm and over ten thousand rounds in cartridges. So the people inside the Power armor don't deafen any enlisted around them├óÔé¼┬Ø. Judith nodded. Elizabeth moved away from Abdul and checked the bandanna holding a water bottle to her bump.
├óÔé¼┼ôSo whats the plan?├óÔé¼┬Ø she asked, wincing as the hard, but cold, plastic bottle. ├óÔé¼┼ôI have no idea├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, rummaging through the rations we salvaged from the Chevy. ├óÔé¼┼ôGood enough...for tonight├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said. I fell backwards and smothered my head with the backpack, screaming into the fabric. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey, the rations aren't that bad├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said.
I took the backpack away from my face and said ├óÔé¼┼ôIts my fault she's taken├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. ├óÔé¼┼ôMuti?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôCynthia!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted ├óÔé¼┼ôYou know, hot Indian woman with great legs who's madly in love with me!├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth looked taken aback. I'm sure she had actually forgotten. ├óÔé¼┼ôLets follow the tracks in the morning and get our friends back├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith said. Riff nodded.
├óÔé¼┼ôNo...thats too obvious├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, sitting up. But i had an idea. ├óÔé¼┼ôi have an idea├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking at them. ├óÔé¼┼ôeh?├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith asked. ├óÔé¼┼ôWe do the opposite├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, looking at the city. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhy?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth said. ├óÔé¼┼ôBecause...the Power armored troops are not the problem. They made tracks, going AWAY from the city. But how would they carry THREE unconscious people without crushing them. And if they where going to be crushed, then why not just shoot them?├óÔé¼┬Ø I said.
├óÔé¼┼ôBut first├óÔé¼┬Ø i said ├óÔé¼┼ôCan the Chevy still drive?├óÔé¼┬Ø
It was a bumpy ride, the Chevy plowing through the rough terrain surrounding the entire city with the subtlety of a train hitting a cow. And the four flat tires didn't help. As my teeth where jammed into my head after hitting a particularly bad pot hole, I looked at the recently recovered Abdul who actually seemed to be enjoying it.
But at least his story was the same as my extrapolation. Made me a bit happier. I looked over at Elizabeth and she flashed a thumbs up. ├óÔé¼┼ôI HOPE├óÔé¼┬Ø she shouted over the roar of the engine ├óÔé¼┼ôTHAT OUR GUNS CAN TAKE THE ENEMY!├óÔé¼┬Ø. I flashed a grin and gestured to the Micro Nuke launcher ├óÔé¼┼ôI think this can handle it!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted back.
├óÔé¼┼ôThis is going to get bumpy!├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith shouted from the drivers seat. ├óÔé¼┼ôEh?├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted. Then the entire Chevy tilted forward. Then it smashed into some thing, hard, sending us tumbling forward. Then the thing plowed forward and up. We slid backwards and hit the back of the Chevy, Judith staying in place by sheer force of will. Then the Chevy leveled out. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn it drive AROUND the pot├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted before we hit another pothole, jamming me into the floor rather hard, after a hefty jump.
├óÔé¼┼ôHoles├óÔé¼┬Ø i finished. ├óÔé¼┼ôOkay├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith said ├óÔé¼┼ôi think├óÔé¼┬Ø we hit something that sounded suspiciously like a building wall ├óÔé¼┼ôThis is going to get a lot worse├óÔé¼┬Ø.
I somehow reached the cockpit section of the Chevy and jerked the throttle down to its ├óÔé¼┼ôStop├óÔé¼┬Ø position. The sudden screech of brake's covered Judith's protests. We came to a res half in and half out of the building the APC was busy demolishing. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith snapped in the sudden silence. ├óÔé¼┼ôWait├óÔé¼┬Ø I said, my head ringing in the sudden silence. ├óÔé¼┼ôWhat?├óÔé¼┬Ø Judith asked.
├óÔé¼┼ôI was thinking├óÔé¼┬Ø I said ├óÔé¼┼ôThat mabey we should approach this with a little more subtlety├óÔé¼┬Ø. Judith opened her mouth to say something when a rather large harpoon sprouted from her left shoulder with a sheik of metal tearing through metal. Judith looked down at the shaft that was sticking through her and made a sound that was half between a gasp and a soft ├óÔé¼┼ôoh├óÔé¼┬Ø.
As blood began to pool in a dark smudge around her shirt i dove forward, ready to help her. Then i noticed the wire running through the back of the harpoon. Judith seemed in shock, and the other's seemed to be moving in slow motion. I seemed to move incredibly slowly too, adrenaline pumping through my veins as i pulled out a Elizabeth's pocket knife.
Judith jerked back as the harpoon started to be pulled back by the cable. I slashed at it with my knife. It bounced off it's side with a twang. ├óÔé¼┼ôfuck├óÔé¼┬Ø I muttered, time speeding up. Judith shrieked as the jagged edges of the harpoon's barbed blade dug into her. I hacked at the cable one last time, before the harpoon vanished into the hole it had created. ├óÔé¼┼ôFUCK!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted as Judith was pressed against the wall, blood starting to spurt from new wounds torn by the barbs.
I tossed the useless knife away and pulled out my RFG. I aimed carefully as the harpoon dug even deeper into her. I pulled the trigger, finding the damn thing to be empty. ├óÔé¼┼ôRIFF!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted. Then the blade of the harpoon exploded and the roar of a magnum battered out ear drum's. Judith slumped to the floor, her right hand smother the massive wound in her shoulder. The harpoon's shaft, deprived of a barbed head to keep it latched, slid away.
├óÔé¼┼ôYou're going to be Okay├óÔé¼┬Ø i said as Riff tore a strip of cloth from his shirt to wad it into the wound. Elizabeth arrived, ignoring her knife for the moment, and started to apply pressure. Abdul, for once, thought things through and grabbed a medical kit from out of our disorganized pile of supplies. He pulled out three stim packs. ├óÔé¼┼ôWill theses work?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked.
I grabbed them wordlessly, knowing that one was enough for most wounds and not knowing the over dose. I jammed the first syringe into the area around the wound and pumped it into Judith's body. She screamed, her back arching as stimulations surrounded her wound and started cutting into her fat store's to heal at a vastly accelerated rate. ├óÔé¼┼ôGet me a support pack and some bandage's├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted.
After a few fumbling seconds, while the blood flow from Judith's shoulder slowed, Abdul produced the needed supplies. Judith was still breathing, so i supposed we where doing something right. The bandage's where slapped over the wound, after removing the blood soaked rag's we where using. I noticed that Elizabeth was slowly praying to some deity.
I took the support pack, as large clunky thing designed to support the bodily function's of a human during situations like this. IT was shaped like a large flat ring of bag's, each one filled with chemicals. Atou extending needles would penetrate someone's skin then pump them with the chem's, while a defibrillator stood on stand by the start there heart again. Finally a small LED screen would display her vital singes, not that we could read them. Hell, I'm not a doctor.
After strapping the pack around her stomach, feeling oddly embarrassed to have to take off her shirt to get the pack on onto skin. I took out the other two stim packs and jammed them one after the other into Judith. She didn't scream, but she did whimper and look down right miserable. The bandage, a large foam packet that spread to fill her wound automatically, was slowly shrinking as the wound cleared up.
I looked at Elizabeth's watch was shocked to find that the entire emergency had taken less then five minutes. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey├óÔé¼┬Ø I said to Elizabeth ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are under attack├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth wiped sweat away from her face, smearing her face with even more blood from her red fingers and looked at me, worry making her snappish ├óÔé¼┼ôWell i NEVE would of guessed that├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, standing, her back facing the window.
├óÔé¼┼ôLook out!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, jerking her legs out from under her. Another harpoon smashed through the several inch think transparent aluminum, not shattering it fortunately, but poking a large hole through it. Then the harpoon was reeled back and the barbed head caught on the wall. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think they aren't trying to hit us...deliberately├óÔé¼┬Ø I said slowly. ├óÔé¼┼ôEh?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe'll they would be aiming a bit better and hit Judith's head and your face├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. Another harpoon smashed through, narrowly missing my groin. I stood stalk still in shock as the thing was dragged back to the wall. ├óÔé¼┼ôEvery one├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, slowly backing away from the left wall, where the two harpoon's heads stuck out threateningly ├óÔé¼┼ôBack away from that wall├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Riff gently dragged Judith away from the wall, even as another two harpoon's stuck into it. Then the Chevy started to tilt. I grabbed around for something to hold onto until the entire chamber flipped over onto its side. We were all slammed around, my head nearly missing being smashed in by the wall. Judith took it better then the most, as Elizabeth and Riff where trying to keep her from behind damaged any more.
Abdul forgot to grab onto anything, and was flung headfirst into the wall. I slipped closer to the door a grabbed the handle. The door opened onto the dirt ground. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø I said, kicking the dirt ground, scuffing the dirt somewhat ineffectively. I looked at the floor...which had become the wall, and wondered what the hell was going on. I looked at Abdul who was slowly getting to his feet, rubbing a new bump on his head.
├óÔé¼┼ôIs there anyway we can cut out?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked, looking at me. ├óÔé¼┼ôErr├óÔé¼┬Ø I muttered, looking at my RFG. It would take a lot of rounds to cut through the wall, so i decided not to...seeing as how i had four shots left. I reloaded the two chambers and started rooting around in the pile of supplies. After a while we found a shovel and an entrenching tool. Riff and I, being the strongest of the group, went to town on the dirt.
Riff aimed the entrenching tool and pressed the activation button, turning on the spray. The chemical sank through the dirt, making it soft and easy to dig through. I dug the shovel in and threw some dirt into a unoccupied area of the Chevy. Riff sprayed some more liquefying agent into the ground and we repeated the process.
After a minute of digging we had gotten a hole that we could get into. I jumped in and looked started widening it, felling the bottom with some dirt. After i got up to my knee's in dirt, i could stick my head up and out of the hole. I saw the three cables of the harpoon's running into three separate harpoon launchers. Men manned each of them, predictably enough. Each wore a mishmash of clothes and amour. I swore i saw some plate mail in the collection.
There leader was somewhat atypical of the post apocalypse. He wore a business suite, his eye's covered by glass's that reflected ominously. He was reading a clip board and while i was watching he marked something down. Flood lights where trained on our APC, along with several low caliber gun's. I was sure they hadn't seen me. Then a rather large chunk of dirt blew up a few inches in front my eye. I ducked back under as someone shouted something about ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't shoot├óÔé¼┬Ø
I was trying to climb back into the Chevy and away from anymore bullets when i heard someone approach. With a might heave Abdul and Riff pulled me back into the APC before the foot steps reached the pit. The man in the business suite dropped into the pit, looking rather bemused at the soft dirt that caked his leg's. We all pointed out gun's at him. He looked at our barrels with a face akin to someone being told he had to sit through another business meeting.
I looked at him and did a double take. ├óÔé¼┼ôHi Ethan├óÔé¼┬Ø Charles said, waggling his fingers in a somewhat silly hand motion.
├óÔé¼┼ôI was thinking├óÔé¼┬Ø I said ├óÔé¼┼ôThat mabey we should approach this with a little more subtlety├óÔé¼┬Ø. Judith opened her mouth to say something when a rather large harpoon sprouted from her left shoulder with a sheik of metal tearing through metal. Judith looked down at the shaft that was sticking through her and made a sound that was half between a gasp and a soft ├óÔé¼┼ôoh├óÔé¼┬Ø.
As blood began to pool in a dark smudge around her shirt i dove forward, ready to help her. Then i noticed the wire running through the back of the harpoon. Judith seemed in shock, and the other's seemed to be moving in slow motion. I seemed to move incredibly slowly too, adrenaline pumping through my veins as i pulled out a Elizabeth's pocket knife.
Judith jerked back as the harpoon started to be pulled back by the cable. I slashed at it with my knife. It bounced off it's side with a twang. ├óÔé¼┼ôfuck├óÔé¼┬Ø I muttered, time speeding up. Judith shrieked as the jagged edges of the harpoon's barbed blade dug into her. I hacked at the cable one last time, before the harpoon vanished into the hole it had created. ├óÔé¼┼ôFUCK!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted as Judith was pressed against the wall, blood starting to spurt from new wounds torn by the barbs.
I tossed the useless knife away and pulled out my RFG. I aimed carefully as the harpoon dug even deeper into her. I pulled the trigger, finding the damn thing to be empty. ├óÔé¼┼ôRIFF!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted. Then the blade of the harpoon exploded and the roar of a magnum battered out ear drum's. Judith slumped to the floor, her right hand smother the massive wound in her shoulder. The harpoon's shaft, deprived of a barbed head to keep it latched, slid away.
├óÔé¼┼ôYou're going to be Okay├óÔé¼┬Ø i said as Riff tore a strip of cloth from his shirt to wad it into the wound. Elizabeth arrived, ignoring her knife for the moment, and started to apply pressure. Abdul, for once, thought things through and grabbed a medical kit from out of our disorganized pile of supplies. He pulled out three stim packs. ├óÔé¼┼ôWill theses work?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked.
I grabbed them wordlessly, knowing that one was enough for most wounds and not knowing the over dose. I jammed the first syringe into the area around the wound and pumped it into Judith's body. She screamed, her back arching as stimulations surrounded her wound and started cutting into her fat store's to heal at a vastly accelerated rate. ├óÔé¼┼ôGet me a support pack and some bandage's├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted.
After a few fumbling seconds, while the blood flow from Judith's shoulder slowed, Abdul produced the needed supplies. Judith was still breathing, so i supposed we where doing something right. The bandage's where slapped over the wound, after removing the blood soaked rag's we where using. I noticed that Elizabeth was slowly praying to some deity.
I took the support pack, as large clunky thing designed to support the bodily function's of a human during situations like this. IT was shaped like a large flat ring of bag's, each one filled with chemicals. Atou extending needles would penetrate someone's skin then pump them with the chem's, while a defibrillator stood on stand by the start there heart again. Finally a small LED screen would display her vital singes, not that we could read them. Hell, I'm not a doctor.
After strapping the pack around her stomach, feeling oddly embarrassed to have to take off her shirt to get the pack on onto skin. I took out the other two stim packs and jammed them one after the other into Judith. She didn't scream, but she did whimper and look down right miserable. The bandage, a large foam packet that spread to fill her wound automatically, was slowly shrinking as the wound cleared up.
I looked at Elizabeth's watch was shocked to find that the entire emergency had taken less then five minutes. ├óÔé¼┼ôHey├óÔé¼┬Ø I said to Elizabeth ├óÔé¼┼ôWe are under attack├óÔé¼┬Ø. Elizabeth wiped sweat away from her face, smearing her face with even more blood from her red fingers and looked at me, worry making her snappish ├óÔé¼┼ôWell i NEVE would of guessed that├óÔé¼┬Ø she said, standing, her back facing the window.
├óÔé¼┼ôLook out!├óÔé¼┬Ø i shouted, jerking her legs out from under her. Another harpoon smashed through the several inch think transparent aluminum, not shattering it fortunately, but poking a large hole through it. Then the harpoon was reeled back and the barbed head caught on the wall. ├óÔé¼┼ôI think they aren't trying to hit us...deliberately├óÔé¼┬Ø I said slowly. ├óÔé¼┼ôEh?├óÔé¼┬Ø Elizabeth asked.
├óÔé¼┼ôWe'll they would be aiming a bit better and hit Judith's head and your face├óÔé¼┬Ø i said. Another harpoon smashed through, narrowly missing my groin. I stood stalk still in shock as the thing was dragged back to the wall. ├óÔé¼┼ôEvery one├óÔé¼┬Ø i said, slowly backing away from the left wall, where the two harpoon's heads stuck out threateningly ├óÔé¼┼ôBack away from that wall├óÔé¼┬Ø.
Riff gently dragged Judith away from the wall, even as another two harpoon's stuck into it. Then the Chevy started to tilt. I grabbed around for something to hold onto until the entire chamber flipped over onto its side. We were all slammed around, my head nearly missing being smashed in by the wall. Judith took it better then the most, as Elizabeth and Riff where trying to keep her from behind damaged any more.
Abdul forgot to grab onto anything, and was flung headfirst into the wall. I slipped closer to the door a grabbed the handle. The door opened onto the dirt ground. ├óÔé¼┼ôDamn├óÔé¼┬Ø I said, kicking the dirt ground, scuffing the dirt somewhat ineffectively. I looked at the floor...which had become the wall, and wondered what the hell was going on. I looked at Abdul who was slowly getting to his feet, rubbing a new bump on his head.
├óÔé¼┼ôIs there anyway we can cut out?├óÔé¼┬Ø he asked, looking at me. ├óÔé¼┼ôErr├óÔé¼┬Ø I muttered, looking at my RFG. It would take a lot of rounds to cut through the wall, so i decided not to...seeing as how i had four shots left. I reloaded the two chambers and started rooting around in the pile of supplies. After a while we found a shovel and an entrenching tool. Riff and I, being the strongest of the group, went to town on the dirt.
Riff aimed the entrenching tool and pressed the activation button, turning on the spray. The chemical sank through the dirt, making it soft and easy to dig through. I dug the shovel in and threw some dirt into a unoccupied area of the Chevy. Riff sprayed some more liquefying agent into the ground and we repeated the process.
After a minute of digging we had gotten a hole that we could get into. I jumped in and looked started widening it, felling the bottom with some dirt. After i got up to my knee's in dirt, i could stick my head up and out of the hole. I saw the three cables of the harpoon's running into three separate harpoon launchers. Men manned each of them, predictably enough. Each wore a mishmash of clothes and amour. I swore i saw some plate mail in the collection.
There leader was somewhat atypical of the post apocalypse. He wore a business suite, his eye's covered by glass's that reflected ominously. He was reading a clip board and while i was watching he marked something down. Flood lights where trained on our APC, along with several low caliber gun's. I was sure they hadn't seen me. Then a rather large chunk of dirt blew up a few inches in front my eye. I ducked back under as someone shouted something about ├óÔé¼┼ôDon't shoot├óÔé¼┬Ø
I was trying to climb back into the Chevy and away from anymore bullets when i heard someone approach. With a might heave Abdul and Riff pulled me back into the APC before the foot steps reached the pit. The man in the business suite dropped into the pit, looking rather bemused at the soft dirt that caked his leg's. We all pointed out gun's at him. He looked at our barrels with a face akin to someone being told he had to sit through another business meeting.
I looked at him and did a double take. ├óÔé¼┼ôHi Ethan├óÔé¼┬Ø Charles said, waggling his fingers in a somewhat silly hand motion.