Through Hell And High Waters [Post Apoc | Private | IC]

[Forest State]

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THROUGH HELL AND HIGH WATERS - A POST-POST APOCALYPSE STORY

North America Map (Updated 6/10) | British Isles Map | Theme

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One hundred and forty two years after the collapse of the old world, things have changed...

This is a story set on Earth, but not the same Earth that we all know. On October 31st, 2020, the world changed in a way that few could have predicted before it happened - a black swan event of sorts. Society was struck not by nuclear war, not by an AI uprising, not by climate change, or any other predicted form of collapse. Instead, it came out of left field as something that was imagined to be impossible: an invasion from another realm. It didn't take much to alter the course of history irreversibly.

A War In Hell. An invasion of the human realm by outcased demonic forces created by this conflict. The spread of this threat across the planet. And soon, the collapse of the world in the way we knew it before.

What remains is a new world order - a world rebuilt but not healed. Fractured nations, former great powers now split into warring states, relative prosperity in some places contrasted with anarchy and chaos in others... In this new world order, much of the world has once again been turned to frontier, places for multiple sides to fight each other for supremacy while demonic tribes still roam the world and battle for dominance against humanity and each other. Raiders, militias, cults, military orders and more exist outside of the borders of regular 'nations,' turning the frontiers into a place where someone can either sink or swim. There's always a chance to gain power out here - but also a chance to lose it, perhaps as swiftly as it was gained.

As society stabilizes, clashes for power and the title of most powerful in North America will heat up, and the truth about the demonic invasion is still unclear. For these reasons, it's easy to say things will change even further in the coming years, as the world stands near another new age: an age of revival.

[Durmatagno]

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BOOK 1, CHAPTER 1 - NEW FRONTIERS

Collaborative post between Forest State and Durmatagno

August 10th, 142 C.E.
Las Vegas, Grand Republic of the Southwest

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Las Vegas - in many ways, one of the cities that was competing to be at the center of the world at large. Or at the very least, the center of the Southwest, the region of the former United States that was still contested heavily, from the deserts of Nevada and New Mexico to the urban jungles and slums of a rebuilt Los Angeles. One of the cities that fit into that power struggle for regional dominance, and even dominance across the many borders that now split this once united country, was of course Las Vegas… The city was known for gambling, entertainment, and vice, but all of that simply played into Vegas gaining a larger status these days.

A hundred and forty two years after the demonic invasion changed the world permanently, things were a far cry from what they were before.

The American flag over Vegas was a sight that hadn’t happened for a long time - rather, it had been replaced by the blue flag of the Grand Republic of the Southwest, a state that rose out of the ashes of apocalypse, uniting multiple sides and drawing smaller groups ranging from military factions to mobsters into one, a country that was both united and divided at the same time… United in name, at least, but divided in terms of where the power rested, with a number of groups holding power in one way or another, either through office or through lobby. Still, despite this divided status, the Grand Republic of the Southwest was about as successful as someone could expect from a state that had arisen after the apocalypse.

Its territory stretched from the border with the Baja Dominion all the way up towards northern California, with much of it bordering its notable rival: the Pacific Republic, whose seat of power was in regional competitor metropolis Los Angeles. Vegas and LA were two of the largest and most prosperous cities in the west these days, and their competition through the years had helped to drive a return back to the standards of before the conflict with hell itself had broken out.

Electricity had returned, industry had returned, and eventually other things had been brought back in the race between these two states, and the rest of the country… Information technology, advanced military technology such as guns and tanks and missiles, even advancements made before the collapse such as genetic modifications and weapons which were beyond the realm of what earlier generations would have imagined.

But in spite of this, things were still different in the former United States. Very different. The old country wasn’t coming back, and what had replaced it was distinctly rougher around the edges.

At one point, there had been such a thing as national unity. These days, the only ‘nations’ were regional, and the situation had thrown the status of war back to an earlier age… No longer were there treaties, diplomatic processes, and public pressures limiting conflicts between the nations of the first world. No longer was history enough of a deterrent. Rather, there were frequent conflicts, with American versus American, and at this point, the term hardly meant anything at all. Because ‘American’ just wasn’t much of an identity anymore, when there was no ‘America’ to speak of as a unified entity.

Even in peace, the world was rougher. Survival and living an average life couldn’t be taken for granted. Fighting was not just something for faraway places, but a profitable enough profession. And there were still frontiers that were held by no state, ravaged by demonic attack and controlled by non-state human factions of varying organization, leading to a certain amount of chaos and shifting borders.

It made the stability and prestige of somewhere like Las Vegas more impressive. But even then, the conflicts here just happened in a different way. In back alleys instead of in public, gangsters and hitmen attacking one another instead of nations fighting it out, and plenty of people looking to get money and move to a better position in society by any means necessary. This was, after all, a city of vice. Vegas and the Grand Republic of the Southwest in general trended towards using that as an advantage - something to profit from.

Some of the time, that meant moving drugs and other contraband into the Pacific Republic. Sometimes, it meant working for the massive casino industry, which had both legitimate and illegitimate operations based in the country, with the latter mainly being fronts for the sizable criminal enterprises here. Sometimes, it involved heading to the frontier to expand, and push for more territory.

And some of the time, the hustle was this, an ‘underground’ fight at one of the largest casinos in the city of Las Vegas - because in a place like this, where peace had lost its virtue, bloodsports happened to be as big of a draw as ever…

Victoria closed her eyes and took a deep breath before the bell was rung and the match was on. Standing before her was a thickly muscled man at least a decade older than her. That meant he had experience in this ring well beyond herself. He knew a good mix of techniques, but in general he was a slugger. Preferring to end matches with a few powerful hits. Generally that suited him, at 6’6” he towered over most opponents, giving him a reach, power, and weight advantage against most. This was not true for Victoria herself. She had almost a full head over him, and while not as muscular as him, wasn’t lacking in power or finesse. When the match started he came in quick, trying to get under Victoria’s reach, and bring his power to bear as quickly. He wanted to keep Victoria from bringing her own advantages to bear. Instead he was rewarded for his efforts with a heel to the face, driving him to the ground. His head split open, and blood trickled down his face.

Rolling he got back to his feet before Victoria could follow up on it, but anyone could tell he wasn’t doing very good. The first blow of the match had been a solid one, and he wasn’t steady on his feet. Still, he had plenty of skill to back up his years in the ring, and shifted his style. He came in with a quick series of blows to wear Victoria down, she was able to block many, but just as many got through. He shifted to try and knock her down and was rewarded with a knee to the chin. Victoria shifted the momentum of the match with a series of heavy, straight blows that drove the man backwards into the chainlink separating the fighters from the spectators.

In a final desperate act he ducked down, and drove his shoulder into Victoria, taking her to the ground. They wrestled for a moment before Victoria was on top, and rained blow after blow on the man, stopping only once he was unconscious. It’d been a closer fight than she’d liked, but that just meant she knew where she had to improve. This was the fourth time they’d fought, and the first time Victoria had beaten him. These sorts of no rules fights were frowned upon, but were much more entertaining in Victoria’s opinion than anything organized. Was a good reflection of the world to her, where the strong did what they wanted and the weak suffered what they must. Taking off her gloves, she exited the ring to collect her money, and get something to drink.

Victoria pocketed her money happily, it’d been a good if quick fight. Once she had that money, a trip to the casino bar to get something to drink was in order. She didn’t have anywhere else to be, at least, not that she could remember, and she had a new wad of cash to enjoy. She rubbed her shoulder as she walked, yawing. The bruises and scrapes didn’t bother Victoria, even if they drew some eyes. She’d have to put all her piercings back in later, one didn’t wear those into a ring.

As she sat down into the stool at the bar, her phone started ringing. She sighed, she just wanted a drink right now, but she rarely got calls. Was probably something important, probably. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and answered it.

“Hello?”

“This is the Grand Republic Department of Security… A new contract for the northern frontier has just been posted. Currently, the job is being offered to private contractors that are willing to travel to the Northern California area to carry out the assigned task outside of the territory of the Grand Republic… In exchange for $12,000 in compensation. If you are not interested in this offer, you have nothing to do. If you are, please come to the Department of Security headquarters in the next few hours.”

The call would end with that. No further details. No information on what the job involved. Just that it would be in Northern California and that it would pay, perhaps decently - the quality of the pay of course depended on just what kind of work it was. There were a number of different things the Department of Security could offer… Especially beyond the borders of the Republic, towards areas that were far less calm and secured.

Victoria considered her options for a moment, before with a sigh she put a hundred on the counter in front of her to pay into her tab and stood up. 12K was nothing to sneeze at, and much as she wanted to enjoy a drink and her win, the temptation was too great. Heading outside, she climbed onto her bike, and took off down the road, heading for the DOS headquarters. She was slightly irritated, but that was because of having to turn down the chance to drink, it’d pass shortly.

The building wasn’t too far from the casinos that were the most famous sight here in Las Vegas, though it was in a different section of town, the newer one where the heart of the government had been constructed - it also had more foreboding architecture than either the casinos or the other government buildings, with sharp brutalist lines and plenty of straight sections with little flourish or detail, the building itself mostly made of concrete with some metal furnishings. It was, in a way, symbolic. The physically strong construction of the building was almost a reminder that in a society where there were always multiple groups fighting one another in some way, there was at least one group that shouldn’t be messed with. Of course, how valid a claim that was depended on just who was being asked that question.

The parking lot was huge and the the front lobby area, separated from the outside by a set of large glass doors, seemed just as big… On the interior, the most notable features were white floors made from some kind of heavy stone, and a high ceiling that gave the place a strange feel to it, as if the inside of the building was vast and open despite the somewhat sterile nature of it, a contrast from standing out in the open outside. Still, even if it was incredibly sterile in appearance, it was also elegant in some ways. There weren’t too many buildings around here that focused on projecting power over wealth or some other attribute.

After Victoria had entered, she would be approached by a secretary of some kind - blonde, not the type that would look out of place as a preppy office worker who had recently graduated from college and moved into a job like this as an intern or some similar position - who seemed to be looking for her in specific. She was, notably, rather diminutive compared to Victoria. Then again, a lot of people were. “If you’re one of the contractors that received a message about the latest job, you can come this way…” she gestured towards the row of elevators.

Victoria nodded and stepped in line behind the girl. She rubbed her neck, somewhat self conscious about the bruises clear on her face, but she likely didn’t have to worry. She didn’t rush the girl, she was just doing her job, and even if Victoria liked to move quickly, rushing an employee of the people looking to hire her seemed like a terrible idea. Instead she just thought about what she’d spend the money on.

They would have to head up a number of floors in the large concrete building, and then through some hallways until the point when they showed up at a conference room. It seemed that things weren’t going to get underway instantly, however. As the original call had said, there was still some time for anyone who hadn’t yet arrived to show up… Which meant some waiting time for anyone who was already there. As for who was there at the moment, the room seemed to be empty except for one other who would be unfamiliar to Victoria, her appearance not entirely that of someone from around here even if there weren’t enough hints in it to indicate where she was really from… The only thing known for sure was that she was unfamiliar and perhaps that she was some kind of engineer from the way she dressed, and the visible oil that was on her hands and arms in some places.

Victoria shrugged and took a seat. Between herself and her slightly younger sister, she’d seen plenty of oil. She mostly just worked on smaller projects for fun, she was a fighter at heart, it was her own sister that was the engineer in the family. She crossed her arms, and leaned back in her chair, looking up at the sound of someone else. Speak, or in this case, think, of the devil and they shall appear. Victoria’s slightly younger, and much smaller sister Rosalie entered the room. She glanced at Victoria and the other person, before taking a seat, keeping quiet for now.

It would be a while before the next person showed up, but there was at least one other who was coming… Someone that would be a bit more familiar to Victoria. Well, a lot more. Aura Delova was an unsurprising addition to the group considering she was wrapped up in the world of the mob, and in the Grand Republic, the criminal world could often have just as much legitimacy as the official world. As such, someone like her could end up in a position like this, potentially working for the government despite being one of the more active criminal ‘hitters’ in the city. She hadn’t been taken in by authorities, after all… Which meant she was as good as legitimate.

She flicked her black hair to the side as she entered, her eyes scanning the table and seeing who was there, and settling on Victoria and offering a slight wave. “You’re really on your hustle, eh? Didn’t expect to see you here,” Aura remarked, taking a seat next to Victoria with a slight smirk.

“Got a call, was offered good money, course I’m gonna be here.”

Victoria said with a smile and a wave. Aura was one of her oldest friends, though things had started off...rocky between them. They were better now, what had happened was at this point years in the past, even if it did still sting at times.

“Same story on my end. You know, it’s hard for me to resist a chance to head to the frontier and get paid for it… Less laws, more chances to kick someone’s shit in,” Aura remarked, sitting back in her seat. “But we’re still stuck here waiting for now. And we don’t even get to have a go at the secretary,” she added - she basically always had an incessant appetite, whether it was for adrenaline and getting into fights, or for her desires and vices. Things like this, like the waiting around, were her least favorite part of the process.

“I had just sat down at one of my favorite bars when I got the call, just wrapped up a good payday and was planning on enjoying some drinks. That didn’t happen, but given the payday…”

Victoria’s appetite wasn’t as strong as Aura’s, or maybe it was and she just tempered it more to focus on work. Was hard to tell sometimes, but she tended to believe it was weaker. Rosalie who remained quiet generally only cared for machines and the occasional drink, she was one of the most reserved members of the known Fawn family. Victoria was...not.

“Should have brought something to drink right now, not like these things ever move fast. Not until we’re away from the bureaucracy, at least,” Aura said with a shrug. The seal that was on some of the things in the room reminded them exactly where they were - in the heart of the government’s operations, an organization that could sometimes be labyrinth like in its composition, and that wasn’t always efficient.

“Had to ride my bike here, and didn’t have a bag with me. Nowhere to put a drink or I’d have brought one. Instead I get to sit here sober.”

Victoria sighed, she didn’t usually take her bag with her to the fights because she was going to be drinking in the bar nearby. This time it’d bit her in the ass, maybe she’d remember to keep her bag with her next time. Maybe, who knew how long this would take and when she was going to fight again.

“I’m just, well…” Aura started, pausing and stretching, a slight smirk settling on her face. “Distracted by that secretary, I guess. You know where my priorities are. You’ll probably have to do the actual paying attention part for me.”

“Possibly. She is cute, but I just got done with a fight. Still in that headspace, not the headspace you have sunk into. I’ll keep track of everything, don’t you worry. Maybe you can get her after this meeting thing is over.”

“Maybe…” Aura said, placing her hands behind her head and closing her eyes, almost tempted to put her feet up on the table but not being quite daring enough to make that move, considering where they were. She already pushed the limits of what was a professional, after all, although technically none of them were professional in this sense considering they all had other things they did. This was just an offer they hadn’t been able to refuse, not necessarily their main work. Aura did chuckle slightly, opening one eye after a moment. “And I suppose you might not’ve brought your little sister if you knew I was going to be around.”

“Didn’t bring her, she got a call of her own. Don’t even know where she was before she showed up here.”

Victoria said with a shrug. Wasn’t her job to protect Rosalie or filter the world from her. Seemed Rosalie was garnering attention of her own somehow. She wasn’t bad in a fight, but it was building and repairing she excelled at. Victoria wasn’t sure why she was here, but given the silent newcomer...well, they had at least three engineers of varying skill in the room.

“Ah, well, your family’s always good at doing shit. Wouldn’t know what it’s like, I’m still on my own,” remarked Aura, with another slight shrug. “Just don’t forget about me when ya’ll seize political power… Or whatever it is that you want to do. I don’t know. Seems like the lot of you are headed that way sometimes.”

“Dunno, we all do our own things. If any of us would it’d be Winter, and she seems content to just run the Casino for now, gives her all the girls she’d ever want.”

The secretary would come back eventually, after no one else had shown up. It was only then that she introduced herself. “My name is Roxanne Chase, and I’ve been put in charge of managing this operation on behalf of the higher ups within the Department of Security. All of you have been brought here because you’ve worked with us in the past at least one time before and have proven your worth. However, the job today isn’t going to be a straightforward assignment, nor will it be done in days or even a couple weeks maybe.”

“The task at hand has to deal with the Order of the Frontier. As you know, the Order of the Frontier is a military order connected with the central military but operating independently and making its own decisions on operations. It maintains outposts outside of our borders and handles a number of tasks including border security and dealing with raiders who threaten our territory, as well as hostile states. Recently, one of these outposts in Northern California within an area contested by multiple factions has went off the radar. This outpost, based in the smaller country of the Northern Federation, has shown no signs of contact or of being occupied based on what we’ve heard from the NF. Your goal, of course… Is to head into this area and identify the source of the disturbance - as well as finding the fate of the local unit.”

Victoria frowned in thought, wondering how exactly they were going to handle something this long term. At least in part explained the number of engineers in the room. She scratched her head and didn’t say anything, instead focused on how they’d handle the supplies of something long term. Couldn’t carry it all with them, no wonder they pay day was a big one. Rosalie for her part was also thinking about solutions to these problems, though her approach was different than Victoria’s.

“What was the unit doing in the area before going off the radar?” questioned the one who remained nameless, the other engineer - she had a bit of an accent, but it was an exotic one, but it was hard to tell just where it was from.

“Handling scouting in the area around the Northern Federation, the Pacific Commune, and the Free Cities Union… Three factions known to compete with each other. The area may be in the sights of expansion for the Grand Republic, but before any ambitions can be pursued, some scouting is being done. That was the project of this unit of the Order of the Frontier, which had come to terms with the Northern Federation and had avoided conflict with the locals. For now. We have no idea what the current standing of the Northern Federation is, but that’s one of the reasons why further investigation is being done into the Federation and the area around it,” Roxanne continued.

“Any further questions?” she asked, looking across the room at the others. “The team is set to deploy in the coming days… Particularly by plane, to the border, and then the rest of the distance on land. You may have to interact with all three factions in the specific area.”

“What supplies if any are being sent with us?”

Rosalie spoke up before Victoria could. Essentially the same question, though the phrasing was different. Her voice was soft, but not shy or weak. It was rather like she preferred to to use as few rods as possible, where Victoria enjoyed talking, among other things.

“Enough essentials to get you started. But for the most part, it will be a good idea to travel light. Not only do you… Not have access to much infrastructure, at least not from the start, but you may end up continually on the move if you find a lead on the whereabouts of the Order of the Frontier unit and follow after it. You will have a budget to obtain more goods while on site. At least, if things go your way, you should be able to do so. The value of fiat currency fluctuates in that part of the frontier.”

“Got it.”

Rosalie said with a nod while Victoria sighed quietly to herself. Limited supplies meant side jobs to maintain themselves, as budgets were rarely in line for actual expenses in situations like this. Rosalie would be useful for that at least, everyone needed a mechanic, and she could make some crazy things. Victoria herself could enter rings, among other things. There were plenty of ways to make money, but it’d slow them down. Probably be fun though.

“Assuming you find the missing unit, your goal is to bring them back safely to Republic territory. If you are able to find them, you may also receive further support in this,” concluded Roxanne. “Your payment will be awarded at the end, but if the length of the operation drags out unexpectedly, you may be paid more for your efforts and get paid earlier for the $12,000. If these terms are good enough… I can head to another part of the office and make things official.”

Rosalie and Victoria both nodded, it would be a big pay day so to them, the risk was worth it. What’s more, both of them had been reached out to for it so they had a team in mind for this, any of them saying no would shift the performance of the team downward, probably. Things were never simple on missions like this, but there was no real reason to decline.

The others would agree to the terms pretty easily, leading to Roxanne turning to walk out and handle the rest of what needed to be done - and leaving the team that had just been assembled there waiting for any further things that needed to be said. “Damn, she left…” remarked Aura, sitting back once again and dropping the illusion of focus. “Guess we’re a team now.”

“For this mission anyway, also you’ll have your shot at her eventually.”

“I’m not a patient person,” Aura shrugged, standing up. “And now I’m in an impatient mood. But… Since I’m stuck in this spot, we have to think about getting ready for this shit now, don’t we?”

“Hard to get ready if we don’t know the specific supplies they’re giving us. Gotta say, long missions tend to have long periods of nothing. Gonna be boring most of the time.”

“I think the entire point is that they don’t know anything about the situation and since it’s outside the Republic’s reach they’re sending us up north to find out about it,” Aura pointed out. “We’re the scout team, either we find no big deal or we run into some kinda major shit they didn’t predict before, either way we make a decent profit off it.”

“Assuming we get out of there. Given what’s in this room, I think they expect to need both fighters and mechanics. I can’t be sure about the woman whose name I don’t know, but if I had to guess there’s three engineers of various levels of skill and dedication. Rosalie is okay in a fight, I’m pretty good, then there’s you. They’re covering their bases, so I doubt it’ll just be us four.”

“Nico Meier,” said the unnamed engineer, raising her hand slightly. But otherwise, she didn’t seem like the type that said much, and her voice was noticeable but the tone was level. She didn’t raise it, didn’t put much enthusiasm into what she was saying or try to make much of a first impression like some people would, she simply told it how it was and said what she needed to say in the quickest way she could manage. “Not to put myself on a pedestal… But many have said that I’m the best engineer they’ve met.”

“Victoria Fawn, and my mostly silent sister is Rosalie. Also, possibly, but I’ve met my sister and I’m no slouch myself, though worse than her. Still, if that’s your main draw you’ll probably be around her level, which means I doubt there’ll be much in that area that can do more than slow us down. In general I’m more hands on anyway, where Rosalie strikes the balance between hands on and actual engineering. If you’re better at that end, it forms a nice balance.”

“I do think I’m better at that end, yes,” shrugged Nico, her voice remaining fairly even, as if she didn’t have a strong opinion on it one way or the other, though she didn’t seem like she felt strongly on many things at all… Or she possibly hid it and tried to look calmer for the sake of appearances for whatever reason, and not just calmer, but more neutral also. “I believe I may be the one between us that also has the skill to run forensics analysis on electronic evidence we find about the Order’s outpost, assuming we recover anything from the site.”

“Probably, I’ve always been more interested in cars, bikes, and guns than I was computers. Rosalie might be able to, but it pays to have a proper expert in that kind of stuff. No tellin’ what’s going to be needed, but at the very least we have broad coverage.”

“Fair enough,” Nico said, nodding and looking between the others before looking off in the distance once again.

Not long after, Roxanne came back into the room with some paperwork in hand, smiling slightly. “Good news, I’ve talked to the people that need to be talked to about all this and your group is good to go for this assignment. You’ll have a few days to get everything together and then you’re set to leave from Vegas International on the 14th to head to the border - it will be a turboprop flight but with the relatively short distance, it won’t take too long. From there, transport will be set up to take you into Northern Federation territory where you can begin your search.”

Victoria nodded. She disliked having to leave her bike, but on the other hand she doubted she wanted to risk it on the frontier anyway. It wasn’t militarized or weaponized after all, though she doubted she could do much more than mount a light machine gun or grenade launcher on it, it wouldn’t be practical anyway. She yawned and stayed seated, she didn't trust turboprops, but maybe that was just her preference for her bike over anything else. After all, they’d had literally centuries at this point to show they were generally reliable.

The group was soon getting up to head out and start with the planning that they needed to get out of the way before they could move on and start with the job they had just taken on - but Victoria at least would get an interruption, maybe a surprising one at that. Her phone rang once again, but this time the number wasn’t from anyone in the Department of Security, or anyone she had spoken to recently rather… Instead, it was someone that she hadn’t even seen in quite some time, that, based on the last interactions they’d had, wasn’t even in Vegas… At least, wasn’t in Vegas.

Victoria eyed the caller ID with distrust. People had tried to scam her before, even these days crank callers, con artists, and bots managed to get into everything. She hovered over decline for a moment, before deciding to at least see what this was. If it was a con of some kind, she could just hang up after all.

“Yes?”

“So your number is the same after these years…” the voice on the other end of the line said - a familiar voice, not a scam but rather a genuine surprising moment, with someone Victoria hadn’t seen in years calling once again… For whatever reason. After all, a call like this hadn’t come in, well, practically forever.

“Jazmine?!”

“I’m back in Vegas, or well, my family is and I also came along with coming back here from Carson City. I figured there was one person I should call about that before I bother talking with anyone else here,” said the voice - the Jazmine that hadn’t spoken to her in forever but was now calling, and not just that, but saying that she was back in Las Vegas after an absence.

“I uh...well...uh...welcome back. Where you at?”

Victoria was uncharacteristically nervous, to the point where she was having trouble getting the words out, though her actual tone didn’t show how nervous she really was. It’d been literal years since the last time she’d spoken to Jazmine. Not since she’d moved away.

“I’m at the airport right now… About to head through the terminal and figure out how to get downtown. Come over here and you might get there in time to give me a ride, eh? If you’re interested,” Jazmine said, chuckling slightly. “I imagined you would be.”

“I uh...don’t know how quick I’ll be there, was wrapping up getting a job set up.”

“Alright, I’ll tell you which hotel we’re in for now, I think we might be headed back to my old place but for now we’re staying downtown… I’ll have to find out where that is,” Jazmine said. “Buuuuut… It’s still nice to hear your voice again.”

“Nice to hear from you again Jazmine, I’ll swing by as soon as things are done here.”

“I’ll be going, then… I’ll have to make sure I’m looking good by the time you come over, after all,” Jazmine said with a slight laugh, before she hung up before Victoria could reply to the remark, deciding to leave things off on that note and perhaps give her something to look forward to. It seemed, after all, that she hadn’t changed too much over time. She still liked to mess with others a bit, her responses always keeping them on their toes.

[Forest State]

BOOK 1, CHAPTER 2 - PALACE OF LIGHT
August 10th, 142 C.E.
Palace of Light Hotel & Casino, Grand Republic of the Southwest

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There were many places in Vegas that had become icons after arising in the ashes of the collapse, and one of those buildings that marked the new skyline of the city was the Palace of Light Hotel, which doubled as one of its largest casinos. It was, in fact, one of the largest in the Grand Republic of the Southwest in both of those categories. It was also, maybe more notably, considered to be the central neutral ground between the groups that made up the incredibly dangerous Vegas mob, and their affiliates. Crime bosses, hitmen, and whores - all of it could be found in this one building, or rather, this one complex that spanned many floors and multiple interconnected structures.

For obvious reasons, it received many visitors of both the tourist and criminal type. Out of all of the people coming here and all the people that were within this building at the very moment, Aura Delova was just one person… But she carried with her more importance than a decent chunk of them, even if it wasn’t apparent. She was a hitter, not a leader after all. Not a leader right now, in this point in time, anyway.

Parking her muscle car on the outside, Aura climbed out and pushed her way through the entrance of the building itself, walking through an inner foyer and through the second set of doorways before she entered the magnificent structure in full, the high ceilings and the flashy decorations along the walls come into view as she entered on the ground floor. But despite all the flashing lights and the like, this place was really made for the tourists and the locals who had come here to gamble normally. The more important activities wouldn’t take place on the ground floor like this, they took place in the world of shadows in the background. The world that needed more work to access, that was more dangerous and that carried a certain credibility with it.

Still, no one exactly doubted Aura. She had been seen here before, and those that were in the know would be aware of her status… Both friends and enemies were well aware of that. No one would challenge her as she made her way across the lobby with her rifle - a derivative of the M16 design of old - slung over her back. Her status wasn’t disputed around here, not with the connections she had built up and the work she had put in during the past years to move up from being just a kid from the streets to… Someone that was feared and respected.

Even if the feelings about her didn’t include being liked, not as much as she would have wanted anyway. Not that she would have said anything to someone about that part. That would just be out of character for her - things like that were to be figured out on her own. There were, additionally, few people that she believed could understand her problems in the first place.

One of those people that had at least some understanding of her was the one that she was headed to see right now.

Her trip took her into the second of the hotel buildings and up a number of floors, passing through a hallway after getting out before eventually reaching her destination… Once the door was opened, she found herself looking up at a physically imposing figure, larger than even her - and she was usually taller than almost all the women she came across. Then again, Aura wasn’t entirely sure that she should feel bad about the woman in front of her almost towering over her - unlike the other woman, Aura had made use of no cybernetic enhancements to gain her size.

She didn’t have the same advantages in melee combat, nor did she intimidate quite as much, but she could say she had gotten the strength she did have on her own, a combination of her natural talents and her training. But the woman across from her, she was powerful in other ways. She was, in fact, Shavonne Byrne… The leader of the Byrne crime family, one of the larger components in the criminal scene here in Vegas. It hadn’t always been that way, however. Under Shavonne’s leadership, the family had really come into its own compared to before, where it had shared its powers in the areas it influenced with a number of others.

That was less true these days. Part of it had to do with people like Aura, who acted as some of the best enforcers around and helped to put a stop to disputes with other criminals before they… Ended up out of hand. If a rival wouldn’t bow, they had to be made to bow. Aura was usually one to handle that, and did a good job keeping these fights outside of the law, too. Vegas was, after all, despite being the capital of one of the regional powers in the Pacific West, somewhat lawless.

“So you’ve turned up again,” said Shavonne, as Aura walked inside silently, setting her gun down on the table and sitting down on the couch - the room didn’t look much like a hotel room, the furniture was top notch rather than cheap. Then again, it wasn't surprising. Shavonne had enough to not have to spare expenses if she didn’t desire to.

“You want help with something,” Shavonne also added. Of course she had figured that out. She was probably the closest thing Aura had to an actual mother figure… She was an orphan that hadn’t fit with her adopted family, and as such, the people that were closer to her these days were the ones she had been active in the streets with. Not the ones that were her relatives on paper.

“Maybe,” Aura said, resting back in her seat and closing her eyes - but opening one of them shortly after so she could keep an eye on Shavonne, who was walking back from the doorway towards the table setup in the middle of the room. “I actually had something to say, though. I’m headed out to the frontier soon. NorCal to be specific. Department of Security is hiring some people to look into it after an Order of the Frontier unit went off the grid up there. No one knows what happened. Our job to figure it out.”

“Doesn’t sound too out of the usual. The frontier is a dangerous place, things happen away from civilization, etcetera…” Shavonne said, stretching, her muscles visible during the action, especially around her arms. Outwardly, she did look all human. Under the surface, there was a bit more going on. “You seem troubled, however, for someone that’s about to make some money checking out a usual disturbance.”

“Because there is something on my mind,” Aura stated calmly and simply, opening her other eye and setting both of them on her mentor. “I’m going to be out of Vegas for a bit until this is done, obviously, but while I’m gone I’d like you to put a track on someone from Reno. And inform me when the mark is back in Vegas, which will be… Eventually. Everyone comes back here for something. Most of us decently often. I have something to deal with later.”

“And this person is…?”

“Celia Morris. Mercenary. Currently working in Reno, as I said, but I’m sure she’ll end up back here soon enough. I have… Further information. I’ll send it over when I can. I have pictures on my phone. Gives a good idea of what we’re looking out for right now.”

Shavonne paused, before nodding. “I’ll see what I can do. I suppose it goes without saying that you have a history with this person?”

“Just someone from my background that I think needs to be taken down a little. A mercenary that thinks of themselves as more virtuous, as better than the others… That thinks they’re more deserving of success… Deserves to be taught a lesson,” Aura said, gesturing to her gun on the table.

“But yes, you could say there’s a personal connection. One that involves growing up, and personal disputes,” Aura continued after stopping for a moment, standing up once she had finished her statement. “I feel my mood would even out if I settled it.”

“And the reason behind your mood being restless right now?” Shavonne questioned, poking deeper at the motives of her apprentice.

“Don’t know. Don’t know everything at least, right now. Maybe I will in the future…” Aura said, starting to walk towards the direction she had come from. “But y’know, even though you’ve helped me a bunch and I probably wouldn’t be here otherwise, some of the stuff from my past just ain’t sitting right with me. I’m going to do something about it. Take it into my own hands like someone from this clique should.”

“You’ll need a clearer head to advance past your current position.”

“Yeah, I know,” Aura nodded, stopping as she picked her gun up once again, throwing it over her shoulder by the strap and looking back towards the larger woman. “Just let me tick some things off the list for myself first. I’ll be in a better state, you hear?”

She stopped before leaving the room completely, opening the door but standing in the open gap rather than passing through. “I’m going to have to spend some time away anyway because of this Order of the Frontier shit. Might as well kill two birds with one stone and have something else handled by the time we roll back into Vegas.”

“Very well,” her mentor said, offering her a small wave. “I trust your judgement. Even if I do feel that your needs may be larger than just a getback against one person.”

“Hmm…” pondered Aura, placing a hand on her chin before she started to move again. “Maybe not, but it’s a start.”

[Durmatagno]

BOOK 1, CHAPTER 3 - REUNION

Collaborative post between Forest State and Durmatagno

August 10th, 142 C.E.
Palace of Light Hotel & Casino, Grand Republic of the Southwest

---

Victoria’s bike came to a halt in the parking lot of the hotel she’d been called to. Her face was freshly washed of the dirt it’d accumulated, but the bruises were still fresh and visible. Turning off the bike and pulling off her helmet, she looked up at the large building before her, somewhat nervous. Jazmine had been her first real friend years ago, but they hadn’t seen each other in years. She wasn’t sure what she should say, let alone if she should actually be here. But here she was, so with a breath, and putting her helmet on her handlebars, she walked inside. She had some idea of what she was looking for, but it’d probably take her some time to find her way through the building.

The front lobby in the hotel was a bit different than the front lobby of the casino area. A bit less flashy. Less… Extravagant. But still, it was clear the place was somewhere different from the norm, a bit higher class, and judging from the clientele here, a place that catered to more important people than some of the other hotels and motels in his area - of which there were a lot, given the presence of the nearby casinos, resorts, and other downtown Vegas sights. However, the person Victoria was looking for wasn’t one of these important people that mingled here… At least not in the same sense as the mob types that frequented the building. Or some of the high rollers who flexed their importance openly.

She was, however, recognizable in her own right. And she wasn’t bad off herself despite not quite being one of those high rollers that had a significant say in running the city, and the country as a whole. She had moved away previously, after all, due to her mother remarrying into a spot which improved their status as a family significantly… Years later, the effects of that move and the things that had been made possible by it could now be seen.

Jazmine Essex looked very different than she had years ago - braided hair replaced by long brown hair which seemed perfectly kept, like she had put time into working on it… Skin that was generally clearer, like it received attention also… A red dress which stood out from the others around her that were in more normal clothing, almost making her look like one of the gamblers that could be found in the other parts of the complex not far from here. But she wasn’t, or at least, she wasn’t headed over there right now. No, she just appeared that way because unlike before… She seemed high class. The years could really change someone as they went by, and in the case of Jazmine, they surely had done so quite a bit.

She offered a wave as she spotted Victoria - of course, Victoria had changed in a number of ways, too, which warranted a closer look from Jazmine… But at the end of the day, it was still clear they were the same people that had known each other years ago. Just… Different, these days.

Victoria in her own right was much, much taller than before. Her skin darker, scarred, and generally more weathered. She bore more discenerable muscles, and shorter hair. Beyond that she had many visible piercings, though she no longer wore one in her nose, her ears, both eyebrows, and even tongue still had them. It took her a moment to recognize Jazmine as Jazmine, she was much different from the tomboy Victoria had used to know. She was still recognizable though, and with a smile on her face, Victoria approached.

“Jazmine?”

“Took you long enough to recognize,” said Jazmine as she also approached, looking up as she moved towards Victoria - somehow, Victoria was the taller one between them even as Jazmine had reached a pretty decently tall height herself, standing at just over six feet… Perhaps something that had been aided by her fit lifestyle. “You look pretty damn different since I’ve seen you.”

Jazmine Essex.

“So do you, took me a minute to recognize you. Got pretty tall.”

Victoria said as she looked Jazmine up and down. They’d both change a lot in the time they’d been apart. Who knew what Jazmine had been through, seen, and done in that time. Victoria for her part had established herself a reputation as a skilled fighter with a good head on her shoulders. Part of why she’d had the job offered to her at all.


“Look good though.”

“I put effort into it,” Jazmine said with a shrug, her eyes still cast upwards. “Has everything been… Good since I went up north? You’re bigger now, I know, but has everything been working out for you?”

“Well as can be expected in this world. Been shot a few times, but I survived it. Spend a lot of my spare time fighting for money, quite fun.”

Victoria kept her eyes on Jazmie’s face. She couldn’t be sure how Jazmine had changed over the years, and seeing her reactions to what Victoria said might be a good indicator. At least this was the reason Victoria told herself about keeping her eyes on Jazmine’s face.

“Can’t say I’ve done too much worth bragging about, got used to living in the north and took some classes at the U of Reno for business, met some new people, found my style a bit…” Jazmine said, gesturing to herself as she let her voice trail off. “Decided I would rather be the one paying for things instead of the one doing tough shit out in the frontier.”

“I have to head out to the frontier soon enough, got a job with a big payday that’ll have me out there for at least a few weeks.”

Jazmine raised an eyebrow at that, perhaps not expecting the response. “You joined the Order of the Frontier or something like that? Or just working for someone that needs something done out there?”

“Contract job, big payday. Rosalie is in on it too.”

Victoria shifted on her feet as she spoke. Her voice stayed calm now, but she was much more nervous than she felt she had any right to be. They were just old friends meeting back up after all.

“Would have liked to be able to spend more time with you,” mused Jazmine. “A couple weeks before you’re taking off, eh? Cruel timing. For all I know, you could disappear out there, too. Would be a… Tragic turn of fate.”

“Actually I leave in a few days, the job itself could take weeks or longer. They aren’t...entirely sure about how long.”

“I just get a few days to catch up on being gone for years?” Jazmine raised an eyebrow, cocking her head to the side. “Like I said, pretty big shame right there. Hell of a lot to talk about, really. And well, I kinda miss having my best friend around in general.”

“Already accepted the job, was wrapping it up when you called. But...yeah, only got a few days before I’m shipped up towards the Northern Federation. Not sure what else I can say, but that about sums up what’s currently happening. Had just gotten to my favorite bar when they called to offer me the job too.”

“Guess I’m going to have to spend my time hanging with Aura, then,” Jazmine said - her voice only slightly teasing, and slightly, well… Almost offended by the fact that she would apparently just have a couple of days before Victoria left. It was no accident that her words almost came off as a low key threat rather than just a statement.

“Uhhhh...Aura is on the job too. Me, Aura, Rosalie, and some new girl named Nico are the members I know of.”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed at the threatening tone, she wasn’t sure why it was like that, but they’d accepted the job before Jazmine had made her presence in town known. Victoria scratched the back of her head as she spoke.

“Nothing stopping you from coming with us, but you aren’t exactly...a member of the team they put together.”

Jazmine shrugged. “I guess you’re not wrong. Who’s ‘they’ in this case, anyway? You’re headed out to the frontier but what kinda job is it? Clearing out bandits, establishing a colony, something else? Or well, I guess the last thing isn’t so likely. You did say you were headed to NF territory.”

“Looking for some lost Order of the Frontier people, finding out why they went missing, that sorta thing. Department of Security gig, 12k base, maybe more depending on how long it all takes.”

Victoria wasn’t sure what else if anything she could say about it, so she was keeping her mouth shut on more details for now.

Jazmine fell silent for a moment and shifted on her heel, waiting a little bit more before nodding. “Guess you can’t do anything about it, then. Kinda a shame, ‘cause you know, I wanted to actually… Hang out. Show you a little of how much I’ve changed. Mainly for the better. At least, the fact I’m more popular now seems to say I have.”

“We do have a few days, and nothing is stopping you from coming along.”

Victoria had a slightly hopeful tone in her voice. She wanted some time to actually spend with Jazmine, to actually catch up with her. It seemed that the timing of all this was poor. Of course she had a job that could go one for weeks or months right as her old best friend showed back up.

“Yeah but you’re telling me to come out to the frontier with you while you do hard shit and I don’t make anything off it. I’ve learned something about not giving your talents out for free, you know. But… You do got a point, I didn’t come back here from Reno to wait around for you to get back from some mission on the frontiers,” said Jazmine, shrugging.

“I could give you part of my cut I suppose, but it’s about the only way you won’t have to wait weeks or maybe even months if it goes badly to talk again.”

“Fair enough. I’ll think about it… And you can keep the money for yourself, you’re the one earning it in the first place,” said Jazmine, eventually - by now, another person was approaching them, who seemed familiar enough with Jazmine but wasn’t at her height, rather standing next to her and looking short in comparison… Even if her own height wasn’t exactly too undersized compared to the average. “Oh, and there's someone else for you to meet. My friend that I met in Reno, Corynne Hadley. She’s working with me in the whole business thing.”

“Nice to meetcha Corynne, I’m Victoria.”

Victoria switched gears fairly easily as the line of conversation drifted from what seemed to be an inevitable additional seperatiation. Mayben not a permanent one, but it made the reunion here somewhat bittersweet. At least, it made it bittersweet in Victoria’s mind. Her purple eyes shifted to look the new girl over, slightly below average meant dwarfed next to Victoria.

Corynne chuckled a little, waving. “So you’re the one that Jazmine has said a few times that she wants to check up on. You’re pretty tall. Guess I can see why she was so interested.”

“Last time she saw me I was like thirteen, and short by the standards of my age.”

“Short? Uhhh… Lot of growing, I guess,” Corynne said in surprise, not really believing that the girl she was looking at now had been below average in height at one point.

“We’ve both grown, of course,” Jazmine said with a slight smile on her face, before she gestured back towards the direction of the elevators near the rear of the lobby. “Shall we head back to the room I’m staying in? I mean, we could catch up out here but… I don’t have food and wine out here, do I? I’ve got that stuff back in my room.”

“Don’t usually drink wine, usually whiskey or something similar, but I am thirsty. Skipped my afternoon drink to get that job, so sure, let’s head up.”

Jazmine turned around without another word and she was followed by her friend, who picked up the pace next to her while Victoria followed. All in all, she was somewhat satisfied with how things were going - she wished Victoria would be in Vegas for longer, but at least she did have a chance to see her… She couldn’t say the same earlier, when they were in northern Nevada and Vegas respectively, and this was… A good change from that. Maybe even one of the reasons she had come back here in general.

[Lunas Legion]

BOOK 1, CHAPTER 4 - SUITS

Collaborative post between Forest State and Lunas Legion

August 12th, 142 C.E.
Merlon Dynamics Headquarters Complex, York, Commonwealth State of England and Wales

---

Across the Atlantic from the instability of the United States, and particularly the chaos and dangers of the western sections of it which still hadn’t been tamed for the most part, the situation for the former United Kingdom was somewhat different - by the current point in time, the country had been reunified in a way, but it wasn’t the same as it had been before. There was no more Scotland in the United Kingdom, the former holdings in Belfast had been consumed by the tribal warfare that had overtaken Ireland, and when it came to England itself, the collapse and the rebirth had brought about a culture change of its own.

No more crowns, had been the verdict. It was a new government that had managed to bring the fractured country back into one piece, through both deft diplomacy and military power on the field of battle. With that new government, came the death of the old world and its ideas… The crown, the church, and a number of other things pushed aside for the new. Even the city of London was now uninhabitable, the city and the area around it infested with demonic forces to this day, leaving it as an exclusion zone where the military was on continual watch to counter any efforts for those demons to break out - which wasn’t an empty threat. It had happened in the past, and if they weren’t careful, it would happen again.

York, the new capital, was an interesting place. It had a combination of the old and the new, with its historical status, but the current developments in and around the city were very much newer in nature and the sections of the city where the government was actually run from were largely modernist and shared the most cutting edge designs that were out there, with some of the most prominent architects that had come out of the collapse being hired to design the important locations for this city.

Of course, that wasn’t to say it was popular with everyone, there were certainly complaints about the way things were laid out in York and the growing trend through the entire country under the rule of the Commonwealth State, which wasn’t entirely dictatorial but wasn’t entirely democratic either. It did lean enough on the heavy handed side for some to consider the changes… Unnatural, pushed through by a regime which hadn’t been put there by the people.

Building styles which reflected the area were replaced with more utilitarian apartments, almost Soviet style. Where once churches would have been constructed, there were further buildings constructed by the quite wide reaching government. And for many, things seemed much more… Drab, as life became more and more dependant on commuting to and from plain office spaces to work for the increasingly small number of companies that were relevant in this post collapse world.

One of those companies was Merlon Dynamics, which was active in defense and also in the fields of electronics, aerospace, and robotics among other industries that they maintained less notable shell companies in…

And Rhea Fabre happened to be a worker at that company, specifically in the defense sector, in a role that not that many people would notice. Every day, she would ask herself the same question. Was it really worth it? Coming here from the Northeastern Confederation back in the former United States, and taking a job which paid a large amount but ultimately didn’t get much in terms of living standards, since all the housing around the newer sections of York happened to be expensive enough to take a large portion of each paycheck just to afford.

Rhea was musing the matter right now as she stared at the laptop screen in front of her, teeth gritted as she kept typing at the console on screen, determined to finish this programming assignment that had to do with one of the many components of the backend of one of their defense products. Things like this, they took millions of lines of code. And Rhea was one of the people that was expected to contribute her own thousands to the overall code base, even if it meant working overtime…

Well, she was sure that she could finish without overtime, but only if she kept her pace up.

But it wasn’t that long before the workday was supposed to end, and she sighed, stopping as her eyes were drawn to the clock in the lower corner of her screen. Less than a half hour before work was over officially. In reality, a decent amount of them would end up staying to finish things like what she was working on at the moment… Even if at this moment, she hated working on it.

Might as well take a break… I’m not going to get out of here on time either way…

She reached for the phone on her desk, the one that they were supposed to use for making calls to other places within the office. Of course, she did have her cell phone with her, but at a place like Merlon Dynamics, you did things to the letter of the law. There tended to be consequences for not doing them that way, even if it wasn’t convenient. She dialed the work number of one of the few people around here she could actually stand, that wasn’t a completely unbearable young professional that was just full of themselves and condescending towards someone ‘lower’ like her either by intention or by nature: Gabriella Bianchi-Costa, from HR.

There weren’t many other people around here that Rhea could feel comfortable speaking with - a lot of them simply judged her for the fact that she had a tattoo sleeve running down her right arm and her blue hair which acted as a distinctive marker for her, to anyone that didn’t recognize her from just her face. And if they weren’t put off by that, it would be her speech skills and her bluntness that put them off instead. She rarely ‘won’ in the social realm.

And yet… There was somehow one person she could speak to regardless. One person that had at least made the time around here somewhat bearable. And then there was the affair. Gabriella was not just the person that Rhea was able to talk to, but the person that she was at the moment having a workplace fling with, which may have also been useful for her continued existence at the company given the fact that she was disliked by plenty of her coworkers and Gabriella’s position in HR.

As Rhea picked up the phone, it also played into the thoughts weighing on her mind. If it wasn’t for that… She might have just quit already now and decided to test her chances in making it in just about any other place than York, and the Merlon Dynamics company in specific.

A few seconds passed in silence, the phone’s dial tone playing before clicking as the other end of the line was picked up. “Did you need me for company business,” Gabriella’s slightly distorted voice said over the phone. “Or is this just for the intelligent conversation and company?”

“I’m thinking of blowing my brains out if I have to work on this project anymore,” Rhea said in frustration, continuing to type on the console with one hand while she held the phone up with the other, resting her elbow against her desk. “I needed a distraction.”

“Well, I’m a pretty good distraction, all things considered.” Gabriella said. “Let me guess, they’ve given you several thousand lines of code to check through for errors, and it’s slowly murdering your sanity again?”

“I have to write several thousand lines of code and make sure it runs without errors. I wish I was just looking through something someone else wrote right now,” said Rhea with a slight sigh. “And I know I’m going to get a note on my record or at least a talking to if I don’t add the proper notes to say what all the shit does. This shit is not cool…”

“Makes HR sound positively fun by comparison.” Gabriella said. “If you want I can take a break early, we can grab coffee or something and get you away from the behemoth of a piece of code you’re working on?”

Rhea paused as she considered this, raising an eyebrow. “Not sure if that’s the best idea or if I should just finish this, I’m going to end up here for more overtime if I take any longer than I have to, you know.”

“It’ll be like ten minutes at most.” Gabriella pointed out. “And you’ll feel better afterwards, so you work faster. I’d come down and keep you company given how bored you sound, but I don’t feel like having people ask why I’m on a floor I don’t work on and I may or may not have the security clearance to look at some of the stuff on.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” said Rhea, stopping with the typing long enough to speak, taking a deep breath as she blinked while looking at the screen. “Granted, even if the company doesn’t do anything about it, I’m sure word is going to get back to the yuppie clique that we were spotted taking a break together. Can’t have shit in this company. Either some manager says something or the coworkers do.”

“I think that’ll be worse on my end than yours.” Gabriella said, sighing. “You’ve just got nerds down there, the proper stuck-ups are up here and not about to chip their fingernails coding.”

“Brace yourself for the backlash, I guess. Since you talked me into it, I’m getting up. Guess you can meet me at the elevator in the hallway outside the room where I am,” said Rhea, stuffing her phone in her pocket and putting her laptop into sleep mode before she stood up and set the phone at her desk down, turning and starting off through the rows and rows of cubicles and other assorted office spaces on her floor. She was headed, of course, to the central hallway on this floor, where the elevators ran both further up and down towards the main lobby.

Gabriella had beaten her to the elevator, standing next to it with a handbag slung under one shoulder, idly looking over her nails. She looked up as she spotted Rhea, tapping the elevator’s call button. “Well, at least it’s a little bit out of the office.” Gabriella said, smiling slightly. “Figured I’d buy, least I can do since work sounded more than a bit rough on your end.”

“It’s not very fun today, yeah,” Rhea said, glancing to the elevator as the doors slid open. “Got other things I’d rather be working on and yet I have to spend more time on this, and I know I’m going to have to talk to the project manager about it once I’m done with that.”

“Ouch.” Gabriella visibly winced as she stepped into the elevator, letting Rhea step in after her before she tapped the button for the ground floor. “I’ve been dealing with another ‘restructuring plan’,” she said, making air-quotes with her fingers. “But at least it’s not writing thousands of lines of code. I’d die, probably.”

“Sometimes I wonder if it would be a better idea to just go after doing the stuff I’m more interested in full time. But… I don’t want to live in a shithole with all the associated problems, which is one of the reasons I’m here in the first place,” Rhea said, leaning against the wall. “And this place comes at a cost thanks to not having those problems.”

“York is a stupidly expensive place to live nicely in.” Gabriella nodded knowingly. “I can’t really say on that, since it’s ultimately your choice. I’ll miss you being around here, if nothing else. It’s refreshing.”

“Yeah, well, I would miss being around you also. You know, I haven’t had that many good friends or anything… Never dated anyone… So I guess you could say it’s one of the reasons I’m still around here,” Rhea remarked as she watched the indicator of which floor they were on, the number continually changing as they kept descending. “Would kind of feel like going back to square one to move at this point.”

“I mean, it’s not like we can’t meet up outside of work if you do want to move.” Gabriella shrugged. “Might see a bit less of each other, but it also means one of us isn’t working for this company and all the mild misery it seems to drag along with it.”

“True,” Rhea admitted, pausing as the door opened and stepping out into the busy lobby, with its glass desks and fancy lighting - the company had to show off that it was one of the most valuable in the country, after all. Probably one of the most valuable in the redeveloped world, even. “But meeting up wouldn’t be easy if I don’t manage to stay around here. I’m from Hudson Valley, after all. Parents, too. You know, across the Atlantic, in the Northeast Confederation. It’s a long distance.”

“True.” Gabriella said, following Rhea out. “Hadn’t remembered you’re from, well, across the Atlantic, I thought you’d stay around York, but that’s easier said than done. You doing anything after work, other than collapsing into bed obviously?”

Rhea looked one way and then the other before speaking to see if there was anyone listening in on them, although she was still slightly uncomfortable saying what she was going to say, because she knew for a fact that the company was just fine with the direction that the country was headed - towards surveillance. She had no idea if the cameras here picked up audio… Or how sensitive those microphones were. “Well, even though I’d very much like to rest after finishing this code, I do have my black hat stuff to work on tonight… Because that stuff isn’t going to wait for anything. The shit I need to change isn’t going to stop because I can’t work on it.”

She seemed unassuming enough to her coworkers, but in reality, she did have some more notable aspects to herself outside of what she allowed them to see. Notably, she used her computer skills for less than official purposes in her own free time, behind multiple layers of anonymity, focusing on issues that she cared about personally. Chief among those issues was the authoritarian nature of the Commonwealth State, something that Rhea was actively working against through helping others in a low level virtual guerilla campaign of theirs against the state’s electronic resources.

“You’ll do a better job if you’re not tired.” Gabriella said quietly. “Don’t want to screw up because you were tired out from work, after all. I might drop by, might not. Keep it a surprise.”

“Might be too tired for our usual activities at my apartment,” said Rhea, pausing for a moment. “But you know, the feds are still moving full speed ahead with rolling out their cameras nationwide. And I think that’s one thing from pre collapse that shouldn’t come back. I’m not just working on this just because, I’m working on it because every day that I don’t beat the system is another day towards the system winning… Winning on something big.”

She clenched her fists, looking down. “Guess it’s pretty ironic to say considering I’m developing stuff for the same military that enforces that system, but what can I do? This kinda shit is going to come to my own country if I don’t help push back against it here. And I want to do something, damn it, even if my job is ironic…”

“I know, Rhea, I know…” Gabriella said, looking nervously from side to side. “Think of it as taking the system’s money to be able to, you know, do your stuff. And I meant in the keeping company and maybe me cooking dinner for the both of us for once. But we can deal with that after work, we still have to survive the rest of today.”

“True,” Rhea admitted, starting to walk again. “You don’t have to be nice, though. You can say it, if you think that I am crazy… Just some schizo fighting against the hand that feeds me and chasing impossible goals… Like keeping the feds from putting cameras on every corner.”

“Hardly the hand that feeds you Rhea, the government would just find someone else to do the same thing.” Gabriella said, following after Rhea. “I’m not exactly comfortable with it either, I just… Don’t think there’s anything someone like me could do about it.”

“Maybe. What I do is programming, but there’s other ways to make a difference. More effective ways, even. I might be able to do some things that most of the population can’t do with a computer, but when it comes to something like getting into a company’s servers… You need more than just electronics skills, a lot of the time. Intuition. Research ability. Social engineering. All of it comes together to form a wider set of skills that the best move between,” Rhea mused with a shrug. “And that’s just with this kind of thing. There are uses for someone that can talk to people good enough to work in HR, in any self respecting movement.”

“I guess.” Gabriella said. “It’s just one of those things where I wouldn’t even know how to start with it all, but that’s what I have you for. But that’s stuff we should probably talk about at your place or mine.”

Rhea just sighed. “Can’t talk about anything around here. Everyone’s perfectly fine about having a strong opinion on which boy band is better or whatever, or what some reality TV show about surviving London did, but it’s such a big problem the moment you question how things are… Everyone should be talking about it, in my opinion. But no, they’re not going to fuckin’ notice until the government’s got cameras in their bedrooms watching ‘em change, and then they might notice, when it affects them and it’s right in their fuckin’ faces and blatant for all of ‘em to see.”

“People are like that. ‘It doesn’t affect me so I don’t care.’ You’d have thought some things were worth standing up for, but… If you erode them slowly and give the right reasons, people will just follow along. They’ll barely even notice.” Gabriella said. “It’s the rare person who stands up for it, but that’s just part of what I like about you.”

Rhea pushed her way through the front doors of the building, nodding along. “We’ll see how this work of mine goes, I guess. Like you said, most people don’t care. I don’t have as much support as I would like. But someone has to get the damn job done,” she said, before stopping and looking down at her cell phone after taking it out of her pocket, spotting that someone was calling her. “I think this is related to that, actually.”

“Oh?” Gabriella asked, cocking her head to the side. “Anything particularly interesting?”

Standing still, Rhea held the phone up for a minute to see just what the subject of the call was, listening and nodding along. She listened for a bit silently without giving away too much from her expressions before she put the phone down and looked back to Gabriella, matter of factly explaining. “Me and my friend are going to hit a corporate event for the tech company that’s behind the cameras the government is planning to roll out. Tyto Technologies, to be specific. Under the proposed plans, they would provide the cameras, but they also have other technologies and they’re announcing a new phone this week. It’s supposed to be better than anything the pre-collapse world ever had. Which… Makes this a prime target for starting some trouble.”

“And by trouble, you mean… What, exactly?” Gabriella asked, gesturing for Rhea to elaborate. “Not sure if you’d want my rather limited ability to help or not, or just to ask you to be careful.”

“She wants to forge our way into the event itself and then get into the network and do a quick hack to take over the presentation for ourselves. The hacking part isn’t really the hard part - it’s getting into the closed network. It… Needs us to be there in person physically and we have to have a physical connection, and we also have to get in. But I’m the one that usually writes the code, between us, and she’s the one that does the photo editing shit. She’s good at it,” explained Rhea. “Of course, we have to get out without picking up too much heat, too.”

“That sounds like a difficult task.” Gabriella said. “You’re not exactly the type who looks like they belong at events like this, so… I guess you’d stick to the backstage, as it were, areas? I’m just worried you’ll get arrested or something, Rhea.”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been inside the concert hall where they’re holding this thing. I’m not the kind of person that gets into these events, you’re right,” shrugged Rhea, conceding that point. “I do have good intuition, though. I mean, I haven’t been drawn and quartered by the yuppie clique yet for committing heresy against them.”

“But if you play it right you’re not going to have to deal with the event proper, just the back end stuff.” Gabriella said. “Also safer, and probably easier to get into it. Going in the front would be something I’d do, if anything. You don’t need to see your handiwork to know you’ve pulled it off, do you?”

“I’ll know if we’ve pulled it off because there’s going to be some shocked reactions and they’re probably going to try to cut the connection or maybe back hack it… Which I’m prepared to defend against,” Rhea said. “I’ll see where the points of entrance are when I’m there. I know that there’s multiple ones, but I don’t know which ones they’ll actually use. Fortunately, the network we need to connect to is large. And hey, if you’re so worried, you can come and help make it a success.”

“I might.” Gabriella said, placing her hands together behind her back. “Not sure what help I’d be, I’m no good with computers, but if I wouldn’t get in the way too much…”

“The computer stuff is the easy part when it comes to this. We need help with all the rest of the stuff, I think. Getting in. Getting to the right spot. All that, you know. It’s the kind of thing that some awkward outcast like me isn’t that great at. Someone like you, on the other hand… They suspect someone like you less.”

“I’m not sure whether I should take that as an insult or a compliment.” Gabriella said dryly. “But I’ll take it as the latter, and that’s stuff I can do. You can tell me exactly what you need from me closer to the time, and I still owe you a coffee.”

“A couple nights, I think. We can talk about it then, after you come by after work. I think it’s just the kind of thing to use to get out of the work mood,” said Rhea. She lingered, somewhat satisfied that even at this place with this job, she had something at least to look forward to and push her to remain motivated. And the prospect of bringing Gabriella in on it was… Interesting, to say the least.

“You can call it a crime date, even. At the very least for me, it’s a first.”

[Durmatagno]

BOOK 1, CHAPTER 5 - NO CHURCH IN THE WILD

Collaborative post between Forest State and Lunas Legion

August 14th, 142 C.E.
15 miles southeast of the Northern Federation border

---

Beyond Las Vegas, beyond even Carson City and Reno, and well into the area that was considered the frontier of the Grand Republic - no, not just the Grand Republic but the region in general - there was a certain feeling of how untamed things were… The environment was less tended to by humans, the roads were more worn and less unkept, and in some places, they weren’t upkept at all. The settlements here were less in number and the ones that were there were a bit smaller and more spread out, more rural in nature compared to the cities located further south. Out here, there were rolling deserts and mountains, no help from the authorities if something went wrong, and the feeling of freedom…

It was what the party of mercenaries, if they were to be called that, was getting to take in right now as they moved down one of the main actual roads in this area at speed, aiming to make it to the border without running into trouble. Because trouble could be around any corner in this place, really, and it didn’t always act nicely enough to give a warning before it popped up. Sometimes, it just came out of nowhere. And if one wasn’t careful, they could find themselves on the side of being the victim rather than the victor in a sudden fight.

The convoy was led, of course, by an off road 4x4, which was followed by another one, and one more truck which was larger and slower but had their supplies in the back. Because for a trip like this, it made sense to bring some things to the frontier rather than acquiring them once there - tents, sleeping bags, a supply of food to start off with, all of the… Essentials.

But a convoy like this would also attract attention easily enough. Out here in the frontier, beyond the limits of the normal settlements, there were plenty of people that would simply see a caravan like this as a chance to get something. Either out of personal desire or out of need. As they continued to speed along, Aura kept her SMG out the left window of the lead 4x4 for good reason, to be on the watch and get the first shot off if anything did rear its head around here.

“Fifteen miles to the border according to this…” said Aura, glancing away from the window to look at a navigation app - it was still possible in this day and age, surprisingly enough, but while satellites for navigation and military purposes had once been held by mighty nations, they were these days controlled by powerful corporations which maintained their influence in part through a near monopoly on one of humanity’s biggest assets… Space. After all, it took quite a lot of funding to run and maintain space projects, and after the collapse, many nations didn’t exactly have huge excess.

“They say that this zone is a bandit alley because of it,” she continued. “Because they can get you coming in or coming out.”

“Then we should keep our eyes open, group like this is going to be tempting.”

Victoria herself didn’t use an SMG. She could, but she preferred...other weapons. Right now she had a semi-auto shotgun in her hands, loaded with slugs though she also carried a good number of multi-flechette rounds with her. A personal choice, when ammo wasn’t a guarantee out here, shotgun shells were some of the easiest to field load and make. Plus shotguns were fairly reliable overall.

“Any do come at us, we can mow ‘em down. Plenty of firepower between us all.”

“Far as I know this place is frequented by multiple groups, the most active of ‘em is the Sandsurfers. They use vehicles, just like us… Easier to catch up with someone on the road from a vehicle like this than it is on foot,” Aura remarked. “Pretty violent, too. Take the right people down and you can get your hands on some decent weapons, even out here.”

“If they show up, we’re gonna have a fight on our hands. At least we have good firepower, though maybe I shoulda brought a SMG or machine pistol instead of the pistol I did bring. Oh well, hindsight is twenty twenty, it’s still useful against body armor.”

“If we get far enough, the NF should be able to run them off… For now, might as well stay on guard,” said Aura, looking back out the window and keeping her hands on her SMG, which was also pointed in that direction as they continued speeding ahead - the first vehicle, of course, was the one that the fighters were in. The second one was the one that Jazmine and her smaller party were taking, which perhaps made that one a weak link between all of the vehicles. The third vehicle, the truck, was driven by Nico - but even she could probably handle herself better in a fight than those in the middle 4x4. “If you hear engines in the distance, say something. Might end up mattering a whole fuckin’ lot.”

“I’m keeping my ears open, don’t hear anything so far but everyone will know if I do.”

Victoria yawned as she finished speaking, she preferred to be driving, but as a fighter, she needed to be available to...well actually fight. It was more boring till the fighting started, if it started, but it was her role at the moment and she’d perform it. Just because she was yawning didn’t mean her eyes and ears weren’t still monitoring for change though, she wasn’t letting her guard down.

The convoy would continue down the road, which was a combination of asphalt and dirt, continuing to close the gap to the border in the distance - they wouldn’t be able to get out of the situation without running into at least some trouble, however. Because really, this was one of the areas that was just asking for trouble, and there was a good reason why most were wary of making these trips to the border. It started off, though, not as something overt but as a sound. The sound, specifically, of motor engines coming from somewhere in the distance, headed en route in their direction.

“There it is, we have incoming.”

Victoria signaled to Aura as she double checked that her shotgun was loaded and ready to fire. She couldn’t put a lot of rounds down range, but anyone could tell you that slugs hit like a truck. The flechette rounds wouldn’t be of much help against any real armored vehicle, but were good at shredding through body armor. She made sure to have a few of those ready to load in incase they’d be more effective than the slugs.

It wasn’t long before the noise in the distance turned into something that had to be more seriously considered. There was dust in the distance, too… A sign that this enemy was approaching, closing in on them and preparing for an attack, and that there were multiple vehicles coming in from the lefthand side of the convoy, apparently similar vehicles to the ones they were using themselves. But it was hard to tell from this distance. “Three vehicles at least… Maybe more. Seems like they’re coming in from one direction,” Aura reported. “Minute or two left before they make contact.”

Victoria moved to get a clear view on where the vehicles were approaching from. She nodded at Aura’s assessment and made sure her pistol was where she could easily free it if needed. She licked her lips and smiled in anticipation. It was no fist fight, but the thrill of a fight was hard to rival, especially with Victoria having to reign in her more hedonistic tendencies for the sake of a mission.

The vehicles continued their approach before they made a second move. “One of them headed in front of us, two of us headed to chase from behind,” Aura remarked on the situation, as the clouds of dust split apart and began to head in different directions. But both of them were still headed towards the convoy. Which… Presented them with something of a choice. They could try to keep going ahead and risk getting hit head on, or they could stop and allow the other side to take the initiative.

“Whatcha think, open fire and get them out from in front of us, or stop and hold our ground?”

“Might as well keep moving instead of letting them take up whatever formation they want around us, unless you have other ideas. I’m not the one driving,” Aura said back, keeping her gun at the ready. “Not in range to shoot yet either way, though.”

“If we had grenades, or flash bangs we could divert that, but we don’t. Keeping going probably is our best option. When we get the opportunity to retaliate, we will, I suppose.”

“They’re not even in grenade range right now… Gotta think of first things first,” said Aura, keeping her gun trained on the group of vehicles that was headed for the rear of the convoy. Or rather, the middle, since they were aiming for the rear of the lead vehicle. The vehicles wouldn’t remain out of range forever, though, with the lead one coming the closest before the other two… And putting itself into a position to dash across the road and, if the intent of the drivers worked out, hit the lead convoy vehicle and push it off the road also to slow things down for the entire convoy.

“Was talking about if we stopped, shoulda been more clear.”

Victoria called out as she leveled her shotgun at the lead vehicle, the one moving to try and ram them off the road. Once her barrel was clear, she fired two slugs down range at the thing, both hitting it at the front. She’d intended to hit tires, but had aimed a little high. Still, she smiled as both slugs hit, holes sprouting from the metal. What’s more, smoke started coming out of the engine block. She’d hit something important, though not enough to bring the thing to a halt, she laughed as it’s speed started dropping.

“If we can get the other two off us, I don’t think that one can keep up anymore Aura!”

The other two vehicles, however, were headed towards the section of the convoy that wasn’t quite as armed, or rather, was hardly armed at all. Nico was probably the only one with a weapon, and she was in the third vehicle, with the other two enemy SUVs aiming to split the convoy up by moving in front of the second and third vehicles respectively. This would turn out to be a somewhat smart strategy on the part of the raiders, as the second and third members of the convoy wouldn’t evade successfully at all, leaving them cut off from the lead vehicle.

“The other two are stuck behind…” Aura pointed out. But she swiftly snapped her head back forwards towards the SUV that had been hit before, which was now attempting to come back around from the other side and hit the second vehicle. She fired five shots from her SMG quickly, hitting the mark with enough shots to tear through the hood and put a stop to the vehicle’s movement after the earlier damage it had took. They still hadn’t hit any of the people inside, though. Three people, from the looks of things.

Victoria moved to target one of the two moving to separate their convoy. After a moment of quick debate, Victoria fired two more slugs at one of them. Again both slugs found their mark, puncturing through the hood of the raider’s vehicle. Again smoke, or maybe steam, started sputtering out, and the vehicle's speed started dropping.

“Fuck! Wanted to hit the driver.”

By now, the other side - presumably the Sandsurfers - were able to make a move of their own now that all of their vehicles had come to a stop and the convoy had been stopped also. Three members climbed out of the front vehicle, the one that had been disabled. Though, the rear ones were also just as full, they seemed to have a couple of people in them a piece. There was a chance the other side could have brought more, but judging from the nature of the group, they likely wanted to leave some space for cargo… And three in the front vehicle and four in the rear two wasn’t bad in terms of numbers, not against a party like this that was only partly armed and wasn’t exactly set up like the military.

“Three in front of us,” Aura called out, but the others would get their shots off first - though, considering their background, they weren’t as well armed or even as well trained as those coming from Vegas, where it was far easier to get in training for this kind of thing. At least, easier to get it in a safe way.

Even bolt action rifles, though, couldn’t be discounted entirely.

The first shots rang out from the front two members of the first group, one of the bullets going over the shoulder of Victoria and the second gunman managed to land a shot on Aura’s jacket, though the single bullet wasn’t enough to penetrate the tough material that was inside the outer layer. Still, it did remind Aura that this was a real fight… Not that she minded. She was better when her adrenaline was flowing than she was fighting calm, and getting shot was enough to get adrenaline flowing.

She didn’t bother looking down to see if the round had penetrated or not before she was on the move to look to flank from the other side of the stopped 4x4, but there was still one more member of the enemy side to worry about, who ran around the SUV from the driver’s side and fired off one more shot with a bolt action rifle, heading towards Victoria but ultimately ending up off target due to Victoria’s movements.

Aura, a natural predator, was quick to target the isolated one with another five shots from the SMG, hitting her mark accurately as she blew away her opponent with a precision spray of .45 caliber shots. She couldn’t exactly act too happy about it, however. She still had a lot in front of her. They had a lot in front of them.

But what was behind them was possibly just as dangerous, because behind them, there were less weapons to fight back. Nico was the only one that was actually armed in the rear of the convoy and there were four attackers, which… Didn’t give her the best odds, as she picked up her rifle from the passenger seat and checked to make sure that her pistol was tucked before jumping out from the passenger side, a move that would only give her a few moments of peace before the attackers caught up with her.

The second vehicle, though, may have been in a worse state considering that there were no armed combatants within, or even anyone that had significant experience in that type of thing. It was, for the most part, a car full of sitting ducks - the two Sandsurfers that had broken off from the original group of four pointing their guns at the second vehicle was enough to draw a quick surrender from those within.

Victoria was having none of that, as soon as the survivors in front of her were down, she would be moving after those going for the middle car. Victoria leveled her shotgun as she continued moving, firing another pair of slugs at one of the two left standing in front of her. Her shots were low, one skipping off the ground near her target's leg, but the other caught him in the leg. Just above the knee, and the damage was...severe, the leg hanging on only by a few shreds of splintered bone and shredded muscle. The raider dropped, she wasn’t sure if the shock killed him or just knocked him out, but given that injury, he wasn’t going to stick around long.

While this was happening the driver of the lead vehicle finally got out, her own SMG in hand. Rosalie wasn’t as good a shot as Victoria or Aura, but she was alright in a fight. As she moved, she aimed at the last of the three that had started near the lead car, and let loose a burst of five .45 shots. It wasn’t clear how many hit, but her target dropped, bleeding and unmoving. She moved to support Aura, figuring that no one wanted to get close to someone wielding a shotgun.

They still had the four in the back to worry about even after they had downed the three raiders in front of them - however… But those ones had a distinct advantage in numbers, and well, even if they were from the frontier and making a living on stealing, they weren’t stupid. They could have good tactics from time to time, and it seemed like taking the second vehicle hostage due to the noncombatants in it was a decent strategy for a group that was outmatched in terms of firepower and armor.

“Stop in your tracks or your friends get hurt!” announced one of the two that was by the second car, a pistol pointed at the window while the other one of the raiders that had broken off stood by with another bolt action rifle, fairly typical for this group.

Victoria and Rosalie both stopped moving, Victoria’s eyes narrowing in anger. Their guns were still aimed, it had turned into a standoff for now. Victoria kept her finger off the trigger for the moment, but if she had even the slightest opening, the pistol raider was going to get dropped. Rosalie bit the inside of her cheek, and reluctantly both her and Victoria both lowered their weapons.

Aura was the last to lower her weapon but she did follow through with it, looking to Victoria with slight annoyance. The hostages weren’t as important to her - if it were up to her, she would simply take her chances in this spot.

“Weapons on the ground,” the raider that had spoken before ordered. Now that the immediate threat of being shot seemed to have been removed, they could move on with the actual process of taking prisoners. Or possibly, simply taking their things.

Victoria grumbled as she dropped her shotgun to the ground, she still had her pistol behind her back, and was handy up close if these two were stupid. Rosalie looked over, and dropped her SMG as well. She didn’t have a back up weapon the same way Victoria did, though Victoria had made sure to give her some basic pointers in melee combat.

The group wouldn’t hear the lower conversation between the raiders who were deciding what to do now that the group had surrendered - but the rifle was still pointed in their direction and the pistol was still pointed at the hostages which was a decent enough warning that just because they were taking a moment to decide what to do, they hadn’t slacked off. Eventually, the plan would make itself clear however. The group of raiders moved and the one with the pistol opened the door of the 4x4 to gesture for the occupants within to get out, as prisoners rather than just hostages, while the other two that had been around the third vehicle walked back around - a surrendered Nico in tow. Because, as much as she would have liked to continue evading capture like the rest of the group, the numbers in this case weren’t exactly on her side and thanks to her position in the group at the back… There was little hope of getting fire support from the others. Granted, right now they didn’t even have weapons, at least not visible ones.

Of course, the second group, the unarmed one, wasn’t particularly dangerous. Which meant that it wasn’t exactly a misstep to keep just one person, the one with the pistol, there to keep watch of them while two of the others went back towards one of the three raider vehicles to find something. Most likely, bounds for restraining prisoners. It left one other member of the raiding group free, not guarding any group in specific but rather keeping an eye on the area in general, rather determined to not give the more dangerous prisoners free reign to make a move while the others were momentarily occupied.

Victoria had a choice to make, that rifle hit anything it’d probably kill them, but it was aimed at the fighters. That pistol had a much better chance of survival. While everyone was still shuffling around, with the two moving away to get restraints, she made her move. She whipped her pistol from the quick draw holster she kept on her lower back. She raised it to the man with the pistol, and fired three shots as fast as she could. He’d probably be able to get a shot off, but there were only two visible guns left, and two of their survivors weren’t here. Nico was in close with the prisoners, maybe she could wrestle with the pistol guy, keep him from firing or make him shoot at her. She didn’t have time to say anything though, only shoot. Three shots rang from Victoria’s pistol, kinda quiet but the thing was designed to pierce armor, she should look into getting HP rounds for it.


A couple of the rounds hit the mark, which quickly threw things into a chaos once again, a chaos that was somewhat unexpected considering the fighting seemed to have been over at the time that the shots were fired… But it very much wasn’t over yet, which threw the raider group back into action as the one that had been shot fell. Of course, the two that had walked to the SUV turned back around to the sound of the gunshot, firing off a pair of shots quickly at the source of the disturbance, both of which were accurate compared to the number of misses earlier, while the other lone raider that had been standing guard before turned to the side to fire as promised at one of the hostages, though, this shot wouldn’t be as accurate, with the bullet missing wide and embedding itself in the 4x4 in the background.

Both bullets from the other two hit Victoria. Her ballistic jacket absorbed most of the one that hit her arm, but blood still spurted from the wound. The other though buried itself in her left leg. She dropped to the ground, struggling to maintain consciousness through the pain, unable to move her leg at the very least. Victoria managed to stay conscious, but she couldn’t do much with two rifles aimed at her. Instead it was Rosalie that moved, with one rifle on the hostages, and the other two on her sister, she scooped up her SMG, and let out a burst of fire, aimed at the rifle aiming for the hostages. Most of the shots went high and wide, but one caught the man in the face, tearing it apart. From where Victoria was laying she raised her pistol, and fired, eyes blurry from the pain. She’d been aiming for his head, but all three rounds struck him anyway. Two tore through his hand, mangling it, while the third caught him in the chest dropping him.

The last raider standing raised his rifle, and fired at Rosalie. His shot was on target, striking her in the arm. Her jacket absorbed the force. Rosalie took a defiant step forward, and let loose another burst from her SMG. Four of the rounds hit, dropping the last raider even as Victoria dropped her pistol, panting as blood loss started to make her go light headed. Rosalie was shaking from the adrenaline surging through her system, but moved to check the bodies, before moving to make sure Victoria was still breathing.