Open Treasures of the Old World (A Fallout RP)

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    Simus

    An Excellent Site Member
    Jessica stretched out on the bench after Kenzi jumped from the wagon. She slowly sat up and gave herself time to wake up as she observed their surroundings. The dead city of San Francisco had given way to a cracked, broken highway, wide open sky and an endless expanse of sand, cracked dirt and gravel with large boulders and hills in the distance. Buzzards called out to each other in the distance and she could see a herd of bighorners heading off into the distance. This land was rugged and harsh but also beautiful. She had never seen anything like it before, such an expanse of nature even after all this time. It gave her hope that even in the wasteland they lived in, scarred by nuclear fire and constant war, there was life.

    Kenzi hopping back onto the wagon brought Jessica back to reality. "There we go! Should stop me getting a sunburn and safe from bugs. Did you know it keeps you cooler? Funny how interesting the small things seem now. Is this trip making you nervous, or is it just me?"

    "Actually, yeah, it kind of is." Jessica confessed to Kenzi, looking up at her. "Before I fell asleep, we'd gone a full twenty minutes without seeing another soul. Now, out here, there's absolutely nothing. It's beautiful but eerie. Back home you couldn't walk to the bathroom without running into someone you knew. Now we could go for miles without seeing a soul. All this open space, it...well...it kind of scares me."

    As they rolled along, Stella and Jed had their eyes on the rock formation to their left. The dull gray rocks ranged from chest high boulders to huge, towering ones ten feet high and at least five feet wide. They led up to and were settled upon a large grassy hill that led to a cave with a wooden door. There was clearly a camp here and it was in the perfect spot for an ambush. Two Powder Gangers were watching them with a pair of binoculars and a scoped varmint rifle.

    "Better get the boss." One said. "Looks like we got ourselves another score."

    "Damn that's a big one. Probably got a lot a good plops on em. Assuming our guys at the outpost didn't shake em down for everything."

    "plops man, these guys probably wasted those fluffbrain retards. That means we get all their gear, ha ha!"

    "Ha. Hell yeah. Let's go get the boss, set up a little "welcome party." They're probably gonna come up here and see what's up."

    "Ha, yeah. fluffin' idiots. We'll be ready for 'em."

    Jed was the first to spot movement along the rocks. Jessica had taken the time to tell Kenzi about her pip boy.

    "So see this dial here? This shows an up to date map of our surroundings, and the date and time! Look! It's 1:16 p.m! On October 23rd! And it's a Monday! Okay, and when I twist this knob to this dash here it shows my current status! Hydration is good thanks to my water here, I'm a little hungry and all my vitals are good! There's even a setting that shows what I'm carrying! This is amazing! Now this one shows..."

    "Jed! Movement on the rocks at 11 o'clock!" Stella shouted from the other wagon.

    "I see it Stella!" Jed called back. He brought the brahmin to heel and Stella did the same, bringing both wagons to a stop. "Everybody out! Somebody's up there on that rocky hill and we're in a bad place to get ambushed! Vex, Kenzi! Take point! Stella, Andrea! take our sides! Everybody else, get behind me!"

    Soon everyone was out of the wagons and in formation. The group advanced slowly as they headed towards the rocks and the terrain got steadily rougher. Dust and hard dirt gave way to gravel, sand and patches of grass. It was like walking into a forest of boulders and even though it made for plenty of cover, visibility was low. The hill wasn't for dozens of feet and that gave whoever was up there plenty of time to set up an ambush as soon as the group stepped onto that hill. The rocks were big and tall there and had been blasted into makeshift barricades. The sand and gravel made climbing difficult and charging up dangerous. This was not a good spot to be in.

    "See anything Stella?" Jed asked in a low voice, not wanting to give anyone up there any more advantage than what they already had. He pumped his caravan shotgun in anticipation.

    "Not yet Jed. Rocks up there are good cover and we can't see very well." She checked her laser rifle to make sure all was well. Then she kept her eyes and ears open.

    "Why the fluff are we going up there man?" Ricky asked, clearly scared. "Let's just turn around and get the fluff out! We're walking into a fluffing ambush!"

    "Keep it down you idiot! We're exposed enough as it is. They don't need any help from you."

    "Besides, you're a 'fluffing storm of death' remember? We should be fine...right?" Jessica said, shaking with anticipation. Her laser rifle was out and ready and her plasma defender was loaded but she was so very nervous. She had never been in a real battle before and now she was just being thrust into one. What had she gotten herself into?

    "We're gonna be fine Jess. Just stay focused and stay behind the rest of us. If you see a bullet hit near you, get to cover and stay there, okay?"

    "Right. Take cover. First rule of engagement. Brotherhood Codex, Combat Tactics, page 7 paragraph 1."

    The neared the hill. Vex and Kenzi had taken cover behind two boulders at the hill's base and signaled the group to move up. Everyone moved as close as they could and took cover behind the largest boulders they could find. Jessica and Ricky shared a boulder and both of their hearts were hammering. Their fear and anxiety fed off of each other and amplified the effect. Everyone else was completely silent. Moments passed and Jessica's heart was beating in her throat. Ricky's breathing was so loud that Daryl on the next rock over could hear him. He stuck his foot out one inch too far and it was found by the glint of a grenade rifle. The loud P-THUMP of the rifle was all anyone could here before a round hit Jessica and Ricky's boulder.

    The world above them exploded in a shower of dust, heat and shrapnel equal parts metal and sandstone.

    "TAKE COVER!" Jed yelled as a hail of bullets rained down on the group. He shot off both his shotgun barrels in quick succession and then took cover to reload.

    "EVERYBODY STAY DOWN!" Stella shouted. "ONLY SHOOT AT WHAT YOU CAN HIT! USE SUPPRESSING FIRE ONLY IF YOU NEED TO! DO NOT WASTE YOUR AMMO!" She fired several shots with her laser rifle and managed to tag one of the gang members in the shoulder, producing a burning red wound and causing him to drop his light machine gun just as he was ready to fire. It stumbled down the hill and out of reach. Two more shots from Jed's shotgun found his head.

    Acting on instinct, Jessica got down and curled up into a ball with her back against the boulder to minimize her profile. She was pelted with bits of dull rock but her armor protected her. She cradled her laser rife and clutched it for dear life. As the noise of combat erupted around her she closed her eyes and prayed. Ricky wasn't fast enough to dodge everything and a small piece of shrapnel grazed his right foot. Adrenaline immediately took over and he returned fire in the general direction of the rifle. His 10mm submachine gun was held together with a large piece of duct tape and immediately jammed when fired. After seeing this, Ricky dropped his weapon and panicked. Jessica simply curled up into a ball and waited for it to be over, tears of fear streaming down her face. There were over a dozen of them up there, all armed with various firearms and plenty of dynamite.
     

    Daryl Dixon

    Absentee
    Daryl could overhear conversations but wasn't really listening to them, but he sort of tuned in on the last one. "So see this dial here? This shows an up to date map of our surroundings, and the date and time! Look! It's 1:16 p.m! On October 23rd! And it's a Monday!"

    Daryl smiled slightly, she was so cute. Daryl would never admit it. She was however inexperienced with combat, but he didn't deem her useless as she had other training. She also seemed quite knowledgeable, and she kept his brother out of trouble.

    "Okay, and when I twist this knob to this dash here it shows my current status! Hydration is good thanks to my water here, I'm a little hungry and all my vitals are good! There's even a setting that shows what I'm carrying! This is amazing! Now this one shows..."

    Maybe not all people are bad, he thought. "Jed! Movement on the rocks at 11 o'clock!" Stella shouted, immediately alerting him.
    "I see it Stella!" Jed called back. He brought the brahmin to heel and Stella did the same, bringing both wagons to a stop. "Everybody out! Somebody's up there on that rocky hill and we're in a bad place to get ambushed! Vex, Kenzi! Take point! Stella, Andrea! take our sides! Everybody else, get behind me!"

    Andrea's heart was hammering, she was normally prepared and focused for battle but she didn't even expect this. She was just starting to get comfortable, and now she was faced with imminent death as a storm of bullets were fired at them. It was like a forest of boulders and the terrain wasn't stable, there was a lot of cover but low visibility. She turned back to see Merle with a very serious face on, focused and determined. She served with Merle once, and it was the most professional thing she had ever seen. For someone like Merle, of course.

    Daryl had his crossbow out, which she immediately dismissed as useless in this situation. She knew it had a pretty good range but unless he's been using that for years, he'd never make a good shot from such a long distance. Even if he could, you have to literally poke your head out and scan to see anything. Even then you may only see their head before a hail of bullets are flying your way.

    The sound of battle was roaring, and Merle's light machine gun was all she could hear for a few moments. She looked was on the side of the boulder closest to the caravan members at the other boulder, and she poked her head out to fire. A powder ganger stepped up and began to fire until an arrow with orange fletching went right through his skull. He dropped and she saw Daryl on the other side of the boulder get back behind cover and reload his crossbow. She revoked her previous comments on the usefulness of Daryl's weapon.

    Merle was standing up and nearly half his body was exposed when he went to fire most times, he was mostly suppressing fire for Daryl and Andrea but he scored a few hits. Merle got behind cover to avoid fire when he noticed a burning stick of dynamite at Daryl's feet. "DARYL" Merle yelled, at the top of his lungs that even over the roaring sounds of guns and bullets you could hear it. Daryl had noticed it a split second before however, and without a second thought grabbed it, got out of cover and pegged it back where it came from. It exploded halfway to its location, and only managed to damage a few boulders. It didn't reach the powder gangers, but it kept them from being blown to bits.

    Andrea noticed a ganger getting ambitious and sneaking boulder to boulder, she was unable to hit him. He got out of sight as he went more toward the other side. "Merle, give me some suppressing fire, I'm making a dash for it!" She shouted over the noise. He nodded, reloaded his machine gun, and did as she requested. In the heat of battle there is no prejudice, no jokes, no 'I don't like you so no'. You just survive.

    Andrea ran across, chips of rock flying at her as the bullets hit the boulder. She saw Jessica clutching her laser rifle, eyes clenched shut and she almost felt sorry for her. It took a second to notice the tears, now Andrea seriously felt sorry for her. But she didn't get distracted, she got up and couldn't find her mark. She took cover for a few seconds and tried again, nope, again, nope. She began to work up more of a sweat, she knew he was there. Maybe he had been killed? Ricky was a little injured, but he was doing way better than she expected.

    Daryl was too focused on his cycle of shooting, reloading, and shooting. When the shooting began to unfold he slipped behind a brahmin and took a whole bag of crossbow ammunition. He had it behind the rock and was soon going to have to draw from that instead of what he had on the crossbow. Daryl couldn't afford to miss, so he fired less often. He stood up and out, and saw a ganger do the same, as he lit the dynamite he received an arrow dead in the center of his chest. Boom.


    Daryl looked to Merle who was now in Andrea's spot. He looked over to her, he could hardly see her as she was furthest away from him out of everyone here. She seemed worried. "Merle, I'll be back soon." He said, saying it into his brothers ear. Merle was now alone but working on defending himself. Daryl stocked up on arrows that could attach to his crossbow, he had

    He crept over, getting closer to the powder gangers, but keeping behind cover. He was going toward them, but making a U all the way over to Andrea, only the U being upside down.

    ((OOC: This may be confusing so I'll explain it like this. Imagine you're with the powder gangers, Daryl and Merle are at the left side of the U while Andrea and Jessica etc is at the other point. But since its Daryl's POV its an upside down U. Hope that clears it.))

    He saw a powder ganger making his way down, he missed Daryl as he was a boulder over. Daryl noticed he was being clever and using other boulders to block site, Daryl shot him through the back. After reloading he continues in his near U shaped pattern. He ends up near Andrea, who he see's poke her head out. She likely saw him. When Daryl was rounding the boulder one away from Andreas spot he saw a ganger jump out and get ready to spray everyone behind it, Daryl shot him in the lower back but he didn't drop, Andrea turned and noticed him but before she fired she saw Daryl rapidly approaching from behind the man. Daryl used his running momentum to smash the back of the gangers skull, while this should have killed the man he was twitching his fingers. Andrea drew her pistol and shot him through the head, he died with his face in the dirt. Daryl pulled his arrow out, but it broke. Daryl discarded it.

    "Wha-.. What are you doing here?" Andrea asked, not meaning to sound rude. She sounded exhausted, yet filled with adrenaline. Daryl and Andrea were now taking cover, with Daryl in front of Jessica but back a little. "Whats it look like I'm doing?" He asked, "I'm saving the damn day." Daryl looked to Ricky, who was holding himself well, then Jessica who was crying. Daryl pretended not to notice, he didn't know what to do with these things. "I gotta get back to Merle, he's alone and there's only so many people this rock can cover." Daryl said, glancing in the direction of the other boulder. "I'll go, you stay here." She said, proceeding to head forth to help Merle. He felt at her chest, she had been shot. She was wearing her bulletproof vest, but she could feel some bruising on her chest. They must have hit from a distance, she was lucky she requested it. Burke saved her life, she thought. But then again, he is the reason she is here. She clutched her scoped hunting rifle with sweaty palms, and made her way to the ex military man who was beginning to grow on her. If that was possible.

    Daryl looked to Ricky, who was reloading. "You good?" Daryl asked, Ricky only nodded. "Jess, you're doing fine." Daryl said encouragingly, then pressed on to fire at their attackers.
     
    Last edited:

    TheCaptain

    The Mad Conductor of Words
    John had to do something he was stuck behind a rock looking around for a way to flank them after finding one going off to the right John slowly made his way around before finding his first powder ganger, he pulls out a Steel Baton from the sleeve of his coat as he sees the powder ganger about to take a shot at Jed who was about to take one too but his gun suddenly jammed on him, John ran forward and hit the guy in the back of the knee causing him to fall on it "Motherfu-!" is all the powder ganger could say before John put his Baton across the ganger's neck and used it to break said neck.

    the next ganger was lighting a long fuse stick of dynamite and was about to throw it at Jessica and anyone who was near her, quickly he threw his baton at the Ganger before he could light the fuse it hits him in the face "AH! Son Of a-!" yelled the ganger as he turned to where I had threw it from before getting hit in the stomach by me throwing myself at him and tackled to the ground and punching him in the face twice, he then picks up his baton and the stick of dynamite lighting the stick he threw at a group of 3 or 4 powder gangers before the stick blows up.

    another Ganger appeared with a shotgun luckily he wasn't looking the right way as John knocked it down with his baton to the ganger's foot in which the fool decided at this point to pull the trigger shooting his own damn foot off as he screams John puts his hand through the ganger's legs and grabs the shotgun before pulling it from under him causing the guy to flip and land on his back he lets go of the shotgun which john was now holding and to finish the Ganger off he hits him with the butt of the gun to knock him out before pulling on the pump handle chambering the next shell He then fired at another Ganger but misses he pulls the pump handle again and fires again at the Ganger "again" and this time he gets him the chest realizing it was now out of shot and he throws it on the ground "okay who's next then?" he said as he turned around to face where he had just come from but suddenly...

    *BANG* *click-click*

    was shot in the chest by a powder ganger with a lever action shotgun and he just stood there for a second before he quickly pulled out his right hand revolver and shot the Ganger in the chest back and watched as he fell down while having a shocked look on his face moments before he falls on his knees too "Damnit!" he said with a twitch going on in his right eye before he turned and fell on his right side and then flat on his back, arms kindly of out stretched with his gun still in his right hand as he slipped into unconsciousness or maybe even Death.
     

    CapObvious

    A Rotten Scroungeral
    Mordecai's eyes scanned the rocks as Stella warned them, tracing the rubble for human heads. He unlatched the scoped laser rifle from his waist and laid it on his lap as the wagons came to a full stop.

    He heard Jed direct everyone, and as Jed ordered, Mord stuck behind him, his eyes scanning the rocks with his rifle ready to aim at a moment's notice.

    "See anything Stella?"

    "Not yet Jed. Rocks up there are good cover and we can't see very well."

    Mordecai checked the rocks again, but there was still no movement.

    "Why the fluff are we going up there man?" The junky asked, clearly about to piss himself. "Let's just turn around and get the fluff out! We're walking into a fluffing ambush!"

    "Keep it down you idiot! We're exposed enough as it is. They don't need any help from you." The guard with the laser rifle whispered harshly. Mordecai smiled appreciatively.

    Thank you Stella.

    "Besides, you're a 'fluffing storm of death' remember? We should be fine...right?" Jessica asked, her anxiousness clear in her voice.

    "We're gonna be fine Jess. Just stay focused and stay behind the rest of us. If you see a bullet hit near you, get to cover and stay there, okay?"

    "Right. Take cover. First rule of engagement. Brotherhood Codex, Combat Tactics, page 7 paragraph 1."

    Mordecai's train of thought stopped. How the fluff did that little girl know the codex? His mind started racing for answers, then things started to piece together.

    Different aspects of her personality, the things she said, they all pointed toward only two explanations: Either she was brotherhood, but left when she came of age, or she was some Brotherhood fangirl.

    Mordecai didn't know which would be worse.

    Deciding he would ask about this codex business later, he returned his mind to the task at hand. They all got to various spots of cover. Jess and Ricky hunkered down behind some rocks, while the others went their different ways, with the Rangers taking point. Mordecai took cover by another rock on his own, as he was going to pick the gangers off with his rifle from afar.

    And after a moment of silence, the fun began with the loud "plunk" of a grenade rifle firing in their direction.

    Mordecai started picking firing off shots, missing all of them at first, as his experience with the rifle was rusty. However, after seeing two of them start firing off at the rock Jess and Ricky were hiding behind, his aim seemed to magically get better and he nicked them both and watched them fall off the cliff.

    The fight continued, with him keeping his eyes mostly on the wildcard character, who he think he remembered calling himself John. The others seemed to have people to watch their backs, so Mord took it upon himself to watch the kid's.

    This John guy was practically a whirlwind with that police baton, knocking gangers around left and right. Mord noticed that some were preparing to group up on the kid, but he picked them off before they could get to him.

    However, before he could return his sight back to John, he heard a loud shotgun blast and, after getting his scope back in position, saw John tip back and hit the dirt.

    Mordecai cursed and shot the offeneder in the chest twice, and called out to whoever could hear him.

    "HEY! John's down! Someone get up there and grab him! I'll cover you!" He declared, loading his rifle again to do as he promised.
     

    Wolfbane

    Why change the past when you can own this day?
    "See anything Stella?"

    "Not yet Jed. Rocks up there are good cover and we can't see very well."

    Rocks; they were everywhere, making the sun dance along the jagged and dry lines of each mass of stone. If a group of hostiles were taking cover behind the rocks, they wouldn't know it. This made the rangers very uneasy when they both shared a concerned gaze and nodded in agreement of how bad this could turn.

    "Why the fluff are we going up there man?" The junky worriedky asked, clearly about to cower. "Let's just turn around and get the fluff out! We're walking into a fluffing ambush!"

    "Keep it down you idiot! We're exposed enough as it is. They don't need any help from you." Stella bared her claws at the junkie and his obvious observation, as well as his lack of subtlety. Ricky at this point was grinding on everybody's nerves, and making the tension more worse than it already was.


    "Besides, you're a 'fluffing storm of death' remember? We should be fine...right?" Jessica said, breath picking up due to fear and anticipation. Her laser rifle was readied and her plasma defender was readied just as the same. She had never been in a real battle before and now she was just being

    "We're gonna be fine Jess. Just stay focused and stay behind the rest of us. If you see a bullet hit near you, get to cover and stay there, okay?"

    "Right. Take cover. First rule of engagement. Brotherhood Codex, Combat Tactics, page 7 paragraph 1."

    Everybody was on edge, Kenzi and Vex even had a bit of the nerves in them. She took a breath and made her way to the weapons to ready her rifle, just as most of them already have. Her boots made hurried crunch as she approached the ranger's rifle.

    "Harvey, throw me my rifle once you get the chance. You ready for this?"

    "Always ready." She threw his rifle and it landed in his hand as she loaded hers.

    "May our bullets strike true and first, for evil will be dispense and delivered. We are Rangers, may our enemies fear and know our silent wrath." Both rifles were chambered and readied in unison. They were Harvey and Vex, warriors in combat. The two of them took position by their assigned rock and watched the horizon before them, kenzi scoped in and Vex watching her blind spots. The air was quiet and packed with heat, not helping the situation.

    "What's our first rule of engagement?"
    "Don't miss." Both chuckled, slightly easing the tension, making them relax and focus,and connected their split domino necklaces for good luck. Vex hated the moments before the fight, the silence and wondering minds of both sides as to who is going to fire first. It was something he found unsettling. Shoot first and expose yourself to a sniper or a lucky shot, or fire the first round that gets the ball rolling

    "You know I hate the calm before the storm. I wonder who will-"

    BANG

    sand was kicked up like a whirlwind, throwing rocks around with it. The powder gangers made the first move with a grenade rifle. How brash of
    them. "TAKE COVER!" Jed yelled as a hail of bullets rained down on the group. He fired both barrels back to back, for what good it did.

    "EVERYBODY STAY DOWN!" Stella shouted. "ONLY SHOOT AT WHAT YOU CAN HIT! USE SUPPRESSING FIRE ONLY IF YOU NEED TO! DO NOT WASTE YOUR AMMO!"

    A piece of metal speared across Vex's arm, making him laugh and quickly look down, "That never gets old!" He lead a target and clipped him in the belly, leaving him with a gutshot, and exposing another who was put back into cover by his partner. Vex was a military man, but the screams of horror, the smell of gunpowder stirred up this horrific sadness that was lined with lust. These were people trying to kill him, the person he loved, the newly added family member Jessica, and the small amount of people he liked in the caravan.

    "Is that bad that we're playing with them like this?"
    "Maybe a little. Let's drop anybody else that's stupid enough to fire at us." A cartridge hit the ground just as the recently living ganger that shot at him. There was other people shooting sure, but to Vex it was only Harvey, and Jessica. Those were the most important people. If he had to save another he would, just like in battle. With each successful hit, two implant the in the rocks that were sheltering the hostiles that were raining lead on them. The recoil rocked his shoulder back and forth, while the flash made him only pay attention to his area of awareness. Even if he let one slip up, Harvey would drop the enemy like a bad habit, just as they did.

    "JESS! STAY DOWN AND DON'T GET HIT." Vex fired a burst, then patted Harvey on the back, "I'm going for Jess, cover me! She's needs cover and someone who can shoot!"
    "Vex, think about what you're doing! It's not smart no matter who it is!" With no answer, he made his way to the rock, getting grazed before making it. Even if she is covered, she isn't firing back, which is not a good sign, and a sign he has seen before. He needed to wake her up out of it so she can learn to deal with this sort of pressure and fear. The sight of Jessica wrapped in a ball and tears crying was a familiar sight, and the last one of her if she didn't calm down and focus.

    "Jess, listen to me! You need to snap out of it and start shooting! I of all people know that the first time is the toughest and the scariest time in your life. It was for me. You need to buckle up, get that rifle ready and kick some ass! It's us three! In fights like this it's alright to sometimes lost yourself in the carnage. It will be up to you! You are a fluffing storm of death, just as us. All you need to do is shake this off, play it smart and kill the bastards shooting at us." He stayed side by side until she snapped out of it and until someone needed help. During his time he pulled his comrades out of fire even though a medic could have. A medic is no use dead on the field where he can't save anybody.

    A blue jacket filled the steel looking glass, his wondering eyes and chest expanding and blowing out with each hard breath. His finger twitched, his eyes darting back and forth. Was he scared? Or was he looking for an opening? The bridge of his nose wrinkled at the stench of blood of his friends. Black hairs intersect at the bridge, and a shot ripped apart the air, and right through his skull. Sliding metal spitting out brass like a fighter with his own blood. Time might as well have stopped for her. A soul has left the earth, time for another one to leave, and time to add to her arm, but she was just getting started. The crosshairs trained on the the light blue striped shirt, and a rifle that took a shot and peppered the rock next to Jed and Stella, then another shot that hit Vex in the arm, causing him to let out a half laugh and half growl.

    Last mistake you made, bastard. How about I give that arm shot right back? Should be fun to see how you turn out with one arm. oooh maybe something fun?

    Another round was chambered, brass against the barrel grooves. The slide closed, ready to deal death from afar. The heat made a final wave, almost a signal for the shot, and in that moment, with a slight mental silence, she squeezed, launching the bullet into the Powder gangers arm, breaking it along with a scream. Was she done? No, she wasn’t. She was just waiting for the perfect time to shoot again, making sure not to miss while making sure she wouldn’t get a third eye due to looking back from checking how Vex was doing.

    “Vex! How’s the new hole doing? Did go all the way through?” Kenzi knew that Vex could handle it, but that didn’t matter. Anytime he got shot the shooter paid for it harshly, and without ease. She had the asshole you shot him ingrained in her mind, and the next few bullets. He was known for lucky and swift shots, she was known for quick shots, never missing, and a temper from hell if he was hurt.
    “It’s not bad, my bone stopped it and I’m so hopped up on adrenaline it kind of tickles and turns cold. You know it goes. Two o clock!” three shots popped off and dropped the guy aiming for Kenz.
    “Unlucky for him! You’re my good luck charm.”
    “Not his, that’s for sure!” He winked as a thank you and then went into the rock again.
    The ringing of her sniper rifle became a constant, plugging holes into anybody that found a bullet. She didn’t see her target yet, but she will. For now, she’ll lay down suppressing fire as she was supposed to. Vex was doing his own thing, which wasn’t a surprise seeing how he did that with her or anybody else he loved.
    “Jess! I know you can do this! If you can’t then sprint towards Kenzi and stay down! Real fighting is scarier than some simulator, and it’s permanent. Fight for you, and the people around you, even Ricky, the junkie storm of plops.”

    "HEY! John's down! Someone get up there and grab him! I'll cover you!" Mordecai shouted over the fire, making him turn his head to see John back in the dirt, barely breathing.
    “plops, I got him. Cover my ass.” He really didn’t need any more covering fire due to Harvey, but the more the better. Why risk his head for a stranger? He didn’t know, to be honest. Maybe it was the battle bond, or the fact that he was already far from his assigned spot. Either way, he needed to get back, with or without John.
    “Vex! I might run out of targets before I’m dry! Although I would like some fluffing cover!"
    “Clear,” With only that, he ran towards John, passing rocks, bullets, and anything else that was in his way, and slid towards the nearest piece of debris while eyeing John and planning on where to drag his sorry ass.
    “John! Keep your damn head down,” He grabbed the scruff of his shirt and tugged him like a rope in a tug of war game, and slapped him on the nearest rock. “Stay. I’m falling back to the original location. Harvey! I’m falling back there. Keep your head!” After patting John on the back and burning through his current clip, he fell back to his original spot and stuck by his partner.
     

    Simus

    An Excellent Site Member
    Despite the carnage around him, Ricky wanted to be brave. It might just be the Jet talking, and there was a very good chance he could get killed but Ricky still wanted to be brave. His life hadn't amounted to much at this point. He was just a kid from Dayglow, a rare human in a city of ghouls, that had wandered off when he was old enough to try and find others like him. To find some place where he felt like he belonged. He never had, and every day he got more and more insecure with himself. He was afraid he'd never find a place he'd fit it. A place he'd never feel comfortable in his own skin. That's why he turned to Jet to make those feelings go away. And Psycho to make himself feel strong and alive. He felt so weak without it. He needed help.

    These thoughts raced through his mind as he cowered behind that rock, next to the only girl who'd shown him a shred of kindness and who he'd been mean to like everyone else. Jess didn't deserve that kind of treatment. She was too good for that, too nice. Nicer than anybody Ricky had ever met before. And here she was, curled up in a ball next to him crying. She was so scared. Ricky was scared too, but seeing her like that made him suddenly feel very protective. He couldn't let her die. He would be brave today and try and save her. If he died, then, well, fluff it.

    His 10mm submachine gun couldn't be saved, but he still had his pistol. It was rusty, and he hadn't cleaned it in a long time but it worked last time he'd used it. It used the same ammo as his SMG, a selling point when he decided to keep it, so he simply took the clip out of his SMG, put it into his pistol and cocked the first bullet into place. Two gangers had slipped past the rough line the other caravan members had set up and were moving in. Ricky examined his surroundings. Andrea was pinned down behind a rock just in front of theirs and Daryl was moving to support her. Vex and Kenzi were closest to the gangers and laying down fire but were too far away to help. Jed and Stella were holding their left flank but having their own problems. Mordecai was focused on gangers too far back to notice the once moving up. Merle was providing good covering fire, but his light machine gun wasn't accurate enough to be effective in this broken up environments. Most of the bullets bounced off rocks or shot off into the distance as the gun's muzzle climbed upward with sustained fire. The two gangers were heading straight for Ricky and it was up to him to take them down. He took a deep breath, readied his pistol and popped out of cover.

    "EAT THIS YOU fl*ffING BASTARDS!!!" He screamed, firing his pistol as fast as possible. He focused on nothing but the men in front of him, listening to the PUM! PUM! PUM! of 10mm rounds spewing from his semi automatic pistol. The flash was mitigated by his sunglasses and the recoil in his hands, wrists and arms made him feel good. His heart was pumping as his bullets found their mark and he felt huge surges of adrenaline as the men before him fell with new, blood holes. All the Jet and Psycho in the world couldn't make him feel more alive and by the time he had emptied his clip, the gangers were dead. One had a baseball bat and another had a 10mm SMG just like his, but in much better condition. And it had a big box clip, big enough to hold 50 rounds. Ricky had only ever seen these big clips in merchant stands but had never had the caps to buy them. Now one was sitting right in front of him to take. He snatched up the new weapon greedily and got back behind his rock, looking for newfound targets.

    "You good?"Daryl asked, patting Ricky on the shoulder. He nodded in response, his heart beating too fast to answer. He readied his new SMG and moved out of cover to check for more hostiles. The adrenaline and his little victory made him feel like a badass, but being able to protect Jessica made him feel brave. That was more satisfying than any amount of chems.

    Meanwhile, mere inches from Ricky, Jessica was having no such heroic ambitions. She was curled up in a ball, clutching her laser rifle for dear life and praying for this all to be over. She wasn't brave, she wasn't strong, she wasn't a good member of the Brotherhood, she couldn't even reach the top shelf of the tech lab back home. She was a little girl stuck in a war for grown ups, and if the gangers didn't kill her, the rest of the team would abandon her for cowardice. Dead weight. Something they'd be better off without.

    "Jess, you're doing fine." Daryl yelled.

    No. No I'm not. I'm a disgrace. I'm a coward, You should juts leave me here to...

    "Jess, listen to me!" Vex had appeared next to her. He was kneeling down and in front of her vision, shouting at her. Trying to get her to move. "You need to snap out of it and start shooting! I of all people know that the first time is the toughest and the scariest time in your life. It was for me. You need to buckle up, get that rifle ready and kick some ass! It's us three! In fights like this it's alright to sometimes lost yourself in the carnage. It will be up to you! You are a fluffing storm of death, just as us. All you need to do is shake this off, play it smart and kill the bastards shooting at us."

    She was so scared. She just wanted to hide here and wait until it was all over, but Vex was right. She had to get up and shoot back. If she didn't she could die, Vex could die. She couldn't live with herself if that happened. Not if it was because he was paying too much attention to her and got killed. She trusted Vex and Kenzi. They had been nothing but good to her. They had take care of her. They were her friends and they loved her and she loved them. She couldn't fail them now. She wouldn't.

    Sowly, timidly, Jessica extended her right hand toward Vex, keeping a tight grip on her laser rifle with her left hand. Vex smiled down at her like a big brother and helped her up, then pulled her close to him so she could hear. “Jess! I know you can do this! If you can’t then sprint towards Kenzi and stay down! Real fighting is scarier than some simulator, and it’s permanent. Fight for you, and the people around you, even Ricky, the junkie storm of pl***.”

    A stick of dynamite went off a few feet from Jessica and her hearing was blasted out for a few moments. Vex yelled something to Kenzi that Jessica couldn't hear, but it didn't matter. She had heard enough. She had failed the Brotherhood by cowering in battle, but maybe if she died well she could redeem herself. Maybe she could know what it means to be brave.

    She noticed the situation turn much more dire in the next few seconds. Andrea got shot in the chest and was knocked onto her back despite her armor. Vex was shot in the arm and grunted in pain. The bullet left a red, gaping wound that oozed blood. He'd be in terrible pain as soon as the adrenaline wore off. Then he dragged John, the mysterious newcomer in the Cowboy hat and duster, out of the line of fire and behind a rock. His chest and shirt were soaked with blood and Jessica could make out several large holes in both. He wasn't conscious. He had been hit point blank with a buckshot round and he would die in the next hour without help. Or slip into a coma and die. Or worse, wake up with a shattered ribcage and die slowly, painfully. Jessica couldn't let that happen. Three gangers were moving into the open, one with a baseball bat and two with police batons. They were too close for Vex to shoot and they would beat both him and John to death. The others were pinned down or distracted. If Jessica didn't do something right now, they would die. Something happened inside her, and her tears of fear switched to tears of blind rage.

    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Jessica roared. She charged forward and fired her laser rifle. She fired as fast as she could, squeezing and releasing the trigger faster than she had ever thought possible. Her eyes glazed over with tears of rage, her world became red, all of her fear was gone. She wanted to kill these men. She wanted to blind them and watch them suffer as their faces burned. She wanted to hear them scream and then watch as her laser fire burnt them to ash. There was nothing the gangers could do against her torrent of fire, and fell down dead with burning holes in their bodies several feet away from John. Still Jessica kept firing. She filled their corpses with laser fire, right until her microfusion cell was spent. It took her seconds to realize this, and then ejected the red hot cell onto a dead ganger's chest. She watched with satisfaction as steam rose from the cell and settled into the dead man's shirt, creating a clear black burn mark where it lay and causing him great pain if he were still alive.

    The gangers were down to six men and fell back to their rock cave at the top of the rock-forested hill. Jessica saw this and loaded a special microfusion cell wrapped in a strip of blue masking tape. It was a maximum charge cell, good for only one shot and hard on the rifle but powerful enough to turn a man to ash. Jessica loaded the cell and took aim, holding the trigger and counting down from three in her head. When she released, Normal laser rifle's produced an infrared laser that the human eye perceived as bright red. This supercharged shot had so much energy that the light of the laser was blue-shifted into the ultraviolet spectrum, appearing to the human eye as a bright blue color. The laser hit one of the six tightly grouped gangers and consumed his body in a corona of blue light. With a hiss the man, his gear and his clothes ceased to be, leaving a pile of fine ashes at the mouth of the cave. Jessica ejected her steaming and burnt cell, its tape peeling off in small scraps. She looked around and saw that John was still badly wounded. She had no time to think or reflect on what just happened. She had to save John. Without a word, she sprinted over to him and Vex and got out her medkit. She examined his soaked and bleeding chest, ripping his shirt open to get a better look. There wasn't time to get the buckshot out. He needed help now or he would die. She got out one of her two super stimpacks, removed the sterile cap from the needle and jammed it directly into John's chest. Superstims were larger than regular stimpacks and their regenerative mixture was three times as concentrated. They felt like liquid fire coursing through your veins and caused short-lived but extreme nausea, but they could save you from even the most grievous wounds. Mitigating this pain required two doses of Med-X but Jessica didn't bother. John needed to wake up to avoid slipping into a coma and the pain of the superstim would do just that. In fact, the whole reason they had a buckle around the needle was so the patient couldn't rip it out before the entire mixture was administered, which could take several seconds. Jessica had broken her leg once and cried in pain when she was superstimmed without Med-X. The pain was that bad, ten times as bad as blood reentering your foot after going numb. Fixed her leg though.

    John's eyes shot open as soon as the superstim had done its painful work. The shotgun pellets pushed themselves out and Jessica immediately took off her recon armor gloves and broke out a pair of blue latex ones. She got out a sterile gauze pad and squirted it liberally with antiseptic. She was still too scared and too shocked to talk, but she began wiping up John's chest, cleaning out his bullet wounds and going around ones that still had led inside. She came back to these with a pair of forceps, her gloved hands now covered in John's blood but never stopping to consider it.
     

    TheCaptain

    The Mad Conductor of Words
    (OOC:EDIT) John gasps for air as he woke up "Jumping Jesus H. Christ on a Fluffing Pogo Stick!!, What The Fluff Happened?!?!" he yelled in pain oddly he couldn't hear the sounds of battle or Jessica talking to him just an annoying ringing in his ears when he looked down he saw his duster was covered in blood, panicking a little he pulled it open to reveal an very old knight's chest armor along with five new golf ball sized holes there were a few light knife slashes, dents, parts of it had been jury rigged with different types of metal and different shapes and sizes of bullet holes, after looking around and finding his gun next to him under his coat, he picked it up and popped the chamber out "8 shots" he said breathing heavily as he placed it back in the hostler.
     

    Daryl Dixon

    Absentee
    The gunfire began to lessen, a few bullets were fired between strings of 3-5 seconds. A minute later all gunfire came to a stop completely. The powder gangers were all killed, they endured and survived. "Everyone alright?" Merle's voice could be heard from a boulder to the right, furthest away from the group. Andrea's voice was heard next. "We're good on this end!" She was with Merle. Daryl was still at the rock where he had encountered Jess and Ricky originally, Ricky was still there. Daryl stood up and gave Ricky a hand and pulled him to his feet. "I know my brother offered to sell you drugs, don't listen to him man, you don't need it." Daryl walked over to their wounded comrade, but then Merle called him over. Daryl walked a few meters toward his brother who was treading toward him.




    "Hey Daryl, you didn't come back?" Merle said, in a seemingly questioning manner, still clutching his light machine gun. "Yeah, Andrea said she'd go over and cover you." Daryl said, looking at his brother, holding his crossbow in his left hand with it aiming at the sky. "I did." Andrea said, approaching, confirming she went and assisted Merle. The 3 were standing in somewhat of a triangle configuration. "But Daryl, you said you were." Merle said, holstering his machine gun. "Bro, it doesn't matter. We're alive, who cares."

    "What if she didn't make it? Thought I could rely on you." Merle said, getting a little closer to Daryl, the whole triangle was becoming smaller as each of the three had made some sort of movement to get closer as they were talking. "Merle, does this need to happen?" Andrea asked, wanting to avoid a fight, trying to be the responsible one. "Nah its all good Andrea, pops couldn't rely on Daryl either." Merle said, knowing this would cause a snap in Daryl. Daryl had began walking away, but it felt like a string inside his brain had just snapped, and he was about to lose it. "What'd you say?" Daryl asked, anger rising in his voice. "You heard me." Merle said, beginning to smirk, voice calm. "You serious right now? What the hell does th-" Daryl was saying before he was cut off.

    "Yes I am serious you-" Merle began, "No shut up bitch, I am talking." Daryl said, the I being the loudest word in the sentence. "We just got jumped by a bunch of gangers, we worked as a team and survived and now you want to start up some fight? Leave me the hell alone and go bother somebody else." Daryl turned to walk away, but Merle wasn't feeling so generous. He would continue his harassment, Daryl would not get off easy. "No Daryl, I've been meaning to bring this up for a couple weeks now. Hasn't been long Daryl, you been acting like it don't matter." Andrea sighed. "Merle, leave him alone. Talk about it privately or something so the rest of us can salvage and move on, this doesn't need to happen right now." She chipped in. "Nah nah Angie," Merle said waving her off as he got closer to Daryl, Andrea grimaced at the horrible nickname, "Our home got attacked by fiends and dad dragged off to be cut up into little pieces and what not." Merle spat at the ground beside him, not in disrespect but to clear flem from his throat. "Daryl here did nothin' to stop it."

    "Listen to me you asshole," Daryl said emphasizing the ass, "I was out there looking for dad every single day." Daryl stopped his pacing and pointed an accusing finger at Merle. "You did nothing! You were locked up for some stupid pl*ps you did to Less." Daryl was raising his voice but not quite yelling. "There's the difference Darlina, I was locked up. Couldn't do a thing." Merle raised his hands in innocence, which made Daryl's blood boil. This man was far from innocent. "You were just too afraid to get your hands dirty, he may have been an asshole, but he was our fath-" Merle was cut off by Daryl. "I went out looking for him everyday you deaf prick, hell I even took a bullet and an arrow in the process don't you talk to me about me getting my hands dirty!" Daryl began yelling halfway through, on the verge of violence. "Daryl, don't. You let those fiends get him, that's on you." Daryl drew his crossbow in a swift motion, and aimed it at Merle. Merle raised his hands in surrender, which angered Daryl. "Hah, aiming that at your own brother. Wouldn't surprise me if you let those animals get him." Daryl grunted, dropped the crossbow, and charged at Merle. Merle went to hit Daryl in the face but being in many fights with Merle Daryl dodged it, and punched Merle in the chest. Daryl then took Merle to the ground, and began punching his face in.

    After struggling on the ground and exchanging a few blows Merle got a good hit on Daryl's cheek and Daryl rolled off of Merle, Merle sat on Daryl and went to begin hitting him, but Daryl was pushing Merle up by choking him. It wasn't to choke him out, it was to keep Merle up and out of Daryl's face. "You're a fl*ffin' pussy Daryl" Merle said, "You're gonna get us kicked out of the caravan." His voice was strained, as he was being choked. "You really think that assholes gonna let you go?" Daryl said, his voice still pissed. Daryl was being choked too, but neither of them couldn't breath, it was just painful and keeping Daryl down while keeping Merle up. "Burke's got you stuck now." Daryl strained to get out.
     

    Simus

    An Excellent Site Member
    Jessica hadn't even seen John's steel knight's chestplate until he had pointed it out to her. It certainly explained why his chest was so inexplicably hard and why the shotgun pellets that pushed themselves out seemed to slide right off his chest. As he examined his pistol he was conscious and lucid and Jessica smiled at that. With John's help, Jessica took his jacket off and undid his chestplate to check the wounds under there. There were none and she had done a good job of cleaning out his bullet holes. There was just some little rings of blood where the armor met his skin and she couldn't wipe up, as well as some blood that ran down his chest under the armor. She got to work wiping it all up and disinfecting it. She wetted more gauze pads with antiseptic, the sticky substance holding nicely to John's chest, and wrapped an entire gauze roll around his chest to keep everything it. She made sure it was tight but not too tight and after exhausting the roll and taping the end, she was all done.

    That's when Jessica noticed the shooting had stopped. They had won. She would have been overjoyed but then she heard the argument down the hill and three rocks back. Merle had accused Daryl of not coming back to support him, even though everything was chaos all of five minutes ago. Then there was something about Daryl letting their father be killed by fiends while Merle was in jail. Jessica didn't know if that was true but it was a damning accusation. Andrea tried to calm them down but this was clearly an old wound that Merle wasn't content to let lie and Daryl was too hurt by to ignore. The argument escalated into shouting, then into a fistfight with outright choking. Jessica ran forward and tried to stop them.

    "Stop it!" She yelled. "Stop it! You're hurting him!" She was trying to address both brothers but neither could hear her. Both were getting blue in the face from lack of air and tears of panic and being upset rolled down Jessica's face. "Please!" She begged, trying to pull their arms away from each other but to no avail. "Please! Just stop!"

    Jed, Ricky and Stella saw the fight too. Normally Jed let guys like Daryl and Merle beat each other up then have them sit and think about the consequences as they sat on watch all night but right now the area was still hot and they needed to move. Ricky was amazed at the compliment Daryl gave him and too scared to really help so he simply stood and watched, ready to pull Jess away if she got hurt. She was so nice. Stella ran into the crowd and shouted at all three of them to stand down but no one could hear her. Finally, after several seconds of hollering and a glimpse at the cave that told him the gangers were watching and waiting, Jed had had enough.

    He fired off both his shotgun barrels in the air, creating a deafening BOOM! BOOM! Everyone fell dead silent afterwards and the all looked up at their grizzled caravan boss.

    "Good, looks like I've got your attention 'cause I'm gonna say this once." Jed's voice was calm but deadly serious. "If you two have 'who screwed over daddy?' issues then that's your business but DO NOT, I say again, DO NOT bring them up in ANY way to endanger this caravan. In case you two haven't noticed, there are still Powder Gangers in that cave and they're watchin' us right now. Settin' traps for when we go in there and ready to gun us all down. You two are gonna get everybody killed at this rate. Stow it right now or I will shoot you both right here and right now. Either of you lays another hand on the other again I'm gonna cut that fluffin' hand off, pin you to the ground and nail that hand to your fluffin' ball sack so you can feel what little you've got."

    Jed pulled out a large serrated combat knife to emphasize his point. It was rusty and flecked with dried blood.

    "Don't think Burke's gonna miss either of ya either. Accidents happen all the time out here in the wasteland. Now do we understand each other?"

    Stella and Ricky were shocked that Jed would even suggest such a brutal threat. Jessica was crying silent tears of fear again. The moment of quiet was letting the last ten minutes catch up to her and she didn't want that right now.
     

    CapObvious

    A Rotten Scroungeral
    Mordecai made his way up, slowly, as he wasn't sure if the remaining thugs were ready to take potshots. He caught the tail end of the argument between the two roughneck brothers, and then all of Jed's response.

    He didn't know about the rest of them, but that rusty, bloodied knife made him extremely uneasy. Who exactly were these people?

    The situation seeming to calm a little, Mordecai stepped in and spoke up.

    "Alright. Now that we seemed to handle the situation, we should probably do a few checks on our gear and each other. Preferably before we head in to the surely booby-trapped cave." He stepped over to John and tapped his armor plating, gently enough to not hurt him, but enough to hear the metallic knock. Then he knocked on his own chest armor and laughed. "Works wonders, don't it?"

    He then sat down and began to inspect John, but spoke aloud so Jess could hear him. He wanted to hear if they had to drag him along or if he could carry his own.

    "Is he alright to continue shortly? After we prepare, of course. I doubt we can fight and carry him on our shoulders. If we do I'm sure one of the brother's would do. It'll keep their hands off each other."
     

    TheCaptain

    The Mad Conductor of Words
    Finally after sitting there for what felt like hours John's hearing came back and the ringing in his ears had gone too at that point the sniper what was his name? *Dammit* he thought he had overheard it a while back when he joined,Mordecai or something? anyway he came over and tapped John's armor and then his own before he laughed "Works wonders, don't it?" Mordecai said "on unimaginable levels this thing has saved my life more times than I can possibly count" he chuckled "I find this thing while I was running through The old History Museum in Washington D.C., not only did I have Ghouls on my ass but to make things worse I had Talon Company chasing me mainly because of my current occupation in which I killed a lot of their guys so I guess they were pissed off at me and I think they still are" I said still lightly laughing.

    when Mordecai sat down and inspected John he would see all different kinds of bullets .50 Caliber, .308, .44,5.56mm, both 12 and 20 Gauge, Hell there was even one 5mm round, there were a few light knife slashes, dents, parts of it had been jury rigged with different types of metal and yet there wasn't a single pistol round on that armor .32, .357, 9mm, 10mm or .45-70 Gov,t not a single one looked like it was made by a pistol round.

    "Is he alright to continue shortly? After we prepare, of course. I doubt we can fight and carry him on our shoulders. If we do I'm sure one of the brother's would do. It'll keep their hands off each other." John turned his head to Mordecai and thought for a while "I need to get down the caravan I was in, inside the Guitar case I had with me is something that will hold me up I just got to get down well one of you two gonna have to help me down there which might take a while given my current condition unless someone kind enough goes and gets it may take two or 3 minutes" I said chuckling a little.
     

    Wolfbane

    Why change the past when you can own this day?
    "Clear!" The last of the casings dropped as well as the adrenaline. The surprise fight was over for the moment at least. Vex looked around and counted his comrades and assessed the damage, "Everyone alright?" Merle's gruff, rocking voice shot out from behind a boulder to the right of everyone else.

    "I'm fine aside from the hole in my arm, John's being cared for, It looks like everyone else is fine." He sat back on the rock with his rifle propped on his shoulder

    "I'm good too. We need to check the bodies for anything we can use once we clear the cave with all the other bastards. It could very well be their hideout or a supply cache. It would be a damn shame if we passed it up. For now we can gather our thoughts, check ammo and gear, and push on."

    The two got up at the same time and walked over to Jess, sticking to their personal group while everyone was dealing with theirs.

    "You did good Jess. I knew you could-" Before he could finish his sentence, he heard the infighting of someone he knew all too well. Someone that just has to stir the pot no matter what had just happen.
    ""Merle, does this need to happen?" The poor girl tried to redirect the inevitable brawl that was going to ensue, but with no such luck. Vex and Kenzi both just kind of watched until it got out of hand. It would seem like the ever functioning Dixon clan had a surprising lash at each other. About their father no less.


    "Stop it!" She yelled. "Stop it! You're hurting him! Please!" She begged, trying to rip them away from each other. "Please! Just stop!"
    Before anyone could do anything about it, a shotgun went off, then Jed's voice, "Good, looks like I've got your attention 'cause I'm gonna say this once." Jed's voice was calm but deadly serious. "If you two have 'who screwed over daddy?' issues then that's your business but DO NOT, I say again, DO NOT bring them up in ANY way to endanger this caravan. In case you two haven't noticed, there are still Powder Gangers in that cave and they're watchin' us right now. Settin' traps for when we go in there and ready to gun us all down. You two are gonna get everybody killed at this rate. Stow it right now or I will shoot you both right here and right now. Either of you lays another hand on the other again I'm gonna cut that fluffin' hand off, pin you to the ground and nail that hand to your fluffin' ball sack so you can feel what little you've got."Seemingly out of nowhere he pulled out a rusty, blood dried serrated combat knife to really put a sharp edge on his threat.

    "Let's all just simmer the fl*ff down, and push on. This is pointless and dangerous to do out in the open. You two can continue somewhere private"
     

    Simus

    An Excellent Site Member
    The Dixons calmed down and Jed put his knife away. He had no intention of actually following through with his threat but right now they needed to take him seriously, for all their sakes. It seemed to work. Jessica was badly shaken but holding it together. The part of Vex's comment he'd been able to say helped and seeing Ricky and John okay also helped. In fact, she was both happy and elated to see that he was interesting in walking the several hundred feet back to the road and caravans to get whatever was in his guitar case but he needed to rest after such a shock as getting shot in the chest with buckshot, armor or no. Mordecai had the same concerns and as their de facto medic it was Jessica's job to answer them. She looked at Vex and got a little courage from his smile, then she was ready to make her report.

    "Well...umm..." She began, adjusting her glasses and realizing she still had her blue-turned-red latex gloves on. She peeled them off and put them in a ziplock bag to be recycled or thrown away later. She had an entire box in her pack so she wasn't worried about conservation. Even so part of being a Brotherhood Scribe is to salvage whatever you can and recycle whenever you can, to make use of everything. She cleared her throat and started over. "As far as wounds go John is as patched up as I can get him. His chest is healed up and scabbed over and his rib cage is sound. Stimpaks are painful and draining though and super stims are agonizing without some sort of pain killer. I didn't give him any because he needed to regain consciousness so I'm honestly surprised he's on his feet. John? How do you feel? Can you walk okay? Do you feel like you're ready to move on? If not then you need to stay here and rest until you feel better."
     

    Skyrimosity

    Well-Known Member
    The sound of a baton hitting flesh echoed through the cave. The Powder Gangers, torturing one of their prisoners with a baton, hoping to get some info on some targets. The Ganger hit the man. Then again. Then again. And yet again. Yet he showed no signs of feeling much pain, certainly no sign of giving up any information. The man was hung by his hands, his feet dangling just above the ground and his hands being above his head. He had a series of lacerations on multiple parts of his body. And, perhaps most prominently, a deep scar from his lower lip to his chin.

    Carsten Richter simply couldn't believe his luck. He had been on his way to kill a long-time troublemaker in a small town just a few miles away from New Frisco when he was ambushed by a group of Powder Gangers. There were four of them, and they had seemed willing to kill anyone. While one stayed back with a 9mm pistol, the other 3 rushed at him. Carsten drew his machete and had sliced down two of them when a third knocked him to the ground by hitting him with a shovel from behind. Carsten turned to get up, only to be once more hit by the shovel. He was knocked out on the fifth hit. And now, he was being hit by a baton and being hung from his hands.

    He had decided by now, of course, that each of the powder gangers would simply have to die. He would kill all of them, and cause them pain. Despite the fact he was well-muscled and easily capable of killing nearly any man in a close quarters fight, he knew he would not likely overcome all the men. There were simply too many. "Why..... won't.... you... talk!" the leader said, before hitting Carsten again. Carsten remained silent, absorbing the pain without showing any sign he had actually felt any. They had already cut Carsten a couple of times on his chest and his arms, and the blood had dried in those spots.

    "Boss!" One of the powder gangers who rushed in had said, "there's a large caravan coming through! Counted six Brahmin!"

    "Hmmm... is it heavily guarded?

    "Nope. No NCR or anything."

    "Well, take everybody with you to ambush them. Can't take any chances."

    And with that, everybody left the room except for Carsten, the other prisoners, and the Powder Ganger leader. He resumed his beating. "Hear that? Going to have a large haul soon. Maybe I'll retire." A large BOOM! filled the air from the battle outside, followed by gunshot. "Yep, just shot a grenade at the unsuspecting caravan. Now we're picking them off." He hit Carsten again. "That caravan is as good as ours." The leader had no way of knowing that the caravan group was fighting back in a full-on battle. And he never would know, for Carsten , in one great effort, pulled his legs up and wrapped them around the leader's neck. He squeezed the life from him quickly, and let his body slump to the ground. The other prisoners began to look around.

    Carsten started to work on the knot that held him up. To a true survivalist such as him, the knot posed little challenge. He was down in around a minute. He went to a nearby weapons locker and grabbed his machete, before grabbing his throwing spear that had been put on the wall. He then set about freeing the other prisoners, not due to any general sympathy or kindness but rather due to the fact he would need some help to kill the other powder gangers.

    They began to arm themselves with some of the weapons the Gangers had stashed, Carsten himself grabbing a 10mm pistol. "Okay, I will lead the way. Don't shoot until I shoot." Carsten, while having no reason to be submitted to as an authority, was immediately recognized as the leader of the break by the five other living prisoners. It was likely due to both his intimidating stature and the fact he had killed the Ganger leader.

    Carsten crept to the room's exit, which led to the main corridor of the cave which held the exit at the end. He saw five Powder Gangers huddled inside. He assumed that the rest had been killed by the Caravan. The men had their guns raised at the entrance, ready to defend the front. Carsten raised his pistol. The Powder Gangers hadn't expected an attack from behind. He aimed at the centermost Ganger, and shot. He barely missed, and he cursed himself. The bulletshot echoed through the cave, amplifying its noise to the outside world. Within a few seconds, the Gangers returned fire. The prisoners, along with Carsten, also returned fire.
     

    TheCaptain

    The Mad Conductor of Words
    "John? How do you feel? Can you walk okay? Do you feel like you're ready to move on? If not then you need to stay here and rest until you feel better."

    John turned his head to Jessica as she asked him these questions and thought for a moment "to be honest I feel fine thanks to your medical skills though I doubt I'm ready for close combat so I think I'll stick at the back and fire off shoots when I can." John said "Yeah I can walk fine though it hurt when I got up but that's just the cartilages in my knees being completely fluffed anyway I think my aim is okay now" I said pulling out his right revolver and put it up to his eye level and aimed at a rock "seems okay but yeah I think I'm good to move on -Bang-Bang- wait a minute? did you heard that?" he said walking up to the door into the cave and put his ear against it "Gunfire! either the Powder Gangers are fighting amongst themselves or someone else is in there" he said leaning against the rocky wall left to the door, holding his revolver up to his face.
     

    Simus

    An Excellent Site Member
    "WHAT THE fluff!?" One of the five remaining Powder Gangers from outside yelled as they heard gunfire behind them. They turned to see the huge blonde haired man in recon armor they had brought in the night before standing behind them, out of his bonds and with a gun pointed at them. The guy had missed his shot completely but there were two other prisoners with him, both armed with scavenged weapons. With half their guys outside to take care of the caravan guards moving up the hill the gangers didn't have enough men to guard everybody and these prisoners had clearly taken advantage of that. The good news was everybody that was left was armed with stolen NCR weapons and helmets. Some even in body armor. Two of the gangers were armed with NCR service rifles and wearing stolen goggle helmets. Two others had set up a .50 caliber heavy machine gun behind some stolen sandbags. One had it at the ready and the other had it hooked up to a belt of bullets from a big box of ammo. Two more were beside him, ready for use. The fifth guy had just got done laying a tripwire across the cave mouth and connecting it to a nice little grenade boquet.

    Only the two riflemen turned around fast enough to react to the prison break but they were good shots with quick trigger fingers. The two prisoners who charged them were gunned down. That discouraged the other prisoners and they took cover in a nearby hallway. Two of them stayed with Carsten but a third ran and hid back to the cells and he was armed with a marksman carbine!

    "The prisoners are free and we got our asses kicked outside!" One of the gangers yelled. "Everybody get yo asses up and shoot some people! Or we're all gonna die! Where the fluff is the boss!?"

    From the other side of the hallway that led to the entrance, opposite of the hallway Carsten and the prisoners came out of, was another hallway. One that led to another prison for women and children. Four more guards were there and heard the commotion. They grabbed their weapons and rushed out without hesitation. One of them used the gunfight in the cave to throw a plasma grenade. It landed right at Carsten's feet!

    ***​
    Outside, everybody heard the shooting once John called attention to it. With Jessica's assessment complete and John speaking up for himself it was decided that he would stay outside and provide cover for the group. Jed and Stella knew that Powder Gangers liked to capture people rather than kill them so they could ransom them off later but they hadn't expected any prisoners to find weapons. They figured the gangers knew they were losing the battle and were executing any prisoners inside and they couldn't let that happen.​
    "The Powder Gangers must have prisoners and it sounds like they're shooting them!" Stella yelled in response to John calling attention to the gunshots. "We've got to move in there now! Vex, Jess! On me! Kenzi, Andrea, you're backup! Let's go! Let's go!"
    "I'm commin' too! Let's kick their asses!" Ricky screamed, running ahead of the group.
    "Wait! Ricky stop!" Jessica shouted. "That cave could be!"
    "Oh plops!" Ricky yelled as he hit the tripwire. The grenades were released from the ceiling but instead of blowing Ricky up they rolled down the hill towards the group! Everyone was showered with sand and rock as the grenades exploded and Ricky just barely dodged the subsequent hail of machine gun fire. Everyone was dazed and Ricky was stuck. If they didn't move soon, the gangers would counterattack!
    "Everybody mo...*cough*move out! *cough*,*cough*!" We've got to get up there! C'mon!" Stella yelled, charging up the hill. She was so pumped with adrenaline she forgot the weight of her long black leather coat and her black knee high boots and she didn't even notice the large piece of shrapnel in the back of her thigh.
     

    Wolfbane

    Why change the past when you can own this day?
    "Or someone else is in there" The distant gunfire drew John's attention whilst leaned against a rock while Stella and the rest looked towards the gunfire, "The Powder Gangers must have prisoners and it sounds like they're shooting them!" Vex and Kenzi both looked at each while awaiting orders, both sighing at the new fight. "We've got to move in there now! Vex, Jess! On me! Kenzi, Andrea, you're backup! Let's go! Let's go!"

    "You got it." Vex flipped out a new mag, smacking it it on his knee out of habit and tradition. He then joined Stella while Kenzi gave a simple nod and waved Vex goodbye and wished him luck. Caves;dark, close quarters, heavily relying on support. Gotta love em He gave a small chuckle and a head turn before making his way up. He gave a pat on Jess' back, then proceeded to take the lead.

    "Give em' hell," She blew him a kiss, after Vex gave her a smile, then she rested her rifle on her shoulders as if carrying two pales of water while she watched her friends take the lead into the gunfire ringing cave. He didn't know if they really were executing their prisoners, if they decided to turn on each other, shooting for fun, or by some miracle a prisoner escaped. Either way he needed to stay focused, watch his corners, keep his senses open, and make sure they make it out alive while searching the caves for supplies, and also keep Jess safe all the while doing so.

    "I'm commin' too! Let's kick their asses!" He couldn't help himself. Ricky jumped up and sprinted towards them, having no regard for himself or the others. Would this boy ever learn? None of them knew. Vex suspects that this boy would need a swift lesson, and hopefully soon

    "Wait! Ricky stop!" Jess shouted towards the charging junkie, trying to stop him in case there was marksmen by some grace of god.

    "Get your ass down you twat! There could be marksmen!"
    "That cave could be!-"

    "Oh plops!" The steel tripwire stretched across his feet, then violently snapped, ejecting the pins and rolled the grenades deviously towards the rest of the group. Making the leading group all look in horror, "Ricky you idiot! KENZI WATCH THE-" Dust, sand,rocks, and machine gun fire filled the air around them. The shock of the blast left some members of the group in a daze, prompting the beginning of a potential counterattack

    "fl*ffing A! Everybody alright? The dust is obscuring my view! Andrea you all good? How about you Mord?," She pulled her bandanna up around her mouth and set her sniper rifle on the rock infront of her, then scoped in despite the dust and the shock of the blast. She'd be damned if Vex or Jess got hurt or died on her watch. She'd even rush in if they needed back up instead of covering fire.

    "Everybody mo...*cough*move out! *cough*,*cough*!" We've got to get up there! C'mon!"
    "Jess, behind me, Ricky check your flanks and be cautious! Let's give them a wall of death!" He readied his rifle then pushed up alongside Stella, who was just as hopped up on adrenaline as he was. Bullets would litter the ground once again.
     

    Skyrimosity

    Well-Known Member
    "You cowards! Fight or die a coward's death!" Only two of the prisoners remained with Carsten, two of the others dying and another retreating. Carsten was shooting frantically but was unable to cause any serious damage with the pistol. That's when there was a commotion from the other nearby hallway. Suddenly, a plasma grenade landed at Carsten's feet. The other two prisoners thought they were dead.

    Carsten quickly threw the grenade back at the original owners and, as soon as it exploded, he unsheathed his machete and rushed down the hallway. The large explosion in the cave had served to ruin the sense of the nearby gangers and they were momentarily stunned. Carsten found the nearest one down that hallway and, while maintaining running speed, slashed the man's throat. The next ganger jumped in front of Carsten to fire his weapon but Carsten dove at him, machete first, and stabbed him squarely in the chest while Carsten's momentum brought him to the ground and Carsten rolled to absorb the impact.

    Carsten moved toward the last two gangers, who had regained their senses. They were firing at him from a room just a little bit away from him but Carsten found cover in a spot where the cave seemed to dip in. The two other prisoners, seeing his predicament, shifted fire to the gangers and suppressed them. Carsten held up his hand with three fingers. Three. Two. One. He charged the men quickly and stabbed one of them in the neck, killing him instantly. He then quickly turned the man's body to provide cover from the other's fire and pulled out his pistol, shooting the other man multiple times until he fell to the floor.

    He noticed now that there were more guns shooting, and he sure hoped they were guns that belonged to people who weren't Powder Gangers.
     

    TheCaptain

    The Mad Conductor of Words
    when John heard Ricky on run ahead he knew what was coming he quickly holstered his revolver and covered his ears "this ain't gonna be pretty" he said to himself as "Oh pl***!" "Ricky you idiot! KENZI WATCH THE-" was heard before an explosion kicked up Dust, sand and rocks as machine gun fire filled the air around them. The shock of the blast left some members of the group in a daze, John pecked his head and saw that Ricky was perfectly fine "Fluffing Dumbass" He said walking in "Everybody mo...*cough*move out! *cough*,*cough*!" We've got to get up there! C'mon!" Stella yelled as John pushed forward with the others, "I'll try and keep them distracted while you guys take them out!!" John shouted as he took cover drawing his revolver before taking pot shots at the powder gangers to distract them so the others can take them out.
     
    Last edited:

    Wolfbane

    Why change the past when you can own this day?
    Vex pushed on as the rocks from the explosion tumbled down the hill towards the others. What sounded like a 50. pounded down towards them, making the spear head of the group take cover behind rocks that were being chipped away at, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm stuck right where I am. Where in the fl*ff did these assholes get a machine gun anyway? An NCR outpost? Not really time to think about it I suppose."

    "Flank em damn it! We have a god damn machine gun and they're pinned!" The gangers that were firing began to flank towards Vex's side, and making it really obvious. Both gangers had service rifles and were taking ill aimed potshots at the ranger. Getting tired of the plopsty shots, Vex put a round in the first man's leg, sending the other behind a large fallen tree.

    "WILL YOU LEARN HOW TO AIM AND STOP SCREAMING." Vex shouted to the lamed legged ganger and to his friend that was behind the tree waiting for the moment to strike, "You bastard! you dun shot him in the leg!"

    "Yeah and I'll shoot you in the gut to make it worse you illiterate fl*ff."

    "Bring it NCR Coward." the stupid man popped up with now two service rifles thinking it would be a surprise to Vex. Instead, the ranger put one in the ganger's stomach, just as promised.

    "catch" The dying powder ganger tried throwing a grenade towards Vex, only giving him time to draw his 45. and shoot it out of his hands and now into a roll.

    "Ah plops. It always happens to-" The grenade blew up right in front of the rock he was taking cover behind, and sent shrapnel grazing right in the arm he that was shot earlier. His 45. was now his defense. He needed to push up but couldn't. The blast dazed him to the point of non responsiveness

    "He needs to go now! Vex, are you hurt?" Stella's pant leg was drenched in blood from the exertion from running up the hill. He didn't answer. Why?

    "Vex! God damn it!!!" She trained her sights on two more gangers that sprinted out of the cave, shooting one in the neck, making blood violently squirt out of him, and the other in the chest, and hopefully sending him to a slow death. Now she moved to the gunner who was hammering down on her friends. Her breathing slowed, and she got her sights right above his head. One more shot of the 50. would send her sights right in-between his eyes due to the recoil. The loud primal thunk of the 50. came, and a loud crack went. The shooting stopped, and her barrel smoked, signalling that she took the shot.

    "I need to be up there! Vex! I need to be up there with Vexie!"
    "Kenzi, no! Not until we know it's safe!"
    "Damn it Jed! What if he dies and I didn't save him?"
     

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