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Post by nuclearstorm on Sept 17, 2012 9:39:20 GMT -5
A lone woman crawled out of a forsaken lab in red forest. Her friends were dead, her PDA was broken, and her memory had vanished. She looked at herself through the reflection in the screen of her PDA. "Wow, I look weird. Who the fuck has red eyes?" She noted that she looked Irish, and upon speaking, that she had a very thick Irish accent. "And how the hell am I so pale?" She decided to call herself Eirwen, Irish for Snow White.
She Sighed.
"OK, now where am I. This place is quite creepy, but then again, so was down there." She set forth into red forest, heading south. Of course with no PDA she had no idea this was south, but it was south nonetheless. She quickly realized she was cold. Freezing cold. "Damn it's cold... I wonder if I know how to make a fire." She began picking up small bits of wood, trying to rub herself to conserve heat, only to realize she was not producing any. At first she thought she was dreaming, but after a while realized she was not. After a few hours of trying to start a fire, she finally succeeded. She began warming herself. The ground beneath her turned to permafrost, but she was still warm.
A noise in the woods. She saw nothing.
Minutes went by and felt like hours as she warmed herself and watched around her.
Suddenly, a bloodsucker appeared in front of her and went to attack. Instinctive reactions came into play and she punched the creature, hitting it in the neck. She then grabbed the neck, cut its legs out with hers, and choked it. As she choked the bloodsucker began to freeze. The neck became brittle and shattered.
Eirwen stood, staring at her hands, amazed. "Did... did I do that?" She put her hand on the ground. Nothing. "Hmm..." She concentrated on the coldness she felt and the fear she experienced at the hand of the bloodsucker. The ground froze and she felt warmer. "Maybe... No, no I couldn't. But I did this..." She cautiously moved her hand toward the fire, thinking of cold and fear. The flames engulfed her hand, yet she felt no pain, only warmth. The fire quickly died. She no longer felt cold. She decided it would be best for her to move on.
"I must find someone who can explain this."
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Post by blackpapermoon on Sept 19, 2012 11:56:43 GMT -5
Shade, navigated the underbrush of the forest, trying to cover up his trail as he kept to a fast pace. Duty had finally cracked down on security in Rostock, and had got a decant informant. They had been tipped off that the assassin had a contract to take out one of their higher ranked members. Or maybe it was a trap all along, either way it was poorly executed, allowing the bandit to make a mad dash for the Wild territories. However the Dutyers trailing him where relentless, chasing him from the gates of Rostock into the war zone of the Wild territories into Yantar and finally out to the Red Forest.
He heard a crack of a twig nearby, the assassin turned with his weapon aimed at the sound. He expected one of the Dutyers following him but was rather surprised to find it was caused by another bandit. Even more shocking was that the other was a woman; given her dress he put her at rookie rank. “You rookie what are you doing here,” he ask a serious tone of urgency in his voice, “we need to move before…”
“Stop right there criminal scum,” bellowed a skull cap totting Dutyer; Morak as more of the black and red clad stalker surrounded the now two bandits, “your crimes against stalkers are at an end. Come peacefully or we will take you in pieces.”
Morak admired the long haired bandit’s cunning; during the many hours of chasing him even the most experienced trackers in the group lost his trail more than once. It would be a shame to see such a clearly talented man be put to death. However he had chosen to do evil a so must paid the price, Morak would try make the bandits death quick, and less painful so long as he came quietly.
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Post by nuclearstorm on Sept 19, 2012 20:06:05 GMT -5
Eirwen wandered through red forest for what seemed like hours. She was getting colder with each passing second. Just as she felt like she could no longer continue a man with very beautiful long hair came running towards her.
"You! Rookie! What are you doing here!? We need to move before..."
The man was cut off by a much stronger looking group of men.
"Stop right there criminal scum! Your crimes against stalkers are at an end! Compeacefully or we will take you in pieces!"
Eirwen was frightened. While the man with the long hair seemed to be trying to help her, it also seemed that he was on the wrong side of the law, and seeing as she did not remember her past, she decided it would be best to try and stay on the right side of the law. That is, whatever law may exist in this unknown land.
Eirwen held up her hands in surrender, yelling, "Please! I do not know what is going on here nor do I know this man! I have done nothing wrong!" She dropped to her knees. "Please! I have no idea where I am or who I am!"
Two of the "lawmen," at least as Eirwen saw it, came over to her while three came over to the long haired man. One of the men reached toward her with intent to restrain and remarked with a wicked grin, "Don't worry girlie, we'll make your death nice and quick!"
Eirwen went into a frenzy, screaming as loud as she could, "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"
She quickly grabbed the arm of the man attempting to restrain her, the coldness of her body due to the length of time without heat absorption combined with her immense fear and will to live flash froze the mans arm, locking up his muscles. She threw him into the other man near her. The first fell on his ass while the other staggered. She charged at the one still standing before he could react, knocking him over as well. She then grabbed one of the men's legs each and quickly absorbed some more heat while temporarily disabling their legs.
She then turned to the long haired man to see if he was alright, after all, he did try to warn her. However, he had taken her distraction as an opportunity himself and was not in immediate danger.
"Sorry mister! I think we should run now!" She managed to choke out through her fear, just before she began to run as fast as she could in the direction the long haired man had been earlier, leaving behind patches of permafrost in the ground the shape of her boots as well as frozen tears.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Sept 23, 2012 18:39:23 GMT -5
Morak and the last two Dutyers held the assassin down, what the bandit lacked in sheer brute strength he made up in agility and flexibility. Using their own strength against them, but in the end they finally got Shade to his knees. The bandit didn’t say a word or make a sound, just try to pull way. They ignored the yells of the woman as they forced the assassin’s arms behind his back.
However when the pained shouts of their fellows called their attention Shade took advantage. He head-butted Morak and kick out his legs from under him, before knocking the heads of the other two Dutyers to gather. He could see that one of the Dutyers that that had restrained the girl holding his arm in agony, as the other clung to his legs.
"Sorry mister! I think we should run now!" Said the rookie as she ran to where he had been trying to get to earlyer. Behind her she left a trail of frost and frozen tears. The assassin had little trust of mutants, but she had distracted the Dutyers and had allowed him to brake free. Shade gave the black clad stalkers one last glance before following after the rookie.
“Stop, you need to calm down, “said the assassin catching up to her and grabbing her arm, a surge of cold shot up his arm, “ Your leaving a trail, those Dutyers will follow us no problem.”
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Post by nuclearstorm on Sept 26, 2012 8:50:28 GMT -5
Eirwen slowed down a bit while still keeping pace. She took a deep breath.
"You're right, you're right."
She calmed down enough to stop the frozen tears and trail of permafrost, but was still visibly shaken and very cold.
"I just don't know what is going on. I woke up in what looked like some kind of abandoned lab and now I can't remember anything! Who I am, what this place is, or who anyone around me is. Or maybe i should say was..." She sighed. "My PDA isn't even working so I have nothing to go on."
She then realized they were still being followed.
"But we should probably get somewhere safe first, huh? You lead the way, I've just been wandering aimlessly."
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Post by blackpapermoon on Sept 29, 2012 20:02:06 GMT -5
“We’ll work out what happened to you once we are in Freedom territory,” said Shade noticing the signs of hypothermia appearing in the woman, “but first we should try to find a fire anomaly, you won’t make it to the Barrier at this rate.”
The assassin took the lead, careful covering as much of their trail as they moved along. The sky was becoming over cast and rain slowly began to descend from the black clouds as thunder cracked overhead. The weather looked like it was going to keep this up for a few hours and should cover their trail adequately.
“You are in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, anyone who enters this place illegally is called a stalker,” the bandit said pulling the hood of his long coat over his head in order to keep his long hair from getting wet in the rain, “the stalkers that are after us are from an organization called Duty, they made up of remnants of Military patrols that where left here.”
“They like to think they are the law of no man’s land and that can put an end to horrors of the zone” he continued as he pulled out his PDA trying to find the location of the nearest anomaly field, “I and they assume you are a part of the Bandit faction, we are killers, thieves and cutthroats we make money and survive off of the gains of other stalkers.”
“Freedom is at war with Duty, but for the most part neutral with us bandits” remarked Shade as he slid down an embankment, “they are anarchists that want the zone opened up to the whole world.”
“Good we’re almost at the burner anomaly,” said the assassin picking up a handful of small rocks and put them in a leg pouch, “the reason that Duty has men chasing us is that they were informed of a contract that I’ve been sent to carry out. They aren’t going to stop until I’m capture, killed or out of unclaimed territory.”
After a few more minutes of walking they came to a clearing that had steam rising from the ground. The smell of burning wood and vegetation permeated the clearing. The bandit pulled out the rocks that he had gathered earlier and tossed them into the clearing, jets of flame angrly shot from the ground. ____________________________________________________
Morak got back to his feet, his nose broken and bleeding. His allies beside him rubbed their throbbing heads as they stood back up. The last two of his team still where on the ground riving in pain, something wasn’t right.
“My arm, that bitch froze my arm,” wailed one of the men as the rookie approached, and pulled up the sleeve of the other Dutyer’s suit. The man’s skin was black from his wrist to his elbow, as if the limb had been exposed to subzero temperature for an extended period of time.
“We need to get to Yantar and report this to HQ,” said Morak helping to pull one of the injured men to his feet, “if we move fast we might save our brother’s arm.” ____________________________________________________
“This is one of many strange phenomenon in the zone,” said the Bandit as he pulled out more rocks and a detector from his bag. He entered the anomaly following the location on the detector and navigated the field before returning with a glowing orb.
“Artifacts like this Fireball come from anomalies,” said Shade has he handed her the artifact, “artifacts have different proprieties, some make you run faster, others heal your wounds and stop bleeding and some remove radiation. Fireballs give off heat and remove radiation, but fatigues you.”
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Post by nuclearstorm on Sept 30, 2012 13:23:03 GMT -5
As shade explained the zone, Eirwen had a quick flashback. She was sitting in a desk, very low to the ground, surrounded by children in other desks. A woman sat in front of them all as a video played. It showed destroyed buildings and desolate landscape and she heard only one word: Chernobyl.
Eirwen snapped out of the flashback. "Chernobyl? I think... I think i remember something. I think i saw a video on it as a child, in school, but it's fuzzy. I can't remember anything else." She sighed.
Shade continued about the factions and his contract.
"Wait, contract? Are you an assassin or something?" She contemplated it for a second. "Hmm. That's kind of badass. I wonder if I was an assassin as well. I'd hate to think I was some lowly cutthroat."
They walked more and reached the anomalies. Shade set one off and fire shot upward. Eirwen was startled at first, but not surprised. Nothing in this place would surprise her anymore.
"Ohh, it's warm."
She took a few steps closer and for the first time since waking up she did not feel cold. The air around her was surprisingly chilled, especially for around a fire anomaly, as she absorbed as much heat as she could. After taking her fill of warmth Shade handed her a fireball.
"Ohh, this is warm too. How long will it stay like this?"
Her question was answered before Shade could speak. Eirwen absorbed as much heat as she could from the ball, but it remained warm.
"Wait, this thing NEVER goes cold!? There wouldn't be more by chance would there?"
Eirwen realized they had not exchanged names.
"Oh! You can call me Eirwen by the way. I have no idea if that really is my name, but it seemed fitting. As for my cold... well... it seems I can absorb heat from things. All I know is I woke up in a lab surrounded by frozen corpses and when i concentrate I can freeze things and it makes me warmer. Also, we should probably get going to this "Freedom" you were talking about, I'm not cold anymore."
Eirwen gains: Fireball.
CHECK
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Post by blackpapermoon on Oct 4, 2012 20:30:15 GMT -5
“For your sake it’s better that you aren’t,” said the black haired man, “you make a lot of enemies in my line of work and it’s better that you remember them then the other way around. “
He let the woman figure out the artifact; he noticed that she had some control over the mutation. Still he should be careful, anyone in this land could turn on you not just the stalkers marked by the zone.
“Eirwen eh,” said the bandit who didn’t know what she meant by fitting, “I go by Shade, this way there is a freedom outpost about a two hours hike to the west.” ____________________________________________________
Duty had sent reinforcements to replace the two injured men, who were now at the bunker in Yantar.
Morak kept to the trail the freakish woman had left, a trail that could easily be followed even with the rain eroding the path. However the path stopped dead at an anomaly field. But hope was not lost yet, one of the trackers pulled out his PDA and looked at all the possible paths that the two could have gone.
“They are going to make a brake for the Freedom outpost to the west,” said the old Dutyer “We might be able to catch up, if that mutant he got with him slows him down enough.” ____________________________________________________
After an hour or so of walking the rain began to let up, without the added noise of the storm the assassin was now better able to hear the woods around them. He was better at detecting any danger that might be near, and it was very fortunate that the weather cleared up at that time as he could hear monotone chatting not that far from their location. He grabbed the woman and coved her mouth before hiding under a nearby overturned tree.
“Don’t make a sound,” he ordered as he tried to better camouflage their position. It did not take long for a patrol of heavily armed exoskeleton clad Monolithians to enter the area. There were six of the fanatics wandering around near their hiding spot.
“Monolithian fanatics,” whispered the bandit softly, “they will attack anyone who is not one of them, and will fight to the death in service to their god.”
After a few minutes they were joined by even more fighters.
“Fuck, this is a raiding patrol,” Shade said in a hushed tone his hand still over Eirwen’s mouth.
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Post by nuclearstorm on Oct 7, 2012 20:21:27 GMT -5
Shade grabbed Eirwen and held her mouth shut. She was scared, but learned to trust his judgement. After all, he was right about their former pursuers. At least, she hoped they were former pursuers.
All Eirwen could do now was wait, stay calm, and obey Shade's orders.
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A group of monolithians gathered around Pyre, awaiting his orders.
"Tonight we shall strike out against the heathens to the south! We shall march across their 'barrier' and overrun their settlements! We shall burn their impurities away from this holy land! For the glory of the monolith!"
The others gave monotone cheers and prepared themselves for the upcoming fight. Pyre had equipped many of them with a special weapon of his own design: napalm grenades. Pyre tested out a new weapon of his own as well. A SPAS with a special type of ammunition. He fired into a small pile of leaves. A bright flash, streaks of fire, and the leaves set ablaze. Pyre grinned wickedly at his new toy. He was going to have the night of his life.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Oct 7, 2012 22:12:04 GMT -5
Shade watch as the short one eyed Asian Monolithian addressed the other fanatics. The bandit was not all that worried; he could lay in waiting for hours in the most inhospitable of weathers. Erwin despite her rookie status was holding her own. He only wished that she could have more control over her freakish mutation, so that she could stop leeching heat from his body.
“You’re doing well,” whispered the assassin starting to contemplate taking the woman under his wing and teach her his ways, “just a little longer.”
The moment these zealots leave the bandit was going to contact Freedoms Barrier and warn them of the upcoming raid. He was not doing this out of the kindness of his heart, but rather out of need, if the Barriers defenders where fighting fanatics then they would be a lot less willing to shelter two bandits.
Everything was going fine until the leader of the group shot at the leaves that Shade was using as camouflage. Fire began to eat up the cover and expose the two bandits, the assassin was faster to react then the monolith drones.
He jumped out from his hideaway pulling the rookie behind him, punched the leader in his face.
“Run girl, hide I’ll find you,” he yelled as he unsheathed his knife before landing on the nearest fanatic and stabbed him through the eye socket. His blade finding the soft throat of another victim. Using the fleshly slain as a shield he slowly backed. When he was movement in the wood behind his current foes, he smiled it had to be the Dutyers from earlier.
He chucked the dead man at his comrades just as Duty arrived and began shooting. Chaos ensued as the assassin slipped back into the woods to look for the rookie.
Morak watched as the bandit tossed the dead man into the group of Monolithians, he grunted in frustration as the other Dutyer began to do battle with the fanatics. The assassin was getting away; he was not going to let that happen. Barely dodging fire the young Dutyer gave chase, following Shade into the deeps of the woods.
Shade turned back seeing the Dutyer with the black skull cap following him. The Dutyers jumped landing on the assassin, the two wrested but then from out of nowhere Eirwen bull rushed the Dutyer with such forced that when he hit his head he was knocked out cold.
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Post by nuclearstorm on Oct 12, 2012 15:49:56 GMT -5
The two bandits waited in cover for a while, until their cover was set aflame. Shade jumped out and attacked them monolithians quickly before making his escape.
Eirwen jumped out of their cover after Shade. She shot a monolithian in the head with her pistol as she dashed at Pyre.
Pyre was still staggered from Shade's punch as his saw Eirwen coming. He pulled the pin on one of his napalm grenades and threw it at shade before raising his shotgun to unleash a burst of flaming bullets at Eirwen.
Eirwen saw Pyre raise his gun, she spun to the side, dodging, as she fired a shot at Pyre. She nicked his arm, causing his shot to lose aim and the blast went by Eirwen. She finally got in range of pyre, kicked his shotgun out of his hands, pulled the pin on a grenade on his belt as she froze it to the belt quickly, and ran following Shade.
Pyre scrambled to throw the live grenade, but it was stuck. It exploded, covering a large portion of him in flames. His devotion to the monolith combined with a tolerance of fire and explosions learned from bomb making allowed him to fight through the pain. He picked his shotgun back up and emptied it, firing in the direction of the bandits.
The slug hit Eirwen in the arm, but had lost enough momentum that the impact did not pierce. It exploded, setting her suit on fire, but she concentrated and absorbed the heat, putting the suit out. She ran after Shade, her arm bleeding.
Shade was in a grapple with one of the dutyers that had been following them. Eirwen rushed into him, pushing him off of Shade. Landing on top of him she yelled "STOP FUCKING FOLLOWING US! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT WE DID WRONG!" as she beat him in the face for a few seconds, her punches made harder by the freezing cold around her. She wanted to continue beating this man who had caused her so much trouble, but she knew they had to leave quickly. She left the dutyer on the ground, unconcious and nearly freezing, as her and Shade finally made their escape.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Oct 23, 2012 0:57:29 GMT -5
“Hold on, this one might be useful to us,” the bandit spoke rolling the Dutyer over and took the zip ties from the other man’s own pack. “Take his pack; we’ll divvy up his stuff later and get that arm taken care of.”
Shade bound Morak’s hands and lifted him up over his shoulders, as not to far off in the background the sounds of the battle between the Dutyers and the fanatics raged. The bandits and their hostage promptly left the area. After almost twenty minutes of walking, the sound of the battle finally dimmed and the bandits where once again alone.
“Good, looks like none of our friend’s lovers followed us,” said the bandit as he shrugged off the dead weight of the unconscious stalker. Morak fell with a loud thud but did not wake; the bandit cautiously turned the Dutyer over with his foot.
“Quite the mess you made of him,” commented the bandit at the sight of the prisoner’s battered face, before continuing, “The first rule of prisoners is never underestimating them.”
The bandit checked over the Dutyers bindings before getting more zip ties and looped them around the hostage’s ankles. Sure he would sacrifice some mobility caring the man but he wanted to make absolutely sure that he was not going to get away. After all they were so close to their destination; and most of the zones wildlife would be drawn to that fight that they had just fled from. Shade soon regretted that sentiment, as they neared the road that lead to Freedom’s barrier.
“If you don’t want to glow in the dark best stay away from those cars,” he said as he looked down to see a blood trail that lead behind a set of boulders. From what he could tell that whatever had caused the trail had been dragged. Slowly the assassin pulled out one of his colts and motioned Erwin to be on guard. As the bandit was about to drop his prisoner; the Dutyer began to awake, his moan drew the attention of the beasts behind the rocks. Five Snorks hissed and snared and jumped out from their hiding spot. Shade took aim but before he could fire the black clad stalker chomped down on his neck and made the shot go wide. Morak drew blood, and it spilled into his mouth. The assassin lob the hostage off and at the mutants, the creatures ignored him and swarmed Shade. The smell of the fresh blood drove them into a frenzy; Shade held his wound as he back slapped one of the beasts as it jumped at him.
He just managed to move out of the way of the kick and claw attacks, without his normal grace. The assassin then once again aimed at the oncoming Snorks, he emptied his entire mag into the small hoard and killed three and caused the other two to limp back before finally being picked off by the other bandit.
“Erwin, go in to my right hip pouch,” mumbled out Tosya woozily holding his neck, “get out the bandage for me, I’ll need help getting it on."
The woman did as he asked, she quickly bandaged up his neck. He would need to get proper treatment once they reached the move civilized parts of the zone. But for now focused his attention over to Morak, who was now sitting up right with blood dripping down his chin glaring at the two. Shade kicked him in the gut and batter him, before cutting the ties around his ankles.
"Stand up you sorry turd," grunted out the assassin as he slapped the Dutyer a crossed his face. The stalker was taking far to long so the long haired veteran forced in up.
"Walk," ordered Shade now holding the prisoner at gun point. And this was how they continued on until they reached the outpost.
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Post by nuclearstorm on Oct 26, 2012 23:56:33 GMT -5
Eirwen listened intently to Shade's advice. She saw him as a mentor now, reteaching her the secrets of the zone and survival within.
Shade motioned to be on guard. Eirwen readied her pistol with Shade. The dutyer bit Shade in the neck and then the snorks attacked. Eirwen was surprised at these new beasts. These creatures were much more agile than she had seen. She dodged one as it jumped at her, bringing a swift ax kick down on it's neck after it landed. She quickly knelt down and began to sap heat both for her own benefit and as security for the kill. She saw another snork prepare to attack, but she reacted quickly firing a shot that embedded itself into the snork's skull.
Shade was bleeding and asked her for help. She reached into his pouch and patched him up before turning her attention to the dutyer. "Are you INSANE!?" She gave him a swift kick to the gut. "You almost just got ALL of us killed! My god are you one daft son of a bitch! I don't remember anything older than a couple hours ago and I have the common sense not to rile up a set of beasts like that!"
As they continued on Eirwen attempted conversation with the captive. "So what exactly was all this about?" She barraged him with questions. "Was it really so important you had to chase us through that mess?" She sighed. "I do apologize for the beating I gave you, but in my defense you were trying to kill both me and my friend here. Actually, I don't apologize. It was kind of fun. Besides, you are quite the asshole." The majority of the rest of their trip followed with Eirwen questioning, mocking, and provoking this man.
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Post by blackpapermoon on Oct 28, 2012 21:38:52 GMT -5
“I would have been doing both of you a favor, Snorks kill faster than the noose,” spat Morak turning his head slightly trying to see if he got a reaction out of the de facto leader of the two.
“General Voronin will make you watch as we hang your boyfriend off of Rostock’s tower, then hand you over to the Ecologists for study.”
“Sure and you will receive the Order of the Silver Shield and become a hero of the zone,” taunted the long haired bandit, “your even duller then that half-witted general of yours.”
The rest of the trip was spent with Erwin and the prisoner exchanging vile words and insults. Shade had whished that he had muzzled both the woman and the Dutyer just to shut them up, to which when he saw the green clad stalkers of Freedom he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
“Keep an eye on our guest Erwin,” Shade motioned for her to take over, “I’ll get us into their base and do try to play nice with Freedom, they are known for their snipers.”
With his hands held up he approached the barrier, the Freedomers had their weapon trained on him. An older Freedomer walked up to him and demanded to know what he and the other bandit where doing in Freedom territory.
“We seek refuge and medical treatment,” the bandit spoke in a calm tone, indicating the bandage on his neck and the blood on his suit and coat, “I have a prisoner and information to trade.”
The Freedomer glanced over Shade shoulder then sighed, clearly the bandits had come as his shift was about to end. The stalker then pulled out a worn radio; it was not his place to allow such elements into the territories.
“Boss we have a situation at the barrier; you might want to come up here.”
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Post by Basil on Oct 29, 2012 9:09:51 GMT -5
"I don't care about the oppression of the individual, bozo. You can roll yourself a joint once you're off sentry duty", snapped Adder. The young Freedomer who stood before her sulkily put away the joint he'd been rolling just a second ago. Adder sniffed and rubbed her nose, her hand fishing a worn-looking handkerchief out of her pocket.
"It's not like it'd distract me, boss", said the young Freedomer, rubbing his foot on the dirty tarmac. Adder brought the handkerchief to her nose and blew, wincing at the annoyingly trumpet-like sound that came out.
"It would", she said, sniffing and stuffing the damp handkerchief back into its stuffy fabric cavern. "We have more Duty rogues running around lately. All it takes is a few minutes of inattention to have a load of Duty fucks attacking our base. You also know that the Monolith freaks have retaken most of the area around the Scorcher and they've been launching more attacks against the Barrier..."
"Yeah, yeah. I understand", said the young man, "no smoking or we all die."
"Good", said Adder, feeling a familiar itching sensation in her nose. She was slowly building up for a sneeze when her PDA beeped and vibrated. Adder sneezed explosively, muttered a few coarse Ukrainian swear words and pulled her PDA out.
"Hey boss, Cheapskate here, we got ourselves some folks here. A girl and a guy with some Duty fascist as a prisoner..."
"I told you to make your own goddamn decisions, Cheapskate", snapped Adder, "I have enough on my hands already. Just shoot the Dutier and..."
"Eh, sorry boss but they're real peculiar. They came from the North, the girl doesn't have a PDA or any kind of identification, and the guy wants to sell us information."
Adder sighed, her hands dropping to her sides as her eyes rose to the heavens.
"Hello? Boss? You still there?"
"Okay, I'll be at the Barrier in a bit", said Adder before turning to the young Freedomer, "okay you, you're coming with me to the Barrier."
"Wha? Oh maaaan", said the youth, throwing his arms up in the air.
Fifteen minutes later, Adder and her impromptu escort were approaching the Barrier. A Freedomer sitting on a barrel and reading a porn magazine saw them coming and waved them over.
"You here for the three folks who arrived from the North?", he asked Adder.
"Yes", said Adder. The Freedomer pointed up towards the Barrier fortifications and Adder left him to his smut. When she arrived in front of the barricades she immediately saw the people that Cheapskate had been talking about: a girl who looked completely lost, some scruffy vagabond and an angry-looking Dutier.
"Right, what do we have here?", she said, approaching the group and eyeing them suspiciously, "I've never seen any of you chumps round here, so that means you've either been sneaking around like thieves or that you've never had any trouble with Freedom."
"I checked 'em up on the PDA network", said Cheapskate, "didn't find the Dutier there or the girl, but I found out that this guy with the long hair's involved in some pretty funny business."
Adder scowled at the mention of "funny business".
"Great, a bandit", she said, lacing the last word with venomous contempt, "we're not letting you bastards through any more, not after the last bunch mugged and murdered six loners near the warehouses. Remember those, Cheap?"
"Yeah", scoffed Cheapskate, "we caught 'em just before they headed South. Hung 'em from that tree up 'ere for the crows to eat."
"So...", said Adder, her snake-like eyes boring into the scruffy young man before her, "this information you told my friend about had better be the real thing. Now cough it up."
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