One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

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Kaome Sky Deathand
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One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Mon May 04, 2009 3:15 pm

It did in fact take just over two hours to reach the Tor.
Hector Sejanus called a halt just outside the killzone and motioned for a few of his Talons to make sure the way was clear. Quiet minutes passed as the group sat in the relative open of the shattered D.C. streets. The other mercs kept their guard up, scanning the darkened empty windows of the towering buildings. This was Super Mutant territory. The Tor was just spitting distance from the Capital Building, making a good outpost for the Talon Company from the still standing St. Georges Hospital. A good place to rest and stock up on supplies, but hardly the place to make a stand. Aside from the fact that it was in ground zero, The Brotherhood, Raiders, scavengers, and Super Mutants often holed up in the building making it a chore unless you were alone, or in a very large group.

The signal was given. All clear...so far.
Hector motioned with his hand and they moved in.

- - -

It was an hour until they got comfortable enough to let a few of their own rest.
Hector sat watch in one of the functioning rooms, low lights giving him a slight headache from the hum of power they gave off. On the bed lay the form of the, more woman than girl, female he had 'saved' back at the Vault. She was in good shape, minus the hole punched through her. Needles had done an excellent job and Hector himself wasn't a novice when it came to cleaning up wounds. He had watched the process and made mental notes about the 'doctors' craft. Needles had left after the 'operation' to catch a few winks. Hector had stripped his chest armor off, exposing a neat under shirt and corded muscles, making minor repairs to the piece and checking his weapons. His gear was currently in a small neat pile by the chair next to the door. His .44 was still holstered to his leg rig however, one couldn't be too careful after all.

The woman had been in and out all day.
Sliding between total unconsciousness and delirious fever. She was stable, now that she wasn't bouncing up and down between two or three different people. She had spoken a few words but not any of it was coherent. He had no name and nothing to go by except for her gear. Her items were carefully laid out on another table across from her. Not really looked at quite yet, just laid out. Her weapons lay far across from her on the same wall as the door. Hector had checked them all twice before anything else. All were in good service, but her sidearm was pristine. It looked as if it had come off the assembly line at some old factory and sat there in a pressure case before it had been collected.
It had a good feel to it, but doubtless kicked like a mule.

Hector set the unloaded weapon back down and took a seat by the door.
When she woke up for certain, he wanted a story.
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Scarlet » Mon May 04, 2009 6:30 pm

She knew she was dead because of how dark it was.
The world was completely and impregnably black, a long, gloomy corridor of nothingness. She saw herself walking along it. After some time, she noticed she was walking past other people. They smiled and sometimes waved at her as she passed by, like they were happy about something. They were all people she'd met, people she'd known, people she'd loved: her father and his friends and the rest of the Vault's inhabitants, the various peoples of the Wasteland, roamers and residents and hunters alike, human and not-so-human. Susan figured it was some sort of ceremony, like all her friends were saying good-bye before she left. But something was wrong.

There was someone in the procession she didn't recognize. It was a woman, short and slight and fair-haired. She had long, pale fingers that were gripping some sort of steel surgical tool. Her eyes looked strained and there was a harassed look on her face. Might have been a handsome face ten years ago, but her eyes made her look like she was in her fifties. Who the hell was she? What was she doing at Susan's going-away ceremony? Susan decided to find out. She started making her way toward the woman but as she did the woman faded away, replaced by the bleak emptiness of the corridor. Just as Susan realized the entire procession was gone, her eyes blurred as light found its way back into the world.


She opened her eyes after what must have been hours and immediately thought Heaven definitely needs a bigger budget for its interiors. The ceiling wasn't as filthy as most she'd seen, but it was cracked and splintered and had faded spots of what looked like dried blood. The lights worked, which was a change, but they were dim and gave off a heavy bass hum, like they were straining to keep themselves on. The walls on her sides were cleaner than the ceiling, though the one on the left had a thin spiderweb of cracks at its base. She was lying on a bed, with a table on her right. There were two chairs on the wall across from her, one in a corner and one by the door. There was a man sitting on the chair by the door.

Susan recognized him and realized he shouldn't be there. This was heaven. Surely a commander of the Talon Company wouldn't have made it in. Susan wasn't perfect, she knew that, but she felt she'd never killed anyone that didn't need killing. Most Talon Company mercenaries wouldn't show a fraction of that restraint, and one of their officers surely wouldn't. Not without endangering his position. So what was he doing here? For that matter, where was 'here'? Some sort of waiting room? Only one way to find out. "Where..." her throat was very dry. She couldn't recognize her own voice. It was weak and harsh, a thin croak, barely audible even to her. She strained her throat, swallowed, licked her lips, trying to get rid of the dryness. Tried again. "... Where am I?"

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Kaome Sky Deathand
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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Mon May 04, 2009 10:35 pm

"Where..."

Hector took his gaze away from the hall, turning his head to take in the woman on the bed.
"...where am I?" Ah, so she did speak. For a moment Hector thought he had been hearing things again. He took his time getting out of the chair. Slow , precise movements. The last thing he wanted was for her to start flipping out on him and causing a mess that would end very badly for her. From his gear, Hector took out a matte black bottle and popped the cap. He crossed the threshold and brought himself just to the edge of her bed. She could reach out and touch him for sure, but he still had plenty of room to jump back if she tried anything.

"My name is Hector Sejanus..." He kept his voice level, on neutral grounds.
"...you're in the Stitch Kitchen at Saint George's Tor." He kept his eyes on her, reading, searching, seeing if her body would give anything away. It was surgical, precise, not at all in a lewd or crude fashion that other men would perform when faced with an almost topless woman. Her shirt was little more than ribbons by this point and tossed on the floor. She was bandaged and had a long strip of press covering her specifics. He locked his eyes with hers. "You've taken some injury and not a small amount of blood loss..." He broke his gaze for a moment, checking a machine next to her. It was a simple heart monitor, but it served to get his mind in focus. "We didn't know your type..." he continued, facing her again. "...but lucky for you we had universal on hand." He paused then slowly brought the bottle toward her face. "Drink, it's pure and you've lost a lot of fluid in the past few hours."
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Scarlet » Mon May 04, 2009 10:58 pm

He acknowledged and responded to her, so she knew for sure now that he was dead, too. There was communication. Surely only a dead person could speak to another dead person, in the afterlife. Maybe she'd taken him out herself, before she died. Maybe he'd died on his way to wherever he was going after the Vault raid. That would be one hell of an irony.

"... you're in the Stitch Kitchen at Saint George's Tor." She'd heard of Saint Peter, back in her Vault. She'd even seen some drawings of him. He was the guy that decided whether or not you got in to heaven, the one manning the gates. So maybe whoever Saint George was came before Peter? Maybe he looked over the waiting room, because surely there must be a line. People must get impatient, even while waiting to get into heaven. So Saint George made sure they didn't get too rowdy. That made sense. But where were all the other people? Where was old Georgie himself? And why did this guy get to wait in line? She was becoming increasingly irritated. She struggled upright. Felt like there was something tying her down. Her arms wouldn't move. What the hell? She was going to get some answers, and soon, or someone was going to have hell to pay.

"I want to see Saint George," she said. "And I want to see him right now. Tell him to get his sorry ass in this room within the next five minutes or I'm going to be seriously pissed off." She lay her head back down on the bed and waited for him to reply, only he seemed to disappear from her sight. She closed her eyes in irritation.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Mon May 04, 2009 11:23 pm

For a moment, Hector was at a loss for words.
Her was a woman who had just been shot, dragged across the Capital Wasteland, drugged, stitched up, and now lay almost half naked on some bed in a dank room with a Talon Merc standing next to her. To top it off she was talking about seeing some old geezer who had more than likely died a bajillion years ago instead of wondering what happened. His brain processed this and told him to laugh. Instead, he shrugged, tabbed the bottle back up and stuck it in his left side pocket. He took a few steps back and leaned against the wall close to her head. He kept his gaze on her face, but her eyes had closed. More than likely she had passed out again, so he chalked this up to delirium. Still, he decided to answer her.

"Saint George went and martyred himself on the front wall to make the Super Mutants deal with their shit." He folded his arms across his chest, closing his eyes and letting a small grin play across him as his minds eye conjured the image. "He said I could be in charge while he spoke to God..." He played his gaze out across the cracked floor and gave a small shrug for no particular reason. "Guess that makes me the next in line..." He returned his eyes to her again.

"So tell me, what's your name?"
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Scarlet » Tue May 05, 2009 12:30 am

When next Susan opened her eyes and the room swam into focus, she noticed the equipment and the decor past the mercenary's head and instantly thought hospital. She'd been sure she was dead and now realized she was still alive but that fact gave her no pause. There was no shock at all. She'd been confused, maybe because of a drug they'd given her, maybe because of delirium, but now she wasn't. She gave a small mental shrug and continued to take in the room, looking for possible exits. The room was brighter than she remembered. She spotted some of her gear on the table to her right, then looked up at the Talon mercenary staring at her.
He had a puzzled expression on his face and questions in his eyes. Had he said something to her before she came to, or did he just enjoy looking down on helpless women? Probably both. He was analyzing her. That was obvious. He had grey eyes and a grizzled face, all hard lines and untended fuzz. It was a face that spoke of a lifetime of scowls.

There was an awkward silence while she tried to recall what it was he'd said before she woke up. In the end she decided to ignore whatever it had been and simply asked "What happened?". Her eyes drifted, searching for any kind of weapon. She thought maybe she'd caught something earlier, at the far end of the room, across from her.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Tue May 05, 2009 1:04 am

Hector sighed.
She either didn't hear him or ignored him entirely.

"You were shot by one of my men..." he began.
"...The bullet passed through the meat of your back and beneath your right arm. As far as we can tell..." He took his own offer and swigged from the bottle he had on him. "...your right shoulder blade is only hairlined, but the top two ribs on your right side are fractured." He replaced the bottle in his pocket. "Your arm still works alright but I wouldn't suggest doing anything with it for a while. Anyway..." He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts.
"...we carried you from the Vault to here without a fuss and stitched you up. You haven't missed much of anything."

His eyes wandered across the room as he spoke, but when he finished the short story he turned back to her.
"That is the meat of it, now that you're awake...I have some questions."
He pushed himself off the wall and walked over to the chair by the door. He snatched it up and took it the few steps to her bedside, set it down and took a seat. His right hand rested on his right leg, his left forearm braced against his left. He eyed her for a moment or two before removing the water bottle from his pocket and returning to his previous position. He thought about offering it again, but she wasn't exactly what he expected.

Best to keep this hand close to the chest...

"What's your name?"
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Rising_Dusk » Tue May 05, 2009 12:54 pm

Vince stood on the roof of the structure, as ordered by his commander. With the last dedicated sniper of the team having been taken out by the girl that was now being tended inside, his job had doubled in its importance. He swiveled around the rooftop, ensuring that nothing was approaching. It was a rather large building, making it difficult for him to cover the whole roof alone, but he had to deal.

He sighed heavily.
He disliked having no one to talk to when on watch; if he was shot and dying, it would take the team far longer to notice than if he had a partner up here assisting him. Nevertheless, he didn't complain or even mouth a sound when the post was assigned to him - he had known it to be coming, considering his ability to view targets in all wavelengths except visible at all hours of the night.

He radioed in to the ground station below. The signal was muffled because the structure functioned as a gigantic conductor, stifling signals to the inside, but it went through.

*SSKKKKRRKKK* "All's still clear topside, Commander." *KRAKLE-FIZZ*

He looked out into the sky and took a deep breath. He had almost forgotten how pretty the sunset was.
"I'll come to Florida one day and make you look like a damn princess." ~Hep

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Scarlet » Tue May 05, 2009 1:14 pm

"What's your name?", he'd asked.

Susan paused a beat, thinking. It was an odd question. Asking questions is mostly about listening to answers, and this question could only have one. It was direct, to the point, almost as if they were two ordinary people wanting to get to know each other a little better. Not exactly fitting, Susan thought, as she recalled seeing his head through the lens of her rifle's scope not long ago. She'd contemplated killing him, then, and was sure he'd done the same after she'd been shot. Maybe he was lying and had shot her himself. The question bothered her. It would be useless information to him, anyway. Clearly he'd want to ask more afterward, but to what end?

He sounded like he had some kind of basic education. Interrogation might not have been part of it, because so far he was scoring pretty low in her book. He was trying to get friendly with her, judging by what he'd said, and how. He hadn't demanded a thing. He'd even suggested she be careful with her injury, though that might have been a veiled warning.
A subtle threat.

She decided to ignore the question. It would show control and aggression on her part. Like she wasn't willing to just lie down, meek and defeated. Like the fact that she was surrounded by hostiles and could be killed on a whim didn't bother or scare her much at all.

Or maybe she'd just seem crazy. Either way, she ignored it, looked straight at the mercenary and said "Why did you keep me alive? I'm not feeling grateful enough to make room on this bed for you, if that's what you had in mind." Susan kept her face neutral as she waited for a response. Tried to analyze his. It was empty. Like staring at a rock.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Tue May 05, 2009 10:23 pm

Silence.
Silence broken only by static.
"All's still clear topside, Commander."
More white wash before Hector keyed his own vox.
Two beeps in slow succession.

Removing his hand from the vox set, Hector eyed his captive once more.
She locked eyes with him and spoke:
"Why did you keep me alive?
I'm not feeling grateful enough to make room on this bed for you, if that's what you had in mind."

She kept her face neutral waiting for a response of some kind. Hector decided to let her smart mouth go this once and kept his own eyes level, his stance non-threatening, and his tone neutral as possible. He blinked slowly, cooling the ire that burned at the back of his head, the base of his throat. He took his time in answering.

"Well if this is how you want things to be, it's really no skin off my back." he shrugged, casually, as if talking to drinking buddy. "I was going to do this with the least amount of tension as possible...." he explained, slowly standing from the chair. "...ask how you came to be there and what made you so gutsy to take us on." Slowly he made his way over to her gear, letting his fingers dance across her weapons. "But since it seems like you want to be a Brahmins ass I can quit pretending to give a damn and do this one of three ways..." He pulled his smoke-wagon from its holster, took careful deliberate movements of spinning the chamber and flicking down the hammer, then spoke very carefully.

"You can talk to me..." he began.
"...and we will just talk. No sexual threats or physical torture of any kind. Just you and me and depending on how it goes you can stay there until the Super Mutants walk in here and this turns into bad horror movie...." He let the thought sink in before continuing. "...or you can rest for a few hours before we decide what happens. Information is rare these days and anything you know might help me..." He settled against the table, before deciding to let release the tension on the hammer and rested the weapon on the table.

"...consider it an equal exchange for services rendered." He paused.
"Or...I could have Red come in here and beat the hell out of you until you say something or we leave you broken for the Super Mutants to find....maybe both." He shrugged one more time.
"Your choice."
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Scarlet » Tue May 05, 2009 11:01 pm

Susan smiled and nodded as the mercenary finished his speech, clearly amused.

"Okay. An exchange. My name's Susan. I own three guns. Two of them have minor modifications for precision or weight or cooling, one of them is almost entirely custom built, and all of them are exceptional. Most of my ammunition is stock. I carry basic survival and medical equipment with me at all times. Once in a while I have other odds and ends, for sell or trade. I don't know you, your name, or anything about any of your men, except how they look through a scope. I decided to try and kill you because I don't like scum. I especially don't like the kind of scum that take pleasure in killing people." She paused, tried to sit upright. Realized she didn't have a shirt on. She tried to make like it didn't bother her and turned to look at him, still smiling. "There. Nothing more to tell. Now it's your turn."

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Tue May 05, 2009 11:19 pm

Hector nodded as she rapid fired all this off.
When she finished he smiled back at her, that small smile of smugness.
"See?" he asked. "That wasn't so bad was it?"
He averted his eyes from her for a moment as she sat up, grabbing a spare shirt that one of the other Talon women had placed there on the table. He tossed it to Susan, motioning for her to cover herself. He fished for a cig, then decided against it. He really wasn't a smoker, it was a displacement activity to him. She had made a decision at least.
It was his turn.

"My name is Hector Sejanus..." He paused for a moment before deciding to lay a little on the table. "I am in command of a select group of Talon Company mercenaries that carry out particular missions in the Wasteland." He took a swig from the water bottle he fished out instead of smokes and snapped the tab back on. "We aren't the kind of scum the usual Talons choose to show the world, but I doubt me telling you anything about it would change your mind or make you care." He sighed. "Suffice to say that we operate differently but aren't afraid to dip into the dark side of things."

He looked at her weapons again.
"Interesting armaments...you do this yourself?" he asked with a cocked eyebrow in her direction.
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Scarlet » Wed May 06, 2009 12:01 am

Susan shrugged the shirt on. It was thin and the left sleeve had a small tear, so it was only slightly worse than what she was used to wearing. Maybe one size too big. She was grateful for the bit of warmth it provided.

"Interesting armaments...you do this yourself?" Susan shook her head and laughed, her eyes alight with amusement. "That's not what I meant. I don't give a shit about you or your precious Company. What I want to know is why I'm still alive, what I need to do to stay that way, and whether you're planning on letting me go. You don't seem too eager to kill me. My guess is you want to hire me, so get to the point. I'm not looking for a friend, so cut it with the smalltalk."

She stopped, listened hard. Thought maybe she could hear gunfire through the walls, dim with distance. Craned her head around and tried stretching both arms out. The right felt a little stiff. There was pain there, but not much. She could feel the stitches in her side flexing with her movements. It made her feel awkward and vulnerable, and a little ashamed.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Wed May 06, 2009 12:23 am

Fine...

"You're alive because at the moment that's the way I want it..." she was really starting to sod him off.
"...you can keep it that way by sitting your ass in that bed and keeping that smart mouth of yours on lockdown until I ask you for something particular." He was glaring now. "I haven't decided whether or not I can cut you loose as of yet...so far you seem to be a bit to prone to jumping across this room and jamming a knife into my crotch..." he pointed at her as he said it...the fire still burned, but he let it subside. Clenching his hand into a fist once more, Hector crossed his arms and eyed her for a moment or two.

"The thought of hiring you crossed my mind until you woke up...as it stands you don't seem to be worth the trouble I would get from the others and there seems damn few things you can say to change my mind about that. You have a smart mouth and the thick skull of a leatherneck I used to know...neither of which I can afford to have any more of." He let the moment linger.

"Now...did you do this customization yourself..." he pointed to the guns on the table.
"Yes or No?"
Cruor Vult

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion,
simultaneously the source of our greatest strength, and our greatest weakness.

Soon we shall be One...joined in the Word.

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Re: One-Shot - Tangent 1 Reload

Post by Scarlet » Wed May 06, 2009 12:45 am

Susan smiled inwardly, satisfied with the man's burst of anger. He was straining to keep himself in check, that was obvious. But she didn't think he was nearly as angry as he let on. Way too much dramatization going on there. The hand gestures had made the whole thing come off as phony. It was a gamble, but one she felt she'd hit right on the money.

"Smart mouth, thick skull. Both problems for you? You prefer your men stupid? Docile? Eager to take orders? The kind of person that would shoot an infant without question, soon as you asked? Or maybe they would ask something. Maybe they'd ask how much you were going to pay them for it. That kind of person what you're looking for, as far as potential recruits go? Sure sounds like it."

She sighed and turned, moved her legs some, trying to get rid of the stiffness. Twisted around and shoved herself off the bed. Planted her feet flat on the ground and laid her arms at her sides, palms flat on the bed. She had her back to Hector. "I made most of the modifications, yes. The pistol was a joint project."

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