A Problem Seeking a Solution

"Roeyka I need your report." The voice of Cobb was in her head, the sound of rockets and bandits was behind her as she kept fleeing, Xanthiana had not exactly figured where she was running too, but away seemed like the best option.

"Kind of busy right now." The rocket launcher bandit was at least slower than his other comrades though no less able to chase after her. Xanthiana could see a farm house in the distance, she hoped it was abandoned for the inhabitants sake.

"I sure hope you're not fleeing from a group of bandits as that would pretty much be in direct contradiction to the orders I gave you of observing bandit camps not engaging them." The farm house was closer and Xanthiana could see people who looked horrified at the hell she was about to bring down on them, her luck had not held at all.

"Nope not engaing bandits Cobb, I'm training for the Paradise marathon, tough competition this year." The farmhouse group had moved into their home and locked their door, which was smart and safe for them, but left Xanthiana without a place to bunker down, the only other area there was a barn and it would have to do. She ran inside brought both of the barn doors closed behind her just in time for Bandit fire to almost take her ear off.

"Roeyka." Cobb almost sounded like her dad if she could remember what he sounded like.

"Sorry Cobb losing you signal isn't strong enough to maintain soon as I get back in range I'll get in touch bye." It was weird trying to fake transmitter issues with a radio she couldn't just simply shut off, "Elly disable the feed to Cobb."

"Already done Xan, though I think Sgt. Cobb will clue in we aren't having signal issues."

"We have to live for that to be a problem Elly." Xanthiana scampered up to the second level of the barn, the livestock were apparently still in the fields as aside from her and some hay bales the barn was empty. She used the hay as makeshift cover and waited for the bandits.

"Options?" Xanthiana had a moment while the bandits themselves considered their tactical options.

"Run keep running? We're in a wooden structure behind hay bales and one of our enemies is wearing armor we can't penetrate."

"We can't keep running Elly I'm already tired and if we leave these bandits here the people of this farm will get murdered." Xanthiana saw the front door of the barn open slowly and then shut, the bandits were apparently being cautious seeing as she had killed four of them while running already.

"The family of this farm was all set to leave you to die anyway, self preservation Xan." Xanthiana couldn't exactly find fault with the logic the AI was using, the world was a harsh place and most people would leave you to die rather than help you, but Xanthiana held herself better than one of those people. The barn doors exploded in a hail of wood announcing the arrival of the metal man Sensoth.  Roeyka figured it was better to go out on her feet than fleeing and so she opened fire on the bandit and his group, the bullets cascaded off the Sensoth but found their mark on the two bandits with him, the death throes of one of his companions messed up the Metal Man's aim and his rocket went low and blew out the back wall of the barn, she heard a creak from the roof up above.

"Xan."

"Not now Elly kind of busy." Xanthiana looked around but there weren't any windows up in the loft section of the barn.

"Xan, the structural integrity of this building is compromised, if we..."

"Make it worse we can bring it down on that asshole and his friends." Xanthiana snatched up one of the grenades she had, they were incendiary which would have done shit against the Sensoth, but if he was trapped under flaming wreckage he'd be in considerably more trouble. The Sensoth fired another rocket up her way, he missed but punched a hole out the back wall Xanthiana could escape through. She tossed her two incendiary grenades down below at the places Elly highlighted and then lept out the hole the Rocket had made. The grenades did their job, exploding and weaking the other support the barn had and it came crashing down on the bandits and their Iron leader. Xanthiana was about to check on the farmers to make sure they made it through fine when the Metal man emerged from the wreckage, his rocket launcher appeared busted but he was still a very large menacing figure.

The partially on fire, very pissed off Sensoth slowly made his way out of the burning wreckage. Xanthiana opened fire on him hoping the barn has dislodged a piece of his armor but nothing stopped the creature. He was about on top of her his hulking fist coiled up to crush her when a bullet pierced his head. The Sensoth went rigid and then crashed to the ground in front of her, Xanthiana heard the boom of the Sniper rifle right as he landed.

"Roeyka can I assume now you have fixed your communications issue and ceased training for your marathon?" Cobb's voice sounded smug, Xanthiana couldn't blame him, it was a hell of a shot.

Lack of Authority

"And we have our third group of bandits who have overrun a local mine, are we sure there is a local authority in the area?" Xanthiana had been doing the scouting job on foot and had spent the majority of the day walking between bandit camps which seemed to make up the majority of the paradise mining community.

"According to my records law enforcement in the area is understaffed."

"You don't say I can't imagine how that is considering how many bandits are in the area. I would figure they could wake up everyday shoot bandits from dawn till dusk and not actually make a dent in the population."

"I believe that is probably Sergeant Cobb's plan Xan." Cobb hadn't really told Xan his plan at all. It was just go scout the camps and don't come back till you've done the job.

"Won't that upset the authority in the area? I mean in theory there is law right?" Xanthiana realized of course that "law" in the new world pretty much amounted to shooting people before they shot you, but she wanted to believe that it didn't have to be that way everywhere. Bullets coming at her from the bandit camp explained to her not everyone felt the same way about rule of law.

"We have multiple bandits incoming."

"Gee I couldn't figure that out." Xanthiana was crouched up by a rock, she thought she had snuck up on the camp decently especially in the low light of the evening, she had apparently been very wrong.

"MOVE!" The voice of Elly was practically screaming at her, Xanthiana obeyed and the rocket that exploded the boulder she had been hiding behind showered her with debris. Xanthiana slid down the hill she had climbed up to spy on the bandits and turned around to wait for the rocket launcher bandit and his friends.

"I hadn't noticed the artillery, we'll have to talk with the local authority about some gun control amongst the general population." She didn't see the bandit with the rocket launcher, but several other bandits emerged from the smoke and she opened up on them. She got three before they realized the rocket had not killed her. The other bandits disappeared back down the hill they had come from. Xanthiana breathed a sigh of relif until a massive Sensoth in what appeared to be welded on armor emerged, carrying some kind of makeshift rocket launcher with him.

"I do believe that armor will not be penetrated by our rifle Xan."

"You're a wealth of information Elly."

"Tactical retreat?"

"Is that anything like running the hell away because that was my plan."

Business Almost as Usual

"Its fucked." Elly had done her diagnostic of the Challenger's engine and this was her final report. Xanthiana was underneath the engine trying to fix the hybrid human/votan engine. It seemed like everything she did just made something else break, in a way it was exactly like the erep's encampment in paradise. For every mutant group or hellbug colony they wiped out another problem sprung up. On top of that the other Ark Hunters had apparently gotten into some new shit with Von Bach and local law enforcement. Xanthiana in the meantime had been trying to fix the Challenger and failing, it had been five days since Cobb had said he was assigned to her and he had not returned. She was beginning to think the reassignment had gotten forgotten when she felt a boot strike hers.

"Time's up Roeyka time for you to get back in the field." Cobb had his usual don't give a shit demeanor to him.

"Car's still busted Cobb I'm going nowhere."

"Don't need a car to do the job I need you to do. Its a quick scout and out something even a Votan could pull off." Xanthiana picked up the anger in the way Cobb said Votan, she'd heard it before but wrote it off as Cobb being an ass, but now she wasn't so sure.

"Tell you what, you help me find the parts I need to get this running and I'll do your little mission." She slid out from underneath the car and to Cobb's scowling face.

"I have a better deal, you do what I tell you to do or I execute you for being a traitor to the Earth Republic."

"You know how to make a bargain Cobb." Xanthiana was a bit distressed how quickly the conversation turned from simple discussion to threats of execution, but in her experience that was the Earth Republic in a nut shell.

"Get to the quartermaster, get some new clothes, some ammo, and get moving, I'll upload the map to your ego device." Cobb turned around and walked off, she could hear him yelling at some private for something else apparently today was Asshole day for Cobb.

"Cobb is not a very nice person is he?" Elly had been quiet during the exchange choosing to not overwhelm her operator with an additional conversation that only Xanthiana could hear or participate in.

"No one from the Ereps usually are in my experience."

"That's not fair considering your experience Xan."

"Life's not fair." Xanthiana reached the quartermaster and he had a package of clothing and ammo already ready for her.

"Thanks, anything I should know?" The quartermaster was a man named Styles, he didn't so much have a base of operations so much as he had a tent, a guard, and some scattered supplies behind him.

"Yeah this job sucks." Styles was like everyone else a man of few words.

"We're moving off the mountain!" Elly was excited, Xanthiana considerably less so.

"Oh yeah?" Xanthiana was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Yeah we're heading into paradise proper, they apparently have issues with bandits."

"Oh that's wonderful Elly, any other good news?"

"The bandits are apparently in mines?" Elly's voice trailed off like a child who realized their parent was not happy, "That's a bad thing right?"

"Yes Elly, yes it is."

New Business Opportunities

"You know Roeyka there are safer ways of breaking up a blockade." The erep medic fixing her up was named Johnson from the tag on his uniform, though she couldn't be sure if that was really his name or just the uniform he was currently wearing.

"My EGO device informed me of the same thing, I'll tell you the same thing I told her, none of those ways are quite as fun as ramming it in a muscle car." Three cracked ribs, a bruise that covered the entire right side of her face, and a cut over her eye that took at least twelve stitches to heal told her otherwise about the amount of fun it was to crash into the barricade. As a plus the Challenger seemingly made it out ok, though of course it wasn't starting at the moment.

"In the future you might not have erep support Operator, take care of yourself a little bit better than this ok?" Johnson finished the stitching and gave the thumbs up to someone standing just outside of the tent. Sergent Cobb entered his usual bright personality on display.

"How are you feeling Roeyka you look like shit." She was still covered in the mud she'd fallen into, and the blood from her head wound had coated the rest of her uniform, plus she hadn't showered in what felt like forever, she could tell by the look on his face she smelled something awful.

"Right as razor rain as the saying goes." Bravado was all she had left.

"As I said you look it, I'll be nice and give you a couple days to get your shit together, then you're back with me, you've been reassigned."

"What?" Xanthiana tried to stand up, her body lighting up in pain told her that was a bad idea and she sat back down.

"Did I stutter? You're back with me Roeyka, we've got more problems than just mutants and VBI gave you back to us."

"That's bullshit Cobb, I'm here to protect Von Bach and hunt Arks, not play nice with ereps, no offense, but that's not what I signed up for."

"VBI sees things differently, apparently your tactics and tack have not won you any friends at the company Roeyka." Elly had been quiet for a bit post the crash, Xanthiana wrote it off as being angry at her for being reckless, apparently it was something else entirely.

"Fantastic Cobb, so what shit duty have I pulled now?" Xanthiana was upset, but she couldn't exactly put her finger on why, its not like her time acting as a VBI employee had been all sunshine and rainbows, but it still hurt they didn't want her for whatever was next post rescuing Von Bach.

"I'll get to that when you're feeling better Roeyka, just rest up, take a shower, maybe find some clean clothes that fit, and then come find me." Cobb left as abruptly as he arrived and Xanthiana was alone to curse her luck. At least she still had the car she thought, even if it didn't run, that at least brought a smile to her face. The car could be fixed, the issue with VBI though, would take a lot more effort.

Blockade Busting

"This is not an optimal route for overtaking the enemy." Elly was attempting to draw on the map in Xanthiana's head a route to get to the convoy that was under attack, but Xanthiana's driving was making it extremely difficult.

"I know where I'm going."

"You do not appear to know where you are going at all Xan." Xanthiana shrugged at her mental companion and kept her hand fully on the throttle, the atv's engine complied and the dirt roads and shattered rubble she was leaping around and over kept flying by. Xanthiana had to admit the route was definitely not the most comfortable, with each landing she could feel a new bruise on her ass, but she had to over take the enemy and from Elly's description of the attackers they had speed on their side.

"How's the convoy doing?" The extraction team had at least secured a large truck to get Von Bach out with, unfortunately it meant they had to stick to what little remained of the roads in the area which were swarming with mutants.

"Combat efficiency among operatives on the convoy has fallen over twenty five percent, no casualties yet, but injuries are mounting. The truck is still functional, but the mutants are coordinating efforts now to shut it down."

"And Von Bach?"

"Currently alive." Well at least one good thing had happened with the stupid plan. Max would not be joining the effort to relieve the convoy because he didn't have a vehicle. Xanthiana had Elly attempting to reach the earth forces in the area, those calls were not currently being answered either. Xanthiana went over a bend and she could see the beleaguered convoy coming at her, it was being pursued by Mutants on atv's like hers and at least one modified muscle car, probably a Challenger. Xanthiana looked to her left to see any obstructions coming up for the convoy and spotted a large blockade a few miles past her position that would most assuredly shut down the convoy up the road.

"We have to do something."

"The optimal solution would be to shoot the Challenger in the engine at these points, that would reduce the attackers to atvs and those are more manageable."

"Negative Elly, we need the Challenger." Xanthiana took aim with her rifle, the drivers windshield was blocked with metal, most likely she wouldn't be able to shoot through it and hit the driver.

"This is not the optimal solution Xan."

"You need to redefine optimal to what I say Elly, it'll make this easier." Xanthiana gunned the engine and charged towards the convoy, she shot past the attackers and she swore for a brief moment she saw Lewis with a look of shock on his face. Once beyond the truck she could see the front of the modified challenger, it had increased armor all over, which was perfect for what she needed it for. She crashed the atv into the hood and lept on top of the car. The mutant driving took a hard right to avoid the wreckage of her atv and it almost through Xanthiana off the hood. She crawled along the top of the hood and got on the roof of the car, the creature was trying hard to shake her off, and in doing so had fallen behind the rest of his group and the truck itself. Keeping her group on the roof she reached over to open the passenger side door, upon opeing it bullets came from the driver side of the car. She heard the creature firing until his weapon clicked empty, at that point she swung in from the top and fired her own weapon into the creature. It slumped into the driver seat, its foot fell off the gas and the car started to slow down.Xanthiana kicked the creature out of the car and slammed the door behind her.

"Elly tell the operatives to slow down, and not to shoot at us."

"Done Xan."

Xanthiana accelerated and the car obliged, she liked the feel of having a real car beneath her instead of the atv, even if it smelled like dead mutant. The other mutants on the atv's hadn't clued in that the car had changed hands and were caught off guard when she smashed into them. She easily dealt with two of the three atv's and left the last one for the other operatives. She drove past the truck and gunned it to pick up speed. She could see the make shift barricade in front of her and she hoped the car was as armored as it had looked.

"Xan this might not be the safest method of getting past the blockade."

"Nope, but it will be the most fun." Xanthiana smiled as the car roared forward, if she was to die, at least she'd go out having a good time, was her last thought before impact.