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.

Busy Work

"This is racist." Xanthiana was hip deep in mud, she hadn't intended on being hip deep in mud, but after slipping off a cliff up above she and the mud had become quite well acquainted.

"I don't see how this task is racist Xan it needs doing." Xanthiana and Max had been assigned to draw off a mutant force so as to allow the Ryan's and Lewis to secure him and another couple ark hunters. What that meant for Xanthiana and Max once they drew the enemy away was anyones guess, certainly not Lewis who told her that was her problem.

"Because you were an AI constructed by humans, to you having Votan's be the only ones split up and set on seperate tasks makes sense."

"It does make sense, both you and Max have optimal skill sets for individual assignments. Operator Lewis and the Ryan's are more team oriented and have a better make up for the extraction team." The mud had already gotten into her boots, she could feel it with each step, she cursed the luck of things. She also found herself hoping it really was mud and not excrement, she had seen a herd of Pows earlier.

"And as I said earlier Elly, that's your human bias talking, Votan's know that human are still trying to kill us. Take christmas music, its so incessant and annoying, and yet humans prefer to keep playing it at high volume during your 'holiday season' in clear hatred of the Votanis people." Xanthiana found a way out of the mud, and made sure it was indeed mud before continuing on to where the map in her head was directing her, a small outpost nearby.

"You don't like Christmas either?" The EGO's voice almost sounded sad.

"The holiday is nice enough, the music is horrifying, all about watchful people and promises of punishment, shouldn't holidays be something nice or festive?" The outpost looked sparsely defended, but it did supposedly have communications which would in theory bring more mutants should it come under attack. Xanthiana tried to make the case they should involve the earth forces stationed nearby, but Lewis overrode her saying that VBI did not need the authorities involved. Xanthiana did not see how a group who had arrived on an air carrier sought to avoid the authorities, but Lewis was insistent and outranked her in the organization so she followed his orders, for now.

"You're just a grinch."

"I don't even know what that is Elly, but I'll take it as a compliment. How is Max doing?"

"Max has already assaulted his outpost, his ego device informs me he's having a good time." Xanthiana smiled, at least someone was having a good time.

"And the extraction team?"

"Already in position, awaiting your distraction."

"Right lets get to it." Xanthiana had aquired a rifle from the Ryan's, it was semi auto, but had a decent magazine and the scope looked to be aligned properly. She took aim at the first mutant, its ugly face looked like an allergic reaction gone bad, and pulled the trigger. The scope was true and the mutants brain splattered against the wall behind him, she fired a couple more times before the alarm went up.

"I believe they are sufficiently agitated Xan."

"Well best to not wait around and find out how agigitated they are." Xanthiana made her way back to the ATV. She couldn't hear the mutants before she took off, but Elly assured her they were following. Xanthiana didn't know all of the ground ahead of her, but she had a route cobbled together from other Ark Hunters Elly was talking to and so she knew the basic areas she should go. Within a few minutes Elly reported the mutants were now off her trail.

"Xan I'm getting a report from the extraction team."

"Go ahead." She sighed she knew what Elly was going to say but didn't want to hear it.

"They are in need of assistance, could we possibly come to their aid?"

Its Good To Have Friends

"I recommend distracting them." The Mutant's numbers weren't insurmountable, no more than thirty of them. Odds Xanthiana herself had fought off in the war, though during those times she had better equipment and ground than she currently occupied.

"With what? A strip show?"

"Mutants are largely male you have a large bust it might actually work." Elly had a computer's mind on things.

"I'm not taking my top off!" Xanthiana was not normally a modest person, but the idea of surviving by showing her breasts seemed insulting in so many ways, she'd rather die. The other operative apparently decided discretion was the better part of valor and laid down his arm. Xanthiana felt a bit of superiority, Votan's generally never surrendered to humans even when it was certain death otherwise, and today would be no different for her, better to die on her feet than to live on her knees. Xanthiana stood on as the mutants aimed their rifles.

"Put weapon down." The one standing out front with a pistol that looked like it had seen better decades ordered one final time.

"Go fuck yourself." She punctuated her statement by spitting and pulling up her pistol. The shot hit the mutant in the chest, the rest of his squad turned to fire and then they were enveloped in fire. Xanthiana had not heard the mortar shot fired by Max until a second later, but she saw its devastating result. The sniper siblings finished off the mutants not killed in the blast. Xanthiana had a smile on her face even though she'd written off the group she had arrived with as dead.

"Nice to see you Roeyka." Max was the first to congratulate her, the sniper's looked after the operative, she wanted to pretend it wasn't racism, but she knew deep down votans will always look after votans and humans after humans.

"Got here a bit late didn't you Max?"

"Actually Xan he arrived precisely when he told me he would." Elly still did not understand the basic nature of ribbing.

"You know what they say about artillery, we aren't the first to arrive but we'll be the first you'll hear."

"I have literally never heard that before." The big sensoth put one of his massive arms over her head and drug her back to the rest of the group. She was happy things had worked out for everyone so far, but she knew the nature of conflict, everyone could be dead tomorrow.

"Glad you can join us Roeyka we have to plan." The operative who's name turned out be Tyrone Lewis, was already arranging the supplies the Ryan's had managed to scrounge up since the last conflict.

"For what?" Xanthiana did not like Lewis, he was too much about the objective and not enough about the people from what little she'd seen of his management style.

"To rescue Mr. Von Bach."

"Oh right that I forgot who is he again?"

Hellbug Matricide

"There are no identifiable weak points or stress fractures in her hide, simply put I don't think we have the fire power to even give her a bad rash let alone kill the creature."

"Elly you are full of delightful helpful information."

"The scent from the hellbug shit is also wearing off Xan, she's about to see us."

"Shit." Xanthiana knew that when it rained it poured, but it seemed like the shower she was in never relented. The operative apparently also recieved the same bad news as he charged forward firing with his rifle. Shocking to Xanthiana none of the other hellbugs seemed to have become aware of their precense immeadiately, she didn't hear a rumble of the adults and other nasties coming to aid their matriarch, it was just the defeaning shriek of the beast as the rifle slugs made an impact but no identifiable mark on its hard hide. Xanthiana not willing to be the only person fighting futilely opened fire herslef, she dropped an entire magazine into what appeared to be the "head" of the creature with no actual effect.

"I told you Xan you can not harm the creature with your weapons." Xanthiana dodged the matriarch as it came charging forward on one of its hundreds of legs, it was like a huge wrecking ball with teeth. She figured as long as the rest of the nest did not come to aid the creature her and the other operative might be able to at least avoid it to escape. That thought died when a blast of electricity emitted from the hide and shocked the crap out of her.

"Did not warn me about static electricity powers." Xanthiana felt all of her muscles spasming and her head hurt, it did not surprise her that Elly seemed also equally taken offline. Xanthiana saw things happening in a slideshow, she almost missed that the operative had managed to avoid getting zapped and exited before the matriarch slammed after him causing the cave above them to shake with her impact.

"Sorry Xan was not aware it had electricity powers, I'll update my files accordingly, the other operative said thank you before he left."

"Yeah I'm so glad I saved his ass for him to leave me behind." The Matriarch appeared stuck in the exit for the time being, which was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it meant it wasn't trying to actively eat her, a curse because the creature was freaking out causing big arcing currents of electricity to smash around the room and potentially bring down the whole cave structure on top of Xanthiana.

"Xanthiana the structural integrity of this cave has been severely damaged by the matriarch, if she keeps at her current..."

"I got it I got it I'll be crushed." Xanthiana knew she was running out of time, she also didn't have a way of killing the creature with her pistol directly, but she did see some fairly large stalagtites hanging above the beast that would prove lethal if they came down. She fired with her pistol and thankfully between the bullets and the shaking they came crashing down impaling the matriarch and stopping the cave temporarily from collapsing. Unfortunately whatever was preventing the rest of the hive from intervening had come to a halt, Xanthiana could hear behind her a tremendous sound of angry hungry hellbugs looking to kill whatever had just killed their mama. Xanthiana scrambled over the fresh corpse of the matriach, she could see a little bit of daylight between the top of the bug and the cave. The creature smelled horrible, its blood a sticky ooze that clinged to her, as she slipped down to her exit the matriach suddenly sprang to life, its horrific mouth grabbing a hold of her boot. Xanthiana acted fast, firing once again above the creature and bringing a final cavern nail into its body causing the creature to let her go and its screeching death wail to finish the rest of the cave in.

"Yeah fuck you too." She said as she slipped out of the cave and into the daylight beyond. Unfortunately the mutants had also apparently known about this exit as she could see the operative had already been recaptured and their guns turned to her as she emerged.

"Xanthiana I believe they want us to surrender."

"Well ain't that kind of them."

Hellacious Bugs

"Why aren't they attacking?" Xanthiana was covered in Hellbug shit, the smell was so awful she could hardly breathe. The hellbugs which were all over had not attacked her or the other operative yet.

"They are smell hunters Xan, you smell like their excrement they do not see you."

"Well great now I feel better for smelling like shit." The operative got up and started to walk forward very slowly.

"He's not going to talk for fear of alerting the bugs, but he suggest we move forward at a rapid pace." Xanthiana herself got to her feet and followed his lead, though she still wasn't exactly trusting the shit scent mask.

"Well I'm certainly all broken up by the lack of company." The bugs seemed mildly content to just mull about in their caves. In a way it was interesting to just watch the monsters in their native enviroment and not lunging for her neck, Xanthiana could almost forget the creatures sucked the bone marrow from peoples bodies, almost. They continued past the smaller drones and started to be near the larger adults, Xanthiana hoped they wouldn't wake up and notice she was there, because it would be all over, but the sickening sound of her entrails being eaten.

"Keep going this way, the maps say there should be a secondary exit around here." Xanthiana was glad Elly said something she was beginning to wonder if they were just going deeper into hellbug land for nothing. The operative had already skipped ahead of her, she figured he was leaving her behind it seemed to be in his dickish nature.

"I really hope he's not leaving us behind Elly."

"Officially he's scouting ahead for trouble."

"Unofficially?"

"He's totally leaving us behind." Xanthiana picked up her pace even if it meant upsetting the bugs, she didn't know how long the shit mask would work on her and didn't want the operative up ahead to some how piss off the bugs and get her eaten. She was moving so fast she didn't realize he was standing right in front of her until she bumped into him. She was about to curse him out for just standing there like an idiot when she looked up and saw a hellbug matriarch, or what she could assume was a hellbug matriarch since she'd never actually seen one before.

"That's a hellbug matriarch."

"Correct Xan."

"And its standing in the way to the exit of this cave."

"Correct Xan."

"We are completely fucked aren't we?"

"Correct Xan."

"I hate being right."