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Post by Karcentric on Jul 10, 2010 5:42:33 GMT -5
Rurik,
We need to quarantine everything north of Rostok, there's some sort of potent pathogen flying around in the air here, and shitloads are already infected, by the looks of it, fatally. Freedom's doing their best, but I wouldn't trust them with controlling their own borders, especially in the state that they're in If you're planning to send any scouts to the north, give them full respiratory gear, preferably 9MD suits. Good looking out.
- Victor Rurik sat up immediately after he read the message, "Sabre! Get your men in here now!" He called standing walking out of the barracks walking into the HQ's main room he saw that the six man hunting squad was standing ready, awaiting an order. Rurik re-read the message to the men, "I'm going to send you to accompany Victor and whoever he takes, your objective is to protect them and make sure they find the source of this virus, use your SEVA suits. Two snipers the rest use silenced assault weapons." Sabre nodded and saluted, picking up his pack and moved to the armory with his men. Meanwhile Rurik sent a message back to Victor. Victor
I'm sending an experienced team to help you, they are lead by a soldier named Sabre, They will be equipped with SEVA suits with Duty colors, warn Freedom before they arrive. Sabre will message you when he and his team a near. We will stop all people coming from the north and keep everyone except guards outside, we'll also warn the scientists at Yantar. Good luck.
Rurik He sent the message, turning to the team now equipped with the appropriate protective gear. "You will need to message Victor before you enter the base to confirm you have clearance to enter the Freedom base." Sabre nodded again, "Got it, protect the party and it's cargo." He said before saluting again and leaving. Rurik sent a message to the Lab in Yantar warning about the outbreak.
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Post by Afterburner on Jul 10, 2010 15:26:35 GMT -5
The Freedom character that told him to move with the group ordered him to stop.
" I talked to the boss. We get these like every other day. But, it's still OK that you brought it to our attention, so, you're clear now. Where'd you get it anyways?"
Dimitri sat down, putting his gun away:
"Off an ex-friend's group leader. I didn't know if they were loners or bandits at first, but I heard them talking about holding someone up at the entrance, so I realized they were bandits. I shot a couple and left them lying in a pool of their own blood. I was about to shoot this guy when I noticed he had a strange, greenish LR-300. I knew a man who had such a gun."
He stopped to take a breath, before continuing
"It was him. Poor bastard. Always was a coward, but I didn't know he was this much of a chickenshit to turn on his ex-buddies like this. Anyways, enough about him, what's with you? I heard some of you talking about some sort of epidemic. I think that the respiratory system in this thing is working fine, so I shouldn't catch anything. Give me a shout if anything goes on, OK? I'd be ready to help you deal with it. I'm going to get some sleep first. I don't think that I should remove this suit, so if you're gonna wake me up, yell or something."
The Freedom lieutenant nodded and exited the building. Who is this man?
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Post by Basil on Jul 11, 2010 5:38:13 GMT -5
"Sounds like we'll have to leave fast", said Adder. "As for a container...I don't know if we have anything suitable here."
"-Actually we do", said Maginot, sitting down on an old crate with a tired sigh, "we have a metal container for vials. Its interior is padded and its pretty solid so I think it should be all right."
"-Why do we have such a thing?", said Adder with a hint of surprise, "are we playing chemist now?"
"-I don't know, I just found it in one of the warehouses. It's in my room."
"-As for the suits, we have some SEVA suits with filters and a closed cycle breathing system that should do the trick."
Adder headed off towards the HQ building while Maginot headed off towards the "quarantine building". His manner seemed gloomy and despondent as he trudged off alongside the other unlucky Freedomers who had come down with the mysterious sickness. Adder, followed by Victor and the others, arrived at the armoury and picked out a few SEVA suits modified to bear Freedom's insignia and colours. Adder hastily took off her gas mask, helmet as well as the rest of her suit and changed into a Freedom SEVA.
"-We have very little time", she said, "those who need a better suit change into one now."
Earlier on Adder has selected a few "healthy" people from Freedom's ranks, five in total, and three were from Penumbra. As they all got into SEVA suits, Adder headed upstairs to Maginot's room and looked around for the case her partner had mentioned earlier. After a quick search she found it, went back downstairs and left the HQ building, approaching the assembled expedition members.
"Okay people", she said, trying to sound authoritative like Maginot did, "we should be ready now. If you need anything, go get it now."
She then went over to Victor and took out the dead loner's PDA. She had a feeling it would be best to appoint the medic as her second in command for this dangerous trip into the Red Forest.
"We'll just take the route that goes into the Western part of the Red Forest and then head North along the route the loners took to get to the lab, bunker or whatever it is. Do you have any suggestions?"
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Post by Διμι on Jul 11, 2010 18:32:47 GMT -5
"A fine plan," Victor remarked, checking his suit for potential leaks. Finding none, he turned back to the group, satisfied. "The loners said they encountered minimal resistance both on the way in and out, so I suppose we'll be safe, especially with the lab and surrounding area contaminated so heavily. I'd say its the vials we have to worry about. One broken filter or visor, and chances are, you get infected."
The six Freedomers and their loner companion walked swiftly through the gate, and out of the base. Victor took the case from Adder and examined it, checking the workings. It could be easily and securely sealed, and its compartment was heavily packed with foam to ensure the safe transport of the vials to be stored inside. If everything went smoothly, the operation would be kinkless, and it would only be up to the researchers at Yantar to find a cure as quickly as possible.
Absorbed in his thoughts, he did not notice the group that was approaching them from down the road from the south. A group of six stalkers, clad in red and black SEVA suits, were approaching from the south. Evidently, this must have been the group of Dutiers Rurik tasked to assist them. There was no other explanation for the uniform protective suits that the every member in the group wore, Victor thought.
The Freedomers beside him stopped and stiffened as the group made their way closer, and drew their weapons. The tallest of the newcomers, who was apparently the Duty group's leader, approached Victor's own group, saluting them. "We were told by Command there was some sort of virulent disease spreading up here." he spoke in a somewhat familiar voice to Victor "you must be that loner that told the old man about it. We're here to help you and your Freedom buddies out in that regard."
"Who the hell are you?" Victor asked as the man held out his hand, he shook it, warily. Something about the Dutier and this group seemed familiar. One of them held an SVD, while the four remaining stalkers carried AS VAL assault rifles. Inwardly, the medic hoped with all his heart that neither the Dutiers or the Freedomers would decide this to be the best time to bring up old grudges, and start shooting each other up.
"The name is Rapier, we all used to work for the scientists at Yantar, that's where we got this shipment of gear from, in return for a few side jobs" the team leader introduced himself "now, do you have any idea where the hell this thing came from?" he looked at the container in the medic's arms. "It looks like you're going somewhere with the intent to bring something back. We can help you get there."
"If you say so," Victor admitted. Something about the Dutiers' openness still seemed suspicious, but he shook the feeling off "we're headed to the Red Forest. There's a rumor of some underground lab over there, and that's where this bug came from, apparently." he explained.
"I see," Rapier replied simply, and the medic could almost see the man thinking hard about something from behind his shielded visor. "Well," the Dutier said finally "I don't see why we should waste any time, especially since we were told there were lives at stake, so let's get moving to this lab of yours. I hope your folks at the northern barricades won't decide to shoot us on sight."
Now numbering thirteen people, the squad set off at a rapid pace towards the Barrier.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Jul 12, 2010 23:27:53 GMT -5
Ferret followed the others to the armory, catching a glimpse of Maginot's shadow in the far distance as he disappeared into the threshold that was the quarantine building. They did not have much time, the ex bandit guessed that the loners whom originally caught this bug died some where in between 24 to 48 hours after contracting it. If they where lucky they could get to the underground lab and find what they where looking for with in 6 or 7 hours; and another 4 hours to reach Yantar and who knows how long it would take the scientist to come up with a cure (if at all). Both the Dutyers and Freedomers seemed to understand that it was not the other who was the enemy, it was time that they where fighting.
However Ferret did not quite understand why the Duty faction would give any assistance to Freedom. What where they after? Was one of their own stricken with the sickness or was it that they felt that this virus held a bigger threat.
Three hours into the trek the expedition came across what remained of a Monolithian squad, all dead. They seemed to have died in the same fashion as the loner group. Yet what was ever so peculiar was the Monolithians had been dead for some time and yet no mutants had touch the bodies.
"Even the mutants know this shit is bad," said the rookie still looking at the corpses.
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Post by Basil on Jul 14, 2010 6:03:56 GMT -5
"You said it", said Adder to Ferret before carefully approaching the dead Monolithians. Several had their gas masks off, and their chins were dotted with plegm and blood. At first, Adder was more worried about the fact the infection had reached the Western part of the Red Forest, but then she remembered that the Monolith was not present in this area. What were Monolithians doing here?
"-You..."
Adder's head snapped up. Who had spoken? She started as she saw one of the Monolithians moving slightly.
"You...you have received the gift of the Monolith, and the Monolith spoke to you...I can feel it...come closer."
Reluctantly, Adder approached the Monolithian who was lying with his back against a tree. He was wheezing weakly.
"There is great evil...in the Forest...", wheezed the Monolithian before coughing, "it was...released...hhhhh...by foolish unbelievers..."
"-Wouldn't your Monolith be pleased about that?", said Adder sarcastically. The Monolithian coughed again.
"-No...the Monolith, in all...its wisdom and foresigh...recognised the danger posed...by this new evil. It will kill anyone...hhh...believers and unbelievers alike...it must...be stopped..."
The Monolithian was once again raked by a hacking cough. He weakly raised his hand and pointed at a small, barely visible path that left the road and went up the bank into the forest.
"It is...that...way...", said the Monolithian. "My job...is now...hhhh...done...good luck...sister..."*
The Monolithian gave one last laboured breath before falling silent. He was dead. Adder glanced nervously around her; the Monolithian had known about her momentary lapse in Limansk and had said a bit too much. She didn't like the way the dead man had also called her 'sister'.
"-Okay everyone", she said, "we're following that path that goes up the bank."
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Post by blackpapermoon on Jul 25, 2010 22:50:40 GMT -5
“What the heck was that about,” thought the rookie Freedomer to himself, as he watched Adder and the others slow being to make their way to path that had been mostly consumed by forest. The commandant seemed even more nervous then before the encounter with the dying fanatic.
The word sister confessed Ferret, what did the Monolithian mean? Was he referring Adder’s eye mutation or was it just a hallucination causes by fever and sickness? However it was more likely to do with the fact the man was a part of the Monolith faction, whom where all just a bunch of nut cases anyway.
After giving the dead Monolithians one last glance Ferret quickly caught up with the rest of the group.
(I'll fix any thing that worng with this in the morning.... so a big fork you in advanced)
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Post by Διμι on Jul 27, 2010 15:20:59 GMT -5
"Charming place..."
The barrel of Victor's VSS panned the trees surrounding the road before them. The little path itself was barely wide enough to accomodate two stalkers walking side by side "Looks like we'll have to stretch our little column..." he muttered "I sure hope you aren't planning to do anything funny." he tossed aside to the Duty team's leader.
The combined squad slowly began to make their way down the path the Monolithians had indicated. "We've still got a few kilometers to go, but we're already seeing massive signs of contamination even back at the Monolith outpost" the medic noted worriedly "keep those masks on and visors sealed, and don't take them off even for a second. It's a guaranteed one-way ticket to stalker heaven, or hell for that matter. Whichever you prefer."
The forest was completely still and silent, as usual. But on this particular day, something even more menacing seemed to hang in the air like a diabolic haze. Not a breeze wafted down the forest path, and the air sat still like a crushing weight around the medic's kombez, as if it was made from thick goo. Victor relished the cool flow of air from the contained air filtering system feeding into his sealed hood.
The squad walked on.
A pair of differently colored eyes stared past the thick, clear polymer composing the gas mask's eye slits and through a pair of binoculars at the group making its way down the overgrown forest path. The squad was impossible to notice, a staggering motley crew of green Freedom suits, black and red Duty armored kombezes, and a single loner in yet another SEVA.
The figure's mouth curled in a smile as he noted a feminine form leading the long column. It seemed as if the Zone had given him another chance than he could have anticipated, but the Freedom Commandant was as well protected as always. It seemed as if Duty had joined her romp this time as well. What a socialite.
He would have to keep his distance, and his gas mask, for that matter. The bodies of the diseased Monolithians by the outpost, as well as the extensive amount of closed-cycle breathing gear on the group were enough signs for Meph to put two and two together.
"Time to see what secret facility you're visiting on this occasion, dear Nadya," he muttered, jumping off of the treetop back into the undergrowth.
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Post by Basil on Jul 28, 2010 8:50:06 GMT -5
This part of the Red Forest wasn't, ironically, as well known as the part just beyond the Barrier. Few stalkers had been up here, and Adder was pretty sure nobody had been up here till the unfortunate loner squad had been so grossly misdirected by some fool selling fake coordinates for artefact-generating areas. She doubted even the Monolith had ever been here up till now.
Some time later, the group emerged onto what seemed to be some old landing strip. An old Soviet transport helicopter of some kind sat there, overgrown by some strange kind of plant with enormous and amazingly colourful flowers. Adder was taken aback by the colour of said flowers, as she was used to seeing only ugly, dead colours in the Zone's desolate lands. She took her PDA out and looked at the map...the area she was in was blurry and vague, and one could barely distinguish the outline of the air strip they were currently standing on.
"I think this could correspond to the air strip described in the dead stalker's journal", she said flatly, her voice muffled by her suit's helmet. Suddenly, the group noticed three prostrate forms nearby, and Adder went over to them to see who they were. The three forms were dead stalkers, dead Monolith stalkers to be precise. One of them had ripped his gas mask off, and his face had the same deathly pale colour of other victims of the mysterious plague. Blood and phlegm coated his lips and part of his face.
"We'd better hurry up", said Adder, "this thing has already killed a lot of people, and I suspect that means its spreading hellishly fast."
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Post by Διμι on Jul 28, 2010 14:01:10 GMT -5
The squad redoubled its pace as it advanced further down the road, which was steadily becoming more and more overgrown. Wild plants of the sort Victor had never seen before, even in the Zone, covered various pieces of ancient Soviet machinery that here and there dotted the path.
Eventually, small bunker-like concrete structures began appearing to either side of the road. Victor could clearly see gunner emplacements with machine gun nests in the thickset concrete walls, and was to a large degree glad that the virus had driven everything living from here.
"Seems like we're getting close," he noted, eying the buried and overgrown barbed wire barriers, most of which had rusted through. The medic drew his binoculars and stared down the now-sloping road. Approximately a mile ahead, he could see it terminating in a large concrete structure. He pulled out his PDA, checking the coordinates. There was not a thing on the map to suggest that some secret installation of huge proportions was once erected here.
"Let's get moving, we're almost there," he tossed aside to the Duty squad "keep your eyes peeled, I don't trust this place. It could toss anything our way, even if everything around here is long dead. Watch out for booby traps. A shattered mask or visor is a ticket to the afterlife in less than two days with the pathogen concentrations around here." he muttered, noting that his sensors were slowly going off the scale.
The group stepped over several decaying bodies of men dressed in mercenary uniforms as well as the rotting corpses of two scientist-esque personas as it approached the massive steel containment door, which had been closed shut.
"Looks like we'll have to find that side entrance the loners mentioned," said the medic "poor sods, they'd have had to been high school dropouts not to recognize the danger this place presented." he growled, brushing the dust off of a paper sign sheathed in lexane by the massive main entrance. Fading and unreadable paragraphs of small text in Russian surrounded a massive, red biohazard sign.
He brushed off another portion of the wall next to the sign, revealing another clear polymer panel, a window into a control room on the other side. A single scientist in an environmental suit sat at the controls, or rather, his remains. A cleanly picked skull was clearly visible through the downed visor.
Victor drew his HPSA, putting an automatic spread of 9x19mm rounds into a circular tattoo on the glass. A single, massive Dutier from Rapier's group stepped up, and gave the window a crushing kick. The weakened area shattered under the impact, creating a sizeable hole.
The medic climbed through the newly made aperture into the control room. A single massive lever labeled 'Blast Doors' caught his attention. Without hesitation, he pulled it upwards.
With a resounding groan, the gigantic mechanism keeping the door in place began to move. Enourmous gears ground as first the massive outer door, then the secondary blast protection walls lifted, opening a sizeable entry into the bunker. Cool, dry air rushed out as the medic clambered back out of the control room.
The group stood before a huge portal leading into complete darkness.
"Ladies first?" Victor offered.
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Post by Basil on Jul 29, 2010 9:33:02 GMT -5
"How nice", said Adder sarcastically. She took a deep breath and stepped into the opening, which wasn't as pitch black to her as it seemed to others. She could see it lead into a large, angular passage of sorts, a passage big enough to accomodate lorries and jeeps. She stepped cautiously forward, her footsteps causing lifting up small clouds of dust. Nearby was an abandoned UAZ jeep, still with its old paint and looking decidedly new despite the thick coating of dust it had. An AK-74 lay propped up in the back seat, bedecked with dusty cobwebs and docilely awaiting the return of human hands.
There was another body nearby, a member of the Soviet military judging by its gear. All that remained of its biological form was its skeleton, but Adder could clearly see the cause of death: a bullet to the skull. She also saw several bullet holes in the thick concrete walls.
"Come on", she told the others, not daring to raise her voice. Her whisper echoed eerily through the empty passage and made her spine tingle. She went a bit further down the passage, stepping quietly and carefully, her head darting about as she tried to keep an eye out. Not an easy thing to do when one's head was encased in a fishtank. The passage went downwards before finally stopping at another blast door. Adder looked around her and noticed two smaller corridors heading off at either side of the door, and these corridors had thick windows giving into the room the blast door kept sealed.
One of the windows was broken.
"Looks like we've found the place."
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Post by Διμι on Jul 29, 2010 23:40:56 GMT -5
"Excellent, let's get what we need, and get the hell out of here," Victor replied "this place is starting to give me the fucking creeps. It's too damn quiet in here."
The group clambered in through the broken polymer panel one by one, emerging into a large, dank chamber. Barrels of various chemicals were stacked about, all marked with unmistakable biohazard signs. A single Dutier made the move to uncover one, but was silenced by a harsh denial from the medic. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he seethed "now that we've released one virus, you're just itching to do the same with another, aren't you?" The Dutier recoiled hurriedly, but Rapier turned to regard the loner with a cool, almost deadly stare from behind his visor.
"Guys, I think I found this shit..."
A Freedomer, carrying the case designed for transport of the vials, was standing near the center of the room, next to a barrel unlike all of the other. This one was smaller than the others, and ringed by reinforcing metal bars. It was open, revealing a large amount of padding surrounding two remaining sealed glass vials in their alcoves. A third alcove was empty, and pieces of glass surrounded a dark stain on the ground where the liquid had evaporated as it spilled.
"So this is it, eh...?" the medic muttered, crouching down to examine the fragments of the container as the Freedomer slipped the last two vials into the carrying case and closed it shut. "Alright then," Victor said, standing up "let's bring these babies to Sakharov, and get this over with."
"Not so fast, salvadores del mundo." a gruff voice spoke from near the entrance. Rapier and his team had blocked the way in, and now regarded the Freedom squad and the loner with their guns drawn. "This is Senior Sergeant Sabre to Freedom team. Hand over the samples. They're something the Zone never aught to have brought to life. It's our job to honor Duty, and destroy them."
Victor groaned aloud. No wonder the Dutier had chosen to conceal his name. Sabre was one of the most legendary, zealous, and Zone-hating officers in Duty's employ to date, and one with a particular grudge against Freedom at that. Victor stepped back with the Freedomers, forming a protective circle around the carrier of the samples as he spoke.
"You've had your orders from Rurik himself," Victor began "you were supposed to protect us this time, and that includes the Freedomers. If we don't get these vials to Sakharov, the entire Zone, and its population of stalkers, will be in grave danger."
The Dutier waved the statement away with a flick of his hand, tightening his grip on his weapon as he aimed it for the Freedomers. "Rurik betrayed us all by siding with these scum!" he spat viciously "orders are orders, but our Duty is foremost. Now hand over those samples before we turn you into worm food!"
Fingers on the triggers of both NATO and Warsaw Pact rifles tightened as the Freedomers and Dutiers stood their ground, aiming their weapons at one another. If something didn't happen, a shot would ring out, and a firefight would erupt, stalling the Freedomers' mission, or even even jeopardizing it. Victor felt a Freedomer come up behind him, and drop two weighty objects into his hand. The vials. "Go. Exit through the back, and get these to Sakharov. We'll cover you." he heard the anarchist whisper. Slowly, Victor began backing towards the exit.
"You! Stop right there!" Sabre noticed the loner beginning to back away "don't move an inch, you coward, or we'll fill you with holes." Then Victor dove for the back door. A single round whizzed over his head as gunfire erupted behind him. The empty vial case clattered to the floor as the Freedomers returned fire. Both squads scattered across the room, taking cover and firing at one another.
Clutching the two vials tightly, Victor sprinted down several corridors, searching for a way out. Empty rooms full of computers and laboratory equipment blurred by as he ran past, eventually finding himself in a small room with a massive, antenna-like structure on one side, two opened blast doors, and a single observation polymer window on the wall facing him. Had the medic stopped to examine his surroundings, perhaps he would have noticed the small figure standing behind the window next to a control table.
A hand pulled a lever on the panel.
Immediately, the two blast doors slammed down, shutting the loner inside the chamber. He was trapped. The dark figure pulled another lever, and the massive antenna began to spin, discharging bolts of lightning across the room. The glow intensified, reflecting off the darkened window as the lightning retracted into a single rotating ball at the tip of the antenna. Victor dove towards the door.
In that instant, the small figure slammed down on a red button on the control panel. The antenna stopped spinning, coming to a jarring halt as the lightning ball exploded, sending a massive, pulsating bolt through the room, Victor, and the window.
The figure dove down, dodging the discharge as the plexiglass shattered into a million tiny fragments, and the panel exploded, sending him flying into the wall. Victor was hit by the charge directly and lifted up into the air. All the protection in his suit burned out nearly instantly as his visor shattered as well. The two vials flew to the floor of the test chamber, one of them shattering, releasing even more of the lethal virus into the already contaminated atmosphere.
Victor fell lifelessly to the floor smoking as the antenna flew off of its mount, crashing to the floor and sending tongues of flame into the air.
In the demolished control room, Meph had regained his senses, and leapt to his feet. Thankfully, he had retained his gas mask in the explosion. Checking his inventory, he leapt out of the shattered window into the collapsing test chamber. Running over to the smoking body of the loner, he checked for a pulse. Finding none, he knelt down and picked up the single remaining vial of the virulent chemical, sliding it into a pocket on his suit.
Something tugged on the assassin's belt. Curiously, he noticed that one of his blades was shaking in its sheath. Looking over at the loner once more, he noted spark-like discharges traveling over the body, evidently residual energies from the shock.
He stepped away and out of the destroyed blast door the loner had attempted to leave through before meeting his end. In less than a minute, the bandit had made his way out of the building, which had been heavily damaged by the blast. The dark-suited bandit took a final look at the smoking bunker before disappearing into the depths of the Red Forest.
Several minutes passed by. Footsteps could be heard down the corridor from which Victor had come earlier. The loner's frame jarred, his heart starting again miraculously. He took a ragged, coughing breath, taking in a lungful of the deadly toxins in the air. He attempted to stand up, only to fall back to the floor. Parts of his body were covered in serious burns from the energy discharge. Judging by the amount of destruction the test charge had inflicted, he should have been dead, instead, he was almost completely incapacitated.
Groaning slightly, he slumped back to the floor, hoping that someone would find him before the entire room would collapse around him.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Jul 30, 2010 2:58:39 GMT -5
The past few days had been quite annoying for Sigbrand. He had nearly been killed by an expert Freedom marksman, avoided death at the claws and teeth of several deadly mutants and above all else, he had failed to kill the Commandant. Picking up the spent shell on the ground, Sigbrand walked over to the blind dog he had just killed, nudging it with his foot turning it over to expose the large exit wound in it's side. Gunshots rang out in the distance, turning quickly, he located the direction of the noise. Slipping the spent brass into his pocket he broke into a quick jog towards the direction of the gunshots.
In a little under a minute Sigbrand reached a small ridge, overlooking a small factory complex. The gunshots continued to ring out, through a ruined blast door. Sliding down the ridge, Sigbrand ran to the destroyed blast door and crawled quickly through it. Before him on the ground was a figure in a burned SEVA suit. Turning the body to face him, Sigbrand gasped as he saw Victor's burned face.
"Shit, what's happened Victor?" He asked, reaching into his pack and pulling out a yellow scientific medkit.
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Post by Διμι on Jul 30, 2010 3:22:38 GMT -5
Victor's vision blurred and re-focused again as he heard the familiar voice of Sigbrand Myrvang say "Shit, what's happened Victor?". A second later, the Dutier himself swam into the loner's vision, a gas mask covering his face. Sigbrand drew a medkit from the depths of his pack.
Victor reached out and grabbed the medical aid, and with a herculean effort, pushed and propped himself against the cracking wall of the test chamber. "Black... assassin..." he choked out "get... back the vials... virus... everyone sick, don't take... gas mask... Go!"
The loner watched as the Dutier nodded, and ran back out the way he had come. Victor sank back against the wall, and pulled out an injector syringe of epinephrine from the pack, and, without any further ado, unloaded its entire contents into his arm. He could feel his body slowly going numb as he began to black out despite the adrenaline raging to keep him present.
Victor struggled to stay awake, but the numbness was now eating away at his entire body, as if the lightning shock had cauterized every single nerve ending in his frame. He heard dim footsteps echoing off of the corridor from where he had came before he lost consciousness.
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Post by Zeno, Lord Camelith on Jul 30, 2010 4:33:23 GMT -5
Dropping to one knee near the edge of the forest, Sigbrand discovered several fresh footprints leading into the depths of the forest. Just as he entered the forest, Sigbrand heard a soft click. Throwing himself to one side, a burst of rifle bullets smashed into the tree where he had just been. Raising his rifle Sigbrand saw a dark figure move a short distance away. Sigbrand fired, the bullet splintering part of the tree trunk his assailant had been using for cover.
Chambering a fresh round, Sigbrand quickly peered around the tree trunk he was hidden behind and instantly dropped to one knee. Another burst whizzed past where his head had just been, followed by a loud click and a muttered curse. Raising his rifle, Sigbrand quickly took aim and fired. The full sized round smashed into the side of the attacker's M-16, blowing it apart. Chambering another round, Sigbrand took aim at the figure just in time to see him draw two sidearms from concealed holsters. Sigbrand fired and the bullet grazed the shooter's arm, tearing his suit. Quickly rolling to another tree, he watched as a hail of bullets barraged where he had just been. Raising his rifle and working the bolt in one fluid movement, Sigbrand fired at the unknown attacker, the bullet wrenching one of the pistols from the mans grip. More bullets flew towards him as he crouched behind a tree and fed another five rounds into the magazine.
Leaning out from behind the tree, Sigbrand could not find his attacker. A soft rustling behind him caused Sigbrand to wheel around. The man was right in front of him, two long blades drawn and pointed towards Sigbrand. The man lunged and Sigbrand grasped his rifle with both hands, pushing the blades away from him. Sigbrand swung the rifle at his attacker, the wooden stock whooshed past the man's head and collided with a nearby tree, shattering. Before he could draw his own knife the man was on him, Sigbrand bellowed with pain as one of the blades cut deeply into his arm. Bashing his head into the man's face, Sigbrand kicked him away. His attacker, stunned by the force of the blow, collided with a tree and hesitated for a moment to catch his breath. In an instant, Sigbrand had his knife drawn and leaped at his assailant.
Sigbrand burried the seven and a half inch blade of his knife into Mephisto's throat, pinning it to the tree. A gasping, shuddering breath escaped Mephisto's open mouth as blood poured from the wound. Mephisto shuddered suddenly, then his limbs slackened. His body still standing, suspended by the throat to the tree. Pulling a small glass vial from the dead man's vest, Sigbrand slid it into a pocket and walked back towards the factory.
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