"Tell me again how you lost my quarry." Rushard was standing in front of a group of refugees he'd had workingthe docks to try and dredge up the crashed ship. The subordinate he was addressing was miles away and he was using the EGO device to talk to the man, even though he wasn't vocalizing what he was saying, he still was pacing and waving his hands about, which amused and terrified the refugees. It appeared the well dressed Casithan was insane.
"She unleashed some kind of monster on us sir." Rushard was upset, he didn't want to be upset, but he was upset all the same.
"How many men did I send your way again?"
"Fifteen sir."
"And you're telling me, fifteen of you FUCKING MORONS COULD NOT POSSIBLY APPREHEND ONE GOD DAMN IRATHIENT BITCH!?" He had taken to actually shouting instead of just saying it in his head, the refugees flinched at the sudden yelling.
"Sir the creature was huge."
"I don't give a shit, clearly you're still alive, clearly it wasn't so big you couldn't kill it, CLEARLY YOU COULD HAVE CAUGHT THE BITCH I WANTED YOU TO CATCH!" Rashard suddenly felt like the collar on his shirt was too tight, he could see the refugees staring at him and he waved his hand and they scattered.
"Sir we only have four people left, the creature is dead we think." Rushard hated incompetence, he hated being told something didn't go as planned, and he hated most of all that the Irathient bitch was still out there, possibly about to mess up one of his plans.
"Well then the four of you better get that bitch or don't come back." He wished there was a way to slam the EGO device down like any other communicator, but there wasn't, so at best he could just cut off the communication and consider that the final word on the subject. "Now my lovelies, you were telling me you couldn't get my ship out of some sediment?" The crowd of refugees who had scattered reformed, fear in their eyes.
"Sir the ship is just too deep, we don't have the equipment to lift something that heavy."
"You don't? Oh well why didn't you say so." He got close the refugee who had spoke and shot him in the head. "Does anyone else think you don't have the proper equipment to get that ship? No? Good NOW GET ME MY FUCKING SHIP!" Rushard was still fuming, he didn't want to be angry, but something in the back of his mind told him he better deal with that Irathient who had killed his men now, or he'd be screwed later. After all she was his slave, and she had to respect her master.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Problems in the Rear View
"I'm not judging your results Xan, but I believe we might have wanted to stick around and destroy that creature." Xanthiana had fled immediately upon coming out of the mine leaving the mercenaries to deal with the hulking creature of the 99'ers. She was helped by them ignoring her and focusing on the rampaging beast, but Elly just had to be the voice of reason. Xanthiana was driving down the road, having gotten to her car and gotten out of the situation as soon as possible.
"I'm sure the mercenaries can handle it, and if they can't its not like one creature can destroy all of paradise can it?"
"I don't believe this is what we call an optimal situation Xan."
"Elly you have to work with me here."
"I'm just saying Xan, we shouldn't flee a situation we could help with." Xanthiana breathed out heavily. The ego device wasn't wrong in a traditional sense, but in the world that she lived in it was wrong in every sense of the word. In the new world the only person you help most was yourself in Xanthiana's experience. Her even helping the members of Top Notch was a bit of a stretch for her, but she had to pay them off, it was the one thing in the new world that seemed to bite you in the ass more than anything else, owing anyone anything.
"Tell you what Elly, next horrific creature that is killing mercenaries we'll stop and help, deal?"
"I have a feeling you won't honor this deal at all, but deal." Xanthiana had no plans to honor that deal, or hope that the deal would come to be honored at all, but it got the EGO off her back and that was important for the moment. The drive back to Top Notch was pretty uneventful, so much so that Xanthiana let her mind drift for a moment and almost slammed in to a make shift barricade being swarmed by what looked like a horde of people.
"What the shit?" The horde looked to be infected, probably with the disease that she had been sent to get the supplies to help combat.
"Careful Xan, they appear to be infected with an airborne mutagen that has made them rabid." Xanthiana had stopped the car short of the barricade, and so far the infected had not noticed her, but she didn't think that would hold out.
"Options?"
"We ran before."
"As good as that sounds Elly, I think if we don't stand and fight here there won't be a here to come back to."
"Oh sure ignore the giant interesting monster, stay and fight the horrible plague, you make no sense Xan."
"Clearly Elly you don't know Irathients at all." Xanthiana checked the ammunition in her rifle, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Mutant Mutilation
"Puny smelly thing in my home." The creature looked to be stitched together from all sorts of people and then reinforced with cybernetic parts. Why the 99'ers had created it was anyone's guess. The creature lumbered out of where it appeared to have been sleeping and slammed a fist into the ground. Xanthiana didn't wait to see if it was hostile, she opened fire with her rifle, the bullets impacted but didn't seem to do much to the creatures flesh even with the acid impacts. Xanthiana kept on the run, the creature due to its size and the limits of its flesh seemed slow to get up and move around, which was a minor benefit considering Xanthiana didn't appear to have a means of hurting it.
"Options?" Xanthiana had grown so used to talking to Elly in her head, she was a bit surprised to have said it out loud.
"I'd suggest an escape." Xanthiana scanned the room quickly and didn't see any exit, which raised the question of how the huge monster got down here in the first place.
"Well if you can find an exit in this room I'd surely appreciate the heads up." The mutant had gone into a charge, Xanthiana side stepped it and it slammed hard into the rock wall causing the ceiling to shake over head bringing down part of the room. Xanthiana had forgotten about the crate of parts this job was originally about, she spotted it in the middle of the room miraculously unharmed, for the time being anyway.
"Structurally the room appears to be weakest in the northern section, if you can get the creature to damage it further, you should be able to use that to escape."
"So you want me to stand in front of the northern wall and hope the creature destroys it?"
"Well its either that or hoping the ineffectual bullets you are shooting will suddenly work."
"Fair point." Xanthiana went to the cave wall on the north side and shot toward the creatures face, she figured if she couldn't kill it, she might wound it or at the very least blind it. Her bullets made an impact into the eyes but didn't seem to do much damage, but they did enrage it so that it stopped, snorted, and then full on charged toward her. It was faster than before and almost caught her off guard. She felt her foot get clipped by the monster as it crashed into the wall, and then through it. The impact on her foot was enough to throw off her dodge and send her crashing into the ground.
"Get up Xan, the creature has been temporarily disabled!" Xanthiana looked up from the ground and could see the monster had impaled itself on a piece of the cavern, but as the EGO device had suggested, it did appear still functional and able to fight. Xanthiana ran back to the center of the room and snatched up the crate of supplies. She ran past the monster and found herself in what looked like some kind of run off for the mine proper, she could see light at the end of a tunnel and ran for it, behind her she could hear the creature waking up. She came into the light and found the mercs were waiting for her somehow.
"Trust me on this one boys, you're going to want to run." They laughed and then the monster burst forth and they weren't laughing anymore.
"Options?" Xanthiana had grown so used to talking to Elly in her head, she was a bit surprised to have said it out loud.
"I'd suggest an escape." Xanthiana scanned the room quickly and didn't see any exit, which raised the question of how the huge monster got down here in the first place.
"Well if you can find an exit in this room I'd surely appreciate the heads up." The mutant had gone into a charge, Xanthiana side stepped it and it slammed hard into the rock wall causing the ceiling to shake over head bringing down part of the room. Xanthiana had forgotten about the crate of parts this job was originally about, she spotted it in the middle of the room miraculously unharmed, for the time being anyway.
"Structurally the room appears to be weakest in the northern section, if you can get the creature to damage it further, you should be able to use that to escape."
"So you want me to stand in front of the northern wall and hope the creature destroys it?"
"Well its either that or hoping the ineffectual bullets you are shooting will suddenly work."
"Fair point." Xanthiana went to the cave wall on the north side and shot toward the creatures face, she figured if she couldn't kill it, she might wound it or at the very least blind it. Her bullets made an impact into the eyes but didn't seem to do much damage, but they did enrage it so that it stopped, snorted, and then full on charged toward her. It was faster than before and almost caught her off guard. She felt her foot get clipped by the monster as it crashed into the wall, and then through it. The impact on her foot was enough to throw off her dodge and send her crashing into the ground.
"Get up Xan, the creature has been temporarily disabled!" Xanthiana looked up from the ground and could see the monster had impaled itself on a piece of the cavern, but as the EGO device had suggested, it did appear still functional and able to fight. Xanthiana ran back to the center of the room and snatched up the crate of supplies. She ran past the monster and found herself in what looked like some kind of run off for the mine proper, she could see light at the end of a tunnel and ran for it, behind her she could hear the creature waking up. She came into the light and found the mercs were waiting for her somehow.
"Trust me on this one boys, you're going to want to run." They laughed and then the monster burst forth and they weren't laughing anymore.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Mind If I Step Out?
The mine was definitely deeper on the inside than it had looked on the outside. So far it had appeared empty despite signs of workers tools discarded about. The smells got worse further in. Xanthiana knew Gulanite could stink, but she had no idea it could smell this awful, or whatever the 99'ers were doing down in the dark could stink this awful. It was overpowering to the point of her eyes watering.
"What is that smell?" Xanthiana started to doubt it was the rocks, and feared it was something else horrible instead.
"Unknown, I don't believe its gulanite, the mining process does not produce an odor like this, also I keep bringing this up, but the stability of this area is highly compromised Xan, we need to get out of this mine."
"Well if you can identify an exit I'd surely agree with you and we could leave." Elly didn't have an exit and Xanthiana continued on. The mine was broken up in active veins and what seemed like administration, or whatever the 99'ers would consider administration. Xanthiana decided on the admin buildings since that would possibly have a map and/or a clear indication of another entrance to the mine.
"No 99'ers currently on radar, its hard to pick up signals thanks to all the interference, so I can't say that with 100% accuracy, but I'm scanning on multiple frequencies and coming up with nothing."
"Well thats encouraging or terrifying, smell is getting worse though, maybe this isn't admin, and its actually waste processing?"
"Unlikely, from what I've scanned of the 99'ers the first thing they remove from their subjects is the digestive system."
"How nice of them."
"My records indicate prior to the madness that gripped their miners union that particular digestive track removal was necessitated by the company, without food to process workers productivity was increased 58%."
"All at the cost of their humanity, how nice of that company." Xanthiana didn't know a lot about how earth had been running post arkfall, but every time she thought she'd reached the limits of madness she'd find something else horrible. Administration was also completely empty, though the smell was getting worse and worse, it was a building sense of dread that percolated through everything. She had to wonder how the 99'ers dealt with it, but she was sure like their intestines they probably had their noses removed as well.
"Xan I just ran an analysis of the smell, I advise against continuing here, this is not administration, nor will it lead to an exit." Xanthiana was about to ask what it could be when she turned a corner and ran into a room full of body parts. It made sense of course, the 99'ers kidnapped people and forcibly turned them into 99'ers obviously all those body part had to go somewhere. Though it was more than a little alarming for Xanthiana to see them casually strewn about the room.
"This is their surgical operation."
"Correct, though this appears to just be a storage area for dead organic matter according to my analysis the 99'ers don't see it as anything more than organic waste." Xanthiana was going to make a quip about that when her footing gave way. She clanged around some access tunnels before being deposited in what looked like a large hollowed out mine shaft.
"Ow, anything broken Elly?"
"No Xan some areas will bruise but I don't detect any broken bones," Xanthiana was about to ask where they were when she heard a large growl, "Xan I'm detecting a fairly large biomass approaching." Out of the darkness a hulking cybernetic giant emerged, it looked about twenty feet tall.
"Gee you don't say."
"What is that smell?" Xanthiana started to doubt it was the rocks, and feared it was something else horrible instead.
"Unknown, I don't believe its gulanite, the mining process does not produce an odor like this, also I keep bringing this up, but the stability of this area is highly compromised Xan, we need to get out of this mine."
"Well if you can identify an exit I'd surely agree with you and we could leave." Elly didn't have an exit and Xanthiana continued on. The mine was broken up in active veins and what seemed like administration, or whatever the 99'ers would consider administration. Xanthiana decided on the admin buildings since that would possibly have a map and/or a clear indication of another entrance to the mine.
"No 99'ers currently on radar, its hard to pick up signals thanks to all the interference, so I can't say that with 100% accuracy, but I'm scanning on multiple frequencies and coming up with nothing."
"Well thats encouraging or terrifying, smell is getting worse though, maybe this isn't admin, and its actually waste processing?"
"Unlikely, from what I've scanned of the 99'ers the first thing they remove from their subjects is the digestive system."
"How nice of them."
"My records indicate prior to the madness that gripped their miners union that particular digestive track removal was necessitated by the company, without food to process workers productivity was increased 58%."
"All at the cost of their humanity, how nice of that company." Xanthiana didn't know a lot about how earth had been running post arkfall, but every time she thought she'd reached the limits of madness she'd find something else horrible. Administration was also completely empty, though the smell was getting worse and worse, it was a building sense of dread that percolated through everything. She had to wonder how the 99'ers dealt with it, but she was sure like their intestines they probably had their noses removed as well.
"Xan I just ran an analysis of the smell, I advise against continuing here, this is not administration, nor will it lead to an exit." Xanthiana was about to ask what it could be when she turned a corner and ran into a room full of body parts. It made sense of course, the 99'ers kidnapped people and forcibly turned them into 99'ers obviously all those body part had to go somewhere. Though it was more than a little alarming for Xanthiana to see them casually strewn about the room.
"This is their surgical operation."
"Correct, though this appears to just be a storage area for dead organic matter according to my analysis the 99'ers don't see it as anything more than organic waste." Xanthiana was going to make a quip about that when her footing gave way. She clanged around some access tunnels before being deposited in what looked like a large hollowed out mine shaft.
"Ow, anything broken Elly?"
"No Xan some areas will bruise but I don't detect any broken bones," Xanthiana was about to ask where they were when she heard a large growl, "Xan I'm detecting a fairly large biomass approaching." Out of the darkness a hulking cybernetic giant emerged, it looked about twenty feet tall.
"Gee you don't say."
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