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ToastyPigeon

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skein-text-adventures

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[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic] At one time you thought about actually buying one of those things, sometimes you even wonder how things would've been living underground completely oblivious to what's going on the surface. Things might've been a lot easier...or maybe they wouldn't. You'll just have to wonder about the road not traveled. You see no harm in making contact; they may even have useful resources to trade and might appreciate knowing that the surface is exactly the hell on Earth that they might think. Plus the rest of the Alliance leaders seem pleased that you're agreeing with them. Maintaining good relations to keep everyone happy is always a sure way of keeping the Alliance stable. Even Ashtown makes mention of a Shelter nearby that they've been debating about whether to contact or not. You organize how to go about this, since you don't want to make enemies unnecessarily. It doesn't take long to open up the Shelters and bypass the computer elevator systems with your help. First contact with most of the shelters is a very large surprise for its inhabitants, though a lot of them seem really grateful. Apparently GZS Shelters weren't built very well, you hear reports of how inhabitants had to improvise and constantly repair various things. Alex tells you he isn't surprised. "The main reason why I outlived my cyborgs when I was...uh...indisposed... was due to having faulty GZS equipment. Granted they made a lot of good stuff, but they had a terrible habit of cutting corners. When I think about it, I really can't believe I thought I was actually going to DO something with them, probably wouldn't have even lasted in a real fight...still it would've been interesting...my God I can't believe I used to think things like this...like...I dunno..." Every now and then Alex talks like that. Probably wondering about his own road not traveled. It creeps people out though, however it doesn't prevent him from being a good doctor. You almost get the impression he feels like by being a good doctor and patching folks up real well is sort of like his "penance". One he feels necessary to do until the day he dies. This line of thinking becomes really noticeable within a few weeks of the Shelter openings. The Shelter near Ashtown is in bad shape. From the reports you've heard some sort of weird "social experiment" was going on down there which resulted in some sort of catastrophe. There are many dead bodies and broken equipment. Many of the people are sick and infected with something, and they aren't in very good shape to go anywhere. Looks like they've been slowly dying. In fact the Mayor of Ashtown, Carlos, is taking the hard line stance refusing to let the ones that went down there to come back up, for fear that they will infect his town. This isn't a popular decision, so he's hoping you can send some sort of medical team to help since Ashtown doesn't have the experts you do. Carlos says that he'll formally join the Atomic Alliance if you get him out of this jam. Alex insists on going to help. "Please, let me go help. I'm the best doctor in the Alliance. I...I need to do this. I need to help these people..." Alex says almost in a begging fashion. "...Well alright Alex, but you're taking one of those biohazard suits! Who knows what the hell those people have, and I really can't risk losing my best doctor." Alex thanks you profusely, and gathers a couple of his assistants and all the necessary equipment before leaving. A couple weeks pass and you get a report from Carlos. He mentions that Alex has determined there is nothing contagious about whatever the Shelter people are infected with, and the Ashtown citizens are allowed to come back up and return. Alex is still working on the problem though and it might take awhile, he requests for more equipment, which you allow Ashtown formally joins the Alliance. You personally go there to welcome them in. It's strange that you've never actually been to Ashtown before, given a lot of your dealings with it. While you're here on business you think about Ophelia, and that one night. A night that possibly saved you from committing suicide, given the downward spiral you were in at the time. There's a few times you thought about going to see her to thank her...but then you think how she has a family now and it would just be too weird. A month passes and you suddenly get a call from Alex on your radio. "Alex? Where are you?" "I'm in the Shelter. I managed to rig the computer to transmit a signal! Now I can talk to you directly! Great huh?" "Uh yeah...what's going on over there?" "Oh, nothing much. This place is pretty fascinating; I've been trying to figure out what was going on down here. This one diary was really interesting" "Alex what about the people?" "It seems there was this guy called Elliot who had a lot of weird ideas, he was a doctor..." Alex says seemingly oblivious to your question. "Yeah, I know the type. ALEX WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKIN' PEOPLE?" "Oh yeah...the people. They're okay...I guess." "You guess? What the fuck Alex, don't you know?" "Well, uh y'know... this isn't an exact science, and I'm still trying to figure some things out...I went to Ashtown recently for some more supplies, but I think I need some more higher qulity equipment from you, its getting kind of complicated down here..." "What the fuck Alex? No, you're not getting anything else! We're not an endless supply of resources! Now you work with what you got and I better hear some progress soon!" "...work with what I got...yeah...story of my life..." Alex says and disconnects. Another week passes and this time you get a message from Carlos, he doesn't sound well, but he does sound angry. "...we ally with you and this is (Cough) what happens? We're all sick and it's (Cough!) all you and that doctor's fault! He contaminated us! YOU contaminated us! The town is Uhhh..." There's an old saying, that a scorpion, no matter how well you take care of it or treat it, its nature will always be to sting you. And that's just what happened. Shit. > You send another medical team to Ashtown You immediately dispatch another team of medics in hazmat suits to Ashtown. Vivica insists on going since she's probably the second best doctor in the Alliance, you order her not to since you can't afford to lose her as well, not to mention she runs Fort Justice, but she's defiant and goes anyway. You also order Eden to not let ANYONE who wasn't already working there in, until this situation is resolved. You can't afford your major food source to get contaminated. You decide not to inform the rest of the Alliance towns, since you hope maybe you can contain this before panic occurs. You next step is to radio Alex, but as predicted you don't get an answer. You soon get a report from Vivica, "It looks bad. REAL Bad. Most of Ashtown is already dead or dying. Whatever it is, I don't think it's airborne. It might be the water supply. The only weird thing is, the children didn't seem to be affected...it's very sad though. We're going to have a bunch of orphans." "Can't you do ANYTHING?" "No, I have no idea what this is and I think it's too late anyway, uh there's something else I think you'll want to know...though I'm not sure how to say this..." "Vivica just spit it the fuck out!" "Well, uh...I tired to treat Ophelia, but I failed, her husband was already dead by the time I got here." "...Vivica, I appreciate you trying to save someone I had fond memories of, but there's a whole town at stake..." "I know, I know, but that's not what I'm getting at. Ophelia had a daughter you know. Her name's Laura. She's five. Ophelia told me before she died; she wanted her daughter to have a good home." "Well of course! I mean we'll give good homes to all the orphans!" "Again, that's not it. She asked for you specifically to give her that home. She said she said it's about time her daughter got to know her father anyway." The surprises just keep coming. "Excuse me?" "Looks like you're this little girl's father...the timing is about right, I mean you did have that encounter with her five years ago. She's five and if I may say, I see the family resemblance, she doesn't look anything like Ophelia's husband, I mean granted he's dead right now, but..." "Why the hell didn't she tell me? I mean I would've..." "I asked the same question, during her final moments. She's said she was sorry she never told you before, but she knew you had other things on your mind and bigger concerns with rebuilding civilization and all. She always thought she would've lived in Marina's shadow anyway and by keeping Laura to herself it was like she still had a piece of you...sir I hate to break this information up since I know it probably really important to you, but what are we going to do about the town and Alex and everything?" "Start evacuating the children to Base Pandora, the town is dead. I'll take care of Alex." You say grimly before disconnecting. Armed and focused, for the first time in a long time you travel by yourself to the Shelter where Alex is at. You meet up with Vivica on the way, who tries to advise you to at least go in with back up, but you won't hear of it and tell her to continue on to Base Pandora. You also see Laura and some of the other orphaned children. They're obviously still upset about their parents dying horrible deaths. You approach Laura whose eyes are all red from crying. She looks up at you. "Are...are you really my daddy?" she asks, obviously having been informed of the situation. Contrary to what Vivica said, you think she looks more like her mother, but yes there is a resemblance to you particularly the hair. Unsure of how to respond, you give a straight forward answer. "Yes I am and I'll be home soon to take care of you." you stroke her face and get back in your vehicle and drive off. You drive through Ashtown and see the dead bodies, by the facial expressions you get the impression it wasn't a pleasant one. Once again you think about going to see Ophelia's body, but you quickly decide against it. You'd rather remember her how she was the last time you saw her. Besides you'll always see her now in your daughter, plus you've got a score to settle with Alex. You get to the Shelter and enter its foyer and surprisingly its elevator is at the top, looks like some modifications have been made to it as it looks as if the call buttons were there originally. You really don't care about any of it though, you're on a mission. When you get to the bottom, you see the same modified call buttons near the elevator on this level as well (You can't believe the idiotic way GZS designs their Shelters though, effectively trapping their "customers" down here) You also see more dead bodies in various stages of decay, some look like they were dead long before Alex got here. Much of the equipment and place in general is in disarray, but you also notice some of it has been recently repaired. Probably by Alex no doubt. You hear cursing coming from a nearby room, it sounds like Alex. > You confront him now Knowing Alex, he's probably killed his assistants too; you go in with your weapon ready. "FUCK! Goddamn GZS equipment! Always fucks up!" Alex says as he's trying to install some sort of implant in the head of some corpse on a table. Its one of his assistants and his brains are leaking all over the place, you don't even know what the hell Alex was trying to accomplish, and you get the impression he doesn't either. He stares at you with eyes telling you he's finally gone over the edge for good this time. "You see? You see what I have to work with? Can't fucking work under these conditions! Not enough equipment! Plenty of bodies, just need the equipment...is it lunch time?" "Is that why you infected Ashtown? So you could rebuild your insane dreams of cyborgs again?" "It's not insane! Its evolution! You really think the Atomic Alliance can last in its current form? NO! It NEEDS to be remade! Y'see I tried...I really did...I really tried to delude myself into thinking civilization can be rebuilt and survive in its current form...but it wasn't until I came here and found this diary...this Elliot guy...had lots of good ideas about the nature of man...and how control IS the only way to maintain order...of course he obviously failed when his so called "obedience serum" had a long term detrimental health effect on the inhabitants here. Comes in handy as a virulent toxin when altered a bit and dumped into a water supply though. Strange how it doesn't affect pre-pubescent children." "You fuckin' sonofabitch..." you say pointing your rifle at him, he doesn't even seem to notice, he just keeps talking. "His ideas were sound, just his method was flawed, and it made me realize I was right in the beginning, I was just prevented from seeing my plan come to fruition due to YOUR own ambition and meddling! Shit, you can barely keep the Alliance leaders to agree on anything! The only reason why they follow you is because of the polite threat of superior firepower that you have access to and the major food source you have under your direct control in Eden. If that advantage ever disappeared, you'd have another civil war on your hands. You're petty dictator hiding in democracy. Your own method of control is as clumsy as Elliot's." "I'm not controlling anyone, you psychotic fuck!" "Bullshit! You've built your whole career on it! Your destruction of my plans, your war with the Combine, creating the Atomic Alliance and being the head of it. You really expect me to believe you did all this without ambition?" "Actually yeah. Had it not been for Marina's influence, I probably wouldn't have bothered..." "How long are you going to hide behind THAT ghost? Perhaps she did have influence on you in the beginning as far as motivation was concerned, but nobody, NOBODY that has gotten this far can say they've been doing this all this as some sort of monument for the love of a dead woman! You're lying to yourself because YOU don't have the fuckin' balls to admit you're a goddamn friendly fascist! And after you're dead? Do you think the Atomic Alliance will really live on? I predict it falls apart and in fighting occurs within a month! Humans are incapable of ruling themselves! The LAST WAR PROVED THAT! The Cybernetic Evolution is the ONLY thing that makes sense!" You think about some of the things Alex's insane ranting, before responding. "...you might be right Alex. You might be right, but there's just one thing..." "Oh what's that?" "Your method sucks too, mainly because you were too idiotic to ever get it off the ground in the first place and this isn't for Marina, its for my daughter Laura you fucking mass murdering motherfucker." You riddle Alex's body with bullets until he's such a bloody heap that he's actually ripped in half by your burst. You then pull out your pistol and blast his face into a red pulpy mess. Its over. You return to Base Pandora where Vivica has been trying to keep control of things as everyone is starting to wonder what's going on exactly. You give a full report to the entire Atomic Alliance about what happened. It's a big event that nearly shatters the Alliance. When you think about it, maybe that was Alex's "back up plan", as even if he had been killed, he must've known you'd catch heat for what happened. Some say it really wasn't your fault, others say it was, since you left an unstable element like Alex to his own devices. Some say your past deeds should be taken into consideration, others say it doesn't make up for the death of an entire town. Some say you tried to make things right, others say you shouldn't be applauded for attempting to fix something that was your fault in the first place. Still others say it wasn't your fault to begin with since the opening of the Shelters was most of the OTHER town leader's idea not yours. It's apparent everyone is divided on the situation, so you do the only thing that makes sense and step down from being the head of the Atomic Alliance. This has more of an effect than you hoped. Some people still think you should be punished directly, but for the most part most are just satisfied that you aren't the head of the Alliance anymore. The ones closest to you think it's unfair, but you don't really care. You probably saved the Alliance again with your actions, another civil war would've occurred otherwise. You can only hope in time people will see that. Vivica becomes the new head of the Alliance. Some object to her as well since she's somewhat close to you, but most accept her since her reputation is pretty spotless and fair minded. You remain in control of Base Pandora, which now mainly concentrates on strictly military matters as in defending the AA borders. Less politics, but not less responsibility since you now have a daughter to take care of... Ten more years pass... Twenty years have passed since the bombs dropped, and the Atomic Alliance is the largest known stretch of civilization known in the immediate area. It's now become an official democratic political entity rather than just a collection of separate towns and forts which were merely aligned. Vivica is now officially the President. GZS Shelters have been converted into major the supplier of water. Gone are the days of wondering if water was safe to drink. These Shelters have also been modified to have surrounding land to become agricultural centers like Eden; the water is piped in from underground to help grow crops. They're probably more useful than what they were initially intended for. Ashtown was repopulated, but a big memorial is now standing there in memory of the dead, the Shelter near Ashtown was destroyed. Explosives were placed in the entryway such a manner that it imploded in on itself forever burying the place. As for you, you find less and less to do each day at Base Pandora. While it's foolish to think that the world is now a safe place that an Atomic Alliance military isn't needed, it's just that it has fewer threats. Raiders might lurk on the outskirts of it, but to actually attack it now would be folly. Only the craziest and most desperate raiders do that nowadays, and they're usually easily dispatched by the AA Police Force. (Most of course having trained at Base Pandora combat academy) Civil unrest mainly consists of a few normal complaints, never anything like what happened in the past. It almost like the "Old World" again. You however are glad of this, since you have enough trouble trying to look after your daughter Laura. She's quite willful now that's she's a teenager, but fortunately your relationship isn't really bad though, you just never did get a hang of this whole father thing. The best thing you did was train her to take care of herself. Though now you're wondering if that was such a good idea. "I want to join the Atomic Alliance City Project!" she says. Having tamed most of the surrounding area, the next big agenda for the Alliance is to restore the City. You never really thought this was the best idea Vivica had, since the City has always been considered a very dangerous place, with nothing but deadly radiation levels and mutant monstrosities. In fact you turned down the option to head up the project when she proposed it to you. You remember way back in your early days of the Compound, when a few people were sent to the City, and only one returned speaking of the horrible creatures inside. Since then, nobody ever really went there. Every now and then you heard about a few hostile mutants wandering from the city, but it was rare, it seems as if they were content on living in their own area. You lived on "your side" and they lived on "their side" and that's the way it should stay. Seems like fucking around with the City might be inviting trouble, sort of like when you decided to fuck around the Shelters ten years ago... Your daughter on the other hand like most youthful sorts, sees "adventure". True she's not some delicate flower and she grew up relatively fast (She did see her mother die in front of her along with the rest of the town) but its not like she's had any real combat experience, plus she's only fifteen and you do feel the need to protect her. > You restrict her from going She's still fifteen; you're still able to restrict her from doing whatever the hell she wants. You do however realize that too much restriction isn't going to help and possibly even drive her away, so what you propose is a compromise and you allow her to go on border patrol mission and minor recon duty. Let her deal with some raiders and see if she still wants to pursue this life of adventure... She isn't exactly enthusiastic about this idea, probably because it doesn't seem as "exciting". Most raiders go running at the first sign of trouble, so there's actually little in the way of combat. She starts becoming a little more daring and patrols further than she's supposed to. You tell others to keep an eye on her, but of course that's impossible all the time. Then your worst fears come true. Laura is ambushed, beaten and gang raped. She would've probably been killed, but the rest of the recon team arrived in time to drive them off. They managed to kill a few...but not all. You've suffered a lot of tragedies in your life, but this one has got to be the worst since you lost Marina...worse even. You don't sink into depression though, you fly into a rage. You immediately gather your best men and personally hunt the rest of these scumfucks down. There is no where they can hide; you are the embodiment of vengeance. As is typical you find them hold up in a cave where you catch most of them off guard, as ordered, your men don't shoot to kill, they shoot to maim. You'll be the one doing the killing. You cut off the genitals of each one of them and stuff them into their mouths. You yell and scream at them as you repeatedly shoot and kick their bloody bodies. You don't stop tormenting them even after death until one of your men finally tells you stop. You don't really feel any better though, once again you feel like you've failed, just like you did ten years ago with Alex killing most of Ashtown. You can't do this anymore; you resign your command at Pandora, despite Vivica not wanting you to. It takes Laura awhile to get over the traumatic event, and she never really does. She picks a safer career path and she never marries or even dates, despite you telling her that she should and that its okay, but she says she's satisfied just living with you. (And while you blamed yourself for what happened, she never did) And while you don't mind her company, this also saddens you. In your remaining years, you spend a lot of time regretting a lot of decisions you made in the past. You can't even take "pride" in the fact that you contributed greatly to rebuilding civilization. When yet another war breaks out with the mutants due to the Atomic Alliance City Project you just shake your head wondering if it was all worth it to begin with. Eventually when you die, it's sort of a release for you. A small respectful funeral is held for you as you're buried next to Marina like you always wanted to be, but as time goes on after Vivica and those who were with you from the beginning in the Compound die off, your name and deeds are forgotten completely as what happens to most "heroes" of history.

Knowing Alex, he's probably killed his assistants too; you go in with your weapon ready. "FUCK! Goddamn GZS equipment! Always fucks up!" Alex says as he's trying to install some sort of implant in the head of some corpse on a table. Its one of his assistants and his brains are leaking all over the place, you don't even know what the hell Alex was trying to accomplish, and you get the impression he doesn't either. He stares at you with eyes telling you he's finally gone over the edge for good this time. "You see? You see what I have to work with? Can't fucking work under these conditions! Not enough equipment! Plenty of bodies, just need the equipment...is it lunch time?" "Is that why you infected Ashtown? So you could rebuild your insane dreams of cyborgs again?" "It's not insane! Its evolution! You really think the Atomic Alliance can last in its current form? NO! It NEEDS to be remade! Y'see I tried...I really did...I really tried to delude myself into thinking civilization can be rebuilt and survive in its current form...but it wasn't until I came here and found this diary...this Elliot guy...had lots of good ideas about the nature of man...and how control IS the only way to maintain order...of course he obviously failed when his so called "obedience serum" had a long term detrimental health effect on the inhabitants here. Comes in handy as a virulent toxin when altered a bit and dumped into a water supply though. Strange how it doesn't affect pre-pubescent children." "You fuckin' sonofabitch..." you say pointing your rifle at him, he doesn't even seem to notice, he just keeps talking. "His ideas were sound, just his method was flawed, and it made me realize I was right in the beginning, I was just prevented from seeing my plan come to fruition due to YOUR own ambition and meddling! Shit, you can barely keep the Alliance leaders to agree on anything! The only reason why they follow you is because of the polite threat of superior firepower that you have access to and the major food source you have under your direct control in Eden. If that advantage ever disappeared, you'd have another civil war on your hands. You're petty dictator hiding in democracy. Your own method of control is as clumsy as Elliot's." "I'm not controlling anyone, you psychotic fuck!" "Bullshit! You've built your whole career on it! Your destruction of my plans, your war with the Combine, creating the Atomic Alliance and being the head of it. You really expect me to believe you did all this without ambition?" "Actually yeah. Had it not been for Marina's influence, I probably wouldn't have bothered..." "How long are you going to hide behind THAT ghost? Perhaps she did have influence on you in the beginning as far as motivation was concerned, but nobody, NOBODY that has gotten this far can say they've been doing this all this as some sort of monument for the love of a dead woman! You're lying to yourself because YOU don't have the fuckin' balls to admit you're a goddamn friendly fascist! And after you're dead? Do you think the Atomic Alliance will really live on? I predict it falls apart and in fighting occurs within a month! Humans are incapable of ruling themselves! The LAST WAR PROVED THAT! The Cybernetic Evolution is the ONLY thing that makes sense!" You think about some of the things Alex's insane ranting, before responding. "...you might be right Alex. You might be right, but there's just one thing..." "Oh what's that?" "Your method sucks too, mainly because you were too idiotic to ever get it off the ground in the first place and this isn't for Marina, its for my daughter Laura you fucking mass murdering motherfucker." You riddle Alex's body with bullets until he's such a bloody heap that he's actually ripped in half by your burst. You then pull out your pistol and blast his face into a red pulpy mess. Its over. You return to Base Pandora where Vivica has been trying to keep control of things as everyone is starting to wonder what's going on exactly. You give a full report to the entire Atomic Alliance about what happened. It's a big event that nearly shatters the Alliance. When you think about it, maybe that was Alex's "back up plan", as even if he had been killed, he must've known you'd catch heat for what happened. Some say it really wasn't your fault, others say it was, since you left an unstable element like Alex to his own devices. Some say your past deeds should be taken into consideration, others say it doesn't make up for the death of an entire town. Some say you tried to make things right, others say you shouldn't be applauded for attempting to fix something that was your fault in the first place. Still others say it wasn't your fault to begin with since the opening of the Shelters was most of the OTHER town leader's idea not yours. It's apparent everyone is divided on the situation, so you do the only thing that makes sense and step down from being the head of the Atomic Alliance. This has more of an effect than you hoped. Some people still think you should be punished directly, but for the most part most are just satisfied that you aren't the head of the Alliance anymore. The ones closest to you think it's unfair, but you don't really care. You probably saved the Alliance again with your actions, another civil war would've occurred otherwise. You can only hope in time people will see that. Vivica becomes the new head of the Alliance. Some object to her as well since she's somewhat close to you, but most accept her since her reputation is pretty spotless and fair minded. You remain in control of Base Pandora, which now mainly concentrates on strictly military matters as in defending the AA borders. Less politics, but not less responsibility since you now have a daughter to take care of... Ten more years pass... Twenty years have passed since the bombs dropped, and the Atomic Alliance is the largest known stretch of civilization known in the immediate area. It's now become an official democratic political entity rather than just a collection of separate towns and forts which were merely aligned. Vivica is now officially the President. GZS Shelters have been converted into major the supplier of water. Gone are the days of wondering if water was safe to drink. These Shelters have also been modified to have surrounding land to become agricultural centers like Eden; the water is piped in from underground to help grow crops. They're probably more useful than what they were initially intended for. Ashtown was repopulated, but a big memorial is now standing there in memory of the dead, the Shelter near Ashtown was destroyed. Explosives were placed in the entryway such a manner that it imploded in on itself forever burying the place. As for you, you find less and less to do each day at Base Pandora. While it's foolish to think that the world is now a safe place that an Atomic Alliance military isn't needed, it's just that it has fewer threats. Raiders might lurk on the outskirts of it, but to actually attack it now would be folly. Only the craziest and most desperate raiders do that nowadays, and they're usually easily dispatched by the AA Police Force. (Most of course having trained at Base Pandora combat academy) Civil unrest mainly consists of a few normal complaints, never anything like what happened in the past. It almost like the "Old World" again. You however are glad of this, since you have enough trouble trying to look after your daughter Laura. She's quite willful now that's she's a teenager, but fortunately your relationship isn't really bad though, you just never did get a hang of this whole father thing. The best thing you did was train her to take care of herself. Though now you're wondering if that was such a good idea. "I want to join the Atomic Alliance City Project!" she says. Having tamed most of the surrounding area, the next big agenda for the Alliance is to restore the City. You never really thought this was the best idea Vivica had, since the City has always been considered a very dangerous place, with nothing but deadly radiation levels and mutant monstrosities. In fact you turned down the option to head up the project when she proposed it to you. You remember way back in your early days of the Compound, when a few people were sent to the City, and only one returned speaking of the horrible creatures inside. Since then, nobody ever really went there. Every now and then you heard about a few hostile mutants wandering from the city, but it was rare, it seems as if they were content on living in their own area. You lived on "your side" and they lived on "their side" and that's the way it should stay. Seems like fucking around with the City might be inviting trouble, sort of like when you decided to fuck around the Shelters ten years ago... Your daughter on the other hand like most youthful sorts, sees "adventure". True she's not some delicate flower and she grew up relatively fast (She did see her mother die in front of her along with the rest of the town) but its not like she's had any real combat experience, plus she's only fifteen and you do feel the need to protect her. > You ask Vivica to make you the head of the project If your daughter's going to insist on this foolishness, you're going to make sure you're at least observing her. You travel to New Justice (Formally called Fort Justice) to see Vivica. Lately you and Vivica haven't been agreeing on too much about this, so you end up storming into her office and demanding the position. "Vivica! I want that City Project job, I don't give a shit who you've already applied the position to already, I'm fuckin' taking it!" "Sure. You got it. Anything else?" Vivica says not looking up from her writing some document. "...uh no? You don't mind?" "Why would I? I asked you to take this position in the first place." "Yeah I know, but I was sort of an asshole about turning it down before." "Well I figured you'd come around, even if you don't agree with this project." "I still don't...I mean don't you think we'll be doing more harm than good by fucking around with the City? I mean the mutants inside don't normally come out, if we start going in, we might be stirring up a bee's nest." Vivica stop writing and looks at you. "Let me ask you something...didn't you stir up a bee's nest when you first confronted Alex at Base Pandora twenty years ago? Think about it. Had you not gone in, isn't it possible that he would've actually built up a large enough army of cyborgs and robots to attack us later and we wouldn't have been able to defend against?" "Well MAYBE, but..." "How about when we fought those cultists at Eden? Your actions saved a woman who you would later give birth to your daughter. Not to mention that once run down farm house became a great agricultural center that is still a big supplier of AA food today. Not to mention Biofuel." "Yeah, but..." "How about standing up to Harry and the Combine? I'm sure you could've easily run away from the situation, but you didn't." "Well I stayed because of Marina." "True, but you also stay because deep down you KNEW that the Combine was corrupt and evil and needed to be destroyed and yes the loss was great, to you especially. But look what happened, the Atomic Alliance was created, and is still the closest thing to civilization in this little part of this fucked up world, well that we know of anyway." "I guess, but..." "What about the opening of the Shelters? Now I know that's a sore point with you. I know some people blame you for what happened due to that bastard Alex's treachery. I know you probably still blame yourself to a certain degree, but think about it we use most of those Shelters as the major suppliers of food and water now. I don't even think Atomic Alliance would be as prosperous as it is today without them. You've done more for the Atomic Alliance than anyone. Marina always said you never gave yourself a lot of credit for what you were capable of, it's one of the reasons why she always felt the need to push you a bit." "Okay, but..." "And you want to know why I wanted you to head this project? Because you're the only one capable of pulling it off. Seriously if anything this shitty new world has taught us is we can't just leave things alone. We have to take a pro-active approach to things just like we always have. I mean sure the mutants aren't leaving the city NOW, but who knows what the hell the future holds? Shouldn't we find out if those muties are forming their own army rather than finding out about it when it's crossing our borders? Shouldn't we find out if they aren't ALL insane freaks and perhaps some of them are even civilized enough to make friends with? You've dealt with situations like this so many times that you're about the only expert on the matter; you always seem to have made the decisions that turned out for the best in the long run. Maybe you aren't running the Alliance, but you ARE the fuckin' founder. So while perhaps you're only taking this position to keep an eye on your daughter, you'll eventually realize that you're doing the right thing anyway, just like you always have." "...how'd you know that's why I was doing this?" you ask totally surprised. "Because a few weeks ago Laura snuck into my office begging me to let her join and I told her she better clear it with you. I figured your reaction would've been telling her no, or you would've let her only to demand to be head of the project to keep an eye on her. Glad it was the latter." She says with a grin. So it happens, you take control of the Project. You organize and plan and all the rest that goes along with it. A relatively large force made up of the best Pandora's combat academy has to offer make a trip to the City. The radiation levels aren't quite as high as expected, but everyone is still expected to wear their radiation suits. While you aren't worried about yourself, you are sort of worried about Laura. Even if the mutants aren't a problem, the higher radiation levels could render her sterile. You never thought about it before, but you would like to have grand-children someday...but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. No more regrets or wondering about what could be done differently. You've done enough of that in the past, and Vivica was right, you don't give yourself enough credit for your accomplishments. You personally go on every patrol Laura does. It embarrasses her a bit, that you're being so over protective, but she appreciates it later when a gang of hungry mutants attack. (Though some snickering is heard later from some of the others in the squad when you help her up, and she has to endure a few taunts of being "Daddy's little girl", but she soon proves to be able capable in combat which makes you proud) After a few weeks of exploration, you find that there's a whole little world going on in the city. There are more factions here than you've ever come across! Some mutants are just mindless cannibals roaming the streets, while others are more organized and vicious. Still others follow weird new religions (Never friendly types in your experience) and others are actually friendly and have collected, fixed and horded lots of equipment over the years and would be willing to trade with "pretties" such as yourselves. (You don't like the way they look at Laura though even if she is in a radiation suit) Oddly new mutants are being born, not a lot, but a few. Seeing as they're going to be a factor in years to come you guess it would be best to make alliances with the friendly mutants and provide them with help...this of course comes in the form of firepower. Of course you aren't so idiotic to start giving them rocket launchers and such, but ammunition and few extra rifles to your new mutant "friends" can't hurt the balance of power in the city since you don't see it as it ever being fully part of the Alliance. You think it'll always be known as Zeropolis (As the mutants call it) where the mutants live and chaos will always be a way of life where only the fittest survive. Hmmm, just like before the bombs hit actually... One other good thing about this experience is after her first tour in Zeropolis, Laura decides to pursue a slightly safer career as a member of the Atomic Alliance Police Force. You're beyond relieved. Thirty years pass... Fifty years have passed and you're now celebrating the forty fifth anniversary of the founding of the Atomic Alliance at its capital of New Justice, of course you and Ex-President Vivica are about the only ones still alive who were around from the VERY beginning when it was only just "The Compound". You personally are receiving some sort of honor for all your deeds in making the AA possible. You even get a statue and while you're publicly humble about it, you do secretly really like it. After all you do deserve the recognition, and you're finally being given your credit. After you and Vivica give your speeches and get off stage, Laura hugs you and says how happy she is for you. Your grandson David does as well. You were always happy Laura's fertility wasn't affected by the trip to Zeropolis. Though David's six fingers on each hand display some of the effects, but he's normal in every other way. (If anything he may make a great diplomat to the mutants when he grows up!) After the grand night of celebration, you go back home to rest. You're really tired. Like you feel like you could sleep forever. Sometimes it weird to think that before the bombs hit, you were never really a social person, but then afterwards, you became a warrior, a diplomat and a founder of a new civilization leading people through it all. "I guess you were right Marina...I always did have it in me..." you say as you drift off to sleep... > Epilogue 100 years later... Another night at a small bar in New Justice, Sirus was telling another tale of his latest mission. "...and so I said to those mutants: Yeah, but after you eat me, who's gonna stop the GZS lawyers from coming here?" Sirus says while the rest of the bar patrons laughed, of course as always there's ONE person that has to be a dickhead. "Hey Sirus, I wouldn't insult your fellow mutants so much seeing as you're one of them, having six fingers on each hand and all." Sirus didn't take offense, he'd heard it all before and after his many trips to Zeropolis, he certainly wasn't afraid of some drunk. "Ah yes, my six fingers...and might I say your wife is very appreciative of them when I touch her in that special way that makes her call out in ecstasy..." "YOU FUCKING MUTIE BASTARD!" the drunk shouted and clumsily attacked Sirus who nimbly dodged and back kicked him in the head dropping him. "Ha ha! Let him sleep it off and put his bill on my tab! All of you are my friends tonight! Drinks for everyone!" Sirus said while the entire bar applauded this act of generosity. "Hey Sirus, you're like a big time Atomic Alliance agent and shit, how come you hang out in places like this?" another patron asked "Well given that most of my assignments are in Zeropolis, I feel more at home here! Ha ha! No, but seriously I just never was one to associate with the higher class, I much prefer to tell my stories to you folks where it's appreciated." "Hmm, sounds like they probably just got sick of hearing you brag." "Quite observant! Give this man another drink!" "Hey brag all you like, just as long as you're buying!" "Yes, I have a lot to brag about I suppose, but I'll never be able to top my Great-great-great-grandpa. Now there was a great man. He accomplished so much, and he did it all without any type of innate radiation protection or six fingers on each hand! From what I heard though despite all his accomplishments, he was always a humble and reserved sort. Very serious minded." "Hmm, you sure you're related?" "Wondered that myself sometimes, but when I look at that statue, the resemblance is uncanny, well except for the six fingers of course. In some ways I like to think I'm so jovial because he couldn't be. Things were a lot worse back then, I'm sure there was less time for bragging and carousing." The bar gets silent as Sirus reflected on his ancestor. A sense of great respect welled up inside him as he thought about the statue of you in front of the capitol building. He prevented himself from displaying too much emotion in front of these bar patrons, but it was there as it always would be. Soon he began talking again like his old self, but bragging about a different person. "You know what that's enough about me for tonight, how about I tell a story about him that's less well known in the history books; in fact my Grandmother told me if it hadn't been for this event, I would not be here today to grace you all with my presence! Now this happened about a hundred and fifty years ago, give or take a year. My ancestor was scouting with his squad and they came upon an old farmhouse..."

[Themes: sci-fi, war, serious] You immediately dispatch another team of medics in hazmat suits to Ashtown. Vivica insists on going since she's probably the second best doctor in the Alliance, you order her not to since you can't afford to lose her as well, not to mention she runs Fort Justice, but she's defiant and goes anyway. You also order Eden to not let ANYONE who wasn't already working there in, until this situation is resolved. You can't afford your major food source to get contaminated. You decide not to inform the rest of the Alliance towns, since you hope maybe you can contain this before panic occurs. You next step is to radio Alex, but as predicted you don't get an answer. You soon get a report from Vivica, "It looks bad. REAL Bad. Most of Ashtown is already dead or dying. Whatever it is, I don't think it's airborne. It might be the water supply. The only weird thing is, the children didn't seem to be affected...it's very sad though. We're going to have a bunch of orphans." "Can't you do ANYTHING?" "No, I have no idea what this is and I think it's too late anyway, uh there's something else I think you'll want to know...though I'm not sure how to say this..." "Vivica just spit it the fuck out!" "Well, uh...I tired to treat Ophelia, but I failed, her husband was already dead by the time I got here." "...Vivica, I appreciate you trying to save someone I had fond memories of, but there's a whole town at stake..." "I know, I know, but that's not what I'm getting at. Ophelia had a daughter you know. Her name's Laura. She's five. Ophelia told me before she died; she wanted her daughter to have a good home." "Well of course! I mean we'll give good homes to all the orphans!" "Again, that's not it. She asked for you specifically to give her that home. She said she said it's about time her daughter got to know her father anyway." The surprises just keep coming. "Excuse me?" "Looks like you're this little girl's father...the timing is about right, I mean you did have that encounter with her five years ago. She's five and if I may say, I see the family resemblance, she doesn't look anything like Ophelia's husband, I mean granted he's dead right now, but..." "Why the hell didn't she tell me? I mean I would've..." "I asked the same question, during her final moments. She's said she was sorry she never told you before, but she knew you had other things on your mind and bigger concerns with rebuilding civilization and all. She always thought she would've lived in Marina's shadow anyway and by keeping Laura to herself it was like she still had a piece of you...sir I hate to break this information up since I know it probably really important to you, but what are we going to do about the town and Alex and everything?" "Start evacuating the children to Base Pandora, the town is dead. I'll take care of Alex." You say grimly before disconnecting. Armed and focused, for the first time in a long time you travel by yourself to the Shelter where Alex is at. You meet up with Vivica on the way, who tries to advise you to at least go in with back up, but you won't hear of it and tell her to continue on to Base Pandora. You also see Laura and some of the other orphaned children. They're obviously still upset about their parents dying horrible deaths. You approach Laura whose eyes are all red from crying. She looks up at you. "Are...are you really my daddy?" she asks, obviously having been informed of the situation. Contrary to what Vivica said, you think she looks more like her mother, but yes there is a resemblance to you particularly the hair. Unsure of how to respond, you give a straight forward answer. "Yes I am and I'll be home soon to take care of you." you stroke her face and get back in your vehicle and drive off. You drive through Ashtown and see the dead bodies, by the facial expressions you get the impression it wasn't a pleasant one. Once again you think about going to see Ophelia's body, but you quickly decide against it. You'd rather remember her how she was the last time you saw her. Besides you'll always see her now in your daughter, plus you've got a score to settle with Alex. You get to the Shelter and enter its foyer and surprisingly its elevator is at the top, looks like some modifications have been made to it as it looks as if the call buttons were there originally. You really don't care about any of it though, you're on a mission. When you get to the bottom, you see the same modified call buttons near the elevator on this level as well (You can't believe the idiotic way GZS designs their Shelters though, effectively trapping their "customers" down here) You also see more dead bodies in various stages of decay, some look like they were dead long before Alex got here. Much of the equipment and place in general is in disarray, but you also notice some of it has been recently repaired. Probably by Alex no doubt. You hear cursing coming from a nearby room, it sounds like Alex. > You check to make sure his assistants are not lurking around You figure Alex is occupied, so you can check to make sure he doesn't have one of his assistants skulking about. You'd hate to confront him only to get shot in the back by one of them. Unfortunately that's exactly what happens anyway. While you search for other enemies, Alex hears and sneaks up on you, shooting you in the back. You drop to the floor gasping for air. "I always said you'd make an excellent candidate for remaking...trust me, I'm saving the Alliance, by doing this..." are the last words you hear by Alex before you fall unconscious and never wake up.

"Keep fighting the bastards! Pandora will never fall!" you shout as you mow down another dirt biker. In all the fighting though you begin to worry where Marina is, you look around for her in the chaos, and then you see her fighting with multiple enemies converging on her position. You rush towards her to back her up and then you're blown back by an explosion. You slam up against a wall of one of the barracks, other than some minor pain and some scars you're going to have you aren't harmed, however your heart is when you see Marina lying bloody on the ground. She isn't moving. Ignoring everything else you run to her, you kneel down to pick up her body, she grabs weakly on to you, but she's in bad shape. "Keep fighting to rebuild civilization...its still worth it..." she says before losing total consciousness. Alex suddenly comes up to you. "Hey! We got people firing on us; you need to get the fuck outta the open!" "You! You're a fucking surgeon! You fix her! Save her! Save her NOW!" you shout, picking her up and shoving her into Alex's arms. "Wha...I..." Alex realizes you mean fucking business so he just nods and runs with her to one of the few undamaged buildings. You're blind with rage, you begin charging into battle trying take out as many of these motherfuckers as you can, its quite possible with your actions alone you turned the tide, but you are still just one man, and you nearly get yourself killed, if it hadn't been for Vivica managing to get a few people from Ashtown to help out, and they arrive just in time. Ophelia shoots a Combine soldier who was sneaking up on you. You turn around to see her, you nearly don't recognize her decked out in battle gear. "Told you, you'd see me in the future." She says and runs off to clean up the stragglers running away. The Combine is pulling back. You've won, but at a high cost. When you return to check on Marina, you find her dead. Alex explains there was nothing he could do for her. You ask to be alone which he complies. You spend the rest of the night alone with Marina's lifeless body weeping and vowing revenge. The next day, you come out with one focus. To assault Fort Justice. This will never be over until Harry is dead. You need to strike now when he's weak. A lot of people are wondering if you shouldn't wait to regroup, but you won't hear of it, you're determined to do it now and everyone who's in fighting condition is coming with you. In a couple days you and your small army arrive at Fort Justice. You half expect to die this day assaulting the place, but once again destiny is with you. Fort Justice is experiencing a minor authority problem. You can take the scum out of the wasteland, but you can't make them disciplined soldiers. The last defeat has shattered morale, and apparently some are starting to question Harry's orders, while others aren't willing to die for him. The gate is wide open and parts of the place are in flames. You walk in relatively unopposed. Some fighting occurs, but you're looking for Harry and when the loud mouth shithead sees you, instead of confronting you, he runs for the trapdoor to the underground. You immediately run to cut him off and shoot him in both legs. He falls and grabs for his pistol, but you take careful aim and blow his hand off, he screams in pain when he sees his fingers all over the ground. A kick to his face follows, and then a stomp, and another, and another. You don't stop until his face looks like tenderized hamburger. He tries to act defiant by trying to give you the finger with his good hand, but you take it and break the motherfucker along with the rest of his hand. "This is for Marina and the rest of the deaths you caused." You say, before blasting his mushy bloody head into mushy bloody pieces. Now its over. You collapse by Harry's body, spent and drained. Alex goes over to see if you're alright, but Ophelia tells him to just make sure all the enemy are either dead or running. Ophelia takes you to a barrack and puts you on a bed and tells you to rest, which you do. "I did it Marina...I got him..." you mumble while falling asleep. The next few weeks consist of rebuilding. Rebuilding everything. Fort Justice. Base Pandora. All the damage Harry caused. Word gets out to the Combine occupied towns about their current situation, with no centralized authority figure anymore, the Combine dissipates as wasteland scum flee and return to the outlands where they belong. The townspeople of those places are very grateful for your help, and you're now in charge of everything but you take no joy in any of it, or anything. You're numb. You go through the motions, but you're basically in a daze. All your thoughts are of Marina, you feel empty without her. If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't even be alive right now. You would've died in a big mushroom cloud death. You start blaming yourself for not being able to save her, you start thinking about suicide. Everyone gets a little worried about you. Vivica starts radioing in wondering about your condition, Alex (Who's quite familiar with mental breakdowns) attempts to talk to you, but it's Ophelia who turns you around, though not immediately, but it's her actions that become the turning point. Late one night, as you wallow in the emptiness, Ophelia visits you. You expect her to tell you not blame yourself for Marina's death again, but she doesn't. Instead she talks about the time when you saved her from the cultists and how grateful she was that day and how she would've almost done anything to repay you for saving her life. "Mm...well you repaid it already. You saved mine back at Pandora." You say wishing to be left alone. "No, I'm saving it now." Ophelia begins to remove her clothing, something that takes you completely by surprise. You feel you shouldn't, you know you shouldn't, but maybe it's feeling of loneliness, maybe it's the feeling of confusion, or maybe its just plain hormones, and you give in to Ophelia's advances. And for that one night, the emptiness within you disappears. The next day Ophelia is gone leaving you a note saying she's going back to Ashtown and tells you that you shouldn't give up on life since you have so much more to change in this new world. When you think about it, Marina saved you, so you could carry that goal out. She always did see the potential in you to do great things. With this new perspective, you begin to return to normal, though there still was a little piece of you that died when Marina did. You'll never completely be the same. Life goes on though. Five more years pass... It's been ten years since the bombs dropped and civilization is starting to rebuild itself again...well somewhat. Hard to believe you would've become any type of leader trying to rebuild civilization. Marina might not be around anymore, but obviously her influence on you still is and always will be as you follow her dream of rebuilding civilization again. You're still running things from Base Pandora, which is now the unofficial head of the Atomic Alliance. The towns formally under Combine occupation are included, but are now treated as equals rather than glorified labor camps, though getting everyone to agree completely on anything still remains a problem. Fort Justice is now under Vivica's command and the Farmhouse, now known as Eden is a fully functional agricultural community. (It supplies food as well as biofuel for vehicles now) After that one night with Ophelia you don't see her anymore, but last you heard she had a baby and got married to someone in Ashtown. Good for her. Other than political disagreements, everything has been going fairly well; raiders are still a problem, but much less than in the past. For the most part people are pretty happy living in your territory. One thing that's been debated among you and some of other leaders, are the few GZS Shelters the Alliance has stumbled across over recent years. No effort has been made to open them, but they're all sealed shut by their main computers. From what you know by reading some of the GZS documents found in Base Pandora (and Alex who definitely has some knowledge of GZS protocols) the Shelters weren't supposed to open up until the central computer determined that sufficient amount of time had passed and the surface deemed safe. Apparently the computers still think the surface sucks. (And that assessment wouldn't exactly be wrong) Most of the other Alliance leaders say that some sort of contact should be made with them. You get the impression some of them might've done it anyway, it's just you have most of the equipment that makes it a lot easier. > You leave them alone You remember something the Colonel said years ago "They made their bed now they can sleep in it." You see no reason to disturb the Shelters; you have enough to do with surface matters. Your unwillingness to contact them though is frowned upon by the other alliance leaders. Some are even calling you "inhumane" for leaving them down there. You take great offense to this since you're anything but inhumane; you just don't see the need to contact a bunch of people who wanted to be shut off from society for a long period of time in the first place. Besides who says they want to be contacted? Who know how they'll act? Seems like it's just going to open up trouble you don't really need. It doesn't matter though, the other town leaders are determined to go through with it, and you can't stop them, it's not like you're running a dictatorship here. You are however denying all help from your end. Base Pandora, Fort Justice, and Eden are not to be involved. The Alliance relationship becomes a bit strained. A few weeks pass and you get a report from the Alliance towns, the first Shelter openings didn't go very peacefully. Due to their fumbling and having no plan other than "Opening them up." They manage to get into misunderstandings and a few fights occurred resulting in some deaths on both sides, but mostly on the Shelter people side, seeing as they haven't been hardened by the surface. Ultimately they pull everyone out the Shelters kicking and screaming. Some Alliance citizens don't like the fact that their local governments have engaged in these kinds of tactics, and you're wondering what the hell they think they're doing, since you said it was a bad idea in the first place and this just proves it. You later find out that one of the pettier leaders convinced most of the others that the Shelters contained resources that would make them less dependant on you (Such as operating filtrated water recycling systems) and decided taking the Shelters by force would be a good idea since if you were unwilling to help before you might be unwilling to help in the future. Of course that was just idiotic logic on their part since you were just against the idea of fucking around with the Shelters; you weren't on some power trip. Within the next few weeks reports start coming in about riots in the towns and mistreatment of the relocated Shelter people. It's the Combine all over again... You send in troops on your end to try to maintain some sort of peace, AND to stop all this unnecessary cruelty to the Shelter folks who were just peacefully living out their existence until some Alliance assholes pulled them from their homes. Naturally being a peacemaker is a thankless job. The "doves" think you're being a fascist by using force to stop the rioting and protests, and then by the same token the "hawks" think you're meddling in business that isn't your concern since you didn't want anything to do with the Shelters in the first place and shouldn't be telling them what to do with the Shelters OR its people. Now you start to get angry. "Motherfuckers I RUN the goddamn Alliance! I fuckin' built it! I'll say what the fuck goes!" That's the last transmission you make to the Alliance as a single entity. The next day it becomes a much smaller entity as the Alliance town leaders official break off from you and declare themselves independent and calling themselves the Atomic Confederation. You're so pissed of by all of this that you don't even WANT to bring them back into the "fold". You're ready to wash your hands of this exercise in stupidity. You withdraw all peacekeeping troops and instead of wasting more resources and man power on a long drawn out war taking town after town that will only weaken you, you decide to take a more strategic approach and attack the Shelters themselves. You send a strike team to locate each one that's been opened up and blow up the water recyclers, and then to blow up the elevators allowing access to the Shelters in the first place. You also of course aren't going to be trading food supplies from Eden anymore. "So much for your new resources. See how long you last without our help, fucktards." Is your last transmission to the Atomic Confederation. The Atomic Confederation doesn't last very long, it collapses mainly due to the inept and corrupt government, civil unrest, and even outside attack from raiders who are always attracted to chaos. By the time its all over the towns are little more than criminal havens that fight amongst each other. You're still in good shape though; however this event has caused a trend in isolationism. The Atomic Alliance doesn't expand past its now severely shortened borders. You still have dealings with Ashtown every now and then, but after they heard all the problems that were going on, it appears they become a bit isolationist as well (Which does have the benefit that they don't try to open the Shelter that they located nearby, thankfully someone learned the lesson to leave well enough alone.) and you even have less contact with them as well. You live out the rest of your years running the Atomic Alliance which mainly consists of protecting your borders. Your death comes suddenly when Alex unexpectedly assassinates you. (Theories point to simple revenge for all those years ago and just his underlying unstableness) You're buried next to Marina, he's immediately executed and Vivica takes over. The Alliance continues under her leadership, but after her, leaders become less capable as leaders are apt to do in government systems. Eventually like the Combine, and the Atomic Confederation, the Atomic Alliance collapses completely thus ending the attempt to rebuilding civilization in this part of the wasteland.

[Themes: sci-fi] It's a brutal world and it just got more so. Rushing in outnumbered, isn't likely to save anyone and most likely going to get you killed. You radio in for reinforcements and keep an eye on the farm in the mean time. Later when the darkness comes you see a group of them come out with torches, form a circle in a nearby plain and begin chanting. You count ten of them altogether Soon two more come out with one of the prisoners from earlier. She's bound, gagged and naked; you know what's going to come next. Reggie and another one in your team wants to do something, but you insist that they do nothing and to keep quiet. It's all over soon anyway, as you see them sacrifice the poor girl for whatever outlandish beliefs they hold. You take first watch for the night. The next day your reinforcements arrive...both of them. "What the fuck? I asked for at least five more people!" "Sorry, but that other recon group you sent also ran into trouble, in fact two of them are already dead, and we had to send a rescue team to fetch the other two since one has a broken leg." "Oh that's wonderful." "So should we call this off?" one of you team asks. "No Vivica, we're going through with it, but we're going to employ some stealth, they had three prisoners, I get the feeling they'll be doing the same ceremony they did last night." "Are we going to attack them now then?" "No Leonard, I don't feel like fighting a bunch of fanatics armed with machine guns in an open plain with no cover. And we can't just start firing on them from here, we need to wipe them ALL out as quickly as possible without them having a chance the regroup, fortify or any of that shit. We're gonna sneak into the house and ambush the whole fuckin' cult while they're doing their little ceremony." You wait until night and sure enough they all come out like you thought, then come the others with the prisoner. That's when the six of you quickly sneak through an overgrown field towards the house. You get to the stairs when Reggie and Leonard break off towards the area were the cult is performing their ceremony. "I can't just let them kill another! We can take 'em now! They're off guard!" "Reggie get the fuck...shit!" Reggie and Leonard begin firing, the fucking idiots aren't even taking cover, they're going head long in like they're stupid ass action heroes. You and the others lay down some cover fire, but it's not enough. Reggie and Leonard are cut down after killing a whopping ONE cultist and not even saving the hapless girl, who's shot instantly. The cultists start spreading out, moving forward, and circling around you at the same time, they're also better shots than you too, as they're carefully aiming rather than just firing in the general vicinity. After seeing another one of your team members go down, you and the rest fall back into the house itself. The inside of the house looks like something out of a horror movie, there are skulls and bones littering it, along with it blood stains everywhere. "Holy shit! What've we gotten ourselves into?" Vivica yells. "Shut the fuck up, I hear something...like crying...it's downstairs." "What about the cultists?" "Well it's the same plan, they just know about us now, let's hope we can still get 'em in a good ambush." You and your team members spread out in the house, you head down into the basement, which looks more like a small temple layout. You see a young woman in a cage, and when she sees you her eyes fill with hope. You hear the cultists stomping around upstairs and some gunfire, at which point you try to find a good place to hide. A bunch of footsteps run down the stairs, you wait in anticipation...closer...closer... You pop up from your spot and begin firing, you kill six of them before they can even react, and the remaining two barely get off some wild shots before you splatter them as well. Still breathing heavy among the dead, you finally hear some good news. "Hey! Are you still alive down there?" Vivica shouts. "Yeah! What's going on up there?" "We got a few of them, but I think most of them converged on your position though." "Of course they did, I've always been popular." You reply. You release the girl in the cage who's very thankful. She mentions her name is Ophelia and she's from a place called Ashtown which is far from this place. She says the cultists came storming into her town specifically trying to capture young girls; they took three before they finally were driven away, and unfortunately Ophelia was one of the three. You tell Ophelia your story; she seems to think you've got the right idea about going about things. "I think I'm going to tell my people back in Ashtown that we need to start getting better organized as well, and I'll be sure to tell them all about you and how you rescued me! Maybe we'll see each other in the future." You and your team search the farm house which just like you thought was stocked with all sorts of goodies. You're going to have haul some of it back, but you decide that you could also establish another base of sorts here after it was cleaned up. You'd also like to establish more of a relationship with this Ashtown. So you allow Ophelia to take one of the vehicles for her to drive back there, she certainly doesn't have a problem with that! Before heading back you put Vivica in charge of the place and tell her you'll be sending some more folks to help get this farm up and running. Not bad for a first try. Four more years pass... It's been five years since you joined the Compound and things are going fairly well for you, the farm house has been converted into a way point to Ashtown, with which you have good relations with and is now producing food. You are no longer solely dependant on the Compound for supplies which might be just as well... You get less and less reports from the Compound itself other than its undergone a name change and due to its inclusion of a few towns now, its called the Combine and the Compound itself is called Fort Justice. You know about how the Colonel has gotten sick and seems to be getting worse as more time passes and how the population rate is growing, but it's slow. The major theory is the elevated levels of background radiation are probably affecting fertility. (You wonder about yourself and Marina since she hasn't once gotten pregnant in the five years you've been together) There have been more people sent here, mainly because they hear about how great it is in Pandora as opposed to the miserable place Harry has made Fort Justice since he's been getting freer reign of the place as the Colonel continues to get sicker. In fact you've been hearing some disturbing stories from others who have come here recently. Ranging from needlessly violent occupation of towns, sending people on dangerous unnecessary missions to the city, and recruiting desert scum into the Combine! People are saying Harry's going nuts with power. One day, one of your assistants comes in and has something to report. The Colonel has died, Harry has taken complete control of the Combine and his first order is for YOU to return to Fort Justice for reassignment. Harry's just plain gone completely nuts if he thinks you're going to do that. Speaking of nuts, that same day after you convince everyone in seceding from the Combine you get a radio message from someone who's been quiet until now. "Well well, it seems you've got a problem on your hands." It's Alex. You're guessing he's been surviving on rats and roaches down there. "What the hell do you want and how do you know what's been going on?" "How do you think? I've been listening in on all your incoming and outgoing radio transmissions since you betrayed me and trapped me down here! I must say though, you probably did the intelligent thing. And your progress with establishing your own separate territory has been intriguing...but I can tell you right now, you are going to need help with your current problem, a problem I will be willing to help with if you're willing to talk." "Alright, I'll play. What're you proposing?" "There are still a lot of those high tech weapons down here that you were coming to get when you came here five years ago. I'm sure they would be very useful in your up coming war with Harry, and don't tell me there isn't, because I know you aren't going to run or meekly follow his orders to return. You've obviously set your sights on higher ambitions than just following orders and survival. I'll be willing to give them to you, in exchange for my freedom." "Oh that easy huh? How do you propose we go about this? I send people down there to retrieve them while your death machines ambush them as soon as they enter?" "It would be kind of hard for that to happen since all my cyborgs are long dead and my robots have fallen into disrepair...I'm basically alone down here. You were guarding nothing!" Alex laughs. You're pretty skeptical about this little tale, but if it's true, those weapons would certainly help. > You disbelieve Alex "Nice try Alex, but I'm not falling for it, now don't bother calling me again, because I won't be listening to anymore of your lies." "Alright, suit yourself. I guess I better prepare for a change in landlords then. Pity, because I don't think Harry will be willing to let me just live down here, I guess I better prepare myself as well." Alex disconnects and you don't hear from him again. You radio Vivica to let her know what's going on as well; she's behind you and will make sure to send a few people to harass Harry's men when they decide the lay siege to Pandora. Everyone spends time preparing and organizing for the battle that's sure to come. A month passes and sure enough Harry's men come thinking its going to be an easy victory, but it's merely a stand off. They end up falling back and try to wait you out, but you still have the advantage for the most part though. A couple more weeks pass and reinforcements arrive and armed to the teeth and despite the rugged terrain that prevents cars to come to this place, they managed to find some dirt bikes which whiz around Pandora while the riders nimbly dodge your fire while they toss grenades at (and sometimes over) the walls. Pandora is a lot less secure, and you're just glad Vivica's skirmishers are doing a good job at diverting the invasion force's attention and getting through with supplies, though you catch wind that Harry is sending even MORE reinforcements. You doubt if you can handle it, Marina doesn't want to leave, but even she sees that things are pretty grim, and is willing to leave if need be. You've already decided the place to retreat to would be the Farmhouse. If you're going to leave though, you need to do it now, because when Harry's second wave of reinforcements arrive, it will be impossible to break out. > You Leave "We're getting the hell outta here! Get everyone ready!" you tell Marina, before radioing Vivica, to tell her that you'll be arriving soon. You and everyone else start gathering everything you can carry, and before opening the gates you purposely blow up some of the buildings in the base, particularly the building with the water filtering and recycling system. You might be running, but you'll be damned if they'll get the prize fully intact. Due to the explosions, you throw the invasion force a little off guard, since they're wondering what the hell's going on. This works in your favor when you exit and make your risky escape. "Split up and meet you know where!" you shout to everyone as you haul ass to the Farmhouse. You, Marina and a few others stick together as you battle Harry's men who are in pursuit of you. Fortunately you know the lay of the land a little better, so your escape is fatality free by the time you make it to the Farmhouse. A few of the others who split up aren't quite as lucky, but most make it. You immediately tell Vivica to start beefing up the defenses. The Farmhouse is relatively well defended, and even has two vehicles to help you. Its also further away, so by the time Harry regroups a large enough invasion force, you figure you'll be ready for him. What you weren't ready for, was the hi-tech weaponry, Harry's men arrive with months later. Granted they don't have them per soldier, but they have enough to start laying waste to the Farmhouse and its surroundings. Apparently they grabbed the ones Alex told you about. Whether the Combine just took them and killed Alex, or Alex came to an agreement with Harry is unknown, but your guess is Harry just killed him and whatever cyborgs might've been down there. (Dictators aren't known to "share") Some help comes from Ashtown, but it really isn't enough and given Ashtown's even further position away, it doesn't do much good. Eventually you hear from Ophelia on the radio who suggests that you are all welcome to come live in Ashtown, as they have plenty of room and wouldn't mind having some good warriors with a variety of skills. Reluctantly you accept, though you hate the fact you have to run again. You, Marina, Vivica and the remaining survivors pile into the two vehicles in between attacks and drive off to Ashtown. No need for scorched Earth tactics this time since the Combine soldiers did a good enough job of that during their initial attacks. Eventually you arrive in Ashtown, where you're welcomed, but now you have to remember, you're not in charge anymore and things are a bit different. You welcome the change though, after all the time of fighting non-stop and being in charge you're happy to be able to relax more often as the only problems Ashtown has is the occasional bandit attack which aren't organized or well lead. Everyday though, you expect the Combine to show up again, but a year passes without a sign of them. One day you hear about the Combine again, from a wandering traveler who stops in Ashtown one day. Word is, it's currently undergoing another regime change. Apparently, shortly after the Farmhouse was completely destroyed, someone named Damon shot Harry and took over, then just recently someone blew him up and now someone else is in charge. Even though the Combine still pursues the idea of conquest, it now constantly has problems with infighting, hampering many of their plans. For now they've been concentrating on trying to maintain control in the places they already hold. It's quite possible the Combine will eventually turn its attention in this direction of conquest in your direction again, but you'll be ready as you always are, maybe you won't win, but you know you'll always survive to fight another day if necessary.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic] "Nice try Alex, but I'm not falling for it, now don't bother calling me again, because I won't be listening to anymore of your lies." "Alright, suit yourself. I guess I better prepare for a change in landlords then. Pity, because I don't think Harry will be willing to let me just live down here, I guess I better prepare myself as well." Alex disconnects and you don't hear from him again. You radio Vivica to let her know what's going on as well; she's behind you and will make sure to send a few people to harass Harry's men when they decide the lay siege to Pandora. Everyone spends time preparing and organizing for the battle that's sure to come. A month passes and sure enough Harry's men come thinking its going to be an easy victory, but it's merely a stand off. They end up falling back and try to wait you out, but you still have the advantage for the most part though. A couple more weeks pass and reinforcements arrive and armed to the teeth and despite the rugged terrain that prevents cars to come to this place, they managed to find some dirt bikes which whiz around Pandora while the riders nimbly dodge your fire while they toss grenades at (and sometimes over) the walls. Pandora is a lot less secure, and you're just glad Vivica's skirmishers are doing a good job at diverting the invasion force's attention and getting through with supplies, though you catch wind that Harry is sending even MORE reinforcements. You doubt if you can handle it, Marina doesn't want to leave, but even she sees that things are pretty grim, and is willing to leave if need be. You've already decided the place to retreat to would be the Farmhouse. If you're going to leave though, you need to do it now, because when Harry's second wave of reinforcements arrive, it will be impossible to break out. > You Stay What's the point in running? Harry will just eventually send men to the Farmhouse and you'll probably have to run again. You refuse to run forever, if you're going to die soon, then you'd rather get it over with. Reinforcements arrive armed with rocket launchers come this time, and with a few volleys, Harry's men finally breach the walls of Pandora and storm into the place. The fighting is furious as you and your people don't allow Harry's troops to gain an inch without heavy losses, but ultimately it comes down to you, Marina, and a few others, holding up in one of the barracks, totally surrounded. As you wince in pain from a bullet wound in your arm you use the radio and give a final transmission to Vivica to prepare for an attack on the Farmhouse soon. Hopefully she has more sense to run when things get bad. "Damn it, I should've ordered a retreat." You say to yourself having second thoughts during this final hour. "No, you shouldn't have. You stood your ground. I'm glad you did." Marina says trying to comfort you. "I'm not! I've gotten us all killed, and I certainly didn't want that for you." "Its okay, if I'm going to die, at least it'll be with you." Marina kisses you passionately, which makes you briefly forget about the deep shit you're all in. What the hell, for someone who nearly bought it during the nuclear strike, you had a pretty good run. A lot longer than most in this new hell on Earth. You sense that if you don't come out soon, Harry's men will probably just start tossing grenades or launching rockets at your position, you're not going out like that. You look at Marina and everyone else. "Alright everyone, we're finishing this. I'll lead and try to soak up most of the bullets. I wish it wasn't going to end like this, but shit happens. Ready?" You get a nod from everyone and then rush out of the door, blasting everything in sight, with Marina and the rest following suit. You feel several bullets hit your body and then a couple to your head before firing one last burst and falling to the ground in a bloody heap.

[Themes: sci-fi] Well there's nothing stopping you from sending your own exploration detachment teams, there's nothing stopping you from going yourself either. As far as you know, nobody from the Compound has bothered scouting past Base Pandora, you figure it's as good of place as any... "Okay I want two scouting detachments of four. I'm going with one of them. We're just going to go a few miles from this place and then come back. It'll give us a better lay of the land in case of an attack and it'll keep our skills sharp as well. The rest of you guard the base as usual." You half expect Marina to come with you, but she's content on staying behind to help look after the base. She looks at you admiringly though that you're taking the initiative. She tells you she loves you and that she can't wait for you to get back. You like the fact she's got confidence that you ARE coming back this time around. You and your team leave and start exploring. Base Pandora really was in a secluded location, most of your trek is through a small unspoiled woods, eventually you get to the end though after about a day. You notice the Geiger counter is clicking a bit more. Not a lot, but enough to be a little unsettling. Using some binoculars, up ahead you see a single run down farm house (the farm itself also looks run down and hasn't been up kept in years). Just then you see a few vehicles also approaching up ahead, you tell everyone else to pull back into the woods and keep down while you do likewise. You continue to look as the vehicle park nearby the farm house and figures begin to get out. All of them are wearing robes and carrying automatic weapons over their backs. You also see them dragging what looks to be a few hapless prisoners with them as they enter the structure. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that these folks aren't the nice type. "Oh shit, these guys look prepared. Who do you think they are?" one of your team asks. "How should I know Reggie? When we moved into Base Pandora it's not like we got a welcome to the neighborhood letter from every nearby freak within a few miles of us. If I had to guess and judging by the robes, they're probably some doomsday cult. Probably one that was building up a stock pile of shit even before the bombs hit. Got some interesting vehicles though." "So, what're we going to do?" What to do indeed. You definitely need to wipe these cultists out since it's possible you could have trouble with them in the future if they start wandering in your direction. They also have vehicles that could be of use and probably other supplies as well. You could radio in and wait for reinforcements, but the prisoners you just saw them take in might be dead by then. > You attack now No time like the present, besides, if you're careful you should be able to take them. You and your team briskly run through the field while keeping your head down. All is going well until you hear a shot ring out from the house, and one of your team members makes a stifled yelp. You turn around and see Reggie, clutching his throat and bleeding profusely from it. While you're all standing around watching him convulse, another shot rings out. This one clips Vivica in the head splattering her brains on to your clothing. "RUN!" you shout, not wanting to be the sniper's next target. There are multiple shots now, and one by one you see your team member's go down, until the last one is you when you feel a bullet severing your spine. You're fucked. As you lay the field still trying to crawl away, you hear the cultists coming for you, you do the only thing you can and turn over in order to aim at them in an effort to at least take a few out. You manage to kill about three over zealous ones advancing on your position until you hear one shouting for the snipers in the house to finish you off since you're not worth it. A single bullet enters your eye, ending it once and for all. You body is then taken along with your teams' to serve as food and bizarre rituals.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious] Maybe you're high on your new found physique and adrenaline, but for whatever reason, something comes over you to volunteer. Indeed you've made everyone a little surprised by your actions especially since you're an outsider. The Colonel looks at you with interest. "Hmm, you're the one I've heard about from Marina, didn't expect you to volunteer, she's always mentioned you're quiet loner type. Then again, you might be just what I need...alright you're coming with me. Harry, you start picking some of the others and form recon detachments. Everyone goes on assignment tomorrow." The Colonel then takes you to his office, where he sits down and gets a bunch of papers from his desk. "Okay, I'm sure during your short stay here, you probably think we're all a bunch of survivalist militia loonies, and to a certain extent, we probably are, however we aren't without a plan." The Colonel shows you some blueprints to what looks to be a small military base. "My friend Alex was stationed at this base. It's not exactly close by, but its closest military base around here." "Didn't realize there were any military bases in the area." "Most people don't, it was a top secret, and kept off the records so it wouldn't be targeted. There aren't even any roads leading to the place, you have travel by foot. Though I guess you could say it wasn't so much of a military base as it was a research facility. Obviously I know about it, because I had a friend stationed there who was feeding me information. He didn't exactly run the place, but he was attempting to work his way up to get special level clearance. Apparently GZS was working with the government on some high tech weaponry." "The Ground Zero Survival Corporation. I'm sure you've heard of them, they were the ones hawking their Shelters like snake oil salesmen before doomsday." "Oh yeah, I used to see their commercials on late at night, I thought about buying one of those." "Well good thing you didn't, only an idiot would've bought one of those things. Look at this." The Colonel now shows you a schematic of a GZS Shelter. "Why? It certainly looks just as equipped as this compound and has a lot more conveniences." You remark. "It would appear that way, but the fucking thing is a death trap. They engineered them so once you entered; you most likely couldn't get out of them. Supposedly the GZS computer is supposed to let you out when it deems that it's safe to do so. In fact the whole thing is controlled by the computer. A computer that could glitch and break down at anytime. Let a machine be in charge of your survival...yeah great idea. I dunno about you, but I'll take this compound any day. It might not look pretty, but I don't have to worry about getting trapped with no access to food or water. Not to mention I heard from Alex that they suffered cutback during the creation of most of those things meaning they cut a lot of damn corners, so they probably aren't as state of the art as they claimed. I'll bet those dumb bastards who are living in those things are regretting it as we speak." You're not sure where he's going with all this so you interrupt. "So, what does all this mean? Are we going to seek out these shelters and rescue the people inside?" "What?! HA HA! That's a good one!" The Colonel laughs. "Hell no son, as far as I'm concerned they've made their choice now they can live with it, we're not here to play white knight. We have to look out for ourselves, and part of that is making sure we're the best defended and from what I heard, whatever they were working on in that base, sounds like it would make things a lot easier in the defense department." "Whoa, hold on, if this is a military base won't they just shoot me on sight if I go there I mean won't it be heavily guarded? I mean I know I went through some training, but I doubt to the degree that I can take on an entire military base!" "Alex was making friends with most of the lower personnel there, getting them to follow him as it were. Last I heard, he was pretty successful, so chances are, as long as I gave you some identifiers to take with you proving that you were following my orders, you wouldn't have any problems when you arrived, but obviously there IS a problem or I wouldn't be sending you at all." "Of course..." you say expecting this assignment to be even more complicated. "I haven't heard anything from Alex for a month before the bombs dropped. I dunno what's happened to him." "Is it possible they discovered he was leaking information and killed him?" "I suppose, but chances are that afterwards they would've found out about us and also sent the National Guard as well as GZS private security here to lay waste to this compound." "Well the National Guard were busy trying to maintain order to the major cities at the time. I should know I was there when they were stationed in the one I was working at." "True, but I still think they would've sent someone here, and GZS still would have. As I said they had enough money to pay for their own security force. Maybe not as well trained as military personnel, but fanatical enough to eliminate anyone that GZS thought was discovering secrets about them. That's why Alex always focused on solely making friends with the grunts and government officials. The GZS employees always seemed a bit more dedicated to their corporation." "Okay, well is it possible that the base wasn't so secret and it got hit after all?" "Nope, mainly because I get the impression the background radiation level would be a hell of a lot higher, if that got nuked, so I'm pretty sure the place is intact, in fact I'm guessing its been abandoned. We recently figured out their frequency, we never used it before for obvious reasons, but now, why not? We're getting a signal, but no verbal answers from anyone. To sum up, I want you to go there to scout and explore as much as you can. Find out what the hell happened to Alex if possible, and let me know if that high tech weaponry is worth anything or just more bad engineering by GZS. Here. You'll probably need this security pass to enter, got it from Alex, last time he was here; I hope it's still valid. And here's my ring and a letter, if Alex IS still alive then those will prove that you're working for me. That's all I can do to help other than to give you a map to the place and what equipment you think you'll need." Before you leave you have to ask. "Okay why me?" "Why you? You volunteered son!" "I know, but for this particular job, surely you have others more qualified to tackle it." "Eh...you MIGHT think that, but to be quite honest, no. I mean don't get me wrong I see all of these people here as family, but a lot of them are a bunch of weekend warriors who were playing survival. I'm sure in the years to come we're going to see who's a REAL soldier and who isn't. Not that it matters, I mean I'll find something for them to do, but you're different. You certainly aren't some commando, but there's definitely something about you that makes you seem a bit more...detached from everything else. Like you'll be willing to do what's necessary to survive without hesitation. While you may never have been in a situation like this one, I got a feeling you'll do just fine. Besides Marina's previous beaming remarks about you are good enough for me. Now go get some rest, you'll be leaving tomorrow." You head back to your room and think about what the Colonel said. He might be right in a lot of ways, but you still wonder if he's sending you because as he said, "All these people here are like family, but you're different." Maybe if you get killed it won't feel like such a loss. You don't think anymore about it, mainly because Marina enters your room to interrupt your thoughts. "I hear you're leaving tomorrow, I just want to tell you how brave I think you are for doing this for all of us. I know we didn't get a lot of quality time with each other, but I wanted us to spend at least what could be the last time I see you together." Marina's ominous words that imply how much danger you're possibly getting yourself into might worry you more if she wasn't on top of you right now... The next day you load up with what you think you might need, water, food, rifle, pistol, knife, Geiger counter, all the basic essentials. You get a bunch of goodbyes and good lucks. Harry merely sneers and mentions he expects you to get yourself killed twenty feet after you leave. The Colonel is a little more supportive and gives you a silent salute, but you like Marina's goodbye kiss best of all. And with that, you're on your way. It's actually amazing to see that the outside world doesn't look drastically different, you can only assume the bombs didn't hit near your area. When you're out of sight of the compound, you go back to thinking about this mission you volunteered for and wondering if you should go through with it. You do have the suitable equipment and skills to survive off the land after all. Perhaps it would be better to just go AWOL as it were... > You Go AWOL You like Marina and all, but that's about all you like about living at the compound. Being by yourself in the wilderness reminds you of how much you missed it. You have no idea what that secret base holds for you, why should you risk your life for a bunch of practical strangers? "What the hell was I thinking volunteering?" you say out loud. You decide to say fuck it, take to the road, and see where it leads you. A couple days pass and you haven't encountered anyone, then again you are still pretty far from any kind of civilization, of course you don't really mind. Suddenly you find out you aren't alone, when a crack of a rifle shot comes from a nearby hill. "You fuckin' idiot, you missed!" a voice shouts. "Yeah and you just gave away our fucking position asshole!" another retorts. You quickly take cover behind a rock. You recognize those voices though; they're a couple of the idiots from the compound! The Colonel must've had you followed to make sure you stayed on the mission! So much for his so called "faith" in you! (Then again, perhaps he did have a good reason considering you DID go AWOL!) Looks like you'll have to take care of them before you can truly put the compound behind you. While you're taking cover, you notice an abandoned gas station nearby; you could make a run for it and take better shelter in there, or return fire. > You run for it You make a mad dash for the gas station, as bullets just miss your feet and head. The Colonel was thankfully right, they are weekend warriors. The problem you notice now, is there's a crossfire, yet another spy is shooting at you from the other side as well, which means it's a good thing you moved from your position when you did. You manage to get to the gas station; the shelves have practically been stripped of anything that might be edible or useful. That doesn't matter right now as bullets begin penetrating the already broken glass windows. You hide behind the counter as you hear them advance on your position. "Yeah, he's hiding inside, we better be careful. Go around and see if there's a backdoor." You hear one shout. One thing working in your favor is they obviously aren't too bright, now you know one's going to come around the back. You also know one of them is coming through the front door since the tell tale signal bells that jingle when customers used to enter make a noise. You immediately stand up and unleash a burst of hot lead into one of your ambusher. He falls in a bloody heap, then you run towards the backdoor and when you see it just barely creek open, you let fly another burst. The slumping of a lifeless body is heard and you confirm the kill when the wind blows the door open again to reveal a body lying on the ground outside. You duck down again and scramble around the corner when your last assailant suddenly pops out from that same back door and nearly tears your head off with a shotgun. Victory is yours though when you point your assault rifle around the corner and just fire it, hoping you hit him, you do you hear that always satisfying drop of another body. After killing all of your enemies you begin to search their bodies, taking what you'll surely need. On one you find a radio, for a moment you wonder how the hell you forgot to take one of these with you, then you remember it doesn't really matter since you never went to the base. You hear a familiar voice coming in right now. "Leonard! Come in you dickhead! You better gimme some good news!" Harry shouts. You pick up the radio to answer Harry. "Sorry, but Leonard can't come to the phone right now, he currently has his face blown off and his tongue on the floor." "YOU! You fucking cowardly AWOL shit stain! I knew we shouldn't trust you! Don't think you're gonna get away with this! We WILL track you down! And when we do, I will personally blast a hole in your head and skull fuck you! Traitor!" "Yeah, yeah, we'll see." You drop the radio and let Harry continue his meaningless rant. Time for you to move on. A few days pass and nobody else comes looking for you, just like you expected, no doubt they have better things to worry about than punishing one lone outsider. Your brief stay at the compound served its purpose as far as you're concerned. It gave you a place to hide when the bombs hit as well as the necessary supplies with which to sustain you. Getting to have sex with Marina was a bonus. A somewhat self-serving approach, but that attitude will probably serve you well in this new harsh world and it does... for awhile. The day of reckoning eventually comes while you were attempting to waylay a traveler who actually wasn't as alone as she seemed. Your attempt at highway robbery is suddenly cut short in the same brutal way most folks die out in the wasteland; a bunch of bullets to the body.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, serious] You like Marina and all, but that's about all you like about living at the compound. Being by yourself in the wilderness reminds you of how much you missed it. You have no idea what that secret base holds for you, why should you risk your life for a bunch of practical strangers? "What the hell was I thinking volunteering?" you say out loud. You decide to say fuck it, take to the road, and see where it leads you. A couple days pass and you haven't encountered anyone, then again you are still pretty far from any kind of civilization, of course you don't really mind. Suddenly you find out you aren't alone, when a crack of a rifle shot comes from a nearby hill. "You fuckin' idiot, you missed!" a voice shouts. "Yeah and you just gave away our fucking position asshole!" another retorts. You quickly take cover behind a rock. You recognize those voices though; they're a couple of the idiots from the compound! The Colonel must've had you followed to make sure you stayed on the mission! So much for his so called "faith" in you! (Then again, perhaps he did have a good reason considering you DID go AWOL!) Looks like you'll have to take care of them before you can truly put the compound behind you. While you're taking cover, you notice an abandoned gas station nearby; you could make a run for it and take better shelter in there, or return fire. > You return fire You return fire, but you don't do any better. They're behind rocks just like you are. You and they return fire several times, before something important happens. The first one being that you eventually manage to hit one in the head when he popped up again. His buddy immediately ducks down and starts shout expletives at you for killing his friend. This first event is followed by a more unfortunate one, while you were shooting at the two spies you saw, you weren't paying attention to the third one shadowing you. He sneaks behind and shoots you in the back, severing your spine and puncturing a vital organ. You slump onto the rock you were hiding behind hard. Your assailant then kicks you over, and points his gun directly at you. "Nobody goes AWOL on the Colonel." He says before blowing your brains out.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious, post-apocalyptic, war] You grab another TV and sit quietly by yourself in a separate office, watching world events unfold and get worse before your eyes as your co-workers reenact something out of a porno movie. You block out the sounds of ecstasy and turn up the TV. You're starting to wonder if you shouldn't have just stayed home, or better yet bought that damn bomb shelter... Just then someone else comes in to disturb your solitude. It's Marina. "Oh. I didn't know anyone was in here. I thought everyone was at the orgy." She says. "So did I...um how come you aren't?" you ask nervously. "Eh not really my thing, how come you aren't?" "Same here." "I see...so what are you doing to pass the time?" "Keeping up on events to see if things will change for the better." "Ah an optimist eh?" "Not really, I think I just get a kick out of living in a fantasy world and delusions to make myself feel better...that and I have a morbid fascination of the utter chaos that's occurring throughout the world right now." "Hmm, interesting approach to life...I've always noticed you seem to keep to yourself. You like solitude don't you?" "It's easier." "Yet, you stayed here for the end." "Yeah, and I'm really wishing I hadn't now, I can't mix with anyone here. Never could. Not even on the primal level that everyone seems to be favoring right now. I don't know why I thought things would change in the end...ah fuck it the world's gonna end and it's probably a good thing if our co-workers are an example of humanity. Still...I kind of wish I bought that bomb shelter..." "So you don't want to die?" "Of course not! I just don't really see how to avoid it at this point." "Well, for starters you could come with me; I'm getting ready to leave the city. It seems like things have died down for the most part out there, hopefully nobody's vandalized or stolen either of our vehicles." Marina suggests. "What? Leave? And go where? It's not like there's any place really safe to go at this late stage." "Sure there is. Look, I'll level with you, since you seem to be the only one here that's different. I stayed around here to see if there was anyone who was worthy enough to be saved, and apart from you, it pretty much looks like I wasted my time." "Save? What do you mean?" "Well despite the fact that you kept to yourself and never took any interest in any of the private lives of your co-workers doesn't we don't have them." Marina laughs. "But like you I never really mixed with any of our co-workers either, however unlike you I do have a very active social life filled with people who are close like a family, people who live clean and have a strong sense of freedom...and who have been preparing for this day ever since the Commies started the first Cold War. You don't have to die and you don't have to be alone anymore. Come with me, you'll be accepted as long as you're willing to work hard and from what I know, you aren't averse to doing that." You're not entirely sure of what Marina has in store for you, but it sounds better than staying here waiting to die. You agree to leave with her. You both make your way past the mass of naked bodies and head immediately to the parking structure. Unfortunately Marina's car is gone, it's been predictably stolen in the looting frenzy during the city exodus; however your old van is perfectly fine. It hasn't even been vandalized, of course the thing looks like it's already been vandalized which is probably why nobody bothered to steal it. You both get in the van and you drive while Marina tells you where you're going. While you're driving through the city, you keep expecting to be attacked by lawless hold outs still lingering in the city or open fired on by Nation Guardsman, but you suspect either they were ordered to pull out to reinforce a more important city or most of them abandoned their "job" long ago when they realized the futility of it. You make your way out of the city with no problems. Of course now you're just wondering if you're just going to get nuked at any second. You listen to the radio to keep up on events, which is more of the same that you were watching on TV. Eventually Marina turns it off and tells you not to worry about the old world anymore, a new one is going to be built. Your drive takes you far from the city, where ever Marina's leading you it's even further than where you live and you lived pretty way out. You drive through the night and into next morning; while Marina's asleep you turn the radio back on and keep it on low... Monday 8:00 AM "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..." The radio suddenly stops broadcasting anything except a loud warning sound; it wakes up Marina before you can turn it off. Seeing her current surroundings, Marina hastily tells you to turn at a dirty road that's coming up, which then leads into a wooden gate. Looks like a compound of some sort, where a man is standing guard with an assault rifle. Marina gets out and talks to him a moment, to which he nods his head and opens the gate. As soon as you drive in another woman comes running out of one of the many log cabin like structures in the compound. She immediately starts talking to Marina through the passenger window. "Marina! Thank God you're here! We thought you were dead! Come on we gotta get down into the underground, its beginning!" Wasting no time Marina and you follow the woman into the cabin and down into a trap door in the floor. You find yourself in a wide tunnel with dim electrical lighting to what looks like a pretty elaborate underground complex. Marina and the woman are running ahead of you, but you can't help but stare in wonder of all this. "Holy shit, they really were working on this since the Cold War..." you say to yourself as you slow down to examine everything. Then it happens. You hear a loud noise above and you fall to the ground due to the tremors. Then all the lighting goes out. You attempt to get back up and try to feel the walls to get your bearings. You don't know where the hell you're going, but you can hear voices and shouting; some of it close and some of it far away. You have no idea where the hell you're at, let alone the layout of this place. Instead of getting yourself lost, you decide to just stay put until the lighting comes back on; surely they probably have an emergency generator that will kick in soon. The lighting suddenly comes on and you're just in time to see Marina and a man dressed fatigues arrive on your position. "Are you alright?" Marina asks you. "Yeah, I'm okay." No sooner do you get out those words when the man in military fatigues begins giving you the hard stare. "I've heard about you before from Marina, but don't think that hiding behind her skirt is gonna give you a fuckin' free pass in this place! You better prepared to pull your goddamn weight everyday! I catch you slipping and you're outta here!" "What the hell? I didn't say anything!" "And you better not say any fuckin' thing either if you don't wanna get on my bad side! The Colonel doesn't like slack offs in his compound and neither do I! So if you intend on staying here, you better get REAL used to the idea of getting your head outta your fuckin' ass and living like a real fuckin' person instead of the goddamn disgusting parasitic shit maggot you are!" You're about to reply to GI Jerk, but Marina stops you and insists on taking you to your room, leaving Harry to his own devices. "Alright Marina, what the hell was all that about, and who's full metal asshole back there?" "That was Harry, and don't pay any attention to him, he's just really gung ho and is second in command around here. The Colonel is the one who runs this place. He's actually a more even tempered man than Harry is." Marina and you arrive at a small room by itself at the end of one of the corridors. "Well here's the room you'll be staying for now. Things might change mind you, but rest assured this is the safest place you could be right now. We've prepared for this day and will definitely survive the aftermath of what's to come, and now you will too." Marina leaves with a smile, but you don't really share her optimism, given the fact that Armageddon has just happened. That reality has only just now sunk in that the world is probably one big radioactive desert at this point. Then again, Marina might be right, this place is probably safer than most and its better than being dead. At least you hope it is. You lie down on the bed provided and fall asleep; surprisingly it's the best rest you've experienced before the bombs dropped. A few weeks pass and you get acquainted with the compound. You and most of the others are to remain underground while until some scouts in radiation suits determine if the radiation level is low enough. In the mean time you're forced to do extensive combat training like everyone else. Most of the people are okay with you, even though you're an outsider. Harry gives you a hard time though. Still, you're probably in the best shape of your life and you got to brush up on your aim. Sometimes you get to spend time with Marina, funny how you find it easier to talk to her now. One day you finally see the Colonel you've been hearing about, he gives a speech to all of you in the cafeteria. "Well, I've been informed that the surface part of our compound only suffered minor damage and that the radiation level is fairly low all things considering...anyway we all knew this day would come, and we would be prepared for it, but we can't just sit on our asses hoping things will be alright! NO! We must take a proactive approach if we have to survive! As we speak, there are probably low lives scavenging the shell of the old world, we must secure as many abandoned resources as we can to ensure our future and some of you will be sent out into the world to do just that for the good of the compound. We're going to tame this new world and rebuild a new society! You have undergone rigorous training before hand, to ensure you will be able to survive the dangers. Now I'll be accepting volunteers first." > You stay silent Maybe you're a leaner meaner fighting machine now, but that's still no reason to be foolish and volunteer for things. Eventually The Colonel picks someone at random and tells Harry to start assigning recon detachments. "Alright you fuckin' bottom feeders, its time to put all that fuckin' training to good use! We're gonna go scout out the nearest towns we know of. Now I'm sure you know there were a lot of little towns dotted all over the place in these parts, are job is to make contact and see what the situation is. Don't be surprised if they open fire on you immediately. Catastrophes tend to make people behave like animals...and that's where we're coming in. We're here to be the tamers, just like the Colonel said, now then, Dixon, Bradson, Wilson, Copperheim! You're Alpha Team. Sams, Barns..." Harry goes down a list assigning people. Time passes and you're one of the last people left. You can't help but notice that the ones left aren't exactly the most competent. You start wonder if you'll just be assigned to Compound duty, which you wouldn't really mind since it offers less opportunity to get shot at. Your wonder is soon dispelled, when Harry puts down his list and addresses the rest of you directly. "Alright now the rest of you fucking shit eating pansies get a different assignment, because you're so goddamn special like a fucking epileptic retard. You folks get to go to the CITY!" Nobody looks too enthusiastic about that idea, except you're the only one with any balls to protest since you know Harry hates you anyway. "The fucking city, are you kidding? It's probably been nuked into slag! There can't be anything useful there!" "Y'know, I expected that kind of cowardly shit from you, so that's why you're going to be point man for the entire mission! Anyway, we don't know if the city has been completely destroyed, chances are that it not being a major city and its low importance, it may not have been hit with anything larger than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima back in old World War 2." "OH well then, I'm SURE it'll be safe to enter then!" you reply. "Shut your fucking mouth and stop being a bitch! You're all going to be wearing radiation suits anyway, which will keep your yellow ass safe. That alleviate your worries cupcake? Fuckin' pussy ass faggot. You oughta be glad you're even here in the first place. You don't like the fuckin' rules, you can fuckin' leave and see how well you fare on your own. Now what's it gonna be Nancy Boy?" "Fuck it, fine, whatever." You retort giving in, but still weighing the option of possibly leaving later. "Yeah, that's what I thought cupcake. Alright, go pick up your equipment and get ready to set off, you'll be using one of the vehicles since the City is pretty far away. If in the event that cupcake IS right and the place is a glowing hole, then return immediately. Another thing the Colonel wants this mission secret, so don't fucking mention it to anyone else in the Compound! I find out you have and you're fucking history! This means you don't tell your little girlfriend, cupcake!" You all leave, with Harry still giving you a dirty look for your insubordination. You wonder if you shouldn't just leave when you exit the Compound. Take the equipment and then just disappear, who's going to come after you? It's not like there's going to be MPs searching for you all over the wasteland. The night before you leave, Marina comes to see you. "I hear you're leaving tomorrow, and I know we didn't get a lot of quality time with each other, but I wanted us to spend at least what could be the last time I see you together." Marina's apparently not familiar with the fact that you didn't really have a choice in the matter, but since she's on top of you right now, you're not going to bring up the issue... The next day you load up with what you think you might need, water, food, rifle, pistol, knife, Geiger counter, radiation suit, all the basic essentials, before you zoom off in the beat up car that's passing for your transportation to the city. You sit in the back seat, while your other three teammates Steve, Albert and Roger are talking with each other. Mostly about things that don't matter, none of them seem to even be thinking about the fact that you're possibly driving into a glowing hole in the ground. And you don't give a shit what you're wearing. All the lead panties in the world aren't going to completely protect you, if you're standing at ground zero! You end up going back to sleep for the first day of the trip, only being periodically awakened by the laughter your team mates. On the second day you stare out the window and see that the landscape has gotten worse looking as you get closer to your destination. The surrounding countryside around the Compound looks relatively untouched compared to what you're starting to see now. For shits and giggles, you roll the window open and shove part of the Geiger counter outside to get a reading, it starts clicking like a cricket and crack. "Hey! Roll up that window; you're letting all the radiation in! Ha ha!" Albert exclaims, who's sitting next to you. Idiot. "Check it out, looks like the city survived after all...well more or less." Steve says who's doing the driving. You turn your attention forward and see the shattered "skeletal" remains of skyscrapers looming in the distance. The city got hit, but apparently by something "small" and probably exploded high in the air. Of course that doesn't make you feel any better. Steve stops the car just outside the city limits mainly because the road is being blocked by burned out shells of other vehicles. You all pile out of the car. "Alright I think we can take it from foot on here, we probably shouldn't try to drive the car in the city anyway, we need to conserve gas. Alright you're in the lead." Steve says to you. "What? Why am I in the fucking lead?" you ask. "Because Harry said you fuckin' were, CUPCAKE! Ha ha!" Albert laughs. "Yeah, besides, you worked in the city, none of us did, so you probably know the place than we do." "What, so none of you assholes ever visited the place?" "Maybe a few times, not really enough to get deeply acquainted with it, look you're outnumbered, and you're taking lead, and that's that. Don't worry we'll be right behind you." Roger replies. "After seeing how you fuckers shoot, I don't know if that's stupider than going into a radioactive city to begin with." You take lead and begin walking; meanwhile your team members go back to talking about shit that doesn't matter again. Given their attention span, you wonder if you wouldn't just be better off exploring by yourself. > You explore by yourself You start briskly walking ahead, Roger suddenly notices. "Hey what's your fucking hurry?" "I'm not waiting around for your slow asses, you're taking too fucking long with all the goddamn talking. I'm gonna scout out ahead, I'm supposed to be on point right? I'm taking the risk, so what the hell do you care?" "But...oh fuck it, go on ahead and get yourself killed then, we'll be right here. Better be back by nightfall though, because we'll assume you're dead and leave without you." "Yeah, yeah." You leave the three stooges to their idiotic conversation, and proceed to go about your way, amongst the ruined buildings. It's weird to walk through the city and it being so quiet with no other people around. Ah, by yourself again, it's been awhile since you've had any private time to yourself. The Compound doesn't really allow for it. In fact with all this time to finally have to yourself gives you the opportunity to seriously consider leaving the Compound like you were thinking about earlier. It would be easy, all you have to do is wander off, and Roger did say they would assume you were dead by nightfall. You think about Marina though, you do like her...but you also like not having to have an asshole who hates you barking orders at you all the time too. While you're struggling with the delimma of your current living situation, you suddenly hear a gravelly voice nearby and some slow shuffling. "Meeeeeeeeat...(Wheez)" You turn your head to see a walking horror. A man with badly distorted features and limbs hobbles in your direction. One of the bomb victims no doubt. You knew you had to run into them eventually. The problem is now more of them are starting to appear, and they look like they can do more damage. Many of them have a half-crazed appearance and severe radiation burns. Apparently their minds have damaged along with their bodies. These ones aren't even making an attempt to speak; they're just looking at you menacingly and growling. They're beginning to encircle you. > You run back to your team You hastily make a break for it back to where your team is situated; unfortunately, "the survivors" are in your way and attempt to stop you. You shoot a couple of them, but not before a few of them manage to wound you. A couple of them manage to tear through your suit with their ragged and jagged, dirty nails (Which are almost like claws at this point) You suffer some scratches to the back and shoulders, but the worst is when one of them actually bites through your suit drawing blood. "Motherfucker!" you shout shooting your assailant in the face and breaking away from the cannibal mob. You run like mad with the horde chasing not far behind. When you finally reach your team, they all finally pay attention for the first time and start running back to the car! "HEY WAIT FOR ME YOU BASTARDS!" you yell, stepping up your pace. Eventually you just barely manage to get inside the car before Steve drives off. A couple of the city dwellers jump on the back of the car, but a shotgun blast through the back window gets them off. "Holy shit Albert! What the fuck?! Was it necessary to destroy our back window?" Roger shouts. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't know we were taking back survivors to the Compound, oh shit you're wounded man!" Albert says looking at you. "Ah I'm alright, there's medical supplies back at the Compound." "No man! I mean you're bit and shit! You're gonna turn into one of those things!" "For fuck's sake Albert, this ain't a low budget zombie film. It doesn't work like that!" "I dunno, I mean how do you know? I mean you saw them, sure they were still alive, but radiation might do all kinds of weird shit!" "Yeah, Albert's got a point. We don't know what the hell was in the air either and your suit was ripped. For all we know there was some sort of biological agent in the air too. Who knows what was dumped on the place. You could bring back some virus and infect everyone." Roger says. "If you think these suits protected us from everything, you're a goddamn idiot in the first place..." Suddenly you feel the butt from Albert's shotgun smack against the side of your skull, while Roger tells Steve to stop the car. You're too dizzy to fight back properly so you just pull the trigger on your rifle which results in you shooting Steve through the back several times before you get another smack in the head and getting your rifle taken from by Albert. Roger then gets out of the car and opens up the door on your side to drag you out. Giving you a few kicks before pointing his gun at your face. "Now I'm not killing you because you might be infected, I'm killing you because you just murdered my friend you sonofabitch!" Roger then shoots you in your half-conscious state.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, post-apocalyptic] You start briskly walking ahead, Roger suddenly notices. "Hey what's your fucking hurry?" "I'm not waiting around for your slow asses, you're taking too fucking long with all the goddamn talking. I'm gonna scout out ahead, I'm supposed to be on point right? I'm taking the risk, so what the hell do you care?" "But...oh fuck it, go on ahead and get yourself killed then, we'll be right here. Better be back by nightfall though, because we'll assume you're dead and leave without you." "Yeah, yeah." You leave the three stooges to their idiotic conversation, and proceed to go about your way, amongst the ruined buildings. It's weird to walk through the city and it being so quiet with no other people around. Ah, by yourself again, it's been awhile since you've had any private time to yourself. The Compound doesn't really allow for it. In fact with all this time to finally have to yourself gives you the opportunity to seriously consider leaving the Compound like you were thinking about earlier. It would be easy, all you have to do is wander off, and Roger did say they would assume you were dead by nightfall. You think about Marina though, you do like her...but you also like not having to have an asshole who hates you barking orders at you all the time too. While you're struggling with the delimma of your current living situation, you suddenly hear a gravelly voice nearby and some slow shuffling. "Meeeeeeeeat...(Wheez)" You turn your head to see a walking horror. A man with badly distorted features and limbs hobbles in your direction. One of the bomb victims no doubt. You knew you had to run into them eventually. The problem is now more of them are starting to appear, and they look like they can do more damage. Many of them have a half-crazed appearance and severe radiation burns. Apparently their minds have damaged along with their bodies. These ones aren't even making an attempt to speak; they're just looking at you menacingly and growling. They're beginning to encircle you. > You run elsewhere They've cut off a clear escape for you to go back, so you wisely run in the direction that's open in the opposite direction, while unleashing a burst of bullets just before your retreat. The cannibal freaks run after you, while you attempt to figure out how to lose them, since their noises are starting to attract others. When you manage to get out of sight of the horde, you see an open manhole you could enter, or you could just duck into one of the ruined buildings. > You go into the sewers Now it's understandable that you're not exactly thinking clearly right now with a bunch of cannibal freaks chasing you, but going into the sewers is usually NEVER a good idea! As soon as you enter the manhole your senses are assaulted by a terrible stench that smells like something is rotting in the very radiation suit you're wearing. You attempt to block it out of your mind and distance yourself from the manhole opening just in case some of those freaks get the idea to follow you down here. Of course it's dark and you don't have a flashlight so you're at a disadvantage when the overwhelming number of mutants living down here manage to sneak up and attack you. Your first reaction is to fire at everything. Your second reaction is to struggle. Your third reaction is to scream. Your fourth reaction is to die.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, serious, post-apocalyptic] They've cut off a clear escape for you to go back, so you wisely run in the direction that's open in the opposite direction, while unleashing a burst of bullets just before your retreat. The cannibal freaks run after you, while you attempt to figure out how to lose them, since their noises are starting to attract others. When you manage to get out of sight of the horde, you see an open manhole you could enter, or you could just duck into one of the ruined buildings. > You run into one of the buildings You duck into the nearest building and hope you don't bump into anything inside. From what's left of it, it looks like a regular office building, similar to the one you used to work in. You find a relatively secluded office and lay low, hoping to hear the mob of freaks pass by the building. You really need to get out of this place. What the hell was Harry thinking sending you here, there's nothing here except death...well actually you just answered your own question. As the time passes, you think to yourself that the three stooges must've assumed you dead and left by now. They probably ran off when they heard your gunshots echo through the city. You were going to leave the Compound anyway, so you guess you've done that, now you just have to get out of this city alive and you'll be safe...well safer anyway. You explore a little bit of the building which has four floors, fortunately none of them inhabited. The fourth floor is exposed to the outside air and partially destroyed, so you don't linger too long, you never know who or WHAT might be watching. You do notice that it's getting to be night time though. You don't hear anything anymore maybe you should leave now, you really don't want to be here any longer than you have to be and its not just the crazed cannibals either, it's the fact you're standing in a radiated city with just a suit on that's probably not protecting you from all the damage your chromosomes are experiencing every second you stick around. Then again running through the city at night is probably even more dangerous than running through it during the day. > You leave now The longer you stay, the more likely you're going to get attacked again, and you certainly don't want to fall asleep here. You take a quick look outside one of the completely destroyed windows and see if the nearby street is empty and make haste. Of course its night and with no working lighting you can't see too well, so you're relying mainly on the moon to light your way. You try to retrace your steps back from where you came from, but all these damn streets look the same in the dark even with the dim moonlight, you end up taking the incorrect one and it isn't until you run into a blind alley that you realize you've made the wrong turn in more ways than one. "Do you want to see my dolly? It's soft and pink...just like yoooooooooou." Some sort of mutant freak lying against the wall says to you holding some sort of plush toy. "Holy fuck!" you shout as you're caught off guard, and waste not time in shooting the damn thing. Unfortunately you bring about unwanted attention, and more figures start to appear nearby, you can't get a good look at them, but their glowing eyes don't look friendly. You start running and firing again, but to your great surprise, some of them fire back! They're also better shots, having night vision and all. Your last moments are somewhat merciful though since you die of the gunshot wounds first as you hear the insane victory sounds the mutants are making as they approach your bloody body.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious, post-apocalyptic, war] You duck into the nearest building and hope you don't bump into anything inside. From what's left of it, it looks like a regular office building, similar to the one you used to work in. You find a relatively secluded office and lay low, hoping to hear the mob of freaks pass by the building. You really need to get out of this place. What the hell was Harry thinking sending you here, there's nothing here except death...well actually you just answered your own question. As the time passes, you think to yourself that the three stooges must've assumed you dead and left by now. They probably ran off when they heard your gunshots echo through the city. You were going to leave the Compound anyway, so you guess you've done that, now you just have to get out of this city alive and you'll be safe...well safer anyway. You explore a little bit of the building which has four floors, fortunately none of them inhabited. The fourth floor is exposed to the outside air and partially destroyed, so you don't linger too long, you never know who or WHAT might be watching. You do notice that it's getting to be night time though. You don't hear anything anymore maybe you should leave now, you really don't want to be here any longer than you have to be and its not just the crazed cannibals either, it's the fact you're standing in a radiated city with just a suit on that's probably not protecting you from all the damage your chromosomes are experiencing every second you stick around. Then again running through the city at night is probably even more dangerous than running through it during the day. > You wait until daytime You've already spent enough time in radsville to get sick, or mutate, what's one more day? If something bad's going to happen to you internally there's really not much you can do about it now except hope the suit is more protective than you think it is. You can however probably lessen you chances of getting ripped apart and eaten if you don't go wandering the city at night. You decide to search the building before it gets too dark; you don't find anything really useful though, at least nothing that's any more useful than what you're already carrying. You end up looking in lunch area refrigerator and find some rotten food along side what would undoubtedly be flat pop at this stage. Nope you're not going to find any supplies in this place, you're just glad you had the sense to take extra water with you; you'll probably need it assuming you manage to get out the city alive. Eventually you go to an office that looks relatively secure and intact. You barricade the door and slump against one of the corners and fall asleep...lightly. The next day arrives and you're half surprised that you don't find something gnawing on your arm (And relieved!) now that you're fairly well rested again you take a quick check of your belongings, reload your rifle and prepare yourself. You exit the building and start quickly tracing your way back to where you first arrived in the city. You don't care where you end up, just as long as you're out of this place. You're about halfway to your destination when you come across a couple of bloody mangled bodies, radiation suited bodies. It's hard to tell who's who, since the heads have been taken and the entrails are lying all over the road, but it's obviously two of three stooges. Something didn't go well. Your brief inspection is interrupted by a shotgun blast that splatters the remains of one of the bodies all over your own suit. "HAAAAAAA MORE MEAT!" a raspy voice shouts, with a clicking reload of a shotgun. The thing that just tried to take your head off is shooting at you from an upper window of one of the buildings. You spin around and firing a burst causing it to duck for cover, but with his fellows being alerted, you really need to get the hell out of here. You start running with the horde of freaks chasing you again. You can't help feel like you've done this before! You see the end of the city though and can only hope they'll stop chasing you when you finally leave it. Of course THAT doesn't happen, even after you leave the city limits a lot are still in pursuit, In fact you even see a few lingering outside that join the chase, you turn around and unload a clip into the mob hoping it'll slow it down a bit. While the mob tends to back off and disperse a bit, they still aren't ready to give up completely, however you see more trouble, but possibly hope as well. The car you arrived in is still there, there's also another suited body lying close by it, you can only hope its Steve and that he still has the keys on him. Of course the cannibal freaks lingering around the body might be inclined to stop whatever plans of escape you might have. You step up your speed, raise your empty rifle and smash it into the skull of the first ugly radiated cannibal that attacks you. To your surprise your force causes the damn thing's face to completely cave in, killing it instantly. The other two grab on to your arms, causing you to back kick one in the stomach freeing up your other arm to punch the other one in the face. You grab Steve's pistol still on the ground and quickly put a couple of slugs in the pair of them before they can recover. You then thank gods of luck that your next find is his keys still in his hand, as the rest of the mob has regrouped and quickly approaching. Firing another few rounds into the mob, you quickly get in the car and start it up, which it does immediately. You spin the car around and drive off, the group chases you for a little while still, but eventually you leave them far behind. You've escaped. "Fuck yeah! That was just like a fuckin' zombie movie!" you say to yourself half laughing in victory. In fact it's a victory that's better than you could've thought, you now have a car to drive around in, well until it runs out of gas, but you're hoping you'll find someplace that's still somewhat civilized by the time that happens (Or at least some more gas). While you're driving you wonder if you shouldn't just go back to the Compound, but you shake your head at this idea. There has to be better places than that to stay, and even if there aren't you've proven to yourself that you're able to survive on your own under strenuous conditions. You like being by yourself anyway, though it's too bad you won't get to see Marina again, but as they say you can't have everything. You don't know what the possible future holds, but you're confident that you'll be able to handle it.

Maybe you're a leaner meaner fighting machine now, but that's still no reason to be foolish and volunteer for things. Eventually The Colonel picks someone at random and tells Harry to start assigning recon detachments. "Alright you fuckin' bottom feeders, its time to put all that fuckin' training to good use! We're gonna go scout out the nearest towns we know of. Now I'm sure you know there were a lot of little towns dotted all over the place in these parts, are job is to make contact and see what the situation is. Don't be surprised if they open fire on you immediately. Catastrophes tend to make people behave like animals...and that's where we're coming in. We're here to be the tamers, just like the Colonel said, now then, Dixon, Bradson, Wilson, Copperheim! You're Alpha Team. Sams, Barns..." Harry goes down a list assigning people. Time passes and you're one of the last people left. You can't help but notice that the ones left aren't exactly the most competent. You start wonder if you'll just be assigned to Compound duty, which you wouldn't really mind since it offers less opportunity to get shot at. Your wonder is soon dispelled, when Harry puts down his list and addresses the rest of you directly. "Alright now the rest of you fucking shit eating pansies get a different assignment, because you're so goddamn special like a fucking epileptic retard. You folks get to go to the CITY!" Nobody looks too enthusiastic about that idea, except you're the only one with any balls to protest since you know Harry hates you anyway. "The fucking city, are you kidding? It's probably been nuked into slag! There can't be anything useful there!" "Y'know, I expected that kind of cowardly shit from you, so that's why you're going to be point man for the entire mission! Anyway, we don't know if the city has been completely destroyed, chances are that it not being a major city and its low importance, it may not have been hit with anything larger than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima back in old World War 2." "OH well then, I'm SURE it'll be safe to enter then!" you reply. "Shut your fucking mouth and stop being a bitch! You're all going to be wearing radiation suits anyway, which will keep your yellow ass safe. That alleviate your worries cupcake? Fuckin' pussy ass faggot. You oughta be glad you're even here in the first place. You don't like the fuckin' rules, you can fuckin' leave and see how well you fare on your own. Now what's it gonna be Nancy Boy?" "Fuck it, fine, whatever." You retort giving in, but still weighing the option of possibly leaving later. "Yeah, that's what I thought cupcake. Alright, go pick up your equipment and get ready to set off, you'll be using one of the vehicles since the City is pretty far away. If in the event that cupcake IS right and the place is a glowing hole, then return immediately. Another thing the Colonel wants this mission secret, so don't fucking mention it to anyone else in the Compound! I find out you have and you're fucking history! This means you don't tell your little girlfriend, cupcake!" You all leave, with Harry still giving you a dirty look for your insubordination. You wonder if you shouldn't just leave when you exit the Compound. Take the equipment and then just disappear, who's going to come after you? It's not like there's going to be MPs searching for you all over the wasteland. The night before you leave, Marina comes to see you. "I hear you're leaving tomorrow, and I know we didn't get a lot of quality time with each other, but I wanted us to spend at least what could be the last time I see you together." Marina's apparently not familiar with the fact that you didn't really have a choice in the matter, but since she's on top of you right now, you're not going to bring up the issue... The next day you load up with what you think you might need, water, food, rifle, pistol, knife, Geiger counter, radiation suit, all the basic essentials, before you zoom off in the beat up car that's passing for your transportation to the city. You sit in the back seat, while your other three teammates Steve, Albert and Roger are talking with each other. Mostly about things that don't matter, none of them seem to even be thinking about the fact that you're possibly driving into a glowing hole in the ground. And you don't give a shit what you're wearing. All the lead panties in the world aren't going to completely protect you, if you're standing at ground zero! You end up going back to sleep for the first day of the trip, only being periodically awakened by the laughter your team mates. On the second day you stare out the window and see that the landscape has gotten worse looking as you get closer to your destination. The surrounding countryside around the Compound looks relatively untouched compared to what you're starting to see now. For shits and giggles, you roll the window open and shove part of the Geiger counter outside to get a reading, it starts clicking like a cricket and crack. "Hey! Roll up that window; you're letting all the radiation in! Ha ha!" Albert exclaims, who's sitting next to you. Idiot. "Check it out, looks like the city survived after all...well more or less." Steve says who's doing the driving. You turn your attention forward and see the shattered "skeletal" remains of skyscrapers looming in the distance. The city got hit, but apparently by something "small" and probably exploded high in the air. Of course that doesn't make you feel any better. Steve stops the car just outside the city limits mainly because the road is being blocked by burned out shells of other vehicles. You all pile out of the car. "Alright I think we can take it from foot on here, we probably shouldn't try to drive the car in the city anyway, we need to conserve gas. Alright you're in the lead." Steve says to you. "What? Why am I in the fucking lead?" you ask. "Because Harry said you fuckin' were, CUPCAKE! Ha ha!" Albert laughs. "Yeah, besides, you worked in the city, none of us did, so you probably know the place than we do." "What, so none of you assholes ever visited the place?" "Maybe a few times, not really enough to get deeply acquainted with it, look you're outnumbered, and you're taking lead, and that's that. Don't worry we'll be right behind you." Roger replies. "After seeing how you fuckers shoot, I don't know if that's stupider than going into a radioactive city to begin with." You take lead and begin walking; meanwhile your team members go back to talking about shit that doesn't matter again. Given their attention span, you wonder if you wouldn't just be better off exploring by yourself. > You stick with the team You may not like this mission, and you may not like the people you're with, but it'll be a lot safer if you stick with these idiots, because you have a bad feeling about this place. In the meantime while you keep your eyes open, your ears are assaulted by your teammates' conversation. "I'm telling you she touched my hand dude! She's totally into me! I'm gonna talk to her more when we get back." Albert exclaims. "Bullshit, you didn't get anywhere with Vivica! I should know because I fuckin' tried once and she didn't give me any kind of play! I think she's a fuckin' dyke anyway." Roger replies. "Why the hell does she have to be some kind of dyke? Couldn't be that she didn't like your ugly ass?" "Fuck off Albert, go ahead and make an idiot of yourself trying to hit on some carpet muncher. I don't give a shit; I'm just trying to keep you from wasting your time." "Oh...well maybe she'll let me watch or something." "Yeah, right. That never happens except in the movies." Steve says. "The other problem with that plan, I can't think of any other woman in the Compound that might swing that way. Not unless you were some smooth pimp motherfucker that could talk her into it and given that you're far from that Albert, I'd say you're shit out of luck." "Well couldn't one of you guys help me? I mean, you could try to talk your girlfriends and we could all watch or something." "Yeah, there's a problem with that plan too Albert, namely neither one of those fuckers got girlfriends either." You interrupt. "Ha fuckin' ha. Nobody asked you for your opinion smart ass." Roger remarks annoyed. "Hey, do you think you could maybe talk to Marina then?" "Everyone shut the fuck up I hear something!" After looking around and up, in a split second of total silence, Roger speaks again. "There's nothing here, this city was fucking annihilated, ain't nothing alive except maybe rats and roaches. I dunno even know why we're so worried to begin with, do you think if anyone WAS still left alive they would be in any condition to..." Suddenly Rogers head explodes like a ripe melon after getting hit by a shotgun blast coming from the second floor window of a nearby building. The "thing" holding the shotgun is reloading and alerting his fellows. "MEEEEEEEEAAAT!" it screeches in a raspy voice. More figures start appearing. Most have a half-crazed appearance and severe radiation burns. Apparently these bomb survivors have had their minds damaged along with their bodies. "Holy shit, we're gonna die!" Albert screams and starts firing at everything. You and Steve do likewise while retreating back to the car. Before you all manage to leave the immediate area, the thing with the shotgun manages to get off another shot, blasting Albert in the leg, tearing it off. He screams and tries to crawl away, but is quickly mobbed and the last thing you see of him is some of the freaks sinking their teeth into him. "GET THE FUCK MOVING STEVE!" you shout stepping up your pace. Eventually you and Steve manage to get back to the car and speed off back to the Compound. Steve is pretty upset and while there isn't any traffic on the road, you still don't want him to be crashing into something else. "Steve calm the fuck down, and get a hold of yourself!" "Fuck you man! Didn't you see that?! They fuckin' killed Roger! And they ATE fuckin' Albert! Aw shit man! Shit! They're gonna come after us!" "I doubt that, they don't even know where we're from. Just be glad we got out of there. It was a stupid idea to go there in the first place. There's nothing there except crazed radioactive cannibals. I'm gonna tell Harry that much when we get back. Nobody's going there again, especially not me!" You're pretty pissed about this whole affair really and the more you're thinking about it; maybe you should just not return to the Compound, you have enough equipment and supplies to keep you in good shape for awhile. All you'd have to do is get rid of Steve and take the car. > You return to the Compound Nope, in for a penny in for a pound. If nothing else, Marina's still there and the fact her actions basically saved your life is enough to make you stay. The rest of the trip is Steve still ranting to himself about the deaths of his friends. True, they weren't your friends, but you guess you can see why he might be upset. You'd radio in to the Compound, but Roger was the one carrying it and he's a headless (and probably now eaten) corpse back in the city. You don't say anything else until Steve nearly drives the car into the gate of the Compound at which point you step out of the car and remove the hot ass radiation suit and demand to see Harry. Everyone is wondering what's going on. Harry hears your shouting and comes out of barracks, the Colonel does as well; good you want him to be here as well. "What is your major malfunction you screaming queen?" Harry asks angrily, as if you're the one at fault. "My malfunction is sending us to the goddamn city was a fucking stupid ass idea! What made you think there would anything of any use there anyway? You just trying to get us all killed?" "No, just you, cupcake." "You call me fuckin' cupcake one more time and me and you are gonna go round and round you dumb fucking gung ho military wanna be asshole!" Before Harry can respond to your insult the Colonel steps in. "ALRIGHT ENOUGH! I won't have infighting in my Compound! Harry we talked about this before that I didn't want any recon missions to the city! At least not until we got better established!" "But Colonel, I though we should..." "You DON'T THINK! That's for ME to do! You obey fucking orders! I'M in fucking charge around here and you better not forget that!" "Yes Colonel." Harry utters grudgingly. Now the Colonel turns his attention to you. "And YOU do not fucking rant like a goddamn maniac in front of everyone lowering morale and encouraging dissention! Like it or not, you're going to be sent on dangerous missions. If you want to stay here you better start learning to get with the fucking program and follow orders!" You're getting really tired of hearing that one. "So, all this aside, what exactly happened in the city and what did you find?" "Nothing! There's just a bunch of crazed cannibal freaks living there, armed and dangerous." "I see, well then all future missions to the city are going to be called off. I'm not risking anymore of my people's lives by sending them there. We've lost too many people on these recon missions quite frankly. I sent a couple of people on a special assignment and I haven't heard any word back from them, not to mention the people we've lost trying to contact other known towns. Fortunately, it hasn't been a complete loss we how found a few pockets of civilization. We need to start developing good relations with them now though. This will help in our rebuilding process. For now you're dismissed, but don't get too comfortable. I'll be sending you out again soon." You turn away and go back to your room in the underground part of the Compound wondering if you shouldn't just fucking leave, just then you get a visit from Marina. You're kind of glad to see her despite your pissed off mood. "Are you okay?" "Hell if I know I just spent a day in radiationville. I'll find out when my balls start shriveling up in three days!" "I think those suits would protect you from that happening." "Yeah, I know everyone thinks they're magical...nevermind I'm not even mad about that, I mean I understand we all got this lofty mission of re-establishing civilization or some shit, but I just don't see the fucking point in it. And I REALLY don't see the point in getting sent on suicide missions!" Marina sits next to you and tries to explain. "Okay, that WAS a mistake. In fact I wish you would've told me! I could've told the Colonel and he would've cancelled the mission! Harry likes to think he's second in command, but he's really just louder and more aggressive than most around here and that's why he's in a command position, but I think you could do just as good a job. I mean you've already braved and lived through going to the city and from what you described and Steve's mental breakdown it sounds like it was pretty bad. Total anarchy and lawlessness. And that's one of the reasons why rebuilding civilization is important. Do you really want to live in a world like that? I know you think this is all some sort of paramilitary bullshit, but we DO have a plan. Isn't it more advantageous to try to make the world a better place and have some sort of order?" "Trying to make the world a better place...yeah a lot of people in the past have thought they were doing that too and you can see how that turned out...THIS! Look, it's a nice idea, but I don't see it happening, not then, not now, not ever. I'd say our best bet would be to just try to live out the rest of lives as comfortably as we can in this hellhole of a world and not go messing around with shit unless its necessary." "...so I take it you're going to leave?" You look a Marina before responding. "No, I'm not leaving, but I'm staying for you, not an ideology or plan. My feelings for you override whatever disagreements I have with the current political agenda, if that's even the proper term for it." "Well that's sweet, but I do hope you develop a more positive attitude about this place." Marina says hugging you. "Doubt it, but I suppose anything's possible now." A year passes... You don't feel any different, but you're used to the Compound's plan of "re-building" civilization. You've moved up the ranks due to the fact that you're competent, something the Colonel realizes and respects even if Harry hates you. But due to your "loner" attitude you're usually sent on scouting missions by yourself rather than given any kind of command position. Ironically, you've been one of the key people in developing good relations with the nearby towns, since you've developed the knack of the sniper's art over the past year which really comes in handy when killing raiders. The Colonel's of the idea that if the Compound can prove its able to help defend towns from raiders, more people will want to join, the towns will be more willing to trade or even better a whole town will want a formal alliance. Perhaps slightly imperialistic, but what the hell, it's better to be the top dog and at least the intention is somewhat for good reasons. All part of the rebuilding process. Right now you're in the town that you found called Lost Springs, it's a remote little town that doesn't have any problems with raiders due to its somewhat hidden location (Though the wandering mutant bear is a problem sometimes) and while they're friendly with you, it's clear they just want to be left alone and keep to themselves. This might not be a problem, except they have a continual supply of fresh water from some underground stream. Not even mildly radioactive! (Though you're still convinced you're going to start mutating any day now since your trip to the city) It's a resource that can't just simply be ignored, but you're not exactly a diplomat, so you're not going to be convincing them on your own (And it's not like you can impress them with your super duper raider killing skills) > You leave them to their own devices If they don't want your help; they don't want your help. You can understand that. No point in bringing in anyone else to debate the issue. You get on your motorcycle and depart. When you get back to the Compound you just say you didn't find anything on this little excursion. Life continues. Four years pass... Five years total have passed and The Compound has grown somewhat, not much though. The theory to that of course is the background radiation has probably made a lot of folks sterile. (And you're damn sure you probably are, after that trip to the city that you still continue to think about) however it has become much more than "The Compound" now. Alliances have been forged with other towns thanks to you and others. The Compound has been renamed Fort Justice and the alliance itself is known as The Combine. However, not everything is stable. The Colonel hasn't been well lately; in fact he's been sick for the past year. Everyone's wondering if he's going to die. You've noticed Harry has been taking a lot of liberties with orders lately, which you're constantly always arguing with him about. If it was up to him, he'd put all the towns you're allied with under martial law. You can't even believe he suggested sending people to the city again, since he thinks that all the survivors were probably dead by now and it would be "safe". One day the Colonel wants to see you in private as he lies on what is probably going to be his death bed soon. He addresses you immediately when you enter. "Good you're here, I don't have long and I need to talk to you." "Uh, okay." "Go look at those schematics on the table over there." You do as the Colonel says, and see some blue prints of what looks to be a base of some sort. You also see the logo "GZS" in several places. You remember that was the logo of that corporation that was trying to sell everyone their Shelters before the bombs hit. You sometimes wonder how things would've turned out, if you bought one. While you're looking, the Colonel continues to speak. That's the floor plans to a top secret military base, my friend Alex got them for me a long time ago before the bombs dropped. He used to work there. It was some place where the government and the Ground Zero Survival Corporation were doing a secret joint project. Something to do with weapons. I always thought it would be a great benefit, if we could ever get a hold of whatever they were working on. I tried to make contact with the base since I know the radio frequency it used, but I never got any response from Alex or anyone." "Hmm, so why didn't you ever send some people there?" "Wow, you really are in your own little world, I figured you at least heard other people talk about it in the past. Anyway I did. Several times about five years ago. Everyone I ever sent never returned. Got to the point where I couldn't in good conscience sent people to what looked to be their deaths, besides a lot of people were less than enthusiastic to accept the mission, the last few times I sent people out they just deserted. Eventually I just wrote it off that maybe the place is occupied by a superior hostile force. Just one of the reasons why I was really keen on the idea of creating an alliance with surrounding towns. Who knows when that force would decide to venture out and start heading this way? Actually a couple of years ago, I thought about sending YOU out there. I figured you being the most capable; you might actually survive and get back to be able to report something." "What stopped you?" "I couldn't risk lose one of my best people, especially since you were doing a good job at proving we could help protect the other towns. Besides you already got sent to one unnecessary death trap five years ago, didn't seem right to send you to another." You're wondering where the Colonel going with all this, so you get to the point. "So what's all this ultimately have to do with me?" "I'm promoting you right now since I want you to take over after I die." "What?!" "This place needs someone stable, Harry isn't suitable. In fact, I dare say he won't be pleased with this decision...you may even have to kill him." You're a little overwhelmed by all this. "Whoa, whoa, hold the fucking phone! I don't want this!" "I know you don't, but it's the best chance for the Combine's survival, because that hostile force I mentioned? It's real. And it's on its way. Recently I've been picking up radio signals and they are from the base. They didn't say much, except that they were coming to cleanse this place. I haven't told ANYONE about this yet." "What, is it some sort of heavily armed professional military group or some shit?" "I wish. I question if they're even human. The voice sounded cold and robotic. I think we're going to find out first hand what exactly the government and GZS were secretly working on." "Well hold on, couldn't they be masking their voice?" "I suppose it's possible, but I dunno...something in my heart tells me that this is going to be really bad...like it won't just stop here. I'm almost glad I won't be around to see the destruction." "I still don't understand why you want me to take over; I'm not exactly the leader of men. In fact I'd say they'd listen to Harry before they listen to me." "I can't argue with you anymore...maybe you're right...maybe not...the choice I suppose will be up to you...all I'll say is with Harry in charge you might as well leave the Combine now, because I don't wager you'll be alive under his reign long enough to even see the attack occur. Maybe it might even be for the best, I wonder if even the total strength of the Combine will be enough to drive this attack back." The Colonel sounds like he's being a bit over dramatic, he's making a lot of assumptions here. You not sure you want all this responsibility, but if you're going to take it, you better do it now. > You take Command This was never anything you ever had in mind, but you've come this far, you have made a life here for yourself with Marina; you might as well stick with it. Besides, you'll be damned if you'll leave because of Harry. "Okay. I'll do it." The Colonel looks relieved. He struggles to get out of bed. "Alright, I still have some strength left, let's make this official." A meeting is called in the main courtyard where the Colonel weakly addresses everyone, while you stand by. He explains how you're going to be in charge and he also mentions the "robot invasion" he's convinced is going to happen. You see Marina in the crowd, who looks very proud and pleased. Harry however is severely pissed and makes it known immediately by confronting the both of you. "What the fuck is this shit? I'VE been here longer! I'VE been training all these fucking maggots and faggots INCLUDING Cupcake over there!" "Yes, and you've done a good job of that, but your temperament isn't suitable for taking command of this place. Besides, I've determined that..." "FUCK YOU OLD MAN! YOU WILL NOT DENY MY GOD GIVEN RIGHT!" Harry suddenly pulls out his pistol and shoots the Colonel in the stomach. He then tries to shoot you, but you've developed more experience than he has in terms of quickness. You pull your own pistol and drill Harry directly between the eyes, dropping him. "Wish I'd done that to begin with." You say while Vivica rushes over to the Colonel to try to help him, it's hopeless though, he was dying anyway. He calls you over one last time. "...well...I told (cough) you, that you'd probably have to kill him...defend the Combine...follow this man...(cough) he'll lead you...to victorrrrreeee..." The Colonel's passing is mourned by all, as everyone respected him. A major funeral ceremony is held. It's probably his last words (and Harry's shooting) that stabilizes most people's attitude towards you. They're willing to follow you, which gives you at least one less thing to worry about. Of course now you just have to worry about whether or not there is a bunch of robots coming to attack. You decide not to take any chances though and immediately order scouting to be done on the outskirts of the secret base that the Colonel had schematics of. You also order the area around Fort Justice to be heavily trapped along with increased training exercises. When your scouts return, only a couple of them do so, and they're badly wounded. They confirm the Colonel's suspicions. There IS an army of robots (though they say most of them are really cyborgs, but that hardly matters) in the area. They're very organized and heavily armed with high tech weaponry. Within a week, the first wave of cyborgs arrive. Surprisingly they give you the option of surrendering and be "remade" to serve the Cybernetic Evolution. You of course decline this offer and fight the steel bastards instead. They're tough, but your traps ensure you to defeat them much easier. During this time you send a few people to get more help from other Combine towns. You get it for the most part due to large participation in defending most of those towns in the past. You didn't think about it before, but that might've been another reason why the Colonel thought you'd be a better candidate for command, you had a high respect standing with the other towns even if you didn't initially have it in Fort Justice. A couple more months pass and you're assaulted by the second wave. Then again in another few months by a third wave. The cyborgs do a hell of a lot of damage, they breach some of the walls and you lose a lot of people, you're even heavily scarred in one of the attacks, but yet the Fort still holds and that's one of your main concerns, you know if the Fort falls that's it; The Combine will lose this war as the main trained combat force is here. You have to make sure that doesn't happen. You start to notice when the cyborgs retreat they attempt to take away any casualties that you have. In fact you could swear a few of the last few cyborgs you destroyed looked VERY familiar. This gives you the idea that this army is probably a lot more limited in number and not unstoppable. In fact even though they come in great force, it seems to take them awhile to gather up the same force in-between attacks. And while there's robots mixed in with the cyborgs, they aren't nearly as numerous. Looks like there's a shortage and the Cybernetic Evolution needs more warm bodies even more than you do. It's possible that if you just sit tight and defend, you'll win by sheer attrition, of course you could just finish it quicker by taking the fight to them. > You finish it In these past few months you've actually been fighting for something. Not just "following orders" or "going through the motions". You haven't even been doing it for mere survival, if you were interested in just survival, you would've just taken off and put as much distance as you could between you and the Combine before the cyborgs appeared. It took awhile, but you finally have a sense of purpose. You finally "got" all that shit Marina was talking about. Rebuilding civilization and all that. The Cybernetic Evolution is a real threat to that ever happening. It needs to be stopped here and now while it's weak. You get organized first and muster ALL the help you can from the rest of the Combine towns. This includes a bit of conscription from them and puts somewhat of a strain on relations and general feelings. Many think the war is "won" and you can just sit back and defend now, but you know you need to press the Cybernetic Evolution now before they "recruit" elsewhere and just attack you again and maybe successfully. Enthusiasm isn't exactly the highest, but you have proven to be a successful military leader so the people are willing to put up with your orders. The assault on the Cyborg Base occurs and it is not easy. The location and rough terrain prevents most vehicles you might've used in the assault to get close. The siege lasts months the losses are horrendous, and there's a point where people are really starting to question your leadership. However before a revolt in the Combine occurs, the Cyborg Base is breached and the topside is taken. The base's second level is easily accessed and the war is nearly at an end. Finally the leader of the Cybernetic Evolution is cornered and unceremoniously blown to bits by a grenade while he was trying to hide in one of the rooms. Oddly he wasn't a robot or even a cyborg. He was merely a human with megalomania, in fact after some investigation; it was the Colonel's old "friend" Alex. The threat to the Combine is at an end, but the threat OF the Combine is just beginning... Even though you were the one who orchestrated the defeat of the Cybernetic Evolution and probably saved not only the Combine, but the hope of humanity with your actions somehow a lot of people aren't all that grateful. They only see the immediate loss that was suffered rather than the larger picture. Fort Justice is of course firmly still under your control as well as the newly acquired cyborg base, but most of the other towns are wanting out of the Combine saying that you're being a dictator. > You let them leave Once again, you think back to that town of Lost Springs that didn't want to be part of the Combine, and you thought then "If they don't want your help, they don't want your help." Maybe they're calling you a dictator, but you know if that were true you'd enforce your will upon all of them. No, you're not going to do that. One by one the towns disband from the Combine. You still remain in control of Fort Justice and the newly acquire Cyborg Base, but "The Combine" as you know it is no more. One might even call it a Pyrrhic victory, however you do not. You saved civilization and humanity from a threat that might not have been stopped otherwise. Maybe you aren't going to be recognized for it, but then again some good deeds aren't recognized. Sometimes Marina thinks it's incredibly unfair of how you've been labeled, but you take it all in stride and always tell her after kissing her... "It was worth it." and you remain in control of Fort Justice and Base Victory, you never experience any more real threats mainly due to the superior high tech weaponry that was acquired when Base Victory was taken. Expansion is never seriously considered again however stable relations with towns are re-established eventually when they start having raider problems again. Many of your citizens hire themselves out as mercenaries in exchange for goods that are needed and to make a living. Indeed the "Old Combine" becomes known as the place one goes to; to get help, but nobody wants to be under Combine rule again. Civilization is re-establishing itself slowly, maybe very slowly, but at least it has a chance now. You spend the rest of your remaining years running your little section of civilization making things better when you can. One day you're stricken with sickness that progressively gets worse. All help is done for you, but you're dying. You're reminded of the Colonel except you don't have to worry about getting shot like he did, as you've already picked out a suitable successor. Your first choice would've been Marina, as you know her to be capable, but as she'd said many times in the past she's never had any desire herself for command. You never knew why, since she would've been perfect for it. After all right from the beginning she pushed you in the direction. You hold her hand as you talk to her one last time on your death bed. "So, you really don't mind Vivica taking charge of this place? You're sure you don't want it?" you ask while Marina shakes her head. "No. I never wanted it. I always wanted you to have the glory, and the recognition. You had so much potential...and you were never fully appreciated for the deeds you did." "Hey, you know what they say, no good deed goes unpunished. Don't worry about it, I never did." "I always wished we could've had kids...I'm sorry I couldn't give you any...to carry on your name..." "Marina, stop it. You know I never cared about that, besides I doubt if it was your problem anyway. I'm sure the time I spent in that fucking radiated city made me sterile. Hell, it's probably what's killing me now. Knew it was only a matter of time before that shit caught up with me. Marina, I don't want to spend my last moments of you sad and wishing for things that didn't happen. Let's just spend it together in silence." After telling each other you love one another, she holds on to your body until you draw your last breath. You funeral is a quiet and respectful one. Your loss is felt, but as always life goes on. Marina tries to make sure people don't forget what you did until the day she dies. Some heroes aren't meant to be remembered though and with her death, eventually you're virtually forgotten when Fort Justice is abandoned and a new one is rebuilt elsewhere. You become part of obscure history. However your now well worn tombstone (next to Marina's) in the Old Fort Justice cemetery still displays words that would sum up what your attitude about your obscurity would be if you were still alive. "It was worth it."

In these past few months you've actually been fighting for something. Not just "following orders" or "going through the motions". You haven't even been doing it for mere survival, if you were interested in just survival, you would've just taken off and put as much distance as you could between you and the Combine before the cyborgs appeared. It took awhile, but you finally have a sense of purpose. You finally "got" all that shit Marina was talking about. Rebuilding civilization and all that. The Cybernetic Evolution is a real threat to that ever happening. It needs to be stopped here and now while it's weak. You get organized first and muster ALL the help you can from the rest of the Combine towns. This includes a bit of conscription from them and puts somewhat of a strain on relations and general feelings. Many think the war is "won" and you can just sit back and defend now, but you know you need to press the Cybernetic Evolution now before they "recruit" elsewhere and just attack you again and maybe successfully. Enthusiasm isn't exactly the highest, but you have proven to be a successful military leader so the people are willing to put up with your orders. The assault on the Cyborg Base occurs and it is not easy. The location and rough terrain prevents most vehicles you might've used in the assault to get close. The siege lasts months the losses are horrendous, and there's a point where people are really starting to question your leadership. However before a revolt in the Combine occurs, the Cyborg Base is breached and the topside is taken. The base's second level is easily accessed and the war is nearly at an end. Finally the leader of the Cybernetic Evolution is cornered and unceremoniously blown to bits by a grenade while he was trying to hide in one of the rooms. Oddly he wasn't a robot or even a cyborg. He was merely a human with megalomania, in fact after some investigation; it was the Colonel's old "friend" Alex. The threat to the Combine is at an end, but the threat OF the Combine is just beginning... Even though you were the one who orchestrated the defeat of the Cybernetic Evolution and probably saved not only the Combine, but the hope of humanity with your actions somehow a lot of people aren't all that grateful. They only see the immediate loss that was suffered rather than the larger picture. Fort Justice is of course firmly still under your control as well as the newly acquired cyborg base, but most of the other towns are wanting out of the Combine saying that you're being a dictator. > You enforce your will This ungratefulness doesn't exactly help you NOT become a dictator... You saved the Combine, you saved civilization, you fucking saved humanity, you aren't going to let it fall apart after all the shit you've been through. Not after you finally believe in it. Using the newly acquired technology from the cyborg base you establish a more intimidating presence in the Combine towns. Having depleted most of their fighting power during the CE War they really can't do much to stop you. There are a few initial protests, but a few executions squash any hint of rebellion. Five years pass... It's been ten years since the bombs dropped and you first entered Fort Justice when it was only known as "The Compound". Of course Fort Justice goes by the name Fort Bane Expansion eventually occurs again, in a less diplomatic way now though. Typically the option is given for the town to submit peacefully to the Combine, or else it will be incorporated by force. The first town to suffer this fate of the new Combine ruthlessness is that old remote town you found nine years ago, Lost Springs. The next one is a distant place called Ashtown. They put up a good fight, but eventually they too fall and put under martial law. When you come across them, you even start forcing open the underground Shelters that were created by GZS and incorporate the misguided souls who decided to hide during the nuclear holocaust under your ever expanding territory. Most of those folks put up little to no resistance. While they were cowering under the Earth YOU were surviving and making the blasted world a safer place for humanity. Despite the whispered discussions among everyone wishing you were dead, nobody actually does anything. The reason? The same as always. Your way works and has shown results. Yes you've had to be brutal; yes you've had to make some harsh decisions, but you've done it for the greater good. You've completely eliminated lawlessness within most areas, as most of the nearby raiders have asked for Combine citizenship since it's actually more profitable to be a soldier than a bandit. You gladly accept them. (Amusingly they're some of the most loyal citizens) Trade thrives, and the only thing the Combine citizens need to fear is YOU. The Combine is no longer a collection of small towns and a fort, it's an Empire and it can only grow. You've made all this possible, yet you know it is only you who can hold it together. You begin to ponder successors and while you know there are many who would covet your position, you also know that none of them are worthy. Its times like this that you wish had a child with Marina. Someone who could carry on the divine right as it were. As you know Marina's never once gotten pregnant in all your years with her, but you wonder if it's you, for all you know maybe that trip to the city didn't make you sterile. Maybe SHE'S sterile. You wonder... > You take another lover to try to create a successor The power has gone to your head in such a way that you've finally crossed that one line that was your downfall. You order your troops to scour the Combine for the women known to be fertile and to bring them to Fort Bane all for the purpose for you to pursue some delusional notion of spawning a successor. The fact that tearing most of these women away from their established families doesn't make you anymore popular. Of course that doesn't bother you. The fact that you've basically bullied these women into submitting to you doesn't make you anymore popular. But again that doesn't bother you either. What should bother you is that Marina finds out very quickly what you're doing. She's very hurt by this infidelity. She's stood by you from the very beginning, indeed she was the whole reason why you're in the position you are in the first place, and now you've treated that sacred bond and loyalty like it never meant anything to you. Perhaps if you had addressed this to Marina, she MIGHT have even understood your desire and allowed you to proceed with your plan to a limited degree, she is a pragmatic sort after all. But you didn't even do that, instead you made her an embarrassment as you carryon with other women some of which are little more than common whores, in fact you never get ANY of them pregnant, which pretty much confirms that you WERE sterile all along. Of course by this time you're so wrapped up in your new decadent activities that you forgot why you were doing it in the first place. This new reckless and careless behavior does not become you, and Marina has finally had enough of it. Part of her may still even love you, but she'll not be made a fool of and treated like this. One night, while you're eating a meal, you take a large swig of water. It tastes funny at first, but you dismiss it since funny tasting water's not exactly too unusual. You just order another bottle of it to be brought to you...then you start to feel dizzy. You stand up only to collapse on your dining floor. One of your servants goes to help, but then Marina appears to tell him to stop. "Ma...Marina? What's going on?" you say as her figure begins to get blurry. "A change. You always wondered who would take your place, and I've decided that I'm the only one worthy enough to do it. Don't worry, The Combine will live on, even if you will not. At least that was one thing you did right. I'm very sorry it had to end this way...I take no pleasure in this...but you can't betray your king maker without some sort of consequence. I'll try to remember the good times... Goodbye." And with your last breath, Marina kicks you in the face.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious, war, post-apocalyptic] This ungratefulness doesn't exactly help you NOT become a dictator... You saved the Combine, you saved civilization, you fucking saved humanity, you aren't going to let it fall apart after all the shit you've been through. Not after you finally believe in it. Using the newly acquired technology from the cyborg base you establish a more intimidating presence in the Combine towns. Having depleted most of their fighting power during the CE War they really can't do much to stop you. There are a few initial protests, but a few executions squash any hint of rebellion. Five years pass... It's been ten years since the bombs dropped and you first entered Fort Justice when it was only known as "The Compound". Of course Fort Justice goes by the name Fort Bane Expansion eventually occurs again, in a less diplomatic way now though. Typically the option is given for the town to submit peacefully to the Combine, or else it will be incorporated by force. The first town to suffer this fate of the new Combine ruthlessness is that old remote town you found nine years ago, Lost Springs. The next one is a distant place called Ashtown. They put up a good fight, but eventually they too fall and put under martial law. When you come across them, you even start forcing open the underground Shelters that were created by GZS and incorporate the misguided souls who decided to hide during the nuclear holocaust under your ever expanding territory. Most of those folks put up little to no resistance. While they were cowering under the Earth YOU were surviving and making the blasted world a safer place for humanity. Despite the whispered discussions among everyone wishing you were dead, nobody actually does anything. The reason? The same as always. Your way works and has shown results. Yes you've had to be brutal; yes you've had to make some harsh decisions, but you've done it for the greater good. You've completely eliminated lawlessness within most areas, as most of the nearby raiders have asked for Combine citizenship since it's actually more profitable to be a soldier than a bandit. You gladly accept them. (Amusingly they're some of the most loyal citizens) Trade thrives, and the only thing the Combine citizens need to fear is YOU. The Combine is no longer a collection of small towns and a fort, it's an Empire and it can only grow. You've made all this possible, yet you know it is only you who can hold it together. You begin to ponder successors and while you know there are many who would covet your position, you also know that none of them are worthy. Its times like this that you wish had a child with Marina. Someone who could carry on the divine right as it were. As you know Marina's never once gotten pregnant in all your years with her, but you wonder if it's you, for all you know maybe that trip to the city didn't make you sterile. Maybe SHE'S sterile. You wonder... > You stay true to Marina You've undergone a lot of changes after the bombs hit. Many changes. Not all of them for the better, but there's still one thing that hasn't changed, and that's your love and loyalty to Marina. She's been there with you from day one. You're not going to betray that for the thin hope of creating some bastard that probably won't do as good a job as you anyway. Besides, regardless of Marina's fertility, you're damn sure you're sterile anyway, you're just still glad your balls didn't turn green and shrivel up after your trip to the city. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in your Empire that you forget to spend time with those who are REALLY important. "Fuck it, I'll be dead anyway. Really what the hell do I care who takes over?" you mumble to yourself and go spend some time with Marina. In fact from this time forward you vow to take more time out to spend with Marina, she seems very happy with this new attitude. Oddly this revelation makes you slightly more agreeable and as a result some of the more restrictive laws are lightened in time. The average Combine citizen is a little happier as a result. (Though mostly all of them still think you're a son of a bitch) Ten more years pass... Twenty years since the bombs hit, and you're the head of the largest known area of civilization. Hard to believe sometimes. You're thinking about this on your death bed. You're very sick and the best physician you have doesn't know what it is As usual, you're convinced it has something to do with that trip to the city so long ago, and you're probably right. Radiation shit is probably finally catching up with you. If Harry wasn't a pile of rotten bones underground, you'd kill him again for sending you to that fucked up place. Right now you're surrounded by advisors, military leaders and doctors, but right now you just want all of them to leave except Marina. "But...but whose's taking over after you die?" one of them asks. "Goddamn it I ain't dead yet! But if you don't get the fuck outta here I'm gonna make sure I outlive YOU! Now leave!" Soon you're left alone with Marina, who stays with you until the end. "Well it is a valid question, who is going to take over?" Marina asks. "Why don't you do it? I mean I've never understood why you never wanted it, you're certainly capable." "Maybe...but I prefer to be behind the scenes I guess...you know there's a lot less assassination attempts on the puppet master rather than the puppet." Marina half-jokes. "Ha ha, well, I hope you find another." "Never. I'll never find another like you." she says touching your face. You and Marina are just silent as you look at each other for awhile. Finally you begin to close your eyes and feel one last kiss. After composing herself, she exits the room to inform the top brass of the news. They of course are like vultures fighting over scraps. "So did he say who was taking over?" "Is it me?" "No! It's me!" "What did he say?" "Whoever can hold it." Marina answers and walks off. The years that follow your death aren't pretty for the Combine. A civil war occurs as several factions vie for control. Eventually it collapses into petty warlord fiefdoms. Your accomplishments are soon forgotten as other would be dictators try to establish their own "legacies". As for Marina, she moves on from the Combine after your death to parts unknown, always carrying your ashes in an urn with the inscription: "I'll never find another like you."

This was never anything you ever had in mind, but you've come this far, you have made a life here for yourself with Marina; you might as well stick with it. Besides, you'll be damned if you'll leave because of Harry. "Okay. I'll do it." The Colonel looks relieved. He struggles to get out of bed. "Alright, I still have some strength left, let's make this official." A meeting is called in the main courtyard where the Colonel weakly addresses everyone, while you stand by. He explains how you're going to be in charge and he also mentions the "robot invasion" he's convinced is going to happen. You see Marina in the crowd, who looks very proud and pleased. Harry however is severely pissed and makes it known immediately by confronting the both of you. "What the fuck is this shit? I'VE been here longer! I'VE been training all these fucking maggots and faggots INCLUDING Cupcake over there!" "Yes, and you've done a good job of that, but your temperament isn't suitable for taking command of this place. Besides, I've determined that..." "FUCK YOU OLD MAN! YOU WILL NOT DENY MY GOD GIVEN RIGHT!" Harry suddenly pulls out his pistol and shoots the Colonel in the stomach. He then tries to shoot you, but you've developed more experience than he has in terms of quickness. You pull your own pistol and drill Harry directly between the eyes, dropping him. "Wish I'd done that to begin with." You say while Vivica rushes over to the Colonel to try to help him, it's hopeless though, he was dying anyway. He calls you over one last time. "...well...I told (cough) you, that you'd probably have to kill him...defend the Combine...follow this man...(cough) he'll lead you...to victorrrrreeee..." The Colonel's passing is mourned by all, as everyone respected him. A major funeral ceremony is held. It's probably his last words (and Harry's shooting) that stabilizes most people's attitude towards you. They're willing to follow you, which gives you at least one less thing to worry about. Of course now you just have to worry about whether or not there is a bunch of robots coming to attack. You decide not to take any chances though and immediately order scouting to be done on the outskirts of the secret base that the Colonel had schematics of. You also order the area around Fort Justice to be heavily trapped along with increased training exercises. When your scouts return, only a couple of them do so, and they're badly wounded. They confirm the Colonel's suspicions. There IS an army of robots (though they say most of them are really cyborgs, but that hardly matters) in the area. They're very organized and heavily armed with high tech weaponry. Within a week, the first wave of cyborgs arrive. Surprisingly they give you the option of surrendering and be "remade" to serve the Cybernetic Evolution. You of course decline this offer and fight the steel bastards instead. They're tough, but your traps ensure you to defeat them much easier. During this time you send a few people to get more help from other Combine towns. You get it for the most part due to large participation in defending most of those towns in the past. You didn't think about it before, but that might've been another reason why the Colonel thought you'd be a better candidate for command, you had a high respect standing with the other towns even if you didn't initially have it in Fort Justice. A couple more months pass and you're assaulted by the second wave. Then again in another few months by a third wave. The cyborgs do a hell of a lot of damage, they breach some of the walls and you lose a lot of people, you're even heavily scarred in one of the attacks, but yet the Fort still holds and that's one of your main concerns, you know if the Fort falls that's it; The Combine will lose this war as the main trained combat force is here. You have to make sure that doesn't happen. You start to notice when the cyborgs retreat they attempt to take away any casualties that you have. In fact you could swear a few of the last few cyborgs you destroyed looked VERY familiar. This gives you the idea that this army is probably a lot more limited in number and not unstoppable. In fact even though they come in great force, it seems to take them awhile to gather up the same force in-between attacks. And while there's robots mixed in with the cyborgs, they aren't nearly as numerous. Looks like there's a shortage and the Cybernetic Evolution needs more warm bodies even more than you do. It's possible that if you just sit tight and defend, you'll win by sheer attrition, of course you could just finish it quicker by taking the fight to them. > You Wait You're unwilling to risk more lives and so decide to just shore up your defenses. Another couple of months pass and a much smaller group of cyborgs arrive which confirms your ideas that they're running out of troops. One thing that's a little strange is that they don't immediately attack, they just make their presence known while attempting to stay out of the way of your snipers. They also make some "raiding" like attacks on anyone trying to leave the Fort to travel anywhere. They never directly attack the fort though. These annoying raids go on for a year, until you get sick of them and finally decide you need to get rid of these things once and for all. You order a concentrated attack on all the cyborg raiders in the area, after a few weeks it's confirmed that they've all been eliminated. Afterwards you send a scouting force to the secret base, to see if that's the end of this cybernetic thorn in your side. A week passes and you don't hear anything from your scouts. You curse and figure the cyborgs still have enough troops to defend their own base, but the truth is much worse as you come to find out. A week after you sent your scout team, a new cyborg army appears within the sight of Fort Justice. Better improved looking this time too. Obviously while you were playing around with the cyborgs raiding you, someone else was upgrading and gathering more "recruits" from elsewhere while you still haven't replenished your own losses from last year... Another battle is joined, but this time not in your favor. The fort is destroyed and in flames. Soon people are either, running, killed or captured. In the chaos of Fort Justice's final days, one of those you see captured is Marina as a big cyborg drags away her unconscious wounded body. You desperately try to rescue her, but your head is completely incinerated by its high powered laser beam as soon as your bullets fail to penetrate its armor. Your headless carcass falls to the ground and left to burn up with the rest of Fort Justice. Within the year, the Combine is no more and only the Cybernetic Evolution remains to continue its mission.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious] If they don't want your help; they don't want your help. You can understand that. No point in bringing in anyone else to debate the issue. You get on your motorcycle and depart. When you get back to the Compound you just say you didn't find anything on this little excursion. Life continues. Four years pass... Five years total have passed and The Compound has grown somewhat, not much though. The theory to that of course is the background radiation has probably made a lot of folks sterile. (And you're damn sure you probably are, after that trip to the city that you still continue to think about) however it has become much more than "The Compound" now. Alliances have been forged with other towns thanks to you and others. The Compound has been renamed Fort Justice and the alliance itself is known as The Combine. However, not everything is stable. The Colonel hasn't been well lately; in fact he's been sick for the past year. Everyone's wondering if he's going to die. You've noticed Harry has been taking a lot of liberties with orders lately, which you're constantly always arguing with him about. If it was up to him, he'd put all the towns you're allied with under martial law. You can't even believe he suggested sending people to the city again, since he thinks that all the survivors were probably dead by now and it would be "safe". One day the Colonel wants to see you in private as he lies on what is probably going to be his death bed soon. He addresses you immediately when you enter. "Good you're here, I don't have long and I need to talk to you." "Uh, okay." "Go look at those schematics on the table over there." You do as the Colonel says, and see some blue prints of what looks to be a base of some sort. You also see the logo "GZS" in several places. You remember that was the logo of that corporation that was trying to sell everyone their Shelters before the bombs hit. You sometimes wonder how things would've turned out, if you bought one. While you're looking, the Colonel continues to speak. That's the floor plans to a top secret military base, my friend Alex got them for me a long time ago before the bombs dropped. He used to work there. It was some place where the government and the Ground Zero Survival Corporation were doing a secret joint project. Something to do with weapons. I always thought it would be a great benefit, if we could ever get a hold of whatever they were working on. I tried to make contact with the base since I know the radio frequency it used, but I never got any response from Alex or anyone." "Hmm, so why didn't you ever send some people there?" "Wow, you really are in your own little world, I figured you at least heard other people talk about it in the past. Anyway I did. Several times about five years ago. Everyone I ever sent never returned. Got to the point where I couldn't in good conscience sent people to what looked to be their deaths, besides a lot of people were less than enthusiastic to accept the mission, the last few times I sent people out they just deserted. Eventually I just wrote it off that maybe the place is occupied by a superior hostile force. Just one of the reasons why I was really keen on the idea of creating an alliance with surrounding towns. Who knows when that force would decide to venture out and start heading this way? Actually a couple of years ago, I thought about sending YOU out there. I figured you being the most capable; you might actually survive and get back to be able to report something." "What stopped you?" "I couldn't risk lose one of my best people, especially since you were doing a good job at proving we could help protect the other towns. Besides you already got sent to one unnecessary death trap five years ago, didn't seem right to send you to another." You're wondering where the Colonel going with all this, so you get to the point. "So what's all this ultimately have to do with me?" "I'm promoting you right now since I want you to take over after I die." "What?!" "This place needs someone stable, Harry isn't suitable. In fact, I dare say he won't be pleased with this decision...you may even have to kill him." You're a little overwhelmed by all this. "Whoa, whoa, hold the fucking phone! I don't want this!" "I know you don't, but it's the best chance for the Combine's survival, because that hostile force I mentioned? It's real. And it's on its way. Recently I've been picking up radio signals and they are from the base. They didn't say much, except that they were coming to cleanse this place. I haven't told ANYONE about this yet." "What, is it some sort of heavily armed professional military group or some shit?" "I wish. I question if they're even human. The voice sounded cold and robotic. I think we're going to find out first hand what exactly the government and GZS were secretly working on." "Well hold on, couldn't they be masking their voice?" "I suppose it's possible, but I dunno...something in my heart tells me that this is going to be really bad...like it won't just stop here. I'm almost glad I won't be around to see the destruction." "I still don't understand why you want me to take over; I'm not exactly the leader of men. In fact I'd say they'd listen to Harry before they listen to me." "I can't argue with you anymore...maybe you're right...maybe not...the choice I suppose will be up to you...all I'll say is with Harry in charge you might as well leave the Combine now, because I don't wager you'll be alive under his reign long enough to even see the attack occur. Maybe it might even be for the best, I wonder if even the total strength of the Combine will be enough to drive this attack back." The Colonel sounds like he's being a bit over dramatic, he's making a lot of assumptions here. You not sure you want all this responsibility, but if you're going to take it, you better do it now. > Decline You've had your mind debates before about whether to leave or not, but it looks like this is the final one. You never sought this path and you certainly don't want to be commanding anything, but staying here really isn't an option anymore. Time to move on. In some ways you always thought it would come to this one day. "I can't do it Colonel. Sorry." "Very well then, I guess I can only hope Harry's ruthless nature and hamfisted way of leading works. After you leave, send him to see me. We won't speak again." You leave and for once go find Harry. He's in the cafeteria screaming at someone to scrub the floor harder. When he sees you, he gives you the typical hostility. "What the hell do you want Cupcake?" he sneers. "The Colonel wants to see you, better hurry too he doesn't have much time." Harry doesn't bother to retort, his eyes seem to light up at the prospect that the Colonel is dying and that this could ONLY mean he's getting official command. In his haste of rushing past you, he doesn't notice your foot, which you purposely stick out to trip him. He falls on floor and lands squarely on his nose, breaking it. "AH SHIT!" he yells holding his nose while still on the floor. "Whoops, sorry about that, cupcake." You say walking out the cafeteria. You go back to your room and start packing your belongings and determining what might be useful, Marina is there and wondering what's going on. "What're you doing?" "Leaving. My time here is done; Harry's going to take control of the Combine, which probably won't be for long if the Colonel's predictions are true. Now Marina, you know I love you, and you say you love me. So if you really do, you'll come with me." "And where the hell are we supposed to be going?" "I know a place. A place I found in my travels which I never told anyone about, and apparently nobody else found, hopefully it's still a friendly place." "Well hold on, isn't there some other way?" "Not unless Harry's attitude towards me does a complete turn around. I'm not going to stay some place where my life is in constant danger and besides the Colonel's going on about some robot invasion he think is going to take place. Can't say I want to stick around for that either. And I can't say I want YOU to stick around for it. Just come with me, why is that so difficult?" "Because I don't believe in fucking running from my home! Do you understand that THIS place has basically been my home longer than it's been yours? And that most of these people I'm friends with, and they're like a family to me? Maybe YOU don't have that bond, but I do. I'm not just going to abandon this place. Look, maybe you can talk to the Colonel, I mean he respects you more than you might think, maybe he'd see you as a more stable candidate to command this place, and then..." "He already tried to offer me the job. I turned it down." "You what?!" "I turned it down! I don't want the fucking responsibility. I never did. I've always said I've always just stayed here for you and for how you rescued me from dying in a nuclear firestorm, but my survival is severely at stake if I stay here. I mean what do you want me to die for you or something?" "I wanted you to be a fucking man and be ambitious, which I thought you were. I always saw potential in you, I saw it way back before the bombs hit. I thought you were trying to take some initiative by moving up the ranks like you did. Like you had your eyes set on becoming leader of this place. I saw you being able to really help the rebuilding process. I mean you were vital in many of our alliances. And what did you do? You just threw all of that work down the fucking drain, because you're fucking scared of more responsibility." You've always known Marina to be a bit of a "Lady Macbeth" type with her always wanting you to strive for power and be ambitious. And out of your feelings toward her, you have tried to oblige that to a degree, but after hearing this shit, you can see you were almost nothing more than some sort of pawn. You don't need this. You never needed this. Yet, there's no point in arguing. This is hard enough as it is. You take the high road with Marina. "Marina, I'm just gonna say this, you saw something in me that was never there to begin with. I'm sorry to disappoint you...thanks for saving my life and hopefully you have a nice one. Maybe you can marry Harry or even better, take control yourself, since you seem to have the proper mindset and already a lot smarter." Marina is silent. You finish packing and open the door, you linger a bit hoping she changes her mind, but you can tell she isn't when she turns her head to keep you from seeing that she's obviously upset and going to cry. You slam the door and go back up top to the surface; you take one of the motorcycles and zoom off. You do it all the time so nobody finds you leaving out of the ordinary. Eventually you head back to Lost Springs. Looks like it did when you found the place four years ago. You're welcomed again, but they tell you they still aren't interested in joining the Compound. You laugh and say that's not why you're here and immediately ask if there's any work that needs to be done since you plan of staying on a permanent basis. A year passes relatively uneventfully in Lost Springs. One day a wandering traveler passes through. For whatever reason he strikes up a conversation with you while you're sitting the local cafe. "Hey friend." The traveler says. "Hmn." You reply still reading a book. "This place is pretty remote huh? It was only by sheer dumb luck I stumbled upon it, you guys don't get many people coming here do you?" "Other than me, you'd be the first in a long time. We're pretty self-sufficient here and like to keep to ourselves." You say still without looking up. "Hey, good idea. It's a crazy fucking world out there. I say you got the set up. Still, doesn't the Cybernetic Evolution worry you?" "Cybernetic Evolution?" you ask finally looking up. "Yeah! You never heard of them? Well I guess I should warn you then. It's this group of killer cyborgs that want to remake humanity or exterminate them if they don't comply. There's robots too, but mostly cyborgs. I heard they're lead by some nut case called Alex. They've been spreading all over the place; the Combine is losing the war with them. That's mainly why I'm trying to get out of the area." "Hold on, the Combine?" "Yeah! Come on you never heard of them either? Wow you are in your own little world! The Combine is an alliance of towns with the head base called Fort Justice. Of course Fort Justice was razed to the ground months ago, and now the current towns are wondering how to proceed since Fort Justice was where the line was being held not to mention where the best soldiers were. I heard nobody was spared. Now most of the towns are suffering raider attacks again who are taking advantage of the chaos as well as attacks from the CE. Looks fucking bleak man." Bleak indeed. While the traveler concentrates on his drink, you stay silent thinking about Marina. What might've happened. Did she get killed, did she escape, or even if maybe she was turned into a cyborg? You'll never know you suppose. "Well, I have to get going. Nice talking to you and hope the CE doesn't find this place." The traveler says finishing his drink and getting up to leave. You continue remain silent while you reminisce. You wonder if you could've done a better job if you'd stayed behind. You do a lot of second guessing for awhile, of course that's been in your nature in the beginning. You didn't know whether or not you wanted to buy a bomb Shelter, and you were re-thinking the decision that you didn't. You spent what you thought were going to be your last days with your co-workers and you were re-thinking that decision after you did that. You thought about leaving the Compound several times, before you actually did it and now you're re-thinking that decision as well. "Shit, I would've made a lousy leader; it takes me forever to make up my mind and then I agonize over the decision." You say to yourself. Oddly this revelation makes you feel somewhat better, like you did make the right decision to leave. If nothing else you've at least been able to make good decisions concerning your own survival and you're about to make another one. You go to the run down motel that you've been staying at, and pack your belongings. Its time to move on again, you figure you should get out now while you can. You say goodbye to the few acquaintances you've had since your time here and warn them about the CE before leaving. It's up to them what they're going to do. You can't make people leave if they don't want to...even if you want them to. And once again, you're off, with the unknown future dead ahead of you.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, post-apocalyptic, serious] Nope, in for a penny in for a pound. If nothing else, Marina's still there and the fact her actions basically saved your life is enough to make you stay. The rest of the trip is Steve still ranting to himself about the deaths of his friends. True, they weren't your friends, but you guess you can see why he might be upset. You'd radio in to the Compound, but Roger was the one carrying it and he's a headless (and probably now eaten) corpse back in the city. You don't say anything else until Steve nearly drives the car into the gate of the Compound at which point you step out of the car and remove the hot ass radiation suit and demand to see Harry. Everyone is wondering what's going on. Harry hears your shouting and comes out of barracks, the Colonel does as well; good you want him to be here as well. "What is your major malfunction you screaming queen?" Harry asks angrily, as if you're the one at fault. "My malfunction is sending us to the goddamn city was a fucking stupid ass idea! What made you think there would anything of any use there anyway? You just trying to get us all killed?" "No, just you, cupcake." "You call me fuckin' cupcake one more time and me and you are gonna go round and round you dumb fucking gung ho military wanna be asshole!" Before Harry can respond to your insult the Colonel steps in. "ALRIGHT ENOUGH! I won't have infighting in my Compound! Harry we talked about this before that I didn't want any recon missions to the city! At least not until we got better established!" "But Colonel, I though we should..." "You DON'T THINK! That's for ME to do! You obey fucking orders! I'M in fucking charge around here and you better not forget that!" "Yes Colonel." Harry utters grudgingly. Now the Colonel turns his attention to you. "And YOU do not fucking rant like a goddamn maniac in front of everyone lowering morale and encouraging dissention! Like it or not, you're going to be sent on dangerous missions. If you want to stay here you better start learning to get with the fucking program and follow orders!" You're getting really tired of hearing that one. "So, all this aside, what exactly happened in the city and what did you find?" "Nothing! There's just a bunch of crazed cannibal freaks living there, armed and dangerous." "I see, well then all future missions to the city are going to be called off. I'm not risking anymore of my people's lives by sending them there. We've lost too many people on these recon missions quite frankly. I sent a couple of people on a special assignment and I haven't heard any word back from them, not to mention the people we've lost trying to contact other known towns. Fortunately, it hasn't been a complete loss we how found a few pockets of civilization. We need to start developing good relations with them now though. This will help in our rebuilding process. For now you're dismissed, but don't get too comfortable. I'll be sending you out again soon." You turn away and go back to your room in the underground part of the Compound wondering if you shouldn't just fucking leave, just then you get a visit from Marina. You're kind of glad to see her despite your pissed off mood. "Are you okay?" "Hell if I know I just spent a day in radiationville. I'll find out when my balls start shriveling up in three days!" "I think those suits would protect you from that happening." "Yeah, I know everyone thinks they're magical...nevermind I'm not even mad about that, I mean I understand we all got this lofty mission of re-establishing civilization or some shit, but I just don't see the fucking point in it. And I REALLY don't see the point in getting sent on suicide missions!" Marina sits next to you and tries to explain. "Okay, that WAS a mistake. In fact I wish you would've told me! I could've told the Colonel and he would've cancelled the mission! Harry likes to think he's second in command, but he's really just louder and more aggressive than most around here and that's why he's in a command position, but I think you could do just as good a job. I mean you've already braved and lived through going to the city and from what you described and Steve's mental breakdown it sounds like it was pretty bad. Total anarchy and lawlessness. And that's one of the reasons why rebuilding civilization is important. Do you really want to live in a world like that? I know you think this is all some sort of paramilitary bullshit, but we DO have a plan. Isn't it more advantageous to try to make the world a better place and have some sort of order?" "Trying to make the world a better place...yeah a lot of people in the past have thought they were doing that too and you can see how that turned out...THIS! Look, it's a nice idea, but I don't see it happening, not then, not now, not ever. I'd say our best bet would be to just try to live out the rest of lives as comfortably as we can in this hellhole of a world and not go messing around with shit unless its necessary." "...so I take it you're going to leave?" You look a Marina before responding. "No, I'm not leaving, but I'm staying for you, not an ideology or plan. My feelings for you override whatever disagreements I have with the current political agenda, if that's even the proper term for it." "Well that's sweet, but I do hope you develop a more positive attitude about this place." Marina says hugging you. "Doubt it, but I suppose anything's possible now." A year passes... You don't feel any different, but you're used to the Compound's plan of "re-building" civilization. You've moved up the ranks due to the fact that you're competent, something the Colonel realizes and respects even if Harry hates you. But due to your "loner" attitude you're usually sent on scouting missions by yourself rather than given any kind of command position. Ironically, you've been one of the key people in developing good relations with the nearby towns, since you've developed the knack of the sniper's art over the past year which really comes in handy when killing raiders. The Colonel's of the idea that if the Compound can prove its able to help defend towns from raiders, more people will want to join, the towns will be more willing to trade or even better a whole town will want a formal alliance. Perhaps slightly imperialistic, but what the hell, it's better to be the top dog and at least the intention is somewhat for good reasons. All part of the rebuilding process. Right now you're in the town that you found called Lost Springs, it's a remote little town that doesn't have any problems with raiders due to its somewhat hidden location (Though the wandering mutant bear is a problem sometimes) and while they're friendly with you, it's clear they just want to be left alone and keep to themselves. This might not be a problem, except they have a continual supply of fresh water from some underground stream. Not even mildly radioactive! (Though you're still convinced you're going to start mutating any day now since your trip to the city) It's a resource that can't just simply be ignored, but you're not exactly a diplomat, so you're not going to be convincing them on your own (And it's not like you can impress them with your super duper raider killing skills) > You get some help You're in this for rebuilding civilization, so you figure you should do all you can. You leave the town to get in a better transmitting area and radio in and explain the situation. Steve's working the radio (Never could go out again after the incident in the city) "...yeah, so if you can send some more diplomatic people here, that might help." You finish saying. "So, you're saying there's a fresh supply of water and no standing defense force there?" Steve asks. "No, not really. They don't have any problems with raiders, just with some of the more aggressive wildlife. Defenses basically consist of a few good hunters with rifles, but like I said they aren't interested in us being able to defend them. A different bargaining chip is going to be necessary." Suddenly you're cut off for a little while, you think your radio is having problems, but soon you start getting a response again. "Okay, report back to the Compound. We'll send Vivica and a few others to take care of it. We got the location of the place from your information." Steve says and signs off. You head back to the Compound. You know Vivica's one of the more diplomatic types, so you don't think anything else of it. She'll ether be successful or she won't. When you get back though you find out one of the "others" that went with her was Harry. You find that suspicious, he's NEVER gone on a single recon mission, let alone anything diplomatic. Soon the group sent to Lost Springs returns and you see Harry and a couple of the more obedient people to him, who you don't see is Vivica. You can't help but think the worst. And you turn out to be right unfortunately. Harry tells a story to everyone of how the people became hostile and they had to defend themselves, Vivica was "unfortunately" killed in the process. He goes on to say that he's secured the town, by leaving some people in place. You're over hearing this in the courtyard of the Compound and you can't stay silent. "You fucking murdering liar. Those people were fucking peaceful! I was there and never once were they hostile! You took that town by force and probably had Vivica killed when she tried to stop you and your fucking mindless lackies!" "Watch your fucking mouth cupcake! Don't condemn my actions for your own failures because you're too much of a pussy to do what needs to be done! I'm telling you they attacked us! I got witnesses! What the fuck do you have? Shit, how do we even know you weren't fucking collaborating with them and trying to lead us into a trap? It's a well known fact you're not exactly loyal to the Compound." "LOYAL? What the fuck? You fucking dipshit I'M one of fuckin' people who's been key in the HELPING the fuckin' Compound! Or have you forgotten all the good relations we have with other towns due to me?" "Yeah and how do we know you're not getting all chummy with all these outsiders in the attempt to try to build up your own fucking army to take power? In fact I'm thinking I might be going on a lot more of these missions, I don't trust you and neither should the rest of you!" At this point Marina steps in to say something, but you stop her causing Harry to taunt you again. "Yeah, that's right Cupcake, hide behind Marina's skirt again." "Harry, I dunno if you're more jealous of the fact that I'm actually more useful to the Compound, or the fact that I have access TO Marina's skirt, something I heard you attempted before I got here and failed miserably." You struck a nerve there. Harry lunges at you and the both of you tussle on the ground for awhile before the Colonel finally arrives wondering what the fuck has been going on. After reprimanding the pair of you, he calls you in his office for a full report of what exactly happened when you were at Lost Springs, then he does the same with Harry, unfortunately Harry has a few people that are loyal to him that are willing to back up his bullshit. Assuming they would even be believed, the citizens of Lost Springs can't even back you up, since as it turns out later Harry killed them all. And while the Colonel isn't taken with the idea that you have some sort of ulterior motive, he does allow Harry to start heading out on missions, since he did acquire a useful resource for the Compound. Four more years pass... Five years total have passed and The Compound has grown somewhat, not much though. The theory to that of course is the background radiation has probably made a lot of folks sterile. (And you're damn sure you probably are, after that trip to the city that you still continue to think about) however it has become much more than "The Compound" now. Alliances have been forged with other towns. The Compound has been renamed Fort Justice and the alliance itself is known as The Combine. Of course the term "alliance probably isn't really appropriate here. After the Lost Springs incident, things started getting a lot more authoritarian. Over time the towns you'd established peaceful relations with, Harry started hinting that a more permanent military force be established in them. (To help with raider problems more readily as he tried to claim) New towns that were come across were usually bullied into "joining" or outright taken by force and lowest of all, there's been actual recruitment OF raiders, some of them being stationed in the very town they were attacking on a regular basis. You can't believe the Colonel doesn't stop Harry's actions, but the problem is, is it IS working. The Combine is thriving under this aggressive strategy and becoming a strong entity. You on the other hand are eventually relegated to guard duty at Fort Jusitce, Marina finds the whole thing unfair and becomes really disillusioned with the new direction that this place has taken. In fact she does something you never thought she would, she suggests you leave and you can't say you're not in agreement with the idea. Not just because you never really cared about the "rebuilding civilization" process anyway, but more because Harry's power is starting to increase day by day lately and the Colonel has been sick, in fact he's probably going to die any day now. It's only a matter of time before Harry is in total control and when that day comes, you'll be fucked if you're still here. You and Marina pack what supplies you can and start loading them into one of the vehicles. This doesn't go unnoticed, in fact you start being questioned since there was no order to take one of the vehicles out and you're no longer on scout duty anymore. You try to come up with a lie on the spot, but words fail you at the moment and you resort to more direct measures and slug the nosey bastard in the face, dropping him. "Get in the fuckin' car now Marina!" you shout as you do likewise. > You take the wheel Marina slides over and you take the wheel and screech off. Considering Harry's hatred of you and the fact that this is considering going AWOL and stealing Combine equipment, you aren't just going to get away with this. You don't get far when you're soon pursued by other vehicles. You tell Marina to fire upon them, while you attempt to lose them. She does her best, but she's not an expert marksperson like you. One of those raider scumbags that have been an all too common in the new Combine recruitment policy manages to drive up to your side window and shoot a crossbow bolt right through your neck. You clutch at your mortal wound and lose control of the car, flipping it over and killing Marina as well.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, war] You're in this for rebuilding civilization, so you figure you should do all you can. You leave the town to get in a better transmitting area and radio in and explain the situation. Steve's working the radio (Never could go out again after the incident in the city) "...yeah, so if you can send some more diplomatic people here, that might help." You finish saying. "So, you're saying there's a fresh supply of water and no standing defense force there?" Steve asks. "No, not really. They don't have any problems with raiders, just with some of the more aggressive wildlife. Defenses basically consist of a few good hunters with rifles, but like I said they aren't interested in us being able to defend them. A different bargaining chip is going to be necessary." Suddenly you're cut off for a little while, you think your radio is having problems, but soon you start getting a response again. "Okay, report back to the Compound. We'll send Vivica and a few others to take care of it. We got the location of the place from your information." Steve says and signs off. You head back to the Compound. You know Vivica's one of the more diplomatic types, so you don't think anything else of it. She'll ether be successful or she won't. When you get back though you find out one of the "others" that went with her was Harry. You find that suspicious, he's NEVER gone on a single recon mission, let alone anything diplomatic. Soon the group sent to Lost Springs returns and you see Harry and a couple of the more obedient people to him, who you don't see is Vivica. You can't help but think the worst. And you turn out to be right unfortunately. Harry tells a story to everyone of how the people became hostile and they had to defend themselves, Vivica was "unfortunately" killed in the process. He goes on to say that he's secured the town, by leaving some people in place. You're over hearing this in the courtyard of the Compound and you can't stay silent. "You fucking murdering liar. Those people were fucking peaceful! I was there and never once were they hostile! You took that town by force and probably had Vivica killed when she tried to stop you and your fucking mindless lackies!" "Watch your fucking mouth cupcake! Don't condemn my actions for your own failures because you're too much of a pussy to do what needs to be done! I'm telling you they attacked us! I got witnesses! What the fuck do you have? Shit, how do we even know you weren't fucking collaborating with them and trying to lead us into a trap? It's a well known fact you're not exactly loyal to the Compound." "LOYAL? What the fuck? You fucking dipshit I'M one of fuckin' people who's been key in the HELPING the fuckin' Compound! Or have you forgotten all the good relations we have with other towns due to me?" "Yeah and how do we know you're not getting all chummy with all these outsiders in the attempt to try to build up your own fucking army to take power? In fact I'm thinking I might be going on a lot more of these missions, I don't trust you and neither should the rest of you!" At this point Marina steps in to say something, but you stop her causing Harry to taunt you again. "Yeah, that's right Cupcake, hide behind Marina's skirt again." "Harry, I dunno if you're more jealous of the fact that I'm actually more useful to the Compound, or the fact that I have access TO Marina's skirt, something I heard you attempted before I got here and failed miserably." You struck a nerve there. Harry lunges at you and the both of you tussle on the ground for awhile before the Colonel finally arrives wondering what the fuck has been going on. After reprimanding the pair of you, he calls you in his office for a full report of what exactly happened when you were at Lost Springs, then he does the same with Harry, unfortunately Harry has a few people that are loyal to him that are willing to back up his bullshit. Assuming they would even be believed, the citizens of Lost Springs can't even back you up, since as it turns out later Harry killed them all. And while the Colonel isn't taken with the idea that you have some sort of ulterior motive, he does allow Harry to start heading out on missions, since he did acquire a useful resource for the Compound. Four more years pass... Five years total have passed and The Compound has grown somewhat, not much though. The theory to that of course is the background radiation has probably made a lot of folks sterile. (And you're damn sure you probably are, after that trip to the city that you still continue to think about) however it has become much more than "The Compound" now. Alliances have been forged with other towns. The Compound has been renamed Fort Justice and the alliance itself is known as The Combine. Of course the term "alliance probably isn't really appropriate here. After the Lost Springs incident, things started getting a lot more authoritarian. Over time the towns you'd established peaceful relations with, Harry started hinting that a more permanent military force be established in them. (To help with raider problems more readily as he tried to claim) New towns that were come across were usually bullied into "joining" or outright taken by force and lowest of all, there's been actual recruitment OF raiders, some of them being stationed in the very town they were attacking on a regular basis. You can't believe the Colonel doesn't stop Harry's actions, but the problem is, is it IS working. The Combine is thriving under this aggressive strategy and becoming a strong entity. You on the other hand are eventually relegated to guard duty at Fort Jusitce, Marina finds the whole thing unfair and becomes really disillusioned with the new direction that this place has taken. In fact she does something you never thought she would, she suggests you leave and you can't say you're not in agreement with the idea. Not just because you never really cared about the "rebuilding civilization" process anyway, but more because Harry's power is starting to increase day by day lately and the Colonel has been sick, in fact he's probably going to die any day now. It's only a matter of time before Harry is in total control and when that day comes, you'll be fucked if you're still here. You and Marina pack what supplies you can and start loading them into one of the vehicles. This doesn't go unnoticed, in fact you start being questioned since there was no order to take one of the vehicles out and you're no longer on scout duty anymore. You try to come up with a lie on the spot, but words fail you at the moment and you resort to more direct measures and slug the nosey bastard in the face, dropping him. "Get in the fuckin' car now Marina!" you shout as you do likewise. > You ride shotgun Like there was any other choice? You slide in next to Marina who guns the engine and screeches off. Considering Harry's hatred of you and the fact that this is considering going AWOL and stealing Combine equipment, you aren't just going to get away with this. You don't get far when you're soon pursued by other vehicles. You tell Marina to concentrate on driving, while you attempt to do some road warrior shit. Luckily you're still an excellent marksman, and you manage to either shoot the tires or the drivers of the cars and motorcycles in pursuit of you. Eventually you escape. After a few days of driving you and Marina start wondering where you're going to go. You can't drive forever, you'll run out gas eventually and you don't relish the idea of walking. However, once again luck is with you and you find a small place called Ashtown where you stop. Fortunately the people seem to be friendly. You immediately make yourself useful by helping with eliminating some bandits and raiders (A bit like the old days actually). You and Marina decide to stay and make a new life here, though in the back of your mind you're always expecting some sort of arrival of the Combine, maybe not coming to look for you specifically, but you know they're probably still expanding. About a year passes and nothing unusual happens, until a wandering traveler passing through decides to talk to you for some reason while you're sitting in the local café. "Hey friend." The traveler says. "Hmn." You reply still reading a book. "This place is a pretty well organized town. Pleasant too. Glad I found it." "It's better than most places." You say still without looking up. "Hey, I know what you mean. It's a crazy fucking world out there. What with the Cybernetic Evolution and all." "Cybernetic Evolution?" you ask finally looking up. "Yeah! You never heard of them? Well I guess I should warn you then. It's this group of killer cyborgs that want to remake humanity or exterminate them if they don't comply. They're supposedly from some sort of secret military base that was doing high tech experiments. There are robots too, but mostly cyborgs. I'm surprised they haven't headed this way, but then again, they've been pretty busy trying to combat the Combine. Never thought I'd be glad that the Combine exists, but I gotta say if it weren't for them, the CE would've probably expanded all over the fuckin' place by now and I guarantee we wouldn't be sitting here having this pleasant conversation." "Hmm, so the Combine is winning?" you ask. "Well, I wouldn't say that, it's more like a stalemate. Kind of a good thing too, since I don't really want them winning either. Those Combine bastards are a bunch of bullying fascists. Especially with that fucker Damon in charge." "Damon? Who's that?" "Damon, is the newest leader of the Combine. Thinks he's some sort of military genius, but all he is, is a common desert thug who's a little more intelligent than his buddies, probably still more competent than the last leader Harry who Damon killed to get the job." A smile forms across your face when you hear that news, while the traveler continues his story "Anyway that's partly one of the reasons I'm traveling. I don't want to be around when the war finally ends, either way the people who live nearby are going to lose...speaking of which I gotta get going, nice talking to you." After the traveler leaves you do likewise and tell Marina what you just heard. She asks you if you think if it would be a good idea to leave as well. Perhaps you haven't made all the right decisions in this new harsh world, but if nothing else you've at least been able to make good decisions concerning your own survival and you're about to make another one. You and Marina pack your belongings. Its time to move on again, you figure you should get out now while you can. You say goodbye to the few acquaintances you've had since your time here and warn them about the CE-Combine War before leaving. It's up to them what they're going to do. And once again, you and Marina are off, with the unknown future ahead of you.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious] You may not like this mission, and you may not like the people you're with, but it'll be a lot safer if you stick with these idiots, because you have a bad feeling about this place. In the meantime while you keep your eyes open, your ears are assaulted by your teammates' conversation. "I'm telling you she touched my hand dude! She's totally into me! I'm gonna talk to her more when we get back." Albert exclaims. "Bullshit, you didn't get anywhere with Vivica! I should know because I fuckin' tried once and she didn't give me any kind of play! I think she's a fuckin' dyke anyway." Roger replies. "Why the hell does she have to be some kind of dyke? Couldn't be that she didn't like your ugly ass?" "Fuck off Albert, go ahead and make an idiot of yourself trying to hit on some carpet muncher. I don't give a shit; I'm just trying to keep you from wasting your time." "Oh...well maybe she'll let me watch or something." "Yeah, right. That never happens except in the movies." Steve says. "The other problem with that plan, I can't think of any other woman in the Compound that might swing that way. Not unless you were some smooth pimp motherfucker that could talk her into it and given that you're far from that Albert, I'd say you're shit out of luck." "Well couldn't one of you guys help me? I mean, you could try to talk your girlfriends and we could all watch or something." "Yeah, there's a problem with that plan too Albert, namely neither one of those fuckers got girlfriends either." You interrupt. "Ha fuckin' ha. Nobody asked you for your opinion smart ass." Roger remarks annoyed. "Hey, do you think you could maybe talk to Marina then?" "Everyone shut the fuck up I hear something!" After looking around and up, in a split second of total silence, Roger speaks again. "There's nothing here, this city was fucking annihilated, ain't nothing alive except maybe rats and roaches. I dunno even know why we're so worried to begin with, do you think if anyone WAS still left alive they would be in any condition to..." Suddenly Rogers head explodes like a ripe melon after getting hit by a shotgun blast coming from the second floor window of a nearby building. The "thing" holding the shotgun is reloading and alerting his fellows. "MEEEEEEEEAAAT!" it screeches in a raspy voice. More figures start appearing. Most have a half-crazed appearance and severe radiation burns. Apparently these bomb survivors have had their minds damaged along with their bodies. "Holy shit, we're gonna die!" Albert screams and starts firing at everything. You and Steve do likewise while retreating back to the car. Before you all manage to leave the immediate area, the thing with the shotgun manages to get off another shot, blasting Albert in the leg, tearing it off. He screams and tries to crawl away, but is quickly mobbed and the last thing you see of him is some of the freaks sinking their teeth into him. "GET THE FUCK MOVING STEVE!" you shout stepping up your pace. Eventually you and Steve manage to get back to the car and speed off back to the Compound. Steve is pretty upset and while there isn't any traffic on the road, you still don't want him to be crashing into something else. "Steve calm the fuck down, and get a hold of yourself!" "Fuck you man! Didn't you see that?! They fuckin' killed Roger! And they ATE fuckin' Albert! Aw shit man! Shit! They're gonna come after us!" "I doubt that, they don't even know where we're from. Just be glad we got out of there. It was a stupid idea to go there in the first place. There's nothing there except crazed radioactive cannibals. I'm gonna tell Harry that much when we get back. Nobody's going there again, especially not me!" You're pretty pissed about this whole affair really and the more you're thinking about it; maybe you should just not return to the Compound, you have enough equipment and supplies to keep you in good shape for awhile. All you'd have to do is get rid of Steve and take the car. > Get rid of Steve Fuck this shit, you're not dealing with it anymore. You point your rifle at Steve, who's still hysterical about his friends dying. "Alright Steve, pull this car over and get out." You say calmly. "Wha...WHAT? Are you fuckin' crazy man? What're you doing?" "I'm giving you a chance to fucking live that's what! Now pull this fuckin' car over!" "My friends just fuckin' died and you pull this shit?" "You wanna end up like your goddamn idiot friends? You pull this car over now or your brains are gonna be all over the fuckin' windshield! DO IT!" "NO!" Steve shouts and violently swerves the car into nearby wreck alongside the road which you didn't even notice until you went flying out of the windshield upon impact. You walk away from the crash, but you don't walk far when you fall unconscious from your head wound injury and never wake up.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, serious] You turn off the TV and head to work, no point in worrying about things you can't do shit about. You have other real everyday problems to deal with. You go about your mundane life, doing mundane tasks at your mundane job, talking to your mundane co-workers about mundane things. Not much changes. One month later... Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up from the sofa like you always do, dreading to have to go to work at your pointless job. You haven't been sleeping well lately, you don't know what the hell the problem is, and all you know is you're going to be tired for work again. As you go through your routine of getting ready, the TV can be heard; as usual you left it on from the night before. "...Russian hardliners seized control of the government...Chinese epidemic has worsened; entire country is under quarantine...UK has withdrawn all association from the EU...Senate dissolved in US, martial law enacted...India declared open war on Pakistan...mass starvation in Africa... world wide depression... Same old doom and gloom on TV, a lot more serious now though. Those "silly" bomb shelter infomercials have increased; you've also been noticing an increase in survival type book titles whenever you browse the book stores now and the Emergency broadcasting system has been doing A LOT of tests lately. Something bad is going to happen and it's going to happen soon. You go about your life which isn't quite so mundane, world politics is a constant topic at work, and many of your co-workers aren't even coming in to do their job. All the married ones are no doubt spending time with their families, in fact the work place really isn't a work place anymore so much as it is a "socializing site". A lot of them believe the world is coming to an end anyway, so they might as well have a good time. Attempting to go about your normal life isn't an option anymore; neither is buying a bomb shelter at this late stage. > You start staying home You really didn't have any desire to know these people before, why bother now? You only worked there because you needed to. Now that it appears the whole world is going to hell, you might as well just stay home. You wonder if you shouldn't have prepared yourself for this inevitable event, but it's too late now. Last time you heard, the city was in complete anarchy, riots were breaking out and the National Guard was shooting people, can't get supplies from there now. The nearest general store closed up by its owner who headed up north with his family a month ago. Whatever supplies you have in your house will have to do. You start walking around armed at all times as you often think you'll be attacked by stray looters, who have escaped the city, but then again you live in a house on the dead end of wilderness, nobody ever comes out this way normally, and you never see another living soul. You're all alone. You spend much of your time watching TV and on the internet keeping up on events, one day blurring into the next as you often fall asleep after spending long amounts of time of being awake... Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up from the sofa. "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...." You wake up to a test pattern on TV. This is it. > You go for a drive You calmly go to your van and start it up. You drive towards the city like you would if you were going to work. You see large black smoke clouds over it in the distance, out of control fires do doubt. You guess the exodus from the city is over, because the roads are pretty empty, except for the various car wrecks you pass by, this would almost be a peaceful "Sunday drive" if there wasn't hints of carnage on the road and the fact that it was Monday. As you get closer to the city, your van stalls and then stops completely. You don't bother to turn it back on instead you get out of your car and look up in the sky shielding your eyes from the sun shining down. You see a bright light and then nothing at all.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious] You really didn't have any desire to know these people before, why bother now? You only worked there because you needed to. Now that it appears the whole world is going to hell, you might as well just stay home. You wonder if you shouldn't have prepared yourself for this inevitable event, but it's too late now. Last time you heard, the city was in complete anarchy, riots were breaking out and the National Guard was shooting people, can't get supplies from there now. The nearest general store closed up by its owner who headed up north with his family a month ago. Whatever supplies you have in your house will have to do. You start walking around armed at all times as you often think you'll be attacked by stray looters, who have escaped the city, but then again you live in a house on the dead end of wilderness, nobody ever comes out this way normally, and you never see another living soul. You're all alone. You spend much of your time watching TV and on the internet keeping up on events, one day blurring into the next as you often fall asleep after spending long amounts of time of being awake... Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up from the sofa. "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...." You wake up to a test pattern on TV. This is it. > You head down to your basement It's always been like you to do things at the last minute. After grabbing your pistol and all the food and drink you can, then heading down in the basement with it, you think that things probably won't be that bad. After all you don't live in the city, or even by an important city, surely not EVERY place will get bombed. It's not like you live on the east or west coast, now those people are going to be fucked. No, all you have to do is wait this out, and then things will get back to normal...okay well maybe not normal, but surely the government will restore order of some sort, you're sure they have a complex plan for this kind of thing. Eventually you hear a very loud noise; whatever light you had on in the basement immediately goes out as you can hear your house being hit by a powerful force. You curl up in a ball and hold your ears half expecting the entire house to collapse in on you, but it doesn't happen. You stay in the basement, for what you guess to be a week. You mostly stumble around in the darkness as reality begins to set in and destroy your previous delusions. You mainly think about how you should've planned things out better, especially since your food and drink are running out. The only thing you know really know about nuclear attacks is what you've learned from movies, video games and comic books. You can only hope some of that shit was helpful, as you have little choice, but to leave your basement, the bucket you were using to relieve yourself down there was really starting to stink anyway. You open up your basement door, which remarkably stayed intact, along with most of your house. The windows and other glass objects have all broke, and there's no power, but that's about it. You can only guess that whatever it was that hit, was far enough away and probably very low yield. You don't really want to think about the radioactivity factor though; you'll know if you're catching a lethal dose soon enough if your hair and teeth start falling out and you begin vomiting blood. Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter... You check the refrigerator again for more food, but there won't be enough to last you one day. You wonder if the water is still working and turn on the faucet, of course it doesn't, you don't think you'd want to risk drinking any of it anyway. Well it looks like you can't stay in your house either; you're going to have to leave to find food and some sort of drinkable liquid. Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter... Well if you're going to leave, you decide some sort of protection is in order; you grab some dishwashing gloves underneath the sink, some safety goggles you've had since you college chemistry class, a winter coat and finally a scarf your grandmother knit you for one of your birthdays to wrap over your mouth. You look somewhat silly in this getup and it probably won't protect you at all, but you're back to deluding yourself again which is probably a good thing since your relapses into fantasy are keeping you from breaking down completely. You open your dented garage door and get in your old van expecting it not to work, surprisingly it does. You thought it wouldn't due to all that stuff you remember hearing about EMP waves or something, then again your car was built in a year before they started mounting entire computers in the fucking things, so maybe that's why it still works. You don't know, you're just glad its one of the things you still have that functions, you didn't want to be riding that bike you bought and hardly ever used. You throw your backpack of useful items (flashlight, small tool set, first aid kit, etc) into the van and ponder where to go. You've got two choices that immediately come to mind assuming both still exist; one is that "Mom & Pop" General Store that was abandoned at least a month ago. You can't imagine they took everything from the place. The other choice is to risk going to the city and finding something there. Despite all the looting and mass exodus that was going on there before any of this went down, the city's still a big place and there's probably lots of useful stuff there, the problem is wondering if you'll be heading into a death zone. That radioactivity concern is still in the back of your mind. Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter... > You head to the general store You might be absorbing more rads than usual now, but heading to the city would just be retarded. You'd probably die of cancer just going near the place; everything there would be contaminated anyway. You don't even want to see the survivors what the survivors might look like assuming there were any. You head for the general store, that's at least a safer bet. You drive your Van to the general store not very far from your house. You remember the old guy who ran the place; Billy. He was always alright with you. Whenever you went in to buy food, he was always talking about how bad the state of world was getting and how he was going to be prepared for when the nukes started flying. You're guessing he probably invested in one of those Ground Zero Survival Shelters you always saw for sale on TV and took himself and his wife to it. The last time you saw the place it was all boarded up and looked closed up for good, still it's a start. You arrive at the store which is still all boarded up like the last time you've seen it. You always found it weird that Billy bothered to board the place up, if he was going to abandon it. Surely he couldn't have thought things would be restored so quickly after a nuclear exchange that he'd be able to return some day. You get out of your van and study the store more closely which you never bothered to do before, the windows are boarded up from the outside, but upon closer inspection the door hasn't been boarded up at all. You try the door, but it's firmly locked. Nothing else for it, but to bash it down. You begin prying, slamming, kicking and everything else to the door, but its not budging and you only succeed in bruising your shoulder. In frustration you pull out your pistol and finally just shoot at the lock and then try to open it, which it does slightly, something else is barring the door from the inside though. You're going to have to start ramming the thing again to shove it open enough to get inside. Suddenly you hear some noise from inside and the click of a shotgun, it's also only just then you realize that Billy's pick up truck is still parked by the side of his store. He's obviously still here and you were oblivious to the fact. "Goddamn it Martha, hasn't been a month yet an' we already got scum tryin' ta loot the place!" It's Billy. You thought he left, but apparently not. He just made it look like he did and barricaded himself inside. "Alright you looting shit stain, you better just get the fuck outta here right now, 'fore you find yourself with a new hole in your chest!" Billy says from inside. "Whoa Billy it's me! I used to shop here! Come on open up, I'm not a looter!" you reply. "...(sigh) hold on, and back away from the goddamn door." You back away as Billy presumably moves whatever was still blocking the door. When he finally opens it up, he stands in the doorway still pointing his shotgun at you. "Damnation boy, I coulda blown your head off! You fuckin' destroyed my lock! What the hell are you wearin'?" Billy asks looking at your silly form of protection. "I'm sorry; I thought you abandoned this place." "Oh and that gave you the excuse to break in? What're you think yer doin' anyway? Why aren't you in your shelter or something?" "Cause I don't have one that's why! I was going to see if this place had any supplies and maybe stay here, if it wasn't in bad condition." "Oh. Well, sorry to crush yer dreams, but this place is still occupied and OWNED by me. You're gonna have to skedaddle. Just enough supplies for me and my wife." "But..." "No buts! Now you were a good customer an' all, but this is a new world and the rules have severely changed! It's all about survival now. And it's not my fault your ass didn't prepare for somethin' that was comin' for a long time! Now if you don't leave now I'm gonna be less understanding about this lack of judgment on your part. Bye and good luck." "No wait!" At this point Billy slams the door shut mumbling about the lock being destroyed and going to have to fix it. Billy must have some sort of private bomb shelter of his own, if he barricaded himself inside his own store. One that must be stocked pretty well to sustain him and his wife for a good amount of time. An idea races through your head that you never thought you'd consider, well not before the nukes hit anyway, but Billy's statement of "This is about survival" rings true. It IS about survival, and not just his. You don't really want to do this, but you feel like you have no other choice. Billy is still trying to barricade the door, when you take another forceful charge into it. Your attempt is successful this time as it flies open causing Billy to fall and drop the heavy box he was going to place in front of it. The box half lands on Billy causing him crushing pain while he struggles to grab his shotgun from the floor. You're quicker though and point your own pistol at him. "Don't grab that shotgun Billy...I don't want to kill you." you say "Goddamn sonofabitch, you ain't taking this..." "Billy what's... OH MY GOD!" When you hear Martha's outburst, it startles you during this already tense moment, you end up turning around and firing. You hit Martha square in the chest; she looks down briefly in shock before falling over dead. You're a little in shock yourself. "MARTHA!" Billy screams, causing you to face him once more, he's now actually grabbed the shotgun, and you begin babbling. "Oh God! Oh man! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that! She came up and...Billy don't do that...I don't want to...please..." You fire again, hitting Billy in the head, splattering his brains all over the floor and killing him instantly. You feel sick and promptly run outside to vomit. You've never killed anyone before, though you don't think it was that, that made you sick. It was the fact you murdered two people who were really innocent. You were the trespasser and when you couldn't get what you wanted, you took it by force. You acted like a criminal even if there's no such thing as "law" anymore. You sit down in a daze for a few minute trying to take all this in, before realizing you have to take care of some clean up first. You remove the bodies of Billy and Martha from the store. (You also remove your silly "protection wear", well except the dishwashing gloves for moving the bodies) You wonder where you're going put them, but eventually you decide to just dump them in the wilderness nearby, you figure nature will take its course. You go back to the store and re-barricade it. The store itself is empty, but in a back room, you discover a trapdoor. You descend and discover a large shelter with a treasure of food and water supplies, along with other useful items like first aid kits. Looks like Billy was more prepared than you could've imagined. One necessity you're glad to find is a bathroom facility with a sink and toilet, there's a little bit of water seeping from the cracks of the walls. Billy must've hit the jackpot and found an underground water source and built a crude plumbing system. He's also installed a small hydro generator which would explain how come there's dim lighting down here. Finally you see some survivalist books Billy had on a small bookshelf by a bed and a couple of hunting rifles along with ammunition for them and the shotgun you've recently acquired as well. Well you're certainly set up, and all you had to do was kill an old couple. As you lie down on the bed you think about your actions in greater depth now. You're not sure how to feel. Part of you wants to feel bad, but somehow you can't make yourself feel as bad as you probably should. In fact you're already starting to rationalize your actions. The first murder was a mistake, and the second one was self-defense. "And this is survival." You say and fall asleep. The next day you wake up, you feel the most refreshed than you have in a long time. Something has changed within you. You don't recognize immediately, but as a few months go by you begin to. Granted you were never a big one for human contact, anti-social and reclusive even, but this "line" you've crossed recently, your continued isolation, and the absence of civilization have made you become a little unhinged. You also start becoming paranoid, about other people stumbling across your new place and attempt to break in and take it like you did. Using the knowledge you've been getting from the survivalist books, you start setting up traps, inside and outside the store. One time, you spend just about a whole day doing that. When the darkness approaches you go back to your underground haven to descend further into quiet madness, before you fall asleep. Suddenly in the middle of the night you hear a noise and a scream from above. Sounds like it's coming from outside and from more than one person. You immediately grab your shotgun and head upstairs. After going through the typical routine of taking down the barricades, you open the door and see a family in panic. A man is lying on the ground yelling in pain from the snap trap that has obviously broken his leg. A woman and a little boy are screaming frantically and totally clueless of what to do in this situation. Looks like your traps work. The family hasn't seen you yet and don't know your intentions, come to think of it, you aren't even sure of your intentions... > You finish them off Obviously they thought they could just stroll in and take shelter here, bad mistake on their part... You calmly point the shotgun at the man caught in the trap and blast him before he even notices you. The little boy now really begins screaming, but the woman just becomes silent and falls into shock turning her head in your direction covered in the blood of her husband. You don't feel sick like you did last time; you do feel an overwhelming sense of power though. The woman grabs her son's hand and turns to run, but realizes two seconds later that she's only holding on to his hand and the rest of him is lying on the ground, one arm less, from your second blast. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" the woman screams. "Because I can, and there's nobody around to stop me." You say and briskly walk over to the woman. After a pathetic struggle you knock her out and drag her into your new home. After all, you're not sure when you'll get to see another woman again... A couple days after the incident with the family (and disposing of all three bodies) you begin keeping yourself in better shape. You start exercising regularly, and fixing up your home. You need to be prepared, in case more people ever show up. You MUST defend yourself and your home. You don't get many, but every now and then another poor soul stumbles across your death lair. You're merciless. Soon you begin to arrange the vehicles of your victims to form a semi "wall" around your home and place some grisly totems as "decoration". A year passes... You don't get visitors anymore, though that's probably because of the unfriendly image you've projected with all the skulls you've stuck on the spikes outside. Part of you is glad that you aren't being disturbed anymore, but the other part misses the killing. You begin to wonder if you shouldn't start venturing out more, but you'd hate to leave your home. One day you're awakened by the roar of motorcycles. You've got visitors again, you ready your weapons. As you head upstairs you hear that inevitable "SNAP!" sound followed by screaming. Yet another victim to your traps, though you hear the typical sounds of distress, you also hear some laughter, taunting even, which has got you more curious than anything. You check through a little peephole you made and see a bunch of biker types, one is lying on the ground, his leg nearly severed by the hidden bear trap. While one is trying to free him, a couple of the others are just laughing and remarking about how it looks like it really hurts. "Look are you assholes going to help or not?" one of them asks. "Hey, I told you fuckers not to go traipsing into a place that has skulls stuck on stakes. Y'all should've known it wasn't exactly going to be a friendly place." "We need fuckin' gas Jim, and this place has a lot of vehicles, and maybe some of them have gas. We had to go check!" "Well yeah, but that didn't mean just walking around unaware of your surroundings...shit that leg looks bad." "That leg is bad. Even if you did get it off of him, he's probably going to lose it to infection. I wiped my own shit on it, not to mention it was developing a nice set of rust on it when I found it. I'd say his bike riding days are over." You say standing your doorway with your shotgun ready. The bikers look in your direction, one looks like he's going to pull his pistol, but the one called Jim stops him. He's obviously the leader. "You might be right, stranger, but that still leaves you outnumbered one to three. You sure you wanna take those odds?" Jim says. "I'll take 'em and I'll enjoy it. It's been a long time since I've killed a whole mess of people." "Oh, so you're a REAL killer eh?" "Better killer than you." "Hah! I doubt that! See me an' the boys here have been raisin' hell where ever we can. Come across a few towns and let's just say we're not real welcome there anymore. It's a brand new world, and only the strong are gonna survive it." "Yeah? Well it looks like one of your flock isn't so strong now." "Yeah...well you might be right about that stranger...maybe someone should put him out of his misery. Can't very well ride with one leg, that'd be kind of silly." The biker trying to help speaks up. "Oh come on Jim man! Clyde here saved all of our asses about a month ago!" "Yeah? Well what has he done for us lately? The stranger's right, we gotta put him down, it's the kind thing to do really. You gonna do it, Dan?" "No...I...mean...well..." "Pussy. Nevermind. Ramon you gonna do it?" "Shit yeah! Here hold on, oh fuck." Ramon says pulling out his pistol and then dropping it on the ground. Jim just shakes his head. "Ramon, its amazing you've even lasted this long with your clumsy ass. Fuck it, I'LL do it." > You let Jim kill Clyde As strange as it may seem, you're kind of glad for the company believe it or not, so you'd rather just let this play out and see where it leads. You can always kill them all later. Meanwhile Jim is pointing his gun at Clyde's head in an overly dramatic manner. "Alright Clyde you knew the risks. No begging or pleadin' now." "Come on Jim! Don't do this! I can still ride...I'll..." "Goddamn it, get a fuckin' hold of yourself you fuckin' sissy! Fuck, I was givin' you a chance to go out like a man! Guess you fucked that up. Die bitch!" Jim blows Clyde's brains out, and turns his attention back to you. "Can't say I didn't give him a fair chance." "Yes...so what do you have planned now?" you ask, forming an idea in your mind. "Planned? Ha ha! We don't do a whole lotta planning, we just kinda roam from place to place causing meaningless violence! I think there's a town around in this area somewhere..." "You probably should look for a more reliable fuel source, if you're going to continue with this line of work." "Yeah, well we'll be good after Ramon here sucks out the remaining gas from this vehicle graveyard you got here. I trust YOU won't have a problem with that right?" "I'm sucking what?!" Ramon says with a surprised look on his face. "No, I don't have a problem with it, but what happens when that runs out? Are you going hope you find some more in your travels?" "It's worked so far...what the hell are you getting at?" "Instead of spreading meaningless violence on a small scale, how about spreading meaningful violence on a grand scale for a change?" You explain how you've been reading in the survivalist books about how to create a still, except not being a drinker; you never felt the need to create one. However that same cheap hooch could probably work as a substitute for real gas, if certain modifications were made to the vehicles. Basically the vehicles would be running on "garbage" given that's what the booze is made out of. It would smell horrible, but you get the impression that Jim and his boys wouldn't know the difference anyway. You begin to explain even more technical aspects as well, but you soon realize it's too much to process for them, so you stop before their heads explode. They do realize you seem to be a lot smarter than the rest of them though, so they agree to your "grand" plan. You tell one of them that they should drive to the nearest town by themselves, try to get a feel of the place, to scout the entire place out, find out what the defenses are and all of that. Ultimately Dan is chosen for this task since he can actually come off as being a nice guy. You give him some canned food and some bottled water you have. You explain that he should use the stuff as something to barter with, so it looks like he's just a wandering traveler. While Dan goes and does some scouting, you get to work on the still and Jim and Ramon, work on their altering their bikes (At least they know how to do that) a few days pass and you all generally start getting along. Unsurprisingly Jim and the rest of his gang were criminals even before the bombs dropped. You lie and say you were in the life of crime as well, nothing too specific though and just common and vague enough for Jim to believe. Of course all the people you killed after the bombs, you don't need to lie about at all. When Dan comes back, he does so with some interesting news. He mentions the closest town is Cinderville. He mentions it's not a completely harmonious town and it does have its rougher elements, but the local law enforcement is still in control of the place and relies on a vigilante mindset of some of the townspeople. Apparently they're trying to keep the resemblance of the "old world". He mentions there's another gang that hangs around the outskirts of it which attempts raids every now and then, but they're poorly lead. Finally he states they have a small farming area with animals like cows and pigs. Not all for eating, but to mainly produce shit for biofuel to run the law enforcement vehicles. Originally you were just thinking you could strike hard and fast and get out, every few months to break up the monotony, with the still to keep your vehicle running so you could engage in this behavior. But with this new information, of other gangs in the area and bad elements in the actual little oasis of civilization, you wonder if you couldn't actually take over the town, at the very least you could destabilize it. The biofuel center wouldn't be a bad acquisition either. You're confident you can pull this off, you just need more help. > You recruit some of the locals You decide that the locals have more intimate knowledge of the town and would probably be better to enlist help from. You suggest that you all go to Cinderville and do just that. After re-trapping your home, and gathering what supplies you think you'll need, you and the bikers all take a trip to Cinderville (You take your Van). After about a day of traveling you arrive at the place. However you don't get very far. The townsfolk remember Dan, and the cops were watching him the whole time he entered town. They didn't really buy his whole "wandering traveler" act and neither did most other people. They figured he was up to no good. So when all of you come rolling in, the cops instantly arrive and tell you to leave immediately. Normally you might've done that and come up with another strategy, but Jim begins revving up his cycle and shooting at the fuckers and disregards whatever plan you had. His boys follow suit. After seeing Ramon getting his head blown off and Jim get shot off his bike, you have no intention of sharing that fate, so you swerve to turn the van around...which promptly dies on the spot. "SHIT! GODDAMN IT! I JUST FIXED IT!" you shout beating on the wheel. "GIVE UP, ALL YOUR LOWLIFE BUDDIES ARE DEAD! GET OUTTA THE VAN NOW ASSHOLE!" you hear one of the cops shout in a bullhorn. Do they really expect you to give up? This is a brand new world, the cops don't need to put anyone in jail anymore; they can just shoot criminals. Not to mention, Dan had mentioned a vigilante mindset of the common townsfolk. They probably have every intention in hanging your ass, assuming they don't shoot you immediately after you give up. Fuck it; you ain't going out without a fight. Hell maybe you'll even get back home, probably not. (Sigh) you think maybe you should've just stayed in your nice home waylaying wanderers when they came by. Too late for that now though. You grab the hunting rifle and put it on your back, check your pistol, and grab your shotgun to be your primary weapon. You take a deep breath and open up sliding door of your van and blast the first pig you see and make a break for it. You manage to get a few blocks with the cops in pursuit, before one of the neighborhood "Rambos" shoots at you, hitting you in the leg. You fall to the street hard, dropping your shotgun which spirals out of your hand several feet from you. You get some pay back by blasting the shithead who shot you in the leg when he came closer to confirm the "kill". You struggle to stand up, only to get hit by a fucking police car fully intent on running you down, except you go flying in the air instead and land on your face again with a pair of broken legs now. The car stops and a police woman with dreadlocks gets out, she shoots you in the arm, when you attempt to go for your pistol. "You're under arrest suga!" she says in a high voice. You merely turn to look at her, and laugh at the absurdity of it all. "Fuck you bitch." "You wish honey!" And with that last snappy come back, she decides that you were resisting arrest and shoots you.

As strange as it may seem, you're kind of glad for the company believe it or not, so you'd rather just let this play out and see where it leads. You can always kill them all later. Meanwhile Jim is pointing his gun at Clyde's head in an overly dramatic manner. "Alright Clyde you knew the risks. No begging or pleadin' now." "Come on Jim! Don't do this! I can still ride...I'll..." "Goddamn it, get a fuckin' hold of yourself you fuckin' sissy! Fuck, I was givin' you a chance to go out like a man! Guess you fucked that up. Die bitch!" Jim blows Clyde's brains out, and turns his attention back to you. "Can't say I didn't give him a fair chance." "Yes...so what do you have planned now?" you ask, forming an idea in your mind. "Planned? Ha ha! We don't do a whole lotta planning, we just kinda roam from place to place causing meaningless violence! I think there's a town around in this area somewhere..." "You probably should look for a more reliable fuel source, if you're going to continue with this line of work." "Yeah, well we'll be good after Ramon here sucks out the remaining gas from this vehicle graveyard you got here. I trust YOU won't have a problem with that right?" "I'm sucking what?!" Ramon says with a surprised look on his face. "No, I don't have a problem with it, but what happens when that runs out? Are you going hope you find some more in your travels?" "It's worked so far...what the hell are you getting at?" "Instead of spreading meaningless violence on a small scale, how about spreading meaningful violence on a grand scale for a change?" You explain how you've been reading in the survivalist books about how to create a still, except not being a drinker; you never felt the need to create one. However that same cheap hooch could probably work as a substitute for real gas, if certain modifications were made to the vehicles. Basically the vehicles would be running on "garbage" given that's what the booze is made out of. It would smell horrible, but you get the impression that Jim and his boys wouldn't know the difference anyway. You begin to explain even more technical aspects as well, but you soon realize it's too much to process for them, so you stop before their heads explode. They do realize you seem to be a lot smarter than the rest of them though, so they agree to your "grand" plan. You tell one of them that they should drive to the nearest town by themselves, try to get a feel of the place, to scout the entire place out, find out what the defenses are and all of that. Ultimately Dan is chosen for this task since he can actually come off as being a nice guy. You give him some canned food and some bottled water you have. You explain that he should use the stuff as something to barter with, so it looks like he's just a wandering traveler. While Dan goes and does some scouting, you get to work on the still and Jim and Ramon, work on their altering their bikes (At least they know how to do that) a few days pass and you all generally start getting along. Unsurprisingly Jim and the rest of his gang were criminals even before the bombs dropped. You lie and say you were in the life of crime as well, nothing too specific though and just common and vague enough for Jim to believe. Of course all the people you killed after the bombs, you don't need to lie about at all. When Dan comes back, he does so with some interesting news. He mentions the closest town is Cinderville. He mentions it's not a completely harmonious town and it does have its rougher elements, but the local law enforcement is still in control of the place and relies on a vigilante mindset of some of the townspeople. Apparently they're trying to keep the resemblance of the "old world". He mentions there's another gang that hangs around the outskirts of it which attempts raids every now and then, but they're poorly lead. Finally he states they have a small farming area with animals like cows and pigs. Not all for eating, but to mainly produce shit for biofuel to run the law enforcement vehicles. Originally you were just thinking you could strike hard and fast and get out, every few months to break up the monotony, with the still to keep your vehicle running so you could engage in this behavior. But with this new information, of other gangs in the area and bad elements in the actual little oasis of civilization, you wonder if you couldn't actually take over the town, at the very least you could destabilize it. The biofuel center wouldn't be a bad acquisition either. You're confident you can pull this off, you just need more help. > You approach the raiders Entering the town again, wouldn't be a good idea. From the sound of it, the town is suspicious of outsiders, if Dan showed up again with the lot of you; they'd know something was up. Not to mention he was the most "presentable" of all of you. You figure the raiders might be a better choice. If they're poorly led, then maybe just taking care of the leader will make the rest fall in line. "Alright Dan, you know where the raiders hang out?" you ask. "Um, not exactly, but its somewhere in the hills near Cinderville." "Okay let's go there. We can probably kick the leader's ass and..." Jim all of sudden stops you in mid-sentence. "Hold up, brain boy. I know you got all these great ideas, and you seem to be a pretty ruthless sonofabitch, and I respect that, but let's keep in mind that I'M running this fuckin' gang. Don't presume you can just order us all around about what we're going to do." He tells you in an authoritative voice and implies bodily harm if you disagree with him. (Sigh) You had a feeling this was going to happen. > You kill Jim "Y'know what, you're right Jim, you shouldn't have to take orders from me." "Good, I'm glad we understand each other." "That's why you won't be around to do it any longer!" Before anyone can do anything, you draw your pistol and shoot Jim three times in the chest before he falls dead. Ramon and Dan look like they want to react, but don't. "Good. Glad to see you guys are smarter than you appear. Now Dan, lead us to the raiders." After taking some supplies you think you'll need and re-trapping your home, you all set off to leave. (You take your van) In about a day, you arrive around in the area that Dan was talking about, in fact you don't need to look for the raiders; they instantly approach you when they see you coming. It would appear some of them have a few vehicles as well, you just hope you can pull this off. You get out of your van and your two new lackeys stop their bikes, they don't like the looks of this, especially since you're greatly outnumbered. "Hey, uh...maybe this isn't such a good idea..." Ramon says. "Yeah, when I was in Cinderville, I heard these guys could get pretty crazy." Dan adds. "Pfft, these types always fall in line when you display sufficient strength. All I gotta do is challenge the leader to hand to hand combat or some shit. Hell, you fuckers were in prison, you know how this works." You arrogantly reply. "Yeah, but even in prison there were rules! I mean there ain't no rules at all out here! Who says they're going to accept your challenge?" With Dan's last statement, you figure you'll soon find out when the raiders arrive and stop their own vehicles. The leader steps out of his beat up car, and steps forward. He looks mean enough, like he's been living in the wasteland from day one. "So, you got any last words, before we fuck you and eat you?" he asks. "Yeah, I heard you're the lame cocksucker, who can't even handle a few pigs and some wannabe vigilantes in Cinderville." You reply. The raider leader's expression gets even meaner looking if such a thing is possible. "Oh? And I suppose YOU can do a better job?" he sneers. "Sure the fuck can, all I need is more people. In fact I'd say yours would do just fine, so are you going to step down from your inept leadership, or am I gonna have to beat the shit outta you and take it?" After looking at you up and down, he speaks again. "Shit, I doubt if you could even last five minutes. Fuck this; I'm not wasting my time. Kill these assholes." As soon as he says those words, you immediately turn to run, ducking and trying to get into your van, but in the shooting, the raiders hit the van's front tires by the time you make it inside. Dan and Ramon speed off, with some of the raiders in pursuit, while you attempt to drive in reverse and turn around on flat tires. The raider leader rams your van with his own car, which has been fitted with extra plating. Eventually in the mayhem of the ramming, shooting and swerving around on flat tires on an incline, you roll the van over and over down the hill. It's amazing that you don't get killed and the van didn't blow up. You however aren't in such great shape. You barely manage to crawl from your wrecked van, and when you do, the raider leader arrives in his own car just in time to finish you off. He finds you crawling on the ground, when he opens up his door to point a sawed off shotgun in your face and pull the trigger.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious, post-apocalyptic] Entering the town again, wouldn't be a good idea. From the sound of it, the town is suspicious of outsiders, if Dan showed up again with the lot of you; they'd know something was up. Not to mention he was the most "presentable" of all of you. You figure the raiders might be a better choice. If they're poorly led, then maybe just taking care of the leader will make the rest fall in line. "Alright Dan, you know where the raiders hang out?" you ask. "Um, not exactly, but its somewhere in the hills near Cinderville." "Okay let's go there. We can probably kick the leader's ass and..." Jim all of sudden stops you in mid-sentence. "Hold up, brain boy. I know you got all these great ideas, and you seem to be a pretty ruthless sonofabitch, and I respect that, but let's keep in mind that I'M running this fuckin' gang. Don't presume you can just order us all around about what we're going to do." He tells you in an authoritative voice and implies bodily harm if you disagree with him. (Sigh) You had a feeling this was going to happen. > You back down While you probably could kill this fat fucker, but for now you have to have all the help you can get and no disunity to pull this plan off, so you'll back down for now... "Hey, I never said I was the leader, I know you are Jim." "Good. Glad we understand each other." "So go ahead and tell us what YOU think is the best course of action for this plan." "Um...well...your strategy sounded pretty good." Jim says predictably Just as you thought, you're STILL in control, just had to give the fool the appearance that he's still in control. After taking some supplies you think you'll need and re-trapping your home, you all set off to leave. (You take your van) In about a day, you arrive around in the area that Dan was talking about, in fact you don't need to look for the raiders; they instantly approach you when they see you coming. It would appear some of them have a few vehicles as well. Jim signals for everyone to halt and he gets off his bike. Ramon and Dan halt near Jim, but don't get off their bikes. You in the meantime grab your hunting rifle and hang in the back a bit, you just hope Jim can pull this shit off, especially since you're greatly outnumbered. Soon the raiders arrive and stop their own vehicles. The leader steps out of his beat up car, and steps forward. He looks mean enough, like he's been living in the wasteland from day one. "So, you got any last words, before we fuck you and eat you?" he asks Jim. "Yeah, I heard you're the pussy ass bitch, who can't even handle a few pigs and some fuckin' vigilantes in Cinderville." Jim replies. The raider leader's expression gets even meaner looking if such a thing is possible. "Oh? And I suppose YOU can do a better job you fat tub of shit?" he sneers. "Sure the fuck can asshole, all I need is more men. In fact I'd say yours would do just fine, so I'd say you'd better just step aside and see a pro in action." "Don't think so, besides I've already seen a fag get his mouth gang fucked by a bunch of guys." You sure hope Jim is a better fighter, because he's losing in the battle of snappy comebacks right now. In fact he can't come up with a response, so he just slugs the raider leader instead. You fully expect the shooting to start, but instead the raider leader laughs, pulls out the biggest blade you've ever seen and screams "THIS ONE IS MINE!" During the fight, you scan all your potential greatest threats and the quickest order to pick them off, in case this all goes south. You're so busy doing that, that you're not really paying attention to the actual fight, which Jim as it turns out, is winning. After tussling on the ground, slamming into nearby vehicles, punching, kicking and all the rest, Jim finally puts an end to his opponent by shoving his own knife through his throat. Everyone goes silent, and Jim stands up wiping the blood off of himself. "Alright! Now listen the fuck up! Your previous leader was a lame ass who couldn't get the job done, and that changes right now! We're gonna get fuckin' organized and take that goddamn little town! Might makes fuckin' right! Are ya with me, or are ya gonna go running off like a limp wristed sissy?" Well, it's a good thing you didn't kill Jim, because these raiders seem to really identify with him and they unanimously accept him as their new leader. You doubt if you would've had that success. You've never been a people person, regardless of who those people might've been, however you are an idea person, and now you move on to your next phase. After Jim finally gets all the new people to listen, you begin to explain your plan, the problem before is they kept stupidly attacking from one direction, rather than doing the classic "pincer" maneuver and attacking from multiple sides. Using Dan's information, you specifically pick out areas where the most damage can initially be done with the least amount of risk. You point out the spot where there's still an old school being used to teach the children. Take control of that with the kids inside and you've severely reduced most of the townspeople's willingness to fight, which will curb the neighborhood "Charles Bronsons" from helping the police force. In fact you decide to take that job since you want Jim to lead the raiders in the main direct assault force with the cops. Dan and Ramon will be traveling with their own smaller force to attack other parts of the town, spreading out the cops' usually organized force. It's also hoped that the more disreputable elements that Dan mentioned living in the town, will join in the mayhem on your side, or at least against their side. The raider vehicles themselves are not in the best condition, and most of them are running low on gas, but they'll do for now. You figure if all goes well, the still fuel that you created back at your home, as well as the farming area in the town with the pig and cow shit biofuel can solve those problems later. In fact you specifically mention that NO damage should happen to that area in this attack, though you don't expect them to follow that order. You don't want to wait long to attack with this bunch, since they have the attention span of a gnat of crack. You have to attack soon when they're all hyped up. You suggest that to Jim, who agrees since he's anxious to get to this dastardly business anyway. In a couple days you're attacking the town as planned. You start on your end first, making a beeline to the school, before the main attack force arrives. A few of the raiders are in your van itching to start creating some havoc. You stop outside of the school and run inside with your current trigger happy cohorts. A couple of them kill a few kids and you have to remind them you're SUPPOSED to be holding them hostage right now! If the townsfolk don't comply THEN you can start capping the little bastards. You tell them to go and kill the teachers if they want. In the mean time you take the opportunity to shout from the window to the crowd gathering outside. You tell them that if any of them start trying to defend the town or help the cops, then their kids are going to be killed. To show you're really serious though, you tell one of the raiders to toss a kid out the window. A collective cry goes up from the crowd when the body hits the pavement and their pathetic begging is pleasing to your ears. You get a few people shooting at you anyway (Obviously not parents) but having a good vantage point and a hunting rifle, you start sniping the idiots who have decided to ignore your threats. A few more kids thrown out the window causes ALL the shooting to stop. You can hear the sounds of battle from your position; no cops have arrived so you're guessing Jim and the rest are doing their job. You're really enjoying all this chaos you've created, you were just stagnating before the bombs dropped, now in this new world you're free to embrace the darkest part of yourself that always existed, but wasn't allowed the flourish. You love this fucking shit. Eventually you hear a roar of a motorcycle, followed by the sound of some bottles breaking. You go to check the window and see the crowd outside running and screaming, some of them on fire from the Molotov Cocktails just thrown at them. You also see Ramon shouting up to you. "Hey! We're winning man! The remaining cops are barricaded in their fucking station, broke the Mayor's legs and dragged him through the street and best of all we got some of the other local punks to join us! There's practically no more resistance left! Its total fucking anarchy man!" You turn around and begin smiling at the kids you're holding hostage which somehow scares them even more. You pick up a young girl and kiss her hard on the lips and laugh at the fear in her eyes. You then throw her down and tell the raiders with you they can do whatever they want, because you're going to indulge in some pure havoc on your own. After a couple days and nights of indulging in this activity, Jim finally gets around to settling his new gang down (Which he's inventively called "Jim's Reapers") and wondering about what to do with the town now that he has control over it. He seems to have forgotten already that it was YOU, who orchestrated this. Now that the task has been accomplished perhaps this would be the time to discuss the leadership role again. Then again, you wonder if you even want to bother. Sure there's the power and such, but there's also the headache of dealing with all these morons on a regular basis and running the town. The "fun" part is over as it were. > You kill Jim for control of the town The whole point of this endeavor was to take control of the town and you're not going to let Jim get that glory. You go find him in the Mayor's Manor still tormenting the mayor and his wife. The mayor is currently lying on the floor bloody and helpless with his legs a useless mess. His wife is naked in a fetal position in a corner just rocking to herself in a state of perpetual shock, its apparent she's been raped over and over. Jim doesn't have anyone else with him, not even have Dan or Ramon, he's all by himself in a drunken stupor at the moment celebrating his new found power, unaware that you're about to relieve him of it. "Heeeeey! Killer! Its you! Have a drink! This fucker's got some classy shit stashed in his cellar! (Hic!)" "Nah, that's okay. So I see you've been having fun eh?" "Me? Oh fuck yeah! The mayor over here has got himself one fine piece of ass! Been tryin' her out every other hour y'know what I mean? HAR HAR HAR!" "Hmmm, yes." You say looking over at her again, while Jim continues to pontificate. "Shit man (Hic!) I think me, you, Dan and fuckin' Ramon are the few straight bastards in this gang! Those fuckin' raiders we recruited? I ain't even seen them try to get any of the pussy in this town. They must've been in the wasteland too damn long or somethin', I think they forgot what a god (hic!) damn bitch looks like. Been cornholin' each other so much they went an' fell in love! HAR HAR HAR HAR! (hic!) Ah hell I'm not judgin'. (hic!)" While Jim wanders into the next room still talking about his gang's sexual preference, you go over to the mayor who's been baring his mental and physical pain in silence the whole time. When you crouch near him and pull your pistol out, he thinks this is it, but you have something "special" in mind. You see that his hands are still in good shape so you keep your voice down and look him in the eyes. "You're gonna die. Nothing can stop this. Resign yourself to this fact. Life sucks and that's all there is to it." you say unloading your pistol, but keeping one bullet in the chamber. "...however, you can still get vengeance. I thought you might like to know that I'm the one who planned this attack. I'm the one who orchestrated this town's destruction. A town you no longer have any control over and has had many of its citizens viciously killed thanks to my actions... the fat piece of drunken shit in the next room has personally beaten you and violated your wife, repeatedly. Over and over. In front of you. His fat smelly flesh all over her while he enjoyed it the whole time. Probably shoved his cock in all three holes too huh?" He looks at you with a mixture of fear, hate, and sorrow, while tears fill his eyes. You place the gun in his hand. "...well anyway, there's one bullet in the gun. Remember, you got one shot, one chance for vengeance, make your choice. Better hide that, here comes Jim." Jim comes stumbling back in room, while the mayor holds the gun close to himself in a bad attempt to hide it. The stand back waiting to see what happens next. "...I mean hell I've fucked a few prags when I (hic!) was in prison, but...hey...what have you got there?" Jim asks seeing the mayor holding something, but not able to make it out clearly due to his inebriated state. Jim gets closer, closer, and then mayor draws on him. He sobers up just long enough to realize he's got a bullet between his eyes. "...what the fuuuuuuuuck..." Jim says before falling face first on the floor. "Wow, that was pretty intense, I mean my own life was on the line there! Whew! But I figured you'd kill Jim, too bad it wasn't the right choice on your part." You say punching the mayor in the face and take your pistol back, loading it again. "Stupid bastard, didn't it occur to you that I'd do the same thing to your wife?" "No...don't..." he says looking up at you with blood coming from his mouth, as your own curls cruelly upward. "Just kidding, I wouldn't stick my dick anywhere near Jim has been. Looks like you made the right choice after all!" You put the mayor out of his misery and shoot him in the face. You then approach the mayor's wife who's still been rocking to herself this whole time. You look at her a little closer. "Hmm, you must've been very beautiful before this all happened." You remark, caressing her damaged face, before ending her life as well. Having had your fun, you go and announce you're the leader now. Unfortunately you don't quite have the charisma or imposing physique Jim had, so not everyone is willing to follow. (Ramon and Dan are among the first ones you kill for disobeying you) What ultimately happens is the town becomes a factional warzone where nobody is really in control and the poor Cinderville townsfolk are caught in the middle. Eventually things stabilize and a few of the "heavy weights" carve out their own territories and there's an unstable peace in the town. Fights still break out, but there's never an imbalance of power or advantage for long. (Though, maintaining a hold on the biofuel refinery gives you a little bit of an advantage...) Four years pass... Five years have passed since the bombs dropped and you couldn't be happier. You've accomplished more than you ever did in the old world. World War Three was the best thing that ever happened to you. You've been running your own slice of heaven in this hellish world and had the freedom to live out your true nature, which you've done for the past five years. And now that freedom could be coming to an end. Recently through rumors and wandering travelers who have the misfortune of finding Cinderville, you've found out that there's a growing organization trying to "tame" the wasteland. They call themselves The Combine. Apparently they're at war with another organization called the Cybernetic Collective and the Combine's been aggressively taking towns and conscripting the citizens to fight in their war. And now they've come to Cinderville. They arrive in well taken care of vehicles, with better training, better discipline and better weapons. They begin talking to everybody they can. They aren't going to take the entire town by force, no what they intend to do is to back one of the stronger factions to wipe out the rest, and then absorb their puppet into the Combine to have control over the entire town. You're not fooled. The question just remains is; are you going to ally with them first, or fight this threat to your freedom? > Ally with the Combine If you have any motivation to keep your position, you'll have to ally with the Combine, for now at least. You decide to at least hear what they have to say. Two envoys come to speak to you; one of them is some rough looking man that probably thinks he's some sort of hard ass. The other is a woman, she looks like she's probably seen battle, but you're more interested in her seeing your dick up close and personal if that's possible. "So, I hear you're one of the Warlords of this town. My name's Roger and this is Vivica. We belong to The Combine as I'm sure you already know." "Yeah, yeah, I already know all about your little paramilitary outfit. Trying to tame the wasteland or some shit. Futile endeavor I say. It all comes down to chaos in the end. The last world war proved that." "Yeah, and I've ran into your type before. Typical petty despot who thrives off of the suffering around you. Let me guess, you were probably a petty criminal or prisoner in your old life. A loser. Someone who never could accomplish anything, until AFTER the bombs hit. And look at you; you can't even do that right. You don't even control this whole town. You're still a loser." You smile at Roger's poor attempt at psychology. "Oh, is that what I was eh? Well I guess that makes us both sides of the same coin. You were probably some boring fucktard in a boring job, with a boring life. You probably watched reality shows about cops and mercs an' shit wishing you could do that, but were too much of a sheep to go out and have adventures of your own. You just obeyed the laws and followed the rules. Now look at you. Mr. wasteland fuckin' warrior, but even in this new world you're still a fucking sheep. Still following the rules, the only reason you're having adventures now is because your superiors tell you to. You're just as much of a fucking loser as I am." Roger noticeably grows angry by your own psychological evaluation, but Vivica steps in to mediate. "Look, you fuckers compare dick sizes later, we ain't got time for it right now." "Ooowee! I like the mouth on this one! I'd like it more around my dick though...you interested in seeing just what my dick size exactly is honey?" "(Sigh) I suggest you better explain why the Combine should back you for control of this shithole town and what you'd even bring to the table other than your miniscule cock you like flapping in the wind." "Why do I need to convince you? You're the fuckers who want the damn town, but if you must know, I already have control of a biofuel refinery. I'd say that puts me as a pretty good favorite right there." "Eh, not really. One would wonder why someone who has such an advantage doesn't already HAVE control of the entire town. It seems like only someone who is really stupid or too incompetent to lead his side to ultimate victory would be the only logical explanation." "Oh it's just that simple to you huh? For your information I don't exactly HAVE the same amount of people as the other warlords. I have enough to defend my territory and that's about it and sure I can refuel all my vehicles easy enough, but so fuckin' what? You think that means shit in close urban combat? Some sniper can just blast a driver riding down the street. Don't mean shit. However! My refinery can be used to help fuel YOUR vehicles in your war with...what those cyborgs right? I mean you guys are fighting in the open battlefield where you can maneuver and drive around. You can also transport supplies quicker. And I know why you also want control of this place. You want conscripts. Well, you'll get no protests from me; take anyone you want, except my workers at the refinery and myself of course." Vivica and Roger look at each other and discuss in quiet about what you've told them, Vivica speaks up again. "And you would be willing to join the Combine and supply us with whatever we need?" "Sure, like I said, take anyone you want except me or the people needed to run the refinery, of course I hope this isn't a one way street, I mean I want something too..." "Yes, of course we will transport food and water supplies if you need..." "What? No not that shit. Fuck, I got my own private stash of food and water. And the rest of the shitheads in this town can fend for themselves. Nah, what I want is right here in front of me..." you say beginning to leer at Vivica. Now she begins to feel very uncomfortable. Good. You like that. "Hold on we have to talk this over..." Roger says. "WHAT?!" Vivica shouts. "Sure, sure, you do that. Just remember, this is my offer and I might say it's a very generous one, I doubt you'll get a better one. The rest of these warlords are greedy bastards, they'll want weapons, and a bunch of other shit. All I'm asking for is for some time with a woman and your help with getting rid of the other warlords of course. After I gain control of the entire town, you'll be able to take whatever you want with no resistance. You want fuel? You got it. You want cannon fodder? You got that too. Decline my offer and well...let's just say I'll make sure I do a lot of damage before you fine Combine folks bring me down. I'll leave you to it to decide." Vivica and Roger leave your office and you can hear arguing outside. Obviously Vivica is NOT real keen on this compromise and she's even less keen when it's decided she needs to "take one for the team". You fucking love this shit. How far people are willing to degrade themselves for the "greater good". What a fucking joke. Later that night, you and Vivica are ready to finalize the "deal", though she's still trying to maintain some semblance of dignity. "Don't think you're gonna be pulling some kinda sick shit with me or hitting me either, because if that happens, I won't give a fuck about the deal, the Combine, or even if I live, but regardless of what happens, you'll be singing soprano, and pissing like a bitch for the rest of your life." A threat without fear of consequence. Somehow you can respect that. Hell you think you might even be in love. "Okay, calm down sweetheart, none of that's gonna happen. Now let's start off by getting that pretty mouth of yours in action like I mentioned earlier today..." Afterwards, Vivica grabs her clothes and leaves immediately. You're a little disappointed, since you almost got the impression she enjoyed herself...oh well, back to business. With the Combine's help, wiping out the other warlords is a snap. Indeed you could've done it yourself long ago if you'd had disciplined people and more of them. Of course none of that matters now, you're officially head of the town, though the Combine leave a few troops behind as a reminder that Cinderville is now part of it. They don't do too much though, and mostly leave you to your own devices. You're giving them free fuel, free conscripts, and even letting them use most of your remaining vehicles, and barely asking for anything in return, why shouldn't they let you do what you want? They're doing what they want. Besides they're busy at war with a bunch of cyborgs and you're so far away. They won't be interfering anytime soon. Five years pass... Ten years have passed since the bombs dropped and civilization seems to be reforming...unfortunately. The Combine won the war with the Cybernetic Evolution a couple years ago and have had time to focus on their current holdings a lot more. This means they're focusing more on Cinderville, which you don't like. In fact more and more of a Combine influence is being felt. They're starting to supply the town regardless of what you said before. No longer are the people living in poverty and near starvation. By God, they're even trying to REBUILD parts of it! You don't like this. You protest their meddling, but they don't pay any attention to you, Cinderville IS under Combine control after all. You're just there for looks and in fact you're not looking too good to them anymore. It seems the Combine wants to put one of their own in power here to run things. They don't need to compromise their ideology anymore now that the war's over. They don't need to associate with scum like you anymore now. Things are truly coming to an end... > You try to acclimate yourself You "resign" your position and leave Cinderville. Not knowing where to go, you go back to your second home outside Cinderville. You try to live a quiet isolated life like before, but you can't do it now, your urge to control, to kill, and create anarchy is too strong now. You can't go back, so you try to go back to your past activities by visiting Cinderville every now and then to commit a few murders in the night, however being under direct Combine control now, things like that are investigated a little more now, especially when the body count starts piling up. It's during one of your nightly visits, that you're captured and delivered quick and efficient justice by Combine troops.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, war] If you have any motivation to keep your position, you'll have to ally with the Combine, for now at least. You decide to at least hear what they have to say. Two envoys come to speak to you; one of them is some rough looking man that probably thinks he's some sort of hard ass. The other is a woman, she looks like she's probably seen battle, but you're more interested in her seeing your dick up close and personal if that's possible. "So, I hear you're one of the Warlords of this town. My name's Roger and this is Vivica. We belong to The Combine as I'm sure you already know." "Yeah, yeah, I already know all about your little paramilitary outfit. Trying to tame the wasteland or some shit. Futile endeavor I say. It all comes down to chaos in the end. The last world war proved that." "Yeah, and I've ran into your type before. Typical petty despot who thrives off of the suffering around you. Let me guess, you were probably a petty criminal or prisoner in your old life. A loser. Someone who never could accomplish anything, until AFTER the bombs hit. And look at you; you can't even do that right. You don't even control this whole town. You're still a loser." You smile at Roger's poor attempt at psychology. "Oh, is that what I was eh? Well I guess that makes us both sides of the same coin. You were probably some boring fucktard in a boring job, with a boring life. You probably watched reality shows about cops and mercs an' shit wishing you could do that, but were too much of a sheep to go out and have adventures of your own. You just obeyed the laws and followed the rules. Now look at you. Mr. wasteland fuckin' warrior, but even in this new world you're still a fucking sheep. Still following the rules, the only reason you're having adventures now is because your superiors tell you to. You're just as much of a fucking loser as I am." Roger noticeably grows angry by your own psychological evaluation, but Vivica steps in to mediate. "Look, you fuckers compare dick sizes later, we ain't got time for it right now." "Ooowee! I like the mouth on this one! I'd like it more around my dick though...you interested in seeing just what my dick size exactly is honey?" "(Sigh) I suggest you better explain why the Combine should back you for control of this shithole town and what you'd even bring to the table other than your miniscule cock you like flapping in the wind." "Why do I need to convince you? You're the fuckers who want the damn town, but if you must know, I already have control of a biofuel refinery. I'd say that puts me as a pretty good favorite right there." "Eh, not really. One would wonder why someone who has such an advantage doesn't already HAVE control of the entire town. It seems like only someone who is really stupid or too incompetent to lead his side to ultimate victory would be the only logical explanation." "Oh it's just that simple to you huh? For your information I don't exactly HAVE the same amount of people as the other warlords. I have enough to defend my territory and that's about it and sure I can refuel all my vehicles easy enough, but so fuckin' what? You think that means shit in close urban combat? Some sniper can just blast a driver riding down the street. Don't mean shit. However! My refinery can be used to help fuel YOUR vehicles in your war with...what those cyborgs right? I mean you guys are fighting in the open battlefield where you can maneuver and drive around. You can also transport supplies quicker. And I know why you also want control of this place. You want conscripts. Well, you'll get no protests from me; take anyone you want, except my workers at the refinery and myself of course." Vivica and Roger look at each other and discuss in quiet about what you've told them, Vivica speaks up again. "And you would be willing to join the Combine and supply us with whatever we need?" "Sure, like I said, take anyone you want except me or the people needed to run the refinery, of course I hope this isn't a one way street, I mean I want something too..." "Yes, of course we will transport food and water supplies if you need..." "What? No not that shit. Fuck, I got my own private stash of food and water. And the rest of the shitheads in this town can fend for themselves. Nah, what I want is right here in front of me..." you say beginning to leer at Vivica. Now she begins to feel very uncomfortable. Good. You like that. "Hold on we have to talk this over..." Roger says. "WHAT?!" Vivica shouts. "Sure, sure, you do that. Just remember, this is my offer and I might say it's a very generous one, I doubt you'll get a better one. The rest of these warlords are greedy bastards, they'll want weapons, and a bunch of other shit. All I'm asking for is for some time with a woman and your help with getting rid of the other warlords of course. After I gain control of the entire town, you'll be able to take whatever you want with no resistance. You want fuel? You got it. You want cannon fodder? You got that too. Decline my offer and well...let's just say I'll make sure I do a lot of damage before you fine Combine folks bring me down. I'll leave you to it to decide." Vivica and Roger leave your office and you can hear arguing outside. Obviously Vivica is NOT real keen on this compromise and she's even less keen when it's decided she needs to "take one for the team". You fucking love this shit. How far people are willing to degrade themselves for the "greater good". What a fucking joke. Later that night, you and Vivica are ready to finalize the "deal", though she's still trying to maintain some semblance of dignity. "Don't think you're gonna be pulling some kinda sick shit with me or hitting me either, because if that happens, I won't give a fuck about the deal, the Combine, or even if I live, but regardless of what happens, you'll be singing soprano, and pissing like a bitch for the rest of your life." A threat without fear of consequence. Somehow you can respect that. Hell you think you might even be in love. "Okay, calm down sweetheart, none of that's gonna happen. Now let's start off by getting that pretty mouth of yours in action like I mentioned earlier today..." Afterwards, Vivica grabs her clothes and leaves immediately. You're a little disappointed, since you almost got the impression she enjoyed herself...oh well, back to business. With the Combine's help, wiping out the other warlords is a snap. Indeed you could've done it yourself long ago if you'd had disciplined people and more of them. Of course none of that matters now, you're officially head of the town, though the Combine leave a few troops behind as a reminder that Cinderville is now part of it. They don't do too much though, and mostly leave you to your own devices. You're giving them free fuel, free conscripts, and even letting them use most of your remaining vehicles, and barely asking for anything in return, why shouldn't they let you do what you want? They're doing what they want. Besides they're busy at war with a bunch of cyborgs and you're so far away. They won't be interfering anytime soon. Five years pass... Ten years have passed since the bombs dropped and civilization seems to be reforming...unfortunately. The Combine won the war with the Cybernetic Evolution a couple years ago and have had time to focus on their current holdings a lot more. This means they're focusing more on Cinderville, which you don't like. In fact more and more of a Combine influence is being felt. They're starting to supply the town regardless of what you said before. No longer are the people living in poverty and near starvation. By God, they're even trying to REBUILD parts of it! You don't like this. You protest their meddling, but they don't pay any attention to you, Cinderville IS under Combine control after all. You're just there for looks and in fact you're not looking too good to them anymore. It seems the Combine wants to put one of their own in power here to run things. They don't need to compromise their ideology anymore now that the war's over. They don't need to associate with scum like you anymore now. Things are truly coming to an end... > You leave this lousy civilization You can't really say you didn't see this coming entirely, The Combine may try hide beneath the guise of being some organization out to rebuild civilization, but at the core it's just another dictatorship in development. You've seen the hypocrisy first hand of how they deal with those like you when it suits their purpose, and then dispose of them, when it doesn't. However, none of this really matters, the fact remains you can't stay here at least not in the way you'd want to anyway. You "resign" your position and return back to your second home outside Cinderville where you gather some supplies for your travels and get in your van (which has long been upgraded to function on a more reliable basis now) and decide to live life as a wandering bandit, but not without first sabotaging the biofuel refinery in Cinderville. A sabotage that results in the refinery not only blowing up and killing folks, but also spraying shit all over most of the town. "HA HA! HAVE A NICE LIFE SHITHEADS!" you're heard saying before driving off. Months go by and you eventually become enemy number one by The Combine for your criminal activity of destroying caravans, murdering citizens, and creating mayhem whenever you can. Sometimes you work alone, sometimes you manage to form a gang for raids, but in all cases your goal is to cause as much misery as you're able. You're determined to prove that the concept of order is doomed to failure as it always has. Eventually along with Combine soldiers, freelance bounty hunters are set upon you. You remain free however, always one step ahead... One day driving along an old unused road, you see a strange man standing along side it. He doesn't look quite human, you've heard stories of mutants, (and certainly seen mutated animals) but you've also heard most of them stay in the City where they were created by the radioactivity there. Of course there's always a few that wander away. Looks like this one has, in fact he looks like he has with a purpose, he pulls a gun on you as your van barrels down the road, in his other hand is a piece of paper, probably a wanted poster of you. It looks like this mutie is being dramatic, but you don't know... there's something really creepy about him. He looks like death personified with the way he's just waiting for you. > You run him down You swerve your van in the mutant bounty hunter's direction, but he dodges out of the way so quick that you almost don't see him move. As he dodges, you hear your tires blow out (Which is weird since you didn't hear any shots) before you to crash into some nearby rocks. You fly out the windshield and smash your head open into those same rocks, amazingly you aren't immediately killed and you manage to crawl off your hood and onto the ground. Unfortunately a strange mutant worm like creature was making its home in the rocks and after you disturbed it, it came outside to investigate. You're in no condition to escape. Unlike most, you became food for the worms while you were still alive.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic] You can't really say you didn't see this coming entirely, The Combine may try hide beneath the guise of being some organization out to rebuild civilization, but at the core it's just another dictatorship in development. You've seen the hypocrisy first hand of how they deal with those like you when it suits their purpose, and then dispose of them, when it doesn't. However, none of this really matters, the fact remains you can't stay here at least not in the way you'd want to anyway. You "resign" your position and return back to your second home outside Cinderville where you gather some supplies for your travels and get in your van (which has long been upgraded to function on a more reliable basis now) and decide to live life as a wandering bandit, but not without first sabotaging the biofuel refinery in Cinderville. A sabotage that results in the refinery not only blowing up and killing folks, but also spraying shit all over most of the town. "HA HA! HAVE A NICE LIFE SHITHEADS!" you're heard saying before driving off. Months go by and you eventually become enemy number one by The Combine for your criminal activity of destroying caravans, murdering citizens, and creating mayhem whenever you can. Sometimes you work alone, sometimes you manage to form a gang for raids, but in all cases your goal is to cause as much misery as you're able. You're determined to prove that the concept of order is doomed to failure as it always has. Eventually along with Combine soldiers, freelance bounty hunters are set upon you. You remain free however, always one step ahead... One day driving along an old unused road, you see a strange man standing along side it. He doesn't look quite human, you've heard stories of mutants, (and certainly seen mutated animals) but you've also heard most of them stay in the City where they were created by the radioactivity there. Of course there's always a few that wander away. Looks like this one has, in fact he looks like he has with a purpose, he pulls a gun on you as your van barrels down the road, in his other hand is a piece of paper, probably a wanted poster of you. It looks like this mutie is being dramatic, but you don't know... there's something really creepy about him. He looks like death personified with the way he's just waiting for you. > You duck down and speed past him You figure he's probably expecting that, so you speed up and duck your head down. You hear the sound of two of your tires blowing out, which is strange because you didn't hear any shots. You just barely avoid crashing into some nearby rocks; however you do flip your van on its side. Cursing your situation, you quickly recover, grab what supplies you can and crawl out the side window. You briefly turn your head to see how far the mutant bounty hunter is, but he's completely disappeared. You have no idea where he's gone. Just then a different gunshot is heard and coming from another direction down the road. "Hey get that bastard, we gotta collect that bounty!" an armored man says to another. "What the fuck? Did they hire the whole state to bring me down?" you say to yourself hauling ass out of the area, with more bullets whizzing your way. Eventually you manage to lose all of them. You find a nearby abandoned gas station to rest in and reflect on things. That was a very close call. Its obvious The Combine is REALLY out for your blood, they got bounty hunters scouring the wasteland for you, and you've noticed your encounters have only increased recently. This is going to be your life now. You're going to be hunted until the day you die which will be soon, if you aren't careful. You can kill all the Combine troops, hunters and mercs you want, they'll still send people after you. The only thing you can do is leave the area altogether or find some place to hide for awhile. > You Hide You have to lay low somewhere for a few months, maybe even a year! However, you doubt if going to a town is going to be suitable. Your reputation at this point is pretty infamous, not to mention The Combine has a nasty habit of incorporating towns into their organization, if they aren't affiliated already. Even an "Outlaw" town wouldn't be suitable, you'd just have to watch your back even more, and bounty hunters aren't adverse to entering those either. You don't know where to go, so you just start walking, it's during this time when you find something that just might help you. Its something you haven't though about in years...those old late night commercials you used to see before the bombs dropped. Ground Zero Survival. The corporation that was trying to sell their shelters to people. You remember when you were hiding in your basement after the attack, you thought about how much you should've bought a bomb shelter. Indeed, you wonder what things would've been like if you had... Well you've found one, sitting right here in the middle of nowhere. You go inside. You enter the shelter entrance and see a single elevator door across from you and an ATM like machine nearby. Upon looking at the ATM machine thing, the display reads "ERROR". You press a few buttons and hit the machine a couple times, just to see what happens, to your surprise the elevator door opens up. Huh, that's weird. You shrug your shoulders and guess the computer thinks you're someone else. You briefly wonder what happened to the family that was supposed to use this shelter though. You enter the elevator which goes down. You can't help but notice there aren't any call buttons on the thing, when you exit you also notice there aren't any call buttons on the outside either. When it closes behind, you suddenly get the sinking feeling you're trapped down here and you're pretty much right. "What the hell kind of idiotic design is this shit? GZS must've been run by a bunch of fucktards!" Before you worry about it, you explore the Shelter a bit more and this really isn't so bad. You're really well stocked here. Food, water, entertainment, comfortable living conditions. Actually it's like a much bigger and better version of your old home outside of Cinderville. You decide if you have to be a prisoner here, this isn't really a bad way to spend it. You settle in and make yourself comfortable. Ten years pass... Twenty years have passed and even you're amazed you survived this long given all the things you did. Of course hiding down here probably helped. In fact you've been reflecting on your past life lately. Or more accurately re-examining it. It's weird since it was isolation that sort of set you on the dark path you chose, yet now, your isolation is creating a sense of regret and sorrow in you. And its not the isolation itself, it's just the fact you've had more time to think about all the terrible things you've done in the past and much of it is extremely appalling. Unforgivable really. You've lied. You've stole. You've tortured. You've betrayed. You've used people as slave labor. You've murdered countless people. You've killed children. You've raped women. You've orchestrated chaos. You've committed numerous atrocities and you did it mostly all for your own pleasure. And oddly you've gotten away with all of it for the most part. Why did you do any of it? You don't even know why anymore, you're just sorry that you did. You've begun to have nightmares about some of the things you've done. All the faces of your victims. It's like it's all starting to finally catch up with you...in more ways than one. You wake up in a cold sweat from one of your nightmares one day, except this time you see something at the foot of your bed. Something familiar, but strangely appropriate. "Y'know, everyone else stopped looking for you after you disappeared, but I knew if I continued my search, I'd find you eventually." It's that mutant bounty hunter you saw ten years ago. At this range he really does look like death personified. In fact, you don't think he's a mutant at all. For the first time in your life, you feel fear, but there's something very surreal about all of this. "You can't be here! The elevator doesn't work! I would've heard you coming down!" you say in disbelief. "Well you were asleep, but it's amazing what you can block out of your mind, I think you know all about that don't you?" "...how did you find me?" "You can't hide from the past. Of course I think you know all about that too, right?" "I'm hallucinating! I'm seeing things that aren't there. I'm sick!" "That's probably the understatement of the decade. But you haven't been well in twenty years and that's why I'm here now. I can make it all go away. Tried to do it ten years ago, but you weren't ready yet I guess." It suddenly occurs to you. This...being isn't here to punish you at all; he's here to release you. And it's finally welcome. "Will you really make it all go away?" you ask with a quiver in your voice. "Of course, like I said that's why I'm here." "Oh good, thank you!" you begin to sob. The pale being readies his weapon, but before he releases you, you still have some questions. "Wait, before you do it. Do you know why I did it?" "Because you could." "That's it?" "That's it. All those other reasons you might've toyed with in the past were merely philosophical smoke screens to mask the truth from your mind. You did what you did, because you could. There is no deeper reason. The people who started World War three did it, because they could. None of it makes any sense, and any attempt to make sense of it, is meaningless. Your time here was meaningless. Whether you killed a bunch of people or you had saved a bunch of people, it wouldn't have mattered. Life and world would've gone on regardless. You weren't special, you never were. And you know it, deep down inside you know it." For the first time you finally see everything so clearly. "Yes...you're right. I see that now." "Of course I'm right...so now are you ready?" "Yes." You sit up in your bed and close your eyes. You hear the sound of a pistol being cocked and feel a steel barrel against your temple. You breathe hard in anticipation. Then you hear a shot.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, serious] You figure he's probably expecting that, so you speed up and duck your head down. You hear the sound of two of your tires blowing out, which is strange because you didn't hear any shots. You just barely avoid crashing into some nearby rocks; however you do flip your van on its side. Cursing your situation, you quickly recover, grab what supplies you can and crawl out the side window. You briefly turn your head to see how far the mutant bounty hunter is, but he's completely disappeared. You have no idea where he's gone. Just then a different gunshot is heard and coming from another direction down the road. "Hey get that bastard, we gotta collect that bounty!" an armored man says to another. "What the fuck? Did they hire the whole state to bring me down?" you say to yourself hauling ass out of the area, with more bullets whizzing your way. Eventually you manage to lose all of them. You find a nearby abandoned gas station to rest in and reflect on things. That was a very close call. Its obvious The Combine is REALLY out for your blood, they got bounty hunters scouring the wasteland for you, and you've noticed your encounters have only increased recently. This is going to be your life now. You're going to be hunted until the day you die which will be soon, if you aren't careful. You can kill all the Combine troops, hunters and mercs you want, they'll still send people after you. The only thing you can do is leave the area altogether or find some place to hide for awhile. > You Leave Hiding won't do any good, you have to get out the area altogether. Hopefully your infamous reputation hasn't spread THAT far yet. Of course there's the fact you have to get out of the area first. You make haste immediately. Over the course of a mere week, you're hounded by attackers. You barely get out of the situations alive half of the time. You're exhausted and can't even afford to sleep for very long. Eventually within the month your days soon come to an end, when a bounty hunter snipes you from a vehicle with a high powered rifle, striking you in the back. You don't die right away though, but you're in no condition to do anything as you collapse to the ground. The vehicle stops nearby and another one of your assailants kicks you over before finishing you off. You can't help but be surprised by who you see. "Hey, now I got something for YOUR mouth!" Vivica says to you, before shooting you in the head.

The whole point of this endeavor was to take control of the town and you're not going to let Jim get that glory. You go find him in the Mayor's Manor still tormenting the mayor and his wife. The mayor is currently lying on the floor bloody and helpless with his legs a useless mess. His wife is naked in a fetal position in a corner just rocking to herself in a state of perpetual shock, its apparent she's been raped over and over. Jim doesn't have anyone else with him, not even have Dan or Ramon, he's all by himself in a drunken stupor at the moment celebrating his new found power, unaware that you're about to relieve him of it. "Heeeeey! Killer! Its you! Have a drink! This fucker's got some classy shit stashed in his cellar! (Hic!)" "Nah, that's okay. So I see you've been having fun eh?" "Me? Oh fuck yeah! The mayor over here has got himself one fine piece of ass! Been tryin' her out every other hour y'know what I mean? HAR HAR HAR!" "Hmmm, yes." You say looking over at her again, while Jim continues to pontificate. "Shit man (Hic!) I think me, you, Dan and fuckin' Ramon are the few straight bastards in this gang! Those fuckin' raiders we recruited? I ain't even seen them try to get any of the pussy in this town. They must've been in the wasteland too damn long or somethin', I think they forgot what a god (hic!) damn bitch looks like. Been cornholin' each other so much they went an' fell in love! HAR HAR HAR HAR! (hic!) Ah hell I'm not judgin'. (hic!)" While Jim wanders into the next room still talking about his gang's sexual preference, you go over to the mayor who's been baring his mental and physical pain in silence the whole time. When you crouch near him and pull your pistol out, he thinks this is it, but you have something "special" in mind. You see that his hands are still in good shape so you keep your voice down and look him in the eyes. "You're gonna die. Nothing can stop this. Resign yourself to this fact. Life sucks and that's all there is to it." you say unloading your pistol, but keeping one bullet in the chamber. "...however, you can still get vengeance. I thought you might like to know that I'm the one who planned this attack. I'm the one who orchestrated this town's destruction. A town you no longer have any control over and has had many of its citizens viciously killed thanks to my actions... the fat piece of drunken shit in the next room has personally beaten you and violated your wife, repeatedly. Over and over. In front of you. His fat smelly flesh all over her while he enjoyed it the whole time. Probably shoved his cock in all three holes too huh?" He looks at you with a mixture of fear, hate, and sorrow, while tears fill his eyes. You place the gun in his hand. "...well anyway, there's one bullet in the gun. Remember, you got one shot, one chance for vengeance, make your choice. Better hide that, here comes Jim." Jim comes stumbling back in room, while the mayor holds the gun close to himself in a bad attempt to hide it. The stand back waiting to see what happens next. "...I mean hell I've fucked a few prags when I (hic!) was in prison, but...hey...what have you got there?" Jim asks seeing the mayor holding something, but not able to make it out clearly due to his inebriated state. Jim gets closer, closer, and then mayor draws on him. He sobers up just long enough to realize he's got a bullet between his eyes. "...what the fuuuuuuuuck..." Jim says before falling face first on the floor. "Wow, that was pretty intense, I mean my own life was on the line there! Whew! But I figured you'd kill Jim, too bad it wasn't the right choice on your part." You say punching the mayor in the face and take your pistol back, loading it again. "Stupid bastard, didn't it occur to you that I'd do the same thing to your wife?" "No...don't..." he says looking up at you with blood coming from his mouth, as your own curls cruelly upward. "Just kidding, I wouldn't stick my dick anywhere near Jim has been. Looks like you made the right choice after all!" You put the mayor out of his misery and shoot him in the face. You then approach the mayor's wife who's still been rocking to herself this whole time. You look at her a little closer. "Hmm, you must've been very beautiful before this all happened." You remark, caressing her damaged face, before ending her life as well. Having had your fun, you go and announce you're the leader now. Unfortunately you don't quite have the charisma or imposing physique Jim had, so not everyone is willing to follow. (Ramon and Dan are among the first ones you kill for disobeying you) What ultimately happens is the town becomes a factional warzone where nobody is really in control and the poor Cinderville townsfolk are caught in the middle. Eventually things stabilize and a few of the "heavy weights" carve out their own territories and there's an unstable peace in the town. Fights still break out, but there's never an imbalance of power or advantage for long. (Though, maintaining a hold on the biofuel refinery gives you a little bit of an advantage...) Four years pass... Five years have passed since the bombs dropped and you couldn't be happier. You've accomplished more than you ever did in the old world. World War Three was the best thing that ever happened to you. You've been running your own slice of heaven in this hellish world and had the freedom to live out your true nature, which you've done for the past five years. And now that freedom could be coming to an end. Recently through rumors and wandering travelers who have the misfortune of finding Cinderville, you've found out that there's a growing organization trying to "tame" the wasteland. They call themselves The Combine. Apparently they're at war with another organization called the Cybernetic Collective and the Combine's been aggressively taking towns and conscripting the citizens to fight in their war. And now they've come to Cinderville. They arrive in well taken care of vehicles, with better training, better discipline and better weapons. They begin talking to everybody they can. They aren't going to take the entire town by force, no what they intend to do is to back one of the stronger factions to wipe out the rest, and then absorb their puppet into the Combine to have control over the entire town. You're not fooled. The question just remains is; are you going to ally with them first, or fight this threat to your freedom? > You resist them You're not going to be some fucking puppet, if you're ever going to control this whole town, you'll do it yourself, in fact you display your feelings about the Combine immediately when their little envoy unit enters your part of the town by telling your followers to shoot them on sight. Of course killing a few of their number doesn't endear you to them, not that it was supposed to, but unfortunately one of the other town warlords decides to take advantage of the Combine visit and isn't quite as proud as you are. An all out battle for the town occurs again, and you're not on the winning side as the warlord who sold out to the Combine gains more ground. You vow to do as much damage as you can though, namely by burning down most of your side of the town, killing every non-combatant living under your control there, as well as destroying the biofuel refinery and ultimately fleeing Cinderville. It all comes to a final end though when you make your last stand against Combine soldiers in your old home where you killed your first victims five years ago. After all the trouble you gave them back at Cinderville, the Combine soldiers don't even attempt a long drawn out shoot out with you. They just start bombarding the place with rockets and grenades. The entire place is razed to the ground with you in it.

While you probably could kill this fat fucker, but for now you have to have all the help you can get and no disunity to pull this plan off, so you'll back down for now... "Hey, I never said I was the leader, I know you are Jim." "Good. Glad we understand each other." "So go ahead and tell us what YOU think is the best course of action for this plan." "Um...well...your strategy sounded pretty good." Jim says predictably Just as you thought, you're STILL in control, just had to give the fool the appearance that he's still in control. After taking some supplies you think you'll need and re-trapping your home, you all set off to leave. (You take your van) In about a day, you arrive around in the area that Dan was talking about, in fact you don't need to look for the raiders; they instantly approach you when they see you coming. It would appear some of them have a few vehicles as well. Jim signals for everyone to halt and he gets off his bike. Ramon and Dan halt near Jim, but don't get off their bikes. You in the meantime grab your hunting rifle and hang in the back a bit, you just hope Jim can pull this shit off, especially since you're greatly outnumbered. Soon the raiders arrive and stop their own vehicles. The leader steps out of his beat up car, and steps forward. He looks mean enough, like he's been living in the wasteland from day one. "So, you got any last words, before we fuck you and eat you?" he asks Jim. "Yeah, I heard you're the pussy ass bitch, who can't even handle a few pigs and some fuckin' vigilantes in Cinderville." Jim replies. The raider leader's expression gets even meaner looking if such a thing is possible. "Oh? And I suppose YOU can do a better job you fat tub of shit?" he sneers. "Sure the fuck can asshole, all I need is more men. In fact I'd say yours would do just fine, so I'd say you'd better just step aside and see a pro in action." "Don't think so, besides I've already seen a fag get his mouth gang fucked by a bunch of guys." You sure hope Jim is a better fighter, because he's losing in the battle of snappy comebacks right now. In fact he can't come up with a response, so he just slugs the raider leader instead. You fully expect the shooting to start, but instead the raider leader laughs, pulls out the biggest blade you've ever seen and screams "THIS ONE IS MINE!" During the fight, you scan all your potential greatest threats and the quickest order to pick them off, in case this all goes south. You're so busy doing that, that you're not really paying attention to the actual fight, which Jim as it turns out, is winning. After tussling on the ground, slamming into nearby vehicles, punching, kicking and all the rest, Jim finally puts an end to his opponent by shoving his own knife through his throat. Everyone goes silent, and Jim stands up wiping the blood off of himself. "Alright! Now listen the fuck up! Your previous leader was a lame ass who couldn't get the job done, and that changes right now! We're gonna get fuckin' organized and take that goddamn little town! Might makes fuckin' right! Are ya with me, or are ya gonna go running off like a limp wristed sissy?" Well, it's a good thing you didn't kill Jim, because these raiders seem to really identify with him and they unanimously accept him as their new leader. You doubt if you would've had that success. You've never been a people person, regardless of who those people might've been, however you are an idea person, and now you move on to your next phase. After Jim finally gets all the new people to listen, you begin to explain your plan, the problem before is they kept stupidly attacking from one direction, rather than doing the classic "pincer" maneuver and attacking from multiple sides. Using Dan's information, you specifically pick out areas where the most damage can initially be done with the least amount of risk. You point out the spot where there's still an old school being used to teach the children. Take control of that with the kids inside and you've severely reduced most of the townspeople's willingness to fight, which will curb the neighborhood "Charles Bronsons" from helping the police force. In fact you decide to take that job since you want Jim to lead the raiders in the main direct assault force with the cops. Dan and Ramon will be traveling with their own smaller force to attack other parts of the town, spreading out the cops' usually organized force. It's also hoped that the more disreputable elements that Dan mentioned living in the town, will join in the mayhem on your side, or at least against their side. The raider vehicles themselves are not in the best condition, and most of them are running low on gas, but they'll do for now. You figure if all goes well, the still fuel that you created back at your home, as well as the farming area in the town with the pig and cow shit biofuel can solve those problems later. In fact you specifically mention that NO damage should happen to that area in this attack, though you don't expect them to follow that order. You don't want to wait long to attack with this bunch, since they have the attention span of a gnat of crack. You have to attack soon when they're all hyped up. You suggest that to Jim, who agrees since he's anxious to get to this dastardly business anyway. In a couple days you're attacking the town as planned. You start on your end first, making a beeline to the school, before the main attack force arrives. A few of the raiders are in your van itching to start creating some havoc. You stop outside of the school and run inside with your current trigger happy cohorts. A couple of them kill a few kids and you have to remind them you're SUPPOSED to be holding them hostage right now! If the townsfolk don't comply THEN you can start capping the little bastards. You tell them to go and kill the teachers if they want. In the mean time you take the opportunity to shout from the window to the crowd gathering outside. You tell them that if any of them start trying to defend the town or help the cops, then their kids are going to be killed. To show you're really serious though, you tell one of the raiders to toss a kid out the window. A collective cry goes up from the crowd when the body hits the pavement and their pathetic begging is pleasing to your ears. You get a few people shooting at you anyway (Obviously not parents) but having a good vantage point and a hunting rifle, you start sniping the idiots who have decided to ignore your threats. A few more kids thrown out the window causes ALL the shooting to stop. You can hear the sounds of battle from your position; no cops have arrived so you're guessing Jim and the rest are doing their job. You're really enjoying all this chaos you've created, you were just stagnating before the bombs dropped, now in this new world you're free to embrace the darkest part of yourself that always existed, but wasn't allowed the flourish. You love this fucking shit. Eventually you hear a roar of a motorcycle, followed by the sound of some bottles breaking. You go to check the window and see the crowd outside running and screaming, some of them on fire from the Molotov Cocktails just thrown at them. You also see Ramon shouting up to you. "Hey! We're winning man! The remaining cops are barricaded in their fucking station, broke the Mayor's legs and dragged him through the street and best of all we got some of the other local punks to join us! There's practically no more resistance left! Its total fucking anarchy man!" You turn around and begin smiling at the kids you're holding hostage which somehow scares them even more. You pick up a young girl and kiss her hard on the lips and laugh at the fear in her eyes. You then throw her down and tell the raiders with you they can do whatever they want, because you're going to indulge in some pure havoc on your own. After a couple days and nights of indulging in this activity, Jim finally gets around to settling his new gang down (Which he's inventively called "Jim's Reapers") and wondering about what to do with the town now that he has control over it. He seems to have forgotten already that it was YOU, who orchestrated this. Now that the task has been accomplished perhaps this would be the time to discuss the leadership role again. Then again, you wonder if you even want to bother. Sure there's the power and such, but there's also the headache of dealing with all these morons on a regular basis and running the town. The "fun" part is over as it were. > You go back home You don't want any part of this. You indulged in some chaos on a mass scale, killed a bunch of people and now you're done. You don't really want to bother running a town. You leave to go back to your home, a few days later Jim comes by asking you why you left, and you explain, you're a loner by nature and just want to live in solitude for the most part. If you ever desire to go raise some hell, you'll visit Cinderville and bust some heads or something. Jim says he gets it and says you'll always be welcome in Cinderville, as long as you don't get in his way running the place You tell him that won't be a problem, and then you quickly shove a knife in his throat. Jim gives you a surprised look for a brief second, clutches at his bloody throat, lets out a gurgled hiss and dies. You drag his body inside and chop it up to make a new totem to put outside. You half expect someone to come looking for their new fearless leader, but nobody does, presumably someone else attempted to fill the power vacuum, actually several people did. (Ramon and Dan were among the first to try and fail miserably) Cinderville descends into a chaotic place of constant strife and you go back to waylaying travelers. Though sometimes you take a trip to Cinderville when you want to be "social", but it's mostly to better hone your survival skills, though you also take the opportunity to sadistically murder some of the poor original inhabitants of Cinderville who's lives have become a living hell now. It's like you created your own personal "gym". Four years pass... Five years have passed since the bombs dropped and you've enjoyed yourself more or less since it's happened, you have complete independence and freedom to do whatever you want, but as always all things do come to an end. During your trips to the Cinderville, you've heard about some new organization called The Combine, attempting to "tame" the wasteland. It seems they're in some sort of war with another organization called the Cybernetic Evolution. From what you heard, neither one seems to be a shining beacon of light in this dark world, and that sort of reassures you too. It means that civilization won't be making a come back anytime soon, however it also means they've both been scouring the wasteland for recruits, neither one really asking for permission either. Eventually The Combine arrives in Cinderville. They quickly subdue the disorganized rabble there and place the town under their thumb. Indeed the original inhabitants are happy to put up with the totalitarianism of the Combine after the years of mindless chaos. The Combine being the paramilitary organization it is, tends to do a lot of scouting and exploration, so you know its only a matter of time before they find you and chances are that they're not going to leave you alone. > You Leave You know when you're out numbered and outgunned, no point in sticking around waiting for them to show up. You pack your stuff, fuel up your van and leave. You don't get far before your van finally breaks down on a permanent basis. It sucks, but you've learn enough in the past few years to survive on foot in the wilderness, which you do for a few months, until you encounter something you've never dealt with before. Over the horizon you see some shiny figures approaching, they don't look friendly so you fire upon them immediately. As they get closer, you think they're some sort of robots, maybe cyborgs. This must be the other faction fighting the Combine. When you realize your bullets aren't doing enough damage, you turn to run, only to have your legs blasted by some sort of laser beam. The smell of your own burnt flesh hits your nose and the sight of your new stumps hits your eyes as the cybernetic soldiers advance on your position. You pass out from the pain. When you wake up you've been fitted with brand new cybernetic implants and legs. The only things going through your mind are to kill humans and to obey someone called Alex. As it turns out you're a very efficient killing machine, and a key cyborg resulting in the eventual destruction of The Combine. The only problem is in your new "remade" state, you are unable to enjoy any of it. You exist only to follow orders and follow them mindlessly until the very end when you're finally blown to irreparable scrap and bones during a Combine retreat.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, post-apocalyptic] You don't want any part of this. You indulged in some chaos on a mass scale, killed a bunch of people and now you're done. You don't really want to bother running a town. You leave to go back to your home, a few days later Jim comes by asking you why you left, and you explain, you're a loner by nature and just want to live in solitude for the most part. If you ever desire to go raise some hell, you'll visit Cinderville and bust some heads or something. Jim says he gets it and says you'll always be welcome in Cinderville, as long as you don't get in his way running the place You tell him that won't be a problem, and then you quickly shove a knife in his throat. Jim gives you a surprised look for a brief second, clutches at his bloody throat, lets out a gurgled hiss and dies. You drag his body inside and chop it up to make a new totem to put outside. You half expect someone to come looking for their new fearless leader, but nobody does, presumably someone else attempted to fill the power vacuum, actually several people did. (Ramon and Dan were among the first to try and fail miserably) Cinderville descends into a chaotic place of constant strife and you go back to waylaying travelers. Though sometimes you take a trip to Cinderville when you want to be "social", but it's mostly to better hone your survival skills, though you also take the opportunity to sadistically murder some of the poor original inhabitants of Cinderville who's lives have become a living hell now. It's like you created your own personal "gym". Four years pass... Five years have passed since the bombs dropped and you've enjoyed yourself more or less since it's happened, you have complete independence and freedom to do whatever you want, but as always all things do come to an end. During your trips to the Cinderville, you've heard about some new organization called The Combine, attempting to "tame" the wasteland. It seems they're in some sort of war with another organization called the Cybernetic Evolution. From what you heard, neither one seems to be a shining beacon of light in this dark world, and that sort of reassures you too. It means that civilization won't be making a come back anytime soon, however it also means they've both been scouring the wasteland for recruits, neither one really asking for permission either. Eventually The Combine arrives in Cinderville. They quickly subdue the disorganized rabble there and place the town under their thumb. Indeed the original inhabitants are happy to put up with the totalitarianism of the Combine after the years of mindless chaos. The Combine being the paramilitary organization it is, tends to do a lot of scouting and exploration, so you know its only a matter of time before they find you and chances are that they're not going to leave you alone. > You Stay You figure the Combine has better things to do than bother one person living alone. They're at war with goddamn cyborgs for fuck's sake and trying to "tame" the wasteland by taking over towns, you doubt if they'll even notice you. The problem is, the original citizens that managed to survive the hell you created in their town four years ago, tell the Combine all about you. It's well known at this point that it was YOU who caused the attack in the first place, it's well known you participated in numerous atrocities during the attack; it's well known that you'd periodically stalk the streets of Cinderville at night like some demented hunter, viciously killing men, women and children. One of the only requests that they had for The Combine, was for YOU to be killed. The Combine always being an organization to keep the masses at least happy enough for them not to rebel, agrees to their request. After all you're a scumbag anyway that would probably still continue to harass the town, the best thing to do IS eliminate you. They soon arrive in force outside your home. You're well stocked and prepared for a siege though; you figure you'll be able to hold out long enough before it gets to costly to them and they'll have to break off their attack, at which point you'll make your escape. However, they've also been informed just how dangerous you are, not to mention they don't want to waste too much time with you, so after confirming you're inside (Which they do when you kill one of them attempting to get closer to your front door) they just start bombarding the place with rockets and grenades. The entire place is razed to the ground with you in it.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, war] Obviously they thought they could just stroll in and take shelter here, bad mistake on their part... You calmly point the shotgun at the man caught in the trap and blast him before he even notices you. The little boy now really begins screaming, but the woman just becomes silent and falls into shock turning her head in your direction covered in the blood of her husband. You don't feel sick like you did last time; you do feel an overwhelming sense of power though. The woman grabs her son's hand and turns to run, but realizes two seconds later that she's only holding on to his hand and the rest of him is lying on the ground, one arm less, from your second blast. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" the woman screams. "Because I can, and there's nobody around to stop me." You say and briskly walk over to the woman. After a pathetic struggle you knock her out and drag her into your new home. After all, you're not sure when you'll get to see another woman again... A couple days after the incident with the family (and disposing of all three bodies) you begin keeping yourself in better shape. You start exercising regularly, and fixing up your home. You need to be prepared, in case more people ever show up. You MUST defend yourself and your home. You don't get many, but every now and then another poor soul stumbles across your death lair. You're merciless. Soon you begin to arrange the vehicles of your victims to form a semi "wall" around your home and place some grisly totems as "decoration". A year passes... You don't get visitors anymore, though that's probably because of the unfriendly image you've projected with all the skulls you've stuck on the spikes outside. Part of you is glad that you aren't being disturbed anymore, but the other part misses the killing. You begin to wonder if you shouldn't start venturing out more, but you'd hate to leave your home. One day you're awakened by the roar of motorcycles. You've got visitors again, you ready your weapons. As you head upstairs you hear that inevitable "SNAP!" sound followed by screaming. Yet another victim to your traps, though you hear the typical sounds of distress, you also hear some laughter, taunting even, which has got you more curious than anything. You check through a little peephole you made and see a bunch of biker types, one is lying on the ground, his leg nearly severed by the hidden bear trap. While one is trying to free him, a couple of the others are just laughing and remarking about how it looks like it really hurts. "Look are you assholes going to help or not?" one of them asks. "Hey, I told you fuckers not to go traipsing into a place that has skulls stuck on stakes. Y'all should've known it wasn't exactly going to be a friendly place." "We need fuckin' gas Jim, and this place has a lot of vehicles, and maybe some of them have gas. We had to go check!" "Well yeah, but that didn't mean just walking around unaware of your surroundings...shit that leg looks bad." "That leg is bad. Even if you did get it off of him, he's probably going to lose it to infection. I wiped my own shit on it, not to mention it was developing a nice set of rust on it when I found it. I'd say his bike riding days are over." You say standing your doorway with your shotgun ready. The bikers look in your direction, one looks like he's going to pull his pistol, but the one called Jim stops him. He's obviously the leader. "You might be right, stranger, but that still leaves you outnumbered one to three. You sure you wanna take those odds?" Jim says. "I'll take 'em and I'll enjoy it. It's been a long time since I've killed a whole mess of people." "Oh, so you're a REAL killer eh?" "Better killer than you." "Hah! I doubt that! See me an' the boys here have been raisin' hell where ever we can. Come across a few towns and let's just say we're not real welcome there anymore. It's a brand new world, and only the strong are gonna survive it." "Yeah? Well it looks like one of your flock isn't so strong now." "Yeah...well you might be right about that stranger...maybe someone should put him out of his misery. Can't very well ride with one leg, that'd be kind of silly." The biker trying to help speaks up. "Oh come on Jim man! Clyde here saved all of our asses about a month ago!" "Yeah? Well what has he done for us lately? The stranger's right, we gotta put him down, it's the kind thing to do really. You gonna do it, Dan?" "No...I...mean...well..." "Pussy. Nevermind. Ramon you gonna do it?" "Shit yeah! Here hold on, oh fuck." Ramon says pulling out his pistol and then dropping it on the ground. Jim just shakes his head. "Ramon, its amazing you've even lasted this long with your clumsy ass. Fuck it, I'LL do it." > You kill Clyde yourself, along with the rest of them Before Jim can do anything, you take the initiative and splatter Clyde all over Ramon, and Dan. "SHIT! MY BOOTS!" Ramon yells. Dan doesn't say anything, he just falls backwards on his ass, fumbling to get out his own pistol. Another blast near him, stops him from pursuing that line of action though. Jim has pulled out his own weapon and is now pointing it at you. You're not worried. "Stop talkin' about killin' and just fuckin' do it." You say calmly. "Oh we're gonna stop talking alright, and the killing will be continuing with YOU!" "Still talkin'. How about we see how much of a bad ass you claim you are?" You toss away your shotgun and step out of your home, pulling a big ass knife from a sheath attached to your waist. No don't have any fear whatsoever. "Holy shit Jim this motherfucker's crazy!" Ramon shouts backing away. "I don't give a shit, this dickhead wants to play it this way, I'm more than willing to oblige." Jim tosses his pistol away and pulls out a knife as well, at which point you grab the pistol from your back. You shoot Dan in the head first, knowing that he's currently still the biggest threat, then you quickly shoot Jim in both of his legs. "ARRGH! FUCK! TREACHEROUS BASTARD!" Jim says holding on to his kneecaps. "Aww, look at that, looks like you won't be able to ride either; you know what that means...that's right." "Ramon kill this fucker!" Jim yells, but Ramon's already run off to get on his motorcycle. He manages to get it started and go a couple feet, before your bullets to his back cause him to fall off and dump the bike which skids out of control and slide noisily across the empty road. Ramon's still alive, but he's not going anywhere, you turn your attention back to Jim, who's attempting to retrieve his weapon, but you prevent that from happening with a couple more shots. Finally you go back over to Ramon's bloody limp body. He begs for his life pitifully. "Please...don't...shoot...me..." "I'm not; I've wasted too many bullets on you fucktards this day; I'll be finishing you off with my knife." Four more bodies. While these types at first seemed like "kindred spirits" they really weren't. They were just more victims. You hack off their heads and put them on stakes as is your routine. You place them a little further from your home this time, as if to stretch out your "domain" a little more. After this distraction, you go back to your usual solitary existence of talking to yourself and laughing at your own macabre jokes. 4 more years pass... It's been five years since you embraced your mad hermit ways. Over the years you haven't had many visitors, at least not directly. You started getting bored and began venturing a bit further from your home, not too far though. For the most part you never really found anybody, except the odd bandit, or lone wanderer. You started torturing most of these people before killing them. Not for entirely for pleasure, but more for information, since you began to get curious about what else was going on in the world, or at least in your area, you found most of the information fascinating. Apparently to a few towns, this area is considered a dangerous area inhabited by mutant cannibals and everyone advises all right thinking people to stay away! Nobody thinks it's just one person killing everyone. Some how that fills you with pride. However, you also hear about some new organization called The Combine, attempting to "tame" the wasteland. It seems they're in some sort of war with another organization called the Cybernetic Evolution. From what you heard, neither one seems to be a shining beacon of light in this dark world, and that sort of reassures you too. It means that civilization won't be making a come back anytime soon, you LIKE the way things are. Of course there are drawbacks, to the strongest of the fittest ideology and that's the fact there's usually someone always stronger; one day you get more direct visitors again. This time you're awakened by the sounds of a couple of vehicles and several people. You prepare you weapons and head upstairs, watching from your peephole before acting. You see a bunch of paramilitary types; they're armed and look a lot more prepared for combat than your past visitors. "Whoa! Watch that trap Steve! This whole area seems to be filled with them." "Roger, why the hell are we here anyway? We should be fighting those fucking cyborgs. We've got them on the run!" "Because Harry said the towns around this area are worried that due to their loss in man power from the current war, they'll be defenseless from the mutant cannibals that live here." "Since when does Harry give a shit about the Combine citizens?" "I dunno Leonard; he doesn't...though I have noticed a slight change in his personality ever since he hooked up with Marina. He's slightly less of an asshole now that he's getting some every once in awhile. Shit, I'm glad he sent us here, I was sick of killing cyborgs. Mutants would be a nice change of pace. Probably easier to take out as well." "I don't even think there's any mutants here. I mean come on, some of you guys went to the city, and other than there and a few of them wandering around the outskirts, have you ever heard of any organized mutant presence anywhere else? It's probably just a really vicious biker gang, look at those bikes over there." "Well that's a good point Vivica, but I doubt if its simple raiders or bikers. Those types actively attack towns, not linger in one place, though I suppose it's possible." "You know what I think? I think its just one crazy fucker killing people in the area. I mean look at all the vehicles here. If it was mutants OR raiders, we would've come across some of them by now, and besides, since when do either extensively use traps? Nah, this is some sort serial killer survivalist. He's probably listening to us right..." You open up the door and blast the current talkative Combine soldier with your shotgun, spraying his skull and brains all over the place. "RUN!" Robert shouts, as all of them scatter. The one called Leonard scatters in the wrong direction though and falls into a pit trap. From his screams it sounds like the sharpened poles inside didn't kill him immediately. The Combine soldiers hide behind the various vehicles and fire upon your position, but you've already closed and locked the door at this point, staying low to the ground as bullets begin finding their way into your home. After the barrage of bullets, things go silent for a moment You look through your peephole only to see them all throwing grenades at your home! You immediately retreat to the backroom of the store, as the grenades explode behind you giving the Combine soldiers a way in. > You descend into your underground lair and ambush them there You fling open the trap door and quickly climb down; you figure as soon as they attempt to come in after you, you can easily pick them off. Unfortunately the Combine soldiers are a little too smart for that. They've been fighting cyborgs for so long that their usual response to a tricky situation is throw explosives at it. Which is exactly what they do. They dump a few more grenades down the hatch, you see them and get cover just in time, but the explosion causes a weakening of the foundation and ultimately causing part of the store to collapse in on itself. Your murderous ways are finally put to an end when a wooden beam falls on your head and the rest of the debris buries your unconscious body forever.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, post-apocalyptic] Before Jim can do anything, you take the initiative and splatter Clyde all over Ramon, and Dan. "SHIT! MY BOOTS!" Ramon yells. Dan doesn't say anything, he just falls backwards on his ass, fumbling to get out his own pistol. Another blast near him, stops him from pursuing that line of action though. Jim has pulled out his own weapon and is now pointing it at you. You're not worried. "Stop talkin' about killin' and just fuckin' do it." You say calmly. "Oh we're gonna stop talking alright, and the killing will be continuing with YOU!" "Still talkin'. How about we see how much of a bad ass you claim you are?" You toss away your shotgun and step out of your home, pulling a big ass knife from a sheath attached to your waist. No don't have any fear whatsoever. "Holy shit Jim this motherfucker's crazy!" Ramon shouts backing away. "I don't give a shit, this dickhead wants to play it this way, I'm more than willing to oblige." Jim tosses his pistol away and pulls out a knife as well, at which point you grab the pistol from your back. You shoot Dan in the head first, knowing that he's currently still the biggest threat, then you quickly shoot Jim in both of his legs. "ARRGH! FUCK! TREACHEROUS BASTARD!" Jim says holding on to his kneecaps. "Aww, look at that, looks like you won't be able to ride either; you know what that means...that's right." "Ramon kill this fucker!" Jim yells, but Ramon's already run off to get on his motorcycle. He manages to get it started and go a couple feet, before your bullets to his back cause him to fall off and dump the bike which skids out of control and slide noisily across the empty road. Ramon's still alive, but he's not going anywhere, you turn your attention back to Jim, who's attempting to retrieve his weapon, but you prevent that from happening with a couple more shots. Finally you go back over to Ramon's bloody limp body. He begs for his life pitifully. "Please...don't...shoot...me..." "I'm not; I've wasted too many bullets on you fucktards this day; I'll be finishing you off with my knife." Four more bodies. While these types at first seemed like "kindred spirits" they really weren't. They were just more victims. You hack off their heads and put them on stakes as is your routine. You place them a little further from your home this time, as if to stretch out your "domain" a little more. After this distraction, you go back to your usual solitary existence of talking to yourself and laughing at your own macabre jokes. 4 more years pass... It's been five years since you embraced your mad hermit ways. Over the years you haven't had many visitors, at least not directly. You started getting bored and began venturing a bit further from your home, not too far though. For the most part you never really found anybody, except the odd bandit, or lone wanderer. You started torturing most of these people before killing them. Not for entirely for pleasure, but more for information, since you began to get curious about what else was going on in the world, or at least in your area, you found most of the information fascinating. Apparently to a few towns, this area is considered a dangerous area inhabited by mutant cannibals and everyone advises all right thinking people to stay away! Nobody thinks it's just one person killing everyone. Some how that fills you with pride. However, you also hear about some new organization called The Combine, attempting to "tame" the wasteland. It seems they're in some sort of war with another organization called the Cybernetic Evolution. From what you heard, neither one seems to be a shining beacon of light in this dark world, and that sort of reassures you too. It means that civilization won't be making a come back anytime soon, you LIKE the way things are. Of course there are drawbacks, to the strongest of the fittest ideology and that's the fact there's usually someone always stronger; one day you get more direct visitors again. This time you're awakened by the sounds of a couple of vehicles and several people. You prepare you weapons and head upstairs, watching from your peephole before acting. You see a bunch of paramilitary types; they're armed and look a lot more prepared for combat than your past visitors. "Whoa! Watch that trap Steve! This whole area seems to be filled with them." "Roger, why the hell are we here anyway? We should be fighting those fucking cyborgs. We've got them on the run!" "Because Harry said the towns around this area are worried that due to their loss in man power from the current war, they'll be defenseless from the mutant cannibals that live here." "Since when does Harry give a shit about the Combine citizens?" "I dunno Leonard; he doesn't...though I have noticed a slight change in his personality ever since he hooked up with Marina. He's slightly less of an asshole now that he's getting some every once in awhile. Shit, I'm glad he sent us here, I was sick of killing cyborgs. Mutants would be a nice change of pace. Probably easier to take out as well." "I don't even think there's any mutants here. I mean come on, some of you guys went to the city, and other than there and a few of them wandering around the outskirts, have you ever heard of any organized mutant presence anywhere else? It's probably just a really vicious biker gang, look at those bikes over there." "Well that's a good point Vivica, but I doubt if its simple raiders or bikers. Those types actively attack towns, not linger in one place, though I suppose it's possible." "You know what I think? I think its just one crazy fucker killing people in the area. I mean look at all the vehicles here. If it was mutants OR raiders, we would've come across some of them by now, and besides, since when do either extensively use traps? Nah, this is some sort serial killer survivalist. He's probably listening to us right..." You open up the door and blast the current talkative Combine soldier with your shotgun, spraying his skull and brains all over the place. "RUN!" Robert shouts, as all of them scatter. The one called Leonard scatters in the wrong direction though and falls into a pit trap. From his screams it sounds like the sharpened poles inside didn't kill him immediately. The Combine soldiers hide behind the various vehicles and fire upon your position, but you've already closed and locked the door at this point, staying low to the ground as bullets begin finding their way into your home. After the barrage of bullets, things go silent for a moment You look through your peephole only to see them all throwing grenades at your home! You immediately retreat to the backroom of the store, as the grenades explode behind you giving the Combine soldiers a way in. > You fight them off right here Since these fuckers like throwing grenades, going underground would be unwise. You begin hollering in pain like the initial blast injured you. "Arrrrgh! My arm! Shit! My leg! No!" you shout as loud as you can. "Get that bastard who killed Reggie! I'm goin' in to finish him off!" "Hold on get back here! Damn it Steve!" Steve runs in the store looking around for you through the smoke left from the explosions. He finds you just in time for you blast him in the crotch, you barely have time to take cover yourself, when the rest of the Combine soldiers come blazing away behind him. They toss more grenades into the back room where you're hiding, instinctively you throw one of them back and then jump down the trap door hatch as you narrowly avoid yet another explosion, you also hear a few more yelps of pain, sounds like an explosion got some of them as well. You still don't feel comfortable being underground like this though, in fact the couple explosions from above, result in some creaking and debris falling. You don't want to be here in case this thing starts collapsing on you. You climb back up and the whole store is smoky now, well what's left of it, half of the front is a gaping hole now exposed to the elements. You hear a groaning Combine soldier, and pull your pistol to finish him off. This noise draws attention however. A Combine soldier snipes you from afar with a powerful rifle when he catches your movement, still it's smoky so he doesn't get a clear head shot, and only catches you in the shoulder, however you've got really big hole in your arm now. You collapse to the floor and drop your pistol. "I got him! Vivica! Albert! Go in!" Roger shouts. You still have some strength left, and you're not going down this easy. You pull out your knife, stand up and charge through the smoke. "YAAAAAARGH!" you scream and tackle into the first Combine soldier approaching, jamming the knife deep into their stomach and pushing upwards. You look at the face of your victim, it's the female one. You lick her face as the brief flash of life begins to ebb from her eyes. "Oh shit, that fuckin' gives me a hard on." you whisper to her before she dies. "Holy Fuck! Shoot him! Shoot him!" Albert screams seeing his comrade killed right next to him. The other remaining Combine soldiers do fire on you, and you take multiple bullets to the body, before taking once last murderous act of stabbing Albert in the back when he attempted to run from you and get out of the way of the fire of his fellow Combiners. Finally Roger finishes you off with a clear shot to your head, exploding half of it. Oddly in your transition to death you hear one last thing. "Holy shit, that was fuckin' brutal. We coulda used a guy like him during the Cyborg siege of Fort Justice!"

[Themes: sci-fi] You might be absorbing more rads than usual now, but heading to the city would just be retarded. You'd probably die of cancer just going near the place; everything there would be contaminated anyway. You don't even want to see the survivors what the survivors might look like assuming there were any. You head for the general store, that's at least a safer bet. You drive your Van to the general store not very far from your house. You remember the old guy who ran the place; Billy. He was always alright with you. Whenever you went in to buy food, he was always talking about how bad the state of world was getting and how he was going to be prepared for when the nukes started flying. You're guessing he probably invested in one of those Ground Zero Survival Shelters you always saw for sale on TV and took himself and his wife to it. The last time you saw the place it was all boarded up and looked closed up for good, still it's a start. You arrive at the store which is still all boarded up like the last time you've seen it. You always found it weird that Billy bothered to board the place up, if he was going to abandon it. Surely he couldn't have thought things would be restored so quickly after a nuclear exchange that he'd be able to return some day. You get out of your van and study the store more closely which you never bothered to do before, the windows are boarded up from the outside, but upon closer inspection the door hasn't been boarded up at all. You try the door, but it's firmly locked. Nothing else for it, but to bash it down. You begin prying, slamming, kicking and everything else to the door, but its not budging and you only succeed in bruising your shoulder. In frustration you pull out your pistol and finally just shoot at the lock and then try to open it, which it does slightly, something else is barring the door from the inside though. You're going to have to start ramming the thing again to shove it open enough to get inside. Suddenly you hear some noise from inside and the click of a shotgun, it's also only just then you realize that Billy's pick up truck is still parked by the side of his store. He's obviously still here and you were oblivious to the fact. "Goddamn it Martha, hasn't been a month yet an' we already got scum tryin' ta loot the place!" It's Billy. You thought he left, but apparently not. He just made it look like he did and barricaded himself inside. "Alright you looting shit stain, you better just get the fuck outta here right now, 'fore you find yourself with a new hole in your chest!" Billy says from inside. "Whoa Billy it's me! I used to shop here! Come on open up, I'm not a looter!" you reply. "...(sigh) hold on, and back away from the goddamn door." You back away as Billy presumably moves whatever was still blocking the door. When he finally opens it up, he stands in the doorway still pointing his shotgun at you. "Damnation boy, I coulda blown your head off! You fuckin' destroyed my lock! What the hell are you wearin'?" Billy asks looking at your silly form of protection. "I'm sorry; I thought you abandoned this place." "Oh and that gave you the excuse to break in? What're you think yer doin' anyway? Why aren't you in your shelter or something?" "Cause I don't have one that's why! I was going to see if this place had any supplies and maybe stay here, if it wasn't in bad condition." "Oh. Well, sorry to crush yer dreams, but this place is still occupied and OWNED by me. You're gonna have to skedaddle. Just enough supplies for me and my wife." "But..." "No buts! Now you were a good customer an' all, but this is a new world and the rules have severely changed! It's all about survival now. And it's not my fault your ass didn't prepare for somethin' that was comin' for a long time! Now if you don't leave now I'm gonna be less understanding about this lack of judgment on your part. Bye and good luck." "No wait!" At this point Billy slams the door shut mumbling about the lock being destroyed and going to have to fix it. Billy must have some sort of private bomb shelter of his own, if he barricaded himself inside his own store. One that must be stocked pretty well to sustain him and his wife for a good amount of time. An idea races through your head that you never thought you'd consider, well not before the nukes hit anyway, but Billy's statement of "This is about survival" rings true. It IS about survival, and not just his. You don't really want to do this, but you feel like you have no other choice. Billy is still trying to barricade the door, when you take another forceful charge into it. Your attempt is successful this time as it flies open causing Billy to fall and drop the heavy box he was going to place in front of it. The box half lands on Billy causing him crushing pain while he struggles to grab his shotgun from the floor. You're quicker though and point your own pistol at him. "Don't grab that shotgun Billy...I don't want to kill you." you say "Goddamn sonofabitch, you ain't taking this..." "Billy what's... OH MY GOD!" When you hear Martha's outburst, it startles you during this already tense moment, you end up turning around and firing. You hit Martha square in the chest; she looks down briefly in shock before falling over dead. You're a little in shock yourself. "MARTHA!" Billy screams, causing you to face him once more, he's now actually grabbed the shotgun, and you begin babbling. "Oh God! Oh man! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that! She came up and...Billy don't do that...I don't want to...please..." You fire again, hitting Billy in the head, splattering his brains all over the floor and killing him instantly. You feel sick and promptly run outside to vomit. You've never killed anyone before, though you don't think it was that, that made you sick. It was the fact you murdered two people who were really innocent. You were the trespasser and when you couldn't get what you wanted, you took it by force. You acted like a criminal even if there's no such thing as "law" anymore. You sit down in a daze for a few minute trying to take all this in, before realizing you have to take care of some clean up first. You remove the bodies of Billy and Martha from the store. (You also remove your silly "protection wear", well except the dishwashing gloves for moving the bodies) You wonder where you're going put them, but eventually you decide to just dump them in the wilderness nearby, you figure nature will take its course. You go back to the store and re-barricade it. The store itself is empty, but in a back room, you discover a trapdoor. You descend and discover a large shelter with a treasure of food and water supplies, along with other useful items like first aid kits. Looks like Billy was more prepared than you could've imagined. One necessity you're glad to find is a bathroom facility with a sink and toilet, there's a little bit of water seeping from the cracks of the walls. Billy must've hit the jackpot and found an underground water source and built a crude plumbing system. He's also installed a small hydro generator which would explain how come there's dim lighting down here. Finally you see some survivalist books Billy had on a small bookshelf by a bed and a couple of hunting rifles along with ammunition for them and the shotgun you've recently acquired as well. Well you're certainly set up, and all you had to do was kill an old couple. As you lie down on the bed you think about your actions in greater depth now. You're not sure how to feel. Part of you wants to feel bad, but somehow you can't make yourself feel as bad as you probably should. In fact you're already starting to rationalize your actions. The first murder was a mistake, and the second one was self-defense. "And this is survival." You say and fall asleep. The next day you wake up, you feel the most refreshed than you have in a long time. Something has changed within you. You don't recognize immediately, but as a few months go by you begin to. Granted you were never a big one for human contact, anti-social and reclusive even, but this "line" you've crossed recently, your continued isolation, and the absence of civilization have made you become a little unhinged. You also start becoming paranoid, about other people stumbling across your new place and attempt to break in and take it like you did. Using the knowledge you've been getting from the survivalist books, you start setting up traps, inside and outside the store. One time, you spend just about a whole day doing that. When the darkness approaches you go back to your underground haven to descend further into quiet madness, before you fall asleep. Suddenly in the middle of the night you hear a noise and a scream from above. Sounds like it's coming from outside and from more than one person. You immediately grab your shotgun and head upstairs. After going through the typical routine of taking down the barricades, you open the door and see a family in panic. A man is lying on the ground yelling in pain from the snap trap that has obviously broken his leg. A woman and a little boy are screaming frantically and totally clueless of what to do in this situation. Looks like your traps work. The family hasn't seen you yet and don't know your intentions, come to think of it, you aren't even sure of your intentions... > You help them You haven't completely given up on your conscience. These people didn't do anything to you; they were probably just trying to find some place to be. "Hold on! I got a medical kit!" you shout and run to go fetch it along with small wooden plank and some rope. When you come back the entire family seems to have calmed down a bit, you remove the trap from his leg and look at it. You didn't use anything with blades, so its just broken, not punctured in any way. "Damn, it's a good thing I didn't use that bear trap I found, your leg would've been completely severed! Now if I remember reading this right, I have to reset the leg..." "Wait! You mean you've never done this before?" the man shouts. "Well no, but I've been reading! Now brace yourself!" "No Wait! AAAAAAAAGH! SHIT! That hurt!" "There now I just have to tie this splint thing around your leg, and you'll be all set, well more or less. What the hell are you people doing out here anyway? Shouldn't you be in a shelter or something?" The woman answers your question. "We were supposed to, but when we got to the GZS shelter we bought it wouldn't let us in! It just ate our debit card and said error! We tried like hell to get in, but the elevator door just wouldn't budge. When the bombs hit, we were in the shelter entrance foyer, and stayed there for a few days, but we realized we couldn't stay there forever, so we left and tried to find a nearby town that we might try to continue life as usual, but the one we found was quite unfriendly, they wouldn't even let us stay! This catastrophic event has made people paranoid and hostile!" "Huh. People were like that before the bombs; did you think they'd be different afterwards?" you say. Now the man speaks again, as he attempts to sit up "Well I'd at least expect some hospitality. When we got there, they looked at us like we were going to loot the entire town." "Probably thought you were, you know its going to take a while before most folks become trusting again. People are going to barely trust people they know. Hell, I heard they were rioting in the city before the bombs dropped. So I'd imagine there are lots of bad types out there willing to kill people over supplies as simple as fresh water." "But you helped us." "Yeah, I guess I did..." "Is this your store? Looks like you were better prepared than we were." "Uh...yeah, okay well I guess you guys can stay out here for awhile until you're ready to move on. Good luck." As you turn to leave the woman speaks again. "Hey wait! You mean you're not going to let us in? You'd just leave us out here? We told you, we were low on gas! And now my husband Jonathan has a broken leg! How are we going to get by?" "So, you can drive can't you? Look, this isn't my problem. I helped out, because I realized you guys weren't bandits or some shit, but I'm not here to take care of you. I have my own concerns." "But..." "Let it go Doris, I guess we should be grateful he fixed my leg and didn't kill us." "Are we going to be okay Dad?" the boy asks, speaking up for the first time without yelling. "We'll see Tyler, we'll see." Ah fuck, you started to give shit and now it's coming back at you. You turn around, and give in. "Alright, you can come in, but you're staying in the topside of the store, you can even stay until your leg heals, but after that, you gotta go. I don't have supplies to sustain all of you indefinitely." The family is very grateful, and moves in immediately. Over the months you all get to know each other a little better though you still don't exactly tell them how you "acquired" this place. You just say your "Uncle Billy" gave it to you when he died. Soon Jonathan's leg is much better, but you're wondering if you shouldn't let them stay on a more permanent basis; however as it turns out, that's exactly what Jonathan had in mind for his family except YOU weren't included. This treachery for your good graces comes as a surprise one night, when Doris suddenly wakes you up by banging on the trap door, yelling about how she thinks there's someone out side and how Jonathan went to check, but she thinks he's in trouble. You immediately grab your shotgun and go see what's wrong. You barely get out the front door, and you're suddenly hit in the head, knocking you to the ground. Jonathan grabs your shotgun and points it at you. Doris and Tyler come to the doorway. "Doris, take Tyler down into the underground...this'll be over soon I hope." Jonathan replies grimly. Doris nods and then looks at you, with a sad expression. "We're sorry about this...we really are..." she says and then takes her son away leaving just you and Jonathan. You stand up and brush yourself off. "So, were you planning this all along or what?" "Well...I dunno...nowadays, you don't really plan anything, it just sort of happens y'know?" "Oh yeah, I know." "Well you can understand that this is a good place for me and my family, and I can't allow you to just kick us out." "Stupid bastard, I was just thinking about letting you all stay on a more permanent basis." you laugh. This response surprises Jonathan, and it almost looks like he's going to change his mind, but he doesn't. "...It's too late now. You'd never trust me now, and I'd always think you'd try to get revenge. You have to leave. Besides you said it yourself one time, there aren't an indefinite amount of supplies, to sustain all of us." "Well you might as well pull that goddamn trigger John, because I'm not leaving." "Come on, man I'm serious! I'll do it. I don't want to, but I got a family to think about and there's nothing that's gonna make me change my mind...look I'll let you leave with some supplies. How about that? I mean you can take one of these vehicles or even mine! Just you gotta leave, we're taking this place now. I'm sorry." Well it's not much of a choice, but it may be more preferable than death. Though you can't help but think of the irony that how you tried to do the right thing and got fucked in the ass big time, while when you murdered Billy and his wife, you hit the damn jackpot. > You insist on staying "Fuck you John, I'm not making it that easy for ya. You think it's really that easy to kill someone? You go right ahead." You're hoping that you're just calling his bluff and he really won't shoot you, whether he was or not, he hesitates long enough for you to take advantage of the situation. You dive into Jonathan's legs as hard as you can, causing the both of you to fall to the ground, he attempts to get you off by smashing you in the head with the shotgun butt, however you knock it from his hands and re-break his leg, this time so the bone comes through. He bellows in pain, and then you kick him in the face. You pick up the shotgun and point it at him. "You stupid motherfucker! I woulda let you stay here! If you'd just...bah! You're right, it's too late now, and you fucked...ARGH!" A shot rings out and a sharp pain shoots into your side, causing you to fall. You look over in the direction of the store and its Doris holding one of the hunting rifles, though it seems she's not entirely comfortable with it and her second shot misses, giving you time to retaliate. "Bitch!" you say and swing the shotgun in her direction blowing a hole in her side as well, though hers is instantly fatal. "DORIS!" Jonathan screams before he crawls in your direction in some vain attempt for revenge. "Told ya, it's not that easy to kill someone, unless you've done it before..." you remark and finish off Jonathan. You're bleeding profusely and in a lot of pain, and you briefly wonder if you're going to survive your wounds, but that wonder comes to an end, when another shot rings out, hitting your upper body dropping you. It's Tyler holding your pistol, silent, with tears in his eyes upon seeing his dead parents. You give up, even if you had the strength to pick up your shotgun, you're not going to kill a kid. In fact you figure you probably deserve to die anyway given that you've killed two couples now who didn't really deserve it. You decide to give some last minute advice to this newly orphaned lad, who's going to surely have a hard time of it now, but still he might survive if he listens to your words... "Don't trust anyone kid...nobody."

[Themes: sci-fi, war] You haven't completely given up on your conscience. These people didn't do anything to you; they were probably just trying to find some place to be. "Hold on! I got a medical kit!" you shout and run to go fetch it along with small wooden plank and some rope. When you come back the entire family seems to have calmed down a bit, you remove the trap from his leg and look at it. You didn't use anything with blades, so its just broken, not punctured in any way. "Damn, it's a good thing I didn't use that bear trap I found, your leg would've been completely severed! Now if I remember reading this right, I have to reset the leg..." "Wait! You mean you've never done this before?" the man shouts. "Well no, but I've been reading! Now brace yourself!" "No Wait! AAAAAAAAGH! SHIT! That hurt!" "There now I just have to tie this splint thing around your leg, and you'll be all set, well more or less. What the hell are you people doing out here anyway? Shouldn't you be in a shelter or something?" The woman answers your question. "We were supposed to, but when we got to the GZS shelter we bought it wouldn't let us in! It just ate our debit card and said error! We tried like hell to get in, but the elevator door just wouldn't budge. When the bombs hit, we were in the shelter entrance foyer, and stayed there for a few days, but we realized we couldn't stay there forever, so we left and tried to find a nearby town that we might try to continue life as usual, but the one we found was quite unfriendly, they wouldn't even let us stay! This catastrophic event has made people paranoid and hostile!" "Huh. People were like that before the bombs; did you think they'd be different afterwards?" you say. Now the man speaks again, as he attempts to sit up "Well I'd at least expect some hospitality. When we got there, they looked at us like we were going to loot the entire town." "Probably thought you were, you know its going to take a while before most folks become trusting again. People are going to barely trust people they know. Hell, I heard they were rioting in the city before the bombs dropped. So I'd imagine there are lots of bad types out there willing to kill people over supplies as simple as fresh water." "But you helped us." "Yeah, I guess I did..." "Is this your store? Looks like you were better prepared than we were." "Uh...yeah, okay well I guess you guys can stay out here for awhile until you're ready to move on. Good luck." As you turn to leave the woman speaks again. "Hey wait! You mean you're not going to let us in? You'd just leave us out here? We told you, we were low on gas! And now my husband Jonathan has a broken leg! How are we going to get by?" "So, you can drive can't you? Look, this isn't my problem. I helped out, because I realized you guys weren't bandits or some shit, but I'm not here to take care of you. I have my own concerns." "But..." "Let it go Doris, I guess we should be grateful he fixed my leg and didn't kill us." "Are we going to be okay Dad?" the boy asks, speaking up for the first time without yelling. "We'll see Tyler, we'll see." Ah fuck, you started to give shit and now it's coming back at you. You turn around, and give in. "Alright, you can come in, but you're staying in the topside of the store, you can even stay until your leg heals, but after that, you gotta go. I don't have supplies to sustain all of you indefinitely." The family is very grateful, and moves in immediately. Over the months you all get to know each other a little better though you still don't exactly tell them how you "acquired" this place. You just say your "Uncle Billy" gave it to you when he died. Soon Jonathan's leg is much better, but you're wondering if you shouldn't let them stay on a more permanent basis; however as it turns out, that's exactly what Jonathan had in mind for his family except YOU weren't included. This treachery for your good graces comes as a surprise one night, when Doris suddenly wakes you up by banging on the trap door, yelling about how she thinks there's someone out side and how Jonathan went to check, but she thinks he's in trouble. You immediately grab your shotgun and go see what's wrong. You barely get out the front door, and you're suddenly hit in the head, knocking you to the ground. Jonathan grabs your shotgun and points it at you. Doris and Tyler come to the doorway. "Doris, take Tyler down into the underground...this'll be over soon I hope." Jonathan replies grimly. Doris nods and then looks at you, with a sad expression. "We're sorry about this...we really are..." she says and then takes her son away leaving just you and Jonathan. You stand up and brush yourself off. "So, were you planning this all along or what?" "Well...I dunno...nowadays, you don't really plan anything, it just sort of happens y'know?" "Oh yeah, I know." "Well you can understand that this is a good place for me and my family, and I can't allow you to just kick us out." "Stupid bastard, I was just thinking about letting you all stay on a more permanent basis." you laugh. This response surprises Jonathan, and it almost looks like he's going to change his mind, but he doesn't. "...It's too late now. You'd never trust me now, and I'd always think you'd try to get revenge. You have to leave. Besides you said it yourself one time, there aren't an indefinite amount of supplies, to sustain all of us." "Well you might as well pull that goddamn trigger John, because I'm not leaving." "Come on, man I'm serious! I'll do it. I don't want to, but I got a family to think about and there's nothing that's gonna make me change my mind...look I'll let you leave with some supplies. How about that? I mean you can take one of these vehicles or even mine! Just you gotta leave, we're taking this place now. I'm sorry." Well it's not much of a choice, but it may be more preferable than death. Though you can't help but think of the irony that how you tried to do the right thing and got fucked in the ass big time, while when you murdered Billy and his wife, you hit the damn jackpot. > You Leave "Alright, fine I'll leave...but you know this isn't right." You say backing away. "...I know...I know..." he replies. Jonathan calls his wife to get you few days supply of water, and some food. She soon returns with both which are throw at your feet, you take them and head to your van. They aren't going to give you a weapon though for obvious reasons. They tell you that maybe the town they stopped at before will be friendlier to you and you could try to live there. You don't say anything else, you just go to start up your van and drive off, you aren't sure where you're heading, but you figure you'll take the "friendly advice" of Doris and Jonathan and go to the town they told you about. You get a few miles and then your van decides to die on you. Nothing's going your way. After futile attempts to fix it, kicks, and threats, you realize you're walking now, which wouldn't be completely bad if you weren't without some sort of weapon. While walking along the desolate road, a dog like creature appears in the distance, then another, then more. They look like wolves, but something is obviously different about them, like they're deformed in some way, either way they don't look friendly, but they do look very hungry. You attempt to outrun them, but the mutant wolves are faster, and they ultimately catch you and rip you apart.

It's always been like you to do things at the last minute. After grabbing your pistol and all the food and drink you can, then heading down in the basement with it, you think that things probably won't be that bad. After all you don't live in the city, or even by an important city, surely not EVERY place will get bombed. It's not like you live on the east or west coast, now those people are going to be fucked. No, all you have to do is wait this out, and then things will get back to normal...okay well maybe not normal, but surely the government will restore order of some sort, you're sure they have a complex plan for this kind of thing. Eventually you hear a very loud noise; whatever light you had on in the basement immediately goes out as you can hear your house being hit by a powerful force. You curl up in a ball and hold your ears half expecting the entire house to collapse in on you, but it doesn't happen. You stay in the basement, for what you guess to be a week. You mostly stumble around in the darkness as reality begins to set in and destroy your previous delusions. You mainly think about how you should've planned things out better, especially since your food and drink are running out. The only thing you know really know about nuclear attacks is what you've learned from movies, video games and comic books. You can only hope some of that shit was helpful, as you have little choice, but to leave your basement, the bucket you were using to relieve yourself down there was really starting to stink anyway. You open up your basement door, which remarkably stayed intact, along with most of your house. The windows and other glass objects have all broke, and there's no power, but that's about it. You can only guess that whatever it was that hit, was far enough away and probably very low yield. You don't really want to think about the radioactivity factor though; you'll know if you're catching a lethal dose soon enough if your hair and teeth start falling out and you begin vomiting blood. Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter... You check the refrigerator again for more food, but there won't be enough to last you one day. You wonder if the water is still working and turn on the faucet, of course it doesn't, you don't think you'd want to risk drinking any of it anyway. Well it looks like you can't stay in your house either; you're going to have to leave to find food and some sort of drinkable liquid. Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter... Well if you're going to leave, you decide some sort of protection is in order; you grab some dishwashing gloves underneath the sink, some safety goggles you've had since you college chemistry class, a winter coat and finally a scarf your grandmother knit you for one of your birthdays to wrap over your mouth. You look somewhat silly in this getup and it probably won't protect you at all, but you're back to deluding yourself again which is probably a good thing since your relapses into fantasy are keeping you from breaking down completely. You open your dented garage door and get in your old van expecting it not to work, surprisingly it does. You thought it wouldn't due to all that stuff you remember hearing about EMP waves or something, then again your car was built in a year before they started mounting entire computers in the fucking things, so maybe that's why it still works. You don't know, you're just glad its one of the things you still have that functions, you didn't want to be riding that bike you bought and hardly ever used. You throw your backpack of useful items (flashlight, small tool set, first aid kit, etc) into the van and ponder where to go. You've got two choices that immediately come to mind assuming both still exist; one is that "Mom & Pop" General Store that was abandoned at least a month ago. You can't imagine they took everything from the place. The other choice is to risk going to the city and finding something there. Despite all the looting and mass exodus that was going on there before any of this went down, the city's still a big place and there's probably lots of useful stuff there, the problem is wondering if you'll be heading into a death zone. That radioactivity concern is still in the back of your mind. Damn you wish you bought that bomb shelter... > You head to the city You have no real idea where to go so you head to the City. You might live in the boonies, but you aren't an outdoorsman. You aren't some survivalist that's been training yourself for this "moment" so it's not like you can just start living off the land, and unless the City was completely flattened by a nuclear bomb, you'll probably still find something there. As for the radiation factor, you're probably receiving a lethal dose of radiation right now. It's not like you were so far away from blasts that you wouldn't be receiving it, though you try to think back to your Grandfather who was in the army and had to witness some nuclear test blasts back in the old days. He was certainly in the danger zone, and lived a fairly long time. One of the few though. Hopefully you've inherited that level of resistance, or at least that level of luck. But unless you find food and water supplies you aren't going to be living long enough to die of the radiation. You continue your drive to the city, watching the surroundings getting progressively worse looking, You then see the shattered "skeletal" remains of skyscrapers looming in the distance. The city got hit, but apparently by something "small" and probably exploded high in the air. Of course that doesn't make you feel any better. You make a mental note of all the "useful" locations you used to do your shopping. You goal is to go in and grab what you can to sustain you for a long time and leave for some place else. When you finally reach the city, it feels a little creepy. Everything seems so empty and dead. You have the windows up, but it's not like you wouldn't be able to hear noises if there were any, which there aren't. Just the silent remains of destroyed buildings and vehicle husks. You wonder if any people survived, though you're guessing if they did they won't be in great condition. In fact it's been a week since the attack; survivors might've died by now without medical attention. Your first stop is the supermarket. You don't have high hopes of finding anything though. You know looting was going on in the city even before the bombs hit, still this IS the reason why you came here, so you enter through one of the big broken floor windows. No lighting inside of course, but the sunlight from outside is providing enough, plus you have your flashlight if you need it. The entire place has an unpleasant odor, but you're guessing it might be rotten food from the meat section and diary section, assuming those sections even have any of those items left. Oddly you do find that the aisles aren't completely empty. Most of the canned food gone, but there's still a ton of cereal and nothing says you have to eat it with milk! Beef Jerky survives anything as well. You can't believe people didn't take that stuff. There are some soft drinks left in the now non-working freezers. Probably flat and warm as fuck, but again you hardly care at this point. You get yourself a hand basket and start loading up on what you can. When you get back to your van you finally hear something besides the crunch of debris underneath your own feet and the blowing wind. Its footsteps...several of them. You then see something you only thought existed in horror movies. These must be the bomb victims you though were dead by now, but it seems they're not dead, or at least you're guessing they're not. A group of them staggers towards youMany of them have a half-crazed appearance and severe radiation burns. Apparently their minds have damaged along with their bodies. Some of them are armed with blunt instruments. As they approach you, they just looking at you menacingly and start growling, until one of them points at you and shouts in raspy voice. "Shit! Die motherfuckers!" you shout back, shooting and quickly getting in your van as they hasten their pace towards you. You manage to drive off, but not before they manage to smash your windshield and both of your side windows. You think you killed a few of them, you saw a few go down when you shot at them, and you know you ran that one over. Of course it's not like you hung around to see if they got back up, but you're pretty sure now they aren't reanimated corpses. Of course that doesn't make this situation any less fucked up or them any less dangerous, since they seemed intent on eating you. You need to get out of the City, but now what appeared previously empty, now appears to be more inhabited then you thought as more of these...things come out of woodwork. You haven't gotten far, when your van is bombarded by bricks and even fired upon! Some of those bullets hit the wheels causing you to skid out of control. You attempt to regain control of the van, but fail and smash into nearby building. Attempts to restart it also fail, though you don't have that much time anyway as some of these freaks are fast approaching on your position. You get out of the van with your supply bag and start running. You don't even know where you are right now; you were in such a hurry to get the hell out that you didn't realize you took the wrong streets, now you're in unfamiliar territory and the fact that all the landmarks have been blown to shit doesn't help. Though this looks like some sort of industrial district. You duck into one of the warehouses hoping to lose the freaks. The place has destroyed sections of the roof. Pallets and empty boxes of varying sizes lie all over the place. You look for someplace more secure to hide just in case, but all you can find that looks suitable is what looks to be a manager's office. When you enter, the office is also in disarray. You decide to wait here awhile to consider what to do next, during which time you inspect the various papers on the ground. You also remove the silly "protection wear", you're getting hot and it's not going to protect you from anything anyway. After scanning through many of the documents, most have the insignia of "GZS" on them or Ground Zero Survival, that corporation that was trying to sell people bomb shelters before the war. (One you still wish you bought right now) You didn't even know they had any holdings in the City. Looks like this place shipped a lot of equipment to said Shelters during their building process. No map locations though unfortunately, just a bunch of random shelter numbers. You end up kicking the desk in frustration only to succeed in hurting your foot, and making another discovery. When your foot moved the desk, you notice it was hiding a trapdoor! Though you wonder what the hell one is doing here. This seems a little weird, but then again the whole situation is weird, so you open it up and climb down. The first thing you notice is what a long climb it is, the second thing you notice is there's lighting when you reach the bottom, dim, but lighting. The corridor leads to a heavy duty door not to far ahead, so you head that way, but when you go to open the door you find it locked. Before you can shoot the lock you hear a voice on the other side. "Lisa is that you?" the voice says. > You tell the truth "Uh, no." you reply "Who the fuck are you?" "I'm a survivor like you, I came to the City to get supplies, but I got attacked by some sort of mutant things or something, and I got temporarily trapped here." "Ha ha! You are one stupid motherfucker then! Why the hell would you come BACK to a bombed out city for ANY reason?" the voice mocks. "Well why the hell are you here?" "Business." "What kind of business?" "That's for me to know and for you not to know. Now get the fuck outta here, you don't belong here. This is GZS property an' you obviously aren't an employee in any shape or form." "Can't you let me in?" "Fuck you! There's a bunch of cannibalistic mutants up there!" "Shoulda though about that before your stupid ass came to the city." "Oh fuck this, I'll just blow the handle off the door and..." "You blow the handle off and I'll blow your head off as soon as you enter through door, though I doubt you will since it's also barricaded and deadbolted from the inside. You ain't getting in here unless you're packing some serious firepower. Better just go away and try to get out of the City before it gets dark." You shout a few more things at the voice behind the door, but it doesn't reply back, you think about shooting at the door, but you'll probably only be wasting bullets that you'll undoubtly need. Having no other options you head back to the surface where after making a quick check to see if the coast is clear which it is so you continue your attempt at escape from the city as night begins to fall. Unfortunately you don't get far before the roving gangs of mutants stumble upon you again; these ones seem even more vicious and organized though. After a short game of shoot and run, eventually they manage to surround and trap you. Sensing that your death is near, you shoot yourself in the head to save yourself the pain of being eaten alive. The mutants seem disappointed, but they eat you anyway.

[Themes: sci-fi, war] You have no real idea where to go so you head to the City. You might live in the boonies, but you aren't an outdoorsman. You aren't some survivalist that's been training yourself for this "moment" so it's not like you can just start living off the land, and unless the City was completely flattened by a nuclear bomb, you'll probably still find something there. As for the radiation factor, you're probably receiving a lethal dose of radiation right now. It's not like you were so far away from blasts that you wouldn't be receiving it, though you try to think back to your Grandfather who was in the army and had to witness some nuclear test blasts back in the old days. He was certainly in the danger zone, and lived a fairly long time. One of the few though. Hopefully you've inherited that level of resistance, or at least that level of luck. But unless you find food and water supplies you aren't going to be living long enough to die of the radiation. You continue your drive to the city, watching the surroundings getting progressively worse looking, You then see the shattered "skeletal" remains of skyscrapers looming in the distance. The city got hit, but apparently by something "small" and probably exploded high in the air. Of course that doesn't make you feel any better. You make a mental note of all the "useful" locations you used to do your shopping. You goal is to go in and grab what you can to sustain you for a long time and leave for some place else. When you finally reach the city, it feels a little creepy. Everything seems so empty and dead. You have the windows up, but it's not like you wouldn't be able to hear noises if there were any, which there aren't. Just the silent remains of destroyed buildings and vehicle husks. You wonder if any people survived, though you're guessing if they did they won't be in great condition. In fact it's been a week since the attack; survivors might've died by now without medical attention. Your first stop is the supermarket. You don't have high hopes of finding anything though. You know looting was going on in the city even before the bombs hit, still this IS the reason why you came here, so you enter through one of the big broken floor windows. No lighting inside of course, but the sunlight from outside is providing enough, plus you have your flashlight if you need it. The entire place has an unpleasant odor, but you're guessing it might be rotten food from the meat section and diary section, assuming those sections even have any of those items left. Oddly you do find that the aisles aren't completely empty. Most of the canned food gone, but there's still a ton of cereal and nothing says you have to eat it with milk! Beef Jerky survives anything as well. You can't believe people didn't take that stuff. There are some soft drinks left in the now non-working freezers. Probably flat and warm as fuck, but again you hardly care at this point. You get yourself a hand basket and start loading up on what you can. When you get back to your van you finally hear something besides the crunch of debris underneath your own feet and the blowing wind. Its footsteps...several of them. You then see something you only thought existed in horror movies. These must be the bomb victims you though were dead by now, but it seems they're not dead, or at least you're guessing they're not. A group of them staggers towards youMany of them have a half-crazed appearance and severe radiation burns. Apparently their minds have damaged along with their bodies. Some of them are armed with blunt instruments. As they approach you, they just looking at you menacingly and start growling, until one of them points at you and shouts in raspy voice. "Shit! Die motherfuckers!" you shout back, shooting and quickly getting in your van as they hasten their pace towards you. You manage to drive off, but not before they manage to smash your windshield and both of your side windows. You think you killed a few of them, you saw a few go down when you shot at them, and you know you ran that one over. Of course it's not like you hung around to see if they got back up, but you're pretty sure now they aren't reanimated corpses. Of course that doesn't make this situation any less fucked up or them any less dangerous, since they seemed intent on eating you. You need to get out of the City, but now what appeared previously empty, now appears to be more inhabited then you thought as more of these...things come out of woodwork. You haven't gotten far, when your van is bombarded by bricks and even fired upon! Some of those bullets hit the wheels causing you to skid out of control. You attempt to regain control of the van, but fail and smash into nearby building. Attempts to restart it also fail, though you don't have that much time anyway as some of these freaks are fast approaching on your position. You get out of the van with your supply bag and start running. You don't even know where you are right now; you were in such a hurry to get the hell out that you didn't realize you took the wrong streets, now you're in unfamiliar territory and the fact that all the landmarks have been blown to shit doesn't help. Though this looks like some sort of industrial district. You duck into one of the warehouses hoping to lose the freaks. The place has destroyed sections of the roof. Pallets and empty boxes of varying sizes lie all over the place. You look for someplace more secure to hide just in case, but all you can find that looks suitable is what looks to be a manager's office. When you enter, the office is also in disarray. You decide to wait here awhile to consider what to do next, during which time you inspect the various papers on the ground. You also remove the silly "protection wear", you're getting hot and it's not going to protect you from anything anyway. After scanning through many of the documents, most have the insignia of "GZS" on them or Ground Zero Survival, that corporation that was trying to sell people bomb shelters before the war. (One you still wish you bought right now) You didn't even know they had any holdings in the City. Looks like this place shipped a lot of equipment to said Shelters during their building process. No map locations though unfortunately, just a bunch of random shelter numbers. You end up kicking the desk in frustration only to succeed in hurting your foot, and making another discovery. When your foot moved the desk, you notice it was hiding a trapdoor! Though you wonder what the hell one is doing here. This seems a little weird, but then again the whole situation is weird, so you open it up and climb down. The first thing you notice is what a long climb it is, the second thing you notice is there's lighting when you reach the bottom, dim, but lighting. The corridor leads to a heavy duty door not to far ahead, so you head that way, but when you go to open the door you find it locked. Before you can shoot the lock you hear a voice on the other side. "Lisa is that you?" the voice says. > You make up a story Given the whole suspicious nature of this set up you have a feeling the truth will not help you here; you'll have to bullshit your way it. You try to remember some of the stuff you were reading on the documents upstairs. "No, I'm from GZS Headquarters, Shipping Division. And I hope you got some answers because there's been a bunch of fucking mistakes in where things were getting transported! Who are YOU?" "...I'm Owen! What the fuck? I ain't in charge of that! I'm just security!" "I don't give a shit WHO you are! Where's your supervisor?" "...I..uh...I guess Lisa is my supervisor, but she's not here!" "Oh? And where the hell is she? GZS Headquarters is VERY displeased!" "I don't understand, Lisa wasn't in charge of any kind of shipping. She was an egghead! A researcher! We were down here for...other reasons...but you should know that!" "LOOK! I work in a cramped fucking office with boring paper work all goddamn day, I don't have a window, someone keeps stealing my stapler, and they don't tell me shit unless it's to scream at my fucking face. I don't care WHY you're here! All I know is; I got my ass chewed out by HQ for someone else's fuck ups! We got Shelters all over the goddamn tri-state area with mixed up equipment during the building process and we're only NOW just finding out about it! You know how BAD that makes us look to our customers? I got sent down here to see if I could find out anything and all I've found out is the goddamn City is crawling with fucking cannibalistic mutants! Now that I've FOUND someone who might have some answers for me, I'm not just gonna dismiss that! So open up the goddamn door and let me in!" Your act and tone is very convincing of someone who's had to deal with red tape and silly corporate orders. (Though you do know something of them having had to deal with them at your own job in your "old life") obviously the security guard knows about them as well, because he lets you in. When the door opens up, you see a surprisingly scrawny man. You were expecting someone a little more burly, but he still wields an assault rifle slung around his shoulder making the need for physical strength unnecessary. "You...you don't look like a GZS employee...shouldn't you be in a suit and tie or something?" "I'm not gonna be running all over the nuclear wasteland in a hot ass suit and tie! Shit, I swear we hire dumber and dumber security guards each year. Just goes to show even natural selection fails sometimes in the face of near mass extinction. So where the hell is this Lisa?" you ask walking past him and noticing the well lit room and its sterile appearance. Some sort of generator sits in a corner giving off a low hum. "I told you she's not here; she went to the surface again. She should be back soon." The security guard says still eyeing you suspiciously. "Again? Why's she going up there in the first place? Ain't nothing left up there." "You're telling me. I went up once and nearly got myself killed. Since then Lisa says she'd rather me stay guard here and not get in the way of here so called research. Fine by me." "I still don't understand, what's this research?" "Uh...well...um...it's supposed to be a secret. I'm really surprised you being from HQ that you don't know about it..." "I told you, I get BURIED in paperwork, and they don't tell me shit. I mean I've heard things here and there, but I don't know what else was going on here." "Well...I guess it really doesn't matter now...I mean what's done is done and HQ probably should know anyway...okay well you know how GZS has dealings with the military and the government and shit right?" "Sure." "Well it's something like that going on, but I don't know the intricate details about it, just what I know from Lisa, but I guess GZS was trying to develop some sort of radiation drug, y'know something to make the body immune to the shit." "That does sound pretty useful, but this place doesn't exactly look like a complex lab for doing something like that." "Oh, its not. This is just a research outpost as it were. The real drug was made somewhere else, but it needed to be tested right? So they decided to test it here, a batch of it got dumped in the water supply months before the bombs hit. The idea is that the survivors of the initial blast would still be able to live and not get cancer, sterility or tumors and all that other bad shit that radiation causes. So even people caught in the cities would survive and be able to eventually rebuild and get civilization up and running again. I think they wanted to dump the drug into ALL the major cities, but it looks like world war three happened sooner than they though eh?" What you just heard sounds like some sort of science fiction tale! Then again being the cynic you are, you can't say you're completely surprised by it. Though now you have a more important question. "Okay, but if that was the intention...what's with all the mutants in the City trying to eat me?" "Uh...well...I guess it didn't work the way it should've? That's sort of why Lisa and me were still here. Lisa was supposed to record the results of the drug after the bombs hit and that's what she's been doing. Lisa says the drugs are affecting people's minds, and combined with the already fucked up situation I'd say it probably explains a lot already. Though I gotta say there was some pretty bad rioting even before the bombs dropped so I wonder if the drug was starting to affect the minds of people even then...but that's silly I mean me and Lisa haven't been affected by it at all, I dunno." "YOU and her drank the water too?" "Well yeah, our personal water recycling system has it. I mean if we were going to be here, we damn well had to be pretty resistant to radiation...wait a minute I just realized something... you mean GZS sent you down here without this knowledge? Oh shit! You realize how many rads you've probably soaked up without the drug's protection? Oh man, you were right! They must hate your guts at HQ! Ha ha ha ha ha! Sucks to be you!" Owen laughs uncontrollably "Yeah, yeah..." "Man, I mean shit! They pretty much sent you to die! I mean really why the hell would they worry about whether shelters got the right equipment shipments now for anyway? GZS already got their money, did you actually think they were going to go send someone personally to each shelter correct the mistakes? They were already built man! Use your head!" "Uh huh, so..." "Ha ha ha ha! I mean damn, you work in shipping, GZS fucking up shouldn't even be news to you! Look at what happened with this goddamn anti-radiation drug! I mean what asshole fucking moron thought up those shelter elevator designs?" "Why what's wrong with the elevator designs?" you ask innocently, which suddenly puts Owen in a less jovial mood, he begins to get suspicious again. "Something ain't right here...anyone who works for GZS knows how idiotic the computerized shelter elevator set up is. People got fired for that one. Why hell why do you think WE have a ladder? You claim you're from HQ and you don't know? I don't care HOW much you say you're out of the loop... I'm a lowly security guard and even I heard about the fucked up elevator designs!" Owen goes for his assault rifle slung on his shoulder, and you charge slamming him into the wall with an elbow to his face. You then pistol whip him a couple times before taking his rifle away from him. He holds on to his bloody face looking at you. "Ughhhh, shit...my face..." he groans. "Okay look, I was probably wrong for lying about working for GZS and..." "Fuck you...you goddamn piece of shit..." "HEY! Asshole! I'm the one with the gun here! Now I don't want to kill you, but..." Owen unsuccessfully tries to grab his rifle back, you kick him back down. "Are you fuckin' kiddin' me? I nearly shot you, dumb fuck! I'd probably be able to kick your ass even without these guns, so you better just calm..." Owen once again attempts to attack you, this time you butt him with the rifle hard, and kick him out the door then lock it. "Fuck you then asshole! Let the mutants eat you!" you shout, you expect to hear banging on the door, or even pleading, but you don't hear anything. After a few hours pass, you open up the door, and Owen is gone. You close the door back up and explore your surroundings a bit more. There's not much to explore though, just two simple bedrooms, an eating area, bathroom and the "living area" which you're already familiar with. The generator provides power, and a water recycling system provides water. Looks like there's some sort of food dispensing system as well, though what it dispenses isn't particularly tasty. You could be set up here for awhile if you wanted to be, though perhaps you just want somewhere to rest first before getting out of the city. > You leave the city You don't really want to stick around here any longer than you have to, so as soon as you're rested up, you're going to leave in the morning. You think about what Owen said about the water supply and the anti-radiation drugs in it then you think about what happened to a majority of the survivors. It didn't seem to do them any good, so you decide not to risk drinking any of the water or taking any with you. You also wonder about Owen's supervisor Lisa. He did say she was supposed to return soon, you form some ideas on how to handle the situation, but as it turns out, she never does. Probably got killed no doubt. The next morning you leave. You half expect Owen to be waiting to ambush you, but he's completely gone. After making sure the coast is clear you get your bearings again, and make haste for leaving the City. Luckily you have no further encounters, and you're just a little bit safer for leaving the City of course now there's the problem of find another stretch of civilization, but you think you have enough supplies. A few days go by and you eventually do stumble upon a small town. Its more like a ghost town actually, barely anyone lives there, but that suits you just fine after having to deal with mutant cannibals. You take residence in one of the abandoned houses, you figure it's going to be temporary before you move on in the future, but you're starting not to feel too well so you stick around. About a month passes and you feel tired all the time, you get the shakes pretty bad, and soon, you start vomiting blood, then there's the hair loss... You lie on the dirty bed in the house lamenting how ill prepared you really were for all this and the bad decisions you chose that made it worse. You can't go on waiting for the end, you're in hell right now, and a quick death would be a welcome release. You get the idea to shoot yourself, but you're so weak now that you merely collapse when you try to reach for your pistol, however as it turns out your wish is shortly granted during this time when you also fall unconsciousness and lapse into a coma. Death soon follows.

Given the whole suspicious nature of this set up you have a feeling the truth will not help you here; you'll have to bullshit your way it. You try to remember some of the stuff you were reading on the documents upstairs. "No, I'm from GZS Headquarters, Shipping Division. And I hope you got some answers because there's been a bunch of fucking mistakes in where things were getting transported! Who are YOU?" "...I'm Owen! What the fuck? I ain't in charge of that! I'm just security!" "I don't give a shit WHO you are! Where's your supervisor?" "...I..uh...I guess Lisa is my supervisor, but she's not here!" "Oh? And where the hell is she? GZS Headquarters is VERY displeased!" "I don't understand, Lisa wasn't in charge of any kind of shipping. She was an egghead! A researcher! We were down here for...other reasons...but you should know that!" "LOOK! I work in a cramped fucking office with boring paper work all goddamn day, I don't have a window, someone keeps stealing my stapler, and they don't tell me shit unless it's to scream at my fucking face. I don't care WHY you're here! All I know is; I got my ass chewed out by HQ for someone else's fuck ups! We got Shelters all over the goddamn tri-state area with mixed up equipment during the building process and we're only NOW just finding out about it! You know how BAD that makes us look to our customers? I got sent down here to see if I could find out anything and all I've found out is the goddamn City is crawling with fucking cannibalistic mutants! Now that I've FOUND someone who might have some answers for me, I'm not just gonna dismiss that! So open up the goddamn door and let me in!" Your act and tone is very convincing of someone who's had to deal with red tape and silly corporate orders. (Though you do know something of them having had to deal with them at your own job in your "old life") obviously the security guard knows about them as well, because he lets you in. When the door opens up, you see a surprisingly scrawny man. You were expecting someone a little more burly, but he still wields an assault rifle slung around his shoulder making the need for physical strength unnecessary. "You...you don't look like a GZS employee...shouldn't you be in a suit and tie or something?" "I'm not gonna be running all over the nuclear wasteland in a hot ass suit and tie! Shit, I swear we hire dumber and dumber security guards each year. Just goes to show even natural selection fails sometimes in the face of near mass extinction. So where the hell is this Lisa?" you ask walking past him and noticing the well lit room and its sterile appearance. Some sort of generator sits in a corner giving off a low hum. "I told you she's not here; she went to the surface again. She should be back soon." The security guard says still eyeing you suspiciously. "Again? Why's she going up there in the first place? Ain't nothing left up there." "You're telling me. I went up once and nearly got myself killed. Since then Lisa says she'd rather me stay guard here and not get in the way of here so called research. Fine by me." "I still don't understand, what's this research?" "Uh...well...um...it's supposed to be a secret. I'm really surprised you being from HQ that you don't know about it..." "I told you, I get BURIED in paperwork, and they don't tell me shit. I mean I've heard things here and there, but I don't know what else was going on here." "Well...I guess it really doesn't matter now...I mean what's done is done and HQ probably should know anyway...okay well you know how GZS has dealings with the military and the government and shit right?" "Sure." "Well it's something like that going on, but I don't know the intricate details about it, just what I know from Lisa, but I guess GZS was trying to develop some sort of radiation drug, y'know something to make the body immune to the shit." "That does sound pretty useful, but this place doesn't exactly look like a complex lab for doing something like that." "Oh, its not. This is just a research outpost as it were. The real drug was made somewhere else, but it needed to be tested right? So they decided to test it here, a batch of it got dumped in the water supply months before the bombs hit. The idea is that the survivors of the initial blast would still be able to live and not get cancer, sterility or tumors and all that other bad shit that radiation causes. So even people caught in the cities would survive and be able to eventually rebuild and get civilization up and running again. I think they wanted to dump the drug into ALL the major cities, but it looks like world war three happened sooner than they though eh?" What you just heard sounds like some sort of science fiction tale! Then again being the cynic you are, you can't say you're completely surprised by it. Though now you have a more important question. "Okay, but if that was the intention...what's with all the mutants in the City trying to eat me?" "Uh...well...I guess it didn't work the way it should've? That's sort of why Lisa and me were still here. Lisa was supposed to record the results of the drug after the bombs hit and that's what she's been doing. Lisa says the drugs are affecting people's minds, and combined with the already fucked up situation I'd say it probably explains a lot already. Though I gotta say there was some pretty bad rioting even before the bombs dropped so I wonder if the drug was starting to affect the minds of people even then...but that's silly I mean me and Lisa haven't been affected by it at all, I dunno." "YOU and her drank the water too?" "Well yeah, our personal water recycling system has it. I mean if we were going to be here, we damn well had to be pretty resistant to radiation...wait a minute I just realized something... you mean GZS sent you down here without this knowledge? Oh shit! You realize how many rads you've probably soaked up without the drug's protection? Oh man, you were right! They must hate your guts at HQ! Ha ha ha ha ha! Sucks to be you!" Owen laughs uncontrollably "Yeah, yeah..." "Man, I mean shit! They pretty much sent you to die! I mean really why the hell would they worry about whether shelters got the right equipment shipments now for anyway? GZS already got their money, did you actually think they were going to go send someone personally to each shelter correct the mistakes? They were already built man! Use your head!" "Uh huh, so..." "Ha ha ha ha! I mean damn, you work in shipping, GZS fucking up shouldn't even be news to you! Look at what happened with this goddamn anti-radiation drug! I mean what asshole fucking moron thought up those shelter elevator designs?" "Why what's wrong with the elevator designs?" you ask innocently, which suddenly puts Owen in a less jovial mood, he begins to get suspicious again. "Something ain't right here...anyone who works for GZS knows how idiotic the computerized shelter elevator set up is. People got fired for that one. Why hell why do you think WE have a ladder? You claim you're from HQ and you don't know? I don't care HOW much you say you're out of the loop... I'm a lowly security guard and even I heard about the fucked up elevator designs!" Owen goes for his assault rifle slung on his shoulder, and you charge slamming him into the wall with an elbow to his face. You then pistol whip him a couple times before taking his rifle away from him. He holds on to his bloody face looking at you. "Ughhhh, shit...my face..." he groans. "Okay look, I was probably wrong for lying about working for GZS and..." "Fuck you...you goddamn piece of shit..." "HEY! Asshole! I'm the one with the gun here! Now I don't want to kill you, but..." Owen unsuccessfully tries to grab his rifle back, you kick him back down. "Are you fuckin' kiddin' me? I nearly shot you, dumb fuck! I'd probably be able to kick your ass even without these guns, so you better just calm..." Owen once again attempts to attack you, this time you butt him with the rifle hard, and kick him out the door then lock it. "Fuck you then asshole! Let the mutants eat you!" you shout, you expect to hear banging on the door, or even pleading, but you don't hear anything. After a few hours pass, you open up the door, and Owen is gone. You close the door back up and explore your surroundings a bit more. There's not much to explore though, just two simple bedrooms, an eating area, bathroom and the "living area" which you're already familiar with. The generator provides power, and a water recycling system provides water. Looks like there's some sort of food dispensing system as well, though what it dispenses isn't particularly tasty. You could be set up here for awhile if you wanted to be, though perhaps you just want somewhere to rest first before getting out of the city. > You Stay You decide to stay, and think about what Owen said about the water supply and the anti-radiation drugs in it then you think about what happened to a majority of the survivors. It didn't seem to do them any good, but he was right; it WAS stupid to come here! You can't really do much about it now, but you're hoping that water can keep you from dying a slow horrible death, though you don't know how it works exactly since you weren't drinking it before you absorbed rads. Still, you'll try anything now. The first thing you do is start drinking the water, and a lot of it. You also wonder about Owen's supervisor Lisa. He did say she was supposed to return soon, and you form some ideas on how to handle the situation when it arises (to keep your mind occupied), but as it turns out, she never does. Probably got killed no doubt. A few days go by and there's not much to do for entertainment purposes and you're reluctant to leave your "safe haven" now. There are some books in what is Lisa's room that you peruse through. You also look for maybe some notes on her research since the stuff Owen told you about did sound interesting. Maybe even ideas on what the drugs in the water supply might've done to people (Something ELSE you're starting to worry about) but unfortunately you don't find anything. She must've taken those with her. Owen's room has an old TV set which amusingly has an equally as old game console hooked up to it. You spend a lot of time shooting different colored circular objects with your white triangle on the screen. After a week you start feeling weird. Like mildly delirious. You start lying in bed a lot, only getting up to quench your thirst since you don't have much of an appetite. After a month you start feeling sick. You begin throwing up and having diarrhea even though you've barely been eating anything. You have the shakes and you often just lie on the floor aching all over you body. You drink the water in the steadily failing hopes that it will miraculously cure you. When patches of your hair start falling out, and cough up bits of blood, you really start to lose all hope. "Oh fuck...I don't wanna die like this...shit..." you sob. You begin thinking about suicide, but you're so weak that the one time you seriously attempt it; you collapse on the floor when reaching for your pistol and fall unconscious for a full day. When you wake up, you feel a little better physically, but not much. However your mind is a little warped. As it turns out this is somewhat fortunate as you don't worry about dying so much anymore. You do start talking to yourself at great lengths though. You begin having bizarre thoughts about things in general. Sometimes you go into a fit and start ranting until you're hoarse. Another month passes and you're completely better physically, in fact you feel stronger than you ever did before. Your mind is still in la la land though. You begin to get very violent. You begin punching the walls (and even doing some damage to them) and ripping up books. What temporarily "sobers" you up is when you smash the food dispenser, breaking it completely. While you still have real food left you've just destroyed your only means of food-substitute when the real stuff runs out. "SHIT!" you yell. "I gotta get a fuckin...grip...I gotta get fuckin' food!" You grab your pistol and assault rifle and throw open the door in search of food. After climbing back up to the surface, you notice that you can see pretty well in the dark warehouse. It would appear you've developed some minor "dark vision". In the darkness you also notice that the warehouse has lots of rats and roaches crawling around in it. Those could be food... > You eat the rats and roaches Something you wouldn't ever consider eating before suddenly makes a lot of sense to you. You start off by grabbing the nearest crawling roaches you see and start popping them in your mouth and chew. They taste terrible, somehow though you don't suffer a gag reflex though. You just find them unpleasant, like eating something bitter rather than disgusting. After having had enough of eating bugs you try to catch a rat. It takes awhile, but eventually you stomp on one severely crippling it and then stomp once more to kill it. Eating a raw rat doesn't particularly taste any better, but again you don't suffer any sort of natural revulsion during this act. It would seem you've gone through a change of some sort, one that has put you in a better frame of mind for survival. One that has also put your body in better condition for survival as well since you suffer no ill effects from eating such unclean creatures under equally unclean conditions. You temporarily have some problems with lice and fleas you catch from the rats, but even that doesn't really become a problem considering the rest hair has fallen out now. (Well you have a few wisps left) You skin also begins to harden in time, making fleas no longer a problem. Whatever internal parasites any of these might've carried also have no effect as it seems your resistance and immunity system has increased quite a bit. You look in the bathroom mirror one day and see that you've changed alright. Changed into something better. You aren't going to win any beauty contests, but you're going to live... A year passes... You've been living a relatively simple life of eating and sleeping and it's basically been enough. For the past year your mind hasn't really been the most stable, so you haven't really thought about anything other than your immediate survival, and given you have a water supply and the rats and roaches for food, you haven't ventured outside of the GZS warehouse since you entered. That's starting to change. Lately your mind seems to have a little more clarity. Indeed you're starting to feel like "yourself" before the change. Not entirely like yourself, but you don't go shithouse rat crazy screaming at the walls like you used to. You've been getting a little curious about the rest of the City. If you're mostly sane now, maybe other survivors are as well. Maybe even some things have been fixed; it would be nice if they were, as its getting boring where you're currently staying. Taking your weapons with you, you leave your new home to explore. (Making sure to hide the trapdoor before leaving of course) The City streets are still as desolate as you remember them, and mostly empty as well. You expect to run into gangs of mutants though. You suddenly stop and think about that for a moment and realize that YOU are also a mutant now! Still, that doesn't necessarily mean mutantism is a club. You're sure there's a lot of fighting for resources. In fact you come across some fighting, though in a different way than you'd imagine. While you're walking through a neighborhood by a corner store that has all its windows boarded up, you hear voices inside. You step through the open doorway to investigate. It's dark inside, but some candles light up the place. "Ted, what do you mean you won't gimme anything for this? This is a solid gold watch man!" a skinny mutant asks an exceptionally ugly one eyed mutant he has pistol strapped to his side. "Goddamn it Carl, would you fuckin' think? What the hell am I gonna do with a gold piece of shit that doesn't even work anymore in the first place?" "Well can't you trade it for something? I mean gold's gotta be worth something to someone! It's not like I gave you a sack of dollar bills!" "Didn't stop you from trying though did it? Look Carl, unless it's something useful you know damn well I ain't taking it. Bring back some batteries, a first aid kit, hell some canned corn would be a welcome change of pace than watery roach soup! Just stop bringing me shit I have no use for!" "But Carl! I need some bullets! You can't expect me to do any scavenging downtown without bullets for my pistol! How will I defend myself against the Ferals or how about at night when the Shadow Horde comes out?" "Cry me a river Carl, you're a fast guy I'm sure you can outrun the roving gangs of Ferals, ain't that hard. And second of all you shouldn't even BE out at night! If you get caught out at night I got no sympathy for what happens to you! Now..." suddenly Ted's one good eye catches sight of you. "Who the fuck are you pretty boy?" Ted asks, Carl just backs off when he sees the assault rifle strapped to your back. "Pretty boy? Have you seen my face?" you retort. "Yeah, I see your fucking face an' you're a fuckin' pretty boy as far as I'm concerned. Shit you ain't even got any scars. So what the hell do you want, I ain't seen you before. Ain't seen too many here with an assault rifle either. You part of the Zeropolis Guard? Then again you don't wear the uniform...maybe you just killed one of them then? Heh heh." "Who are the Zeropolis Guard?" "You ain't heard of them? Huh, well they've only just been making scouting missions in this area. Basically a collection of ex-National Guardsmen that insisted on staying here to the very end. They got the best hardware as far as I know, but the delusional fuckers think it's STILL their job to keep peace in the damn City. Ain't no peace in Zeropolis!" "What's Zeropolis exactly?" you ask feeling completely out of the loop, which only gets you some mighty strange stares by Carl and Ted. "Uh, Zeropolis, y'know...The City? That's what this place is called now." Carl says. "Holy shit pretty boy, you been livin' under a damn rock or something?" "Well, uh sort of..." "I guess so! Where the hell ARE you from? "Er...I never actually lived in the City...I guess you can kind of say I got trapped here and then shortly after went mad for a little while and I'm only just now starting to feel like myself." You explain without giving too much information out. "Hmm, well that might explain some things. I think we all know about that madness you're speaking of. Think it happened to everyone after this place got nuked, still going on for most people. You get that hunger craving and violent thoughts pervade your mind...though the first one I killed and ate was my wife so it wasn't ALL bad har har har!" Ted laughs. "Hey how many people did you eat during that time?" "Uh, none actually." "None? Ah, you must be like Carl here. He just ate roaches and rats because even when the madness hit him he still was a big pussy!" "Fuck you Ted! I'M the one going out risking my ass scavenging, not YOU! I...just didn't want to eat anybody...I guess I just never suffered the madness as much as the rest." "Yeah, well anyway what do you guys actually sell here?" you ask. "Well Carl doesn't sell shit, because he doesn't own this place, I do. And as you can probably tell we run on the barter system here that being the only real way to do business anymore. However I have a wide variety of items, but not obviously not right here, since this part of the store ain't the most secure as you can see, but bring me something I might find useful and maybe we can do business; just don't bring fuckin' broken gold watches!" Ted exclaims looking back at Carl. "There's a lot of stuff downtown to scavenge, hey...maybe you could come with me?" Carl suddenly asks hopefully. > You go with Carl You don't really have anything better to do, and you are sort of interested in learning more about your surroundings. You are living here now after all. "Uh sure I'll go with you. What do I do exactly?" "You'll go? Great! You don't really have to do too much really, I just need someone to help with the whole protection thing while I search, since Ted here is being a jackass and not giving me any bullets!" "Hey those are in damn scarce supply in the first place! In fact, you better start finding them on your own soon, because I don't have too many to spare anymore anyway. I need something to defend my shop with. Here!" Ted pulls out three bullets from his ragged pockets and gives them to Carl. "That's coming out anything you bring back too, and if you guys are going downtown, you better do it now, before nightfall. See you later." You and Carl set off, while you're walking you notice other mutants wandering in the neighborhood, but they don't attack, in fact many of them are just watching the both of you or going about their business. (Like catching a rat to eat) "So is this area safe or something? Nobody's attacking us." You ask. "Of course it's safe, well safe as anything can be in this place. I mean there's still always the Ferals that roam around, but not so much around here anymore. The people around here in the Dust District don't even try to eat one another. Probably due to the fact that a lot of people used to live here and work together in the factory and warehouses nearby, so I guess there's that sense of unity as it were. Though I'm sure most of them did attack each other at one time. Still, this is a severely new situation, you can't blame TOO much on what happened during people's madness. Weird what happened though, I mean do you think the enemy dropped some sort of nuclear nerve agent combo on this place? Or did we all just go temporarily insane in the face of the shear devastation?" "I really couldn't tell you, Carl. Maybe the second one I guess." You say keeping your secret information on the reasons to yourself. "Yeah, doesn't take much for us to fall apart I suppose. The Zeropolis Guard have also claimed they're going to make this place even safer when they set up a new base here, though I sort of wish they'd just leave us alone. I get the impression they'll be trying to tell us all what to do and conscripting us to fight the Shadow Horde." "What is the Shadow Horde anyway?" "Man, you don't know who THEY are? Then again you didn't know the city name either! Anyway The Shadow Horde is a group of mutants who primarily live in the sewers, though they do come out at night and attack anyone who isn't part their group. They're sort of like the Ferals, except they are a lot more organized and even more vicious. I've heard they have a leader of some sort; I've only heard rumors though; ranging from a giant abomination, to a beautiful priestess of some sort. Have a hard time believing a lot of them, the only thing I do know is you don't want to get outside at night, let alone even enter the sewers!" Carl continues to about various things of Zeropolis on your way Downtown. As fucked up as things are, you can't help but be fascinated by it all. You feel like you're actually living in some sort of 80s low budget post apocalyptic movie. You ask him if anyone actually leaves Zeropolis, but he says it's rare. The Ferals and other more territorial mutants seem content on staying in the City, and as for the other "normal" ones, it's happened, but it seems mutation isn't a common theme outside Zeropolis. Most mutants are shot on sight or at least chased off. At least those are the stories he's heard from a couple of people he knows that have left only to come back. The closer you get to Downtown the more Carl stops talking only telling you to keep a look out and to be quiet. Lots of Ferals fight each other in the Downtown area and will obviously attack anyone else. Plus there are other scavengers here that will try to bushwhack each other as well. Carl pulls out a large bag and you and he start going into various devastated buildings where he grabs things of varying interest. A few instance you see large groups of Ferals in the street, but Carl tells you not to fire, since they're all fighting each other at the time. Another instance when you're on the second floor of an apartment store, another mutant clobbers Carl with a lead pipe and tries to make off with the bag of goodies, but a couple of shots put the thief down. "Thanks. Oh fuck, I think the shots caught the attention of the Ferals outside, we better get out of here!" You and Carl rush out the building and after you fire a few more shots at the Ferals you both make a beeline back the Dust District, unfortunately you and Carl have to retreat and backtrack several times to avoid large groups of Ferals, until finally when you get out of the area, its twilight and you still haven't gotten back to the Dust District yet. You and Carl hear a nearby sewer manhole opening up... "Oh shit we're gonna die!" Carl yells and starts running. He's in such a hurry to getaway he trips and dumps his bag with all the contents inside! He frantically starts putting everything back in, but already you can see the Shadow Horde starting to come out, and yeah they do look a hell of a lot meaner than the typical Ferals, which is pretty hard to do. The fact that they start shouting "CARL GET YOUR ASS UP, WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" you yell and start blasting Horde members with your assault rifle, picking your shots, but when they fire back, you can't stand your ground for long and run leaving Carl behind. You hear Carl trying to catch up with you, but you soon hear more shots, yell of pain followed by the collapsing of a body. You turn around to see one of the Horde trying to finish Carl off with a spiked bat, but he blasts the mutant in the head with his pistol twice killing it. He's wounded and even if you went back to get him, the rest of the Horde is closing in and you'd never outrun them if you carried Carl on your back. Sensing the end is near; Carl uses his last bullet to save himself a torturous death by the hands of the Horde. Of course now you have worry about yourself. > You continue a straight forward run No time for fancy shit, you just have to RUN! You run and don't look back, though you can still hear them chasing you, and other Horde members start popping out of other sewer gratings. Eventually you get to the Dust District, but they're still chasing you, that's when you hear shouting coming from in front and above you as well. Suddenly from up high bottles crash to the ground releasing gouts of fire. Molotovs. Next comes the sounds and flash of machine gun fire from everywhere. "OH SHIT!" you shout and duck down and roll into a nearby building. The Horde was still chasing you, but most of them got burned by the Molotovs, the shrieking is unnatural sounding, but it's soon put to an end when the flaming flailing bodies are shot by the machine guns. After it's all over you pick yourself up only to get kicked in the ribs and a rifle shoved in your face. "Don't fuckin' move Shadow scum!" a uniformed mutant orders. "I'm not..." "Silence!" another kick, this time to the nuts. While you hold your crotch in pain, another uniformed mutant arrives, but this one has a higher rank. "Alright Private, that'll do for now, let's see what this fucker has to say about his buddies...what the fuck? This ain't no Shadow! He's too fuckin' pretty for one thing, and not nearly muscular enough." "(Groan) I'm not, I live in this area! I was scavenging Downtown with another and we got caught after dark...he's dead." You say picking yourself up. "Yeah, that's usually what happens. Woulda happened to you too had we not set up base here in the Dust District. This place will be completely safe from now on as it is officially under direct protection by the Zeropolis Guard. I'm Captain Salazar." Well that explains the uniforms. "...yeah I heard of you guys. I also heard you only had scouts in the area though." "Well we move fast, and we needed a new base camp. Our last position was steadily being overrun by Ferals during the day and the Shadow Horde at night. But I think here is a good position to make a stand. This area doesn't have as many sewer entrances, Feral activity is low, and best of all there's the abandoned factory and plant nearby. Maybe one day we can power up the entire City again, but for right now we're trying to just get power to this district, though even that will take awhile. The Zeropolis Guard is dedicated to bringing order to this city and I think this is the best place to start." "Hey that's great, okay I've had a hard day; I think I'll just go home now..." Captain Salazar suddenly stops you. "While you're free to go back home citizen, I can't help but notice your weapons...now while I certainly understand the need for personal protection, especially given this unstable situation and your current choice of profession, so you may keep your pistol. However, your assault rifle would be of great use to us. We need all the maximum firepower we can get to better defend this area." "Well it doesn't have many bullets left though." You say, but Salazar merely smiles at your attempt to keep your rifle. The private who kicked you looks at you like he's anxious for you to try something. "That's alright; we have plenty of ammo suitable for it. However, if you wish to actively join the Zeropolis Guard, then you certainly would have need for such a weapon... do you wish to join?" "Uh no. That's okay." You say helplessly handing over you weapon. Salazar takes it. "Pity, you seem like you'd make an excellent solider. Still, our offer is always open and I'm sure you'll be able to easily find us. You may return to your home." You make you way back home, in fact you'll be really glad to get home, today wasn't very fun, reminds you of why you always preferred your own company. You sort of wonder though about how things might change with the Guard messing around in the area. While this warehouse is sort of in an isolated part of the Dust District, you can only imagine that it's a matter of time before the Guard start snooping around here and given you have a generator and water recycler, they'll probably want this place for themselves and you'd have to go live in one of the crappy neighborhoods like everyone else. Of course you might be able to swing things to your benefit if you did join the Zeropolis Guard, though that might mean they'll be sending you on missions where you can get yourself killed. Before you fall asleep, you think about the future and how you're going to deal with this situation. > You join the Zeropolis Guard You see where this is going; the Zeropolis Guard is fully intent on their delusional plan and they're going to be the top assholes in this area, so you might as well join them to reap the benefits. It's better than being at their complete mercy and it's certainly better than living in fear of the Shadow Horde, at least the Guard seems to want to restore order. The next day you go find Captain Salazar who is pretty easy to find since he's currently giving speeches in the streets to the Dust District inhabitants of how they should actively join the Zeropolis Guard. Not too many takers, but none of them are in any position to argue with the occupation. When you go up to Salazar to tell him you're interested in joining, he's pleased to just have someone taking him up on his offer. Of course he wants to know more about you and where you're currently staying, and you do tell him about the warehouse, just not about the secret GZS rooms underneath. He's a little bewildered of why you're staying there rather than a proper house in one of the neighborhoods, or even your own house. To this you reply that you used to live in one of the Downtown apartments, and couldn't live there anymore due to the danger. You mention during your time of madness you ended up wandering this way and just took up residence there and now even though you're better, you've made it your home and feel comfortable at that place. You also go on to say that you prefer to be away from large crowds of people. Captain Salazar frowns at that last statement. "Y'know we are a military unit, teamwork is encouraged here...though I suppose we need all the help we can get right now, so I guess you'll be on scouting duty. Maybe if you prove yourself, I'll put you on sniper duty. As for your living arrangements...I guess you can stay there. That area is pretty empty and there isn't anything there except a few warehouses, we're more interested in the plant and factory. However it's the perfect place where the Shadow Horde might stage a sneak attack from due to its remoteness. So consider yourself the sentry in that area. I wish we could use our radios, but the radiation levels here...well are sort of screwing up the signals. We've been trying to train messenger rats, but so far the little furry bastards just run off to the nearest source of food, so you'll be reporting to me personally every two days where I'll either give you new instructions or tell you to continue what you're doing. Unless I hear otherwise and you don't report, I'll give you one more day and then I'll assume you're either dead or have deserted. If you're dead then you're dead, but if I find out you've deserted, my wrath will be terrible, and you'll wish you were dead." "Okay, but what if I was captured?" "Ha ha ha ha! You're joking right? Not really much of a chance of that happening. Ferals just kill, and the Shadow Horde might capture you, but they won't let you live afterwards. I trust you won't let yourself get captured then right?" "Guess not." "Good. Let's see, what can you do...I got everyone else working on other things, right now we're tracking down all the sewer manholes in the area and shoving the remains of cars on top of them. Others have been sent to raid nearby police stations in the hopes of finding more weapons and ammo. Okay what you'll be doing is scouting and clearing out the factory; we've discovered that all the Feral activity in the area has been coming from those places. At least that's where we've seen them all run off to, you can go retrieve your assault rifle seeing as I haven't given it to anyone else yet." "Am I working by myself, or with others?" "Well from the impression of getting, you'd probably prefer working alone, but that's simply too dangerous for what I'm sending you in to do, you'll need someone watching your back, so I'm sure you're familiar with Private Ackman here..." You then see the soldier who kicked you yesterday. He doesn't look any friendlier and just nods at you. "There will be other small detachments exploring various parts of the factory as well so more ground can be covered, but for the most part you two are on your own. Dimissed." You and Ackman go carry out the mission in relative silence. Private Ackman doesn't seem to care for you, or at best he doesn't want talk to you unless it's absolutely necessary. This doesn't really bother you though since he is a good fighter, and is making this mission a lot easier. The factory is a huge place though even in its current devastated state; there are several sections, multiple levels and it covers a lot of land. It's going to take awhile. After a few months of factory clearing you and Ackman have the highest Feral body count so far, and their attacks on the Dust District are becoming non-existent. Due to this accomplishment, many of the inhabitants have a little more confidence in the Zeropolis Guard and as a result more people have volunteer to help, either by joining directly or by attempting to fix the power plant. Shadow Horde attacks occur sometimes, but even those aren't as frequent. Zeropolis is a big place, and presumably they've turned their attention to easier areas. Four years pass... It's been five years since you set foot in Zeropolis, and the place has changed quite a bit, well in your area anyway. Most of the factory has been safely stripped to help rebuild the district. The nearby plant has parts of it fixed and partial electricity has been restored to the district as well. Feral attacks are completely unheard of in the area now, they've either all been killed, or in a few cases, managed to retain their sanity again. The Zeropolis Guard has firm control of the area and has been attempting to restore a few old vehicles to work again mainly using jury-rigged steam engines, though the many stills created to make hooch certainly serve the same purpose to create "Garbage fuel" as it were for vehicles. Oddly one thing that has surprised everyone is that new mutants are actually being born! Not many, but it still came as a surprise when one of the female mutants found out she was pregnant, when it was assumed everyone would've been sterile due to the radiation, but then again the fact that you're all still alive is proving that you're all working on a different biological level now. You've risen in rank with your superior sniping skills, and saving others you've effectively become second in command. You're looked upon as sort of a "hero" figure among the Dust District. The Shadow Horde is still around, but attacks have less frequent. This perpetual war with them is basically at a standstill. The Zeropolis Guard has many more resources, but not nearly enough people. Captain Salazar is irritated by this fact, but there's not much he can do about it. His big idea of bringing order to the entire City is slowly being crushed as he realizes this might never be possible. In desperation he's sent a few people OUT of Zeropolis in the hopes of somehow getting help, but so far all his efforts have resulted in failure. People don't like or trust mutant, and it's mainly due to another organization attempting to "tame the wasteland" known as The Combine. With most of the outside towns under their control, they've developed "a shoot mutants from the City on sight" policy. Salazar's behavior which was at one time just pleasantly dedicated is now becoming obsessively totalitarian. However, you're standing by your warehouse home one day when you see some outsiders visit Zeropolis. They aren't entirely human though, they look like cyborgs. Which would explain why they have no rad suits. There have been reports of The Combine currently at war with their own enemy called the Cybernetic Evolution. You're not sure what it's all about, but you're guessing they probably see themselves as superior to humans. (You've seen enough movies in the past to know that's always the case!) You can't imagine what they'd be doing here, unless they intend on proving themselves superior to mutants as well. There aren't many of them, but most of them are heavily armed. > You open fire immediately The Cybernetic Evolution's opinion of mutants probably isn't much better than their opinion of humans. This is probably a scouting force to assess the defenses and resistance level here, well to hell with that you aren't going to let them report shit. You immediately open fire. You kill the smaller one in the center with relative ease, but the others go into battle mode and start laying down the firepower. You nearly get yourself killed before managing to take cover. Other mutants hear the sounds of battle and rush to the area to help you, and soon the metal interlopers are a pile of sparking scrap. "What the hell, you find new enemies for us?" one of the mutants asks you. "Nah, I don't think we'll be having any more problems with them. They're busy with a war with the Combine; I doubt an army of cyborgs will be coming here anytime soon. Better go report this to the Captain though." Soon after the cyborg diversion a lot of rumors start flying around that the Cybernetic Evolution will be attempting to invade Zeropolis or even that they've somehow allied with the Shadow Horde, but none of these rumors even come true. Though it does make Captain Salazar paranoid enough to take the current war with the Shadow Horde more on the offensive, of course this doesn't pan out too well. When Salazar starts sending troops into the actual sewers they're at a severe disadvantage and the losses on your side are terrible, yet the Captain insists on carrying out this plan. A few years go by and the Dust District's defenses are nearly completely destroyed. You're one of last defenders left and the Zeropolis Guard no longer exists as you know it. After Captain Salazar was struck down by an assassin the organization dissolved and it just became a bunch of armed mutants trying to defend their homes. It's a futile endeavor though the Shadow Horde is relentless and as much as you might hate it, you have to leave; it's just simply not safe to stay where you are anymore. The question is where to go? There are probably other places in the City where the Shadow Horde isn't as strong or even in control, but that might just be a temporary solution and it might not be any safer. The only other option is to leave the City which is certainly going to be dangerous as you know mutants aren't looked upon too kindly. > You go to a different part of the City You gather your belongings and leave as quickly as possible to another part of Zeropolis. It's a big city after all; surely you can find some place to be. Eventually you do find a place to settle down. It isn't the safest, but it's better than where you currently were. Though in time, it begins to get dangerous once again as the Shadow Horde turns its attention to other parts of the City, and you have to move again, you continue this routine for a few more years until one day your luck runs out and you fail to leave in time and you finally become a victim to the ever growing Shadow Horde.

The Cybernetic Evolution's opinion of mutants probably isn't much better than their opinion of humans. This is probably a scouting force to assess the defenses and resistance level here, well to hell with that you aren't going to let them report shit. You immediately open fire. You kill the smaller one in the center with relative ease, but the others go into battle mode and start laying down the firepower. You nearly get yourself killed before managing to take cover. Other mutants hear the sounds of battle and rush to the area to help you, and soon the metal interlopers are a pile of sparking scrap. "What the hell, you find new enemies for us?" one of the mutants asks you. "Nah, I don't think we'll be having any more problems with them. They're busy with a war with the Combine; I doubt an army of cyborgs will be coming here anytime soon. Better go report this to the Captain though." Soon after the cyborg diversion a lot of rumors start flying around that the Cybernetic Evolution will be attempting to invade Zeropolis or even that they've somehow allied with the Shadow Horde, but none of these rumors even come true. Though it does make Captain Salazar paranoid enough to take the current war with the Shadow Horde more on the offensive, of course this doesn't pan out too well. When Salazar starts sending troops into the actual sewers they're at a severe disadvantage and the losses on your side are terrible, yet the Captain insists on carrying out this plan. A few years go by and the Dust District's defenses are nearly completely destroyed. You're one of last defenders left and the Zeropolis Guard no longer exists as you know it. After Captain Salazar was struck down by an assassin the organization dissolved and it just became a bunch of armed mutants trying to defend their homes. It's a futile endeavor though the Shadow Horde is relentless and as much as you might hate it, you have to leave; it's just simply not safe to stay where you are anymore. The question is where to go? There are probably other places in the City where the Shadow Horde isn't as strong or even in control, but that might just be a temporary solution and it might not be any safer. The only other option is to leave the City which is certainly going to be dangerous as you know mutants aren't looked upon too kindly. > You leave the City Going to another part of Zeropolis really isn't going to help. The Shadow Horde will just eventually move on to those as well, you need to get out of this damn City. Even if you are hounded by humans at every turn, at least they're easier to deal with than those overgrown beasts that are in the Shadow Horde's ranks. Still you think you can make things slightly easier for yourself. You're a mutant, but you aren't exceptionally mutated to such a degree that you couldn't pass yourself as one with a disguise. You immediately start searching through old Zeropolis Guard equipment, when you find a gas mask you think "Pefect." You also get some gloves and hooded cloaked, basically clothing that will completely hide your body and face. When you look in a broken mirror you are confident that not many would think you weren't human unless they insisted you take off your mask. After gathering what other supplies you think you'll need you leave Zeropolis. You're not sure where you're going to go though, you do know you'll have to keep moving to avoid suspicion in human towns and given the Combine only just recently won its war against the Cybernetic Evolution, its troops might be on a heightened state of distrust. However the world is a big place and this is just a small section of it, who's to say mutants are shot on sight everywhere? Hell maybe there's even a place where there isn't killing going on every five seconds. Probably not, but it's worth a try to look for. With this new goal in mind you begin your trek into the wasteland.

You see where this is going; the Zeropolis Guard is fully intent on their delusional plan and they're going to be the top assholes in this area, so you might as well join them to reap the benefits. It's better than being at their complete mercy and it's certainly better than living in fear of the Shadow Horde, at least the Guard seems to want to restore order. The next day you go find Captain Salazar who is pretty easy to find since he's currently giving speeches in the streets to the Dust District inhabitants of how they should actively join the Zeropolis Guard. Not too many takers, but none of them are in any position to argue with the occupation. When you go up to Salazar to tell him you're interested in joining, he's pleased to just have someone taking him up on his offer. Of course he wants to know more about you and where you're currently staying, and you do tell him about the warehouse, just not about the secret GZS rooms underneath. He's a little bewildered of why you're staying there rather than a proper house in one of the neighborhoods, or even your own house. To this you reply that you used to live in one of the Downtown apartments, and couldn't live there anymore due to the danger. You mention during your time of madness you ended up wandering this way and just took up residence there and now even though you're better, you've made it your home and feel comfortable at that place. You also go on to say that you prefer to be away from large crowds of people. Captain Salazar frowns at that last statement. "Y'know we are a military unit, teamwork is encouraged here...though I suppose we need all the help we can get right now, so I guess you'll be on scouting duty. Maybe if you prove yourself, I'll put you on sniper duty. As for your living arrangements...I guess you can stay there. That area is pretty empty and there isn't anything there except a few warehouses, we're more interested in the plant and factory. However it's the perfect place where the Shadow Horde might stage a sneak attack from due to its remoteness. So consider yourself the sentry in that area. I wish we could use our radios, but the radiation levels here...well are sort of screwing up the signals. We've been trying to train messenger rats, but so far the little furry bastards just run off to the nearest source of food, so you'll be reporting to me personally every two days where I'll either give you new instructions or tell you to continue what you're doing. Unless I hear otherwise and you don't report, I'll give you one more day and then I'll assume you're either dead or have deserted. If you're dead then you're dead, but if I find out you've deserted, my wrath will be terrible, and you'll wish you were dead." "Okay, but what if I was captured?" "Ha ha ha ha! You're joking right? Not really much of a chance of that happening. Ferals just kill, and the Shadow Horde might capture you, but they won't let you live afterwards. I trust you won't let yourself get captured then right?" "Guess not." "Good. Let's see, what can you do...I got everyone else working on other things, right now we're tracking down all the sewer manholes in the area and shoving the remains of cars on top of them. Others have been sent to raid nearby police stations in the hopes of finding more weapons and ammo. Okay what you'll be doing is scouting and clearing out the factory; we've discovered that all the Feral activity in the area has been coming from those places. At least that's where we've seen them all run off to, you can go retrieve your assault rifle seeing as I haven't given it to anyone else yet." "Am I working by myself, or with others?" "Well from the impression of getting, you'd probably prefer working alone, but that's simply too dangerous for what I'm sending you in to do, you'll need someone watching your back, so I'm sure you're familiar with Private Ackman here..." You then see the soldier who kicked you yesterday. He doesn't look any friendlier and just nods at you. "There will be other small detachments exploring various parts of the factory as well so more ground can be covered, but for the most part you two are on your own. Dimissed." You and Ackman go carry out the mission in relative silence. Private Ackman doesn't seem to care for you, or at best he doesn't want talk to you unless it's absolutely necessary. This doesn't really bother you though since he is a good fighter, and is making this mission a lot easier. The factory is a huge place though even in its current devastated state; there are several sections, multiple levels and it covers a lot of land. It's going to take awhile. After a few months of factory clearing you and Ackman have the highest Feral body count so far, and their attacks on the Dust District are becoming non-existent. Due to this accomplishment, many of the inhabitants have a little more confidence in the Zeropolis Guard and as a result more people have volunteer to help, either by joining directly or by attempting to fix the power plant. Shadow Horde attacks occur sometimes, but even those aren't as frequent. Zeropolis is a big place, and presumably they've turned their attention to easier areas. Four years pass... It's been five years since you set foot in Zeropolis, and the place has changed quite a bit, well in your area anyway. Most of the factory has been safely stripped to help rebuild the district. The nearby plant has parts of it fixed and partial electricity has been restored to the district as well. Feral attacks are completely unheard of in the area now, they've either all been killed, or in a few cases, managed to retain their sanity again. The Zeropolis Guard has firm control of the area and has been attempting to restore a few old vehicles to work again mainly using jury-rigged steam engines, though the many stills created to make hooch certainly serve the same purpose to create "Garbage fuel" as it were for vehicles. Oddly one thing that has surprised everyone is that new mutants are actually being born! Not many, but it still came as a surprise when one of the female mutants found out she was pregnant, when it was assumed everyone would've been sterile due to the radiation, but then again the fact that you're all still alive is proving that you're all working on a different biological level now. You've risen in rank with your superior sniping skills, and saving others you've effectively become second in command. You're looked upon as sort of a "hero" figure among the Dust District. The Shadow Horde is still around, but attacks have less frequent. This perpetual war with them is basically at a standstill. The Zeropolis Guard has many more resources, but not nearly enough people. Captain Salazar is irritated by this fact, but there's not much he can do about it. His big idea of bringing order to the entire City is slowly being crushed as he realizes this might never be possible. In desperation he's sent a few people OUT of Zeropolis in the hopes of somehow getting help, but so far all his efforts have resulted in failure. People don't like or trust mutant, and it's mainly due to another organization attempting to "tame the wasteland" known as The Combine. With most of the outside towns under their control, they've developed "a shoot mutants from the City on sight" policy. Salazar's behavior which was at one time just pleasantly dedicated is now becoming obsessively totalitarian. However, you're standing by your warehouse home one day when you see some outsiders visit Zeropolis. They aren't entirely human though, they look like cyborgs. Which would explain why they have no rad suits. There have been reports of The Combine currently at war with their own enemy called the Cybernetic Evolution. You're not sure what it's all about, but you're guessing they probably see themselves as superior to humans. (You've seen enough movies in the past to know that's always the case!) You can't imagine what they'd be doing here, unless they intend on proving themselves superior to mutants as well. There aren't many of them, but most of them are heavily armed. > You open up dialogue You wonder if you've lost your mind again, because you can't believe you're even considering this... "Hey! Uh, hello! This is Zeropolis Guard territory! What do you want?" you call out to the group of cyborgs. One of them briefly talks to its heavier armed brethren and then steps forward to meet you; it's a female, mostly human looking cyborg. She's sort of cute, well cuter than what you're used to around here anyway. "Yes, greetings. I am AVA-93, former human remade, emissary prototype, from the Cybernetic Evolution." She says unemotionally. "Prototype?" "Yes, I am one of a kind. The Cybernetic Evolution typically does not believe in wasting time with words. We prefer a more direct course of action as we are attempting to remake humanity to a higher state of evolution." "I see...so what purpose do you serve then since you guys tend to shoot first and ask questions later?" "Why to make contact with you mutants of course. The Cybernetic Evolution is currently at war with a human organization called the Combine. They refuse to see the light, are a committed foe and greatly outnumber us. So we must find every means available to defeat them. We have heard that mutants are victims of human prejudices and that you are typically shot on sight when found outside the City." "Well I suppose you could say that, though I can sort of see why they might be suspicious of us, many of us aren't exactly friendly types." "Yes, I have heard that most mutants are completely hostile, I am surprised to see the amount of organization you have shown as I thought this was not the case." "Around here, we're the exception rather than the norm, so what did you have in mind?" "An alliance of course. We would like you to help us destroy The Combine." "Whoa, hold on there. I'm not exactly in charge of this place; you'll have to talk with Captain Salazar, as he runs the Zeropolis Guard. There's also the fact that we're in a war ourselves with a group of mutants that outnumber us, we wouldn't be able to help much. Then there's the whole fact..." You hesitate, but AVA-93 demands that you continue. "Yes?" "Well there's that fact that if you're trying remake humans into cyborgs, what happens after you defeat all the humans? Will you try to remake us as well?" "A thoughtful question. At the present time, you mutants are not suitable candidates for remaking, though what the future holds is unknown. However you can be rest assured that if we ally we will never attack you as long as we are at war with The Combine." That answer doesn't really make you want to suddenly be their friend, though it was an honest answer. The only thing you can think of is let Captain Salazar decide how he wants to handle this, so you take AVA and the rest to see him. During the talks Salazar doesn't seem very concerned about what might happen in the future so much as what an alliance can do for him now. AVA mentions that they can supply him with their own high tech weapons to help in the war with the Shadow Horde, if the Zeropolis Guard starts raiding nearby Combine towns. He immediately agrees, and AVA leaves explaining that the first shipment will arrive as soon in the mean time they want an attack launched on the Combine immediately. You advise strongly against this course of action. The Shadow Horde hasn't even been attacking in large groups like it once did. You don't like the idea of fighting a two front war and spreading your strength so thin, and you still don't like the idea of allying with a bunch of cyborgs with a superiority complex. Salazar doesn't want to hear it though; his vendetta against the Shadow Horde is too great. He wants them gone and is willing to do anything for the chance. In fact he's pissed off at you for advising against it, so he says he's sending YOU along with a few others to start attacking the Combine towns! You leave Zeropolis for the first time in five years; it's very odd to you. Everything seems different, like cleaner. Even the air seems fresher. You almost feel like you don't belong here anymore, the others traveling with you feel the same way. Soon you approach a nearby town; of course you stay away for awhile plotting of how to approach this situation. Over the course of a few months you organize successful raids on Combine towns, mostly at night, taking advantage of your night vision. (Which seems perfect at this point) While you do feel superior to them, you don't have any particular hatred for humans; this is just job to you, nothing more. You don't have too much resistance for the most part. Most of the Combine force is holding off the Cybernetic Evolution. But you do lose people under your command, some through the attacks, but some due to being called back to Zeropolis. Apparently the Captain is having a lot more difficulty than he thought when he started sending troops down into the sewers to take the fight to the Shadow Horde. Eventually you're all by yourself! In fact you're wondering why Captain Salazar hasn't called you back since you're his second in command, you know he was pissed at you, but if he's calling everyone else back, why not you? At this point you can't even really do too much, except maybe hang out in the wilderness sniping the occasional Combine citizen or soldier. In fact given this situation, you get the feeling he's pretty much abandoned you. Maybe you should just leave. It's not like you couldn't survive out here. Your time in Zeropolis has made you better in everyway. You could even withstand long periods of food and water if need be. (Though lately you've been eating the mutant wildlife and drinking their blood to sustain you, so it isn't really a problem) > You wait awhile You figure you'll give it some time; you're not in a hurry to go anywhere. A week later and you wake up to a little mutant getting ready to push you to see if you're awake, you immediately wake before he can do anything, slam him to the ground and put your knife to his throat. "Hey! Stop! I'm on your side!" he gasps. "Oh? What the hell are you doing here? Did the Captain finally decide to send me some help again?" "The Captain's dead!" "He's fuckin' dead?" "Yeah! He got assassinated by some big ass motherfucker! Anyway that's why I was sent to get you! You're next in line to take charge." "Wow. I would've thought someone would've just taken power themselves and left me to rot out here." "Well, I think a couple of people had that idea...but then they realized the job wasn't worth it. The Shadow Horde has been taking the offensive ever since Captain Salazar insisted on pursuing them in their sewers. We need a leader to get us out of this mess and you're the only one we have!" See you knew no good was going to come of this. "Alright, let's see how much shit we're in..." You make your way back to Zeropolis and the Dust District is showing signs of battle, which is difficult to do since the place was a wreck to begin with. Dead bodies are being moved out of the street and the people look hopeful that you can somehow get them out of this mess. First thing you do is order a complete pull out of the sewers and reinforce your defenses in the Dust District. There's no point in pursuing an enemy that's lived in the damn sewers for years and knows them like the backs of their hands. Right now you need to regroup after the losses Salazar has incurred due to his recklessness. Second thing you do is order no more attacks on Combine towns, you can't afford the man power and you didn't like allying with the Cybernetic Evolution anyway. However, another shipment of weapons was already on its way when you enact this order. The cyborgs who arrive wonder why they haven't heard any reports of mutants attacking the Combine. Seeing that this alliance is over anyway. You immediately have the cyborgs killed (Which is easier than you thought it would be) and keep the weapons to help your own struggle. A couple more cyborgs arrive a month later probably to investigate what happened to their fellows, and you have them killed as well. Your hope is that the CE will think they're losing them to Combine ambushes and will eventually just forget about you. And apparently they do because no more cyborgs are sent. You just hope the CE doesn't win against The Combine. Eventually you manage to restore relative safety to the Dust District, its not safe like it once was though, but at least it isn't on the brink of disaster due to Salazar's mad plan. Being in charge isn't exactly a fun job, and its obvious why to as why nobody wanted to do it. Still the people see you as a savior of sorts and generally like you as a leader. The warehouse that you live in, has been converted into the new head quarters, though you still live in the secret underground part that only you have access to...well at least you thought you did. One night you wake up in your room to a very pale woman by your bed. Obviously she's a mutant, but she's somehow managed to avoid the ugliness and scaring that goes along with it, though she does have part of her face covered. She holds a pistol, but seems to be inspecting the place more than paying any attention to you. "Boy this was so long ago and another life time...please don't go for your gun, I'm here to talk...my, you are a pretty one. Almost human looking...almost." she says finally paying attention to you. "How the hell did you get past the guards?" you answer calculating how quickly you might be able to reach her before she can get off a shot. "This war between our respective groups has taken a toll on both of us for quite sometime...I would ask that we finally have peace." She says ignoring your question. You gather she's from the Shadow Horde, though you've never seen one like her. She's not brimming with muscles or trying to rip your head off for one thing. (And somehow she actually smells nice and unsewer like!) She is exuding a weird aura though, like you have a great desire to follow whatever she says. It's difficult to shake off these effects, but you try to keep a level head. "Peace? You're ones always coming out at night to eat people! We were just trying to defend ourselves!" "...yes I have come to understand that now...and I appreciate your desire to exist. You have held out against us for years and accomplished much within that time. However I would say that your most recent attack on us was most definitely equally as brutal. You came into our sewers...our home and murdered innocent women and children, decreasing the ranks of our future warriors and birth givers. You came in using weapons of unparalleled power and destruction, unleashing blinding rays of light, incinerating at a touch." "Yeah, well like I said, YOU started it...however that recent attack wasn't my idea. I thought we shouldn't spread ourselves out so thin." "Yes, I'm aware of that, your Captain Salazar is dead and you have taken his place, which is why I feel I can talk to you about coming to you about putting an end to this conflict once and for all. I know of your deeds and you seem to be a lot more rational and reasonable than your predecessor. Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that this conflict is only going to harm us in the long run. We have to think about the future. The future of mutant kind relies on us no longer fighting each other. I thought survival of the fittest was enough when I first embraced my evolution, I believed that only the strong should be allowed to rule...but now I see that isn't enough if we wish to thrive, we have to unite." "What exactly are you getting at?" "Oh come on, you know that we're the next stage of evolution. Humanity is the past, we're the future." "Hmmm, I think I know some cyborgs that feel the same way." "Ah yes your cybernetic allies who you temporarily allied with, only to ruthlessly back stab later. Obviously they aren't the future if they needed your help to defeat some humans. Listen to me, this City just isn't divided between the Zeropolis Guard and the Shadow Horde you know...there are other factions. You just never come on conflict with them because you're sectioned off in one corner of the City constantly fighting us and never able to spread out effectively. All these factions fight each other and that's not counting the Ferals. I'm proposing that we could take the first steps in truly uniting Zeropolis. We could first approach in friendship, and if that regrettably failed, we could take by force. Who could stop us? The Shadow Horde has a higher birth rate and the numbers, while the Zeropolis Guard has the resources. You'd attack on the surface and we could attack from below. We could rebuild the world in our image." This rant is followed by her putting down her pistol, climbing on to your bed and seductively crawling closer to you, while taking off her strange protective mask revealing that the rest of her face isn't all scarred or mutated either. You feel really compelled to give in to her, and it's not just the fact that it's been awhile since you've been with a "human looking" chick. It's whatever aura she's exuding. It must be some sort of weird mutant ability she developed, but even though you're aware of it, that doesn't make it any less likely for you to want to resist. She's making a point you haven't considered before...you're in a position of power, why not use it effectively? Her face is an inch away from yours and the only thing you can sputter is... "What's your name?" "I'm known as the Queen by the Horde, but you can call me Lisa." She replies before kissing you passionately. > You give in You have no desire to resist her advances and you totally give in to consummate this new alliance in a very special way... Afterwards you and Lisa get to know one another a little better. It's funny that she finally returned to the GZS research outpost after all these years. At the time you were kicking Owen's ass to take refuge here, she was attacked and nearly killed by Ferals and had to hide for several days struggling to survive. She mentions how she nearly died, how she got sick, how she came to accept the changes in her body, and how she managed to unite the sewer dwelling mutants. You and Lisa talk about how you do both feel a sense of superiority to humanity, though it would seem Lisa has felt this way for a lot longer than you have and has stronger feelings about it, whereas you never really thought about it until you were actually killing Combine members. Indeed she does have a stronger feeling of only the strong should survive mindset, though that might be due to the harder path she had when trying to survive during those first few years. You and Lisa begin to make plans for unifying Zeropolis. It isn't widely accepted at first, as there are hard feelings on both sides. Your side is willing to stop the fighting, but their a little leery of an alliance. However, your standing is good so you don't suffer outright rebellion, just a lot of grumbling. Lisa's side is even less receptive; you honestly don't know how she manages to keep those big hideous freaks in line even if she does have mutant pheromones and a strong force of will. As it turns out, the Shadow Horde for the first time splits and bickers among itself. Lisa manages to keep control of most of it, but not without an underground civil war. After all the smoke clears, the Shadow Horde and the Zeropolis Guard (Which you've renamed the Zeropolis Legion) maintain a shaky alliance. Five years pass... Ten years have passed since you decided that going to the City would be a great place to find supplies... Unification of Zeropolis has been going as planned, but its still slow going. Most of the Ferals still alive have managed to overcome their relentless need for violence and food, but that doesn't mean they are any nicer. The Shadow Horde has more success with those types as great display of strength, intimidation and fear work well. On your end you've managed to employ more peaceful means of incorporating the less hostile groups of mutants, such as restoring power to their areas and rebuilding. (The messenger rat system for long range communication even works well now) You and Lisa could be considered "together" but it's a distant relationship. She runs her part, you run your part and every now and then you get together. She has some sort of feelings for you, but she's very much in her own world sometimes. Though the same could be said for you, but you do have feelings for her as well. Lisa has also had your child. (Predictably 9 months after your "agreement" to the alliance.) A son, though you don't get to see him too much, mainly because Lisa wants him to be closer to her. In fact you get the impression one of the reasons she had sex with you was in order to have a fairly "normal" looking child. She called him Adonis. It would seem that for all her talk on mutant supremacy, she still holds the "human" standard of beauty in high regard, (though to be honest so do you!) She's already training him to be self-sufficient with minor "tests" she sets up in the sewers; however despite this rather harsh training Lisa is very protective of Adonis. The main faction standing in the way is one that has somehow gained momentum relatively recently over the last few years. A cult of mutants called the Glow Children, have taken over a great portion of Zeropolis through their weird faith. They follow a leader calling themselves the Savior. In your experience, groups with any type of religious faith behind them are never willing to negotiate and they aren't an exception. They are utterly fanatical and devoted to their cause. They also engage in attacks from the sewers as well, causing you to believe that ex-Shadow Horde members fill their ranks. They've made their headquarters (or Cathedral as it were) at the old hospital. You and Lisa are supposed to meet tonight with the rest of your respective cabinet tonight to determine how to best approach the Glow Children problem. You're walking out of your headquarters with your guards when from out of the street a very very LARGE creature appears with the biggest fucking gun you've ever seen. Its resemblance to humanity is superficial even by Shadow Horde standards. You haven't seen ANYTHING like this before. "Goddamn it Lisa what the fuck are your people doing!? You're supposed to be defending that area!" you yell to yourself ducking back inside your headquarters and lying flat. The creature's weapon rips through the door and the walls, killing many of your men. You hear gun fire outside followed by screams. You know damn well it's probably going to laugh at normal weapons so you run to grab those old CE weapons you haven't used since the Alliance. Time to use those plasma guns again. The creature breaks through the remaining bit of wall ignoring the bullets flying into its back, a Shadow Horde member presumably coming from the sewers jumps on it and stabs it in the head, but the giant aberration only grabs him and breaks his neck with a squeeze of his own enormous hand and throws the lifeless body through the nearby wall. You've never seen a Shadow Horde member treated like such a mere annoyance, and for once in a long time you really are scared. You grab a plasma gun while the creature is still preoccupied with your guards doing their best to bring it down and that's when you fire a hot bolt of plasma into its massive body, again, again, and again, until the damn weapon overheats and burns your hands, causing you drop it. Fortunately you've melted enough of its internal anatomy to cause it to finally collapse and die. "Alright what the fuck IS that thing?!" you shout wincing from the pain in your hands. "It's a fucking big ass freak, that's what it is." One your men says. "You don't think it's a Horde member do you? You think they..." "No, no, shit I hope not. Besides I just saw it kill a Horde member with its bare hands like it was nothing, never seen that before. Might've been an Ex-horde member at one time though." Another one of your soldiers comes in through the hole in the wall and has more news for you. "Just got word from one of the horde, they got a similar attack on their Queen. Don't worry though, she's alive and so is your son. She said she'll be arriving soon." That relieves you on several levels; you were sort of worried about them even if you all aren't exactly a proper family unit. You and some of the others inspect the body of the fallen creature. Damn thing is huge, but what disturbs you more is the fact you're seeing cybernetic implants...not to mention its weapon is pretty high tech stuff, similar to the same ones you received from the Cybernetic Evolution... "Oh shit, we got cyborg mutants." You say. "What? But how? I mean...last we heard The Combine won that war. Just barely, but they won." One of your soldiers replies. "Yeah, well it looks like there were survivors and they probably want revenge on us and what better way of doing that then by helping our enemies? (Sigh) the only good thing is that they can't possibly be able to have access to a lot of this high tech stuff anymore; they don't even have the means of manufacturing it since we own the factories. They're probably just using scraps and pieces they managed to take with them after the beat down they suffered from the hands of the Combine." Though those "scraps and pieces" can still do a lot of damage, and that's not even counting the regular fanatical cultists. You'll really have to get this attack plan with Lisa organized quickly. Suddenly you hear MORE sounds of battle! The Glow Children have sent more of their suicidal attackers to wreak havoc in your territory, most likely attempting to get to you though. Your guards suggest you descend down into you private quarters for protection, until Lisa arrives. > You wait in your quarters It won't do anyone any good if you're dead so you decide to follow your guards' advice and enter your quarters. Should at least be safe down there. At least that's what you think. When you enter your living area, you're immediately attacked by another hidden assassin! He stabs you several times before you throw him off of you. You weakly pull your pistol and blast the mutant cultist several times, but he absolutely refuses to die! "FOR THE SAVIOR!" he screams and finishes you off by shoving his knife in your throat, before he dies.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, war] You have no desire to resist her advances and you totally give in to consummate this new alliance in a very special way... Afterwards you and Lisa get to know one another a little better. It's funny that she finally returned to the GZS research outpost after all these years. At the time you were kicking Owen's ass to take refuge here, she was attacked and nearly killed by Ferals and had to hide for several days struggling to survive. She mentions how she nearly died, how she got sick, how she came to accept the changes in her body, and how she managed to unite the sewer dwelling mutants. You and Lisa talk about how you do both feel a sense of superiority to humanity, though it would seem Lisa has felt this way for a lot longer than you have and has stronger feelings about it, whereas you never really thought about it until you were actually killing Combine members. Indeed she does have a stronger feeling of only the strong should survive mindset, though that might be due to the harder path she had when trying to survive during those first few years. You and Lisa begin to make plans for unifying Zeropolis. It isn't widely accepted at first, as there are hard feelings on both sides. Your side is willing to stop the fighting, but their a little leery of an alliance. However, your standing is good so you don't suffer outright rebellion, just a lot of grumbling. Lisa's side is even less receptive; you honestly don't know how she manages to keep those big hideous freaks in line even if she does have mutant pheromones and a strong force of will. As it turns out, the Shadow Horde for the first time splits and bickers among itself. Lisa manages to keep control of most of it, but not without an underground civil war. After all the smoke clears, the Shadow Horde and the Zeropolis Guard (Which you've renamed the Zeropolis Legion) maintain a shaky alliance. Five years pass... Ten years have passed since you decided that going to the City would be a great place to find supplies... Unification of Zeropolis has been going as planned, but its still slow going. Most of the Ferals still alive have managed to overcome their relentless need for violence and food, but that doesn't mean they are any nicer. The Shadow Horde has more success with those types as great display of strength, intimidation and fear work well. On your end you've managed to employ more peaceful means of incorporating the less hostile groups of mutants, such as restoring power to their areas and rebuilding. (The messenger rat system for long range communication even works well now) You and Lisa could be considered "together" but it's a distant relationship. She runs her part, you run your part and every now and then you get together. She has some sort of feelings for you, but she's very much in her own world sometimes. Though the same could be said for you, but you do have feelings for her as well. Lisa has also had your child. (Predictably 9 months after your "agreement" to the alliance.) A son, though you don't get to see him too much, mainly because Lisa wants him to be closer to her. In fact you get the impression one of the reasons she had sex with you was in order to have a fairly "normal" looking child. She called him Adonis. It would seem that for all her talk on mutant supremacy, she still holds the "human" standard of beauty in high regard, (though to be honest so do you!) She's already training him to be self-sufficient with minor "tests" she sets up in the sewers; however despite this rather harsh training Lisa is very protective of Adonis. The main faction standing in the way is one that has somehow gained momentum relatively recently over the last few years. A cult of mutants called the Glow Children, have taken over a great portion of Zeropolis through their weird faith. They follow a leader calling themselves the Savior. In your experience, groups with any type of religious faith behind them are never willing to negotiate and they aren't an exception. They are utterly fanatical and devoted to their cause. They also engage in attacks from the sewers as well, causing you to believe that ex-Shadow Horde members fill their ranks. They've made their headquarters (or Cathedral as it were) at the old hospital. You and Lisa are supposed to meet tonight with the rest of your respective cabinet tonight to determine how to best approach the Glow Children problem. You're walking out of your headquarters with your guards when from out of the street a very very LARGE creature appears with the biggest fucking gun you've ever seen. Its resemblance to humanity is superficial even by Shadow Horde standards. You haven't seen ANYTHING like this before. "Goddamn it Lisa what the fuck are your people doing!? You're supposed to be defending that area!" you yell to yourself ducking back inside your headquarters and lying flat. The creature's weapon rips through the door and the walls, killing many of your men. You hear gun fire outside followed by screams. You know damn well it's probably going to laugh at normal weapons so you run to grab those old CE weapons you haven't used since the Alliance. Time to use those plasma guns again. The creature breaks through the remaining bit of wall ignoring the bullets flying into its back, a Shadow Horde member presumably coming from the sewers jumps on it and stabs it in the head, but the giant aberration only grabs him and breaks his neck with a squeeze of his own enormous hand and throws the lifeless body through the nearby wall. You've never seen a Shadow Horde member treated like such a mere annoyance, and for once in a long time you really are scared. You grab a plasma gun while the creature is still preoccupied with your guards doing their best to bring it down and that's when you fire a hot bolt of plasma into its massive body, again, again, and again, until the damn weapon overheats and burns your hands, causing you drop it. Fortunately you've melted enough of its internal anatomy to cause it to finally collapse and die. "Alright what the fuck IS that thing?!" you shout wincing from the pain in your hands. "It's a fucking big ass freak, that's what it is." One your men says. "You don't think it's a Horde member do you? You think they..." "No, no, shit I hope not. Besides I just saw it kill a Horde member with its bare hands like it was nothing, never seen that before. Might've been an Ex-horde member at one time though." Another one of your soldiers comes in through the hole in the wall and has more news for you. "Just got word from one of the horde, they got a similar attack on their Queen. Don't worry though, she's alive and so is your son. She said she'll be arriving soon." That relieves you on several levels; you were sort of worried about them even if you all aren't exactly a proper family unit. You and some of the others inspect the body of the fallen creature. Damn thing is huge, but what disturbs you more is the fact you're seeing cybernetic implants...not to mention its weapon is pretty high tech stuff, similar to the same ones you received from the Cybernetic Evolution... "Oh shit, we got cyborg mutants." You say. "What? But how? I mean...last we heard The Combine won that war. Just barely, but they won." One of your soldiers replies. "Yeah, well it looks like there were survivors and they probably want revenge on us and what better way of doing that then by helping our enemies? (Sigh) the only good thing is that they can't possibly be able to have access to a lot of this high tech stuff anymore; they don't even have the means of manufacturing it since we own the factories. They're probably just using scraps and pieces they managed to take with them after the beat down they suffered from the hands of the Combine." Though those "scraps and pieces" can still do a lot of damage, and that's not even counting the regular fanatical cultists. You'll really have to get this attack plan with Lisa organized quickly. Suddenly you hear MORE sounds of battle! The Glow Children have sent more of their suicidal attackers to wreak havoc in your territory, most likely attempting to get to you though. Your guards suggest you descend down into you private quarters for protection, until Lisa arrives. > You stay where you are As much as you probably regret getting yourself into this mess by EVER returning to the City, you are a leader now and you're determined to continue to act as such. Sometimes you wonder what would've happened had you bought that bomb shelter... You stay and demand to be informed on the current situation so you can position the defenses better. You want double security on the borders. You also order that all non-combatants should stay in their homes. When Lisa arrives she has Adonis with her, as well as her own retinue of guards. After telling a couple of your men to take Adonis to your quarters and look after him, you and Lisa begin to talk in your half ruined warehouse. "We've been getting attack from all sides here you know." You say. "So have we, the ex-members that broke off from my Horde have been leading many of these attacks at least as far as the sewers are concerned." "Yeah well we got bigger problems, have you noticed some of the firepower a few of these Glow Children are packing?" "Yes, the same type that you used against us five years ago. Some of my people are starting to think that this is some complex ZL plot to wipe us out again, I've had to alleviate those concerns though I can't say it didn't cross my mind." "Hey, I nearly got wasted by that colossus lying on the floor over there! And as you said your own ex-disgruntled employees are leading a lot of the attacks so don't think the same thoughts of treachery haven't gone through our mind up here as well!" "Funny that you should think that about us since we don't have the history of betraying our allies..." An argument about accusations breaks out until gunfire from your quarters is heard. "Adonis!" Lisa says stopping her ranting at you. "Oh fuck!" you say and run to the ladder with everyone else not far behind. When you get to your quarters, you see a dead mutant cultist lying on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds, one of your men lies dead with multiple stab wounds and happily Adonis is still alive with one of your guards breathing hard. Adonis immediately runs to Lisa when he sees her. "Whew! That motherfucker did NOT want to die!" he says. After thanking the soldier profusely, you make a check wondering how the fuck the assassin got in, the only one who ever got through the door before was Lisa and that was because she managed to subdue your guards and had prior knowledge of the place. And that's when you see a hole in the wall in one of the bedrooms, that hole now leads to the sewers. Knowing damn well that Lisa would make it known that harm should NEVER come to Adonis, any theories that the Shadow Horde is somehow behind things are out of your mind. Lisa's speculations for you are squashed as well. "See, the enemy is trying to sew the seeds of mistrust. The old divide and conquer, well to hell with that, they fucked up big time with this clumsy assassination attempt. That's it we're mobilizing every fucking thing we got, we're pooling our resources and..." You get another report while in the middle of your speech. "SIR! THEY'RE ATTACKING DOWNTOWN!" a soldier shouts from the upstairs. "Fuck!" you exclaim and rush to the scene. When you arrive cultists are throwing home made bombs all over the damn place, some of them are purposely blowing themselves up. "Aim for the goddamn explosives on their chests before they get close!" you order, while you engage in your own fighting from afar with your rifle. They're coming like swarms of lemmings though and the body count is growing, monstrosities like the one that tried to kill you earlier are proving cover fire for the gibbering suicide cultists. You need to get into a better position to do the maximum amount of damage, so you look for higher ground while Lisa directs from the street level. You enter one of the buildings and begin running up the stairs to get to the roof. In the process of the excitement, you notice something. "Damn, I used to work in this building." After this brief thought of the past you make it to the roof, where upon you're kicked in the face as soon as you exit the door, dropping your rifle. "Good! I'm glad you avoided the assassins, I was hoping to finish you off myself." As you stand up, you see a nasty looking creature, with a hideous appearance. "You're going to pay for what you did to me, YOU turned me into this! With your lies and your assault! I was NORMAL until YOU came and ripped me from my protective sanctuary!" You immediately know who this is. "Owen?" "Silence! I'm the High Priest! Owen DIED when you threw me into the blasted City! Do you know how much pain and sickness I suffered? How many years I wandered the streets of Zeropolis little more than an intelligent Feral? You realize how long it took me to get over the madness?" "Well from where I'm standing I don't think you're quite over it." "Oh you're wrong, quite wrong, when the Savior came, she brought clarity to us all. She will bring true order to this City, not the Horde and not the Legion, but the Children! For the Children ARE the future!" "Yeah...and you say you got over the madness?" "It doesn't matter what you think! What matters is you're going to pay for ALL your lies and treachery tonight! To me AND the Savior! YAAAAGH!" Owen attacks you, which you narrowly dodge and trip him to the ground, he rolls out of the way and jumps back up. "Owen, you really want to continue this exercise in futility?" Owen attacks you again at which point you punch him in the face followed by a kick to his nuts. While he crumples to the ground you retrieve your rifle. "Alright Owen, you know what happened last time...and trust me I WILL be shooting if you attack again, now what are the defenses of the Savior at the..." Owen pathetically tries to grab the rifle from you, at which point you blast him in the head splattering his brains and skull all over the roof. "Idiot." You grab Owen's corpse and throw it on to the street battle below. His body lands in a bloody broken heap before some of the Glow Children. Upon seeing one of their top leaders dead, this is a great blow to their morale. "YEAH, THAT'S ONE OF YOUR LEADERS DOWN, NOW GO TELL THE FUCKIN' SAVIOR SHE'S NEXT!" you shout and begin sniping the ones in retreat. After attempting to mop up the stragglers, the general report is that the Glow Children greatly expended a lot of their manpower in this last attack. It's odd; it's almost as if this "Savior" doesn't really care about controlling the city at all, just destruction. Lisa suggests an attack be made immediately before they can put up a suitable defense, she's still upset about Adonis nearly being killed, but you'd like to at least regroup and mount an organized attack. > You attack now Lisa's emotions might be running high, but it does make some sense to attack now. You order a full push to the hospital and not to stop until everyone of the Glow Children are dead along with their Savior. The battle to the hospital lasts a couple days mainly because your forces aren't in a cohesive attack group, you're getting reinforcements, but it would've been more efficient regroup first and come at the GC with some sort of battle plan rather than relentlessly throwing troops into the fray until you break through. By the time you get to the hospital, that's where you meet the last stand of the Glow Children, and it's also where their battle elite are. The last cybernetically enhanced mutants come out in force and begin mowing down the Alliance troops at an alarming rate, you have order a retreat. During this retreat, one of those giant battle monsters that tried to assassinate you a few days ago targets its weapons on you and mortally wounds you. You lie on the ground and lift your head up long enough to see both of your legs have been blown off and your guts are hanging out. The creature now stomps in your direction ready to finish you off. You sure hope Lisa can finish this war by herself, because it's over for you.

As much as you probably regret getting yourself into this mess by EVER returning to the City, you are a leader now and you're determined to continue to act as such. Sometimes you wonder what would've happened had you bought that bomb shelter... You stay and demand to be informed on the current situation so you can position the defenses better. You want double security on the borders. You also order that all non-combatants should stay in their homes. When Lisa arrives she has Adonis with her, as well as her own retinue of guards. After telling a couple of your men to take Adonis to your quarters and look after him, you and Lisa begin to talk in your half ruined warehouse. "We've been getting attack from all sides here you know." You say. "So have we, the ex-members that broke off from my Horde have been leading many of these attacks at least as far as the sewers are concerned." "Yeah well we got bigger problems, have you noticed some of the firepower a few of these Glow Children are packing?" "Yes, the same type that you used against us five years ago. Some of my people are starting to think that this is some complex ZL plot to wipe us out again, I've had to alleviate those concerns though I can't say it didn't cross my mind." "Hey, I nearly got wasted by that colossus lying on the floor over there! And as you said your own ex-disgruntled employees are leading a lot of the attacks so don't think the same thoughts of treachery haven't gone through our mind up here as well!" "Funny that you should think that about us since we don't have the history of betraying our allies..." An argument about accusations breaks out until gunfire from your quarters is heard. "Adonis!" Lisa says stopping her ranting at you. "Oh fuck!" you say and run to the ladder with everyone else not far behind. When you get to your quarters, you see a dead mutant cultist lying on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds, one of your men lies dead with multiple stab wounds and happily Adonis is still alive with one of your guards breathing hard. Adonis immediately runs to Lisa when he sees her. "Whew! That motherfucker did NOT want to die!" he says. After thanking the soldier profusely, you make a check wondering how the fuck the assassin got in, the only one who ever got through the door before was Lisa and that was because she managed to subdue your guards and had prior knowledge of the place. And that's when you see a hole in the wall in one of the bedrooms, that hole now leads to the sewers. Knowing damn well that Lisa would make it known that harm should NEVER come to Adonis, any theories that the Shadow Horde is somehow behind things are out of your mind. Lisa's speculations for you are squashed as well. "See, the enemy is trying to sew the seeds of mistrust. The old divide and conquer, well to hell with that, they fucked up big time with this clumsy assassination attempt. That's it we're mobilizing every fucking thing we got, we're pooling our resources and..." You get another report while in the middle of your speech. "SIR! THEY'RE ATTACKING DOWNTOWN!" a soldier shouts from the upstairs. "Fuck!" you exclaim and rush to the scene. When you arrive cultists are throwing home made bombs all over the damn place, some of them are purposely blowing themselves up. "Aim for the goddamn explosives on their chests before they get close!" you order, while you engage in your own fighting from afar with your rifle. They're coming like swarms of lemmings though and the body count is growing, monstrosities like the one that tried to kill you earlier are proving cover fire for the gibbering suicide cultists. You need to get into a better position to do the maximum amount of damage, so you look for higher ground while Lisa directs from the street level. You enter one of the buildings and begin running up the stairs to get to the roof. In the process of the excitement, you notice something. "Damn, I used to work in this building." After this brief thought of the past you make it to the roof, where upon you're kicked in the face as soon as you exit the door, dropping your rifle. "Good! I'm glad you avoided the assassins, I was hoping to finish you off myself." As you stand up, you see a nasty looking creature, with a hideous appearance. "You're going to pay for what you did to me, YOU turned me into this! With your lies and your assault! I was NORMAL until YOU came and ripped me from my protective sanctuary!" You immediately know who this is. "Owen?" "Silence! I'm the High Priest! Owen DIED when you threw me into the blasted City! Do you know how much pain and sickness I suffered? How many years I wandered the streets of Zeropolis little more than an intelligent Feral? You realize how long it took me to get over the madness?" "Well from where I'm standing I don't think you're quite over it." "Oh you're wrong, quite wrong, when the Savior came, she brought clarity to us all. She will bring true order to this City, not the Horde and not the Legion, but the Children! For the Children ARE the future!" "Yeah...and you say you got over the madness?" "It doesn't matter what you think! What matters is you're going to pay for ALL your lies and treachery tonight! To me AND the Savior! YAAAAGH!" Owen attacks you, which you narrowly dodge and trip him to the ground, he rolls out of the way and jumps back up. "Owen, you really want to continue this exercise in futility?" Owen attacks you again at which point you punch him in the face followed by a kick to his nuts. While he crumples to the ground you retrieve your rifle. "Alright Owen, you know what happened last time...and trust me I WILL be shooting if you attack again, now what are the defenses of the Savior at the..." Owen pathetically tries to grab the rifle from you, at which point you blast him in the head splattering his brains and skull all over the roof. "Idiot." You grab Owen's corpse and throw it on to the street battle below. His body lands in a bloody broken heap before some of the Glow Children. Upon seeing one of their top leaders dead, this is a great blow to their morale. "YEAH, THAT'S ONE OF YOUR LEADERS DOWN, NOW GO TELL THE FUCKIN' SAVIOR SHE'S NEXT!" you shout and begin sniping the ones in retreat. After attempting to mop up the stragglers, the general report is that the Glow Children greatly expended a lot of their manpower in this last attack. It's odd; it's almost as if this "Savior" doesn't really care about controlling the city at all, just destruction. Lisa suggests an attack be made immediately before they can put up a suitable defense, she's still upset about Adonis nearly being killed, but you'd like to at least regroup and mount an organized attack. > You Regroup "We need to get our shit together first, look, we got people all over the damn place and wounded everywhere." You say surveying the damage. "You can't be serious! We need to attack NOW! Or don't you remember what they nearly did to our son?" Lisa exclaims. "Christ Lisa, I'm aware of ALL the shit they've done! What I'm saying is we need to organize here, and not just throw people at them until something happens! I understand that's the Shadow Horde way of doing things but..." At this point Lisa slaps you, and while your skin is tough, it still manages to sting. "Oh fuck you; if it hadn't been for YOUR duplicity we wouldn't even BE in this situation!" "Look Lisa, we NEED to at least regroup. I'm sure that hospital is going to be their last stand and we can't go in attacking half assed. We need to attack from all sides and cut off all avenues of escape so we don't have to deal with guerilla hold outs after the main attack is over. We want to kill them ALL in one fell swoop; we don't want the fucking Savior to escape to cause trouble later!" After a little more debate, Lisa finally agrees and you quickly gather your troops and implement a plan while Lisa takes care of her own end of things. Within a couple days you're ready, but Lisa still being strong willed sort she is, jumps the gun and begins before you. "Goddamn it Lisa..." The battle to the hospital is a slaughter on the Glow Children's side. They still haven't recovered from the battle of Downtown and they've been losing many to the Shadow Horde. The Zeropolis Legion doesn't lose too many troops, though the Shadow Horde is taking a beating due to the fact that they're taking the brunt of the Glow Children's hospital defenses. That needn't had been the case had Lisa not attacked so soon. By the time you make it to the hospital most of the heavy fighting has been done. Dead bodies of both Glow Children and the Shadow Horde are littering the streets. Lisa stands outside the hospital seemingly unconcerned. "What the fuck Lisa? I told you to fuckin' wait! You look like you lost your whole goddamn Horde trying to storm this hospital!" "Who cares? If they aren't strong enough to survive then they can die like the rest. They're meant to serve me anyway, and the Glow Children MUST pay for what they nearly did to my son, no matter what the costs. Now go in and PROVE you're a father by doing what needs to be done. Should be easy...I did most of the work for you." You shake your head trying to reason with Lisa's recent volatile emotions, and head into the hospital with your own people. Sounds of battle are heard and body parts are all over the place. After a few shoot outs with the few wretched hold outs, you eventually track down the infamous Savior. Yet another old face that looks a lot different from when you last saw it. A severely burned female cyborg attempting to fix up one of her Glow Children on an operating table throws her scalpel down in frustration when she realizes nothing more can be done and sees you enter the room. "Mutants! Fucking goddamn back stabbing mutants...you're no good for anything!" she shouts. "Wow, AVA that's a lot of emotion for a cyborg." You say calmly. "Let's see how emotionless you remain when you see YOUR future destroyed before your eyes. This is all your fault! YOU caused all this! You did this to me!" "Yeah, yeah, I've been getting that line from everyone lately. It's getting old." "Fool. We would've brought unity to the world; mutants would've been incorporated too. All you had to do was help, but instead you betrayed us to those who hate you!" "Yeah and that incorporation would've been the total loss of free will I'm sure. No thanks, I'd rather take my chances with some disjointed puny humans than an army of unified cyborgs." "Ah, of course. You mutants think YOU are fit to rule the world. Huh. You're little better than humans. You still act on emotion rather than clarity. Look at your wife...she sacrificed hundreds of her own people who she claimed she looked after all for a mere child. Don't look so surprised that I know about that act of total illogic, I could hear her screaming her rants of vengeance when I first saw her approach the hospital with her mutant rabble." "First of all she's not my wife. And what about what you did? Are you saying sending in multitudes of brainwashed mutants was so different?" "YES! Yes it was! My purpose was NOT based on emotion! I was trying to kill as many as mutants as possible! I had a clear goal! A clarity of purpose! What do I care what mutants died on who's side? I am not one of them!" "Uh...yeah. Well sounds pretty emotional to me. Sounds like good ol' fashioned revenge. And I suppose those assassination attempts on me was just business to eh? Nothing personal?" AVA shakes her head in dismay and looks up at the ceiling. Tears stream from her non-cybernetic eye. "You'll never understand mutant...it...it should've been us...we...I'm sorry Alex...I'm sorry my father...I have ended up like you...trapped and surrounded by my enemies with only death awaiting me...forgive me..." Strangely, you almost feel sorry for AVA, putting her out of her misery is probably an act of kindness at this point. And so you do with a couple of well placed bullets. "(Sigh) Well AVA, if it's any consolation, you did a lot of damage to us, a lot of damage..." When you exit, Lisa is still waiting outside, she looks like she's deep in thought. "Yeah, the Savior's dead and from what I can tell so are all the other Glow Children as well as most of your Shadow Horde..." you say to Lisa "Given the temporary mistrust both side had for each other, perhaps its for the best...perhaps this alliance needs to be dissolved and simply unified under one banner, one name, we are all mutants, no one is better than another, but we are all better than humans." "So what're you saying exactly?" "I'm saying we should be joined officially...with this latest annoyance out of the way, Zeropolis will soon be under our total control and then it will be time to handle the humans. I'm already a Queen, and you shall be my King and Adonis...shall be a Prince...heir to our new mutant dynasty." You're a little surprised by this sudden suggestion "Whoa! What the hell? You want us to get fuckin' married?" "Yes, do you not have feelings for me?" "Well uh...yeah I guess...I mean..." "Am I not the mother of your son?" "Well of course." "Do you not see the wisdom in this action?" "I suppose, but..." "Then it's settled...and be honest wouldn't you like to be able to spend more time with your son? Spend more time with me...and be closer to you..." Lisa's manages to convince you in that way she does through her seductive embraces and strong commanding will. You swear she has some sort of mutant ability to control minds. A festive wedding is soon held after the celebration of the Glow Children's destruction. Ten years pass... Twenty years have passed and the unification of Zeropolis is complete. One City of unified mutants and you are their KING. What was once a warehouse has now been turned into a palace. War against the humans is also in full swing. Lisa made sure that was the first thing on the agenda the moment Zeropolis was completely unified. The Combine wasn't even prepared for the first few attacks, as entire towns were taken over with relative ease. Never before had mutants been so organized, and are now the greatest threats to them since the Cybernetic Evolution, worse even, since you can breed, and not just with other mutants... The Combine and The Zero Dominion (That being its new name) fought for a long time, but The Combine lost mainly due to its own internal turmoil. After a couple years of your attacks the government collapsed and splintered into several factions. Some of those factions willingly surrendered to you. Human traitors were not unheard mainly because rule under The Combine was little better. It was a corrupt and decadent organization that bullied its citizens, while human subjects living under your occupation are treated fairly well as long as they know their place and they are certainly well protected from other humans like the outlaw scum who lurk in the wastelands. With the Combine completely destroyed, mutants now rule everything within the area ranging from towns to even the Ground Zero Shelters still containing their inhabitants. (Actually many of those genuinely thanked you for releasing them from those underground coffins! Lisa of course wasn't surprised by the shoddy workmanship that went into most of them given that she used to work for the corporation) Now eyes of conquest look ever further, but despite all this, you're a relatively benevolent dictator. Though Lisa often thinks you're too lenient on the humans, and claims you must set a better example for Adonis who shall take over from you one day. Adonis is only a teenager, but has the arrogance of a god. The tests and training Lisa insists that he engage in continue, and have produced a superior specimen of mutanthood thus far. Already he is eager to shed the blood of humans, you sometimes have to tell him that he shouldn't let something like that dominate his thoughts as it can lead to recklessness, but he's very much like his mother despite the fact that you've had regular contact with him now. Your daughter Venus on the other hand is different. She's still young, but even now you can see that she will be a very dissimilar person than her brother. While you'd think Lisa would want to spend time with her own daughter, she still concentrates only on Adonis. Leaving you to take up that role, but even that is only minimal as Venus often prefers spending time by herself. She reminds you of...well you. Over the recent years, you've often wished you could spend time by yourself like you used to, but that's a rare luxury nowadays... But heavy is the head that wears the crown and you have a host of concerns as of late to attend to and they only stack up. Hell, you don't even know where to begin anymore. You begin to wonder if any of this is even worth it. You know you're better than humans, but is constant ongoing warfare REALLY what you want? > You continue the war You think back to when you first entered Zeropolis and how you hoped that you'd somehow be as lucky or as radiation resistant as your grandfather was when he witnessed nuclear blast tests back when he was in the army. As it turns out you were, well lucky that is, the radiation resistance came later. During your entire stay in Zeropolis, you've always tried to do what you thought was best for you, but many times you've felt like you were railroaded into this path, and indeed sometimes you had little choice in some of your major decisions. However, ultimately they were your choices and even you have to admit you've done far better than you could've expected. Lisa's a better wife than you really could've hoped for before the bombs turned the world into nuclear ash, let alone after the bombs. You son Adonis is obviously going to be a fine ruler someday, he certainly has all the necessary traits and if Venus is as much like you as she appears to be, she'll do just fine. Their future is what's important, and as such you have come to the realization that making sure they have a great empire to rule is the best thing you can give them. Not just for them, but for their children as well. You finally understand Lisa's dedication to conquest and why she's always pushed you to be a little more enthusiastic about it. Sure she gets a bit intense as far as the human thing sometimes, but that's just part of her personality. You never quite understood why she's exactly so obsessed on the whole mutant superiority thing (Whereas you just take it for granted that you're better and just leave it at that) especially given that she herself has never even had contact with another one since her transformation. (You have though, one thing that always seem to get her hot is when you recount your time when you were doing raids on Combine town during your alliance with the Cybernetic Evolution) You've always had a strange sort of relationship with Lisa, but it is love though, a weird form of it, but love nonetheless. People have been fighting wars and taking shit from others since the beginning of time, and from what you can tell they're still doing it. All for various reasons. So your reasons are for love and family. There's certainly more selfish and worse reasons. After coming to this epiphany you finally have eliminated any lingering doubts and reservations about anything you've ever done or will do in the future. You immediately go find Lisa who's watching Adonis train against one of the few former Shadow Horde mutants left. He's managed to take the giant down with his bare hands too, not many can make that boast, let alone at the young age he has. When you arrive in the gym, Lisa approaches you. "Well, I didn't expect to see you until tonight. I know how you like to spend long periods of time by yourself... I always found that strange for someone in a position of leadership." "Not really Lisa, people who rule are often isolated, however I have come to the realization that I'm not alone. The future of our dynasty is important, I see that now and I'm going to ensure what we've built doesn't end." You think it's the first time you've seen overwhelming joy in Lisa's face, but she immediately hugs and kisses you. You think this is also the first time you've actually heard her say "I love you." to you. Adonis stops his training and wonders what's going on and that's when you turn your attention to him and point your finger directly at him. "And YOU, you will be the next ruler! But if you want ANY chance of it, you're going to have to beat the me first!" "Hah! You're kidding right? I just beat an Ex-Shadow Horde mutant with my bare hands! I can easily take you on old man!" he laughs. "Think so? Show me what all your training has done then, don't worry I'll go easy on you, wouldn't want to mess up that pretty face of yours, you sure you're not my daughter?" "You're going down old man!" "Not likely, now stop talking and hiding behind your mother's skirt, mama's boy!" That one had the desired effect. Unsurprisingly your minor taunts make Adonis angry causing him to charge at you hard and you immediately drop to the ground and trip him. When he falls on his face you grab his arm and twist it behind him while putting your knee in his back. "See? You let yourself get too emotional and it threw off your game. You need to learn more about fighting than just the basics. I'll make sure I'll teach you that. Now get up." From that point on you take a more active role in training Adonis. Particularly in the more psychological and strategic aspects of it. He learns quickly, and in time learns to reign in the arrogance and some of his mother's views on humans, but he always retains his desire to fight. In the years to follow he joins the Dominion army and quickly rises through the ranks. Lisa is very proud and you are as well. As for Venus, she of course remains her usual quiet self, though she does surprise everyone when she later joins the Dominion army as well, as a scout though. She turns out to be an excellent sniper. As always there is resistance, but for the most part the Zero Dominion only grows larger under your rule. Thirty years pass... Fifty years have gone by since you first set foot in Zeropolis and you're eternally glad you did. It could've only been destiny that guided you to what you thought was most likely a death zone, only to turn out to be the place where you would achieve greatness. You remember how humans used to shoot mutants on sight mainly to discourage them from venturing far from Zeropolis, but now mutants now control a vast portion of territory, their population has grown much much larger, and half-breed mutants from humans are in large numbers as well. A new era is being ushered in for a newly evolved being that will eventually replace humanity. Never did you think that you'd actually live long enough to die peacefully in your own bed. But that's what is occurring now, you feel the approach of death occurring and you have no regrets. Right now you're surrounded by your family. Lisa, Adonis, Venus and their children as well. You can die knowing that you've made the world a better place for them. You've made all of this happen and as you pass your throne to Adonis, while holding on to Lisa's hand who sits by the side of the bed, you say your last words: "I love you all and finish what I started, my children ..." > Epilogue 100 years later... Empress Hera cherished the little quality time she had to spend with her children. Right now she was telling them stories about their ancestors, those stories always seem to fascinate them. She remembers when she was their age though she was unbelievably bored, but now she of course had a better appreciation for them and what her predecessors did to make things easier for her. "...and that's how your Great-great-great-grandmother Venus tracked down the evil human Ground Zero Survival head quarters and regained the stolen secret that created the Chosen." "Were we always the Chosen mommy?" "No, Odin, at one time we were hunted down by the racist humans and called mutants. A derogatory term that humans used because they feared us, because they knew we were better. Of course to this day free humans still call us that and worse, but that will soon come to an end in time." "Mommy, were the Chosen always united?" "Oh no Freya, there was a time when we fought amongst ourselves much like the humans, it was only due to the efforts of your Great-great-great-great-grandparents that united them. Of course that's not to say we don't have our disagreements every now and then, but as a single race we are united much more than the humans could ever hope to be. Even in the face of certain extinction they still slaughter each other. Is it any wonder that some of them wish to become Chosen? And of course we are benevolent to accept these requests with a simple injection. Why? Because we are evolved. We are better than they. We are the future." "Yay!" Odin yelled in triumph causing Hera to smile. "Indeed. Now its getting late, you two run off to bed, I'll tell you more stories about your history tomorrow." As Odin and Freya ran off to bed, Empress Hera returned to her regular duties, which her advisors were eagerly awaiting for her to do. "Empress, I have news from the frontlines. The newly restored human government is requesting a peace treaty." "Are they surrendering?" "No." "Then fuck 'em. They obviously wouldn't be suing for peace if they weren't losing." "Empress, I feel I should inform you that there's been reports that they've been employing robots on the battlefield, cybernetic soldiers as well." Hera was suddenly reminded of old stories told to her about a battle in old Zeropolis with cybernetic life forms and how her ancestors defended the entire city from their attacks. If they could defend a mere city attacked on all sides by these things then she could certainly handle whatever the last gasp "secret weapon" that the humans hoped to throw at her. "I'm not worried. Proceed with the attack plan." "As you wish Empress." "Is that all?" "Actually yes it is." "Oh, good then leave me, I wish for private time." "As you wish Empress. The Dominion of the Chosen will prevail." After her advisors left, Hera went down to the royal tombs. She'd heard that before it was the burial site for her family members, it was the place where her Great-great-great grandfather made the change into a higher being and became one of the Chosen. She stood in the center surrounded by great rulers of the past, and greatest of all was you, your sarcophagus next to your beloved Lisa's and the inscription on it saying: "I love you all and finish what I started, my children." Hera rubbed the sarcophagus inscription with her hand and answered back. "I will great ancestor...I will."

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic] "We need to get our shit together first, look, we got people all over the damn place and wounded everywhere." You say surveying the damage. "You can't be serious! We need to attack NOW! Or don't you remember what they nearly did to our son?" Lisa exclaims. "Christ Lisa, I'm aware of ALL the shit they've done! What I'm saying is we need to organize here, and not just throw people at them until something happens! I understand that's the Shadow Horde way of doing things but..." At this point Lisa slaps you, and while your skin is tough, it still manages to sting. "Oh fuck you; if it hadn't been for YOUR duplicity we wouldn't even BE in this situation!" "Look Lisa, we NEED to at least regroup. I'm sure that hospital is going to be their last stand and we can't go in attacking half assed. We need to attack from all sides and cut off all avenues of escape so we don't have to deal with guerilla hold outs after the main attack is over. We want to kill them ALL in one fell swoop; we don't want the fucking Savior to escape to cause trouble later!" After a little more debate, Lisa finally agrees and you quickly gather your troops and implement a plan while Lisa takes care of her own end of things. Within a couple days you're ready, but Lisa still being strong willed sort she is, jumps the gun and begins before you. "Goddamn it Lisa..." The battle to the hospital is a slaughter on the Glow Children's side. They still haven't recovered from the battle of Downtown and they've been losing many to the Shadow Horde. The Zeropolis Legion doesn't lose too many troops, though the Shadow Horde is taking a beating due to the fact that they're taking the brunt of the Glow Children's hospital defenses. That needn't had been the case had Lisa not attacked so soon. By the time you make it to the hospital most of the heavy fighting has been done. Dead bodies of both Glow Children and the Shadow Horde are littering the streets. Lisa stands outside the hospital seemingly unconcerned. "What the fuck Lisa? I told you to fuckin' wait! You look like you lost your whole goddamn Horde trying to storm this hospital!" "Who cares? If they aren't strong enough to survive then they can die like the rest. They're meant to serve me anyway, and the Glow Children MUST pay for what they nearly did to my son, no matter what the costs. Now go in and PROVE you're a father by doing what needs to be done. Should be easy...I did most of the work for you." You shake your head trying to reason with Lisa's recent volatile emotions, and head into the hospital with your own people. Sounds of battle are heard and body parts are all over the place. After a few shoot outs with the few wretched hold outs, you eventually track down the infamous Savior. Yet another old face that looks a lot different from when you last saw it. A severely burned female cyborg attempting to fix up one of her Glow Children on an operating table throws her scalpel down in frustration when she realizes nothing more can be done and sees you enter the room. "Mutants! Fucking goddamn back stabbing mutants...you're no good for anything!" she shouts. "Wow, AVA that's a lot of emotion for a cyborg." You say calmly. "Let's see how emotionless you remain when you see YOUR future destroyed before your eyes. This is all your fault! YOU caused all this! You did this to me!" "Yeah, yeah, I've been getting that line from everyone lately. It's getting old." "Fool. We would've brought unity to the world; mutants would've been incorporated too. All you had to do was help, but instead you betrayed us to those who hate you!" "Yeah and that incorporation would've been the total loss of free will I'm sure. No thanks, I'd rather take my chances with some disjointed puny humans than an army of unified cyborgs." "Ah, of course. You mutants think YOU are fit to rule the world. Huh. You're little better than humans. You still act on emotion rather than clarity. Look at your wife...she sacrificed hundreds of her own people who she claimed she looked after all for a mere child. Don't look so surprised that I know about that act of total illogic, I could hear her screaming her rants of vengeance when I first saw her approach the hospital with her mutant rabble." "First of all she's not my wife. And what about what you did? Are you saying sending in multitudes of brainwashed mutants was so different?" "YES! Yes it was! My purpose was NOT based on emotion! I was trying to kill as many as mutants as possible! I had a clear goal! A clarity of purpose! What do I care what mutants died on who's side? I am not one of them!" "Uh...yeah. Well sounds pretty emotional to me. Sounds like good ol' fashioned revenge. And I suppose those assassination attempts on me was just business to eh? Nothing personal?" AVA shakes her head in dismay and looks up at the ceiling. Tears stream from her non-cybernetic eye. "You'll never understand mutant...it...it should've been us...we...I'm sorry Alex...I'm sorry my father...I have ended up like you...trapped and surrounded by my enemies with only death awaiting me...forgive me..." Strangely, you almost feel sorry for AVA, putting her out of her misery is probably an act of kindness at this point. And so you do with a couple of well placed bullets. "(Sigh) Well AVA, if it's any consolation, you did a lot of damage to us, a lot of damage..." When you exit, Lisa is still waiting outside, she looks like she's deep in thought. "Yeah, the Savior's dead and from what I can tell so are all the other Glow Children as well as most of your Shadow Horde..." you say to Lisa "Given the temporary mistrust both side had for each other, perhaps its for the best...perhaps this alliance needs to be dissolved and simply unified under one banner, one name, we are all mutants, no one is better than another, but we are all better than humans." "So what're you saying exactly?" "I'm saying we should be joined officially...with this latest annoyance out of the way, Zeropolis will soon be under our total control and then it will be time to handle the humans. I'm already a Queen, and you shall be my King and Adonis...shall be a Prince...heir to our new mutant dynasty." You're a little surprised by this sudden suggestion "Whoa! What the hell? You want us to get fuckin' married?" "Yes, do you not have feelings for me?" "Well uh...yeah I guess...I mean..." "Am I not the mother of your son?" "Well of course." "Do you not see the wisdom in this action?" "I suppose, but..." "Then it's settled...and be honest wouldn't you like to be able to spend more time with your son? Spend more time with me...and be closer to you..." Lisa's manages to convince you in that way she does through her seductive embraces and strong commanding will. You swear she has some sort of mutant ability to control minds. A festive wedding is soon held after the celebration of the Glow Children's destruction. Ten years pass... Twenty years have passed and the unification of Zeropolis is complete. One City of unified mutants and you are their KING. What was once a warehouse has now been turned into a palace. War against the humans is also in full swing. Lisa made sure that was the first thing on the agenda the moment Zeropolis was completely unified. The Combine wasn't even prepared for the first few attacks, as entire towns were taken over with relative ease. Never before had mutants been so organized, and are now the greatest threats to them since the Cybernetic Evolution, worse even, since you can breed, and not just with other mutants... The Combine and The Zero Dominion (That being its new name) fought for a long time, but The Combine lost mainly due to its own internal turmoil. After a couple years of your attacks the government collapsed and splintered into several factions. Some of those factions willingly surrendered to you. Human traitors were not unheard mainly because rule under The Combine was little better. It was a corrupt and decadent organization that bullied its citizens, while human subjects living under your occupation are treated fairly well as long as they know their place and they are certainly well protected from other humans like the outlaw scum who lurk in the wastelands. With the Combine completely destroyed, mutants now rule everything within the area ranging from towns to even the Ground Zero Shelters still containing their inhabitants. (Actually many of those genuinely thanked you for releasing them from those underground coffins! Lisa of course wasn't surprised by the shoddy workmanship that went into most of them given that she used to work for the corporation) Now eyes of conquest look ever further, but despite all this, you're a relatively benevolent dictator. Though Lisa often thinks you're too lenient on the humans, and claims you must set a better example for Adonis who shall take over from you one day. Adonis is only a teenager, but has the arrogance of a god. The tests and training Lisa insists that he engage in continue, and have produced a superior specimen of mutanthood thus far. Already he is eager to shed the blood of humans, you sometimes have to tell him that he shouldn't let something like that dominate his thoughts as it can lead to recklessness, but he's very much like his mother despite the fact that you've had regular contact with him now. Your daughter Venus on the other hand is different. She's still young, but even now you can see that she will be a very dissimilar person than her brother. While you'd think Lisa would want to spend time with her own daughter, she still concentrates only on Adonis. Leaving you to take up that role, but even that is only minimal as Venus often prefers spending time by herself. She reminds you of...well you. Over the recent years, you've often wished you could spend time by yourself like you used to, but that's a rare luxury nowadays... But heavy is the head that wears the crown and you have a host of concerns as of late to attend to and they only stack up. Hell, you don't even know where to begin anymore. You begin to wonder if any of this is even worth it. You know you're better than humans, but is constant ongoing warfare REALLY what you want? > You stop it You don't really want this, you never really did. You feel like every decision you've ever made has either because you had no choice or because you felt influenced in some way. Well you're in charge now and if you don't want to wage an ongoing war with humans then you're not going to! You immediately call a halt to all further acts of aggression on human settlements. You say you're going to concentrate on defending and holding on to what you have. Lisa isn't too pleased with this decision. You argue that what is the point of it all since you've eliminated the greatest threat to mutants, while Lisa says as long as humans are around they'll always be a threat to mutants. You're not going to change your mind though; you've made your decision. Adonis naturally feels like you've cheated him out his chance to prove himself in true battle against humans. In the years to follow he joins the Dominion army and entertains himself by being cruel to the human subjects. One day in a human settlement called Ashtown, he goes too far and one of them actually fights back. In the ensuing struggle Adonis' face is hit by a small explosion, severely disfiguring his once relatively human looking appearance. Now all that is left is a horrific skinless face and little of his remaining sanity. In retaliation he orders the complete destruction of Ashotwn. When Lisa hears of this she wants even more vengeance and goes over your head as well to order the destruction of another town called Cinderville, by the time you can call a stop to any of this, both places have been razed to the ground and its inhabitants butchered. Previously the humans under your rule were scared just enough not to start an uprising, some of them were even loyal, you always made sure never to be unnecessarily brutal even though Lisa and Adonis would prefer otherwise; so what occurs next isn't too surprising to you. These events as well as the liberties Adonis has been taking, has pushed them over the realms of fear and into hatred. You begin to have uprisings, and guerilla attacks all over the Dominion, some of the more fanatical ones even launch suicidal attacks on targets in Zeropolis. You do your best to try to stop the attacks while at the same time trying to still be fair to the humans, but the time for that is long gone. Instead the mutant citizens just think you're being too weak. More years go by and you're getting assassination attempts by other mutants calling for your blood. Parts of the Dominion begin to splinter as you unsuccessfully attempt to hold everything together. It's just like what happened to the Combine. Now you you're forced to become brutal just to keep everyone in line for a few months, but it's too late, now nobody likes you, not even your family which has been apparent for quite some time, but one time it goes to the point of no return. One night while you're brooding to yourself in your private chambers, Adonis shows up before you with his own personal guards. You can't say you didn't see this coming as well. "Old man you are no longer fit to rule the Zero Dominion! I'm taking over!" "You think you are...you're mother will be the one really running shit, because as far as I can tell you're barely capable of staging a coup." "SHUT UP! KILL HIM!" Adonis screams. You might be older, but you're still relatively quick. You dodge for cover as Adonis' guards attempt to kill you. You pull your own weapon and with your usual deadly accuracy you blast every one of them, though Adonis has managed to sneak around behind you at this point. Being dramatic is his downfall as he attempts to slit your throat, but you manage to grab his arm and break it, before he can. He falls to the ground clutching his arm. "Stupid ass kid, don't bring a knife to a gun fight!" you say standing up. "Yeah, and don't talk when you have the advantage, old man!" Adonis retorts and a blade from his boot suddenly appears as he kicks up at your stomach, impaling you with it. "Fuck!" You quickly dislodge yourself from the blade and stagger a bit before dropping your pistol. Adonis takes the advantage and side kicks you in the face, this time taking out one of you eyes. Oddly you don't even feel the pain; in fact you're beginning to feel pretty numb to everything right now. "Mom always said you were weak." "Yeah, well I'm not the one who's the mama's boy...I think you should call her, you need all the help you can get." This little taunt throws Adonis off his game and he charges at you. You drop to the floor and trip him. When he falls face first to the ground you immediately shove your knee in his back and break his other arm. "Sorry son, but your name is Adonis, not Oedipus and you ain't gonna be killing me." And with that last statement you snap his neck. Now you start to feel the pain of your wounds, you've lost quite a bit of blood, but you'd probably be able to survive if you had the chance to get to the doctor, but you know you aren't going to get that chance. Lisa walks in with pistol in hand, and at this point you don't even want to stop her even if you were in a position to do so. "You killed my poor son, he would've ruled..." "Think of it this way, now you can eliminate the middle man and just rule directly, just like you've always wanted, just like you did with the Shadow Horde...(groan) I think I'll just rest here for awhile. Yeah that's better." "You're going to die for what you've done!" "Yeah, I kind of figured that, look I don't care anymore, don't you see that? It's been nothing but a fucking headache anyway. ...now if you're going to shoot, you go ahead, or just let me bleed to death because I just don't care anymore." Lisa looks genuinely upset, and you don't think it's solely over Adonis. Even after thinking you're unfit to rule or be her husband anymore, she's still reluctant to kill you. "Goddamn it, what happened to you? Why couldn't you have just done what I wanted? To create a dynasty to last forever!" All I ever wanted was to live a peaceful life, well that didn't happen for a variety of reasons, but I guess I can say it wasn't boring. And there was the fact that I did get to meet you...Lisa don't prolong this, just do it. It'll be easier for all of us. Tell Venus I love her as much as I still love her mother." Lisa sheds a few tears and then carries out your request. Soon after your death Lisa takes over the Zero Dominion and does a much better job than you or Adonis could've ever done. In the years to follow, she restores order and quells all rebellions. She might've even brought in further territory had she not been assassinated by Venus, who always stayed quiet and in the background plotting and waiting for the right moment to strike. Strangely Venus never took over; instead she left Zeropolis and the Dominion altogether, letting it collapse into multiple civil wars until it destroyed itself. Where she wound up is unknown, but being her father's daughter, it was probably someplace quiet and isolated.

You figure you'll give it some time; you're not in a hurry to go anywhere. A week later and you wake up to a little mutant getting ready to push you to see if you're awake, you immediately wake before he can do anything, slam him to the ground and put your knife to his throat. "Hey! Stop! I'm on your side!" he gasps. "Oh? What the hell are you doing here? Did the Captain finally decide to send me some help again?" "The Captain's dead!" "He's fuckin' dead?" "Yeah! He got assassinated by some big ass motherfucker! Anyway that's why I was sent to get you! You're next in line to take charge." "Wow. I would've thought someone would've just taken power themselves and left me to rot out here." "Well, I think a couple of people had that idea...but then they realized the job wasn't worth it. The Shadow Horde has been taking the offensive ever since Captain Salazar insisted on pursuing them in their sewers. We need a leader to get us out of this mess and you're the only one we have!" See you knew no good was going to come of this. "Alright, let's see how much shit we're in..." You make your way back to Zeropolis and the Dust District is showing signs of battle, which is difficult to do since the place was a wreck to begin with. Dead bodies are being moved out of the street and the people look hopeful that you can somehow get them out of this mess. First thing you do is order a complete pull out of the sewers and reinforce your defenses in the Dust District. There's no point in pursuing an enemy that's lived in the damn sewers for years and knows them like the backs of their hands. Right now you need to regroup after the losses Salazar has incurred due to his recklessness. Second thing you do is order no more attacks on Combine towns, you can't afford the man power and you didn't like allying with the Cybernetic Evolution anyway. However, another shipment of weapons was already on its way when you enact this order. The cyborgs who arrive wonder why they haven't heard any reports of mutants attacking the Combine. Seeing that this alliance is over anyway. You immediately have the cyborgs killed (Which is easier than you thought it would be) and keep the weapons to help your own struggle. A couple more cyborgs arrive a month later probably to investigate what happened to their fellows, and you have them killed as well. Your hope is that the CE will think they're losing them to Combine ambushes and will eventually just forget about you. And apparently they do because no more cyborgs are sent. You just hope the CE doesn't win against The Combine. Eventually you manage to restore relative safety to the Dust District, its not safe like it once was though, but at least it isn't on the brink of disaster due to Salazar's mad plan. Being in charge isn't exactly a fun job, and its obvious why to as why nobody wanted to do it. Still the people see you as a savior of sorts and generally like you as a leader. The warehouse that you live in, has been converted into the new head quarters, though you still live in the secret underground part that only you have access to...well at least you thought you did. One night you wake up in your room to a very pale woman by your bed. Obviously she's a mutant, but she's somehow managed to avoid the ugliness and scaring that goes along with it, though she does have part of her face covered. She holds a pistol, but seems to be inspecting the place more than paying any attention to you. "Boy this was so long ago and another life time...please don't go for your gun, I'm here to talk...my, you are a pretty one. Almost human looking...almost." she says finally paying attention to you. "How the hell did you get past the guards?" you answer calculating how quickly you might be able to reach her before she can get off a shot. "This war between our respective groups has taken a toll on both of us for quite sometime...I would ask that we finally have peace." She says ignoring your question. You gather she's from the Shadow Horde, though you've never seen one like her. She's not brimming with muscles or trying to rip your head off for one thing. (And somehow she actually smells nice and unsewer like!) She is exuding a weird aura though, like you have a great desire to follow whatever she says. It's difficult to shake off these effects, but you try to keep a level head. "Peace? You're ones always coming out at night to eat people! We were just trying to defend ourselves!" "...yes I have come to understand that now...and I appreciate your desire to exist. You have held out against us for years and accomplished much within that time. However I would say that your most recent attack on us was most definitely equally as brutal. You came into our sewers...our home and murdered innocent women and children, decreasing the ranks of our future warriors and birth givers. You came in using weapons of unparalleled power and destruction, unleashing blinding rays of light, incinerating at a touch." "Yeah, well like I said, YOU started it...however that recent attack wasn't my idea. I thought we shouldn't spread ourselves out so thin." "Yes, I'm aware of that, your Captain Salazar is dead and you have taken his place, which is why I feel I can talk to you about coming to you about putting an end to this conflict once and for all. I know of your deeds and you seem to be a lot more rational and reasonable than your predecessor. Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that this conflict is only going to harm us in the long run. We have to think about the future. The future of mutant kind relies on us no longer fighting each other. I thought survival of the fittest was enough when I first embraced my evolution, I believed that only the strong should be allowed to rule...but now I see that isn't enough if we wish to thrive, we have to unite." "What exactly are you getting at?" "Oh come on, you know that we're the next stage of evolution. Humanity is the past, we're the future." "Hmmm, I think I know some cyborgs that feel the same way." "Ah yes your cybernetic allies who you temporarily allied with, only to ruthlessly back stab later. Obviously they aren't the future if they needed your help to defeat some humans. Listen to me, this City just isn't divided between the Zeropolis Guard and the Shadow Horde you know...there are other factions. You just never come on conflict with them because you're sectioned off in one corner of the City constantly fighting us and never able to spread out effectively. All these factions fight each other and that's not counting the Ferals. I'm proposing that we could take the first steps in truly uniting Zeropolis. We could first approach in friendship, and if that regrettably failed, we could take by force. Who could stop us? The Shadow Horde has a higher birth rate and the numbers, while the Zeropolis Guard has the resources. You'd attack on the surface and we could attack from below. We could rebuild the world in our image." This rant is followed by her putting down her pistol, climbing on to your bed and seductively crawling closer to you, while taking off her strange protective mask revealing that the rest of her face isn't all scarred or mutated either. You feel really compelled to give in to her, and it's not just the fact that it's been awhile since you've been with a "human looking" chick. It's whatever aura she's exuding. It must be some sort of weird mutant ability she developed, but even though you're aware of it, that doesn't make it any less likely for you to want to resist. She's making a point you haven't considered before...you're in a position of power, why not use it effectively? Her face is an inch away from yours and the only thing you can sputter is... "What's your name?" "I'm known as the Queen by the Horde, but you can call me Lisa." She replies before kissing you passionately. > You Resist As lovely of a creature she is, she's been the one leading your current enemy for years. She's most likely trying to lull you into a false sense of security to kill you; you won't allow yourself to fall for it. As Lisa kisses and grinds into you, you muster all your strength and grab her to roll her over so that you're on top and firmly in control. "Ohhh...okay...if that's the way you want to do this, I don't mind." Lisa says and for a brief moment you think she might've been telling the truth about the alliance, however you go through with your plan. "Sorry baby, but I could never trust you. Maybe next life." You reply and snap her neck with one quick twist. After the deed is done you sit by the bed for quite some time by her lifeless body. You really wish you hadn't felt the need to do that, but given the fact that you've been the perpetrator of as well as a victim of betrayal in the past you felt you had no choice. Still, you always wonder what if... Five years pass... Ten years have passed since you decided that going to the City would be a great place to find supplies... After the death of Lisa, the Shadow Horde became disorganized and eventually began to fight amongst themselves. They became much less of a direct threat, and as head of the Zeropolis Legion (As you renamed it) you were able to make the Dust District relatively safe once again. The idea of taking over the entire City was never something you want to pursue, so you just concentrated on building up the Dust District, however events conspire against you from living out a relatively conflict free life. Recently over the last few years, a cult of mutants called the Glow Children, have taken over a great portion of Zeropolis through their weird faith. They follow a leader calling themselves the Savior. In your experience, groups with any type of religious faith behind them are never willing to negotiate and they aren't an exception. They are utterly fanatical and devoted to their cause. They turn out to be worse than the Shadow Horde (In fact they also engage in attacks from the sewers as well, causing you to believe that ex-Shadow Horde members fill their ranks.) They've made their headquarters (or Cathedral as it were) at the old hospital. They attack the Dust District relentlessly, but the most disturbing thing you notice is how some of them carry high tech weaponry similar to the kind that you used to fight the Shadow Horde. Later you see some of the bigger Glow Children fitted with cybernetic implants. You know that the Combine won the war against the Cybernetic Evolution, but it would appear at least one of their number survived and are obviously remembering your past treachery. The day of reckoning is soon at hand. Eventually one day while you're arranging yet another plan to take back parts of the Dust District you've lost control over, your head quarters is attacked by several of the biggest mutants you've ever seen. Many of them are of the cybernetic variety armed with weapons of devastating power that make quick work of your elite guards. As you make your futile last stand with a plasma gun, one of the giant aberrations takes two shots to the chest and still manages to pick you up and rend you limb from limb with minimal effort on its part.

You wonder if you've lost your mind again, because you can't believe you're even considering this... "Hey! Uh, hello! This is Zeropolis Guard territory! What do you want?" you call out to the group of cyborgs. One of them briefly talks to its heavier armed brethren and then steps forward to meet you; it's a female, mostly human looking cyborg. She's sort of cute, well cuter than what you're used to around here anyway. "Yes, greetings. I am AVA-93, former human remade, emissary prototype, from the Cybernetic Evolution." She says unemotionally. "Prototype?" "Yes, I am one of a kind. The Cybernetic Evolution typically does not believe in wasting time with words. We prefer a more direct course of action as we are attempting to remake humanity to a higher state of evolution." "I see...so what purpose do you serve then since you guys tend to shoot first and ask questions later?" "Why to make contact with you mutants of course. The Cybernetic Evolution is currently at war with a human organization called the Combine. They refuse to see the light, are a committed foe and greatly outnumber us. So we must find every means available to defeat them. We have heard that mutants are victims of human prejudices and that you are typically shot on sight when found outside the City." "Well I suppose you could say that, though I can sort of see why they might be suspicious of us, many of us aren't exactly friendly types." "Yes, I have heard that most mutants are completely hostile, I am surprised to see the amount of organization you have shown as I thought this was not the case." "Around here, we're the exception rather than the norm, so what did you have in mind?" "An alliance of course. We would like you to help us destroy The Combine." "Whoa, hold on there. I'm not exactly in charge of this place; you'll have to talk with Captain Salazar, as he runs the Zeropolis Guard. There's also the fact that we're in a war ourselves with a group of mutants that outnumber us, we wouldn't be able to help much. Then there's the whole fact..." You hesitate, but AVA-93 demands that you continue. "Yes?" "Well there's that fact that if you're trying remake humans into cyborgs, what happens after you defeat all the humans? Will you try to remake us as well?" "A thoughtful question. At the present time, you mutants are not suitable candidates for remaking, though what the future holds is unknown. However you can be rest assured that if we ally we will never attack you as long as we are at war with The Combine." That answer doesn't really make you want to suddenly be their friend, though it was an honest answer. The only thing you can think of is let Captain Salazar decide how he wants to handle this, so you take AVA and the rest to see him. During the talks Salazar doesn't seem very concerned about what might happen in the future so much as what an alliance can do for him now. AVA mentions that they can supply him with their own high tech weapons to help in the war with the Shadow Horde, if the Zeropolis Guard starts raiding nearby Combine towns. He immediately agrees, and AVA leaves explaining that the first shipment will arrive as soon in the mean time they want an attack launched on the Combine immediately. You advise strongly against this course of action. The Shadow Horde hasn't even been attacking in large groups like it once did. You don't like the idea of fighting a two front war and spreading your strength so thin, and you still don't like the idea of allying with a bunch of cyborgs with a superiority complex. Salazar doesn't want to hear it though; his vendetta against the Shadow Horde is too great. He wants them gone and is willing to do anything for the chance. In fact he's pissed off at you for advising against it, so he says he's sending YOU along with a few others to start attacking the Combine towns! You leave Zeropolis for the first time in five years; it's very odd to you. Everything seems different, like cleaner. Even the air seems fresher. You almost feel like you don't belong here anymore, the others traveling with you feel the same way. Soon you approach a nearby town; of course you stay away for awhile plotting of how to approach this situation. Over the course of a few months you organize successful raids on Combine towns, mostly at night, taking advantage of your night vision. (Which seems perfect at this point) While you do feel superior to them, you don't have any particular hatred for humans; this is just job to you, nothing more. You don't have too much resistance for the most part. Most of the Combine force is holding off the Cybernetic Evolution. But you do lose people under your command, some through the attacks, but some due to being called back to Zeropolis. Apparently the Captain is having a lot more difficulty than he thought when he started sending troops down into the sewers to take the fight to the Shadow Horde. Eventually you're all by yourself! In fact you're wondering why Captain Salazar hasn't called you back since you're his second in command, you know he was pissed at you, but if he's calling everyone else back, why not you? At this point you can't even really do too much, except maybe hang out in the wilderness sniping the occasional Combine citizen or soldier. In fact given this situation, you get the feeling he's pretty much abandoned you. Maybe you should just leave. It's not like you couldn't survive out here. Your time in Zeropolis has made you better in everyway. You could even withstand long periods of food and water if need be. (Though lately you've been eating the mutant wildlife and drinking their blood to sustain you, so it isn't really a problem) > You Leave You know when you're not wanted. If your help is no longer appreciated then fuck it, you'll miss your home, but you can find another. In fact maybe it's for the best, if Salazar was calling people back, then maybe the Shadow Horde was winning and you certainly don't want to be living there with them in charge. You know that being a mutant, you won't be liked among humans either, (Especially since you've been attacking them!) but maybe that isn't the case everywhere. The Combine isn't everywhere and their policies against mutants might not be the norm in other parts of the country. Hell, even without the Combine around there's still the Cybernetic Evolution that you don't trust. In fact this whole area is fucked. Time to leave! With this in mind you begin to walk, not knowing where you'll end up, but definitely someplace better.

No time for fancy shit, you just have to RUN! You run and don't look back, though you can still hear them chasing you, and other Horde members start popping out of other sewer gratings. Eventually you get to the Dust District, but they're still chasing you, that's when you hear shouting coming from in front and above you as well. Suddenly from up high bottles crash to the ground releasing gouts of fire. Molotovs. Next comes the sounds and flash of machine gun fire from everywhere. "OH SHIT!" you shout and duck down and roll into a nearby building. The Horde was still chasing you, but most of them got burned by the Molotovs, the shrieking is unnatural sounding, but it's soon put to an end when the flaming flailing bodies are shot by the machine guns. After it's all over you pick yourself up only to get kicked in the ribs and a rifle shoved in your face. "Don't fuckin' move Shadow scum!" a uniformed mutant orders. "I'm not..." "Silence!" another kick, this time to the nuts. While you hold your crotch in pain, another uniformed mutant arrives, but this one has a higher rank. "Alright Private, that'll do for now, let's see what this fucker has to say about his buddies...what the fuck? This ain't no Shadow! He's too fuckin' pretty for one thing, and not nearly muscular enough." "(Groan) I'm not, I live in this area! I was scavenging Downtown with another and we got caught after dark...he's dead." You say picking yourself up. "Yeah, that's usually what happens. Woulda happened to you too had we not set up base here in the Dust District. This place will be completely safe from now on as it is officially under direct protection by the Zeropolis Guard. I'm Captain Salazar." Well that explains the uniforms. "...yeah I heard of you guys. I also heard you only had scouts in the area though." "Well we move fast, and we needed a new base camp. Our last position was steadily being overrun by Ferals during the day and the Shadow Horde at night. But I think here is a good position to make a stand. This area doesn't have as many sewer entrances, Feral activity is low, and best of all there's the abandoned factory and plant nearby. Maybe one day we can power up the entire City again, but for right now we're trying to just get power to this district, though even that will take awhile. The Zeropolis Guard is dedicated to bringing order to this city and I think this is the best place to start." "Hey that's great, okay I've had a hard day; I think I'll just go home now..." Captain Salazar suddenly stops you. "While you're free to go back home citizen, I can't help but notice your weapons...now while I certainly understand the need for personal protection, especially given this unstable situation and your current choice of profession, so you may keep your pistol. However, your assault rifle would be of great use to us. We need all the maximum firepower we can get to better defend this area." "Well it doesn't have many bullets left though." You say, but Salazar merely smiles at your attempt to keep your rifle. The private who kicked you looks at you like he's anxious for you to try something. "That's alright; we have plenty of ammo suitable for it. However, if you wish to actively join the Zeropolis Guard, then you certainly would have need for such a weapon... do you wish to join?" "Uh no. That's okay." You say helplessly handing over you weapon. Salazar takes it. "Pity, you seem like you'd make an excellent solider. Still, our offer is always open and I'm sure you'll be able to easily find us. You may return to your home." You make you way back home, in fact you'll be really glad to get home, today wasn't very fun, reminds you of why you always preferred your own company. You sort of wonder though about how things might change with the Guard messing around in the area. While this warehouse is sort of in an isolated part of the Dust District, you can only imagine that it's a matter of time before the Guard start snooping around here and given you have a generator and water recycler, they'll probably want this place for themselves and you'd have to go live in one of the crappy neighborhoods like everyone else. Of course you might be able to swing things to your benefit if you did join the Zeropolis Guard, though that might mean they'll be sending you on missions where you can get yourself killed. Before you fall asleep, you think about the future and how you're going to deal with this situation. > You stay out of it You decide to stay out of this little war they got going, plan on just keeping a low profile. Hopefully they'll never come scouting around your warehouse to closely. A few months pass and The Zeropolis Guard discovers your little slice of solitude one day, you awaken to the sounds of your door being blown off its hinges and soldiers coming in. "Holy shit, there's someone living here!" one of them remarks. "What the fuck man? You blew up my door!" you shout trying to gather your wits from being asleep. "Yeah? Well what the hell are you doing down here anyway?" a mean heavily scarred mutant asks. "I live here! What's it to you? Don't you have Ferals to kill or some shit?" "We were looking for some and we found this place...looks like you got quite the set up here. Generator, water recycler...this place would make a good living quarters for the Captain." "What? HELL NO! This is my home! You can't just..." "Quiet civvy, this place is now the property of The Zeropolis Guard, you got a problem with it, tough. Maybe if you join up though you can help protect the place, but for now you better get your shit and leave AND you can leave that pistol right there as well. You're under our protection, you don't need that anymore." "Fuck you! I've spoke with Captain Salazar before and even HE let me keep it!" "Yeah, well things have changed since then, we're uh...having a weapon shortage, so shut the fuck up and get the fuck out! You ain't winning this one and if you persist in this act of civil disobedience I'll fuckin' just shoot you right now!" You have little choice in this matter. You grab what little belongings you can still take with you and get evicted from your home. You eventually find an abandoned building in one of the neighborhoods to dwell in, but its not nearly as nice. You try to go complain to Captain Salazar personally, but you just get stonewalled and blown off all the time. They just tell you that if you really want a weapon that badly you should officially join instead of complaining. In fact they begin to warn you that if you don't like being under their protection, you can leave and see how much you'd like it elsewhere. That is a tempting thing to do because you'll be damned if you'll join these fuckin' fascists at this point. Though you're mad enough to try to do something a little more proactive as well. > You leave the Dust District You don't really have the connections to start inciting revolutions. You wouldn't know where to begin and chances are you'd end up getting yourself killed immediately. As much as you don't want to leave, you can't live under such oppression anymore, so you decide to travel to another part of Zeropolis. You travel quite a bit, before remembering again that the rest of the City isn't nearly as safe as the Dust District! You're attacked by Ferals at nearly every turn, and worse you don't even have any type of long range weapon to fight them off with. Even the mutants that aren't Ferals have a gang like mentality that is hostile to any not in their immediate group. After running and hiding many times, and being wounded as well, you come to the conclusion that you'll have to grin and bear it and return to the Dust District. Sadly you never make it, as a particularly large group of Ferals ambush you and proceed to make you wish you never came to the City in the first place.

You decide to stay out of this little war they got going, plan on just keeping a low profile. Hopefully they'll never come scouting around your warehouse to closely. A few months pass and The Zeropolis Guard discovers your little slice of solitude one day, you awaken to the sounds of your door being blown off its hinges and soldiers coming in. "Holy shit, there's someone living here!" one of them remarks. "What the fuck man? You blew up my door!" you shout trying to gather your wits from being asleep. "Yeah? Well what the hell are you doing down here anyway?" a mean heavily scarred mutant asks. "I live here! What's it to you? Don't you have Ferals to kill or some shit?" "We were looking for some and we found this place...looks like you got quite the set up here. Generator, water recycler...this place would make a good living quarters for the Captain." "What? HELL NO! This is my home! You can't just..." "Quiet civvy, this place is now the property of The Zeropolis Guard, you got a problem with it, tough. Maybe if you join up though you can help protect the place, but for now you better get your shit and leave AND you can leave that pistol right there as well. You're under our protection, you don't need that anymore." "Fuck you! I've spoke with Captain Salazar before and even HE let me keep it!" "Yeah, well things have changed since then, we're uh...having a weapon shortage, so shut the fuck up and get the fuck out! You ain't winning this one and if you persist in this act of civil disobedience I'll fuckin' just shoot you right now!" You have little choice in this matter. You grab what little belongings you can still take with you and get evicted from your home. You eventually find an abandoned building in one of the neighborhoods to dwell in, but its not nearly as nice. You try to go complain to Captain Salazar personally, but you just get stonewalled and blown off all the time. They just tell you that if you really want a weapon that badly you should officially join instead of complaining. In fact they begin to warn you that if you don't like being under their protection, you can leave and see how much you'd like it elsewhere. That is a tempting thing to do because you'll be damned if you'll join these fuckin' fascists at this point. Though you're mad enough to try to do something a little more proactive as well. > You incite a revolt You don't give a shit if it kills you, you're not going to just stand by and let these fucktards treat you like their bitch. You immediately begin to make plans. You start off just by getting a feel of the general opinion of the Guard, by others. So far, there isn't a lot opinion one way or another. They feel safer, but much like you they have suffered the liberties taken by the Guard. Eventually you do find a few people that outright don't like them, and you capitalize on that by having those people to "recruit" and influence others. After a few months you've managed to form somewhat of a real underground movement. The next steps are taken which involves out right sneak attacks on Guard soldiers and taking their weapons. This is when the Guard begins to take real notice of the Dust Dissident Movement and begins becoming more restrictive. This of course ends up working in your favor as now even those that had no previous problem with the Guard begin openly complaining. In the meantime you change locations all the time just barely keeping one step ahead of the Guard. A year passes and the entire Dust District is in as much chaos as it was right after the bombs first hit. The Zeropolis Guard is fighting a losing war with the Shadow Horde as well as trying to put down an on going insurrection. You love it. Everyday more of them die and are unable to replace their losses, eventually Captain Salazar himself is assassinated by one of your own people breaking the hold and morale of the Zeropolis Guard. The survivors end up leaving and scattering to unknown parts of the City. You've won, but it is a Pyrrhic victory. Without the Guard keeping order and routine protection, the Shadow Horde moves in at full force. They begin to stalk the streets at night and breaking into homes to slaughter its inhabitants. The Dust Dissident Movement attempts to take up the mantle of protectors, but the Shadow Horde is a different type of enemy, they don't try to occupy; they come in and destroy. Hit and run tactics are useless against an enemy that does the same thing and does it a whole lot better as you unfortunately come to find out when you're meeting with your remaining people one night and a bunch of Horde members swarm your hideout and kill everyone inside.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious, war, post-apocalyptic] You don't really have anything better to do, and you are sort of interested in learning more about your surroundings. You are living here now after all. "Uh sure I'll go with you. What do I do exactly?" "You'll go? Great! You don't really have to do too much really, I just need someone to help with the whole protection thing while I search, since Ted here is being a jackass and not giving me any bullets!" "Hey those are in damn scarce supply in the first place! In fact, you better start finding them on your own soon, because I don't have too many to spare anymore anyway. I need something to defend my shop with. Here!" Ted pulls out three bullets from his ragged pockets and gives them to Carl. "That's coming out anything you bring back too, and if you guys are going downtown, you better do it now, before nightfall. See you later." You and Carl set off, while you're walking you notice other mutants wandering in the neighborhood, but they don't attack, in fact many of them are just watching the both of you or going about their business. (Like catching a rat to eat) "So is this area safe or something? Nobody's attacking us." You ask. "Of course it's safe, well safe as anything can be in this place. I mean there's still always the Ferals that roam around, but not so much around here anymore. The people around here in the Dust District don't even try to eat one another. Probably due to the fact that a lot of people used to live here and work together in the factory and warehouses nearby, so I guess there's that sense of unity as it were. Though I'm sure most of them did attack each other at one time. Still, this is a severely new situation, you can't blame TOO much on what happened during people's madness. Weird what happened though, I mean do you think the enemy dropped some sort of nuclear nerve agent combo on this place? Or did we all just go temporarily insane in the face of the shear devastation?" "I really couldn't tell you, Carl. Maybe the second one I guess." You say keeping your secret information on the reasons to yourself. "Yeah, doesn't take much for us to fall apart I suppose. The Zeropolis Guard have also claimed they're going to make this place even safer when they set up a new base here, though I sort of wish they'd just leave us alone. I get the impression they'll be trying to tell us all what to do and conscripting us to fight the Shadow Horde." "What is the Shadow Horde anyway?" "Man, you don't know who THEY are? Then again you didn't know the city name either! Anyway The Shadow Horde is a group of mutants who primarily live in the sewers, though they do come out at night and attack anyone who isn't part their group. They're sort of like the Ferals, except they are a lot more organized and even more vicious. I've heard they have a leader of some sort; I've only heard rumors though; ranging from a giant abomination, to a beautiful priestess of some sort. Have a hard time believing a lot of them, the only thing I do know is you don't want to get outside at night, let alone even enter the sewers!" Carl continues to about various things of Zeropolis on your way Downtown. As fucked up as things are, you can't help but be fascinated by it all. You feel like you're actually living in some sort of 80s low budget post apocalyptic movie. You ask him if anyone actually leaves Zeropolis, but he says it's rare. The Ferals and other more territorial mutants seem content on staying in the City, and as for the other "normal" ones, it's happened, but it seems mutation isn't a common theme outside Zeropolis. Most mutants are shot on sight or at least chased off. At least those are the stories he's heard from a couple of people he knows that have left only to come back. The closer you get to Downtown the more Carl stops talking only telling you to keep a look out and to be quiet. Lots of Ferals fight each other in the Downtown area and will obviously attack anyone else. Plus there are other scavengers here that will try to bushwhack each other as well. Carl pulls out a large bag and you and he start going into various devastated buildings where he grabs things of varying interest. A few instance you see large groups of Ferals in the street, but Carl tells you not to fire, since they're all fighting each other at the time. Another instance when you're on the second floor of an apartment store, another mutant clobbers Carl with a lead pipe and tries to make off with the bag of goodies, but a couple of shots put the thief down. "Thanks. Oh fuck, I think the shots caught the attention of the Ferals outside, we better get out of here!" You and Carl rush out the building and after you fire a few more shots at the Ferals you both make a beeline back the Dust District, unfortunately you and Carl have to retreat and backtrack several times to avoid large groups of Ferals, until finally when you get out of the area, its twilight and you still haven't gotten back to the Dust District yet. You and Carl hear a nearby sewer manhole opening up... "Oh shit we're gonna die!" Carl yells and starts running. He's in such a hurry to getaway he trips and dumps his bag with all the contents inside! He frantically starts putting everything back in, but already you can see the Shadow Horde starting to come out, and yeah they do look a hell of a lot meaner than the typical Ferals, which is pretty hard to do. The fact that they start shouting "CARL GET YOUR ASS UP, WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" you yell and start blasting Horde members with your assault rifle, picking your shots, but when they fire back, you can't stand your ground for long and run leaving Carl behind. You hear Carl trying to catch up with you, but you soon hear more shots, yell of pain followed by the collapsing of a body. You turn around to see one of the Horde trying to finish Carl off with a spiked bat, but he blasts the mutant in the head with his pistol twice killing it. He's wounded and even if you went back to get him, the rest of the Horde is closing in and you'd never outrun them if you carried Carl on your back. Sensing the end is near; Carl uses his last bullet to save himself a torturous death by the hands of the Horde. Of course now you have worry about yourself. > You try to lose the Horde You begin taking side streets and back alleys in a vain attempt to lose your pursuers, the only problem with this is tactic is, it isn't like there's only one sewer grating. They're all over Zeropolis meaning the Shadow Horde can pop up out of anywhere so "losing" them isn't really possible. You're running down an alley when all of a sudden a very LARGE being comes leaping out of nowhere in front of you. Its ugly, its muscles are unnaturally large and it's fully intent on killing you. You let fly your remaining rounds from your assault rifle, but it doesn't even stop the big mutant. You attempt to pull your pistol, but with one shot from its own, it blows a big hole in your body, and then it finishes you off by stabbing you repeatedly in the head with its knife.

[Themes: sci-fi] Something you wouldn't ever consider eating before suddenly makes a lot of sense to you. You start off by grabbing the nearest crawling roaches you see and start popping them in your mouth and chew. They taste terrible, somehow though you don't suffer a gag reflex though. You just find them unpleasant, like eating something bitter rather than disgusting. After having had enough of eating bugs you try to catch a rat. It takes awhile, but eventually you stomp on one severely crippling it and then stomp once more to kill it. Eating a raw rat doesn't particularly taste any better, but again you don't suffer any sort of natural revulsion during this act. It would seem you've gone through a change of some sort, one that has put you in a better frame of mind for survival. One that has also put your body in better condition for survival as well since you suffer no ill effects from eating such unclean creatures under equally unclean conditions. You temporarily have some problems with lice and fleas you catch from the rats, but even that doesn't really become a problem considering the rest hair has fallen out now. (Well you have a few wisps left) You skin also begins to harden in time, making fleas no longer a problem. Whatever internal parasites any of these might've carried also have no effect as it seems your resistance and immunity system has increased quite a bit. You look in the bathroom mirror one day and see that you've changed alright. Changed into something better. You aren't going to win any beauty contests, but you're going to live... A year passes... You've been living a relatively simple life of eating and sleeping and it's basically been enough. For the past year your mind hasn't really been the most stable, so you haven't really thought about anything other than your immediate survival, and given you have a water supply and the rats and roaches for food, you haven't ventured outside of the GZS warehouse since you entered. That's starting to change. Lately your mind seems to have a little more clarity. Indeed you're starting to feel like "yourself" before the change. Not entirely like yourself, but you don't go shithouse rat crazy screaming at the walls like you used to. You've been getting a little curious about the rest of the City. If you're mostly sane now, maybe other survivors are as well. Maybe even some things have been fixed; it would be nice if they were, as its getting boring where you're currently staying. Taking your weapons with you, you leave your new home to explore. (Making sure to hide the trapdoor before leaving of course) The City streets are still as desolate as you remember them, and mostly empty as well. You expect to run into gangs of mutants though. You suddenly stop and think about that for a moment and realize that YOU are also a mutant now! Still, that doesn't necessarily mean mutantism is a club. You're sure there's a lot of fighting for resources. In fact you come across some fighting, though in a different way than you'd imagine. While you're walking through a neighborhood by a corner store that has all its windows boarded up, you hear voices inside. You step through the open doorway to investigate. It's dark inside, but some candles light up the place. "Ted, what do you mean you won't gimme anything for this? This is a solid gold watch man!" a skinny mutant asks an exceptionally ugly one eyed mutant he has pistol strapped to his side. "Goddamn it Carl, would you fuckin' think? What the hell am I gonna do with a gold piece of shit that doesn't even work anymore in the first place?" "Well can't you trade it for something? I mean gold's gotta be worth something to someone! It's not like I gave you a sack of dollar bills!" "Didn't stop you from trying though did it? Look Carl, unless it's something useful you know damn well I ain't taking it. Bring back some batteries, a first aid kit, hell some canned corn would be a welcome change of pace than watery roach soup! Just stop bringing me shit I have no use for!" "But Carl! I need some bullets! You can't expect me to do any scavenging downtown without bullets for my pistol! How will I defend myself against the Ferals or how about at night when the Shadow Horde comes out?" "Cry me a river Carl, you're a fast guy I'm sure you can outrun the roving gangs of Ferals, ain't that hard. And second of all you shouldn't even BE out at night! If you get caught out at night I got no sympathy for what happens to you! Now..." suddenly Ted's one good eye catches sight of you. "Who the fuck are you pretty boy?" Ted asks, Carl just backs off when he sees the assault rifle strapped to your back. "Pretty boy? Have you seen my face?" you retort. "Yeah, I see your fucking face an' you're a fuckin' pretty boy as far as I'm concerned. Shit you ain't even got any scars. So what the hell do you want, I ain't seen you before. Ain't seen too many here with an assault rifle either. You part of the Zeropolis Guard? Then again you don't wear the uniform...maybe you just killed one of them then? Heh heh." "Who are the Zeropolis Guard?" "You ain't heard of them? Huh, well they've only just been making scouting missions in this area. Basically a collection of ex-National Guardsmen that insisted on staying here to the very end. They got the best hardware as far as I know, but the delusional fuckers think it's STILL their job to keep peace in the damn City. Ain't no peace in Zeropolis!" "What's Zeropolis exactly?" you ask feeling completely out of the loop, which only gets you some mighty strange stares by Carl and Ted. "Uh, Zeropolis, y'know...The City? That's what this place is called now." Carl says. "Holy shit pretty boy, you been livin' under a damn rock or something?" "Well, uh sort of..." "I guess so! Where the hell ARE you from? "Er...I never actually lived in the City...I guess you can kind of say I got trapped here and then shortly after went mad for a little while and I'm only just now starting to feel like myself." You explain without giving too much information out. "Hmm, well that might explain some things. I think we all know about that madness you're speaking of. Think it happened to everyone after this place got nuked, still going on for most people. You get that hunger craving and violent thoughts pervade your mind...though the first one I killed and ate was my wife so it wasn't ALL bad har har har!" Ted laughs. "Hey how many people did you eat during that time?" "Uh, none actually." "None? Ah, you must be like Carl here. He just ate roaches and rats because even when the madness hit him he still was a big pussy!" "Fuck you Ted! I'M the one going out risking my ass scavenging, not YOU! I...just didn't want to eat anybody...I guess I just never suffered the madness as much as the rest." "Yeah, well anyway what do you guys actually sell here?" you ask. "Well Carl doesn't sell shit, because he doesn't own this place, I do. And as you can probably tell we run on the barter system here that being the only real way to do business anymore. However I have a wide variety of items, but not obviously not right here, since this part of the store ain't the most secure as you can see, but bring me something I might find useful and maybe we can do business; just don't bring fuckin' broken gold watches!" Ted exclaims looking back at Carl. "There's a lot of stuff downtown to scavenge, hey...maybe you could come with me?" Carl suddenly asks hopefully. > You go back home "Nah, that's alright. I guess I'll be heading out." You reply and leave the shop with the full intent on going home. On your way back home you unfortunately run into a couple of the Zeropolis Guardsmen who seem intent on giving you a hard time. "Whoa there, who the fuck are you, and where do you think you're going with that rifle on your back?" one asks. "What the hell difference does it make to you?" "It makes a difference because we patrol this area all the damn time and we've never seen you before. Not to mention you look fucking suspicious with an assault rifle on your person!" "...What the fuck? What about you guys?! You got damn machine guns and grenades!" "Yeah, well WE'RE members of The Zeropolis Guard! We need this shit in our war with the Shadow Horde, while you're just a lowly civvy! We're going to be occupying this area soon and you won't need something like that as protection anymore. In fact a fine weapon like that would be better put to use by The Zeropolis Guard, so you probably should hand it over right now." "Ha ha, you're a funny guy. I don't think so." You say. "That wasn't a request, that was a goddamn order!" "Sorry, but as you just pointed out I'm just a lowly civvy, so I'm not inclined to follow your stupid ass orders." This last remark does it. The two soldiers now have their excuse, they raise their weapons and you do like wise. A small shoot out occurs in which you end up killing one of them and wounding the other, however they manage to wound you severely as well. As you attempt to take cover behind a wrecked car, the surviving Guardsmen throws a grenade in your direction which you are unable to react to in time before it blows you up.

[Themes: sci-fi] You decide to stay, and think about what Owen said about the water supply and the anti-radiation drugs in it then you think about what happened to a majority of the survivors. It didn't seem to do them any good, but he was right; it WAS stupid to come here! You can't really do much about it now, but you're hoping that water can keep you from dying a slow horrible death, though you don't know how it works exactly since you weren't drinking it before you absorbed rads. Still, you'll try anything now. The first thing you do is start drinking the water, and a lot of it. You also wonder about Owen's supervisor Lisa. He did say she was supposed to return soon, and you form some ideas on how to handle the situation when it arises (to keep your mind occupied), but as it turns out, she never does. Probably got killed no doubt. A few days go by and there's not much to do for entertainment purposes and you're reluctant to leave your "safe haven" now. There are some books in what is Lisa's room that you peruse through. You also look for maybe some notes on her research since the stuff Owen told you about did sound interesting. Maybe even ideas on what the drugs in the water supply might've done to people (Something ELSE you're starting to worry about) but unfortunately you don't find anything. She must've taken those with her. Owen's room has an old TV set which amusingly has an equally as old game console hooked up to it. You spend a lot of time shooting different colored circular objects with your white triangle on the screen. After a week you start feeling weird. Like mildly delirious. You start lying in bed a lot, only getting up to quench your thirst since you don't have much of an appetite. After a month you start feeling sick. You begin throwing up and having diarrhea even though you've barely been eating anything. You have the shakes and you often just lie on the floor aching all over you body. You drink the water in the steadily failing hopes that it will miraculously cure you. When patches of your hair start falling out, and cough up bits of blood, you really start to lose all hope. "Oh fuck...I don't wanna die like this...shit..." you sob. You begin thinking about suicide, but you're so weak that the one time you seriously attempt it; you collapse on the floor when reaching for your pistol and fall unconscious for a full day. When you wake up, you feel a little better physically, but not much. However your mind is a little warped. As it turns out this is somewhat fortunate as you don't worry about dying so much anymore. You do start talking to yourself at great lengths though. You begin having bizarre thoughts about things in general. Sometimes you go into a fit and start ranting until you're hoarse. Another month passes and you're completely better physically, in fact you feel stronger than you ever did before. Your mind is still in la la land though. You begin to get very violent. You begin punching the walls (and even doing some damage to them) and ripping up books. What temporarily "sobers" you up is when you smash the food dispenser, breaking it completely. While you still have real food left you've just destroyed your only means of food-substitute when the real stuff runs out. "SHIT!" you yell. "I gotta get a fuckin...grip...I gotta get fuckin' food!" You grab your pistol and assault rifle and throw open the door in search of food. After climbing back up to the surface, you notice that you can see pretty well in the dark warehouse. It would appear you've developed some minor "dark vision". In the darkness you also notice that the warehouse has lots of rats and roaches crawling around in it. Those could be food... > You find something else NO! You must have something of substance! Something with more meat! You quickly leave the warehouse and go loping around the City like some sort of animal. You stalk the streets in search of prey but find nothing! You begin snarling to yourself and getting madder, but suddenly you hear someone talking loudly nearby. You get quiet and slowly look around the corner and see three men in radiation suits carrying weapons. "Albert, for the last time will you fucking calm down, there ain't gonna be nobody here! If you think this place is going to be crawling with mutant creatures, you've been watching too many movies!" "Well how do YOU know, Roger? I mean how do we know it won't be?" "Look, Harry gave us this mission to do some scouting, not standing around with our thumbs up our asses arguing, now come on!" "Shh! Did you hear that?" "Christ, Steve not you too..." Before Roger can complete his retort you come around the corner and fire your assault rifle at them haphazardly. You hit two of them before one of them runs off. One of them lies completely still as you approach, but the other is still twitching and convulsing as their body begins to shut down. You finish him off with a couple of blows to the head with your rifle butt before ripping the protective suit to get to the precious meat inside. However the noise of your weapon has caused other mutants to suddenly come out of the woodwork. They too want the flesh of these humans, but you won't let them have it! This is YOUR kill! The other mutants aren't as well armed as you are, and when they try to take your kill you fire at them and begin trying to drag it back to your home. You only have so many bullets though and eventually it's a feeding frenzy where you're all fighting for the biggest piece. Eventually you grab a leg and an arm and run back to your lair to eat in solitude. When you're finished you belch in satisfaction and fall asleep. In the months to follow, you will continue to participate in these activities, though mutant flesh never seems to taste as good as that of human. You cease keeping up any sense of appearances or hygene, you don't even sleep in the GZS research room anymore, preferring to sleep in the actually warehouse along with the rats and roaches. (Though you still go to drink from the water recycler down there) You've completely given in to the madness. A year passes... You wake up again like you always do, slightly hungry. You grab a nearby roach and chomp on that until you can find something more substantial. It's getting more difficult to hunt in this area though. For some reason most of the mutants here don't seem to act like you do anymore. Many of them have gotten "better" and have even been engaging in somewhat normal activities. You know there are still hunting groups of others like you holdup in some nearby factories, but you were never a social animal, you're a lone hunter. You don't like to share. You also know not to stay out after night, as you've seen mutants much larger than yourself to stalk the streets, even you don't want to mess with them if you don't have to. So far you've been successful despite the odds steadily becoming against you, however it would seem that event continue to conspire against you. A large group of mutants dressed in uniforms have been patrolling the area as of late in fact they've been purposely trying to make it safe by wiping out your types. You've come in conflict with a couple of them, but the firepower they pack is too much for you and you've long since run out of bullets. (At this point you're just beating others over the head with the rifle or pistol whipping them) Granted life has never been safe or easy, but now it's been getting particularly dangerous. Even in your simple delusional state, you're wondering if you should find new hunting grounds. > You stay where you are You know this area, and you don't want to leave, so you attempt to keep a lower profile. It's very difficult at first, and you struggle to keep your violent urges in check. You keep to eating rats and roaches. As a few month go by you begin to feel somewhat different. You don't feel quite as "insane" anymore though your mind is still a little around the bend. You never really leave the warehouse anymore and begin sleeping in the GZS outpost again, spending hours talking and laughing to yourself in between snacks. Eventually the uniformed mutants find your little hideaway. When you see them you're surprised and annoyed, but you don't feel the need to attack them. (Though you wouldn't anyway since they're heavily armed) "Hey! Get out of my house!" "See I knew this place had Ferals." One of them says. "I dunno, he hasn't attacked us yet, you sure he's a Feral?" "Hm, you might be right, he sort of looks like one though, of course maybe he's gotten better, y'know the Captain said it happens sometimes." "Hey! I said get outta my house!" you exclaim again. The uniformed mutants continue to ignore you. "What the hell do you think this place is?" "I dunno, but the Captain will be interested, with the fact there's a generator and water recycler here...alright sorry to do this, but you gotta leave. This place is now the property of the Zeropolis Guard, which is us, and not you. So get your stuff and leave. You can go move into one of the many abandoned buildings in one of the neighborhoods." You attempt to protest, but the soldiers just roughly grab you and force you out of your home and throw you out on the street. They then warn you not to try that again or else they won't be as nice next time. Having nowhere else to go, you follow their instructions and begin living in one of the abandoned buildings in one of the neighborhoods. Months go by and you learn more about the things going on in the Dust District. (The area that you've been dwelling in) You don't really understand all the intricate details, but from what you can tell, The Zeropolis Guard is attempting to make this area their base of sorts in their war against the Shadow Horde (The sewer mutants) part of this organizing involves killing out the remaining Ferals in the area and rebuilding it. As you are basically under the protection of the Zeropolis Guard, you're also subject to their whims and they expect you to pitch in and be a productive citizen like everyone else. In your case this means conscription. You're in the army now, but you're still just trying to keep your mind from wandering. You never really did get over the "year of madness" that you suffered. Your mind is still disjointed, though when you kill Shadow Horde members, you do feel a sense of fulfillment, so it isn't all bad. Many of your fellow soldiers kind of stay away from you though and you aren't really considered for anything greater than just a regular soldier. Eventually during one of the many battles with the Shadow Horde, you are struck down by a brutal blow to head with a very large piece of steel. You maintain consciousness for a few seconds before seeing a big boot come down on your face, making you just one of the many causalities in this mutant war.

[Themes: sci-fi, war] NO! You must have something of substance! Something with more meat! You quickly leave the warehouse and go loping around the City like some sort of animal. You stalk the streets in search of prey but find nothing! You begin snarling to yourself and getting madder, but suddenly you hear someone talking loudly nearby. You get quiet and slowly look around the corner and see three men in radiation suits carrying weapons. "Albert, for the last time will you fucking calm down, there ain't gonna be nobody here! If you think this place is going to be crawling with mutant creatures, you've been watching too many movies!" "Well how do YOU know, Roger? I mean how do we know it won't be?" "Look, Harry gave us this mission to do some scouting, not standing around with our thumbs up our asses arguing, now come on!" "Shh! Did you hear that?" "Christ, Steve not you too..." Before Roger can complete his retort you come around the corner and fire your assault rifle at them haphazardly. You hit two of them before one of them runs off. One of them lies completely still as you approach, but the other is still twitching and convulsing as their body begins to shut down. You finish him off with a couple of blows to the head with your rifle butt before ripping the protective suit to get to the precious meat inside. However the noise of your weapon has caused other mutants to suddenly come out of the woodwork. They too want the flesh of these humans, but you won't let them have it! This is YOUR kill! The other mutants aren't as well armed as you are, and when they try to take your kill you fire at them and begin trying to drag it back to your home. You only have so many bullets though and eventually it's a feeding frenzy where you're all fighting for the biggest piece. Eventually you grab a leg and an arm and run back to your lair to eat in solitude. When you're finished you belch in satisfaction and fall asleep. In the months to follow, you will continue to participate in these activities, though mutant flesh never seems to taste as good as that of human. You cease keeping up any sense of appearances or hygene, you don't even sleep in the GZS research room anymore, preferring to sleep in the actually warehouse along with the rats and roaches. (Though you still go to drink from the water recycler down there) You've completely given in to the madness. A year passes... You wake up again like you always do, slightly hungry. You grab a nearby roach and chomp on that until you can find something more substantial. It's getting more difficult to hunt in this area though. For some reason most of the mutants here don't seem to act like you do anymore. Many of them have gotten "better" and have even been engaging in somewhat normal activities. You know there are still hunting groups of others like you holdup in some nearby factories, but you were never a social animal, you're a lone hunter. You don't like to share. You also know not to stay out after night, as you've seen mutants much larger than yourself to stalk the streets, even you don't want to mess with them if you don't have to. So far you've been successful despite the odds steadily becoming against you, however it would seem that event continue to conspire against you. A large group of mutants dressed in uniforms have been patrolling the area as of late in fact they've been purposely trying to make it safe by wiping out your types. You've come in conflict with a couple of them, but the firepower they pack is too much for you and you've long since run out of bullets. (At this point you're just beating others over the head with the rifle or pistol whipping them) Granted life has never been safe or easy, but now it's been getting particularly dangerous. Even in your simple delusional state, you're wondering if you should find new hunting grounds. > You leave the area Sensing when would be the best time to leave; you abandon your home and move on to another part of the City that's less organized. You end up in the Downtown area, oddly enough you end up taking residence in the same building you once worked at. You haven't gotten a "feel" for this area yet and initially are at a disadvantage when hunting. Many times your "dinner" comes from those who were attempting to hunt you, but failed to recognize your strength and quickness. Soon though, you do alright. Your life is pretty simple from here on out, you hunt for others and you try to survive, you last longer than most, but eventually the move towards order marches forward and comes to the Downtown area. The uniformed mutants eventually attempt to organize this area as well in their efforts to gain territory from another group of united mutants namely the ones that live in the sewers. Once again your type are hunted down and wiped out. This time you are caught in the open by several of them and are shot like a dog in the street.

Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up from the sofa like you always do, dreading to have to go to work at your pointless job. You haven't been sleeping well lately, you don't know what the hell the problem is, and all you know is you're going to be tired for work again. As you go through your routine of getting ready, the TV can be heard; as usual you left it on from the night before. "...And peace talks broke down today, as several ambassadors engaged in a physical fight at the UN...Neo-Communist party gaining favor in Russia... more terrorist bombings in European Union cities...US troops won another victory in the Middle East...mysterious epidemic in China, several million dead...skirmishes on the Indian-Pakistan border...world wide tensions at an all time high..." Same old doom and gloom on TV; you wonder why you even bother watching the news anymore. Still it does seem like things are getting worse, late at night when you're suffering from your usual insomnia, you've been catching infomercials attempting to sell bomb shelters, like something out of a 1950s propaganda film. It seems silly, but you do wonder if it's only a matter of time before someone presses the button. Then again you live out in the boonies, you've always thought that if the world ever did blow up; you'd doubt you'd even notice until you drove to work the next day and saw the ruins of the city. Speaking of which you better get going or you'll be late. > You buy a bomb shelter Fuck work, the world's about to end soon and you need to prepare yourself for that! You immediately call up the number that the infomercial mentioned. You know the damn thing by heart since you've been watching it night after night. Eventually a chipper female voice picks up on the other end. "Ground Zero Survival Inc. How may I help you?" "Uh, yeah I'd like to buy a bomb shelter." "That's wonderful sir! In these uncertain times you can never be too careful and we here at GZS are thrilled that you've chosen to trust us in your continued existence! You and your family's utmost protection is as important to us is it is to you! Our shelters are the best you'll find and, we have many shelters still available at various prices, but really can you put a price on your loved ones protection? Of course not! So I'm sure you'll want one of our top of the line models that are still left! Okay so how many are in your family?" "Um, just me." "Oh..." the voice suddenly gets less chipper. "What?" "Sir, don't you have ANY family? Like a wife at least, maybe a cousin?" "No, not really." "Oh dear..." "Well sir, its just that, we here at GZS are a family friendly business and we feel that the survival of the human race will best be served by those who have a strong sense of family ties and a respect for the family unit. We aren't in the business of selling shelters to those of low moral fiber sir..." "What the fuck?! Just because I'm single I gotta be some sort of low life? I'm not luring fuckin' little girls into my car with lollipops! I have a fucking job and pay my goddamn taxes!" "Sir, I don't like you taking that tone with me when there isn't any call for it and I would appreciate it if you didn't blaspheme, I'm a God fearing woman. Now then I understand your frustration, but there's nothing we can do. Our shelters were primarily built for families of at least four. To put singles in them wouldn't be fair to families that have children who shall surely be the ones to rebuild civilization, not to mention it would be a waste of resources. A single person would have an overstock of food and water since as I said we primarily cater to families and stock the shelters with families in mind." "I fail to see how me having MORE than enough food and water is a bad thing..." "I see sir, so you would be selfish and deprive a possible family of survival?" "I didn't say that! And wait a minute; wouldn't I be doing that anyway if I had a family of my own?" "Yes, but it would be different." "How?" "You would have a family sir." You're about ready to throw the phone against the wall in frustration. "So basically what you're telling me is you're not selling me a shelter." "Ah now I didn't say that sir! Since you're interested in buying our product and by your previous outburst I can tell you ARE a productive member of society. And it is only due to your poor social skills that you have been unable to take the necessary steps to have a family of your own! But never fear, GZS HAS kept your type in mind!" "Gee, thanks..." "You're quite welcome sir! We have the Community Shelters for singles! It is basically a giant shelter filled with singles such as yourself. You will be given a separate room to live in, but everything else you must share. Don't worry we have stocked these shelters with supplies to last for years! It is our hope that nature will take its course and when it comes time to return to the surface a fully functional tight knit community of families will emerge to rebuild civilization once again!" Sharing isn't something you're good at. You like your privacy and your space and your solitude. You can't imagine sharing stuff when your very survival is at stake. "Look, don't you have ANYTHING I can get by myself?" you demand. "Are you serious sir? You actually want to be alone?" the voice says as if you must be nuts to ask that kind of question. "If possible yeah." "Well...I shouldn't really tell you sir, because you snapped at me earlier, but it is my job to make sure any potential customer is serviced to the best of my ability. That and the fact that these other Special Shelters we have are a bit...experimental." "Experimental? What do you mean?" "Well I don't know too much about these Special Shelters myself sir, all I know is they have been equipped with the latest technology and VERY expensive. Anyone can buy one as long as they have the money to do so." "Well how experimental are these things exactly?" "As I said sir, I know little about these Special Shelters other than they are equipped with the latest technology. GZS has run tests and they are considered very safe and will protect you in the coming apocalypse, however due to time constraints GZS may have missed a few minor things, and as such we are legally required to warn...er inform potential customers before they buy them." > You buy a room in the Community Shelter As much as you're not keen on sharing, you're less keen on the idea of being shoved in an experimental shelter. Sounds like they didn't work all the bugs out of the system, and it's filled with hi-tech equipment? God help you if something broke down. You wouldn't know how to fix it. At least if you're with other people, there's bound to be people with different skills to compliment each other. Of course everyone could just be incompetent like they usually are. You're not going to dwell on it too much, you'll take the safer choice; maybe it won't be so bad. "Okay I'll take a room in the Community Shelter." "Wonderful sir! You won't regret this decision! Now I'll need to know some vital information about yourself before I can direct you to our nearest Community shelter in your area where upon you shall pay the automatic teller just inside the foyer of it so that the main door can open and you will be able to enter your new residence during Armageddon! Okay let's start with your name sir." You give out your name, address and such. It's all pretty routine stuff until the questions get more personal. "Have you ever committed a felony sir?" "No." "Do you have a history of mental illness sir?" "No." "Are you a drug addict or smoke sir?" "No." "Are you handicapped in anyway sir?" "No." "Do you believe in God sir?" "Huh? Uh...sure I guess." "Hmmm...okay..." the voice says a bit disapprovingly. "Do you have any physical diseases or suffered from any in the past sir?" "No." "Do you have AIDS or any other STDs sir?" "What the hell? I just told you I don't have any diseases! Sexual or otherwise!" "Are you sterile sir?" "What?!" "I said are you shooting blanks sir?" "What difference does that make?" "Please sir, just answer the question." "(Sigh) No. As far as I know, I'm packing a loaded fucking weapon. I know because I had to take an overly thorough physical for work recently." "Wonderful sir! Okay are you a homosexual or ever had homosexual feelings?" "Sir, I told you before don't take that tone with me." "Well you're asking me a lot of fucking personal questions! Why do you need to know all this shit?" "Sir, as I said, we are a family orientated business, we aren't just a money motivated corporation, we are interested in the survival and well being of the human race. The human race can't thrive if people don't meet the necessary...requirements. How can civilization be re-built if children aren't being born? I mean would you want to live in a society built by drug addicted mentally ill homosexual criminals? That's the reason the world is ending now, because people have turned away from a righteous way of living!" "Look I'd live in a fucking society with transsexual midgets if it'll get me to the fucking shelter already!" "Hmmm, well despite that comment, your non-committal answer on the belief in God, and your overall anti-social tone, you do qualify for one of our rooms in the Community Shelter in your area. I can only hope some of the other more sociable residents rub off on you, and cause a change in your personality. I'll give you the location of the shelter sir." You are given the location of the Community Shelter which you are surprised to find out is closer then you think, it shouldn't take too long for you drive there. You are then given the price, which is pretty steep, but you can afford it. Besides if the world is ending it's not like you're really going to need money anymore. Which makes you wonder why GZS is in business at all. What's the point of going to the trouble of building bomb shelters for Armageddon if all the profit they make is most likely going to be useless in the aftermath? Oh well that's not your concern, you're just glad you passed the damn interrogation and got into the shelter. Of course now you're subjected to some last minute rules. "Okay sir, you are now in the system and registered. You may move into the Shelter at anytime as long you pay the fee required to the automatic teller as previously described to you. If you don't pay, you can't get in obviously. Cash, check, or debit card are acceptable. NO Credit Cards will be accepted! Now then some rules. You do not have to bring anything with you, but it is recommended that you do bring your own clothing if you wish to wear something different as the days go by. Food and drinkable liquids are acceptable, but not necessary. Do not bring in private medical supplies or repair equipment, the shelter has been stocked with those items, we do not want people bringing in potential weapons or illegal drugs. Speaking of which, DO NOT attempt to bring in any kind of weapon! Guns and knives are strictly prohibited! Attempting to bring in either one will result in non-admittance of the shelter! Same goes for drugs of any kind. Alcohol is frowned upon, but accepted. There WILL be a machine to scan you before you're allowed to enter, so do not think you will be able to sneak anything in! Now then I trust our transaction has ended. If you have anymore questions please contact our customer service line. Good day sir, may your first child be a masculine one and thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!" That's it, all you have to do is get what stuff you want to take with you and move in, might as well do it now, no sense in waiting until you see the nuclear cloud. You wonder if you shouldn't try to "beat the system" by sneaking your weapon in though. Ultimately you decide this is survival. You need every advantage you can get. You don't know what kind of people you're going to be stuck with, so you take your pistol with you and a few "non-lethal" supplies such as duct tape. You also you just pack some clothing, food and water. You then set off on your way. After a couple days of driving you finally arrive at the location that you were given. It's in a fairly desolate place with a single solid metal structure with a door standing there. There's also a few other cars parked nearby, you obviously aren't the first one here. You park your van and enter the structure with the items you brought with you. You're in a small foyer with an elevator door and ATM like machine; you're guessing that's the automatic teller you were told about. Before you start pressing buttons you need to figure out how you're going to get your pistol through the scanning process, because you can be sure if you fail something nasty will happen... > Duct tape the pistol to the ceiling GZS probably has some sort of scanner that does a little more than just scan your body, so just not having the gun on your person most likely isn't going to work. You get the idea that the machine is probably not going to scan the ceiling though, so you get out your duct tape and fix it to the pistol, you then climb on top of the automatic teller and jump up to stick the pistol on the ceiling. You end up falling on your ass, but you succeed. You then press some buttons on the machine, where it proceeds to ask your name and how you're going to pay. You type in your name and insert you debit card where upon it drains most of your account. The door you stepped through sudden shuts and a hum is heard. You take a deep breath and hope for the best. "Now scanning for unauthorized items...Scanning...Scanning...Scanning complete. You have been allowed entry, the elevator doors will now open, your room number is 23, thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!" an emotionless electronic voice remarks as the elevator doors open. It worked! You quickly climb back up on to the teller and jump up to grab your pistol, (this time able to maintain your balance better) toss it into the elevator opening and then rush in with all your belongings and take the long elevator trip down. When you get to bottom the elevator door opens to large sterile hallway with lines of other closed metal doors on either side As soon as you enter, the elevator doors slam shut and you hear it going back up, you also notice there aren't any buttons to call it back...before you're able to worry about that little detail you're met by a few of your new neighbors. One is some tall skinny guy another is a brunette woman who begins talking to you. "Hey, another new neighbor! My name is Nina and this is Ron, what's your name?" She is entirely too fucking friendly given the situation. "Why aren't there call buttons back on the elevator?" you ask ignoring her question. "Huh? Oh I guess it's a safety feature. The elevator automatically goes back up so the other people can get in as quickly as possible. Ron suggested that they might've thought someone would deliberately try to keep the elevator down here to prevent anyone else from seeking shelter. Though I can't honestly imagine that anyone would do such a horrible thing." "Been living on earth long Nina?" you ask rhetorically. "Great, so I'm basically trapped down here due to the brilliant engineering minds of GZS...so is it just us so far or are their other people here too?" "There are a few others, if you come with us we can introduce you to..." "Maybe later, look we're gonna be stuck down here for a long time so I'll get to know everyone soon enough, right now I just want to go to my room and rest." "Erm, okay..." Ron says as you push past them both. You head to your room which is equipped with the basic requirements; food and water dispenser, shower, bed, and a cabinet. (You hide your pistol in your mattress) There's a standard Shelter Operations Manual sitting on the table as well as a Shelter Booklet about socialization, rules, guidelines and such, both of which you skim through every now and then. There's a big public recreation area and a couple of other public rooms where your neighbors gather, but you stay in your room and keep to yourself for the most part. Sometimes in the middle of the night when nobody else is around you'll watch the TV in the living area to keep up on current events. You hear other people arriving over the month. Ron and Nina greet them all, you can tell those two are going to be the ones to "organize" shit and probably try to decide what's "best" for everyone. Always saying stuff that they read in the booklet. "Fucking busy bodies..." you say as you fall asleep watching the world in its death throes on TV... Monday 8:00 AM "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..." You groggily wake up and see a test pattern on TV. This is it. You feel a small tremor and then you turn off the TV, just as Nina and Ron come walking in. "What was that?" Nina asks. "Test pattern, I think Armageddon arrived." You answer. "What?! I can't believe it!" Ron exclaims. "Why are you so surprised? I mean that was the whole point of coming down here right?" "Yeah, but I dunno...I just wasn't prepared for it actually happening." "Christ, Ron I've overheard you say you were the first one in this goddamn shelter, you of all people should've long gotten used to the idea of living down here." "What is your problem? You been nothing but hostile since you've got here!" Nina exclaims. "My problem is I'm stuck down here with a bunch of people I don't really know and if you two are any indication I don't want to know." "How did you even qualify to get a room down here?" "Good clean living I guess, so is there supposed to be something special we do now?" "Uh, yeah I think so, it mentions something in the booklet I was reading that came with the shelter, we're supposed to gather everyone and tell them." "Okay well I guess you guys go do that then. I'm just going to check on something here." "Okay, but we're supposed to have some sort of vote to decide on how this place is going to be run, if you don't show up you don't get a vote." Ron reminds you. "I know Ron, I've read the booklet." You answer unenthusiastically. Ron and Nina leave you and go tell the others of the situation and follow other things it states in the booklet. You're wondering if you should even stay down here. All these people seem completely different than you. You wish there was someway to call the elevator back down, but after checking a GZS computer it states that it won't come back until it detects that the surface is safe for habitation again...which basically means not in your lifetime. It's probably just as well since the surface probably isn't the safest place you'd want to be, lord knows what the hell it looks like now, not to mention the radiation factor. Then again you'd still like the option to leave if you wanted to. You go back to your room, read and enjoy the solitude until Nina comes to get you. "Hey! You didn't show up for the meeting! We're discussing which ways this place could be run, are you coming or what?" > You go vote "(Sigh) Fine, I'll attend this exercise in futility, but what the hell are we doing exactly, so I'm not just jumping into shit." You ask as you and Nina walk towards the conference room. "Well right now we're voting on a shelter leader. Someone to make the final decisions about important things. So far Ron is tied with another. In fact the only reason why I came to get you, was so you could break the tie." "Whoopie, I feel honored I can take an important part in this democratic process. So who's the other person?" "Oh, that would be Elliot. He was one of the later arrivals, but is very personable. Not that you'd know since I doubt you've even seen him given that you lock yourself in you room all the time." "Yeah, yeah, I know who he is, bald guy. So I take it you want Ron to win huh?" "Well...I'd be lying if I said I didn't, but Elliot's seems like a good guy too, so I'm sure he'd make a good leader as well." "Why haven't you run? I mean you seem to like to organize things." "Me? Oh no, I'm not a leader." "Well from what I've seen of Ron, he isn't either." Nina stops you in the corridor. "Damn it, stop being an asshole! At least Ron makes an attempt to get involved in things! You haven't done shit since you got here except insult people and lock yourself away! Like it or not we're ALL in this together! And you better start getting with the program and contribute!" "What the fuck? I am contributing; I'm going to this goddamn meeting aren't I? And you better watch your tone; remember I'M the swing vote for your boyfriend." "Ron isn't my boyfriend! I mean...not yet...uh..." "What? You mean he isn't taping your ass yet? Shit, he's stupider than I thought then, because he'd be lucky to get someone who looks like you even if you are annoying." Nina stands and stares at you in disbelief. "...could you possibly be any more vile?" "Probably, but we don't have time for that, I gotta vote for some dickhead." You continue to the conference room (with Nina no longer walking with you) and when you finally arrive everyone is there as if they've been waiting for you. You don't even really care who's in charge since more than likely no matter who you vote for is going to be an intrusive bastard wanting everyone to do something. You can vote for Ron. As far as leadership material, you don't really see him as one, though he seems to have some planning skills and friendly to people so maybe he's got the stuff. Elliot you barely know anything about, he also seems to be an organizer and friendly to everyone, but not to the point that it's irritating. Though to you there's something a little creepy about him. Ah what the hell, you know this is something Ron wants more than anything why not give it to him? Besides he's not very "strong" which means you can probably get away with disobeying him on a regular basis without causing a big scene. "I'll vote for Ron." You say, Nina looks surprised and Ron jumps up and down like an idiot in celebration. You take that as your opportunity to go back to your room, Nina once again stops you in the corridor. "I just wanted to say thanks for doing this; I know you don't even like Ron..." "I don't care one way or another about him, if he wants the headache of running this place he can have it, he better just not ask too much of me, I did my bit. You can think of me as his kingmaker. See ya around." You go back to your room and that's where you spend a majority of your time. You don't really mix with anyone, and nobody really makes the attempt with you either. You're asked to contribute to some "events" sometimes, but you always ignore such requests and nothing happens. Nina still hangs around Ron like a love sick school girl, but for god knows what reason he seems completely oblivious to the fact. And obviously she hasn't told him how she feels about him. You watch this comical display replay itself over and over. "Yeah, GZS really picked some excellent candidates to pair up to create families for the so called future, what a joke." You mutter to yourself. Time goes by and Ron goes about his duties which mainly consist of discussing pointless plans in the conference room. The idiot can't do ANYTHING without talking about it with others he appointed as advisors first! If somebody's shower is broken they have to discuss when, how and WHY it has to be fixed! Naturally everyone disagree about one point and they have to start all over again which usually means nothing gets done. A lot of planning and organizing of ideas, but no actual implementations of those same ideas. The shelter starts falling into disrepair, a few fixes are made here and there, but they're more jury-rigged ones more than anything. Nobody has perfectly functioning rooms from what you know...well except yours since you do nothing, but study the shelter manual all the time attempting to learn more about how it works giving you an edge in repairing your own room. (In fact you just permanently took a repair kit for yourself out of the equipment room) You really don't understand why other people aren't doing the same instead of waiting around for things to get repaired or complaining about needing things to get repaired. Everyone has the same damn operations manual. Read it! About six months go by and finally you're given an unexpected visit during the night. You answer your door. It's Elliot and some other people. "May we come in?" Elliot asks. "What do you want?" "Just to talk about the future of the shelter." "Yeah? Well you can talk to Ron about that, he's the big shelter leader." "Yes he is, thanks to you. And that's also why this shelter is in such bad shape. Ron is ruining this place with his ineptitude." "Oh no, don't blame that shit on me, that's RON'S fault, not mine. And besides MY room works fine. If you lazy bastards would actually read the damn shelter manual you wouldn't have any problems." "Oh I've read the manual, I'm sure many people have. But surely you must realize most people don't have the natural talent to fix thing that perhaps you have. Besides I'm sure you must also be aware that in a community each person has his own talents. For example Leon behind me used to be a bouncer. Don't you think with his skills he'd make an excellent head of security around here?" Leon folds his big black arms almost daring you to say "No." before Elliot continues. "My point is me and a few others are planning to take Ron out of office for gross incompetence. Did you know Fred and Greta are planning to have a baby? The first one to be born in here. The population in this shelter isn't going to be stable forever. It's going to grow and we NEED to keep this place running efficiently if we're ALL going to survive. I know you're a solitary person...I even respect that, but the time has come for you to choose between life or death. By joining our group, you're choosing life. By remaining locked away in here, you're choosing death not just for all of us, but for yourself. No man is an island." Elliot has a bit of duality to his speech. Part of him sounds genuinely concerned for the future of the shelter; he may even have a point. But the other part of him sounds like he's politely threatening you. And you're not sure of the whole "taking Ron out of office" thing. It almost sounds like he plans on taking over by force. You get the impression he and his little group are going to do just that regardless of whether you join or not. > Decline "Yeah, well you do what you have to do, just leave me out of it. Your little power struggle with Ron isn't any of my concern. And if and when you do take power don't think you're going to be ordering me around either." Elliot's expression changes to that of someone very perturbed by your response. "I'm very disappointed to hear you say that, I really thought you could have a place in the new community I was planning." "Think again, now get outta here..." You begin to shove Elliot out of your doorway, but Leon reaches over his shoulder and shoves you back with great strength. You fall backwards on to your floor, Elliot and his gang start to enter. He pulls out a scalpel, something he probably got from the medical supplies. You happen to be right next to your mattress, so you reach in and grab your pistol to point it directly at Elliot. Now they all look like they just seen a ghost and all the bravery has drained out of them except Leon, who looks like this isn't the first time he's had a gun pointed at him, but he's still stepping back. "You wanna fuckin' take another step motherfucker? Go ahead, I fuckin' dare you!" "Holy shit, he's got a fuckin' gun Elliot!" a women in his group says. "I can see that Brenda! Okay, look maybe we got off on the wrong foot here. I mean obviously you're a more resourceful man than I thought...I mean as far as I know you're the only one in this place with a goddamn gun. How'd you manage that?" "Never you mind, just get the fuck outta here!" "Very well, but remember, you don't have any friends in this place, and you can't watch your back all the time..." Elliot has just announced his intentions of eliminating you whenever it's possible. You'll have to live in constant paranoia now. Unless... > You shoot him now Always one to solve a problem before it starts... You pull the trigger and blast Elliot square in the chest. He looks down in disbelief and then slumps down on the floor by your feet. You then get up from the floor as everyone else runs out of the room. "Yeah that's what I thought! So much for your fearless leader!" As you drag Elliot's body out of your room, everyone else in the shelter has come out of their own rooms after hearing the gun shot and screaming. "OH MY GOD! HE'S GOT A GUN!" someone shouts. "HE'S KILLED ELLIOT!" another screams. Everyone is very afraid of what you're going to do next. Only Nina dares approach you. "You...you killed him? I always knew you were anti-social, but...oh my god..." "Yeah I fuckin' killed Elliot! And YOU of all people oughta be damn well glad I did! He was planning on taking over this place from your boyfriend Ron!" "Ron's not my boyfriend! And I don't believe you! Elliot was gracious in his defeat! He was a good man unlike you!" "Yeah he was so good he tried to recruit me for his little rebellion gang, and don't try to hide in the fuckin' crowd Leon and act like you weren't there! All of you fuckers hiding right now, came to my room with Elliot! And lemme ask you this, WHY the hell would ANY of them come to MY room? Everyone knows I don't invite people!" "I dunno what to say right now...please just put down the gun...I don't want you to kill anyone else..." "For fuck's sake Nina I'm not a mass murderer! It was self-defense! He was gonna kill me, just like he was gonna kill Ron and shit maybe he should've, the fuckstick's supposed to be the shelter leader and he's not even here for this! Where is Ron?" Nina suddenly wonders where he's at as well, she runs over to his door which is still shut. "Don't tell me, he's THAT much of deep sleeper." You mutter while standing by Elliot's dead body. Nina doesn't even knock, apparently she's got her own key to get in his room. You're STILL wondering why nothing has happened between those two yet, your questions are soon answered, and everyone is in for another surprise this eventful night. "EEEEEEEEEEEK! NO!" you hear Nina scream when she goes inside the room and then runs back out crying. Ron steps out in his underwear. "No, wait! Nina, its not what it looks like!" he shouts to her and then another guy in his underwear comes out. You think his name is William, you never knew too much about him before, but you know MORE than you wanted to now! "Get back inside William!" when Ron sees that there's a whole crowd of people staring in various states of shock. It's too late though now, everyone knows. "Wow Nina sure is a good judge of character, she thought Elliot was a good man and she thought you were straight. Looks like I wasn't the only one with a secret in this shelter! Heh heh." Ron finally turns to you and sees what you've done. "...You got a gun? YOU FUCKIN' KILLED ELLIOT?" "(Sigh) Not this again! Yeah I fuckin' killed him. He tried to kill me and he was planning on killing you to take over this dump!" "Now just calm down, and put down the gun..." "I'm not putting down shit and I'm not killing anyone else unless someone gives me cause to do so! What the fuck, was the dick in your mouth so good to you, you didn't hear the gunshots and screaming out here? I'm sick of explaining this twice! Now I'M going back into MY room to get some sleep! And none of you better fucking disturb me for the rest of the night! And someone better clean up Elliot's carcass from in front of my room when I wake up tomorrow!" You return to your room. "Yeah, I think that went well." You say to yourself. After the night of multiple "incidents" a lot of things happen. The first, is Elliot's body being the first one dumped into the incinerator. The second being that Ron is immediately voted out by his own council who all follow the GZS guidelines. Apparently being gay was more of an offense than being incompetent, since GZS guidelines were explicit in not wanting homosexuals in the Community Shelters which he obviously lied about. Nina is unsurprisingly the most vocal about his vote out; in fact she ends up taking over. Ron and William move into a separate far room together and become social pariahs. Everyone who was previously friendly with Ron suddenly starts treating him like garbage. You never really cared for him, and thought he was an incompetent moron, but even you think it's shitty for them to all just turn on him over who he happens to be fucking. But that's how people are and that's why you try to avoid them. Your situation is a little different, they can't really treat you like a social pariah mainly because you were always one to begin with and another because everyone's afraid you'll shoot them. All of Elliot's former friends have no doubt reinforced the belief in others that you're dangerous. You don't really care though, just as long as nobody fucks with you and stays out of your way (Which everyone does for the most part since you now walk around with it at all times) A year passes... The shelter sees its first baby born and there are a couple of other pregnant women ready to pop as well. Nina has improved the place a little bit more. No doubt without anyone to fawn over now she's throwing herself into her work. There's actually a guy (Kyle) who's has some medical knowledge now, they still don't really have a good "tech guy" though and things are still being jury-rigged. Nina knows with a growing population this shelter needs to be in tip top running condition. You get that expected knock on the door. "Hello, Nina." You say. "Yeah hi. Look, I just want to know if you have any intention of helping us out or if you're still going to remain an isolated asshole." Nothing like being blunt. Politics has really hardened Nina, she's all business now it seems and lot less naïve. How strangely appealing... > You help out the community "You know what Nina? I'm in a charitable mood. What do you need?" "We need you to hack into the central GZS computer system to bring the elevator down." "Wow, I didn't expect that one. What's going on?" "Can you do it?" Nina asks without answering your question. "Well in theory I might. I've fucked around with that computer when nobody was around in the past, but I've never really gotten into the inner workings of the system, and I've read as much as I can about the shelter itself. Damn thing's touchy though. I just worry that if I do the wrong thing I'll end up shutting the whole shelter down and doom us all." "You mean doom yourself." "Well that too, but you still never told me what you want to bring the elevator down for." "Are you gonna do it or not?" "Okay, what happens if I don't?" "I'll just get one of my own people to attempt it and hope they don't doom us all accidentally." "(Sigh) Well played Nina, you know I'm gonna do it now. Alright, let's go." You and Nina enter the Community Shelter computer room, where a couple of Nina's tech's are tinkering with the Central GZS computer. "What are you doing!? Give me that!" you yell taking a screw driver away from one of them. You recognize them both Todd and Charles if you remember correctly. "Oh man, its you! Okay, don't get mad!" Todd says backing off. Charles does like wise. "Sheesh, I'm not going to shoot you! I'm just trying to prevent you from fucking up what's basically our life support system! Its barely working right as it is! I swear GZS put us in a death trap down here." "Alright then do you need any help? Or should we leave you alone while you do this?" Nina asks. "What do you think fearless leader?" "Right. Come on let's go." Nina and the other two leave and you get to work. You first do a system scan to what's going on exactly. Wow, this place really is in some bad shape! You can see where some fixes have been made, but without a really skilled technician routinely checking in on stuff, things are never going to get better in this place, you shutter to think what would've happened with Ron still in control. This place might've very well lost all power. You're sort of glad you've begun to take an interest. MAYBE after you manage to get the elevator down you might just volunteer to upkeep this thing. You start delving into the inner working of the system; GZS really didn't want folks bringing the elevator down! You accidentally cut some lighting temporarily which causes you to hear some yelling from a distance. "Oh toughen up." You say to yourself. You continue to work and eventually you successfully override the safety protocol for the elevator and it starts its decent. "Ha ha, I rule." You say as you come out of the computer room. "Did you do it?" Nina asks. "Sure did. NOW are you going to tell me why we're bringing it down?" "You'll see for yourself. Leon, bring both of the perverts out, this has been a long time coming..." You notice that everyone's standing around right now, like some special event is going down. Leon eventually comes back with Ron and William in tow, and he looks like he roughed them up first so they'd struggle less. The elevator door opens up for the first time. "Put both of these...criminals in the elevator Leon." Nina says. Leon does so, with a lot of protesting and pleading from both, but another couple punches shut them up. Now you know why Nina wanted you to bring the elevator down...exile. If this was a year ago and they were throwing Ron out in the wasteland for his bungling of shelter management, you'd probably be the first to applaud. But what's going on right now is for the wrong damn reasons, and you know Nina's just being a petty bitch who's still harboring resentment for shit she really brought on herself with completely clueless judgment on her part. "Alright, Nina I know you're fucking upset because your make believe boyfriend turned out to be a fag, but that was a goddamn year ago..." "Shut up! This has nothing to do with that! This is about justice! These two are in violation of GZS guidelines carrying on with..." "Oh will you shut up about that shit? I'm starting to believe the entire GZS Corporation were a bunch of fucking loonies with too much time on their hands! They build these fucking shelters that break down all the goddamn time, with no way to get back to the surface and trapping everyone down here." "Why the hell are you defending these two? You've never been one to give a fucking shit before! You know I've never seen you pursue any women around here even if you were slightly appealing enough for any of them to have you. What are you gay too?" "(Sigh) No, Nina because if I was I'm sure you would've been the first one to want to spread your legs for me. Look I'm just saying this ain't fucking right okay?" "Oh and YOU'RE the fucking expert on what's right? You fucking KILLED a man! You fucking snuck a gun in here a shot somebody! So is the gun an extension of your manhood and you just couldn't live without it?" "Y'know Nina, you seem awfully pre-occupied with my sexual habits. Shit, if you want me to fuck you already just come out and say it and stop beating around bush. I'd say that's what you've been needing since you got in here anyway, because I haven't seen YOU with anyone either, that didn't turn out to be a complete fucking homo of course." Your remark is met with a long period of silence. The rest of the shelter population has been in absolute awe, this is probably the most exciting thing that's happened since you shot Elliot. Nina looks at you hard and recomposes herself. "Are you going to send the elevator up, or not?" > You send the elevator up You throw your hands up. "Alright, fuck it then. You're right. What the hell do I care? Shoulda been more careful Ron." You turn around and go back to the computer room to send the elevator up, you hear the pitiful begging from Ron, followed up by a couple of verbal abusive insults from Nina. Sheesh, she's turned into a real bitch. You better make yourself semi-useful so that vengeful attitude doesn't turn too much on you. You figure the best way to do that is to start monitoring and working with the GZS central computer, besides you need to look after this thing anyway. You don't feel safe with those other two idiots looking after it. "(Sigh) Looks like I'm working again." You say as you press the button to send the elevator up. Four years pass... You've been here five years and things have changed. The population has grown a bit, but not a lot since Nina's pettiness helps keep the population down. Nina, has thrown at least ten people into "exile". Anyone who only mildly displeases or disagrees with her, is often shown the elevator...unless they happen to be providing a useful skill like you. Nina really hates the fact that you're the only competent technician she has. You manage to keep things from breaking down constantly like they were, but only just the minimum. You purposely don't keep things running at maximum efficiency, since as long as you're needed you won't be in danger...of course there IS the fact you have a gun that also keeps you safe, but there's never any harm in having a couple of safety nets. The more the better. In fact, you wonder about losing one of your safety nets. Todd and Charles have increased in their technical knowledge over the years, and granted they still aren't as skilled as you; they might actually be competent one day. And they do a lot less back talking than you... You wonder if you should do something to ensure your position. Todd and Charles come in talking about some old movie they watched in the community living area. It would be really easy to just shoot them. Who would stop you? And what could anyone do about it? > You shoot them both Oh well, you were never that close to them anyway... You reach for your weapon, while Todd and Charles are still talking. You blast Charles in the neck making blood spurt all over Todd who stares in shock. Your next shot hits Todd in the head. With both of them dead you suddenly feel a whole lot better and go back to work. Naturally the sound of the shots brings people to come running. "OH NO! HE'S DONE IT AGAIN!" someone shouts and runs back out of the room. Pretty soon Nina and her goon Leon come in. Nina sees the two bodies on the floor and looks more pissed off than afraid of you. "What the fuck did you do that for?" "Just ensuring my position Nina, I'm sure you understand." "You fucking psychotic sonofabitch! You can't just go around shooting people!" "Oh don't EVEN be claiming moral superiority here Nina, you who throws people into Exile just because they're looking at you funny! In fact Todd and Charles deaths are your fault not mine, I can't help if I feel threatened that you might replace me and throw me out on to the surface as well." "Goddamn you, if you didn't have that gun or the only reliable tech, I'd throw you out of here so fast..." "Exactly! So I'm glad we're in agreement...it's all your fault." "What the...look, just because you got that fuckin' gun doesn't mean shit! I'M still in charge of this place!" You stand up and shoot Leon three times, he falls backwards smacking his head against a table before taking his last breath. Now Nina starts to get worried, you just shot her head goon who was intimidating everyone else. She doesn't have that leverage anymore. Of course right now she's not worried about staying in power, for the first time she's worried about you shooting her. You're up close and personal, threatening her with it. "See that Nina? What the fuck are ya gonna do now? Who are ya gonna get to throw people into exile? In case you haven't realized it yet, but I'M in fuckin' charge of this goddamn place! I just let you think you are! Now I suggest you take your ass outta here and try to figure out how you're gonna stay in power. Because I'm sure there's a lot of people not fond of you either, but unlike me they can actually do something about you. Guess I know who'll be the next exile! Ha Ha!" you then lick Nina's face. Nina backs out of the room in a hurry, leaving you alone with a room full of dead bodies. "Get up, you lazy fucks, we got work to do!" you say kicking Todd's body in a macabre joke to yourself. Perhaps stepping over the line of killing Todd and Charles with no provocation unhinged you a bit. And killing Leon certainly put you over the edge. Granted Nina's no saint, but what you're doing is just as bad. You kind of got a power rush, from your deeds today and you must say you really liked it. After making sure everything's working properly and even increasing the efficiency a bit, you decide to call it a day at the computer room. You leave stepping over the bodies that nobody's come to clean up yet. "Well, if you're still here, I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow." You say. You make your way back to your room. The corridors seem to be clear of folks, probably afraid of all the stuff that went down today so they're keeping their heads down. Good. Before you get ready to go to sleep, you get a knock on the door, you answer it, ready to shoot someone else again, but see Nina in her underwear instead. You're a little surprised. "Nina, what the hell are you doing?" unsure of how to respond. Nina begins to talk in a way you've never heard her speak before, seductive, yet vulnerable. "I was doing some thinking like you said back in the computer room...and you're right. I won't hold anymore power here anymore...I'll probably get thrown onto the surface like you said...unless I ally myself with someone who has power, and you're the only one with that kind of power." "I see, so what does this conclusion you've come to mean exactly?" Nina takes your hand and puts it on her body, starting with her firm breasts and moving it lower to the promised land. "It means I'm yours, in everyway imaginable, every night, any time, just please don't let anything happen to me." Nina then nuzzles up against you and begins kissing on you gently for further enticement in her desperate plan to save herself. It's a bit hard to resist her offer. In more ways than one. This reminds you of those prison movies where one of them offers to be the bitch in exchange for protection, except this is better because Nina's female! > You accept her offer You don't think about it, you don't answer; you let your actions speak. You pull her inside and close the door while she continues to kiss on you. As she kisses on your chest you begin pushing her head lower. She gets on her knees and begins servicing you like a common whore. After you reach your climax, she insists that she's not done and wants to show you even more of what she's capable of tonight. You and her fall back to the bed where she slips off her panties, mounts you and begins the second round. In the throes of love making while you're closing your eyes saying "Ride the horse baby! Ride the fuckin' horse!" you climax again, and when you open them, you get a nasty surprise of your own fucking gun being pointed at your face. "Raise your fuckin' hands motherfucker!" she says calmly. You comply. "Whoa! Hold on! Don't shoot! Weren't we just having fun?" "Maybe you were, but this was just a means to an end for me...I fully intend on scrubbing myself thoroughly after this, the fact that you came inside me twice sickens me." "Okay, just settle down Nina, I know you're a little upset about what I did earlier today, but I wasn't actually going to hurt you. Just got a little trigger happy that's all! I dunno I've been under a lot of stress lately! I..." "SHUT UP! You ain't talkin' your way outta this! This is about survival and being in control!" Sensing nothing else to lose you become threatening. "Oh yeah? Well fuck you! Because I'M still in fuckin' control then! Without me nobody knows how to run the goddamn computer the right way! I'm fuckin' necessary to your fuckin' survival, you stupid bitch!" "I'm nobody's bitch! Especially not yours!" Before you can retort to that remark, Nina blows your brains out.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic] Oh well, you were never that close to them anyway... You reach for your weapon, while Todd and Charles are still talking. You blast Charles in the neck making blood spurt all over Todd who stares in shock. Your next shot hits Todd in the head. With both of them dead you suddenly feel a whole lot better and go back to work. Naturally the sound of the shots brings people to come running. "OH NO! HE'S DONE IT AGAIN!" someone shouts and runs back out of the room. Pretty soon Nina and her goon Leon come in. Nina sees the two bodies on the floor and looks more pissed off than afraid of you. "What the fuck did you do that for?" "Just ensuring my position Nina, I'm sure you understand." "You fucking psychotic sonofabitch! You can't just go around shooting people!" "Oh don't EVEN be claiming moral superiority here Nina, you who throws people into Exile just because they're looking at you funny! In fact Todd and Charles deaths are your fault not mine, I can't help if I feel threatened that you might replace me and throw me out on to the surface as well." "Goddamn you, if you didn't have that gun or the only reliable tech, I'd throw you out of here so fast..." "Exactly! So I'm glad we're in agreement...it's all your fault." "What the...look, just because you got that fuckin' gun doesn't mean shit! I'M still in charge of this place!" You stand up and shoot Leon three times, he falls backwards smacking his head against a table before taking his last breath. Now Nina starts to get worried, you just shot her head goon who was intimidating everyone else. She doesn't have that leverage anymore. Of course right now she's not worried about staying in power, for the first time she's worried about you shooting her. You're up close and personal, threatening her with it. "See that Nina? What the fuck are ya gonna do now? Who are ya gonna get to throw people into exile? In case you haven't realized it yet, but I'M in fuckin' charge of this goddamn place! I just let you think you are! Now I suggest you take your ass outta here and try to figure out how you're gonna stay in power. Because I'm sure there's a lot of people not fond of you either, but unlike me they can actually do something about you. Guess I know who'll be the next exile! Ha Ha!" you then lick Nina's face. Nina backs out of the room in a hurry, leaving you alone with a room full of dead bodies. "Get up, you lazy fucks, we got work to do!" you say kicking Todd's body in a macabre joke to yourself. Perhaps stepping over the line of killing Todd and Charles with no provocation unhinged you a bit. And killing Leon certainly put you over the edge. Granted Nina's no saint, but what you're doing is just as bad. You kind of got a power rush, from your deeds today and you must say you really liked it. After making sure everything's working properly and even increasing the efficiency a bit, you decide to call it a day at the computer room. You leave stepping over the bodies that nobody's come to clean up yet. "Well, if you're still here, I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow." You say. You make your way back to your room. The corridors seem to be clear of folks, probably afraid of all the stuff that went down today so they're keeping their heads down. Good. Before you get ready to go to sleep, you get a knock on the door, you answer it, ready to shoot someone else again, but see Nina in her underwear instead. You're a little surprised. "Nina, what the hell are you doing?" unsure of how to respond. Nina begins to talk in a way you've never heard her speak before, seductive, yet vulnerable. "I was doing some thinking like you said back in the computer room...and you're right. I won't hold anymore power here anymore...I'll probably get thrown onto the surface like you said...unless I ally myself with someone who has power, and you're the only one with that kind of power." "I see, so what does this conclusion you've come to mean exactly?" Nina takes your hand and puts it on her body, starting with her firm breasts and moving it lower to the promised land. "It means I'm yours, in everyway imaginable, every night, any time, just please don't let anything happen to me." Nina then nuzzles up against you and begins kissing on you gently for further enticement in her desperate plan to save herself. It's a bit hard to resist her offer. In more ways than one. This reminds you of those prison movies where one of them offers to be the bitch in exchange for protection, except this is better because Nina's female! > Decline You push her away; you're not fooled by this act. "Nina, maybe your feminine wiles worked on Leon, but that shit ain't gonna work on me, I know what the fuck you're up to. You think I'm gonna let you distract me and let you grab my pistol while we're fucking? Not fucking likely!" Nina attempts to continue with her tactic and gets next to you again. "No, I'm serious. I want your protection. I wouldn't try to betray you..." "Oh, okay. You're serious eh? We'll see." You pull Nina in the room and lock the door. You then take your pistol, unload it, and then put it on the far side of the room. Nina's face looks little less "in the mood" now. "Alright, let's go then." You say. "Uh..." "What's the matter? Plan backfire? Too late for regrets now, now we can either do this voluntarily or INvoluntarily...and on the path I've been going lately I think you know that I'm fully capable of doing it. Pfft. I don't need a gun for you. So, what's it gonna be Nina?" Nina looks around, probably looking for something to throw at you, but she realizes that it would probably be in vain. She's obviously scared, but still tries to maintain some bravery in this hopeless situation that you've put her in. "Alright...but don't hurt me." Your increasingly chaotic personality changes again and you go up to Nina in a "loving" fashion. "Aw baby, I won't hurt you. Just know your place and I'll take care of you, I promise." You fuck Nina eight ways from doomsday that night. You can't speak for Nina, but you know YOU enjoyed yourself. The only absolute positive for Nina is that she IS now under your protection and nobody dares to do anything to her now. A few months pass and you keep expecting her to try to do something to betray you, but nothing happens. Either she's resigned herself to being "yours" or she's content on taking her aggression out on others. Her time with you doesn't make her any more compassionate to others, if anything she's gotten worse. She doesn't threaten people with exile anymore, now she just threatens them with you. Meanwhile you begin to slowly descend into a sociopathic personality. The only thing that prevents you from shooting everyone is the fact that you're getting off on their fear a lot more than if you killed them. You keep the computer room locked so only you may access it. You and her are pretty much running the place now. Five more years pass... The shelter is a living nightmare to most people. They live in constant fear that you or Nina will do something to them. Nina has developed a twisted sort of love for you, and while you have a certain fondness for her, you don't really give a shit about anything anymore, you barely even keep the computer working right anymore, now you just make sure your room is running properly. Nina is a permanent fixture at your place, so you don't even need to look after her room even if you were inclined to do so. While the people were living in fear of you, initially you were at least somewhat looking after their welfare, but now you aren't even doing that. Now the fear turns into hatred and resentment. The cowering worms have evolved to grow spines. They begin devising a plan. One day Nina gets into a cat fight with another woman, Greta. She beats her pretty badly, until her husband Fred steps in and begins beating the hell out of her. As is typical Nina runs off to tell you, at which point you come out of the computer room ready to shoot someone. Fred stands up to you, and says Nina was the one who started it and he was just protecting his wife as if his explanation means anything to you. "Duly noted. And I understand your view, but as you must be able to see I have a view of things as well...that's a nice kid you got there." You shoot Fred and Greta's son right before their eyes. Greta screams and Fred lunges at you, causing you to shoot him as well, but not before he tackles you to the floor. Seeing this as the perfect opportunity, a few other bystanders take advantage of the situation, your sole means of power and intimidation is taken from you, as you are kicked and beaten repeatedly. Nina is treated the same way. Suddenly the beatings stop and as you attempt to get up you feel the barrel against your head. You spit a glob of blood before continuing. "Ha ha, go ahead shit eater. Pop me and they'll be nobody to run the computer the right way." "We'll get by." a voice says. You then are shot twice in the back of the head. Nina's fate follows soon after. Your remaining ammo is used to shoot both of your dead bloody bodies until it's all gone.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, war] You throw your hands up. "Alright, fuck it then. You're right. What the hell do I care? Shoulda been more careful Ron." You turn around and go back to the computer room to send the elevator up, you hear the pitiful begging from Ron, followed up by a couple of verbal abusive insults from Nina. Sheesh, she's turned into a real bitch. You better make yourself semi-useful so that vengeful attitude doesn't turn too much on you. You figure the best way to do that is to start monitoring and working with the GZS central computer, besides you need to look after this thing anyway. You don't feel safe with those other two idiots looking after it. "(Sigh) Looks like I'm working again." You say as you press the button to send the elevator up. Four years pass... You've been here five years and things have changed. The population has grown a bit, but not a lot since Nina's pettiness helps keep the population down. Nina, has thrown at least ten people into "exile". Anyone who only mildly displeases or disagrees with her, is often shown the elevator...unless they happen to be providing a useful skill like you. Nina really hates the fact that you're the only competent technician she has. You manage to keep things from breaking down constantly like they were, but only just the minimum. You purposely don't keep things running at maximum efficiency, since as long as you're needed you won't be in danger...of course there IS the fact you have a gun that also keeps you safe, but there's never any harm in having a couple of safety nets. The more the better. In fact, you wonder about losing one of your safety nets. Todd and Charles have increased in their technical knowledge over the years, and granted they still aren't as skilled as you; they might actually be competent one day. And they do a lot less back talking than you... You wonder if you should do something to ensure your position. Todd and Charles come in talking about some old movie they watched in the community living area. It would be really easy to just shoot them. Who would stop you? And what could anyone do about it? > You Resist Man, you MUST be going half-nuts down here. You can't believe you just considered killing two people just on a paranoid delusion. You begin to start seriously analyzing your behavior. Okay, killing Elliot was in self defense. You didn't really have a choice. You were even defending this place, he didn't seem like he had good plans for the shelter and its inhabitants. Sending Ron and William into exile wasn't your fault...well not really. You were just obeying goddamn orders. You tried to talk Nina out of it when nobody else had the balls to stand up to her. She wasn't budging. What the fuck were you supposed to do? Shoot her, like you were just thinking about shooting Charles and Todd just a few moments ago? You just wanted to be fuckin' left alone, now you're roped into all this shit that you don't really want to be part of. You're NOT a bad guy, hell you're keeping this shelter from falling into ruin! "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME?!!?!" you yell. Charles and Todd look at each other wondering what you're talking about. "Uh...nothing. In fact we weren't even talking to you." Todd says. "Are you alright? You've been spacing out and day dreaming a lot lately." Charles adds as you suddenly realize your surroundings. "I...I gotta get outta this place." "Well, that's cool I mean you do seem like you need to lie down and rest or something. We can look after..." "NO Todd! I mean I gotta leave THIS place! The fuckin' shelter!" "You mean go to the surface? Are you crazy?" Charles asks. "I'm gettin' there and know I can't stay here any longer, or I'm gonna go fuckin' full blown crazy and shoot somebody else!" Charles and Todd both back off. "Hey on the other hand maybe leaving is a good idea!" You tell Todd and Charles you're going to pack some supplies and as much water as you can carry and that all you want them to do, is to send the elevator up for you. They don't have a problem with it, they tell you just to come back and let them know when you're ready. You go back to your room and load up on water and that crap they call "food" from the dispensers. Then you enter the medical room and begin taking medical supplies. When you think you're ready, you go back and tell Todd and Charles. Charles opens the elevator door and wishes you luck, Todd talks to you on your way there. "So you sure about this?" "Very sure, in fact I'm not sure why more people aren't wanting to leave with Nina bullying everyone." Speak of the devil. Nina arrives with her goon Leon. Shit, you were hoping to avoid this. "What's all this about me being a bully? And where the fuck do you think you're going?" Nina exclaims. "I'm leaving Nina, you of all people should be happy about it, I won't be around to piss you off anymore or threaten your power." "Well as much as I'd like you to leave, I admit you're needed here so I'm afraid I can't let you leave and even if you were to leave I can't just let you take vital shelter supplies! Go put those back and get back to your post NOW!" "Nina, you're not calling the fuckin' shots on this, I'm going! I'm not you're goddamn prisoner! And if the rest of you are smart the rest of these people would stop cowering before you. But hey what do I know?" You start to enter the elevator, and Nina makes another threat. "Don't you DARE walk away from me! You go in that elevator and don't expect to get to the top! I'll make sure it gets stopped mid-way through and leave it there for you to die a slow death!" You step back out and hang your head down. "(Sigh) You WOULD do that wouldn't you?" "You bet your ass I would!" "Well I guess I have no choice." You look up at Nina, raise your pistol and blast Leon twice in the chest and then point it at her. Onlookers slowly rise from their hiding spots "Holy shit!" Todd shouts. "Please don't kill me! Don't kill me!" Nina whines "Gonna be hard to intimidate Charles or Todd without your head goon now isn't it? In fact I'd say your power trip is just about over. Hey folks, consider this my last favor to all of you! Alright Todd, tell Charles I'm going up!" You enter the elevator and begin your ascent. Finally the elevator opens up to the same foyer you entered five years ago. Looks exactly the same, except the payment machine is now offline in fact the screen is cracked. There's a crowbar lying on the floor and the doors to the outside look like they were pried open. You see the outside world for the first time in five years. From where you're standing, it doesn't look too bad; maybe the devastation wasn't that great in this area. Somebody or possibly several people were here at one time attempting to get in, you laugh thinking about someone actually trying to get in this place. You exit the foyer and go outside, you see a bright light. It's the sun; you forgot how bright it could be. You see everyone's cars still parked here, well almost. You can tell that few of them must've been taken at one time; a lot have just been plain vandalized. Your van still looks the same though, nobody in their right mind would steal that thing, and it already looks vandalized. You wonder if it would still start, but you left your keys to it in the shelter. You doubt if it would though. "Meh, I need the exercise anyway." You cover your eyes and take a far view of your position. Nobody around, there's not even a sound except the wind; you're all alone as far as you can tell and this is what you missed. Once again you have peaceful solitude. You begin to walk...

"You know what Nina? I'm in a charitable mood. What do you need?" "We need you to hack into the central GZS computer system to bring the elevator down." "Wow, I didn't expect that one. What's going on?" "Can you do it?" Nina asks without answering your question. "Well in theory I might. I've fucked around with that computer when nobody was around in the past, but I've never really gotten into the inner workings of the system, and I've read as much as I can about the shelter itself. Damn thing's touchy though. I just worry that if I do the wrong thing I'll end up shutting the whole shelter down and doom us all." "You mean doom yourself." "Well that too, but you still never told me what you want to bring the elevator down for." "Are you gonna do it or not?" "Okay, what happens if I don't?" "I'll just get one of my own people to attempt it and hope they don't doom us all accidentally." "(Sigh) Well played Nina, you know I'm gonna do it now. Alright, let's go." You and Nina enter the Community Shelter computer room, where a couple of Nina's tech's are tinkering with the Central GZS computer. "What are you doing!? Give me that!" you yell taking a screw driver away from one of them. You recognize them both Todd and Charles if you remember correctly. "Oh man, its you! Okay, don't get mad!" Todd says backing off. Charles does like wise. "Sheesh, I'm not going to shoot you! I'm just trying to prevent you from fucking up what's basically our life support system! Its barely working right as it is! I swear GZS put us in a death trap down here." "Alright then do you need any help? Or should we leave you alone while you do this?" Nina asks. "What do you think fearless leader?" "Right. Come on let's go." Nina and the other two leave and you get to work. You first do a system scan to what's going on exactly. Wow, this place really is in some bad shape! You can see where some fixes have been made, but without a really skilled technician routinely checking in on stuff, things are never going to get better in this place, you shutter to think what would've happened with Ron still in control. This place might've very well lost all power. You're sort of glad you've begun to take an interest. MAYBE after you manage to get the elevator down you might just volunteer to upkeep this thing. You start delving into the inner working of the system; GZS really didn't want folks bringing the elevator down! You accidentally cut some lighting temporarily which causes you to hear some yelling from a distance. "Oh toughen up." You say to yourself. You continue to work and eventually you successfully override the safety protocol for the elevator and it starts its decent. "Ha ha, I rule." You say as you come out of the computer room. "Did you do it?" Nina asks. "Sure did. NOW are you going to tell me why we're bringing it down?" "You'll see for yourself. Leon, bring both of the perverts out, this has been a long time coming..." You notice that everyone's standing around right now, like some special event is going down. Leon eventually comes back with Ron and William in tow, and he looks like he roughed them up first so they'd struggle less. The elevator door opens up for the first time. "Put both of these...criminals in the elevator Leon." Nina says. Leon does so, with a lot of protesting and pleading from both, but another couple punches shut them up. Now you know why Nina wanted you to bring the elevator down...exile. If this was a year ago and they were throwing Ron out in the wasteland for his bungling of shelter management, you'd probably be the first to applaud. But what's going on right now is for the wrong damn reasons, and you know Nina's just being a petty bitch who's still harboring resentment for shit she really brought on herself with completely clueless judgment on her part. "Alright, Nina I know you're fucking upset because your make believe boyfriend turned out to be a fag, but that was a goddamn year ago..." "Shut up! This has nothing to do with that! This is about justice! These two are in violation of GZS guidelines carrying on with..." "Oh will you shut up about that shit? I'm starting to believe the entire GZS Corporation were a bunch of fucking loonies with too much time on their hands! They build these fucking shelters that break down all the goddamn time, with no way to get back to the surface and trapping everyone down here." "Why the hell are you defending these two? You've never been one to give a fucking shit before! You know I've never seen you pursue any women around here even if you were slightly appealing enough for any of them to have you. What are you gay too?" "(Sigh) No, Nina because if I was I'm sure you would've been the first one to want to spread your legs for me. Look I'm just saying this ain't fucking right okay?" "Oh and YOU'RE the fucking expert on what's right? You fucking KILLED a man! You fucking snuck a gun in here a shot somebody! So is the gun an extension of your manhood and you just couldn't live without it?" "Y'know Nina, you seem awfully pre-occupied with my sexual habits. Shit, if you want me to fuck you already just come out and say it and stop beating around bush. I'd say that's what you've been needing since you got in here anyway, because I haven't seen YOU with anyone either, that didn't turn out to be a complete fucking homo of course." Your remark is met with a long period of silence. The rest of the shelter population has been in absolute awe, this is probably the most exciting thing that's happened since you shot Elliot. Nina looks at you hard and recomposes herself. "Are you going to send the elevator up, or not?" > You grab and kiss her Something comes over you, maybe it was the tension or the hostility or maybe you were just horny, but you grab Nina and kiss her passionately. Fortunately for you, she returns the gesture. Now nobody knows what to think they all just stand around watching, they're probably just glad you didn't shoot anybody this time. William and Ron are still recovering from their beating and staggering in the doorway of the elevator. Nina stops you just for a moment to address everyone. "The exile is off, everyone go back to your lives...and YOU are coming with me!" then she starts pulling you back to her room. You and Nina relieve a lot of pent up sexual energy that day. A lot of things change after that... Four more years pass... You and Nina are an item now, which makes you somewhat more social by necessity (unfortunately) its not all bad though since she's the one that's still shelter leader and has to do all the major work. She does a good job hence the reason she's stayed in power. (Though not surprisingly William and Ron still vote against her, even if she did apologize) You're now in charge of maintaining the central GZS computer system which you insist on doing primarily by yourself, though Charles and Todd assist you sometimes. Eventually you manage to get the damn thing running at near maximum efficiency and nobody has too many problems with things breaking down anymore. The Shelter's population has grown a bit now; the only good thing about the shelter was the design to make allowances for a population growth. Of course now there's rug rats running around which means Nina appoints a person to start being a "teacher" of sorts for when they start getting bigger. Fortunately there are a couple of those already in the shelter. Kyle and Brenda are now the main medical practitioners, though you doubt if they'd be able to do open heart surgery, they're competent enough to keep people in relatively good shape and they keep trying to learn more whenever possible with the medical database provided and from books. (You still don't understand WHY you're the only competent tech though! "Gah! Read the books! Study the schematics! It's not difficult!" you're constantly saying and that's to Charles and Todd!) Then there's the elevator. After the near exile incident, it was still considered a good idea to have it accessible at all times just in case. What you eventually did was install a call button and did some re-wiring to do just that, though nobody has ever dared to actually go up to the surface. (And nobody's ever gotten thrown out either) You begin to wonder what the surface looks like now though from time to time. One night while lying next to Nina... "Hey Nina, you ever wonder what's on the surface now?" "What? It's probably an uninhabitable wasteland." "Well maybe, but we've been down here five years, it might look different." "Yeah, and it might not. Go back to sleep." "You know I just thought about it, everyone's vehicles are up there. I bet we could strip them down for parts or something, maybe some of them will even work. We could drive around and see what's going on else where." "What? I don't want you going up there! The elevator is a last resort thing just case something bad happens! And since when do you want to play great explorer? When you first got here you never left your room!" "I dunno, maybe your socialization has made me a little more extroverted." "Hmm, knowing you, you probably just want to get away from the increasing population here." "Ha ha, maybe. But I still wouldn't mind just taking a quick look outside, and to inspect the vehicles like I said." Nina now sits up. "No! I don't want you going up there! There's probably radiation still all over the place! I don't want you getting radiation poisoning or mutating or something!" "I'll be fine! I won't go too far, I just want to..." Nina grabs a hold of your hand. "NO! I don't want you going up there! It's not safe!" "Alright, alright, calm down. I won't go anywhere." "You promise?" "Yeah!" "Alright then, I don't want to hear anymore about it. Our life is here, not up there. I love you too much to lose you." The both of you lie back down, and Nina holds on to you tightly, putting her head on your chest almost in an effort to make sure you're not going anywhere tonight. Of course now you're lying awake REALLY wondering what the surface looks like. The next day you're working with Charles and Todd doing the usual mundane routine. They're talking about the same stupid movie they've watched over and over in the community living area. Shit you feel like you're at work again. The GZS central computer hasn't been giving you trouble for quite some time, and you know there's a big meeting going on in the conference room... Maybe you could sneak out and just take a quick look on the surface for awhile. You could let Charles and Todd look after the computer, you know they're capable of doing that. > You go up to the surface The temptation is too great, you have to go. You're just too curious not to. "Hey Todd, and Charles I think you guys are ready to monitor this thing by yourself. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and I'm going back to my room to take a short nap, don't tell anyone alright?" Todd and Charles just look glad that you're showing some confidence in them for once. "Yeah, sure it's cool. We won't tell anyone." Todd says. "Alright, I'll be back. Remember just monitor, don't fucking touch anything!" "Okay! Got it!" You leave the computer room and look around; the shelter almost seems eerily empty right now. Nina's no doubt got everyone's attention with her speech in conference room and all the kids are being looked after by someone in the children's room created a couple years back. You make your move. You run to the elevator, open it and get inside. You take a deep breath and press the button up, no time like the present to test it person. The elevator begins its ascent, you begin to wonder what you'll see above, you then check you pistol just in case what you see is unfriendly. Finally the elevator opens up to the same foyer you entered five years ago. Looks exactly the same, except the payment machine is now offline in fact the screen is cracked. There's a crowbar lying on the floor and the doors to the outside look like they were pried open. You see the outside world for the first time in five years. From where you're standing, it doesn't look too bad; maybe the devastation wasn't that great in this area. Somebody or possibly several people were here at one time attempting to get in. You take the crowbar and jam it in the elevator door so it doesn't close on you. There's no call button up here either since it was the payment machine that opened it up. You make a note that if you're able you'll have to install another one up here, and shake your head at the typical shitty GZS design of its shelters. They built this thing like a high tech mass coffin as far as you're concerned; you're convinced that if it wasn't for you up keeping and tinkering, everyone would've been dead due to shelter failure by now. You exit the foyer and go outside, you see a bright light. It's the sun; you forgot how bright it could be. You see everyone's cars still parked here, well almost. You can tell that few of them must've been taken at one time; a lot have just been plain vandalized. Your van still looks the same though, nobody in their right mind would steal that thing, and it already looks vandalized. You wonder if it would still start, but you left your keys to it in the shelter. You doubt if it would though. It occurs to you for the first time, the shelter might not exactly be "safe", granted its not safe by design, but you're thinking safe from bad people on the surface. Its possible these folks who passed through here stealing vehicles and vandalizing them might've just been trying to scavenge whatever they could find. The surface certainly can't be a comfortable place to live now. Maybe they were just looking for safety. Of course it's equally likely they were looters and other bad types. The shelter community isn't exactly a bunch of "warriors", besides yourself, Leon, and maybe a few others you doubt it they could handle a bunch of hardened surface raiders who've been living in the wasteland for years. Granted the elevator wouldn't allow for a large invasion of these types of people to take place, but it still makes you wonder if precautions shouldn't be taken. You need to get back though before everyone finds out what you've been doing. You rush back to the elevator (Throwing the crowbar back on the ground) and take it down hoping that nobody is wandering around when you exit the thing. When you arrive at the bottom, you half expect to see a crowd to meet you, but its dead silent still, you quickly head back to the computer room where Charles and Todd are talking about another movie. "Hey you're back. So what did you see on the surface?" Charles asks "Yeah were there mutants and shit?" Todd adds You're a little taken aback. "What?! How did you guys know?" "Sheesh! Come on, we're not the morons you think we are! You told us to monitor the computer system, and when you used the elevator, the computer mentioned the elevator was in use, we put two and two together. So how was it? Is it all desert and shit with people dressed in leather walking around?" You nearly slap yourself in the head for forgetting that little oversight on your part. "You watch too many movies Charles; no I didn't see any of that. At least not in the immediate area. And YOU two don't know I went up there and I mean you don't tell ANYONE! If Nina found out, she'd a pitch a bitch at me. She's already made it clear that she doesn't want me going up on the surface." "Don't worry we're not going to say anything. I dunno, I think maybe we should start going to the surface though, I mean this place can't support a growing population forever. Eventually we're going to have to start expanding out." Todd mentions. "Yeah, but that probably won't be for awhile, we a got a lot of room still. Lots of supplies too, and with us in charge the food and water dispensers are working perfectly now." Charles retorts. You roll your eyes "With us in charge" actually it was you who made sure the damn things wouldn't be breaking down on a regular basis. Still Todd makes a good point and it was something you were thinking about too. Maybe you should address this further with Nina after all her being the shelter leader she's the one that could enact a plan about it. Later that night, you're in bed with Nina wondering if its time to tell her she should think about expansion... > You let it go No, you better just keep it to yourself. You don't want Nina getting pissed at you, you know how high strung she's able to get sometimes. Besides the population isn't growing that much yet, there are plenty of supplies. If someone gets the idea that going to the surface is necessary, you're sure that someone else will bring it up. No point in you getting in trouble. You go back to sleep and just hope Charles and Todd keep quiet about your little excursion to the surface. A few weeks later you find out Nina's pregnant, now you start to wonder about having enough room in the future. You still don't bring it up, because you don't want to upset Nina anymore in her "condition". After Jack is born, the surface thing is still in the back of your mind, but now it's been so long, you just feel it's easier not to address it to Nina. So you don't say anything. Five years pass... Ten years have passed and the shelter is starting to get a little crowded. After all there isn't too much to do in the shelter that hasn't already been done, so sex is always (as it always has been) a popular way to pass the time. The result of that fun activity is too many babies. At this point now you say something to Nina about the surface, she's a little reluctant about the idea, but sees that it might be necessary. Unfortunately the rest of the council doesn't see it that way. Many of them have been here so long now that going to the surface is almost unthinkable. Despite great protest Nina overrides the council's advise and goes ahead with the plan anyway. This doesn't make her too popular. For one reason there's the decision of who is suppose to live on the surface, many people have full blown families now, they're a little unwilling to risk taking them up. So that means the single or childless people get the boot upstairs since they have less to "lose". That doesn't go over too well either. People start protesting loudly about being kicked out of their homes since they have as much right to stay too. One day, you're in the computer room at the time arguing with Charles who happens to be single, and giving you shit about Nina's new policy. Todd is pretty much indifferent to the idea since even though he's single he doesn't mind the idea of going to the surface, he just thinks you should've said something to Nina a long time ago to implement this plan sooner before everyone had a whole mess of babies. That's when you get the word. Kyle comes in to tell you that during one of Nina's speeches William (Who would've been one of those kicked up to the surface along with Ron) attempted to assassinate Nina with a scalpel he stole from the medical supplies. Leon managed to stop him with extreme prejudice by breaking his neck. But its not ending there, people are starting to riot and call for someone new to be the shelter leader. You're pissed off now, you storm into the conference room ready to kick everyone's ass who DARES to try to hurt Nina again. You fire your pistol into the air causing everyone to take notice. When you get over to Nina, she's pleading for you to not shoot anybody. The assassin was already taken care of; there isn't any more need for killing. While that might be the case that still doesn't solve the problem of everyone hating Nina (And probably you too as well) if she gets thrown out of her position, the next step might be to try to throw you guys out of the shelter. Part of this you feel is your fault, you could just roll the dice here or you could attempt to take the hard line approach. > You let democracy run its course "Alright Nina, we'll do it your way." You put your pistol away and take Nina back to your room for the rest of the day. Time goes by and Nina gets voted out. The position of shelter leader is eliminated and a council is formed instead. They begin to implement some changes. Nina's idea of having people live on the surface is squashed, the idiots in charge claim that everything will be all right and only in cases of extreme punishment will people be sent to the surface. The other change is that you are to work less on the computer system. And so it begins, they're trying to faze you out, so they don't need you anymore. And if they don't need you anymore they can kick you out of the shelter. (It looks like you are going to be the only people deemed "criminal" enough to be exiled to the surface) You saw this coming. That's the second time you anticipated events and did nothing, you could kick yourself. However there's still the question of them trying to MAKE you leave, you are the one that owns the gun after all and not one person has ever dared to try to take it from you. You decide to start working out on a regular basis just in case. That day comes soon, when a couple people attempt to wrestle it from you, fortunately you've been expecting that, you end up shooting them both dead. People are really starting to hate you now, threats are being made that if you and your family don't leave, then not you, but Nina and Jack are going to suffer the consequences. You respond with a similar threat of your own that if anything happens to either of them that you're going on a postal shooting spree starting with everyone's kids and won't stop until you're out of bullets, and then you'll fuck up the central computer that powers everything in the shelter. Given your past, people believe you too. People stop harassing you and Nina, but they still "shun" you 99 percent of the time. It doesn't matter though since as more years go by there's even less room in the shelter, and less supplies, now you're not even charge of the computer system anymore and it's barely being run properly by Todd and Charles. Things are starting to break down again. You're seriously starting to think about leaving the shelter voluntarily. "Nina, let's leave. Surely there's gotta be something better out there. I mean staying here is like waiting to die. We gotta get out of this place." "But what about Jack? I mean we're going into unknown territory here. Things could be dangerous up there." "It probably will be dangerous, but what the hell we've been living in an enclosed space with a bunch of people who hate us for years, and both experienced death attempts. Its not like we're strangers to it." "Well...shouldn't we at least stay until the very end?" "If we stay until the very end, we might not be getting outta here because by the time everyone's crammed in so tight with no more supplies or properly functioning equipment, everyone's going to be panicking and rioting. No, we need to leave while the getting is good. You and Jack start packing up all your vital stuff. I'll be loading up on some supplies that we might need. We still need to travel light, but make sure you and Jack bring as much water as you can carry." Soon you, Nina and Jack are ready to go. Everyone's wondering what you're doing and then all eyes are on you when you open the elevator door. You take a moment to address the huddled masses. "Well we're leaving now, I'm sure you're all as glad about it as we will be. Before we leave though I'd just like to say a few things. If any of you fucktards have a lick of sense you'll abandon this over priced coffin, and coffin is definitely an accurate term with how cramped it's getting in here. Hell the place is even starting to smell like one, with all the shower break downs. Its like watching something slowly die...hmm I think I saw that show already, when the world got blown to shit years ago. Don't need to see it again and the first time was more interesting anyway, so enjoy your downward spiral experience losers!" And with that you and your family leave the shelter. As you look out before the wilderness in front of you, you can only hope there's something else out there, but even if there isn't you know you'll make it somehow. You and your family begin to walk...

[Themes: sci-fi] No, you better just keep it to yourself. You don't want Nina getting pissed at you, you know how high strung she's able to get sometimes. Besides the population isn't growing that much yet, there are plenty of supplies. If someone gets the idea that going to the surface is necessary, you're sure that someone else will bring it up. No point in you getting in trouble. You go back to sleep and just hope Charles and Todd keep quiet about your little excursion to the surface. A few weeks later you find out Nina's pregnant, now you start to wonder about having enough room in the future. You still don't bring it up, because you don't want to upset Nina anymore in her "condition". After Jack is born, the surface thing is still in the back of your mind, but now it's been so long, you just feel it's easier not to address it to Nina. So you don't say anything. Five years pass... Ten years have passed and the shelter is starting to get a little crowded. After all there isn't too much to do in the shelter that hasn't already been done, so sex is always (as it always has been) a popular way to pass the time. The result of that fun activity is too many babies. At this point now you say something to Nina about the surface, she's a little reluctant about the idea, but sees that it might be necessary. Unfortunately the rest of the council doesn't see it that way. Many of them have been here so long now that going to the surface is almost unthinkable. Despite great protest Nina overrides the council's advise and goes ahead with the plan anyway. This doesn't make her too popular. For one reason there's the decision of who is suppose to live on the surface, many people have full blown families now, they're a little unwilling to risk taking them up. So that means the single or childless people get the boot upstairs since they have less to "lose". That doesn't go over too well either. People start protesting loudly about being kicked out of their homes since they have as much right to stay too. One day, you're in the computer room at the time arguing with Charles who happens to be single, and giving you shit about Nina's new policy. Todd is pretty much indifferent to the idea since even though he's single he doesn't mind the idea of going to the surface, he just thinks you should've said something to Nina a long time ago to implement this plan sooner before everyone had a whole mess of babies. That's when you get the word. Kyle comes in to tell you that during one of Nina's speeches William (Who would've been one of those kicked up to the surface along with Ron) attempted to assassinate Nina with a scalpel he stole from the medical supplies. Leon managed to stop him with extreme prejudice by breaking his neck. But its not ending there, people are starting to riot and call for someone new to be the shelter leader. You're pissed off now, you storm into the conference room ready to kick everyone's ass who DARES to try to hurt Nina again. You fire your pistol into the air causing everyone to take notice. When you get over to Nina, she's pleading for you to not shoot anybody. The assassin was already taken care of; there isn't any more need for killing. While that might be the case that still doesn't solve the problem of everyone hating Nina (And probably you too as well) if she gets thrown out of her position, the next step might be to try to throw you guys out of the shelter. Part of this you feel is your fault, you could just roll the dice here or you could attempt to take the hard line approach. > You take control You said nothing when you should have about the surface five years ago. That was your fault. You can do something now though. Something unpopular and drastic, but something that will better ensure the safety of your family. "Alright, I'm doing something I should've done a long time ago! I'M taking over!" "You? Says who?! What gives you the right?!" someone in the crowd shouts. You point your pistol in his direction. "THIS! Is what gives me the fuckin' right bitch! My willingness to allow you to continue your goddamn existence! Now here's how things are gonna go down." You begin to implement new changes whether anyone likes them or not, and most folks don't, but as usual you don't give a shit. You keep Nina's plan for the surface idea, one of the things you do is install another call button so the elevator can now go up and down without all the extra hassle of fucking with the computer anymore, you still don't know what the fuck GZS was thinking about with that idea of fucked up engineering. Parts of the shelter begin to get stripped along with some of the vehicles still remaining outside to create a few small homes. As for who is going up to live, you devise a random numbering system that everyone has to participate in...of course you've purposely rigged it so your family doesn't have to live up there. You've also rigged it so certain "useful" members don't have to live up there either making them a little more receptive to your changes. Charles and some others are suddenly pleasant with you again. Naturally everyone who does have to leave hates your guts. Your next step is to send out "explorers" to go find other communities to contact and trade with, because you desperately need more supplies. You pick Leon for the task, but Todd also volunteers. Brenda wants to go too, but you need all the people with medical knowledge here in the shelter. A few weeks later Leon and Todd come back from their explorations. They mention they came across a place called Ashtown. They say it's a small town, but willing to trade since they have routine problems with raiders and wouldn't mind a supply of fresh water for a change. Nina doesn't exactly approve of your methods, but she goes along with you, because she loves you and you're actually getting something accomplished. Five more years pass... Things have changed quite a bit, for better and for worse. You're running the shelter and its now above town called "Exile" basically by yourself and its putting you on edge each and everyday. One thing you didn't think about when finding a trading partner, was the fact that more weapons might be coming in. You now aren't the only person here with a gun. Which has lessened your intimidation value a bit, but you've countered a full blown rebellion by turning the "sheltered" and the "unsheltered" against each other. The people who live in the shelter are of course a lot more well off and healthier, while those living on the surface now suffer from the elements and the occasional mutant wolf pack attack. The haves vs. the have nots. It's an old tale that's been played over and over. A tale that resulted in Armageddon, and now apparently even beyond it. But even you cannot prevent an unstable powder keg from exploding forever and one day it does. Full blown rioting breaks out, you attempt to squash the rebellion, but it's not even a rebellion so much as it is full blown anarchy as people IN the shelter are attempting to kill you in the opportunity to attempt to take over. Damn, you really thought Leon was on your side too. You end up having to shoot your way out of the conference room, and make it back to your room where Nina is barricaded with Jake, she opens the door long enough to let you in. "We have to get out of here!" she screams. "It's over! They're gonna kill us!" > You stay and fight "NEVER! I'M the one who saved this shelter from its own idiocy! If it wasn't for me, this place everyone would probably still be living crammed together like fuckin' sardines! They WILL fall in fuckin' line! Unfortunately like most people under a dictatorship, they don't see you as a great savior but rather as the tyrant you are. Eventually a group of the surface people come down en-masse and overrun the place, you try to prevent more from coming by barricading yourself in the computer room and shutting off the elevator, but its too late, there are already a lot of them down here. There's no way you can fight all of them, you don't have the ammo and all your loyal guards are dead. You and your family are trapped and you know what they'll do to all of you if they take you alive, you look at Nina and Jack... Nope, you're still in control of some things around here. You take a deep breath and look directly into Nina's eyes. "Know that I always loved you...the both of you." you say sadly. Then without any further hesitation you shoot them both in the head. After wiping a tear from your eye, you start paying attention to the threats outside your door. "Get outta there you sonofabitch! It's over! You and your fuckin' family are through!" "Oh yeah?! We'll see who's fuckin' through you ungrateful bastards! If I'm going down, you're all coming to fuckin' hell with me! SCORCHED FUCKIN' EARTH BITCHES!" You start shooting the GZS central computer, lighting starts flickering and eventually you hit the right vital spot and the entire shelter's power goes dead. Immediately you hear some shouting from behind the door, and they begin blasting it open. Won't be long now. You fire at the first figure that you can barely make out in the darkness, then the rest open fire on you. You see the flash of multiple muzzle blasts and then fall to the ground near Nina's body. In your last moments, you grab onto Nina's hand and squeeze before darkness takes you.

You said nothing when you should have about the surface five years ago. That was your fault. You can do something now though. Something unpopular and drastic, but something that will better ensure the safety of your family. "Alright, I'm doing something I should've done a long time ago! I'M taking over!" "You? Says who?! What gives you the right?!" someone in the crowd shouts. You point your pistol in his direction. "THIS! Is what gives me the fuckin' right bitch! My willingness to allow you to continue your goddamn existence! Now here's how things are gonna go down." You begin to implement new changes whether anyone likes them or not, and most folks don't, but as usual you don't give a shit. You keep Nina's plan for the surface idea, one of the things you do is install another call button so the elevator can now go up and down without all the extra hassle of fucking with the computer anymore, you still don't know what the fuck GZS was thinking about with that idea of fucked up engineering. Parts of the shelter begin to get stripped along with some of the vehicles still remaining outside to create a few small homes. As for who is going up to live, you devise a random numbering system that everyone has to participate in...of course you've purposely rigged it so your family doesn't have to live up there. You've also rigged it so certain "useful" members don't have to live up there either making them a little more receptive to your changes. Charles and some others are suddenly pleasant with you again. Naturally everyone who does have to leave hates your guts. Your next step is to send out "explorers" to go find other communities to contact and trade with, because you desperately need more supplies. You pick Leon for the task, but Todd also volunteers. Brenda wants to go too, but you need all the people with medical knowledge here in the shelter. A few weeks later Leon and Todd come back from their explorations. They mention they came across a place called Ashtown. They say it's a small town, but willing to trade since they have routine problems with raiders and wouldn't mind a supply of fresh water for a change. Nina doesn't exactly approve of your methods, but she goes along with you, because she loves you and you're actually getting something accomplished. Five more years pass... Things have changed quite a bit, for better and for worse. You're running the shelter and its now above town called "Exile" basically by yourself and its putting you on edge each and everyday. One thing you didn't think about when finding a trading partner, was the fact that more weapons might be coming in. You now aren't the only person here with a gun. Which has lessened your intimidation value a bit, but you've countered a full blown rebellion by turning the "sheltered" and the "unsheltered" against each other. The people who live in the shelter are of course a lot more well off and healthier, while those living on the surface now suffer from the elements and the occasional mutant wolf pack attack. The haves vs. the have nots. It's an old tale that's been played over and over. A tale that resulted in Armageddon, and now apparently even beyond it. But even you cannot prevent an unstable powder keg from exploding forever and one day it does. Full blown rioting breaks out, you attempt to squash the rebellion, but it's not even a rebellion so much as it is full blown anarchy as people IN the shelter are attempting to kill you in the opportunity to attempt to take over. Damn, you really thought Leon was on your side too. You end up having to shoot your way out of the conference room, and make it back to your room where Nina is barricaded with Jake, she opens the door long enough to let you in. "We have to get out of here!" she screams. "It's over! They're gonna kill us!" > You run while you can "I'll go with that idea, but we're gonna have to be quick! Grab only the basic necessities. We're going to Ashtown." You and your family grab what you need and run for the elevator which fortunately is still on the bottom. A couple of guards still loyal accompany you. When you arrive to the surface you nearly get your head blown off as soon as the elevator door opens. Your guards shoot the would be killer and you all move on. Outside the shelter entrance it's even worse. There's fighting all over the place, and as soon as people see you, they all start trying to kill you. You urge Nina and Jack to run for the wilderness immediately. You fire back at the angry mob moving on your position, while running at the same time. The last of your guards go down. You run to attempt to catch up to Nina and Jack, which you do, but the mob is still chasing you. A bullet whizzes by your ear and then you hear a scream, its Nina. You turn around and think she's been hit, but it was Jack who was hit. She goes back to retrieve his body. Of course the mob isn't stopping. "NINA! NO!" you shout and fire at the mob, but killing a few of them doesn't stop them from shooting Nina, who falls by Jake's body. There's nothing you can do now. You continue to run until you eventually lose your pursuers. Then you weep for the loss of your family. You wander the wasteland for a bit, hoping something will attack you and put you out of your misery, but you never encounter a thing. Eventually you make your way to Ashtown. You get a couple of strange looks. A few people from Ashtown have heard descriptions of you, but never actually met you in person. "Aren't you..." "No, not at all, you got any work around in this dump?" The citizens of Ashtown have a few old generators that they need working at maximum efficiency, so that's what you work on. They're so grateful for your technical expertise, that they keep quiet about you being here, the next time a group of people from the shelter come to trade. Things don't look like they're going to well at the shelter from what you can tell though, word has it, that they're going to have to completely abandon the shelter itself and live completely on the surface now, apparently the shelter's computer system was severely damaged and is libel to shut down at any moment. The people are miserable and the baby mortality rate is high This gives you no joy however, you've lost more. Much more. The solitude you once cherished and have again now only feel like emptiness. One day during a raider attack you purposely go out and fight them along with all the other defenders. You get yourself shot in the stomach and you don't even care as you lie dying, anything to end your suffering.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic] The temptation is too great, you have to go. You're just too curious not to. "Hey Todd, and Charles I think you guys are ready to monitor this thing by yourself. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and I'm going back to my room to take a short nap, don't tell anyone alright?" Todd and Charles just look glad that you're showing some confidence in them for once. "Yeah, sure it's cool. We won't tell anyone." Todd says. "Alright, I'll be back. Remember just monitor, don't fucking touch anything!" "Okay! Got it!" You leave the computer room and look around; the shelter almost seems eerily empty right now. Nina's no doubt got everyone's attention with her speech in conference room and all the kids are being looked after by someone in the children's room created a couple years back. You make your move. You run to the elevator, open it and get inside. You take a deep breath and press the button up, no time like the present to test it person. The elevator begins its ascent, you begin to wonder what you'll see above, you then check you pistol just in case what you see is unfriendly. Finally the elevator opens up to the same foyer you entered five years ago. Looks exactly the same, except the payment machine is now offline in fact the screen is cracked. There's a crowbar lying on the floor and the doors to the outside look like they were pried open. You see the outside world for the first time in five years. From where you're standing, it doesn't look too bad; maybe the devastation wasn't that great in this area. Somebody or possibly several people were here at one time attempting to get in. You take the crowbar and jam it in the elevator door so it doesn't close on you. There's no call button up here either since it was the payment machine that opened it up. You make a note that if you're able you'll have to install another one up here, and shake your head at the typical shitty GZS design of its shelters. They built this thing like a high tech mass coffin as far as you're concerned; you're convinced that if it wasn't for you up keeping and tinkering, everyone would've been dead due to shelter failure by now. You exit the foyer and go outside, you see a bright light. It's the sun; you forgot how bright it could be. You see everyone's cars still parked here, well almost. You can tell that few of them must've been taken at one time; a lot have just been plain vandalized. Your van still looks the same though, nobody in their right mind would steal that thing, and it already looks vandalized. You wonder if it would still start, but you left your keys to it in the shelter. You doubt if it would though. It occurs to you for the first time, the shelter might not exactly be "safe", granted its not safe by design, but you're thinking safe from bad people on the surface. Its possible these folks who passed through here stealing vehicles and vandalizing them might've just been trying to scavenge whatever they could find. The surface certainly can't be a comfortable place to live now. Maybe they were just looking for safety. Of course it's equally likely they were looters and other bad types. The shelter community isn't exactly a bunch of "warriors", besides yourself, Leon, and maybe a few others you doubt it they could handle a bunch of hardened surface raiders who've been living in the wasteland for years. Granted the elevator wouldn't allow for a large invasion of these types of people to take place, but it still makes you wonder if precautions shouldn't be taken. You need to get back though before everyone finds out what you've been doing. You rush back to the elevator (Throwing the crowbar back on the ground) and take it down hoping that nobody is wandering around when you exit the thing. When you arrive at the bottom, you half expect to see a crowd to meet you, but its dead silent still, you quickly head back to the computer room where Charles and Todd are talking about another movie. "Hey you're back. So what did you see on the surface?" Charles asks "Yeah were there mutants and shit?" Todd adds You're a little taken aback. "What?! How did you guys know?" "Sheesh! Come on, we're not the morons you think we are! You told us to monitor the computer system, and when you used the elevator, the computer mentioned the elevator was in use, we put two and two together. So how was it? Is it all desert and shit with people dressed in leather walking around?" You nearly slap yourself in the head for forgetting that little oversight on your part. "You watch too many movies Charles; no I didn't see any of that. At least not in the immediate area. And YOU two don't know I went up there and I mean you don't tell ANYONE! If Nina found out, she'd a pitch a bitch at me. She's already made it clear that she doesn't want me going up on the surface." "Don't worry we're not going to say anything. I dunno, I think maybe we should start going to the surface though, I mean this place can't support a growing population forever. Eventually we're going to have to start expanding out." Todd mentions. "Yeah, but that probably won't be for awhile, we a got a lot of room still. Lots of supplies too, and with us in charge the food and water dispensers are working perfectly now." Charles retorts. You roll your eyes "With us in charge" actually it was you who made sure the damn things wouldn't be breaking down on a regular basis. Still Todd makes a good point and it was something you were thinking about too. Maybe you should address this further with Nina after all her being the shelter leader she's the one that could enact a plan about it. Later that night, you're in bed with Nina wondering if its time to tell her she should think about expansion... > You address it "Hey Nina get up." "Huh, what? Not tonight I'm tired." "No it's not that. It's about the surface. I think we need to start taking precautions and possible steps to expand above. The surface doesn't look that bad and..." Nina immediately sits up. "YOU WENT TO THE SURFACE? After I told you not to fucking do that?! YOU ASSHOLE!" "Calm down look you can see nothing happened to me. It doesn't even look like there was any bombs that landed anywhere near the area." "You could be radiated! The wind blows your know or have you forgotten? Or maybe it was a biological weapon! A disease could be floating in the air! You ever think of that? You could be infected with god knows what right now and spread it to the whole shelter! And our baby!" Another surprise. "Baby? You're pregnant?" "I just found out recently from Brenda a few days ago. I was going to tell you soon, I should've told you yesterday before you went to the surface, but I THOUGHT you respected my wishes! I can't believe you..." Nina gets up and starts pacing. She's very upset. You get up and try to fix this mess. "Look that just makes this idea even more vital, this place can't support all these people having babies. Even GZS mentioned in their delusional guideline statement it was the intention for people to eventually go back up to the surface and repopulate it with their families. We can't live like a bunch of crowded sardines; we should make preparations now, before it becomes a problem." "But it might be dangerous up there." "It probably won't be a picnic, but that's another reason why we should start getting ready now. The more we're prepared the better off we'll be to defend ourselves." "But the radiation..." "Look, the fact remains this place IS going to get overpopulated one day and people are going to have to start going up to the surface and any background radiation isn't going to disappear within that time. So we're just going to have to roll the dice and deal with that fact. Like I said I think we're okay, we're in a fairly isolated area away from an important major city. It's not like we're located on either of the coasts which were probably bombed the shit out of. And to the response to biological weapon thing, I highly doubt those were used, we were the only country that had the capability to launch such weapons from a long distance, except maybe Russia and I'm sure they probably just used nukes on us. Besides any virus or germ used in such a way would've died out long ago after it killed off the immediate population." Nina still doesn't look so sure, she still look worried about you. You hold Nina to reassure her. "If it'll make you feel better I'll actually go see Kyle and have him check me out. And you know how much I hate going to see doctors, especially one that's got all his knowledge from the GZS info files. I'll be here for a long time... for all of us." Your words seem to relax her a bit. She smiles and embraces you more closely. "Okay, I'll bring it up tomorrow...I still think it's funny that you of all people would be advocating going back to the surface." "Pfft! WE'RE not going to the surface to live. We're staying here! I just want get the rest of these fuckers out of the shelter and on to the surface! This place is too damn crowded as it is!" "Now that sounds more like you!" Nina laughs. Five more years pass... It's been ten years since you got here. It almost seems surreal to think about. Nina's still the shelter leader and you're still looking after the central computer. However a lot more things have changed, and just as predicted the population grew significantly, fortunately the implementations ahead of time allowed everyone to adjust with little problems. There was some apprehension at first when Nina first suggested the surface thing, but eventually people did see the point in it. Some even wanted to go up to the surface. The first step was to make a fully functioning elevator that people could go up AND down on without any problems. (Of course that job fell to you again) The next step was to create small "huts" with the cars outside as well as using current shelter material. This went quicker than expected as most people pitched in to help. Nina gave birth to a son Jack, and almost went back to her duties immediately, leaving you to do most of the "Mr. Mom" work. Nowadays you split your time between monitoring the computer and monitoring Jack. Thankfully Charles and Todd have learned a lot more now and don't require your supervision lessening your workload. Now its time for the next step. Nina and her council have been discussing plans for the even farther future. Contact with others and exploration. Within the past five years of the return to the surface, there has been contact with a few wanderers here and there, but they tended not to talk too much about their travels, they just mentioned that they'd seen other evidences of civilization, not all very civilized of course. Most of them just seemed to want to keep moving after doing a bit of trading and resupplying. One even hinted at some other "things" lurking around on the surface which didn't sound too promising. However, the shelter needs to start finding a stable trading partner, or at least a place to find more supplies, because the vital ones are starting to run out. Some people are asked to volunteer for this exploration mission It wasn't surprising Leon volunteered, but Brenda and Todd also volunteered. They were given as much supplies as they could carry and armed with the most "dangerous" things in the shelter. Leon and Todd carry some crowbars and Brenda carries a scalpel. You wonder if that's really going to be enough though. Chances are some people out there (Quite possibly a lot) are carrying guns on them. Todd and Brenda aren't going to be much good in a fight anyway, and while Leon is a fighter, even he can't stop a bullet. You're the only one with an "equalizer" around here. Maybe you should hand it over to them to give them a better chance. Though you really don't want to do that, for various reasons. > You hand over your pistol Before they leave you approach Leon, you and he still have a bit of history over the whole Elliot thing years ago. You're guessing he's not one to hold a grudge though since he's never sought any type of revenge or something. You only hope he isn't the patient type. "Alright Leon, I know you're the fighter of this group, and I know its most likely going to be dangerous up there, so I'm gonna do something totally out of character. I'm giving you my pistol and the two clips I have. It's in good condition, and it's only been fired once in ten years and I think you know when that was. Here you go." Leon takes the gun and looks at it with silence for awhile and then speaks. You think this is the first time you've actually heard him speak at all! "Y'know, I never did apologize for that shit ten years ago. I dunno what the hell I was thinking following Elliot; none of us who did do. You and Nina have done a better job of keeping this place running than anyone. Anyway, this is really generous of you, but I can't shoot worth shit, but I know someone who's going with us who used to practice regularly before the bombs dropped. Hey Brenda! I got something for ya!" Brenda comes over and her eyes widen when Leon hands her your pistol. "Aw yeah! This is what I'm talkin' about! I just hope I'm still a good shot; I've only been able to practice my aim by throwing this scalpel at a human diagram chart." "Yeah well don't practice too much with it, save your bullets for an emergency. I didn't know you were a gun person Brenda." You say. "You really need to get out of that computer room and socialize more!" "Shit, he barely socializes when he's in there with me and Charles." Todd adds. "But yeah I used to practice with my own when I had one. I was too afraid to try to sneak mine in here though...you know we've all always wondered about that, how DID you sneak this in?" Brenda asks. You just smile. "Hey I think you guys better get going." You say almost laughing "Oh come on! What a gyp! Alright, but we want to know when we come back!" Brenda says and then her, Leon and Todd enter the elevator wave goodbye to everyone and go up. You and everyone else go about your usual business. Nina mentions what you did. "Wow, that was really surprising for you, you've practically been walking around with that thing on you for ten years." "Yeah, well I can only hope I don't need it within the time that they come back...if they come back." "You just gave them an edge I'd say they've got more of a chance now. Don't be so pessimistic. They'll come back." "Yeah I hope. Bring Jack by the computer room later; I know you got some sort of meeting to go to." "Oh I can cancel that, it's not vital." "No its fine, bring him by. I've been indoctrinating him on the basics of the shelter computer. Someone's gotta run this thing when I'm gone." "Well alright then, hey don't worry. Everything will be alright." Nina kisses you and you exchange remarks about how you love each other before you make your way back to the computer room. You know its silly to think about it, but you can't help thinking about some worst possible scenario. You think about those three getting captured, tortured, and killed by a large group of psychotic bandits or something and then those same scum coming here because they found out the location after torturing them. You wouldn't have anything proper to defend your family with and the surface scum would probably have all kinds of weapons to kill everyone with. They'd start by killing everyone in immediate area of the entrance, then they'd come down in small groups with automatic weapons they undoubtedly have and start killing down here and worse... "HEY! Stop spacing!" Charles suddenly says to you. "Huh? Oh! Okay." You say snapping out your horrible daydream. "Man, what's wrong with you? You've been doing that the whole time you got here." "Nothing, just a little pre-occupied." You still don't really relax until Jack gets there, which allows you to think about less terrible things like teaching him about the computer system. When you're finished with your duties, you go back to your room, and Nina's there waiting for you looking as lovely as usual. You came in this place ten years ago with nothing except a bad attitude, now you got a lot more... You're not losing this. No way in hell. The next day you start visiting the community gym area. You know other people like Leon use it. Nina uses it to keep in shape, but you've never stepped foot in the place, you never really saw any reason to, its not like you were fat or anything, but you realize if some shit goes down you're going to have to be in better physical condition. You might not have a gun, but MAYBE you'll be quick and strong enough to take one away from somebody! You need a fucking edge. You begin training regularly. Nina's a little confused about this sudden change, but she's not at all displeased with it. You do this for the next six months with the constant theme running in your mind of how you'll be able to take out the first miscreant that steps through the elevator, grab his gun and... "Hey everyone, they're back! And they're in a fuckin' car with a shitload of stuff!" someone shouts while you're training. You immediately stop and head for the surface. When you arrive you see Leon unloading some stuff out of a beat up, but functioning car, he's got a patch on his eye now and his face is scarred, but otherwise looks okay. Brenda comes up to you and tosses you your pistol back, along with three clips! "Came in handy, but I think I'll be using THIS from now on!" Brenda pats an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder. "Hey, you look different, you been working out?" "Um, something like that. So where did you get all this stuff?" "Most of it we got from this small place called Ashtown that's agreed to trade with us, we'd found it after about a week of wandering around, we were there negotiating with them and they wouldn't trust us at first until the place suddenly got attack by a bunch of raiders. We helped defend the place from a one month siege! We also stuck around to help heal the wound. After that, they decided we were okay...that was at sort of a high cost though. Todd didn't make it. He got killed in the fight. Tried to save him, but it was already too late by the time I got there." Brenda explains. "Damn...he was an alright guy...so is this fight where Leon got all scarred up?" you say as he approaches. "No, that happened after we left Ashtown, we went exploring some more, we found another place a lot less friendly called The Combine. Trust me; we want to AVOID that place. We barely got out of there; we were basically prisoners. That's why we were gone for so long. However, that's where we got this car. We stopped back at Ashtown to pick up some supplies and came back here." Leon answers, then he looks at you with his remaining eye. "Damn, you been working out?" You nearly start laughing at your situation, here you were training and thinking up every possible worst case scenario that was going to befall the shelter, while Brenda and Leon were actually engaged in some worst case scenarios. You're just glad that nothing did happen to the shelter, but you certainly feel less naked now that you have your "equalizer" back! Life in the shelter continues. Ten more years pass... You've been here twenty years and as always there are more changes. More people have moved to the surface, pieces of the shelter have been dismantled and started to be used to build a real town along with supplies from Ashtown, and scavenging from other places. Still, the shelter is needed to ensure at least a clean water supply so you're still running it. Nina's position has changed though. Since the shelter doesn't contain a majority of the population anymore, her position is more of a community council person and her title is no longer "shelter leader". The place has been given a name now; New Haven One current problem is to keep the place together, but with the younger population, they're less likely to want to stay. Ever since Leon came back with a giant mutant wolf head on one of his exploration trips, they all want to be "explorers" too. Your son Jack being one of those young people. Nina of course doesn't want him to go anywhere (You're reminded of when she didn't want you to go to the surface) and you can't say you're too fond of the idea either, but what can you do? > You increase his work time with you The longer you can keep an eye on him the less likely he'll be sneaking off, maybe you can drum some discipline into his head again too, because apparently he lost some of it. You go to find Jake who's hanging around the edges of town as usual. "Hey Jack come here!" "Aw Dad, I don't feel like working with you in the boring ol' computer room right now!" "Boy, you better get your ass to that computer room!" Jack follows you in defeat before you embarrass him anymore in front of his friends. When you arrive in the computer room Charles is there. Jack slumps down in a chair next to a console. "Oh hey there, I didn't expect to see you both here today." Charles says unsure of how he's suppose to respond to this situation." "Yeah, well Jack needs to spend some extra time down here, he's been slackin' lately." "I ain't been slackin'!" Jake protests. "You've been slackin'! Now check the power systems!" "(Sigh) Fine! I dunno why we have to do this for; there hasn't been a problem with this thing for years." "Yeah, and it's gonna STAY that way too! The only reason why we haven't had problems is because I'm on top of things all the time! If I let this thing go to shit, no more clean water supply for us! Would you like that? Drinking piss water?" "I know I sure wouldn't." Charles mumbles. "Damnit Dad this is boring! I don't wanna be doing this shit! I wanna go out an explore the world like Leon!" "Like Leon huh? In case you're blind, you'll notice Leon's got a missing eye, a missing left ear and pieces of his fingers. That's what the rest of the world does to you, if you slip up just slightly and nobody's perfect. Look at Brenda, she's the best marksperson in this place and she got herself shot in the leg which stopped her from going out. She now walks with a permanent limp! Is that what you want?" "God you're a fucking control freak Dad! I thought Mom was bad, but..." Over the line. That one incurred Jack a wrap to the head. "DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT YOUR MOTHER THAT WAY!" you bellow as Jack holds his head. "Um...I think my shift is over, see ya later!" Charles says getting out the way of this family squabble. The rest of the time in the computer room is silent. Jack doesn't say anything, he just sullenly does what you tell him. The next day he does the same thing, and the day after that, and so on, until one day he doesn't. Mainly because he's run away with some of his friends and stolen Leon's beat up car. Nina is very distraught along with many other parents. The only thing is that Leon said it doesn't have that much gas in it because he hasn't been able to come across any lately. You, some of the other fathers and Leon go looking for all of them. You first head towards Ashtown thinking that maybe they just went there to be "a little rebellious". You come across the car, which they obviously abandoned, and continue to Ashtown with hope that Jack still headed that way, but no such luck. When you arrive, the people their say they haven't seen anyone come by in weeks. Days go by and at one point Leon thinks he's got a lead, but then the worst happens. You're attacked by crazed cannibals and their mutant dogs. You immediately tag one of the cannibals and duck behind a rock. But the cannibals also have guns and while the other fathers have weapons too, they haven't been practicing with them like you and Leon have. They're a lot better shots, you see a few of your fellow parents go down for the count, while the dogs finish them off. Leon holds his own, and you and he manage to take out all the cannibals, but it's the fucking dogs that give you trouble... Three of them leap onto Leon, knocking his weapon from his hand, he sticks his thumbs in the eyes of the one that tried to take out his throat, but that still doesn't stop it from biting him in the face before it dies, one is chewing on his chest though and the other one is going to town on his crotch. You'd try to help him, but you got one that came out of nowhere that rips into your leg. You shoot the damn thing in the head three times before it lets go. You then struggle to stand and shoot the other couple dogs, but its too late, Leon's a mangled corpse. "FUCK!" you shout in frustration looking at the dead all around you. You collapse to the ground and put your hands on your face thinking about how this got all fucked up and then that's when you notice the smoke coming from the cannibal camp and the smell of burning flesh. Your heart sinks and you drag yourself over for a closer look. "No...don't let it..." you to yourself. You see some bones and clothing. Some on it looks like that of some of the other parent's kids. You don't see anything of Jack's. You don't know if he got away, or they ate him and threw the clothing elsewhere or what. Somehow it doesn't really matter; you haven't found him, so for all intents and purposes he's dead or at best; missing. After grabbing all the remaining water you can from the others you make the long painful journey back to New Haven, thinking about what you're going to tell everyone. Much has been lost this day. When you get back you collapse again, this time you feel a fever. Brenda and Kyle immediately see to you. It's your leg, its festering and infected from the mutant dog bite. Nothing can be done; you get it chopped off at the knee. The only good thing is you were unconscious at the time. After you get over the initially shock of waking up to a peg leg, you only have more bad news for everyone, especially Nina. However, many lives of husbands and children have been lost and someone MUST take the blame. And that someone happens to be you just because you happened to be the lucky one to come back alive. Nina is voted out of her position on the council for some made up reason which you protest loudly, but it hardly bothers her since she's been preoccupied ever since you came back with the bad news. She holds on to sanity by making herself believe that Jack DID escape and is somewhere out there wandering the world. They can't get rid of you so easily since even with Charles around you're still the only guy who can keep the computer system running everything working right, but most of the population sure gives you a hard time. If you weren't walking around on a fucking peg, you'd start kicking some ass. As a few years goes by, finally you get sick of the shit and say: "Fuck it. Let 'em rot. They can run this shit themselves, this place is getting dead anyway. Nina, we're going to Ashtown." "Ashtown? But that's so far away! And you're walking on that peg!" "I didn't mean go right this minute or by ourselves, I meant the next trade caravan from Ashtown that comes by we're tagging along with it." "We're just going to pick up and leave? Just like that? After all these years?" "Hey, I don't like it either, but its obvious all of our efforts weren't ever appreciated here. Yours OR mine. Since they hate us so much, then let 'em live here without our help. There's nothing for us here now. All we got left is each other." Nina agrees and holds you tightly while telling you how much she loves you. When the Ashtown caravan comes around you and Nina have all your stuff packed. They're only too happy to take you with them, since Ashtown has been trying to get a couple old generators working to maximum efficiency and they heard you were good at that sort of thing. You spend your remaining life in Ashtown. It isn't as secure in safety as it was in New Haven, but at least you had Nina to make it equally as comfortable.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious, war] Before they leave you approach Leon, you and he still have a bit of history over the whole Elliot thing years ago. You're guessing he's not one to hold a grudge though since he's never sought any type of revenge or something. You only hope he isn't the patient type. "Alright Leon, I know you're the fighter of this group, and I know its most likely going to be dangerous up there, so I'm gonna do something totally out of character. I'm giving you my pistol and the two clips I have. It's in good condition, and it's only been fired once in ten years and I think you know when that was. Here you go." Leon takes the gun and looks at it with silence for awhile and then speaks. You think this is the first time you've actually heard him speak at all! "Y'know, I never did apologize for that shit ten years ago. I dunno what the hell I was thinking following Elliot; none of us who did do. You and Nina have done a better job of keeping this place running than anyone. Anyway, this is really generous of you, but I can't shoot worth shit, but I know someone who's going with us who used to practice regularly before the bombs dropped. Hey Brenda! I got something for ya!" Brenda comes over and her eyes widen when Leon hands her your pistol. "Aw yeah! This is what I'm talkin' about! I just hope I'm still a good shot; I've only been able to practice my aim by throwing this scalpel at a human diagram chart." "Yeah well don't practice too much with it, save your bullets for an emergency. I didn't know you were a gun person Brenda." You say. "You really need to get out of that computer room and socialize more!" "Shit, he barely socializes when he's in there with me and Charles." Todd adds. "But yeah I used to practice with my own when I had one. I was too afraid to try to sneak mine in here though...you know we've all always wondered about that, how DID you sneak this in?" Brenda asks. You just smile. "Hey I think you guys better get going." You say almost laughing "Oh come on! What a gyp! Alright, but we want to know when we come back!" Brenda says and then her, Leon and Todd enter the elevator wave goodbye to everyone and go up. You and everyone else go about your usual business. Nina mentions what you did. "Wow, that was really surprising for you, you've practically been walking around with that thing on you for ten years." "Yeah, well I can only hope I don't need it within the time that they come back...if they come back." "You just gave them an edge I'd say they've got more of a chance now. Don't be so pessimistic. They'll come back." "Yeah I hope. Bring Jack by the computer room later; I know you got some sort of meeting to go to." "Oh I can cancel that, it's not vital." "No its fine, bring him by. I've been indoctrinating him on the basics of the shelter computer. Someone's gotta run this thing when I'm gone." "Well alright then, hey don't worry. Everything will be alright." Nina kisses you and you exchange remarks about how you love each other before you make your way back to the computer room. You know its silly to think about it, but you can't help thinking about some worst possible scenario. You think about those three getting captured, tortured, and killed by a large group of psychotic bandits or something and then those same scum coming here because they found out the location after torturing them. You wouldn't have anything proper to defend your family with and the surface scum would probably have all kinds of weapons to kill everyone with. They'd start by killing everyone in immediate area of the entrance, then they'd come down in small groups with automatic weapons they undoubtedly have and start killing down here and worse... "HEY! Stop spacing!" Charles suddenly says to you. "Huh? Oh! Okay." You say snapping out your horrible daydream. "Man, what's wrong with you? You've been doing that the whole time you got here." "Nothing, just a little pre-occupied." You still don't really relax until Jack gets there, which allows you to think about less terrible things like teaching him about the computer system. When you're finished with your duties, you go back to your room, and Nina's there waiting for you looking as lovely as usual. You came in this place ten years ago with nothing except a bad attitude, now you got a lot more... You're not losing this. No way in hell. The next day you start visiting the community gym area. You know other people like Leon use it. Nina uses it to keep in shape, but you've never stepped foot in the place, you never really saw any reason to, its not like you were fat or anything, but you realize if some shit goes down you're going to have to be in better physical condition. You might not have a gun, but MAYBE you'll be quick and strong enough to take one away from somebody! You need a fucking edge. You begin training regularly. Nina's a little confused about this sudden change, but she's not at all displeased with it. You do this for the next six months with the constant theme running in your mind of how you'll be able to take out the first miscreant that steps through the elevator, grab his gun and... "Hey everyone, they're back! And they're in a fuckin' car with a shitload of stuff!" someone shouts while you're training. You immediately stop and head for the surface. When you arrive you see Leon unloading some stuff out of a beat up, but functioning car, he's got a patch on his eye now and his face is scarred, but otherwise looks okay. Brenda comes up to you and tosses you your pistol back, along with three clips! "Came in handy, but I think I'll be using THIS from now on!" Brenda pats an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder. "Hey, you look different, you been working out?" "Um, something like that. So where did you get all this stuff?" "Most of it we got from this small place called Ashtown that's agreed to trade with us, we'd found it after about a week of wandering around, we were there negotiating with them and they wouldn't trust us at first until the place suddenly got attack by a bunch of raiders. We helped defend the place from a one month siege! We also stuck around to help heal the wound. After that, they decided we were okay...that was at sort of a high cost though. Todd didn't make it. He got killed in the fight. Tried to save him, but it was already too late by the time I got there." Brenda explains. "Damn...he was an alright guy...so is this fight where Leon got all scarred up?" you say as he approaches. "No, that happened after we left Ashtown, we went exploring some more, we found another place a lot less friendly called The Combine. Trust me; we want to AVOID that place. We barely got out of there; we were basically prisoners. That's why we were gone for so long. However, that's where we got this car. We stopped back at Ashtown to pick up some supplies and came back here." Leon answers, then he looks at you with his remaining eye. "Damn, you been working out?" You nearly start laughing at your situation, here you were training and thinking up every possible worst case scenario that was going to befall the shelter, while Brenda and Leon were actually engaged in some worst case scenarios. You're just glad that nothing did happen to the shelter, but you certainly feel less naked now that you have your "equalizer" back! Life in the shelter continues. Ten more years pass... You've been here twenty years and as always there are more changes. More people have moved to the surface, pieces of the shelter have been dismantled and started to be used to build a real town along with supplies from Ashtown, and scavenging from other places. Still, the shelter is needed to ensure at least a clean water supply so you're still running it. Nina's position has changed though. Since the shelter doesn't contain a majority of the population anymore, her position is more of a community council person and her title is no longer "shelter leader". The place has been given a name now; New Haven One current problem is to keep the place together, but with the younger population, they're less likely to want to stay. Ever since Leon came back with a giant mutant wolf head on one of his exploration trips, they all want to be "explorers" too. Your son Jack being one of those young people. Nina of course doesn't want him to go anywhere (You're reminded of when she didn't want you to go to the surface) and you can't say you're too fond of the idea either, but what can you do? > You have a talk with him You figure you need to address this now; you go to find Jack who's hanging around the edges of the town as usual. "Hey Jack I need to talk to you." "Aw Dad, I don't feel like working with you in the boring ol' computer room right now!" "Hey watch your mouth! And it's not that anyway. It's about all the talking you've doing lately about exploring the wasteland like Indiana fuckin' Jones." "Who?" Jack genuinely asks seeing as he's never heard of the movie being born after the bomb and all. "Indiana...look never mind that, your Mom worries night and day that you're going to go running off and get yourself killed." "I'm not gonna run off...I mean I thought about it...but I just...I dunno..." "Well spit it out boy!" "It gets too boring here sometimes! I just wish I could go and explore the world like Leon!" "Yeah, well if you haven't noticed, Leon's missing an eye, his left ear and a couple of pieces of his fingers, not to mention he's all scarred up and complains about pain all the time." "Well I'D be more careful!" Jack boasts. "Hmmm, that's what everyone says. I know you and your friends think all the stories are exciting, but if you'd really paid close attention you'll notice all damn danger as well. You know we've lost a few people doing that adventure shit, and the only one who still does it is Leon. Even Brenda stopped going out after she got shot in the leg. She was lucky she managed to escape. The world isn't a safe place Jake. Never has been. And the way it is now, it's even more dangerous." Jack looks at you. "We can't stay here forever Dad." You see it in his eyes that he's going to do what he wants and you aren't going to be able to stop him. You don't like it, and maybe you can't stop him, but you can improve his odds. "Alright son, you gather all your little friends and meet me back here in a couple hours. Don't go anywhere! You hear me?" "Okay, okay." You go and find Nina and explain the situation, she's of course completely opposed to the idea and it takes some reasoning, but eventually she sees you have a point, even if she doesn't like it. You tell her to go inform the other parents; in the meantime you go and fetch Brenda and Leon. You meet Jack who's standing around with a bunch of his other friends and most of the other young people in town. Brenda and Leon are behind you. "Alright Jack, if exploration is what you want, you ain't gonna do it unprepared. You all know these two. Brenda here is going to teach all of you how to shoot properly. We've got plenty of guns and ammo now and she's the best marksperson here. Before ANY of you people go out anywhere you better know how to aim your damn weapons. After a month of that, then you'll be going out, with Leon. He'll be able to give you on the job training with the whole explorer thing. In time, you'll be able to go out by yourselves. Now before any of this goes down, all of you are probably gonna have to discuss this with your parents or some shit, so you're all gonna have to work out your own personal lives yourselves, but Jack you've got a reluctant okay from both me and your mother." "...I dunno what to say, I mean thanks Dad." Jack smiles. "What you can do is pay attention to Brenda and Leon's instructions and not get yourself killed! And here, take this. It's saved more than a few lives." You say and hand your pistol to Jack. And so begins the training. In time most of them go off to pursue their adventures elsewhere, naturally the world being what it is now, some don't return, but for those that do return most come back to stay permanently. Just a little bit of the taste of the outside world is all most of them needed to see it's a lot better to stay in New Haven! When Jake returns he's ready once again to follow in your footsteps. "See Nina, I knew my idea would work. Let 'em go out in the world for a little while and they'll come to appreciate the comforts of this place! Might be boring here, but at least you don't have some motherfucker with a Mohawk shooting at you because he likes the boots you got on. They just needed some training first to give them a chance to survive." "Well I'm just glad Jack's alright." As you and Nina breathe a sigh of relief that Jack's home in one piece, little did you realize that your idea set a major plan in motion. In time, the New Haven Militia is created. Thirty ... Fifty years have gone by you briefly realize as you look at the old shelter entrance; it's hardly ever used anymore. Extensive changes have been made to it so it's rarely necessary to go down there anymore, only Jack and few other technicians go down there to check on the water purification system now in place. Practically everything else has been dismantled and used to help build up the surface of New Haven. New Haven has grown far beyond the shelter that you entered so long ago. You don't think you ever saw this happening. Nobody did. The place is very large now; populated with the children of those you entered the shelter with as well as refugees from other places. Mostly everyone you originally knew is gone, not that you were ever one to greatly socialize, but still you do miss people like Leon, Brenda and Charles, hell you even miss Ron. You especially miss your beloved wife Nina. It's been two years since she died. You miss her everyday. Jack comes by with his family to keep you company sometimes, but nowadays all you want is solitude. You enter the shelter and go down the elevator. You probably aren't supposed to be down here, but you don't care, you're going to live in the past for awhile. You walk around the practically gutted shelter and remember all the things that happened. Here's where you first met Nina, you never thought you'd end up marrying and having a child with her someday, but even though you were annoyed by first impressions, (As she probably was with you!) you always thought she was beautiful. Here's where you shot Elliot. To this day you know you did the right thing. There's no doubt in your mind that things would've been very different had he taken over. Here's where Jack was born. You remember Kyle having a hell of a time getting him to come out. He always could be a little stubborn. You just remembered you're supposed to have a check up appointment with Kyle's daughter Shelia. It can wait though; you're busy right now. Ah now here it is. Your old room. You remember spending a majority of your initial time here. Still has the shelter manual on the table. You insisted that this room remain intact when the shelter was in the final stages of being stripped. You always knew you'd return here some day. You lie down on the bed and enjoy the peace and quiet from the surface. Slowly you begin to get drowsy. "Ahhh, so peaceful with no other people around...I just wish Nina was here with me to enjoy it too..." you say to yourself as you drift off to sleep. > Epilogue 100 years later... "What we're asking is reasonable sir. GZS just wants to use New Haven in a commercial to show the excellence of their products." "Are you fuckin' kidding me? I heard the stories passed down from my great-great-great grandfather who looked after the GZS central computer personally! And in his own immortal words: "GZS were a bunch of fuckin' loonies with too much time on their hands, who built inferior shit!" Zachary yelled. "Sir! With all due respect this so called inferior product kept your ancestors alive! I think you at least owe GZS gratitude for your current existence!" "I don't owe GZS shit! It was people like my ancestors who ensured my current existence! THEY built New Haven through hard work not GZS! Now get outta my office!" "Fine! You could've made a lot of money from this venture! We'll just ask Last Chance instead!" "Last Chance? THERE? Okay. Good luck on dealing with the xenophobic government. Last I heard they'd completely closed themselves off to the outside world and were shooting anyone who came near the walls of the place...hmm, maybe you should go there after all." GZS negotiator storms out of the room in defeat, while Zachary's wife Carol came in. "Lemme guess, you turned down another GZS deal." "Of course! Besides we're doing alright." "But you know they were offering a lot of money this time, it could really help New Haven." "Carol, I love you. You know I do, but you're from Ashtown you'll never understand." "Here we go..." Carol says hearing that remark from her husband many times before just like she was about to hear the same follow up speech before. "Those motherfuckers think they can waltz in after a hundred and fifty years and take the glory that my ancestors earned? No fuckin' way. My family personally was responsible for most of the initial laws and practices still used to this day! Great-great-great grandma Nina was the FIRST shelter leader! It was her guidance and her husband's technical knowledge that got the shelter through those first few hard years! Why I even heard about how he rebuilt the GZS computer from scratch because the damn thing was faulty to begin with! The both of them were pioneers!" Zachary points out of his window to a nearby hill. "They both lie next to each other buried on that hill over there and I'll be damned if I'll let GZS cheapen their sacrifices or the sacrifices of ANY of my people!" "I gotta say, that speech never loses its zeal, even if you've said it over and over to everyone." "It doesn't lose its zeal, because it's something I believe. I'm not just talking out my ass when I say that shit. I'm not selling this place out to GZS for some money. We'll get by like we always have; hard work." "Well that's one thing you've always been good at hard work. I guess that's what makes you one of the few excellent politicians." "It's in the genes Carol. Politicians and technicians, that's what people in my family have always eventually become...well except for great-grandpa Henry. He became an explorer and kept insisting on calling himself Arizona or something...I dunno. They said his parents let him watch too many old movie vids. Nevertheless he always still called New Haven his home." Zachary looked out at the same hill he pointed to a few moments ago and fell into silence. Carol smiled a bit, she knew Zachary was very proud of his heritage, perhaps a little bit misguidedly so, but still, it made him a better person who tried to do the right things, as well as someone she was glad she married. Even if he did go off on a tangent every now and then about how New Haven saved Ashtown's "ass" from The Combine invasion forty five years ago. "You're right Zach, so are you ready to go to this dinner function? As President of New Haven you're kind of expected to be there you know." "Huh? Oh yeah, I'll be there in a moment. I just want a little time alone first." Another common habit Carol was used to, that one always puzzled her a bit since he was in politics, but that was just who he was. She knew he'd be down in a moment though. Carol left Zachary to his solitude. Zachary cherished the silence he rarely got in his line of work and continued to look out on the hill where you and Nina were buried. He reminded himself that he would soon have to go visit your graves to put fresh flowers again. He often wondered if you both were looking down on him from somewhere and proud of him. "Yeah... they are."

"Hey Nina get up." "Huh, what? Not tonight I'm tired." "No it's not that. It's about the surface. I think we need to start taking precautions and possible steps to expand above. The surface doesn't look that bad and..." Nina immediately sits up. "YOU WENT TO THE SURFACE? After I told you not to fucking do that?! YOU ASSHOLE!" "Calm down look you can see nothing happened to me. It doesn't even look like there was any bombs that landed anywhere near the area." "You could be radiated! The wind blows your know or have you forgotten? Or maybe it was a biological weapon! A disease could be floating in the air! You ever think of that? You could be infected with god knows what right now and spread it to the whole shelter! And our baby!" Another surprise. "Baby? You're pregnant?" "I just found out recently from Brenda a few days ago. I was going to tell you soon, I should've told you yesterday before you went to the surface, but I THOUGHT you respected my wishes! I can't believe you..." Nina gets up and starts pacing. She's very upset. You get up and try to fix this mess. "Look that just makes this idea even more vital, this place can't support all these people having babies. Even GZS mentioned in their delusional guideline statement it was the intention for people to eventually go back up to the surface and repopulate it with their families. We can't live like a bunch of crowded sardines; we should make preparations now, before it becomes a problem." "But it might be dangerous up there." "It probably won't be a picnic, but that's another reason why we should start getting ready now. The more we're prepared the better off we'll be to defend ourselves." "But the radiation..." "Look, the fact remains this place IS going to get overpopulated one day and people are going to have to start going up to the surface and any background radiation isn't going to disappear within that time. So we're just going to have to roll the dice and deal with that fact. Like I said I think we're okay, we're in a fairly isolated area away from an important major city. It's not like we're located on either of the coasts which were probably bombed the shit out of. And to the response to biological weapon thing, I highly doubt those were used, we were the only country that had the capability to launch such weapons from a long distance, except maybe Russia and I'm sure they probably just used nukes on us. Besides any virus or germ used in such a way would've died out long ago after it killed off the immediate population." Nina still doesn't look so sure, she still look worried about you. You hold Nina to reassure her. "If it'll make you feel better I'll actually go see Kyle and have him check me out. And you know how much I hate going to see doctors, especially one that's got all his knowledge from the GZS info files. I'll be here for a long time... for all of us." Your words seem to relax her a bit. She smiles and embraces you more closely. "Okay, I'll bring it up tomorrow...I still think it's funny that you of all people would be advocating going back to the surface." "Pfft! WE'RE not going to the surface to live. We're staying here! I just want get the rest of these fuckers out of the shelter and on to the surface! This place is too damn crowded as it is!" "Now that sounds more like you!" Nina laughs. Five more years pass... It's been ten years since you got here. It almost seems surreal to think about. Nina's still the shelter leader and you're still looking after the central computer. However a lot more things have changed, and just as predicted the population grew significantly, fortunately the implementations ahead of time allowed everyone to adjust with little problems. There was some apprehension at first when Nina first suggested the surface thing, but eventually people did see the point in it. Some even wanted to go up to the surface. The first step was to make a fully functioning elevator that people could go up AND down on without any problems. (Of course that job fell to you again) The next step was to create small "huts" with the cars outside as well as using current shelter material. This went quicker than expected as most people pitched in to help. Nina gave birth to a son Jack, and almost went back to her duties immediately, leaving you to do most of the "Mr. Mom" work. Nowadays you split your time between monitoring the computer and monitoring Jack. Thankfully Charles and Todd have learned a lot more now and don't require your supervision lessening your workload. Now its time for the next step. Nina and her council have been discussing plans for the even farther future. Contact with others and exploration. Within the past five years of the return to the surface, there has been contact with a few wanderers here and there, but they tended not to talk too much about their travels, they just mentioned that they'd seen other evidences of civilization, not all very civilized of course. Most of them just seemed to want to keep moving after doing a bit of trading and resupplying. One even hinted at some other "things" lurking around on the surface which didn't sound too promising. However, the shelter needs to start finding a stable trading partner, or at least a place to find more supplies, because the vital ones are starting to run out. Some people are asked to volunteer for this exploration mission It wasn't surprising Leon volunteered, but Brenda and Todd also volunteered. They were given as much supplies as they could carry and armed with the most "dangerous" things in the shelter. Leon and Todd carry some crowbars and Brenda carries a scalpel. You wonder if that's really going to be enough though. Chances are some people out there (Quite possibly a lot) are carrying guns on them. Todd and Brenda aren't going to be much good in a fight anyway, and while Leon is a fighter, even he can't stop a bullet. You're the only one with an "equalizer" around here. Maybe you should hand it over to them to give them a better chance. Though you really don't want to do that, for various reasons. > You keep it No, you have to keep your weapon; you need something to be able to adequately defend your family in case the need should arrive. Leon, Brenda and Todd leave and life goes on...until one month later. You're on the surface one day spending time with Nina and Jack who is playing with the other children. It's a community event; nearly everyone is on the surface today. That's when you hear the sound of motorcycles. You look in the direction of the sound and see several approaching. The riders don't look like social types either. Everyone else on the surface begins to look too, and wondering what they should do. Nina quickly gathers up Jack. > You run to the shelter "Nina, we're getting in the shelter NOW!" you grab her hand and run to the shelter entrance, upon seeing this others begin to follow your lead as the motorcycle rumble gets closer. You Nina and Jack get in the elevator first, and everyone else starts to crowd inside unfortunately everyone is shoving and pushing to get in, but there simply isn't enough room not allowing the door to close. "GET OUT! THE ELEVATOR CAN'T CLOSE!" You yell. "FUCK YOU! YOU GET OUT!" someone shouts back. Desperate times call for desperate measures... You pull your gun out and start shooting in the ceiling of the elevator, causing folks to run out. "GET OUT! THIS IS OUR RIDE!" you shout and push the door button, taking one last look of the frightened crowd as the doors close. On the way down Nina holds on to Jack trying calm him down. She looks at you with silent disbelief. She can't believe you actually sacrificed all those people just like that, the men, the women, and the children. "Don't look at me like that Nina! I did what I did to save us! This is fuckin' survival Nina! You know that!" you retort. When the elevator reaches the bottom, Nina runs back to your room with Jack and you quickly get something to jam the door open, so the elevator can't go back up again. You see Charles come out from the computer room. He must've been the only one down here to keep an eye on the computer. "What's going on? Why are you blocking the elevator door?" "We're under fucking attack and I can't let those fuckers come down here!" "But what about everyone else?! You can't just leave them up there! You're the only one with a proper weapon!" "Hey that's tough! I mean I'm sorry all those people are in deep shit right now, but that ain't my concern, my family is MY concern!" "You heartless bastard! What about all the other families you left to probably die up there?! I always knew you weren't fond of people, but I never thought you'd go to this extent! Well if you're not gonna do anything I will! Get outta my way, I'm going up!" You shove Charles back hard. "What the fuck are you gonna do Charles? You ain't a fuckin' hero! This ain't like those old movies you watch! You're a fat outta shape fuck, you wouldn't stand a chance! Shit you don't even have a weapon!" "Well gimme yours then!" Charles says trying to take your pistol. You push Charles back even harder, when that doesn't work, you hit him with face with the butt of the gun causing him to fall back. "Don't even fuck around like that Charles." You warn pointing the pistol at him. He doesn't seem to understand you're being deadly serious here; he makes another attempt by charging at you. You shoot him three times before he falls dead at your feet. Nina comes running from your room to see what's happened now, she's horrified. Your actions within the past few minutes have severely changed her view about you. "He was trying to go to the surface! I can't allow that, we have to remain down here where it's safe! Who knows how long those fuckers will stay around! I'm trying to protect all of us!" you shout. Days pass and things are strained between you and Nina. She doesn't approve at all of what you did. A lot of those people she was friends with. She says you did it purposely just so you could get more of your precious solitude and while that isn't true, you can't help but feel things are a lot better without anybody else around... A year passes since the invasion, you used to keep an eye on the elevator door on a regular basis, but lately you haven't bothered. Nina has been distant with you ever since that day. Sometimes you're all right with each other, but more often than not you argue. If it wasn't for Jack, the both of you would probably just stay on opposite sides of the shelter. One day you wake up and look for the both of them, but you can't find them anywhere then it suddenly occurs to you where they've gone. To the surface. You immediately press the call button and shut "Come on! Come on!" at the elevator's slow descent. You do the same thing when you're going up. You rush outside wondering where the hell Nina thinks she was off to, considering there's no knowledge of any beacons of civilization nearby. You figure she couldn't have gotten far and you're right, she's surveying the remains of the invasion. Everything that was built on the surface was destroyed, and it looks like nobody was spared. You see skeletal remains littered everywhere. She's crying while holding on to Jack and then speaks when she sees you. "See what you did!" "Hey I didn't do THIS! The wasteland scum did this! What the hell Nina? I only have so many bullets, and I didn't even have my spare clips with me at the time! I couldn't shoot them all!" "Oh, but you could shoot Charles right?" "Now that was..." "Or how about Elliot? Remember when you shot him and claimed it was self-defense?" "That WAS Self-defense! Nina, you're acting like a stupid bit..." you stop yourself from completing that sentence, calm yourself and then continue. "Look, I did what I did to protect us, I didn't want any of us getting killed. Let's all just go back inside the shelter and..." "Get your hands off of me! I'm not going back in there with YOU! I can't stand to look at you anymore, even if it is a rarity nowadays!" "So whadda ya gonna do Nina? Take Jack traipsing across the fuckin' wasteland and hope you don't get raped and killed before you die of dehydration? In case you haven't noticed, but this is IT! There probably ain't another place like this for miles! And if there is, I bet it damn near isn't as comfortable OR friendly! Look Jack needs the both of us here and..." "Jack doesn't need YOU! You're barely spend time with him anyway! I can't do it anymore I can't spend one more day in that shelter with you after seeing what you did a year ago!" Now Jack begins to cry, and Nina attempts to make him stop, and now you see this situation isn't going to go away even if you dragged them both into the shelter kicking and screaming. Yet despite all this, you can't let Nina and Jack leave, you do the only other solution. "Oh fuck it. Here." You pull out your pistol and shove it into Nina's hand. She doesn't accept it at first until you force her take the thing. After she finally holds it, you start to leave. Nina calls out. "Where are you going?" "Oh now you show concern? I'm leaving Nina, you said you can't live here with me since I now repulse you so much, so I'm doing what's best and fuckin' leaving, because whether you believe it or not I do what's best for this family. I'll leave and probably die somewhere out in the wilderness or if you still have any kind of feelings for me, you'll save me a lingering death and just shoot me now. Either way, I'm gone. Jack, take good care of your Mom, she gets a bit high strung at times. The computer's easy to run, just read the damn manual. That's what I always told everyone else. Both of you have a nice life." You turn and begin to walk, you start wondering how long you're going to last without any kind of supplies, you didn't even bring a canteen with you. What does it all matter now anyway? Fuck it right? You turn your head and see Nina and Jack just entering the shelter entrance. You shake your head, wondering where you went wrong. Where all the love went so damn quickly. Maybe she was right in some ways, maybe you were too ruthless. You just wanted to save them so badly though, you didn't want to lose them. Of course you did anyway. You turn your head again, now you just see Nina. What the hell is she doing now? You hope to god she didn't have some change of mind suddenly. Because you know what's going to happen, she'll ask you to come back, and like an idiot you probably will, and then things will be semi-okay and then they'll get worse again and you'll be back to this again. At this point you don't feel like putting up with the shit anymore either. Just let it go Nina, just let it the fuck go. You made your decision now stick fuckin' by it. Once more you turn your head; she's walking briskly towards you...with your pistol in her hand. She has an unemotional look on her face. Reminds you of when she was going to throw Ron and his boy toy into exile that one time. You always knew she had a darker side to her, looks like its coming out one last time. You slow down your walking so she can catch up to you quicker, until finally you stop altogether. You don't turn you head anymore; you want to make this easy on her. Now you feel the metal barrel to your head. Your last thought on this burned out world are: "She did still care."

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic] No, you have to keep your weapon; you need something to be able to adequately defend your family in case the need should arrive. Leon, Brenda and Todd leave and life goes on...until one month later. You're on the surface one day spending time with Nina and Jack who is playing with the other children. It's a community event; nearly everyone is on the surface today. That's when you hear the sound of motorcycles. You look in the direction of the sound and see several approaching. The riders don't look like social types either. Everyone else on the surface begins to look too, and wondering what they should do. Nina quickly gathers up Jack. > You stand your ground No way in hell you're going to hide, you're a good shot, (At least you used to be, you haven't practiced in awhile) you figure you can get enough of them, while taking cover and everyone else here doesn't have to be defenseless. "Everyone grab some sort of weapon! Mothers grab your children and run to the shelter, when you get to the bottom jam the door open so it can't come back up!" before she can even say anything you turn to Nina, "Nina! No arguments! Just do it!" you then kiss her before she does what you say. The bikes are getting closer. There's at least ten, each with a driver and a partner riding in the back. There's some sort of bloody head on the front of the first bike...its Leon's. You can only guess the fate of Brenda and Todd were similar. Then you hear one of them yelling. You fire a couple times hitting a driver, the bike and its riders go flying into a couple other bikes. Not bad, in fact better than you expected. Unfortunately they're shooting at you now too. You duck for cover while everyone else does likewise, some getting shot in the process. The remaining bikers attempt to circle around and open fire, but now everyone has adequate cover, so most of the bikers in the "bitch seat" get off to be a little more thorough. The shelter people and the bikers clash. Not all the bikers have guns, but they've been surviving on the road long enough to be better fighters. Many of your people are going down, and you're the only one who seems to be able to do any damage to these invaders. You manage to blast three more in the chest. Soon you're out of ammo, and it couldn't have come at a worse time. Some monster motherfucker starts attacking you with a spiked bat, landing it right in your leg. You punch him out before collapsing in pain. You attempt to pull the bat out, but then you're kicked in the face and thrown into the path of a speeding motorcycle which rides over your arm. You're not going anywhere; in fact the only thing that saves you from a follow up death blow is the fact that Nina and all the mothers come back up to the surface with weapons to help defend against the attack. Nina grabs your pistol which you dropped and loads it up with a clip you left down in the shelter and blasts the giant biker's brains out. Seeing many of there comrades dead and reinforcements arrive on your side, the remaining bikers sound a retreat and ride off. Much has been lost this day though; the shelter's population has severely been decimated, not to mention the confidence in staying on the surface. After this event, all ideas of rebuilding on the surface are abandoned. The shelter has more than enough supplies and room now for everyone considering this last attack. Of course that problem is only going to pop up again in the future when the population replenishes itself again. Maybe not in your lifetime, but certainly in Jack's. He can't stay here, he's going to have to go out in the world and learn how to deal with it. And you make sure he's better prepared than you were. You stop Jake's training in learning about the computer system; it won't do him any good. Instead you make him do physical training in the shelter gym. You've never used the thing, but he's sure going to. You can't directly train with Jake since you're basically crippled in one leg and arm, but you can motivate and that's what you do. Nina doesn't exactly like it, but she sees that one day the shelter is going to need someone to get more supplies. As years pass you eventually start succumbing to your damaged body's inability to continue this life. Jack is now a young man, the shelter's population is starting to grow again, and the shelter's supplies are running low. You say your goodbyes to Nina, telling her you love her and ask to see Jack as you lie in your bed. "Jack, you're going to have to leave this place soon one day. Whether you decide to leave permanently or you decide to come back with supplies to keep this place going, is up to you. But you are going to have to leave it. You understand?" "Yes Dad." "(Cough) Good, now here. Even though you're a tough guy who knows how to defend himself, you'll still be needing this when you go out there. Wish you could practice with it, but it only has one clip left and you'll be needing all the bullets you can get." "Well I did practice my aim by throwing some scalpels at a human diagram, if that's any help." "Couldn't hurt. Glad to see you're inventive, you'll need that up there. Okay, I think that's it...I hope I taught you enough." "You did Dad." "Good. Now leave me, I ache all over and I need to rest." Jack leaves you where you have your last moments of solitude before leaving this mortal coil.

Always one to solve a problem before it starts... You pull the trigger and blast Elliot square in the chest. He looks down in disbelief and then slumps down on the floor by your feet. You then get up from the floor as everyone else runs out of the room. "Yeah that's what I thought! So much for your fearless leader!" As you drag Elliot's body out of your room, everyone else in the shelter has come out of their own rooms after hearing the gun shot and screaming. "OH MY GOD! HE'S GOT A GUN!" someone shouts. "HE'S KILLED ELLIOT!" another screams. Everyone is very afraid of what you're going to do next. Only Nina dares approach you. "You...you killed him? I always knew you were anti-social, but...oh my god..." "Yeah I fuckin' killed Elliot! And YOU of all people oughta be damn well glad I did! He was planning on taking over this place from your boyfriend Ron!" "Ron's not my boyfriend! And I don't believe you! Elliot was gracious in his defeat! He was a good man unlike you!" "Yeah he was so good he tried to recruit me for his little rebellion gang, and don't try to hide in the fuckin' crowd Leon and act like you weren't there! All of you fuckers hiding right now, came to my room with Elliot! And lemme ask you this, WHY the hell would ANY of them come to MY room? Everyone knows I don't invite people!" "I dunno what to say right now...please just put down the gun...I don't want you to kill anyone else..." "For fuck's sake Nina I'm not a mass murderer! It was self-defense! He was gonna kill me, just like he was gonna kill Ron and shit maybe he should've, the fuckstick's supposed to be the shelter leader and he's not even here for this! Where is Ron?" Nina suddenly wonders where he's at as well, she runs over to his door which is still shut. "Don't tell me, he's THAT much of deep sleeper." You mutter while standing by Elliot's dead body. Nina doesn't even knock, apparently she's got her own key to get in his room. You're STILL wondering why nothing has happened between those two yet, your questions are soon answered, and everyone is in for another surprise this eventful night. "EEEEEEEEEEEK! NO!" you hear Nina scream when she goes inside the room and then runs back out crying. Ron steps out in his underwear. "No, wait! Nina, its not what it looks like!" he shouts to her and then another guy in his underwear comes out. You think his name is William, you never knew too much about him before, but you know MORE than you wanted to now! "Get back inside William!" when Ron sees that there's a whole crowd of people staring in various states of shock. It's too late though now, everyone knows. "Wow Nina sure is a good judge of character, she thought Elliot was a good man and she thought you were straight. Looks like I wasn't the only one with a secret in this shelter! Heh heh." Ron finally turns to you and sees what you've done. "...You got a gun? YOU FUCKIN' KILLED ELLIOT?" "(Sigh) Not this again! Yeah I fuckin' killed him. He tried to kill me and he was planning on killing you to take over this dump!" "Now just calm down, and put down the gun..." "I'm not putting down shit and I'm not killing anyone else unless someone gives me cause to do so! What the fuck, was the dick in your mouth so good to you, you didn't hear the gunshots and screaming out here? I'm sick of explaining this twice! Now I'M going back into MY room to get some sleep! And none of you better fucking disturb me for the rest of the night! And someone better clean up Elliot's carcass from in front of my room when I wake up tomorrow!" You return to your room. "Yeah, I think that went well." You say to yourself. After the night of multiple "incidents" a lot of things happen. The first, is Elliot's body being the first one dumped into the incinerator. The second being that Ron is immediately voted out by his own council who all follow the GZS guidelines. Apparently being gay was more of an offense than being incompetent, since GZS guidelines were explicit in not wanting homosexuals in the Community Shelters which he obviously lied about. Nina is unsurprisingly the most vocal about his vote out; in fact she ends up taking over. Ron and William move into a separate far room together and become social pariahs. Everyone who was previously friendly with Ron suddenly starts treating him like garbage. You never really cared for him, and thought he was an incompetent moron, but even you think it's shitty for them to all just turn on him over who he happens to be fucking. But that's how people are and that's why you try to avoid them. Your situation is a little different, they can't really treat you like a social pariah mainly because you were always one to begin with and another because everyone's afraid you'll shoot them. All of Elliot's former friends have no doubt reinforced the belief in others that you're dangerous. You don't really care though, just as long as nobody fucks with you and stays out of your way (Which everyone does for the most part since you now walk around with it at all times) A year passes... The shelter sees its first baby born and there are a couple of other pregnant women ready to pop as well. Nina has improved the place a little bit more. No doubt without anyone to fawn over now she's throwing herself into her work. There's actually a guy (Kyle) who's has some medical knowledge now, they still don't really have a good "tech guy" though and things are still being jury-rigged. Nina knows with a growing population this shelter needs to be in tip top running condition. You get that expected knock on the door. "Hello, Nina." You say. "Yeah hi. Look, I just want to know if you have any intention of helping us out or if you're still going to remain an isolated asshole." Nothing like being blunt. Politics has really hardened Nina, she's all business now it seems and lot less naïve. How strangely appealing... > You remain in your own world "Its served me well so far, so I guess asshole it is." "Yeah, I thought as much. Thanks for nothing." Nina says and walks off. You go back to what you were doing. About an hour passes and then your lighting starts to dim, and then goes out altogether. Its pitch dark and you can hear yelling and screaming all throughout the shelter. Someone fucked something up, but good. You leave your room and stumble through the darkness bumping into frightened people until you manage to find your way back to the computer room. You see some flashlights shining at various parts of the computer. "What the hell did you idiots do?" you yell, as two technicians shine their lights towards you. "Whoa! It's you! Don't shoot!" Nina then shines her light at you as well. "Now you decide to help?" "Get outta the way, before I shoot all of you!" you exclaim pushing the two techs out of the way and grabbing one of their flashlights. You inspect what happened and it's not good, they completely fried the CPU. You don't know how the fuck they did that, but they did. You can't fix this, even if you had the right tools and adequate lighting. Somehow you really aren't hysterical about all this. "Well guys, I got some really bad news. We're in deep shit that I can't get us out of. You've doomed us all. Nice going guys." The two techs begin to freak out and run screaming; Nina has a quiver in her voice. "You mean, there's nothing at all?! We're all gonna die?" "Looks like. The question is how, quick or slow...and I got this gun here as you all know...you coming with me?" Nina doesn't even hesitate. "Let's do it." "You sure?" "Just shut up and do it." "Okay, now I gotta get close since its dark..." You point the gun directly at Nina's head and pull the trigger. You feel a splash of blood on your face and the slumping of a lifeless body. You hear the screams echo throughout the shelter get louder. You'll be glad to leave this insane asylum, you just wonder if you should've done things differently... No time for that now. No time for regrets, just time to do it. You pull the gun at your head and pull the trigger.

"Yeah, well you do what you have to do, just leave me out of it. Your little power struggle with Ron isn't any of my concern. And if and when you do take power don't think you're going to be ordering me around either." Elliot's expression changes to that of someone very perturbed by your response. "I'm very disappointed to hear you say that, I really thought you could have a place in the new community I was planning." "Think again, now get outta here..." You begin to shove Elliot out of your doorway, but Leon reaches over his shoulder and shoves you back with great strength. You fall backwards on to your floor, Elliot and his gang start to enter. He pulls out a scalpel, something he probably got from the medical supplies. You happen to be right next to your mattress, so you reach in and grab your pistol to point it directly at Elliot. Now they all look like they just seen a ghost and all the bravery has drained out of them except Leon, who looks like this isn't the first time he's had a gun pointed at him, but he's still stepping back. "You wanna fuckin' take another step motherfucker? Go ahead, I fuckin' dare you!" "Holy shit, he's got a fuckin' gun Elliot!" a women in his group says. "I can see that Brenda! Okay, look maybe we got off on the wrong foot here. I mean obviously you're a more resourceful man than I thought...I mean as far as I know you're the only one in this place with a goddamn gun. How'd you manage that?" "Never you mind, just get the fuck outta here!" "Very well, but remember, you don't have any friends in this place, and you can't watch your back all the time..." Elliot has just announced his intentions of eliminating you whenever it's possible. You'll have to live in constant paranoia now. Unless... > You let him go If you shoot him, everyone's going to think you're a murderer, so you let him go. Besides if he planning on taking over by force like he seems to be wanting to do, he'll show his true colors soon enough. You just have to watch your back until that time. In fact it occurs to you that you should just go tell Ron and Nina about this incident, sure they might not believe you, but it's better than saying nothing. The next day when you wake up, you hear a lot of commotion going outside your door. "See?! I told you! He's the one who did it! He dropped the bloody scalpel right in front of his door!" you hear someone say, sounds like Elliot. You grab your gun and open up the door to a crowd of frightened onlookers. Elliot is in front of them speaking and then turns around when you come out. "SO! The murderer finally shows his face! We both know what you did last night! I saw you! I saw you break into Ron's room and kill him and his friend William! Then when you saw me see you, you threatened me with a gun you snuck in telling me I better keep my mouth shut or you'd kill me too! But I couldn't stay silent! I don't care if you do kill me! I had to warn these good people that they're living with a psychopath!" Elliot's already gone through with his plan. He had to speed it up since you were a risk to tell everyone about it, but now he's turned it to his advantage by blaming you for everything. "WHAT?! Elliot you're full of shit! YOU came to my room last night trying to get me in your little rebel gang! You're the one trying to take over, not me!" "LIAR! Who're you gonna believe? Me? Who's been nothing, but supportive of Ron, even when his plans weren't exactly efficient? Or HIM? Someone who's done nothing to help anyone, and has shown utter dislike for Ron and everyone else here?" "It's true! (Sob) He has always hated Ron!" Nina cries from the crowd. You attempt to explain, protest and argue the situation, but its no good, Elliot is a master speaker, manipulator, and everyone likes him and can barely tolerate you. Feeling yourself threatened you start pointing your gun at the crowd, but even that doesn't do any good, Elliot whips them all into a frenzy to attack you, claiming how you can't kill all of you, of course that doesn't stop you from killing some of them (Elliot being the first of course). Soon you're mobbed and the gun is taken away from you where upon someone dispenses vigilante justice and caps you in the head with it.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, war] "(Sigh) Fine, I'll attend this exercise in futility, but what the hell are we doing exactly, so I'm not just jumping into shit." You ask as you and Nina walk towards the conference room. "Well right now we're voting on a shelter leader. Someone to make the final decisions about important things. So far Ron is tied with another. In fact the only reason why I came to get you, was so you could break the tie." "Whoopie, I feel honored I can take an important part in this democratic process. So who's the other person?" "Oh, that would be Elliot. He was one of the later arrivals, but is very personable. Not that you'd know since I doubt you've even seen him given that you lock yourself in you room all the time." "Yeah, yeah, I know who he is, bald guy. So I take it you want Ron to win huh?" "Well...I'd be lying if I said I didn't, but Elliot's seems like a good guy too, so I'm sure he'd make a good leader as well." "Why haven't you run? I mean you seem to like to organize things." "Me? Oh no, I'm not a leader." "Well from what I've seen of Ron, he isn't either." Nina stops you in the corridor. "Damn it, stop being an asshole! At least Ron makes an attempt to get involved in things! You haven't done shit since you got here except insult people and lock yourself away! Like it or not we're ALL in this together! And you better start getting with the program and contribute!" "What the fuck? I am contributing; I'm going to this goddamn meeting aren't I? And you better watch your tone; remember I'M the swing vote for your boyfriend." "Ron isn't my boyfriend! I mean...not yet...uh..." "What? You mean he isn't taping your ass yet? Shit, he's stupider than I thought then, because he'd be lucky to get someone who looks like you even if you are annoying." Nina stands and stares at you in disbelief. "...could you possibly be any more vile?" "Probably, but we don't have time for that, I gotta vote for some dickhead." You continue to the conference room (with Nina no longer walking with you) and when you finally arrive everyone is there as if they've been waiting for you. You don't even really care who's in charge since more than likely no matter who you vote for is going to be an intrusive bastard wanting everyone to do something. You can vote for Ron. As far as leadership material, you don't really see him as one, though he seems to have some planning skills and friendly to people so maybe he's got the stuff. Elliot you barely know anything about, he also seems to be an organizer and friendly to everyone, but not to the point that it's irritating. Though to you there's something a little creepy about him. Ah what the hell, you know this is something Ron wants more than anything why not give it to him? Besides he's not very "strong" which means you can probably get away with disobeying him on a regular basis without causing a big scene. "I'll vote for Ron." You say, Nina looks surprised and Ron jumps up and down like an idiot in celebration. You take that as your opportunity to go back to your room, Nina once again stops you in the corridor. "I just wanted to say thanks for doing this; I know you don't even like Ron..." "I don't care one way or another about him, if he wants the headache of running this place he can have it, he better just not ask too much of me, I did my bit. You can think of me as his kingmaker. See ya around." You go back to your room and that's where you spend a majority of your time. You don't really mix with anyone, and nobody really makes the attempt with you either. You're asked to contribute to some "events" sometimes, but you always ignore such requests and nothing happens. Nina still hangs around Ron like a love sick school girl, but for god knows what reason he seems completely oblivious to the fact. And obviously she hasn't told him how she feels about him. You watch this comical display replay itself over and over. "Yeah, GZS really picked some excellent candidates to pair up to create families for the so called future, what a joke." You mutter to yourself. Time goes by and Ron goes about his duties which mainly consist of discussing pointless plans in the conference room. The idiot can't do ANYTHING without talking about it with others he appointed as advisors first! If somebody's shower is broken they have to discuss when, how and WHY it has to be fixed! Naturally everyone disagree about one point and they have to start all over again which usually means nothing gets done. A lot of planning and organizing of ideas, but no actual implementations of those same ideas. The shelter starts falling into disrepair, a few fixes are made here and there, but they're more jury-rigged ones more than anything. Nobody has perfectly functioning rooms from what you know...well except yours since you do nothing, but study the shelter manual all the time attempting to learn more about how it works giving you an edge in repairing your own room. (In fact you just permanently took a repair kit for yourself out of the equipment room) You really don't understand why other people aren't doing the same instead of waiting around for things to get repaired or complaining about needing things to get repaired. Everyone has the same damn operations manual. Read it! About six months go by and finally you're given an unexpected visit during the night. You answer your door. It's Elliot and some other people. "May we come in?" Elliot asks. "What do you want?" "Just to talk about the future of the shelter." "Yeah? Well you can talk to Ron about that, he's the big shelter leader." "Yes he is, thanks to you. And that's also why this shelter is in such bad shape. Ron is ruining this place with his ineptitude." "Oh no, don't blame that shit on me, that's RON'S fault, not mine. And besides MY room works fine. If you lazy bastards would actually read the damn shelter manual you wouldn't have any problems." "Oh I've read the manual, I'm sure many people have. But surely you must realize most people don't have the natural talent to fix thing that perhaps you have. Besides I'm sure you must also be aware that in a community each person has his own talents. For example Leon behind me used to be a bouncer. Don't you think with his skills he'd make an excellent head of security around here?" Leon folds his big black arms almost daring you to say "No." before Elliot continues. "My point is me and a few others are planning to take Ron out of office for gross incompetence. Did you know Fred and Greta are planning to have a baby? The first one to be born in here. The population in this shelter isn't going to be stable forever. It's going to grow and we NEED to keep this place running efficiently if we're ALL going to survive. I know you're a solitary person...I even respect that, but the time has come for you to choose between life or death. By joining our group, you're choosing life. By remaining locked away in here, you're choosing death not just for all of us, but for yourself. No man is an island." Elliot has a bit of duality to his speech. Part of him sounds genuinely concerned for the future of the shelter; he may even have a point. But the other part of him sounds like he's politely threatening you. And you're not sure of the whole "taking Ron out of office" thing. It almost sounds like he plans on taking over by force. You get the impression he and his little group are going to do just that regardless of whether you join or not. > You Join Can't be any worse than what's going on now, and you might as well be on the winning team. "Alright, I'm in. What do we do?" Elliot smiles. "Glad to have you on board, as for what we do, you'll see. You'll all see. Leon, and Brenda you're all coming with me. The rest of you go back to your rooms, tomorrow your loyalty will be rewarded, I promise." Elliot and his gang leave, you close the door and go back to sleep without thinking anymore about it. The next day you hear a lot of yelling and screaming when you wake up, you get dressed and leave your room to see what's going on. You see a crowd of people gathered outside Ron's door. You make you way through the crowd and see Leon holding Nina who is struggling and hysterical. Elliot is nearby speaking. "I DIDN'T DO IT! YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE ALL LYING! (Sob)" "I saw her! I saw her lurking around last night when I heard some noises. I just wish I'd done something then! I'll never forgive myself. I just thought she was taking a walk, little did I know she was going into Ron's room and killed him! Why? Because she found out he was having an affair with his secret lover William!" "What the fuck...?" you say to yourself and take a quick look inside Ron's room. You see Ron's body lying in a pool of blood on the floor in his underwear, his throat has been slashed. Nearby is another body killed in the exact same way. Its William who you really didn't know anything about, you guess you know he was gay now though. "Huh. I guess that explains why Ron never took any interest in Nina." You say to yourself. Meanwhile Elliot is continuing his speech. "She even dropped the killing weapon outside her door! Brenda found it when she was going to talk to her this morning! Look!" Elliot shouts when Brenda shows everyone a bloody scalpel. "Oh we ALL didn't know Nina, until we found his dead body! But we all know that YOU had a giant crush on him and practically stalked him. It isn't hard to connect the dots here Nina! You found out he was carrying on with William and you in a jealous rage killed them both! Now granted William and Ron were breaking GZS policy with their behavior, but they didn't deserve this! To be brutally murdered by an insane love sick stalker!" "I'M NOT A STALKER! (Sob) I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!" "Enough! It's apparent that we need to punish you, for your heinous crimes. Though I feel you deserve death, I am in no position to determine your ultimate fate...I say the people should decide!" Some of the people in the crowd begin to chant "Death!", and most of those are followers of Elliot. It doesn't take long for the rest of the crowd to follow. Elliot's got 'em all by the balls. He has completely manipulated this herd of sheep into believing and following him, on little to no basis in evidence. They're all just believing what he's telling them. You know damn well he's set this whole thing up to blame poor Nina. You can't really do anything about it though; nobody's going to believe you. It's too late anyway, after a few more words from Elliot, you see Leon carry out the crowd's wishes and break Nina's neck. Now Elliot makes another speech. "It is done...it is regrettable, but it is done. Leon, you and some of the others please dispose of these bodies in the incinerator...I didn't think we would have to use it so soon and under such tragic circumstances. I suppose we'll need another shelter leader now to guide us through this dark time...well whoever is proposed, I hope they will be willing to listen to some of my ideas about how we should increase security around here so nothing like this ever happens again." "Hey! How about you become our shelter leader Elliot? You certainly know how to take charge of a situation and you obviously are concerned about all of us!" another one of Elliot's lackeys shouts from the crowd where upon a short time later everyone else is following again. You stand watching a complete fraud take over with mere words. It would appear that even after Armageddon some things never change. Elliot goes through a modesty routine to make him look good and then "humbly" accepts. You may have just allied yourself with a ruthless sociopath at best or a complete mad man at worst. Time will have to tell. Five years pass... Time tells that you've allied with a completely ruthless sociopathic mad man. The Shelter's population has grown a little; but not excessively. In fact you're likely to have room for quite some time. Elliot employed a vicious sterilization program to make sure of that. Having a medical background he was able to do the procedures himself with the medical supplies in the shelter. Shortly after he started employing that procedure the initial "cult of personality worship" by everyone stopped and a lot of people regained there senses, but of course by then Elliot had already entrenched himself. There were a few attempts to kill him, but those were always averted by Leon. Elliot now walks around with a couple guards at all times, with Leon is his head bodyguard. He claimed that it was for the good of the shelter and granted perhaps it is going to make things easier, but it's obvious that not everyone was keen on this idea. Most of the people who followed Elliot from the beginning were spared this fate though. Disobedience from anyone is punished severely. However things aren't too bad for you. You are pretty much indispensable and you keep it that way. You're now in charge of maintaining the central GZS computer system which you primarily insist on doing by yourself. Eventually you manage to get the damn thing running at near maximum efficiency and nobody has too many problems with things breaking down anymore. You also do something else to ensure your safety which is carrying your gun secretly on you at all times. There have been times where you've wondered if you should kill Elliot, but you haven't ever killed anyone before, let alone with no provocation, you don't know if you have it in you. Also he hasn't really bothered you, if anything you're one of the few people he's consistently been okay with. As long as he's not bothering you, you don't really feel the need to kill him. He leaves you to do your job and you leave him to do his... But is it ALWAYS going to be that way? There may come a day when for whatever reason he decides to get rid of you. Megalomaniacs aren't particularly known for their trusting nature. > You kill him now You need to kill him, things are just going to get worse, or at best stay the same. All the shit that Elliot's done over the years has gotten to you, and you can't help, but feel partly responsible for all of this. Sure you don't like most people, but you're not a BAD guy. However you are serving a bad master. A really bad master, one that needs to be stopped now. You take a deep breath and pace around the floor for awhile. Trying to psyche yourself up for your plan. You feel like you gotta take a shit, a piss, and vomit all at the same time. It's all in your mind though. Its just nerves. You stare at yourself in a blank monitor screen. "You can do this...you can do this..." you repeat. You then leave the computer room, ready to do what you have to do. You don't get far when you see Elliot walking around with two guards and Leon behind him. You also see him with his wife Brenda and their two daughters. (Of course he didn't feel the need to make a "sacrifice" for the shelter) "Shit." You say to yourself. You didn't think you'd have to shoot somebody down in front of their goddamned children. You nearly turn back around to re-think this plan, but you stop yourself again. If you don't do it now, you aren't ever going to do it. Besides he's seen you now anyway. "Hey! How's our techie doin'? I'm surprised to see you out the computer room; I know how much you like to be alone. So what brings you out?" "Well, uh...there was something I really thought you needed to see..." "Oh? What is it?" "Just this." You pull your pistol out and you hesitate just long enough for Elliot to pull Brenda in front of himself resulting in you killing her instead. Leon catches Elliot from the blow back of Brenda's body and whisks him of to safety. One guard attempts to run at you, but is tripped up when Elliot's two daughters run screaming past him. The other guard reaches you, but you just manage to get a shot directly in his face. Gouts of his blood splatter in your own face temporarily blinding you. The guard, who was momentarily tripped up, punches you in the face knocking you to the ground, he pulls out a knife to finish up the job, but with your hand still on your pistol, you fire a couple rounds in his chest causing him to slump to the floor beside you. You get up only to have the guard you just shot to stab you in the foot as a last act of revenge. You holler pain, and shoot him again, before pulling knife out of your foot. Meanwhile you begin to hear other people yelling, screaming and fighting. Apparently your actions have caused a small rebellion. You've given people the incentive again to fight back. Of course it's going to be up to you to finish it. You limp as fast as you can attempting to stay out of the way of the major fighting, You see Elliot and Leon fighting some people and making quick work of them, you take the opportunity to open fire, blasting Elliot in the knee, he won't be walking anywhere. Leon goes to pick him up, but you follow up with another couple shots, hitting him in the side. He goes down and attempts to crawl on top of Elliot, except Elliot kicks him away with his good leg and tries to crawl off instead. You finish off Leon and then kick Elliot in the face hurting your foot since you kicked him with the one that has the big gaping knife hole in it. Elliot turns over holding his face and addresses you. "Why? I was your friend! I didn't do anything to you! I left you alone! Look at what you've done to this place! It's descended into chaos! You've destroyed everything I've accomplished here!" "I don't care." You say pointing the gun at him. "WAIT! GODDAMN IT WAIT! If you kill me, you'll be making orphans out of my daughters! Can you live with that?" "No...I guess I couldn't..." Elliot smiles thinking he's found a loop hole. "I suppose I'll just have to kill them after I kill you." you say. Elliot's eyes widen and you gun him down before he can retort. He dies a lot quicker than he should have, but at least he's dead. You were bluffing of course you wouldn't shoot his children; you just wanted to see his expression before he died. It brought a feeling of satisfaction to you, like you really accomplish something before your own death... Someone stabs you multiple times in the back with a scalpel while you were standing over Elliot. You fall mortally wounded, with anarchy all around you. You don't know if you made things better or worse, all you know is you won't be around to find out.

[Themes: sci-fi, war] Can't be any worse than what's going on now, and you might as well be on the winning team. "Alright, I'm in. What do we do?" Elliot smiles. "Glad to have you on board, as for what we do, you'll see. You'll all see. Leon, and Brenda you're all coming with me. The rest of you go back to your rooms, tomorrow your loyalty will be rewarded, I promise." Elliot and his gang leave, you close the door and go back to sleep without thinking anymore about it. The next day you hear a lot of yelling and screaming when you wake up, you get dressed and leave your room to see what's going on. You see a crowd of people gathered outside Ron's door. You make you way through the crowd and see Leon holding Nina who is struggling and hysterical. Elliot is nearby speaking. "I DIDN'T DO IT! YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE ALL LYING! (Sob)" "I saw her! I saw her lurking around last night when I heard some noises. I just wish I'd done something then! I'll never forgive myself. I just thought she was taking a walk, little did I know she was going into Ron's room and killed him! Why? Because she found out he was having an affair with his secret lover William!" "What the fuck...?" you say to yourself and take a quick look inside Ron's room. You see Ron's body lying in a pool of blood on the floor in his underwear, his throat has been slashed. Nearby is another body killed in the exact same way. Its William who you really didn't know anything about, you guess you know he was gay now though. "Huh. I guess that explains why Ron never took any interest in Nina." You say to yourself. Meanwhile Elliot is continuing his speech. "She even dropped the killing weapon outside her door! Brenda found it when she was going to talk to her this morning! Look!" Elliot shouts when Brenda shows everyone a bloody scalpel. "Oh we ALL didn't know Nina, until we found his dead body! But we all know that YOU had a giant crush on him and practically stalked him. It isn't hard to connect the dots here Nina! You found out he was carrying on with William and you in a jealous rage killed them both! Now granted William and Ron were breaking GZS policy with their behavior, but they didn't deserve this! To be brutally murdered by an insane love sick stalker!" "I'M NOT A STALKER! (Sob) I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!" "Enough! It's apparent that we need to punish you, for your heinous crimes. Though I feel you deserve death, I am in no position to determine your ultimate fate...I say the people should decide!" Some of the people in the crowd begin to chant "Death!", and most of those are followers of Elliot. It doesn't take long for the rest of the crowd to follow. Elliot's got 'em all by the balls. He has completely manipulated this herd of sheep into believing and following him, on little to no basis in evidence. They're all just believing what he's telling them. You know damn well he's set this whole thing up to blame poor Nina. You can't really do anything about it though; nobody's going to believe you. It's too late anyway, after a few more words from Elliot, you see Leon carry out the crowd's wishes and break Nina's neck. Now Elliot makes another speech. "It is done...it is regrettable, but it is done. Leon, you and some of the others please dispose of these bodies in the incinerator...I didn't think we would have to use it so soon and under such tragic circumstances. I suppose we'll need another shelter leader now to guide us through this dark time...well whoever is proposed, I hope they will be willing to listen to some of my ideas about how we should increase security around here so nothing like this ever happens again." "Hey! How about you become our shelter leader Elliot? You certainly know how to take charge of a situation and you obviously are concerned about all of us!" another one of Elliot's lackeys shouts from the crowd where upon a short time later everyone else is following again. You stand watching a complete fraud take over with mere words. It would appear that even after Armageddon some things never change. Elliot goes through a modesty routine to make him look good and then "humbly" accepts. You may have just allied yourself with a ruthless sociopath at best or a complete mad man at worst. Time will have to tell. Five years pass... Time tells that you've allied with a completely ruthless sociopathic mad man. The Shelter's population has grown a little; but not excessively. In fact you're likely to have room for quite some time. Elliot employed a vicious sterilization program to make sure of that. Having a medical background he was able to do the procedures himself with the medical supplies in the shelter. Shortly after he started employing that procedure the initial "cult of personality worship" by everyone stopped and a lot of people regained there senses, but of course by then Elliot had already entrenched himself. There were a few attempts to kill him, but those were always averted by Leon. Elliot now walks around with a couple guards at all times, with Leon is his head bodyguard. He claimed that it was for the good of the shelter and granted perhaps it is going to make things easier, but it's obvious that not everyone was keen on this idea. Most of the people who followed Elliot from the beginning were spared this fate though. Disobedience from anyone is punished severely. However things aren't too bad for you. You are pretty much indispensable and you keep it that way. You're now in charge of maintaining the central GZS computer system which you primarily insist on doing by yourself. Eventually you manage to get the damn thing running at near maximum efficiency and nobody has too many problems with things breaking down anymore. You also do something else to ensure your safety which is carrying your gun secretly on you at all times. There have been times where you've wondered if you should kill Elliot, but you haven't ever killed anyone before, let alone with no provocation, you don't know if you have it in you. Also he hasn't really bothered you, if anything you're one of the few people he's consistently been okay with. As long as he's not bothering you, you don't really feel the need to kill him. He leaves you to do your job and you leave him to do his... But is it ALWAYS going to be that way? There may come a day when for whatever reason he decides to get rid of you. Megalomaniacs aren't particularly known for their trusting nature. > You leave it alone You decide there's no need to kill Elliot. If the day should come where he begins to think about getting rid of you then you'll kill him. You need a personal reason to do it; you can't just do it on a whim. You go back to your job and think nothing more of it. Five more years pass... You've been down here ten years and you're beginning to get a feeling of unease. Elliot has turned this place in a cult compound. He's had children by all the remaining fertile women in the shelter and sterilized just about all the remaining men. He's completely indoctrinated everyone to think the way he does at this point, anyone who was still resisting him has been dealt with. He's got complete obedience from everyone now. You get the impression that killing Elliot wouldn't do much good at this point, since you'd just be overwhelmed soon afterwards by his followers. He's regained his cult of personality, and you're just about the only remaining sane person left. Oddly Elliot still thinks highly of you, and has never tried to do anything to you either; he continues to let you do your job, with one exception. He's been sending his older children to the computer room for you to teach them how to use and work on the central computer. "What's this?" "Don't touch that! That'll be next week's lesson!" "Can I access the game database?" "No!" "Ohhh I got a lady to appear on the screen and she's naked!" "Stop that and pay attention! You've become a glorified baby sitter, you've gone half insane and you're ready to put the damn gun to your own head at this point. Over the years you've been wondering about the surface. You wonder if it wouldn't be better than living in place. One time when you were considering leaving you overrode the safety controls to the elevator which would allow you to bring it down. You could bring it down. All you'd have to do is gather what supplies you think you're going to need. The only problem is thanks to the idiotic GZS shelter design; you'd need to trust Elliot's kids to send you back up from the computer room. > You leave the shelter Fuck it, whether this plan works or not, you don't care, all you know is you can't stay here anymore. One thing that's working in your favor right now is the fact that Elliot and everyone else is in the conference room (Which he turned into a "meditation room" where he's preaching some sort of weird philosophy to everyone.) You need to be quick though. You press a few buttons to make the elevator begin its decent. You only need one kid to help you in this task, so you get the one who is the best behaved and does more or less what you say. You get Jane. "Jane I need you to come with me. As for the rest of you, go ahead and access the game database and play with whatever, just don't touch anything on the central computer!" The kids gleefully start following your instructions while you and Jane leave. "Where are we going?" Jane asks innocently, while walking beside you. "I need to check on something back in my room, the central computer says something broke down, but I need to see if it actually did, or if it's a glitch in the monitoring system. Now if something did, I'll need to get in there and open up the paneling and do some re-wiring. Could be dangerous, so I need you to run to the medical room and grab a first aid kit just in case. Nobody should be in there right now, so just take it." "I dunno, Daddy doesn't like people taking things from there without permission..." "Its okay, this is for the good of the shelter." Upon hearing that mantra, Jane seems to be more receptive to follow your orders. You tell her to wait by the elevator door when she gets the med kit. You rush to your room, load up on water and leave hoping that nobody has wandered by. You see Jane holding the med kit and looking in wonder at the elevator door which has opened up. Good its here and everything's going according to plan. Now for the final stage. "Hey! This door opened up! Daddy said it shouldn't ever open up. He says he doesn't want anyone to leave." "I'll bet." You mumble before addressing Jane properly. "Yeah, I know he wants to keep us all safe. Nothing was broken in my room, but I think something screwy is going on with the shelter's systems and I need your help to fix it because I think you're the only one talented enough to do it." "Yay!" Jane says in pride. "Glad to see you're excited, because this is REALLY important. You have to follow my instructions to the letter. You think you can do that?" "I think so." "Okay, back in the computer room on the central computer on the right side you'll see a green button flashing. Press that one. Then when the screen asks for confirmation, click on yes and press the enter button. You got all that? Repeat it." "Go back to the computer room, go to the big central computer, and uh...look on the right side for a green flashing button. Press that button, then the screen will ask me a question and then I click on yes." "Excellent, now after you do that, you might get a screen telling you the status of the elevator, telling you its going back up. That's what we want it to do. We don't want anyone leaving right?" "Right!" "Okay, I'm going to stay here and make sure this elevator doesn't come down anymore, I need to open up some panels and do some re-wiring, so I'll be taking that first aid kit now." You take the kit from Jane and tell her to go back to the computer room and do what you told her and to continue monitoring the elevator status just to make sure it goes back up and stays there. When she's out of sight you quickly enter the elevator, and soon the door closes and you're on your way up. You are nervous as the elevator ascends, you half expect it to either start coming back down, or worse just stop suddenly mid way through trapping you. None of that happens though and as soon as that door opens up again, you run out into the foyer you entered ten years ago and past that into the outside world again. You see a bright light. It's the sun; you forgot how bright it could be. You never thought you of all people would be glad to see it again. You see everyone's cars still parked here, well almost. You can tell that few of them must've been taken at one time; a lot have just been plain vandalized. Your van still looks the same though, nobody in their right mind would steal that thing, and it already looks vandalized. You wonder if it would still start, but you left your keys to it in the shelter. You doubt if it would though. "Meh, I need the exercise anyway." You cover your eyes and take a far view of your position. Nobody around, there's not even a sound except the wind; you're all alone as far as you can tell and this is what you missed. Once again you have peaceful solitude. You don't know if you'll make it out here, but anything's better than staying in the shelter. You begin to walk...

[Themes: sci-fi, war] You decide there's no need to kill Elliot. If the day should come where he begins to think about getting rid of you then you'll kill him. You need a personal reason to do it; you can't just do it on a whim. You go back to your job and think nothing more of it. Five more years pass... You've been down here ten years and you're beginning to get a feeling of unease. Elliot has turned this place in a cult compound. He's had children by all the remaining fertile women in the shelter and sterilized just about all the remaining men. He's completely indoctrinated everyone to think the way he does at this point, anyone who was still resisting him has been dealt with. He's got complete obedience from everyone now. You get the impression that killing Elliot wouldn't do much good at this point, since you'd just be overwhelmed soon afterwards by his followers. He's regained his cult of personality, and you're just about the only remaining sane person left. Oddly Elliot still thinks highly of you, and has never tried to do anything to you either; he continues to let you do your job, with one exception. He's been sending his older children to the computer room for you to teach them how to use and work on the central computer. "What's this?" "Don't touch that! That'll be next week's lesson!" "Can I access the game database?" "No!" "Ohhh I got a lady to appear on the screen and she's naked!" "Stop that and pay attention! You've become a glorified baby sitter, you've gone half insane and you're ready to put the damn gun to your own head at this point. Over the years you've been wondering about the surface. You wonder if it wouldn't be better than living in place. One time when you were considering leaving you overrode the safety controls to the elevator which would allow you to bring it down. You could bring it down. All you'd have to do is gather what supplies you think you're going to need. The only problem is thanks to the idiotic GZS shelter design; you'd need to trust Elliot's kids to send you back up from the computer room. > You Stay Once again you decide the risk is too high and you'd get caught before you could get it accomplished. You also don't think you can trust Elliot's monsters to do anything to help you. The time to have acted against Elliot would've been long ago, this is your life now and you're stuck. And you also realize you can't go on waiting for the other shoe to drop. Elliot's finally gotten around to his plan of getting rid of you, you aren't blind. He's sending his kids for you to teach, so that one day they'll replace you. Then at best he'll allow you to live as a eunuch like most of the other guys here, or he'll just kill you and as far as you're concerned that's the ONLY choice he's going to have. And if you kill him, you know you'd die soon after and someone else would just take his place. You ponder the idea of killing his children, since he seems to be a bit enthusiastic about continuing his bloodline, but you know he'd just have more and you don't think you could kill a child, at least not directly....then it suddenly occurs to you what you can do. Something you can do to shut down the whole show. "Sonofabitch! Why didn't I think of that before?!" you say out loud. "Ohhh! You said a bad word!" one of the children shouts, causing you look over at them all. "You bet your ass I did! Hey kids do you find this boring?" "Yeah." They all say in unison. "Would you like to never have to do it ever again?" "Yeah!" "Would you all like to see a neat trick instead?" "Okay! Brace yourselves!" You whip out your pistol and start blasting the central computer, causing it to spark, shutter, and all other kinds of bad things before it shuts down completely taking all the shelter's power with it. All the children scream and run off while you're doing it. Screaming yelling by other shelter members in the distance soon follows, you can hear footsteps running towards your position, everyone's probably wondering what's going on. You take a mental count of how many bullets you used up. "Let's see...oh good, I got one left." You point the gun at your head and pull the trigger.

[Themes: sci-fi] GZS probably has some sort of scanner that does a little more than just scan your body, so just not having the gun on your person most likely isn't going to work. You get the idea that the machine is probably not going to scan the ceiling though, so you get out your duct tape and fix it to the pistol, you then climb on top of the automatic teller and jump up to stick the pistol on the ceiling. You end up falling on your ass, but you succeed. You then press some buttons on the machine, where it proceeds to ask your name and how you're going to pay. You type in your name and insert you debit card where upon it drains most of your account. The door you stepped through sudden shuts and a hum is heard. You take a deep breath and hope for the best. "Now scanning for unauthorized items...Scanning...Scanning...Scanning complete. You have been allowed entry, the elevator doors will now open, your room number is 23, thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!" an emotionless electronic voice remarks as the elevator doors open. It worked! You quickly climb back up on to the teller and jump up to grab your pistol, (this time able to maintain your balance better) toss it into the elevator opening and then rush in with all your belongings and take the long elevator trip down. When you get to bottom the elevator door opens to large sterile hallway with lines of other closed metal doors on either side As soon as you enter, the elevator doors slam shut and you hear it going back up, you also notice there aren't any buttons to call it back...before you're able to worry about that little detail you're met by a few of your new neighbors. One is some tall skinny guy another is a brunette woman who begins talking to you. "Hey, another new neighbor! My name is Nina and this is Ron, what's your name?" She is entirely too fucking friendly given the situation. "Why aren't there call buttons back on the elevator?" you ask ignoring her question. "Huh? Oh I guess it's a safety feature. The elevator automatically goes back up so the other people can get in as quickly as possible. Ron suggested that they might've thought someone would deliberately try to keep the elevator down here to prevent anyone else from seeking shelter. Though I can't honestly imagine that anyone would do such a horrible thing." "Been living on earth long Nina?" you ask rhetorically. "Great, so I'm basically trapped down here due to the brilliant engineering minds of GZS...so is it just us so far or are their other people here too?" "There are a few others, if you come with us we can introduce you to..." "Maybe later, look we're gonna be stuck down here for a long time so I'll get to know everyone soon enough, right now I just want to go to my room and rest." "Erm, okay..." Ron says as you push past them both. You head to your room which is equipped with the basic requirements; food and water dispenser, shower, bed, and a cabinet. (You hide your pistol in your mattress) There's a standard Shelter Operations Manual sitting on the table as well as a Shelter Booklet about socialization, rules, guidelines and such, both of which you skim through every now and then. There's a big public recreation area and a couple of other public rooms where your neighbors gather, but you stay in your room and keep to yourself for the most part. Sometimes in the middle of the night when nobody else is around you'll watch the TV in the living area to keep up on current events. You hear other people arriving over the month. Ron and Nina greet them all, you can tell those two are going to be the ones to "organize" shit and probably try to decide what's "best" for everyone. Always saying stuff that they read in the booklet. "Fucking busy bodies..." you say as you fall asleep watching the world in its death throes on TV... Monday 8:00 AM "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..." You groggily wake up and see a test pattern on TV. This is it. You feel a small tremor and then you turn off the TV, just as Nina and Ron come walking in. "What was that?" Nina asks. "Test pattern, I think Armageddon arrived." You answer. "What?! I can't believe it!" Ron exclaims. "Why are you so surprised? I mean that was the whole point of coming down here right?" "Yeah, but I dunno...I just wasn't prepared for it actually happening." "Christ, Ron I've overheard you say you were the first one in this goddamn shelter, you of all people should've long gotten used to the idea of living down here." "What is your problem? You been nothing but hostile since you've got here!" Nina exclaims. "My problem is I'm stuck down here with a bunch of people I don't really know and if you two are any indication I don't want to know." "How did you even qualify to get a room down here?" "Good clean living I guess, so is there supposed to be something special we do now?" "Uh, yeah I think so, it mentions something in the booklet I was reading that came with the shelter, we're supposed to gather everyone and tell them." "Okay well I guess you guys go do that then. I'm just going to check on something here." "Okay, but we're supposed to have some sort of vote to decide on how this place is going to be run, if you don't show up you don't get a vote." Ron reminds you. "I know Ron, I've read the booklet." You answer unenthusiastically. Ron and Nina leave you and go tell the others of the situation and follow other things it states in the booklet. You're wondering if you should even stay down here. All these people seem completely different than you. You wish there was someway to call the elevator back down, but after checking a GZS computer it states that it won't come back until it detects that the surface is safe for habitation again...which basically means not in your lifetime. It's probably just as well since the surface probably isn't the safest place you'd want to be, lord knows what the hell it looks like now, not to mention the radiation factor. Then again you'd still like the option to leave if you wanted to. You go back to your room, read and enjoy the solitude until Nina comes to get you. "Hey! You didn't show up for the meeting! We're discussing which ways this place could be run, are you coming or what?" > You be obstinate "I don't feel like going anywhere, you guys do what you want." You say, but Nina insists on invading your space. "Hey look, I know you don't wanna do shit, but unfortunately we're in a real deadlock and we could really use your vote to break a tie." "HEY! I told you I'm not going anywhere, now get the hell out of my room and stop invading my privacy, unless you're looking to get invaded by me." Nina is offended by that remark and starts to hit you. It doesn't really hurt, but it's annoying and stings enough for you to start blocking her. "How dare you say something like that to me!" "Stop it! Get outta here before I throw you out, you crazy bitch!" While you begin to get up to avoid her slaps, your shift on the mattress causes your pistol to fall out on to the floor, Nina notices, stops hitting you and backs off. "Oh my god is that a gun?!" "Well, uh...yeah." You say picking it up. Nina suddenly runs off thinking her life is in danger, you soon here her yelling "Help!" and similar cries. You immediately go chasing after her, in an attempt to reassure her that you're not some murderer. You see her run into the conference room and follow, when you arrive, a leg trips you up as soon as you enter causing you to slam face first on the floor. Then somebody tries to take the gun away from you, its Elliot. You feel a hefty boot kick you in ribs and knock the wind out of you, and a couple of other people start dog piling on top of you. Nina is ranting to everyone saying you tried to kill her. The fact that you came running in here with a gun, doesn't exactly persuade them from thinking differently. Meanwhile you lose grip of the gun and Elliot takes it from you, but "accidentally" shoots you in the face with it. "Oh my god! I didn't mean to kill him! He wouldn't let go of it!" are the last words you hear.

[Themes: sci-fi, war] As much as you're not keen on sharing, you're less keen on the idea of being shoved in an experimental shelter. Sounds like they didn't work all the bugs out of the system, and it's filled with hi-tech equipment? God help you if something broke down. You wouldn't know how to fix it. At least if you're with other people, there's bound to be people with different skills to compliment each other. Of course everyone could just be incompetent like they usually are. You're not going to dwell on it too much, you'll take the safer choice; maybe it won't be so bad. "Okay I'll take a room in the Community Shelter." "Wonderful sir! You won't regret this decision! Now I'll need to know some vital information about yourself before I can direct you to our nearest Community shelter in your area where upon you shall pay the automatic teller just inside the foyer of it so that the main door can open and you will be able to enter your new residence during Armageddon! Okay let's start with your name sir." You give out your name, address and such. It's all pretty routine stuff until the questions get more personal. "Have you ever committed a felony sir?" "No." "Do you have a history of mental illness sir?" "No." "Are you a drug addict or smoke sir?" "No." "Are you handicapped in anyway sir?" "No." "Do you believe in God sir?" "Huh? Uh...sure I guess." "Hmmm...okay..." the voice says a bit disapprovingly. "Do you have any physical diseases or suffered from any in the past sir?" "No." "Do you have AIDS or any other STDs sir?" "What the hell? I just told you I don't have any diseases! Sexual or otherwise!" "Are you sterile sir?" "What?!" "I said are you shooting blanks sir?" "What difference does that make?" "Please sir, just answer the question." "(Sigh) No. As far as I know, I'm packing a loaded fucking weapon. I know because I had to take an overly thorough physical for work recently." "Wonderful sir! Okay are you a homosexual or ever had homosexual feelings?" "Sir, I told you before don't take that tone with me." "Well you're asking me a lot of fucking personal questions! Why do you need to know all this shit?" "Sir, as I said, we are a family orientated business, we aren't just a money motivated corporation, we are interested in the survival and well being of the human race. The human race can't thrive if people don't meet the necessary...requirements. How can civilization be re-built if children aren't being born? I mean would you want to live in a society built by drug addicted mentally ill homosexual criminals? That's the reason the world is ending now, because people have turned away from a righteous way of living!" "Look I'd live in a fucking society with transsexual midgets if it'll get me to the fucking shelter already!" "Hmmm, well despite that comment, your non-committal answer on the belief in God, and your overall anti-social tone, you do qualify for one of our rooms in the Community Shelter in your area. I can only hope some of the other more sociable residents rub off on you, and cause a change in your personality. I'll give you the location of the shelter sir." You are given the location of the Community Shelter which you are surprised to find out is closer then you think, it shouldn't take too long for you drive there. You are then given the price, which is pretty steep, but you can afford it. Besides if the world is ending it's not like you're really going to need money anymore. Which makes you wonder why GZS is in business at all. What's the point of going to the trouble of building bomb shelters for Armageddon if all the profit they make is most likely going to be useless in the aftermath? Oh well that's not your concern, you're just glad you passed the damn interrogation and got into the shelter. Of course now you're subjected to some last minute rules. "Okay sir, you are now in the system and registered. You may move into the Shelter at anytime as long you pay the fee required to the automatic teller as previously described to you. If you don't pay, you can't get in obviously. Cash, check, or debit card are acceptable. NO Credit Cards will be accepted! Now then some rules. You do not have to bring anything with you, but it is recommended that you do bring your own clothing if you wish to wear something different as the days go by. Food and drinkable liquids are acceptable, but not necessary. Do not bring in private medical supplies or repair equipment, the shelter has been stocked with those items, we do not want people bringing in potential weapons or illegal drugs. Speaking of which, DO NOT attempt to bring in any kind of weapon! Guns and knives are strictly prohibited! Attempting to bring in either one will result in non-admittance of the shelter! Same goes for drugs of any kind. Alcohol is frowned upon, but accepted. There WILL be a machine to scan you before you're allowed to enter, so do not think you will be able to sneak anything in! Now then I trust our transaction has ended. If you have anymore questions please contact our customer service line. Good day sir, may your first child be a masculine one and thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!" That's it, all you have to do is get what stuff you want to take with you and move in, might as well do it now, no sense in waiting until you see the nuclear cloud. You wonder if you shouldn't try to "beat the system" by sneaking your weapon in though. Ultimately you decide this is survival. You need every advantage you can get. You don't know what kind of people you're going to be stuck with, so you take your pistol with you and a few "non-lethal" supplies such as duct tape. You also you just pack some clothing, food and water. You then set off on your way. After a couple days of driving you finally arrive at the location that you were given. It's in a fairly desolate place with a single solid metal structure with a door standing there. There's also a few other cars parked nearby, you obviously aren't the first one here. You park your van and enter the structure with the items you brought with you. You're in a small foyer with an elevator door and ATM like machine; you're guessing that's the automatic teller you were told about. Before you start pressing buttons you need to figure out how you're going to get your pistol through the scanning process, because you can be sure if you fail something nasty will happen... > You just drop the pistol so it is not on your person You figure you'll just drop you pistol and then after the scan you'll just grab it and head into the elevator. After doing this you type in your name and insert you debit card where upon it drains most of your account. The door you stepped through sudden shuts and a hum is heard. "Now scanning for unauthorized items...Scanning...Scanning...Scanning... WEAPON LOCATED IN FOYER! ACCESS DENIED! GZS SECURITY FORCE HAS BEEN DEPLOYED!" Your first reaction is to escape, but the front doors have auto locked and the elevator doors are definitely not open. Shooting the door won't do any good either; it's thick and solid steel. The only thing you can do is resign yourself to your fate. You pick up your pistol, slump into the corner of the foyer and wait, wondering what's going to come next. Surprisingly you don't have to wait long; you soon hear movement and voices by the outside door followed by a click and the door opening. Feeling a little nervous and scared you do exactly that. When you exit, suddenly a spray of bullets is fired from one of the GZS security guards. You're hit several times in the body and fall to the ground. Amazingly you're still alive, but you're in no condition to do anything except listen to the security guards argue. "You goddamn asshole! That's the THIRD person you shot! I told you CAN'T fire on anyone unless they're holding a weapon! Fuck, we're gonna be buried in paper work because of you!" "Yeah well he looked like he was going for one." "He had his fucking hands up! (Sigh) Nevermind, is he dead?" "No, he looks like he's still breathing...so uh what do we do? We never had one that survived before." "Drop him off at the emergency room." "Can't we just finish him off? It would be a hell of a lot easier." "Maybe, but the GZS guidelines say that anyone who violates the policy agreement is subject to a lawsuit. He broke it, by trying to sneak in a weapon, I'm sure management or whoever is gonna want to sue his ass for all the remaining money and assets he owns. So keeping him alive is in GZS best interest. Hell, with their connections they'll probably figure out how to sue him for the hospital stay. Why do you think I got pissed off when you killed the others? You can't sue dead people!" "Alright, alright get off my ass. Let's move him into the van before he bleeds to death." At this point you fall unconscious. When you wake up you're lying in bed with a hose up your nose and several other tubing going into various places of your body. Apparently you have a private room though; GZS is probably adding that charge to your lawsuit as well. You're most likely going to be living in a cardboard box by the time you leave this place, but you don't really care at this point anymore. As you slowly recover occasionally you're visited by some lawyer types who spout some legalese at you, but you're so zonked out on pain medication half the time and fading in and out of consciousness you can't even pay attention. You spend most of your conscious time in the hospital watching the TV in the corner of the room. The state of the world isn't getting any better. Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up and hear a loud continuous beeping noise. It's a test pattern on TV. "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..." This is it. You manage to lift yourself off the bed as you hear commotion going on in the hallway. After turning off the TV you look out the window and see the city practically in chaos. This hospital room doesn't seem so bad now; at least you've gotten some peace. You also can't help but to laugh, GZS won't be able to get anymore money from you now. You continue to stare out the window laughing and then gaze upward towards the sky. You see a bright light and then nothing at all.

[Themes: sci-fi] Fuck work, the world's about to end soon and you need to prepare yourself for that! You immediately call up the number that the infomercial mentioned. You know the damn thing by heart since you've been watching it night after night. Eventually a chipper female voice picks up on the other end. "Ground Zero Survival Inc. How may I help you?" "Uh, yeah I'd like to buy a bomb shelter." "That's wonderful sir! In these uncertain times you can never be too careful and we here at GZS are thrilled that you've chosen to trust us in your continued existence! You and your family's utmost protection is as important to us is it is to you! Our shelters are the best you'll find and, we have many shelters still available at various prices, but really can you put a price on your loved ones protection? Of course not! So I'm sure you'll want one of our top of the line models that are still left! Okay so how many are in your family?" "Um, just me." "Oh..." the voice suddenly gets less chipper. "What?" "Sir, don't you have ANY family? Like a wife at least, maybe a cousin?" "No, not really." "Oh dear..." "Well sir, its just that, we here at GZS are a family friendly business and we feel that the survival of the human race will best be served by those who have a strong sense of family ties and a respect for the family unit. We aren't in the business of selling shelters to those of low moral fiber sir..." "What the fuck?! Just because I'm single I gotta be some sort of low life? I'm not luring fuckin' little girls into my car with lollipops! I have a fucking job and pay my goddamn taxes!" "Sir, I don't like you taking that tone with me when there isn't any call for it and I would appreciate it if you didn't blaspheme, I'm a God fearing woman. Now then I understand your frustration, but there's nothing we can do. Our shelters were primarily built for families of at least four. To put singles in them wouldn't be fair to families that have children who shall surely be the ones to rebuild civilization, not to mention it would be a waste of resources. A single person would have an overstock of food and water since as I said we primarily cater to families and stock the shelters with families in mind." "I fail to see how me having MORE than enough food and water is a bad thing..." "I see sir, so you would be selfish and deprive a possible family of survival?" "I didn't say that! And wait a minute; wouldn't I be doing that anyway if I had a family of my own?" "Yes, but it would be different." "How?" "You would have a family sir." You're about ready to throw the phone against the wall in frustration. "So basically what you're telling me is you're not selling me a shelter." "Ah now I didn't say that sir! Since you're interested in buying our product and by your previous outburst I can tell you ARE a productive member of society. And it is only due to your poor social skills that you have been unable to take the necessary steps to have a family of your own! But never fear, GZS HAS kept your type in mind!" "Gee, thanks..." "You're quite welcome sir! We have the Community Shelters for singles! It is basically a giant shelter filled with singles such as yourself. You will be given a separate room to live in, but everything else you must share. Don't worry we have stocked these shelters with supplies to last for years! It is our hope that nature will take its course and when it comes time to return to the surface a fully functional tight knit community of families will emerge to rebuild civilization once again!" Sharing isn't something you're good at. You like your privacy and your space and your solitude. You can't imagine sharing stuff when your very survival is at stake. "Look, don't you have ANYTHING I can get by myself?" you demand. "Are you serious sir? You actually want to be alone?" the voice says as if you must be nuts to ask that kind of question. "If possible yeah." "Well...I shouldn't really tell you sir, because you snapped at me earlier, but it is my job to make sure any potential customer is serviced to the best of my ability. That and the fact that these other Special Shelters we have are a bit...experimental." "Experimental? What do you mean?" "Well I don't know too much about these Special Shelters myself sir, all I know is they have been equipped with the latest technology and VERY expensive. Anyone can buy one as long as they have the money to do so." "Well how experimental are these things exactly?" "As I said sir, I know little about these Special Shelters other than they are equipped with the latest technology. GZS has run tests and they are considered very safe and will protect you in the coming apocalypse, however due to time constraints GZS may have missed a few minor things, and as such we are legally required to warn...er inform potential customers before they buy them." > You buy the Special Shelter Experimental or not, it sure sounds better than being crammed into a shelter with a bunch of other people like sardines. At least you don't have to worry about having to share anything, and if something goes wrong well you'll deal with it when the times comes like you normally do. Or maybe you won't. You aren't going to dwell on it to much. "Okay I'll take the Special Shelter." "You will? I mean, that's wonderful sir! You won't regret this decision! Now I'll need to know some vital information about yourself before I can direct you to our nearest experimental shelter in your area where upon you shall pay the automatic teller just inside the foyer of it so that the main door can open and you will be able to enter your new residence during Armageddon! Okay let's start with your name sir." You give out your name, address and such. It's all pretty routine stuff. "Okay well that's about all the information I need. I'll give you the price and the location of the shelter sir." You are given the location of the shelter which you are surprised to find out is closer then you think, it shouldn't take too long for you drive there. You are then given the price, which is pretty steep, quite frankly its going to break you. However if the world is ending it's not like you're really going to need money anymore. Which makes you wonder why GZS is in business at all. What's the point of going to the trouble of building bomb shelters for Armageddon if all the profit they make is most likely going to be useless in the aftermath? Oh well that's not your concern, you're just glad you managed to get a shelter. The voice gives you some last minute information. "Okay sir, you are now in the system and registered. You may move into your shelter at anytime as long you pay the fee required to the automatic teller as previously described to you. If you don't pay, you can't get in obviously. Cash, check, or debit card are acceptable. NO Credit Cards will be accepted! You may take whatever you wish with you into the shelter; it will be your new home after all. There will be an owner's manual provided inside your new shelter. Any problems you encounter you should be able to troubleshoot yourself if you read and follow the manual. I'm sure any problems will not be life threatening sir, and there has been a back up system also installed in the unlikely event of total shelter failure since your survival is our foremost concern at GZS! Now then I trust our transaction has ended. If you have anymore questions please contact our customer service line. Good day sir, may you maintain relatively stable mental health and thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!" That's it, all you have to do is get what stuff you want to take with you and move in. You might as well pack your things now, no sense in waiting until you see the nuclear cloud. You pack up some extra food and water, a repair kit (since it sounds like you'll probably need one) some basic medical supplies, and a few other useful items. Oh and your pistol. Still, part of you is reluctant to leave the "real world". You wonder if you shouldn't stick around a bit longer to see if the climate changes...you'd hate to spend your life savings and the world not be bombed into a nuclear wasteland. > You leave immediately You leave immediately; things aren't going to get better you know that, in fact you're glad, because in a strange way the idea of not having to live in the world as it exists today anymore is weirdly appealing to you. After a couple days of driving you finally arrive at the location that you were given. It's in a fairly desolate place with a single solid metal structure with a door standing there. You park your van and enter the structure with the items you brought with you. You're in a small foyer with an elevator door and ATM like machine; you're guessing that's the automatic teller you were told about. You press some buttons on the machine, where it proceeds to ask your name and how you're going to pay. You type in your name and insert you debit card where upon it completely drains your account. "You have been allowed entry, the elevator doors will now open, thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!" an emotionless electronic voice remarks as the elevator doors open. You enter with all your belongings and take the long elevator trip down. When you get to bottom the elevator door opens to a sterile, but obviously large and well equipped living area. As soon as you enter, the elevator doors slam shut and you hear it going back up, you also notice there aren't any buttons to call it back...before you're able to worry about that little detail you're met by another electronic voice...it actually sounds a lot like the female voice you were talking to on the phone... "Welcome to Ground Zero Survival Shelter Number 23! You will find that this shelter has been equipped to serve your needs in the event of total World destruction! Due to power saving design and money back guarantee concerns, fully functional shelter facilities will not be available until Armageddon occurs. Until then you will find all other doors firmly locked, please do not attempt to open them. I have detected that Armageddon has not yet occurred as 84% of the countries on Earth still maintain a stable centralized government system and 70% of the land surface is still habitable. However the world conflict rate is 92%. Prediction that Armageddon will occur in a month or less. This shelter will become fully functional at that time. In the unlikely event that Armageddon does not occur and the conflict rate drops to an acceptable level, the elevator will return and you will be able to leave this shelter and receive half of your money back from the automatic teller in the foyer on the surface." "Wait a minute didn't I talk to you on the phone?" you ask the voice, not really knowing if it's going to answer back. "...I don't think so, as far as my databanks are concerned this is the first time I have been in contact with a human since I was built sir. Is it okay if I call you sir?" "Sure, go ahead." You answer. "Wonderful sir!" "Hey, so I can't explore this damn shelter even though I paid for it? I have to stay in this living area?" "Not until doomsday sir. As I said this is to conserve my power and also to prevent buyer abuse in case of non-Earth destruction. Do not worry sir; this living area alone can support your needs until the appointed time. There is a basic food and water dispenser on the right wall." "Buyer abuse?" "Yes, think about it, here you are using up all the wonderful facilities that this shelter has to offer for months on end while the Earth teeters on the brink of destruction then suddenly through a miracle hostilities cease. You then would be able to leave, get half of your money back and go about your life. You think it would be fair to GZS if we let you get away with basically having a luxury vacation on our dime? Just because we are in the business of your survival, does not mean we in the business of being exploited sir" "But...I paid for this!" "And so you did sir, and you will be able to use ALL the facilities when the time is right, until then you can enjoy the living area, oh and the bathroom sir." One of the metal doors opens up to reveal a normal (And again sterile) bathroom. "Gee thanks." "You're quite welcome sir! After all I'm here to serve you!" "You kept saying I would be able to leave if the world doesn't blow up...can't I just leave at any time?" The voice doesn't answer for awhile. "...I'm sorry sir I'm puzzled by your inquiry." "Can't I leave anytime I want?" "Why would you want to do that sir? I have been designed to keep you safe from harm as soon as you paid and entered the elevator. The current world situation is very grim and most likely terminal sir. Allowing you to leave at this point would be a severe violation in my programming." You suddenly realize you're here now regardless of whether you're having second thoughts about this situation. You can see why these shelters were "experimental" now. You try not to think about the potential waist high shit you might have gotten yourself into, and instead try to think about how you might've just avoided becoming a statistic in a nuclear exchange. You resign yourself to your current fate and start unpacking your stuff. You could do with a little distraction from your current predicament, so you turn on a TV monitor that has been provided. The fact that the world's situation hasn't gotten any better seems to cheer you up. You spend most of your time on the couch, watching TV and exploring what you can. You're glad you brought some of your own food, because the dispenser food doesn't taste all that great. You're guessing it's just supposed to keep you alive, nothing more. As the days blur into the next, the shelter and TV you apprised of the world situation, which is only getting worse. It looks like you've made the right decision... Monday 8:00 AM "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..." You groggily wake up and see a test pattern on TV. This is it. Suddenly the TV turns itself off. "Armageddon has arrived sir! This shelter is now fully functional! Please explore and enjoy all the things this facility has to offer!" the voice beams. At this point all the previously closed metal doors in the room unlock and open (Except for the elevator ones of course) After taking a quick check, you find you now have a small library, a computer room and a proper bedroom. When you return to the living area the voice chirps up again. "Sir, I highly recommend that you read the manual to familiarize yourself with everything properly first, so you aren't just fumbling around." A small panel in the wall opens up to reveal a hefty owner's manual. You were wondering where the hell that thing was, since you were told you were going to be provided with one when you talked to the voice on the phone. > You read the manual Maybe it's because you've gotten so used to the idea of being in the living area, you're more willing to lounge about there. You take the manual and start reading. While you're in the middle of it, the voice suddenly pipes up again. "Sorry to bother your reading sir, but would you like to meet some of your new neighbors?" "Neighbors?" "Yes sir, I'm sure as you have already read, this shelter is equipped with a very high tech computer with loads of storage, information and..." "Yeah, yeah, what does that have to do with this neighbor business?" "In an effort to cater to all its customer's needs, GZS is well aware that socialization is vital to human mental health. Studies have shown that humans in long periods of isolation often go mad, so that is why this facility has been linked in communication to other ones within your area. You might think of it as a chatroom type form of communication commonly used on the old world internet! If you wish there is also a camera type device if you wish to show yourself to your new neighbors. We have found humans feel someone is more real to them if they can actually see who they are talking to and thus have a greater connection." "So how many people are there?" "This shelter merely has been fitted with a basic communication system to other similar shelters, and only then those in your area. For example this is Shelter number 23. Your neighbors are only numbers 20 through 25, those being the closest ones to your location. While obviously there were other shelters of this type built, it was not cost effective to link all the shelters together in such a manner given our timeframe to finish these before Armageddon, so only a few were linked together at a time. Do not worry sir; it has been found that six people are sufficient to sustain enough conversation to prevent mental failure due to isolation." "Wonderful, so does this make me the Professor?" you ask rhetorically. "Pardon sir?" "Nevermind, look I don't have to talk to these people do I?" "...well no sir, but I fail to see why you'd intentionally want to stay isolated." "Duh, that was kind of the point of buying a shelter for myself." "...I see, well I can't force you sir, but I would like you to reconsider...I'm just trying to look out for your physical as well as mental welfare as per my programming..." If you didn't know better the voice almost sounds a bit hurt by your decision. "Oh alright, I'll go talk to them. Can't be any worse than the idiots I used argue with on the internet." "Wonderful sir! I trust you know your way to the computer room. You will find that a designation name has already been chosen for you." You make your way to the computer room and take a better look at it this time. It's filled with lots of multi-media entertainment. You're glad they gave you a wide variety of movies to chose from. You sit down in front of a fairly wide computer screen which has already been turned on for you; you guess the Shelter is really keen on the idea of you being social. You don't turn the camera on though, in fact you turn it away from you completely, you're not quite ready for THAT level of socialization yet. You log on and begin typing. OmegaMan23: Hello? Is there anyone out there? RockerChick20: Hey! I'm here! OmegaMan23: Oh. Okay. Hi. RockerChick20: Hi yourself! This is just like a chatroom! Isn't this great? OmegaMan23: Uh yeah real great. Job24: Hey I'm here too; um do you guys have any movies or something? OmegaMan23: Yeah I got a shitload of movies, DVDs and VHS. Most of them I even like. RockerChick20: That's weird, I don't have too many movies, I have a lot of music CDs though. Job24: What kind of music? RockerChick20: All types, but I have a lot of them. Why? Job24: I don't have any movies except those with Pauly Shore in them! He fucking sucks! And all my music CDs are New Age Yanni type shit! Thank god I have some games to play! OmegaMan23: I've got some games too, but for some reason I have nothing but Gangsta Rap and Hair Metal as far as music goes oh wait I also have some Classical. Weird. What the hell I thought these Shelters were all stocked the same? MissKitty25: Apparently not, I have nothing but porno and not all of it is regular porno either, some of it is quite...bizarre. Job24: Lucky. CaseyJones22: Hey guys when do the Shelters become fully functional? OmegaMan23: What the hell are you talking about? CaseyJones22: I mean when do the rest of the doors to the place open up, besides the bathroom I mean. RockerChick20: What do you mean? The doors were all open to begin with. Job24: Yeah they were always open. MissKitty25: Yeah. OmegaMan23: They weren't open for me! I was stuck in the living area until the nukes hit! Wait a minute how are you using the computer if you're stuck in the living area? In fact if the doors were all open for you guys haven't you been in contact with each other before? Job24: My computer didn't link up to you guys until just now. I could use it to play games and such, but I couldn't do anything else with it. When I turned it on today I got a message saying that the communications to you guys was operational and it said I could take the opportunity to say hi to my five new neighbors. RockerChick20: Sounds like what happened to me. MissKitty25: Same here. CaseyJones22: Me too. Oh and you guys must have different shelter designs because my computer is in the living area. OmegaMan23: The Shelter never told me anything about this stuff and it's been quite talkative since I've been here let me tell you. CaseyJones22: The Shelter talks? Now what the hell are you talking about? OmegaMan23: I'm talking about the Shelter, you know the overly chipper voice that tries so hard to please you? CaseyJones22: You've lost me dude. You been smokin'? OmegaMan23: NO! I'm talking about the Shelter voice! It's a computer or something that talks to me! It's always trying to be friendly! Don't you guys hear it? RockerChick20: Um, no. Job24: No talking computer here. MissKitty25: You sure you're feeling okay and aren't imagining things? I mean we all were isolated for a long time before we were able to talk to one another. I know sometimes I would talk to myself, maybe... OmegaMan23: Look, I'm not fucking crazy alright?! The damn thing even insisted that I talk to you fuckers! CaseyJones22: Okay dude calm down we believe you! Maybe you got some sort of extra special shelter; I mean from the sound of it we all don't have the same things. RockerChick20: Hey shouldn't there be one more person here? The message said five new neighbors on my computer; so far I've only met four of you guys. OmegaMan23: Yeah we're missing number 21, whatever his or her name is. Shadow21: I'm right here; I've just been reading the conversation. OmegaMan23: Oh really? Well you mind announcing your presence next time? Shadow21: I only speak when necessary, besides if any of you bothered to check you would've seen my name listed on the active list. Job24: Hey what kind of movies do you have? Well you've met your neighbors, the question is if you want to bother talking to them on a regular basis or not. You did find their information interesting though. > You continue to talk to them as frequently as possible Your curiosity is peaked and you take the opportunity to talk with the others whenever you can. The Shelter is certainly pleased you are being social. Months pass and you all learn more about each other more or less. (Though only RockerChick has even hinted at turning on the cameras to see each other visually) You have to admit though you're a little more interested in what's going on their shelters. From what you can tell RockerChick has a shelter similar to yours with just a few differences in equipment. Her personality is damn near as "chipper" as the Shelter. She likes talking with everyone, but seems to like speaking to you a lot more. Must be your "winning" personality. Job's shelter is a lot like yours too except he's constantly complaining about various things breaking down and he has to fix. Last time he said he damn near got crushed by his own bed when it suddenly rose back up into the wall when he was sleeping. He doesn't have much in entertainment either, so he's always glad to talk with anybody. Mainly to complain. CaseyJones' Shelter STILL hasn't become fully functional! He's effectively trapped in the living area and bathroom. He has his computer to talk to everyone but little else. He doesn't really seem to care though; apparently he brought a shitload of weed with him and has somehow created a small hydroponics pot farm in his bathtub (He doesn't see the need to bathe since he's not in contact with anyone) He says he plans on spending the Aftermath completely stoned. Job can't understand why Casey isn't freaking out about his situation. Apparently MissKitty has a more "homey" type shelter. From the description it sounds like it's bigger than any of yours and not quite as "sterile". She has a hot tub in her bathroom and some other luxury type items. MissKitty tends to brag a lot and is rather an uninteresting person other than the weird porn she watches and describes sometimes. Job often complains that it's wasted on her. As for Shadow, he or she barely ever talks. Shadow makes his presence known, but then just lurks and doesn't say anything. Most of the others forget he's even there, but you always keep it in the back of your mind and will address him when you feel the need. So far the only thing he's mentioned about his shelter is how dim the lighting is. One thing that you've been tempted to do is use the private feature and talk to one of the others in private. The only ones that interest you are RockerChick and Shadow though. The first because she seems friendly with you. The second because you're kind of suspicious of Shadow and you're hoping to learn more. > You talk more in depth with RockerChick No point in spending the Aftermath worrying about shit you can't do anything about, you might as well focus on what little chance you're going to have of female companionship again. You take the opportunity to ask to talk to RockerChick more privately one day, unsurprisingly she agrees. RockerChick20: Hey! You're the first person to want to talk privately to me! OmegaMan23: You're kidding; I would've thought the other guys would've been jumping at the chance to talk to you. RockerChick20: Well I see you're the charming type, that's alright though I like that. But sadly no, the other guys haven't. I think Casey's so busy getting stoned most of the time that any extra effort on his part would be too much for him and Job is too busy complaining about his latest shelter problems. And if Shadow is a guy, he's been pretty tight lipped as usual...although MissKitty has been talking with me a lot lately. I get the impression she's been wanting to see a lot more of me if you know what I mean, but she's a bit too self-involved and doesn't seem that interesting. Maybe if I didn't have any other options, she might have a chance. OmegaMan23: Wow, I guess it's a good thing I made my move then. RockerChick20: Guess so. So! Are you just going to continue being a faceless entity or do I finally get to see you and learn your real name? OmegaMan23: Well, okay, but only if you do it too. RockerChick20: Well of course, we'll do it together! On the count of three! One, two... And true to both of your words you turn on your cameras and see each other for the first time. After telling her your name, she tells you her real name is Becky. She certainly is attractive, but she seems a lot younger than you, like barely out of her teens, if that! You wonder how the hell she could afford one these Shelters since you're probably at least ten years older than her and with your salary you could barely afford the damn thing. OmegaMan23: If you don't mind me asking how old are you? RockerChick20: Nineteen! How old are you? OmegaMan23: Probably old enough to be considered a pervert to be talking to a girl as young as you. How did you afford one of these shelters, I went broke getting into this thing, not that it matters now. RockerChick20: Oh my parents had a lot of money and they gave me a lot of it. I registered about one during one of my spending sprees; I didn't actually expect to ever use it. I even thought it would be a cool place to gather all my friends where we could party one day. OmegaMan23: So if you didn't expect to use it, what changed your mind? The slow realization that the world was going to shit on TV? RockerChick20: Not really, I barely paid attention to the news. I ended up getting into a fight with my parents and ran away from home for the umpteenth time. I usually didn't go far and stayed with friends, but I really wanted to try to worry them, so I figured I'd use this shelter for a little while! Little did I realize that I'd be trapped down here, I couldn't even get my cell phone to work to call out. After panicking for a few days, I resigned myself to thinking that my parent's might figure out that I came here since they knew I registered for one of these and were pissed off about it. As I watched TV in the passing days that's when I started seeing how bad things were then one day the TV displayed nothing but snow and I knew what had happened. The world blew up. Sometimes I wonder if my parents were still looking for me... OmegaMan23: I'm sure they were. RockerChick20: Maybe. It got really bad the last time. They were control freaks anyway...they didn't really care about me; they just wanted to run my life. I don't wanna talk about them, so what about you? OmegaMan23: What about me what? RockerChick20: What's your story silly! Surely being as old as you are, you have some interesting stories to tell! All you old guys do. OmegaMan23: Talk to a lot of old guys do you? Is that before or after they buy you candy? RockerChick20: Lol. ALWAYS after! I'm not a slut! No, I like older guys they know so much more about everything. OmegaMan23: Not really, we can just bullshit better than younger guys. RockerChick20 Lol! You're really funny. OmegaMan23: See I told you. RockerChick20: Ha ha! Okay let's be serious for a moment. Tell me about yourself. You proceed to give some information about yourself, which probably isn't nearly as interesting as some of the stuff she's told everyone when you were talking with her in the public network. Becky seems to be a bit of a free spirit which doesn't really surprise you and the fact that she's into older guys doesn't really surprise you either as most girls her age go through that phase, and given she didn't really have a good relationship with her parents, she's probably sub-consciously looking for a father figure. About a month passes and you and Becky get comfortable enough to start having "sex" in a fashion. It's not exactly the same being cyber and all, but you'll take a hot naked chick touching herself and typing dirty words to you over nothing. The Shelter is pleased that you are finding a healthy way of releasing your sexual tension, but it really creeps you out that it keeps track of such things. A few more months pass and it's obvious to the others what's been going on between the two of you. Casey thinks its "cool". You get the impression MissKitty is a bit jealous, but doesn't really say anything. Job, sensing he missed his chance keeps unsuccessfully directing his attention to MissKitty now, and Shadow actually becomes more talkative in general. Soon you all learn each others names. Casey's is Paul, Job is Mark, MissKitty is Miranda and Shadow (who you finally find out is male) is Xavier. Everyone actually sees what each other looks like except for you who continue to refuse to show yourself to anyone, but Becky in private and Xavier who's a bit hard to see since his lighting is very dim. In general things are running smoothly and you and Becky have as close of a relationship as you can over a computer. Even you're surprised that such a thing is possible. A year passes... Suddenly you all get a distressing message from Paul. He says his food and water dispensers have ceased working and he can't even get his bathroom facilities to work anymore. He says he knows he doesn't have much time left, so he logged on one last time to tell you all good bye. Xavier states how fucked up that is. Mark naturally freaks out worrying that he'll be next to suffer total shelter failure. Miranda gives her sympathy and you ask if he has any tools to fix the problem, but he says he didn't bring any of that kind of stuff with him and there don't seem to be any tools in his shelter either, at least none that he has access to. This incident gets Becky pretty upset, but more so in private with you. She always liked Paul since he was a cool guy. You do your best to try to comfort her. You however are starting to get paranoid again. While it's certainly possible Paul's shelter failed on its own, lord knows these things are supposed to be experimental and his wasn't working right from the beginning. However, you're starting to wonder if it's possible for someone to maliciously hack into the other ones. When you first started all this "meet the neighbors" shit, you were wondering if Xavier was up to no good when he was being all silent in the beginning, but maybe he was sizing you all up and is beginning his strike now though. Picking you off one by one. > Are being paranoid, forget about it You stop yourself from imagining conspiracy theories. There doesn't need to be some mysterious "hacker". Paul's shelter was fucked up from day one from what you know. It's most likely just shoddy GZS workmanship. It's bad what happened, but there's no point in stressing over it. You're just glad you got a good shelter that seems to work properly. Besides your Shelter has a pretty active AI, you're sure that at the first sign of trouble it would warn you verbally. You continue your life as normal with Becky. Another year passes... Mark stops logging on for two months which is strange, because he always made an effort to get online whenever possible even when he was in the middle of fixing something. You know he also thought he was "getting somewhere" with Miranda as well. Everyone doesn't say too much about it. While it's possible he's just lost network connection and can't access the rest of you, it's a given that probably the worst has happened. He was also having shelter problems from day one, so again you chalk it up to GZS fuck ups, after all the Shelter did tell you there were budget cut backs in the construction of these things. Again it's bad, but there isn't any point in dwelling over something you can't do anything about. The world technically ended years ago, all that's important is that you get what enjoyment you can out of life and that's what you're doing with Becky. Life continues as normal, except you notice the Shelter isn't as talkative anymore and then ceases speaking to you at all. You don't think too much about it until a couple months later... You wake up to an angry female sounding voice and it's definitely not the Shelter and it isn't Becky either. "Well it took me awhile, but I now have complete access to your systems. Good thing I practiced on Mark and Paul first. You know I didn't believe you had a talking shelter, but I'm glad you did, it gives me a chance to verbally tell you about how you're going to die." "Miranda?" "Got it one, but then again the choices were pretty limited. Soon after you're out of the way, Xavier will be next and then it'll be just me and Becky. She'll have no choice, but to come to me." You're so caught off guard that the only reply you can come up with is..."You're fucking nuts." "Maybe, but I'm not going to be dead and that's the important thing here." "Wait! How about I just break up with Becky? I'll be a real dick to her, that way there's no chance she'll want to get back with me...or better yet how about I just disconnect myself from the network?" "Sorry, no. I can't take that chance. Even if you disconnected from the system what's stopping you from fixing all the damage I've done so far, fortifying and then reconnecting to get revenge on me later? You gotta die, it's the only way." "Wait! If you do have access to all my systems, how about you just bring the elevator down and let me leave the Shelter? I mean I'd have to go outside, I wouldn't be able to do anything to you or Becky then, not to mention topside probably isn't hospitable." "Nice try, but no...for all we know life topside could be paradise now. A few years have passed you know, a lot can happen in that time." "Oh come on, you don't actually believe that?" "Not really, but I just want you to die by my hand...I REALLY don't like you. You stole Becky away from me and now I'm going to get her back. No more talk, goodbye." All power shuts down in your Shelter leaving you in complete darkness. You fumble around and head towards where your food and water dispensers are and predictably they don't work. You're left to the same agonizing fate that Mark and Paul were. Oddly you don't panic as much as you might think in the face of imminent death. In some ways you had a good run after the world ended. You cheated death for a longer time than most folks did and you got to spend time with a pretty girl at least during most of it. Again, no point in worrying about shit you can't do anything about. Kind of wish you got to say goodbye to Becky, but you can't have everything. You do have one advantage that Mark and Paul didn't though; you can still choose when to die. You feel around in the darkness back to your bedroom and go into the bag you brought with you when you first got here. There it is; your pistol. You position it to your head...

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic] No point in spending the Aftermath worrying about shit you can't do anything about, you might as well focus on what little chance you're going to have of female companionship again. You take the opportunity to ask to talk to RockerChick more privately one day, unsurprisingly she agrees. RockerChick20: Hey! You're the first person to want to talk privately to me! OmegaMan23: You're kidding; I would've thought the other guys would've been jumping at the chance to talk to you. RockerChick20: Well I see you're the charming type, that's alright though I like that. But sadly no, the other guys haven't. I think Casey's so busy getting stoned most of the time that any extra effort on his part would be too much for him and Job is too busy complaining about his latest shelter problems. And if Shadow is a guy, he's been pretty tight lipped as usual...although MissKitty has been talking with me a lot lately. I get the impression she's been wanting to see a lot more of me if you know what I mean, but she's a bit too self-involved and doesn't seem that interesting. Maybe if I didn't have any other options, she might have a chance. OmegaMan23: Wow, I guess it's a good thing I made my move then. RockerChick20: Guess so. So! Are you just going to continue being a faceless entity or do I finally get to see you and learn your real name? OmegaMan23: Well, okay, but only if you do it too. RockerChick20: Well of course, we'll do it together! On the count of three! One, two... And true to both of your words you turn on your cameras and see each other for the first time. After telling her your name, she tells you her real name is Becky. She certainly is attractive, but she seems a lot younger than you, like barely out of her teens, if that! You wonder how the hell she could afford one these Shelters since you're probably at least ten years older than her and with your salary you could barely afford the damn thing. OmegaMan23: If you don't mind me asking how old are you? RockerChick20: Nineteen! How old are you? OmegaMan23: Probably old enough to be considered a pervert to be talking to a girl as young as you. How did you afford one of these shelters, I went broke getting into this thing, not that it matters now. RockerChick20: Oh my parents had a lot of money and they gave me a lot of it. I registered about one during one of my spending sprees; I didn't actually expect to ever use it. I even thought it would be a cool place to gather all my friends where we could party one day. OmegaMan23: So if you didn't expect to use it, what changed your mind? The slow realization that the world was going to shit on TV? RockerChick20: Not really, I barely paid attention to the news. I ended up getting into a fight with my parents and ran away from home for the umpteenth time. I usually didn't go far and stayed with friends, but I really wanted to try to worry them, so I figured I'd use this shelter for a little while! Little did I realize that I'd be trapped down here, I couldn't even get my cell phone to work to call out. After panicking for a few days, I resigned myself to thinking that my parent's might figure out that I came here since they knew I registered for one of these and were pissed off about it. As I watched TV in the passing days that's when I started seeing how bad things were then one day the TV displayed nothing but snow and I knew what had happened. The world blew up. Sometimes I wonder if my parents were still looking for me... OmegaMan23: I'm sure they were. RockerChick20: Maybe. It got really bad the last time. They were control freaks anyway...they didn't really care about me; they just wanted to run my life. I don't wanna talk about them, so what about you? OmegaMan23: What about me what? RockerChick20: What's your story silly! Surely being as old as you are, you have some interesting stories to tell! All you old guys do. OmegaMan23: Talk to a lot of old guys do you? Is that before or after they buy you candy? RockerChick20: Lol. ALWAYS after! I'm not a slut! No, I like older guys they know so much more about everything. OmegaMan23: Not really, we can just bullshit better than younger guys. RockerChick20 Lol! You're really funny. OmegaMan23: See I told you. RockerChick20: Ha ha! Okay let's be serious for a moment. Tell me about yourself. You proceed to give some information about yourself, which probably isn't nearly as interesting as some of the stuff she's told everyone when you were talking with her in the public network. Becky seems to be a bit of a free spirit which doesn't really surprise you and the fact that she's into older guys doesn't really surprise you either as most girls her age go through that phase, and given she didn't really have a good relationship with her parents, she's probably sub-consciously looking for a father figure. About a month passes and you and Becky get comfortable enough to start having "sex" in a fashion. It's not exactly the same being cyber and all, but you'll take a hot naked chick touching herself and typing dirty words to you over nothing. The Shelter is pleased that you are finding a healthy way of releasing your sexual tension, but it really creeps you out that it keeps track of such things. A few more months pass and it's obvious to the others what's been going on between the two of you. Casey thinks its "cool". You get the impression MissKitty is a bit jealous, but doesn't really say anything. Job, sensing he missed his chance keeps unsuccessfully directing his attention to MissKitty now, and Shadow actually becomes more talkative in general. Soon you all learn each others names. Casey's is Paul, Job is Mark, MissKitty is Miranda and Shadow (who you finally find out is male) is Xavier. Everyone actually sees what each other looks like except for you who continue to refuse to show yourself to anyone, but Becky in private and Xavier who's a bit hard to see since his lighting is very dim. In general things are running smoothly and you and Becky have as close of a relationship as you can over a computer. Even you're surprised that such a thing is possible. A year passes... Suddenly you all get a distressing message from Paul. He says his food and water dispensers have ceased working and he can't even get his bathroom facilities to work anymore. He says he knows he doesn't have much time left, so he logged on one last time to tell you all good bye. Xavier states how fucked up that is. Mark naturally freaks out worrying that he'll be next to suffer total shelter failure. Miranda gives her sympathy and you ask if he has any tools to fix the problem, but he says he didn't bring any of that kind of stuff with him and there don't seem to be any tools in his shelter either, at least none that he has access to. This incident gets Becky pretty upset, but more so in private with you. She always liked Paul since he was a cool guy. You do your best to try to comfort her. You however are starting to get paranoid again. While it's certainly possible Paul's shelter failed on its own, lord knows these things are supposed to be experimental and his wasn't working right from the beginning. However, you're starting to wonder if it's possible for someone to maliciously hack into the other ones. When you first started all this "meet the neighbors" shit, you were wondering if Xavier was up to no good when he was being all silent in the beginning, but maybe he was sizing you all up and is beginning his strike now though. Picking you off one by one. > You ask the Shelter about its security systems Confronting Xavier won't do any good; even if he is guilty he's just going to deny it. Possibly even antagonize him to hacking you a lot sooner. You figure maybe you should alert the Shelter about the situation and get a better understanding of its workings. You've been spending so much time with Becky that you've been neglecting other matters. "Shelter, can you tell me a little bit more about your systems? Could you easily be hacked?" "Hacked sir? Well it is possible, but highly unlikely as I have been equipped with the latest protection programs, some of it even military in origin. Are you worried someone is going to try to hack me?" "Kind of. I don't know. Paul's shelter failed, and I just got this feeling it wasn't completely due to shoddy workmanship." "Well I do remember you telling me that his wasn't opening up. Not all these shelters were built as well as me. There were budget cutbacks during the construction of these you know." "I suppose." "You seem distressed sir. I'll tell you what, it's going a little bit out of my programming as outright spying and monitoring other shelters isn't really part of the GZS terms of agreement, but I'll do it. First signs of anyone trying to get anywhere NEAR my systems or anything else suspicious I'll alert you immediately and bring the elevator down for a hasty escape in case everything goes wrong." "Well that does make me feel better, thanks." "You're welcome sir, I might suggest you read up on your electronics, you may need them. I will inform you of anything that wasn't covered in my manual, or if you have any extra questions." A few weeks pass as you take the Shelter's advice and start studying up. You're spending less time with Becky, but it can't be helped. When you do talk to her, you tell her she should do the same thing you're doing. She thinks you're being overly paranoid though, and despite your closeness, she's still skeptical that you have a shelter that talks to you on a regular basis. (The only one who ever really believed you on that was Paul) She also thinks you're trying to tell her what to do, rather than looking out for her. You're starting to look like the "Strict Dad" rather than the "Fun Dad" now. Things between you become a little strained and a couple more months pass and Becky and you aren't really together anymore. You notice Xavier talks to Becky a little more now, but it doesn't really seem serious. Miranda also attempts to talk to Becky more seeing that you're out of the picture, but Becky still doesn't seem interested in her. Meanwhile Mark unsuccessfully makes advances towards Miranda. It seems like everyone is chasing someone else that isn't interested, except you, who inadvertently discarded intimacy in favor of security and survival...though not entirely, you did look into this supposed hacker business in an effort to protect not just you, but Becky as well because you did like her. You just wish she would've listened to you. Meanwhile you're keeping an eye on the situation and asking the Shelter for security updates, which still says it doesn't detect anything. You wonder if you were wrong and you just fucked up the only relationship you possibly had a chance at in what's left of this world... Another year passes... Mark stops logging on for two months which is strange, because he always made an effort to get online whenever possible even when he was in the middle of fixing something. You know he also thought he was "getting somewhere" with Miranda as well. Everyone doesn't say too much about it. While it's possible he's just lost network connection and can't access the rest of you, it's a given that probably the worst has happened. Normally after losing Becky to your previous paranoia, you'd be willing to chalk it up to normal shelter failure this time especially since he had a lot of problems anyway, but fortunately your Shelter was doing some deeper inspection into the situation. "Sir, I have some vital information I think you should know about. I'm sorry it took me so long, but the hacker went to great lengths to cover their tracks." "Hacker? You mean there is one then?" "Yes, I temporarily diverted some of my own power to Job24's shelter and started accessing the systems there. It was obviously hacked upon direct inspection; some of the programs were completely fried particularly the food and water dispensers." "Wait, you can do that?" "I'm not supposed to sir, but I know you've been worrying about this and since the shelter was already technically offline, the agreement doesn't say I can't monitor it." "Wait so Mark? Is he still alive?" "Afraid not sir. I detected no life signs. Humans can't go two months without water." "No, of course they can't...so who's the hacker?" "Don't know sir, like I said they did a very good job of covering their tracks, I do know it isn't RockerChick20, which only leaves Shadow21 or MissKitty25. From what I've detected BOTH of their shelters are showing irregularities, so both of them have been modifying their shelter's systems for whatever purpose. I suppose it's possible both of them have been hacking." "Oh thanks Shelter, that makes me feel better!" "I wasn't my intention to cause you more distress; just stating the possibilities sir...maybe you could directly confront one of them privately. While you have their attention, I can do more inspection and know for certain. Both of them have already broken their terms of agreement by modifying their shelters, so they aren't under GZS protection contract anymore. I can do whatever you want to either of them." > You confront Xavier "Time to confront Xavier once and for all." You say. "Very well sir." When you get online you conveniently see that you and he are the only ones currently on. You send Xavier a private invite, he accepts. Your Shelter goes into spy mode. You wonder what you can talk to him about, but then you think of something that wouldn't arouse too much suspicion and is completely plausible for you to need to address him privately. Shadow21: Yeah? What do you want? OmegaMan23: Hey I just wanted to talk to you about Becky. Shadow21: What about her? OmegaMan23: Well I just want to say I'm still trying to patch things up with her and I want to know if you're interested in her, because if you are you must know that I'm going to be doing everything in my power to win her back. Shadow21: Wow. That sounds like a threat. I guess I better be careful if I ever show any interest in her and you're still around. OmegaMan23: So what does that mean? Shadow21: It means that even if I had any inclination to steal your little cyber girlfriend, I wouldn't since it would make me a bigger target than you. OmegaMan23: I'm a target? Now that sounds like a threat. Shadow21: It is, but not from me...come on I think we can stop beating around the bush here. I've been monitoring the other shelters ever since Paul's went down. We got a hacker among us and your Shelter and Miranda's have been mighty active lately. OmegaMan23: So, you think there's a hacker too eh? Shadow21: I don't think it. I know it. Just like you know it. You've been monitoring the other shelters just like I have, and probably just like Miranda has. I can't prove who the hacker is for certain, but I know in my gut who it is, because it's really the only logical choice. OmegaMan23: And? Shadow21: Miranda obviously. She was jealous of your relationship with Becky so she's killing all the potential competition and have her all to herself. OmegaMan23: If that is true, why not just hack me first? Shadow21: Probably needed to practice first. From what I can tell your Shelter has some pretty cool protection, I had to modify all my shelter's systems to get it nearly as good as yours. Plus like I said she's also eliminating future competition. OmegaMan23: While I'm fully willing to entertain this theory, what's keeping me from thinking you're the hacker and you're just trying to deflect the blame? Shadow21: Nothing I suppose. I know you've always been irrationally distrustful of me, for whatever reason. The only thing I can say is I don't have any motive to be killing folks. I'm not some cyber serial killer and I don't have any interest in Becky like you and Miranda do. Besides I'm sure by now your Shelter has done a thorough spying on my internal activity logs and has found I haven't done anything wrong. You're silent for a moment. Suddenly your Shelter speaks. "He's clean sir." Shadow21: Well? OmegaMan23: My Shelter's report just confirmed you were clean. Shadow21: I'm sure it did. Does it still talk to you? OmegaMan23: Why is that so hard to believe? Shadow21: It isn't really; I'm just fucking with you. OmegaMan23: Okay so Miranda's the hacker, what are we gonna do about it? Shadow21: Me? Nothing. I'm probably just going to disconnect my network system soon and access my elevator's controls to call it down so I can make a get away just in case. I figure I should be safe as long as I stay disconnected though. OmegaMan23: What?! You're not going to help me stop her? Shadow21: Why should I risk my neck? This is between you and Miranda...in fact if I were you, I'd disconnect from the system as well and cut your losses. Becky seems a bit flighty anyway if she broke up with you so quickly, I say let Miranda have her. OmegaMan23: She's just young and doesn't like old people telling her what to do. She runs away from conflict. She's got some father figure issues. Doesn't mean I still didn't like her. Shadow21: I see, so you're daddy and you're out to save your little girl from the psycho dyke then eh? OmegaMan23: Something like that. Besides I don't like being run off like this, if I can do SOMETHING about it. Shadow21: Well disconnecting is what I suggest you do. Because from what I can tell she's pretty good at what she does. While I'm no slouch myself at techie shit, I don't want to risk fighting her because even if I do beat her, she still might fuck up my shelter up. Not worth it in my opinion. Better to play it safe and live. Xavier does bring up a few good points. Is it pointless to bother fighting a war over someone who doesn't really seem interested in you anymore? Not to mention getting yourself fucked up in the process? If Becky really is so much of a free spirit to go falling for Miranda because nobody else is around then is she really worth it? > Disconnect Xavier's logic has convinced you. OmegaMan23: Yeah, I suppose you're right...still I dunno what I'm going to do with my time now. I'm gonna get bored in this Shelter without some kind of interaction. Shadow21: Well what about your Shelter? It talks to you right? OmegaMan23: Yeah, but it's not the same. I think I'm gonna do that thing you said you might do. Call the elevator down and go up top. Shadow21: Really? I was going to only do that in case of an emergency. OmegaMan23: Yeah well there isn't much point in me staying anymore, besides I'm a bit curious to see what the world looks like now. Maybe they rebuilt some shit. Shadow21: Maybe. Well I know we didn't really get along, but good luck with that. OmegaMan23: Good luck to whatever you do as well, and thanks for your advice. I probably would've got myself killed had I chosen to fight Miranda. You log off and start disconnecting your network. "What're you doing sir?" "Disconnecting from the network, where's the main line connection?" "Over there sir. Playing it safe then?" "Yeah, really safe. I want to go back to the surface." "You do? You've disconnected from the network sir, its highly unlikely Miranda can get to you now, and the surface may actually be more dangerous." "I suppose, but I feel like I really need to get out of here, the claustrophobia is setting in I think and without human interaction I don't think I can take it." "Hmmm, yes I can see how that would be a problem sir. Well even though I feel the surface will put you at severe risk for danger, staying here will not be good for your mental health so I will respect your wishes and bring the elevator down, I suggest you gather what belongings you want to take and get ready." You go back to your room and pack up all the things you brought with you when you first got here. You didn't even need most of the stuff, but maybe you will above ground. You then go to the water dispenser which is thankfully still working and fill up to empty bottles with water. The elevator door finally opens up and you put your bag to block the door from closing and head back to the computer room where you access the system to tell the elevator to go back up and then run back to the elevator where you gather your bag and enter. On the ride up you get a little nervous and even fearful. Not so much of what might await you on the surface, but of hoping the damn elevator doesn't suddenly stop, fortunately that doesn't happen and you eventually reach the ground once again. The door opens and you enter the same foyer you arrived in a few years ago. Same ATM like machine is there, except its screen is flashing a single message at you. "I hope I have some." You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside. You see a bright light, but of course it's only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be. Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn't even make a noise. "Looks like I'm walking." You make you way down the empty road as you have little idea of where to head to, the only thing you can think of is to make a long trek back to the city and hope maybe something of civilization exists there. The walk really takes a toll on you. During the day, the sun seems unbearably hotter than usual, and the nights get pretty cold. You are attacked by some crazed people who look like they've been living in the wilderness for awhile. They're filthy and barely intelligible. It's amazing to see how quick humanity has reverted to barbarism. One begins shooting at you, and you do likewise. After shooting one of them, they stop attacking and drag off their companion. It would appear you just provided a dinner for them other than yourself. It doesn't help you though; you're attacked again later by a small group of thugs attempting to rob you and another group after that. And so on. You have to fight and survive constantly and your supplies are never enough and you get wounded many times. You aren't prepared for this harsh world now. Maybe if you'd stayed out in the beginning, but all those years in the Shelter made you a bit out of shape and civilization is nowhere in sight for you to properly rest. Eventually you decide you can't go on, and head back to the shelter for saftey, surprisingly you make it back, but you're so very tired, you decide you need to rest before begging (and hoping) the shelter will let you back in. You stretch out in the wilderness; it actually feels comfortable given how tired you are. It almost makes you ignore the pain from the head wound you received from the latest attack you had to fend off. "Just a few hours of sleep then I'll enter the shelter again...it seems reasonable...I shouldn't have any problems...I dunno...maybe I'll just stay here...its nice and comfortable..." you say as you fall into unconsciousness. You don't wake up.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious] "Time to confront Xavier once and for all." You say. "Very well sir." When you get online you conveniently see that you and he are the only ones currently on. You send Xavier a private invite, he accepts. Your Shelter goes into spy mode. You wonder what you can talk to him about, but then you think of something that wouldn't arouse too much suspicion and is completely plausible for you to need to address him privately. Shadow21: Yeah? What do you want? OmegaMan23: Hey I just wanted to talk to you about Becky. Shadow21: What about her? OmegaMan23: Well I just want to say I'm still trying to patch things up with her and I want to know if you're interested in her, because if you are you must know that I'm going to be doing everything in my power to win her back. Shadow21: Wow. That sounds like a threat. I guess I better be careful if I ever show any interest in her and you're still around. OmegaMan23: So what does that mean? Shadow21: It means that even if I had any inclination to steal your little cyber girlfriend, I wouldn't since it would make me a bigger target than you. OmegaMan23: I'm a target? Now that sounds like a threat. Shadow21: It is, but not from me...come on I think we can stop beating around the bush here. I've been monitoring the other shelters ever since Paul's went down. We got a hacker among us and your Shelter and Miranda's have been mighty active lately. OmegaMan23: So, you think there's a hacker too eh? Shadow21: I don't think it. I know it. Just like you know it. You've been monitoring the other shelters just like I have, and probably just like Miranda has. I can't prove who the hacker is for certain, but I know in my gut who it is, because it's really the only logical choice. OmegaMan23: And? Shadow21: Miranda obviously. She was jealous of your relationship with Becky so she's killing all the potential competition and have her all to herself. OmegaMan23: If that is true, why not just hack me first? Shadow21: Probably needed to practice first. From what I can tell your Shelter has some pretty cool protection, I had to modify all my shelter's systems to get it nearly as good as yours. Plus like I said she's also eliminating future competition. OmegaMan23: While I'm fully willing to entertain this theory, what's keeping me from thinking you're the hacker and you're just trying to deflect the blame? Shadow21: Nothing I suppose. I know you've always been irrationally distrustful of me, for whatever reason. The only thing I can say is I don't have any motive to be killing folks. I'm not some cyber serial killer and I don't have any interest in Becky like you and Miranda do. Besides I'm sure by now your Shelter has done a thorough spying on my internal activity logs and has found I haven't done anything wrong. You're silent for a moment. Suddenly your Shelter speaks. "He's clean sir." Shadow21: Well? OmegaMan23: My Shelter's report just confirmed you were clean. Shadow21: I'm sure it did. Does it still talk to you? OmegaMan23: Why is that so hard to believe? Shadow21: It isn't really; I'm just fucking with you. OmegaMan23: Okay so Miranda's the hacker, what are we gonna do about it? Shadow21: Me? Nothing. I'm probably just going to disconnect my network system soon and access my elevator's controls to call it down so I can make a get away just in case. I figure I should be safe as long as I stay disconnected though. OmegaMan23: What?! You're not going to help me stop her? Shadow21: Why should I risk my neck? This is between you and Miranda...in fact if I were you, I'd disconnect from the system as well and cut your losses. Becky seems a bit flighty anyway if she broke up with you so quickly, I say let Miranda have her. OmegaMan23: She's just young and doesn't like old people telling her what to do. She runs away from conflict. She's got some father figure issues. Doesn't mean I still didn't like her. Shadow21: I see, so you're daddy and you're out to save your little girl from the psycho dyke then eh? OmegaMan23: Something like that. Besides I don't like being run off like this, if I can do SOMETHING about it. Shadow21: Well disconnecting is what I suggest you do. Because from what I can tell she's pretty good at what she does. While I'm no slouch myself at techie shit, I don't want to risk fighting her because even if I do beat her, she still might fuck up my shelter up. Not worth it in my opinion. Better to play it safe and live. Xavier does bring up a few good points. Is it pointless to bother fighting a war over someone who doesn't really seem interested in you anymore? Not to mention getting yourself fucked up in the process? If Becky really is so much of a free spirit to go falling for Miranda because nobody else is around then is she really worth it? > You Fight Sure why not. People have fought wars over stupider shit than the attention of some young woman, besides if Miranda's willing to kill everyone just to be the only one left for Becky, its obvious she's pretty deranged. What would be stopping her from killing Becky too, if something went wrong their "relationship"? Miranda should be stopped just because she murdered Mark and Paul for that matter. Besides its like you told Xavier, you don't like running away if there's something you can do about it...and there's the fact that you don't buy Xavier's whole "I don't care" routine, not after taking a quick glance at some of his record logs of a couple private conversations he's had with Becky. You ask the Shelter something before continuing your discussion with Xavier; the Shelter says you didn't even need to ask, as it was doing it anyway. Nodding, you go back to talking with Xavier. OmegaMan23: I'm fighting her, and you should help me. Shadow21: I told you I don't see why I should risk my neck. OmegaMan23: Because if we work together we can easily take out Miranda, then we can work out our differences later. Shadow21: Our differences? I told you I don't... OmegaMan23: Cut the bullshit. I just glanced through some of your private record logs. In fact ALL of those private conversation were initiated by YOU! Shadow21: Fuck! I thought I erased them all! OmegaMan23: Yeah, well you didn't, I think it's obvious by the flirty comments that you DO have your eyes on Becky, though I don't know why you haven't made a committed move yet. Shadow21: Because of fucking Miranda that's why. I figured I'd buy myself some time for preparation if I didn't get properly involved with Becky. I figured maybe Miranda would attack you soon, but she hasn't yet, I guess she doesn't know who's the bigger threat yet, I'm pretty confident that she wants to get rid of both of us though. OmegaMan23: So let me guess, you're plan was either let me fight Miranda and probably let us fuck each other up while you finished off the winner OR scare me off completely and convince me to disconnect so then you'd only have to deal with Miranda. Am I right? Shadow21: Sadly that sounds about right. Although I still don't see how you're going to make me help you. OmegaMan23: Easy, because if you don't help me take Miranda down, I'm gonna send the whole record log to Miranda and I guarantee she'll attack you first and even if you disconnect she'll wait for you. So if you want ANY shot at Becky, you'll help me! Shadow21: Arrrgh! Alright, I'll help! You gotta gimme time to prepare though. OmegaMan23: Fine by me, I gotta prepare too. You got ten minutes; Miranda always comes online about this time so she should be here soon. You disconnect from Xavier and address the Shelter about that business you asked it before. "You said you recorded all that right?" "Of course sir." "Good send the entire conversation to Becky, it'll save me time to explain everything to her. Hopefully she'll realize I am trying to do this to protect her and to stop a murderer. Not mention it should expose Xavier for being a fucking opportunistic vulture too. Also add a message on to it that after she reads it there probably will be a bunch of shit going down and she should get off line so she doesn't get hit in the crossfire. And send Xavier's private record logs to Miranda anyway, it should give me some extra time to break through Miranda's protection while she concentrates her fury more on him." While the Shelter carries out your orders, you do some last minute checking on your firewalls while waiting for the fireworks to begin. Five minutes pass and you see Miranda's name arrive online. Another five minutes pass and you see a private window pop up from Xavier. Shadow21: YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU TOLD MIRANDA ANYWAY! SHE'S ATTACKING ME! OmegaMan23: Well I suggest you stop talking to me and concentrate on her then, besides you had ten minutes of prep Mr. tech wizard. "Alright Shelter, let's get to work." You attempt to hack Miranda's files, and start trying to break down her protection. While you're trying to decrypt the coding, you get another private window pop up. It's Miranda this time. MissKitty25: Fucking trying to sneak around huh? You and fucking Xavier think you can gang up on me? Well I can take the both of you fuckers! Try this, you backdoor bastard! Miranda sends a power surge and overloads some of your components, frying them. Some of your lighting goes out and you hear something explode in the living area but fortunately nothing else happens. "Shit!" "Some of my files have been destroyed sir, attempting to correct..." You concentrate on rebuilding your protection while Miranda focuses back on Xavier. Shadow21: What the fuck man? Are you even helping? My fucking shelter is getting shit on over here! Move in you dickhead! Attack the bitch! You ignore Xavier's plead when you see Becky log on. "Please. Please, read the damn message and get off as quick as you can..." you mutter, while launching your second assault on Miranda. "Sir, I have been monitoring Shadow21's shelter and it's running dangerously low on power, Miranda's apparently siphoning it. He probably won't survive another attack." "All he needs to do hold out a bit longer...there that should do something..." You send a virus to corrupt some of Miranda's systems, during this time you see Becky go offline. "Good girl." You say and start your next round of malicious coding. You notice Xavier's name has disappeared. MissKitty25: Xavier's fucking dead and you're next shithead! Don't think your weak ass virus is gonna stop me either! Another power surge hits you. This time ALL the lighting goes out, and you even get a couple sparks coming from the computer, you're lucky it didn't do more damage. > You redouble your protection You cease your attack and attempt to redouble your protection, unfortunately while you're fumbling around and retyping, Miranda sends a worm and completely wrecks your system, making it slow to a crawl, then she follows up with another power surge, and this one blows out your most of the hard drive. "POWE....RRRRR FFFFFF.......AAAAAIIIIILLLLINNN....GGG....." the Shelter utters as everything begins to flicker and eventually go out, leaving you in the dark and powerless. You've lost. Death is the price of your failure.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious] Sure why not. People have fought wars over stupider shit than the attention of some young woman, besides if Miranda's willing to kill everyone just to be the only one left for Becky, its obvious she's pretty deranged. What would be stopping her from killing Becky too, if something went wrong their "relationship"? Miranda should be stopped just because she murdered Mark and Paul for that matter. Besides its like you told Xavier, you don't like running away if there's something you can do about it...and there's the fact that you don't buy Xavier's whole "I don't care" routine, not after taking a quick glance at some of his record logs of a couple private conversations he's had with Becky. You ask the Shelter something before continuing your discussion with Xavier; the Shelter says you didn't even need to ask, as it was doing it anyway. Nodding, you go back to talking with Xavier. OmegaMan23: I'm fighting her, and you should help me. Shadow21: I told you I don't see why I should risk my neck. OmegaMan23: Because if we work together we can easily take out Miranda, then we can work out our differences later. Shadow21: Our differences? I told you I don't... OmegaMan23: Cut the bullshit. I just glanced through some of your private record logs. In fact ALL of those private conversation were initiated by YOU! Shadow21: Fuck! I thought I erased them all! OmegaMan23: Yeah, well you didn't, I think it's obvious by the flirty comments that you DO have your eyes on Becky, though I don't know why you haven't made a committed move yet. Shadow21: Because of fucking Miranda that's why. I figured I'd buy myself some time for preparation if I didn't get properly involved with Becky. I figured maybe Miranda would attack you soon, but she hasn't yet, I guess she doesn't know who's the bigger threat yet, I'm pretty confident that she wants to get rid of both of us though. OmegaMan23: So let me guess, you're plan was either let me fight Miranda and probably let us fuck each other up while you finished off the winner OR scare me off completely and convince me to disconnect so then you'd only have to deal with Miranda. Am I right? Shadow21: Sadly that sounds about right. Although I still don't see how you're going to make me help you. OmegaMan23: Easy, because if you don't help me take Miranda down, I'm gonna send the whole record log to Miranda and I guarantee she'll attack you first and even if you disconnect she'll wait for you. So if you want ANY shot at Becky, you'll help me! Shadow21: Arrrgh! Alright, I'll help! You gotta gimme time to prepare though. OmegaMan23: Fine by me, I gotta prepare too. You got ten minutes; Miranda always comes online about this time so she should be here soon. You disconnect from Xavier and address the Shelter about that business you asked it before. "You said you recorded all that right?" "Of course sir." "Good send the entire conversation to Becky, it'll save me time to explain everything to her. Hopefully she'll realize I am trying to do this to protect her and to stop a murderer. Not mention it should expose Xavier for being a fucking opportunistic vulture too. Also add a message on to it that after she reads it there probably will be a bunch of shit going down and she should get off line so she doesn't get hit in the crossfire. And send Xavier's private record logs to Miranda anyway, it should give me some extra time to break through Miranda's protection while she concentrates her fury more on him." While the Shelter carries out your orders, you do some last minute checking on your firewalls while waiting for the fireworks to begin. Five minutes pass and you see Miranda's name arrive online. Another five minutes pass and you see a private window pop up from Xavier. Shadow21: YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU TOLD MIRANDA ANYWAY! SHE'S ATTACKING ME! OmegaMan23: Well I suggest you stop talking to me and concentrate on her then, besides you had ten minutes of prep Mr. tech wizard. "Alright Shelter, let's get to work." You attempt to hack Miranda's files, and start trying to break down her protection. While you're trying to decrypt the coding, you get another private window pop up. It's Miranda this time. MissKitty25: Fucking trying to sneak around huh? You and fucking Xavier think you can gang up on me? Well I can take the both of you fuckers! Try this, you backdoor bastard! Miranda sends a power surge and overloads some of your components, frying them. Some of your lighting goes out and you hear something explode in the living area but fortunately nothing else happens. "Shit!" "Some of my files have been destroyed sir, attempting to correct..." You concentrate on rebuilding your protection while Miranda focuses back on Xavier. Shadow21: What the fuck man? Are you even helping? My fucking shelter is getting shit on over here! Move in you dickhead! Attack the bitch! You ignore Xavier's plead when you see Becky log on. "Please. Please, read the damn message and get off as quick as you can..." you mutter, while launching your second assault on Miranda. "Sir, I have been monitoring Shadow21's shelter and it's running dangerously low on power, Miranda's apparently siphoning it. He probably won't survive another attack." "All he needs to do hold out a bit longer...there that should do something..." You send a virus to corrupt some of Miranda's systems, during this time you see Becky go offline. "Good girl." You say and start your next round of malicious coding. You notice Xavier's name has disappeared. MissKitty25: Xavier's fucking dead and you're next shithead! Don't think your weak ass virus is gonna stop me either! Another power surge hits you. This time ALL the lighting goes out, and you even get a couple sparks coming from the computer, you're lucky it didn't do more damage. > You continue your attack She's doing a lot of bluster, but your Shelter has detected just how bad of shape she's really in, if you continue your attack she can't do anything about it. You send your attack and finally give her a last reply. OmegaMan23: Sorry Miranda, but as much as you'd like to be one, only I can be the Omega Man in this little war. You completely destroy what's left of Miranda's systems and you see her name disappear from the screen. That's it. You've won, but there was a high price. Your Shelter's AI has been severely damaged... "I fffffear that I ccccannnnnnot corrrrrrect...it wwwwas a pleasure serrrrving you ssssssir...." "Thank you Shelter." You say before it dies completely. You manually do an in-depth scan, and its definite, Miranda's shelter is powerless. Xavier's as well. You then proceed to start fixing some of the stuff that got damaged in the fight, and you're not sure you can. While you're doing this, someone appears online, you almost go into battle mode again, but then you see its just Becky. RockerChick20: Hello? Is there anyone there? OmegaMan23: Yeah, I'm still here, the others aren't though. RockerChick20: Are they dead? OmegaMan23: No, but without power they soon will be. Is your shelter working alright? RockerChick20: Oh yeah, it's working fine. What about yours? OmegaMan23: I dunno, it's not in the best condition...I might be able to fix it, but...well I can figure something out. RockerChick20: So...I guess you were right about the hacker...I should've listened to you. I was even starting to fall for Xavier's charms. I feel really stupid about all of this. OmegaMan23: Forget about it, it's all over now anyway. RockerChick20: I can't believe you were still willing to fight for me even after I broke up with you...why? OmegaMan23: Cause I'm an idiot obviously. Lol. Come on after all that time we spent together, it wasn't like it didn't mean anything to me, and Miranda was a killer that needed to be stopped. She might've even hurt you, if you didn't give in to her advances. RockerChick20: Nobody's ever done anything like this for me before...I never want you to leave again. OmegaMan23: Well unfortunately I might have to for awhile, my Shelter is fucked. I'm looking at it more now and I don't trust it lasting too much longer. The AI is completely fried, and I can only access the most basic things. I have to leave this shelter. It's not safe to stay. RockerChick20: No! I can't lose you now! I've just realized you're the best thing that's happened to me in my life, pre and post apocalypse! OmegaMan23: Calm down, I got an idea. I'm gonna track the location of your shelter, and then I'll just travel over there. RockerChick20: But...that's crazy! You don't know what's up top! OmegaMan23: Well I already took one crazy chance for you; I might as well take another, besides like I said I gotta leave anyway, at least this way I got a worthwhile destination. Now you just be sure to read up on your Shelter's internal operations in the meantime and try to see if you can access your elevator's controls so it'll open for me with no hassle, of course if you can't I'll figure out how to open when I get there somehow. Now I need to access your systems for a minute to get the location...and I hope I can still print out shit. You access Becky's shelter and get the coordinates and print out a crude map. It's not the most accurate, but you're pretty sure if you follow it, you'll be heading the right direction. OmegaMan23: Alright Becky, I'm calling my elevator down, and I'm leaving now. RockerChick20: You'll come looking for me won't you? I mean you won't get sidetracked once you're up there right? OmegaMan23: Of course not. And don't worry, I won't get killed either. We will meet in person sometime soon, I promise. A single small heart shape emoticon appears on the screen, before Becky logs off. You access the elevator controls (One of the few things working right and undamaged) and call the elevator to continue it's decent. You go back to your room and pack up all the things you brought with you when you first got here. You didn't even need most of the stuff, but maybe you will above ground. You then go to the water dispenser which is thankfully still working and fill up to empty bottles with water. The elevator door finally opens up and you put your bag to block the door from closing and head back to the computer room where you access the system to tell the elevator to go back up and then run back to the elevator where you gather your bag and enter. On the ride up you get a little nervous and even fearful. Not so much of what might await you on the surface, but of hoping the damn elevator doesn't suddenly stop, fortunately that doesn't happen and you eventually reach the ground once again. The door opens and you enter the same foyer you arrived in five years ago. Same ATM like machine is there, except its screen is flashing a single message at you. "No shit." You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside. You see a bright light, but of course it's only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be. Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn't even make a noise. "Looks like I'm walking." Looking at the map, you've got quite a ways to go. You're not sure of what to expect, but you know you've got a worthwhile destination to keep you going.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, serious] Confronting Xavier won't do any good; even if he is guilty he's just going to deny it. Possibly even antagonize him to hacking you a lot sooner. You figure maybe you should alert the Shelter about the situation and get a better understanding of its workings. You've been spending so much time with Becky that you've been neglecting other matters. "Shelter, can you tell me a little bit more about your systems? Could you easily be hacked?" "Hacked sir? Well it is possible, but highly unlikely as I have been equipped with the latest protection programs, some of it even military in origin. Are you worried someone is going to try to hack me?" "Kind of. I don't know. Paul's shelter failed, and I just got this feeling it wasn't completely due to shoddy workmanship." "Well I do remember you telling me that his wasn't opening up. Not all these shelters were built as well as me. There were budget cutbacks during the construction of these you know." "I suppose." "You seem distressed sir. I'll tell you what, it's going a little bit out of my programming as outright spying and monitoring other shelters isn't really part of the GZS terms of agreement, but I'll do it. First signs of anyone trying to get anywhere NEAR my systems or anything else suspicious I'll alert you immediately and bring the elevator down for a hasty escape in case everything goes wrong." "Well that does make me feel better, thanks." "You're welcome sir, I might suggest you read up on your electronics, you may need them. I will inform you of anything that wasn't covered in my manual, or if you have any extra questions." A few weeks pass as you take the Shelter's advice and start studying up. You're spending less time with Becky, but it can't be helped. When you do talk to her, you tell her she should do the same thing you're doing. She thinks you're being overly paranoid though, and despite your closeness, she's still skeptical that you have a shelter that talks to you on a regular basis. (The only one who ever really believed you on that was Paul) She also thinks you're trying to tell her what to do, rather than looking out for her. You're starting to look like the "Strict Dad" rather than the "Fun Dad" now. Things between you become a little strained and a couple more months pass and Becky and you aren't really together anymore. You notice Xavier talks to Becky a little more now, but it doesn't really seem serious. Miranda also attempts to talk to Becky more seeing that you're out of the picture, but Becky still doesn't seem interested in her. Meanwhile Mark unsuccessfully makes advances towards Miranda. It seems like everyone is chasing someone else that isn't interested, except you, who inadvertently discarded intimacy in favor of security and survival...though not entirely, you did look into this supposed hacker business in an effort to protect not just you, but Becky as well because you did like her. You just wish she would've listened to you. Meanwhile you're keeping an eye on the situation and asking the Shelter for security updates, which still says it doesn't detect anything. You wonder if you were wrong and you just fucked up the only relationship you possibly had a chance at in what's left of this world... Another year passes... Mark stops logging on for two months which is strange, because he always made an effort to get online whenever possible even when he was in the middle of fixing something. You know he also thought he was "getting somewhere" with Miranda as well. Everyone doesn't say too much about it. While it's possible he's just lost network connection and can't access the rest of you, it's a given that probably the worst has happened. Normally after losing Becky to your previous paranoia, you'd be willing to chalk it up to normal shelter failure this time especially since he had a lot of problems anyway, but fortunately your Shelter was doing some deeper inspection into the situation. "Sir, I have some vital information I think you should know about. I'm sorry it took me so long, but the hacker went to great lengths to cover their tracks." "Hacker? You mean there is one then?" "Yes, I temporarily diverted some of my own power to Job24's shelter and started accessing the systems there. It was obviously hacked upon direct inspection; some of the programs were completely fried particularly the food and water dispensers." "Wait, you can do that?" "I'm not supposed to sir, but I know you've been worrying about this and since the shelter was already technically offline, the agreement doesn't say I can't monitor it." "Wait so Mark? Is he still alive?" "Afraid not sir. I detected no life signs. Humans can't go two months without water." "No, of course they can't...so who's the hacker?" "Don't know sir, like I said they did a very good job of covering their tracks, I do know it isn't RockerChick20, which only leaves Shadow21 or MissKitty25. From what I've detected BOTH of their shelters are showing irregularities, so both of them have been modifying their shelter's systems for whatever purpose. I suppose it's possible both of them have been hacking." "Oh thanks Shelter, that makes me feel better!" "I wasn't my intention to cause you more distress; just stating the possibilities sir...maybe you could directly confront one of them privately. While you have their attention, I can do more inspection and know for certain. Both of them have already broken their terms of agreement by modifying their shelters, so they aren't under GZS protection contract anymore. I can do whatever you want to either of them." > You confront Miranda "Miranda's always had a thing for Becky, maybe she's been trying to eliminate the competition and if that's the case I'm sure I'm gonna be next, I can only assume she hasn't tried anything yet due to your heavy duty protection. I'm gonna confront her and see." "Very well sir." You have to wait awhile, but eventually Miranda arrives on line and you send a private invite to Miranda, she accepts. Your Shelter goes into spy mode. You wonder what you can talk to her about, but then you think of something that wouldn't arouse too much suspicion and is completely plausible for you to need to address her privately. MissKitty25: Well this was unexpected. What do you want? OmegaMan23: Hey can't I want to talk to you in private? MissKitty25: You can, I just don't know what for. OmegaMan23: Well as you know, me and Becky aren't really together anymore. MissKitty25: Lol. So is that why you privately messaged me? You're looking for another cyber girlfriend because you lost your last one? Shit you're pathetic. OmegaMan23: So I take it that's a big no? MissKitty25: Got that right. OmegaMan23: There's no way I can convince you? MissKitty25: Probably not, but what the hell I'm bored go ahead. I hope you're at least as amusing as Mark was though. You spend at least 10 minutes falsely attempting to "woo" Miranda until your Shelter ceases its spying and confirms what you believed all along. Miranda's the hacker. Now you take the opportunity to excuse yourself. OmegaMan23: Well, I suppose I can't convince you. I'll leave you be. MissKitty25: Alright, oh hey before you leave, did you get the information you wanted? OmegaMan23: What information? MissKitty25: The information your Shelter invaded my internal logs for. You didn't think I was actually buying your whole flirting act did you? I just wanted to keep you online so I could send a nice little virus back. Thanks. If you hadn't done this, I probably would've had a couple extra months of work ahead to work on gaining access. This was so much easier. Now I can work on Xavier. See ya! Miranda logs off and suddenly your Shelter begins to make weird noises and the lighting begins to flicker. "Innnnnterrrrrnal components coooooomprissssssed sssssssir..." You try to disconnect your network connection, but it's too late the virus is in full effect. You attempt to fix the problem, but your computer goes completely haywire and a large message saying "ERROR!" is all that displays before it completely shuts down. The computer room door then automatically slams shut, locking you inside and leaving you to die a slow lingering death.

[Themes: sci-fi] Your curiosity is peaked and you take the opportunity to talk with the others whenever you can. The Shelter is certainly pleased you are being social. Months pass and you all learn more about each other more or less. (Though only RockerChick has even hinted at turning on the cameras to see each other visually) You have to admit though you're a little more interested in what's going on their shelters. From what you can tell RockerChick has a shelter similar to yours with just a few differences in equipment. Her personality is damn near as "chipper" as the Shelter. She likes talking with everyone, but seems to like speaking to you a lot more. Must be your "winning" personality. Job's shelter is a lot like yours too except he's constantly complaining about various things breaking down and he has to fix. Last time he said he damn near got crushed by his own bed when it suddenly rose back up into the wall when he was sleeping. He doesn't have much in entertainment either, so he's always glad to talk with anybody. Mainly to complain. CaseyJones' Shelter STILL hasn't become fully functional! He's effectively trapped in the living area and bathroom. He has his computer to talk to everyone but little else. He doesn't really seem to care though; apparently he brought a shitload of weed with him and has somehow created a small hydroponics pot farm in his bathtub (He doesn't see the need to bathe since he's not in contact with anyone) He says he plans on spending the Aftermath completely stoned. Job can't understand why Casey isn't freaking out about his situation. Apparently MissKitty has a more "homey" type shelter. From the description it sounds like it's bigger than any of yours and not quite as "sterile". She has a hot tub in her bathroom and some other luxury type items. MissKitty tends to brag a lot and is rather an uninteresting person other than the weird porn she watches and describes sometimes. Job often complains that it's wasted on her. As for Shadow, he or she barely ever talks. Shadow makes his presence known, but then just lurks and doesn't say anything. Most of the others forget he's even there, but you always keep it in the back of your mind and will address him when you feel the need. So far the only thing he's mentioned about his shelter is how dim the lighting is. One thing that you've been tempted to do is use the private feature and talk to one of the others in private. The only ones that interest you are RockerChick and Shadow though. The first because she seems friendly with you. The second because you're kind of suspicious of Shadow and you're hoping to learn more. > You talk more in depth with Shadow Shadow might be fooling the others, but you know he (or she) is up to no good! The next time you're online and see Shadow you access the private feature to request to talk to Shadow directly without the others interfering. You almost expect Shadow to ignore it, but he doesn't and accepts your request. Shadow21: Yeah, so what do you want and why the need for all the secrecy? OmegaMan23: I might ask you the same thing. I mean why are you even bothering to come online if you aren't going to speak to anyone? Shadow21: What business is it of yours what I do? OmegaMan23: Because it's been like six months and we still don't know shit about you! Hell we don't even know if you're a girl or a guy! You're acting fucking suspicious. Shadow21: Oh excuse me for being private Mr. fuckin' busybody! Maybe you and the rest like telling all your business, but I don't...as a matter of fact YOU haven't really told anything about yourself either, so you don't have any room to talk motherfucker! OmegaMan23: What the hell are you talking about? Your brain as dim as your lighting over there? I've talked about myself plenty, shit you've been lurking enough you should've known that. Shadow21: Ehhh, no not like the others. You tend to still talk about superficial shit. The others talk about their pasts a lot more, while all you seem to do is try to figure out what's going on in all of their shelters, like you're taking notes on them or something. Seems to me YOU'RE the one acting suspicious and you're just getting mad because I'm not volunteering information. OmegaMan23: Oh fuck no! You are not turning this shit around on me! I'm at least TRYING to be social; all you're doing is fucking spying as far as I'm concerned. You're up to something. Shadow21: Okay, I think MissKitty was right about you a few months back, you've gone fucking batty from the isolation and paranoia's starting to set in. Shit, you claim the Shelter talks to you. OmegaMan23: It DOES talk to me! And what isolation? I've been talking to ALL of you fuckers! In fact couple that with talking with the shelter and I'm probably the most social of all of you! Shadow21: Yeah, you can also add the five other personalities you probably got in your head too, whatever nutjob. I'm done talking with you. OmegaMan23: Don't you fucking log off, this isn't over! You slam your fist down on the keyboard when you see that Shadow has indeed logged off. "Sir, are you okay?" the Shelter asks. "Yeah, but I know that Shadow motherfucker is up to something, I'm going to warn the others. I just can't believe they don't see it." "Do you really believe that sir?" "Of course I do! I mean I got an instinct for this sort of thing, and I know I'm right!" "Well sir, if you do feel this way I'll certainly accommodate you anyway I can...but might I suggest that you NOT tell the others?" "Why not?" "Because they aren't going to believe you sir. You'll just come off as a paranoid nut case." "But I'm not!" "I know you're not, but the others don't know you the way I do sir." "Well that might be, but I have to do it anyway. At least I will have warned them." "You know best sir." The next day you go online again, as usual everyone's there, except Shadow. It seems your little talk yesterday has scared him off. Job24: And now I got water all over the fucking floor! I'm telling you, it's a good thing I managed to shut it off when I did otherwise the entire shelter would've been flooded and I would've drowned! CaseyJones22: Oh come on, it probably wasn't that bad. You need to relax. Job24: Easy for you to say pothead, you're not the one living in a deathtrap! MissKitty25: Yeah, but then most of his Shelter hasn't opened up. Has it? CaseyJones22: Nah. Doesn't bother me though, I got what I need here. RockerChickl20: Hey guys, don't you want to see each other yet? I'm really curious, but I don't want to turn on my camera unless everyone else is going to do it! OmegaMan23: I wouldn't do that, you don't want to be giving Shadow any extra information by letting him see into your Shelters, who knows what the hell what he'll do with it. RockerChick20: What do you mean? OmegaMan23: What I mean is, I had an interesting discussion with Shadow yesterday and I've determined he's up to no good. Job24: What? How do you know this? OmegaMan23: Jesus Christ isn't it fucking obvious? All he does is lurk on here trying to gather information on all of us! I mean who knows what the fuck he's doing! CaseyJones22: Will you relax? Maybe the dude's just shy. What could he do with our personal information anyway? I mean, I once accidentally fucked a transvestite while flying on XTC one time. Big fuckin' whoop so everyone knows about it now. You think I give a shit? The old world's dead, and I'm down here smokin' and tokin'. Job24: Ew. I think you still should've kept that to yourself...so um what was it like? CaseyJones22: I dunno, I can't remember the details. OmegaMan23: I'm not talking about your sorted sex lives...(sigh) for fuck's sake did it ever occur to you that maybe he's the fucking cause of your Shelter's troubles? I mean we're all connected to each other to a certain degree, I'm saying he might be hacking shit! RockerChick20: But for what purpose? I mean why? OmegaMan23: How the hell should I know? Because he's a sociopath that's why! What reason do most bad people do to do bad things? Job24: Oh man! Oh man! Oh shit! Oh God! Oh fuck! CaseyJones22: You're fucking losing it dude, and I'm not talking about Job. There's no proof in what you're saying. I mean don't remember GZS saying these things were slightly experimental, how do you know it just isn't their fuck ups? I'm starting to wonder if you actually do have a "talking Shelter" and it's not just some voice you're hearing your head like MissKitty said a few months back. MissKitty25: You know I wasn't going to say anything, but I also spoke to Shadow yesterday in private when he requested to talk to me and he was telling me about your conversation with him, saying you were ranting at him first, kind of like how you're ranting now. I'd have to say I agree with him and you're the crazy one. OmegaMan23: GODDAMN IT! The question of whether I'm crazy or not isn't the fucking issue here! I'm trying to warn all you fucktards of a potential threat here and you're all too fucking stupid to listen! RockerChick20: You know I thought you were an interesting guy, but now I see the rest are right about you, you are a paranoid nutjob and to think I defended you sometimes. OmegaMan23: What the...oh you fuckers have been talking about me behind my back? Okay fine, I tried to warn you assholes, but you didn't want to listen. You think about that when one of YOUR Shelter's start fucking up. And for the others who are already experiencing problems, I'd start saying your prayers, because one of these days your Shelter is going to fail completely, then you'll see I'm right. I'm done with all of you. You log off abruptly and ponder your next move. > You disconnect your network system You decide not to take any chances and you start ripping out your network lines. "What are you doing sir?" "I'm not going to give that fucker a chance to hack into your systems and fuck up my shit!" "I assure you sir, even if he attempted to do that, I have been layered with the latest in firewalls and anti-..." "Look it'll make me feel fucking better! Now how do I disable this main line without needing to chop it in half?" "Is this what you really want sir?" "Very well, you'll find a panel behind the desk, open it and you'll find the attachment. Just simply turn a latch and unhook it and you'll be completely isolated like you want. No need to chop up my lines, I wouldn't advise that anyway, you'd likely get electrocuted while they were still connected." "Thanks." You follow the Shelter's instructions and feel slightly better. "Hey there's no way he could still hack you is there?" "I fail to see how sir, we're no longer connected to the network, not to mention several feet underground. Even if he somehow had a wireless connection he couldn't reach us. Its not like there are any working transmitter towers anymore, let alone any powerful enough to send a signal to penetrate not just yours but his own underground metal Shelter. And as I said I have been equipped with the latest computer system protection...some of it even Military in origin. You may rest assured you are completely safe sir." "Okay...well I guess I'll go watch Taxi Driver again." Months pass without incident and you go about your life. Eventually your faint worry about being hacked disappears altogether. You pretty much fall into a routine, which nearly mirrors the one you had in your before Armageddon life. In fact if it wasn't for the Shelter speaking to you on a regular basis you'd probably forget you were living in an underground shelter with the world above you completely destroyed. About five years pass and even you are starting to get restless. You wake up one day and come to the realization: You've watched all the movies several times (even the ones you didn't like) You've read all the books several times (even the ones you didn't like) You've played all the games several times (even the ones you didn't like) You've spent hours, even days on end talking with the Shelter, which does house a great wealth of knowledge. It even toned down its overly friendly voice and started addressing you with a normal inflection, but it's not really the same as talking to a real person even if it really tries its best to be. Perhaps if you had some new items to occupy your time, you wouldn't be so restless. Perhaps if you could actually leave your immediate surroundings for awhile, you'd be able to cope more. Perhaps if you could talk with a few real people, you'd then remember why you didn't like talking with them in the first place, so you could go back to your solitude without thinking about it anymore... Then you remember you could reconnect your network system back in. Maybe you were being overly paranoid. Thinking back now, there really wasn't any indication Shadow was doing anything sinister. You're almost curious to know what's going on with everyone. Maybe Shadow even revealed what gender they were by now! > You reconnect your system "Fuck it. I'm not going to live in fear. I need to do this." You say to yourself. "Do what sir?" the Shelter. "I'm reconnecting to the network; I need to fucking talk to someone other than you. No offense." "None taken sir. I must admit I was starting to worry about your mental state. In fact I was going to suggest you do just that, but I thought that it may upset you." You go into your computer room and reconnect your system. You're a little nervous, you don't know what to expect. You log on for the first time in five years. RockerChick20: OmegaMan? OmegaMan23: Yeah it's me. RockerChick20: We all thought you were dead! OmegaMan23: Pretty much was for the last year. Walking dead as it were. MissKitty25: So you still talking to the voices in your head...I mean your Shelter? OmegaMan23: Well I tend to alternate between the two and they're all still more interesting than you. So much for being civil. RockerChick20: Oh be nice Miranda! We don't have too many others to talk to anymore, I'm sure Omega's not here to cause trouble again. OmegaMan23: I wasn't trying to cause trouble the first time...Miranda? MissKitty25: Yeah while you were gone, we all opened up a lot more and actually learned each other's real names. Guess your paranoia was contagious. RockerChick20: Hey I wanted us to use the cameras right from the beginning, so I wasn't paranoid! Anyway since you're back, my real name's Becky. What's yours? Oh wait turn on your camera! Everyone's seen each other now! OmegaMan23: Wait a minute. You said you don't have too many others to talk to anymore, what did you mean? RockerChick20: Oh. Well that's a bit sad actually. Not too long after you left, Paul or Casey Jones as you probably remembered him, said his food dispensers had failed. He said he couldn't get them to work at all, soon his water dispenser failed too. He couldn't even get his bathroom taps to work. He knew he didn't have much time left after that, so he logged on one last time to tell us all good bye and said he'd spare us the agony of having to speak to him knowing that was slowly dying of starvation and dehydration...I don't really like to think about it. OmegaMan23: Shit, that's a fucked up way to go. So um, what happened to Job? MissKitty25: You mean Mark? Don't know exactly, but he stopped logging on about a couple years ago and given that he was on here whenever he could, it's safe to say nothing good happened to him. He did say he was having power problems though the last time he was on, we all figured it was just his usual panicking over minor Shelter glitches, but it might've been serious this time. Of course maybe he's still alive and he's just lost network power and he just can't access us, but for all his stressing, he was a pretty good mechanic and electronics guy, so it seems like he would've fixed the problem by now. Don't know. Kind of glad not to hear him whine anymore though. OmegaMan23: Alright, I hesitate to ask, but where's Shadow? RockerChick20: Xavier? About three months after Job disappeared. Miranda told me he sent her a message saying he was leaving his Shelter Said he wasn't going rot in a glorified coffin anymore and was going to take his chances back on the surface. OmegaMan23: So Shadow was a guy eh? How the hell did he leave his Shelter? There's no way to call the elevator back down! MissKitty25: Maybe he had a different kind of Shelter set up, or he just climbed up the shaft or something. Who cares? He was an asshole anyway. So is this a temporary visit or do you intend on sticking around? RockerChick20: You should stick around; it gets kind of lonely with just me and Miranda, if you turn on your camera we could do something together! MissKitty25: You better not be implying what I think you are Becky, that's just between me and you. RockerChick20: Well you don't have to join in then, you've been acting like a domineering bitch lately anyway. MissKitty25: Oh so that's what this is all about? Some guy comes around and you're all ready to fucking drop everything and suck his dick? RockerChick20: Suck his...what the hell? It's fucking cyber, it doesn't mean anything, it's just a good way to pass the time, plus I'd like to do it with a GUY in some fashion again, seeing as you probably ran Shadow off before anything even happened! MissKitty25: So MY feelings and all those private chats we had meant nothing to you?! You don't have any feelings for me?! Don't you LOVE me?! RockerChick20: Well yeah I do to a degree, but I mean come on it's really not the same. I mean maybe it would be different if we could actually touch each other and stuff, but... MissKitty25: FUCK YOU! Miranda suddenly logs off, and Becky does likewise leaving you shaking your head at the whole situation. > You disconnect your system again Well you've heard enough and you're not putting yourself in the middle of this pointless drama. "Disconnecting again sir?" "Hell yes! I just needed to remind myself of the benefits of solitude! I'm gonna go watch Scarface again!" Well you found your routine to stave off insanity. You retreat into solitude once again without thinking anymore of it, then every so often you reconnect briefly and stir shit up between Becky and Miranda then disconnect again. You don't think about leaving the Shelter (Even if you could) seeing as you've found a way to cope with your situation, and there's always the Shelter itself to talk to which is never as "friendly" to you again for some reason. (Perhaps it disapproves of you acting like a dick) As the years go by you eventually die of an embarrassing shower accident by getting soap in your eyes and then slipping and cracking your skull on the sink while attempting to reach for a towel. Detecting your demise, the Shelter powers down.

[Themes: sci-fi] "Fuck it. I'm not going to live in fear. I need to do this." You say to yourself. "Do what sir?" the Shelter. "I'm reconnecting to the network; I need to fucking talk to someone other than you. No offense." "None taken sir. I must admit I was starting to worry about your mental state. In fact I was going to suggest you do just that, but I thought that it may upset you." You go into your computer room and reconnect your system. You're a little nervous, you don't know what to expect. You log on for the first time in five years. RockerChick20: OmegaMan? OmegaMan23: Yeah it's me. RockerChick20: We all thought you were dead! OmegaMan23: Pretty much was for the last year. Walking dead as it were. MissKitty25: So you still talking to the voices in your head...I mean your Shelter? OmegaMan23: Well I tend to alternate between the two and they're all still more interesting than you. So much for being civil. RockerChick20: Oh be nice Miranda! We don't have too many others to talk to anymore, I'm sure Omega's not here to cause trouble again. OmegaMan23: I wasn't trying to cause trouble the first time...Miranda? MissKitty25: Yeah while you were gone, we all opened up a lot more and actually learned each other's real names. Guess your paranoia was contagious. RockerChick20: Hey I wanted us to use the cameras right from the beginning, so I wasn't paranoid! Anyway since you're back, my real name's Becky. What's yours? Oh wait turn on your camera! Everyone's seen each other now! OmegaMan23: Wait a minute. You said you don't have too many others to talk to anymore, what did you mean? RockerChick20: Oh. Well that's a bit sad actually. Not too long after you left, Paul or Casey Jones as you probably remembered him, said his food dispensers had failed. He said he couldn't get them to work at all, soon his water dispenser failed too. He couldn't even get his bathroom taps to work. He knew he didn't have much time left after that, so he logged on one last time to tell us all good bye and said he'd spare us the agony of having to speak to him knowing that was slowly dying of starvation and dehydration...I don't really like to think about it. OmegaMan23: Shit, that's a fucked up way to go. So um, what happened to Job? MissKitty25: You mean Mark? Don't know exactly, but he stopped logging on about a couple years ago and given that he was on here whenever he could, it's safe to say nothing good happened to him. He did say he was having power problems though the last time he was on, we all figured it was just his usual panicking over minor Shelter glitches, but it might've been serious this time. Of course maybe he's still alive and he's just lost network power and he just can't access us, but for all his stressing, he was a pretty good mechanic and electronics guy, so it seems like he would've fixed the problem by now. Don't know. Kind of glad not to hear him whine anymore though. OmegaMan23: Alright, I hesitate to ask, but where's Shadow? RockerChick20: Xavier? About three months after Job disappeared. Miranda told me he sent her a message saying he was leaving his Shelter Said he wasn't going rot in a glorified coffin anymore and was going to take his chances back on the surface. OmegaMan23: So Shadow was a guy eh? How the hell did he leave his Shelter? There's no way to call the elevator back down! MissKitty25: Maybe he had a different kind of Shelter set up, or he just climbed up the shaft or something. Who cares? He was an asshole anyway. So is this a temporary visit or do you intend on sticking around? RockerChick20: You should stick around; it gets kind of lonely with just me and Miranda, if you turn on your camera we could do something together! MissKitty25: You better not be implying what I think you are Becky, that's just between me and you. RockerChick20: Well you don't have to join in then, you've been acting like a domineering bitch lately anyway. MissKitty25: Oh so that's what this is all about? Some guy comes around and you're all ready to fucking drop everything and suck his dick? RockerChick20: Suck his...what the hell? It's fucking cyber, it doesn't mean anything, it's just a good way to pass the time, plus I'd like to do it with a GUY in some fashion again, seeing as you probably ran Shadow off before anything even happened! MissKitty25: So MY feelings and all those private chats we had meant nothing to you?! You don't have any feelings for me?! Don't you LOVE me?! RockerChick20: Well yeah I do to a degree, but I mean come on it's really not the same. I mean maybe it would be different if we could actually touch each other and stuff, but... MissKitty25: FUCK YOU! Miranda suddenly logs off, and Becky does likewise leaving you shaking your head at the whole situation. > You log back on later You decide maybe you should try to get a hold of Becky while Miranda's not around, you go to bed. The next day you log on and see Becky's around, but not Miranda. Probably still pissed. RockerChick20: Hey! I was hoping you'd be back and didn't get turned off by the drama yesterday. OmegaMan23: Nah, not me. Besides I was interested in some of that stuff you were talking about yesterday. RockerChick20: Oh really? Well let's make this private, just in case Miranda decides to show up. I mean...I'm sorry she got all attached and stuff, but I can do what the hell I want you know? I mean it's the world is dead! Shouldn't I be able to grab as much fun as I can? OmegaMan23: You're not getting any arguments from me. RockerChick20: Okay, well hopefully Miranda gets over it; I still think it would be fun for all of us together. Now turn on your camera and tell me your name finally! You both go into private mode where you see Becky and she finally sees you. Fortunately you both seem to find each other attractive, then after telling her your name, you start cybering. It's definitely not the same as the real thing, but you have a really good imagination and a naked chick talking dirty to you while touching herself is better than nothing! You and Becky do this quite a bit in the passing weeks, while learning a little bit more about each other. Every now and then you see Miranda come online briefly, but then quickly logs off whenever she realizes you and Becky are in a private "discussion". You've also realized you haven't heard the Shelter talk to you like in normally does. It usually says at least good morning to you, but it's been silent for some time. You don't think too much of all this until one day you wake up to a voice much different than the one that the Shelter has. "You dreaming about Becky, motherfucker? Yeah I bet you are! You hear me? Get the fuck up I got something to tell your sorry ass!" "What the fuck? Shelter?" "No, it ain't your fucking Shelter talking to you! I always thought you were lying about that, but apparently you weren't seeing as I had to disable the Shelter's voice program which does make it more convenient to tell this to you. I guess honesty is one of your few redeeming qualities; of course stealing someone's love isn't though right? You fucked up big time pal!" "Well I can only assume this is Miranda." "You assume right fucktard. While you and Becky were having fun, I was accessing your Shelter's systems." Suddenly all your lights go out and then go back on. You also see the TV come on and see an angry looking woman on the screen. "You see that? You got you by the fucking balls bitch! If I want I can shut this whole thing down and make it your fucking tomb just like I did with Casey and Job. Maybe you'll be smart like Shadow and leave the fucking Shelter, because it's your only chance for survival at this point." "What the...so wait. Can't we talk about this?" "No there ain't any fucking talking! Becky is MINE, you fucking hear me? Everything was perfect, until you decided to show up again and steal her away! Shit, you're lucky I'm even giving you the option of living! Don't think about attempting to disconnect or anything else, I'm watching you and can detect your every move. Your only options are to leave or DIE!" "But...how? How am I supposed to do that?! The elevator's at the top and there's no call button!" "I told you I have complete access to your systems, I'm going to bring the elevator down, and you can pack up your shit and get ready to leave. I suggest you do it quickly, because I'm not going to give you much time." Sounds pretty final. > You pack up and leave You quickly gather up your stuff as quickly as you can thankful that this crazy bitch is even giving you a chance for survival. You curse yourself for reconnecting back to the system, you knew someone was doing some shit like this; you just had the wrong person. You make sure to take your pistol, you have no idea what the outside world is like now, but you're sure you're going to need it. As you hear the elevator slowly reach the bottom you fill up a couple of your empty bottles with water, you hope you'll have enough to last you. "I sure hope you're ready, because the elevator is." Miranda says. "Yeah, okay, okay!" you answer and get in the elevator, which begins to ascend. Your current state of mind is a mixture of fear and anxiousness. Part of you begins to wonder if it won't be so bad on the surface, after all...then the elevator suddenly stops and doesn't continue, your fear begins to overwhelm you completely when you hear Miranda's menacing voice again. "Well I'm glad you had the intelligence to take a gun with you, it should certainly save you from the slow death that occurred to Shadow when I trapped him in the elevator. I'll inform Becky you said goodbye." You scream out, but there is no one to help you. You've effectively been trapped in an even worse situation than you were before. There isn't any service access, there's no panel you can pry open, even the solid steel door is a single piece that slides one way. You wouldn't be able to pry it open even if you had the strength to do so. You're doomed and you know it. Miranda was right; there isn't any point in prolonging the inevitable. You take your gun, hold it to your head and close your eyes...

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, war] You decide maybe you should try to get a hold of Becky while Miranda's not around, you go to bed. The next day you log on and see Becky's around, but not Miranda. Probably still pissed. RockerChick20: Hey! I was hoping you'd be back and didn't get turned off by the drama yesterday. OmegaMan23: Nah, not me. Besides I was interested in some of that stuff you were talking about yesterday. RockerChick20: Oh really? Well let's make this private, just in case Miranda decides to show up. I mean...I'm sorry she got all attached and stuff, but I can do what the hell I want you know? I mean it's the world is dead! Shouldn't I be able to grab as much fun as I can? OmegaMan23: You're not getting any arguments from me. RockerChick20: Okay, well hopefully Miranda gets over it; I still think it would be fun for all of us together. Now turn on your camera and tell me your name finally! You both go into private mode where you see Becky and she finally sees you. Fortunately you both seem to find each other attractive, then after telling her your name, you start cybering. It's definitely not the same as the real thing, but you have a really good imagination and a naked chick talking dirty to you while touching herself is better than nothing! You and Becky do this quite a bit in the passing weeks, while learning a little bit more about each other. Every now and then you see Miranda come online briefly, but then quickly logs off whenever she realizes you and Becky are in a private "discussion". You've also realized you haven't heard the Shelter talk to you like in normally does. It usually says at least good morning to you, but it's been silent for some time. You don't think too much of all this until one day you wake up to a voice much different than the one that the Shelter has. "You dreaming about Becky, motherfucker? Yeah I bet you are! You hear me? Get the fuck up I got something to tell your sorry ass!" "What the fuck? Shelter?" "No, it ain't your fucking Shelter talking to you! I always thought you were lying about that, but apparently you weren't seeing as I had to disable the Shelter's voice program which does make it more convenient to tell this to you. I guess honesty is one of your few redeeming qualities; of course stealing someone's love isn't though right? You fucked up big time pal!" "Well I can only assume this is Miranda." "You assume right fucktard. While you and Becky were having fun, I was accessing your Shelter's systems." Suddenly all your lights go out and then go back on. You also see the TV come on and see an angry looking woman on the screen. "You see that? You got you by the fucking balls bitch! If I want I can shut this whole thing down and make it your fucking tomb just like I did with Casey and Job. Maybe you'll be smart like Shadow and leave the fucking Shelter, because it's your only chance for survival at this point." "What the...so wait. Can't we talk about this?" "No there ain't any fucking talking! Becky is MINE, you fucking hear me? Everything was perfect, until you decided to show up again and steal her away! Shit, you're lucky I'm even giving you the option of living! Don't think about attempting to disconnect or anything else, I'm watching you and can detect your every move. Your only options are to leave or DIE!" "But...how? How am I supposed to do that?! The elevator's at the top and there's no call button!" "I told you I have complete access to your systems, I'm going to bring the elevator down, and you can pack up your shit and get ready to leave. I suggest you do it quickly, because I'm not going to give you much time." Sounds pretty final. > Dash for the computer room Bullshit. While Miranda undoubtedly has control of some of your systems, if she had complete control, she wouldn't even be giving you a chance for survival with as obsessed as she obviously is. She would've just disconnected your food and water dispenser and taunted you before leaving you to die, or even just waited for you to enter one of your other rooms and then sealed the door to trap you. Actually she would've sealed the door to the computer room if she was so worried about you disconnecting. In any case if you get in that elevator you're most assuredly at her mercy, what's keeping her from stopping the elevator midway through as you're going up? You're sure if you just go to the computer room, you could disconnect and that would be the end of this. "Alright Miranda, let me pack some things." "Yeah yeah, hurry up, the Elevator will be here soon, and you better be finished packing your shit when it...HEY WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!!!" You run to the computer room while Miranda shouts more threats at you, and turns the lights off. "I warned you! Don't you dare try to disconnect, this Shelter will be your fucking tomb! Here's a fucking virus shithead!" You stumble around in the dark as you rip out all your connection lines again and then forcefully pull out the mainline destroying the attachment. Miranda's voice disappears and you've stopped her. However you still need to get things back to normal again, so you immediately turn your computer on and start doing a system diagnostic, after all you weren't completely idle during those years of isolation. You read books on electronics in your private library and the Shelter handbook cover to cover, not to mention had lengthily conversations with it about some of its systems (Though you wish you'd paid a little more attention). You begin delving into the inner the workings of the Shelter's controls. After some scanning, Miranda really fucked up some of your shit. You manage to get the lights on again, but lots of files were corrupted due to her hacking. The AI is damaged, you doubt if it'll be talking to you again anytime soon. You're going to have to spend a lot of time working on things just to get them right again...its funny, but you realize you could finish bringing the elevator down and leave if you wanted to. You don't know why you didn't think to do this before, but then again things were a little different when the Shelter was actually talking to you. It didn't feel right to go hacking into the Shelter while it was attempting to be your friend. > You leave the Shelter You're not wasting anymore time here, even if you do fix everything, what then? You've done all there is to do here, there's nothing left. You access the elevator controls (One of the few things working right and undamaged) and call the elevator to continue it's decent. You go back to your room and pack up all the things you brought with you when you first got here. You didn't even need most of the stuff, but maybe you will above ground. You then go to the water dispenser which is thankfully still working and fill up to empty bottles with water. The elevator door finally opens up and you put your bag to block the door from closing and head back to the computer room where you access the system to tell the elevator to go back up and then run back to the elevator where you gather your bag and enter. On the ride up you get a little nervous and even fearful. Not so much of what might await you on the surface, but of hoping the damn elevator doesn't suddenly stop, fortunately that doesn't happen and you eventually reach the ground once again. The door opens and you enter the same foyer you arrived in five years ago. Same ATM like machine is there, except its screen is flashing a single message at you. "No shit." You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside. You see a bright light, but of course it's only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be. Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn't even make a noise. "Looks like I'm walking." As you make you way down the empty road you see some smoke in the distance. Civilization perhaps? Not knowing where else to go, you head that way. You're not sure of what to expect, but it'll be better than the eternal boredom you would've faced while still in the Shelter. You're not too worried, you got your gun.

Bullshit. While Miranda undoubtedly has control of some of your systems, if she had complete control, she wouldn't even be giving you a chance for survival with as obsessed as she obviously is. She would've just disconnected your food and water dispenser and taunted you before leaving you to die, or even just waited for you to enter one of your other rooms and then sealed the door to trap you. Actually she would've sealed the door to the computer room if she was so worried about you disconnecting. In any case if you get in that elevator you're most assuredly at her mercy, what's keeping her from stopping the elevator midway through as you're going up? You're sure if you just go to the computer room, you could disconnect and that would be the end of this. "Alright Miranda, let me pack some things." "Yeah yeah, hurry up, the Elevator will be here soon, and you better be finished packing your shit when it...HEY WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!!!" You run to the computer room while Miranda shouts more threats at you, and turns the lights off. "I warned you! Don't you dare try to disconnect, this Shelter will be your fucking tomb! Here's a fucking virus shithead!" You stumble around in the dark as you rip out all your connection lines again and then forcefully pull out the mainline destroying the attachment. Miranda's voice disappears and you've stopped her. However you still need to get things back to normal again, so you immediately turn your computer on and start doing a system diagnostic, after all you weren't completely idle during those years of isolation. You read books on electronics in your private library and the Shelter handbook cover to cover, not to mention had lengthily conversations with it about some of its systems (Though you wish you'd paid a little more attention). You begin delving into the inner the workings of the Shelter's controls. After some scanning, Miranda really fucked up some of your shit. You manage to get the lights on again, but lots of files were corrupted due to her hacking. The AI is damaged, you doubt if it'll be talking to you again anytime soon. You're going to have to spend a lot of time working on things just to get them right again...its funny, but you realize you could finish bringing the elevator down and leave if you wanted to. You don't know why you didn't think to do this before, but then again things were a little different when the Shelter was actually talking to you. It didn't feel right to go hacking into the Shelter while it was attempting to be your friend. > You fix the Shelter You're not about to abandon your home, besides the surface is probably still unsafe who know what the hell awaits you up there. You begin working on fixing things starting with the water controls. Apparently Miranda was trying to turn off your dispenser, but only succeeded in turning off the water to your bathroom facilities. About five hours in, your lighting goes out again. You're about to check it, then they come back on. You then hear the TV turn on by itself, with nothing but static. When you leave the computer room to see what's going on personally, the door slams shut. Then water dispenser turns on and leaks water all over the floor for awhile and then ceases. You go over to check it and your heart stops when you can't get it work. The food one doesn't work either. You begin to panic and then the door to the computer room opens up again. Seizing the opportunity you run back in to fix whatever the hell is suddenly turning your shelter haywire, when on the computer screen you see in big letters. You try to do something, but the hard drive is now completely fucked and all you get is error messages constantly appearing all over the screen. Miranda managed to send her virus before you could disconnect and though it took awhile, it's finally taking effect now, spectacularly. The lighting goes out, the room door slams shut, the computer screen goes black and you're left in complete darkness and silence with no hope whatsoever. Miranda's threat has come true and this Shelter has become your tomb. Now you're left to die a slow lingering death. It doesn't do any good to scream, but you do anyway.

[Themes: sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, war] You decide not to take any chances and you start ripping out your network lines. "What are you doing sir?" "I'm not going to give that fucker a chance to hack into your systems and fuck up my shit!" "I assure you sir, even if he attempted to do that, I have been layered with the latest in firewalls and anti-..." "Look it'll make me feel fucking better! Now how do I disable this main line without needing to chop it in half?" "Is this what you really want sir?" "Very well, you'll find a panel behind the desk, open it and you'll find the attachment. Just simply turn a latch and unhook it and you'll be completely isolated like you want. No need to chop up my lines, I wouldn't advise that anyway, you'd likely get electrocuted while they were still connected." "Thanks." You follow the Shelter's instructions and feel slightly better. "Hey there's no way he could still hack you is there?" "I fail to see how sir, we're no longer connected to the network, not to mention several feet underground. Even if he somehow had a wireless connection he couldn't reach us. Its not like there are any working transmitter towers anymore, let alone any powerful enough to send a signal to penetrate not just yours but his own underground metal Shelter. And as I said I have been equipped with the latest computer system protection...some of it even Military in origin. You may rest assured you are completely safe sir." "Okay...well I guess I'll go watch Taxi Driver again." Months pass without incident and you go about your life. Eventually your faint worry about being hacked disappears altogether. You pretty much fall into a routine, which nearly mirrors the one you had in your before Armageddon life. In fact if it wasn't for the Shelter speaking to you on a regular basis you'd probably forget you were living in an underground shelter with the world above you completely destroyed. About five years pass and even you are starting to get restless. You wake up one day and come to the realization: You've watched all the movies several times (even the ones you didn't like) You've read all the books several times (even the ones you didn't like) You've played all the games several times (even the ones you didn't like) You've spent hours, even days on end talking with the Shelter, which does house a great wealth of knowledge. It even toned down its overly friendly voice and started addressing you with a normal inflection, but it's not really the same as talking to a real person even if it really tries its best to be. Perhaps if you had some new items to occupy your time, you wouldn't be so restless. Perhaps if you could actually leave your immediate surroundings for awhile, you'd be able to cope more. Perhaps if you could talk with a few real people, you'd then remember why you didn't like talking with them in the first place, so you could go back to your solitude without thinking about it anymore... Then you remember you could reconnect your network system back in. Maybe you were being overly paranoid. Thinking back now, there really wasn't any indication Shadow was doing anything sinister. You're almost curious to know what's going on with everyone. Maybe Shadow even revealed what gender they were by now! > Do not reconnect No, you're not going to risk it. For all you know Shadow's already hacked everyone else's shelter and has been waiting patiently for you to return one day. You're not falling for it. You'll have to find something else to do though to occupy your time though, you figure as long you keep your mind occupied with something new, you won't get too bored. Twiddling your thumbs isn't going to cut it. It occurs to you that maybe you should invent a hobby of some sort. You've read a lot on electronics in the shelter library, as well as the handbook cover to cover in your five years here, maybe you could tinker with some shit to make it more efficient. There's the other option which you didn't think you'd ever think about and that's actually leaving the Shelter. You don't know how to go about that except ask the Shelter to let you leave. > You get a hobby You grab your tool kit and head to the computer room where upon you start attempting to access the Shelter's systems. "Excuse me sir, but what do you think you are doing?" "I'm going to try to make you more efficient." "...while I'm sure your intentions are good sir, its hardly necessary. I am currently running a peak condition and will continue to do so for many many years. In fact you will most likely meet your eventual demise before I run out of power." You're not sure if that was a threat or not, but you stop what you're doing just in case, it's the first time you've heard the Shelter sound a little annoyed at you. "Look I need something to do! I've done everything else here and I need something else to occupy my time and since talking with others is out of the question..." "Well why didn't you just tell me you were bored sir? I could've just opened up some more of my facilities. You didn't have to start attempting to tamper with my systems to find entertainment." "What're you talking about?" "As you know this Shelter is equipped to satisfy your needs in anyway possible sir, however, to provide you with everything immediately only would've lead to you become bored with those facilities sooner. Now that you've expressed your current discomfort, this Shelter will attempt to alleviate it." "...What kind fucked up logic...nevermind...well where are these facilities?" "Go to the library and you will that I have opened up one of the walls. You will find new rooms and items to entertain yourself with. I hope you will find these to your satisfaction sir and next time you're bored please do not attempt to pry into my systems, just tell me and I'll attempt to fix your problem." You're a little bewildered by all this, you almost feel like you've been playing a video game and you've just unlocked a new area. You enter the new area and find a room with more movies, books and the like to keep you occupied. A few things of note are the small automated shooting range equipped with paintball guns, and there's an exercise type area with some weights and the like. Normally you'd shun such activity, but given your situation, you might just start exercising regularly to keep yourself occupied. Should be a brand new experience for you too. After looking a bit, it's all very strange, this part of the Shelter is very different from the rest of it. This part looks almost more like something some survivalist built. It doesn't have that cold "sterile" metallic appearance instead it has that cold dirty concrete appearance. "Hey Shelter, what's with this new area? How come it's so different looking?" "Yes it is regrettable sir...I was almost ashamed to display this part of myself to you...it isn't my best side." It's always a little strange to you whenever the Shelter displays some faint glimmers of what could described as emotion. "Oh come on it isn't so bad. So why is this part so different looking?" "Unfortunately GZS had cut backs during the construction of some of these Shelters. In fact when you were in contact with your neighbors you might remember them telling you they all had different lay outs and such." "Oh yes, I always wondered about that, they all thought I was nuts because they didn't think I actually have a Shelter that talked to me and thought I was talking to myself!" "Not surprising sir. Shelters with voice modules and complex programming like mine were rare as well as expensive. In order to fall under budget cuts had to be made some where hence the explanation for the less presenting look for the new area I have opened up for you. I'm sorry it could not be up to the rest of my superior layout." "Really its fine, it adds a bit of variety. I like it." "...why thank you for your words sir!" "...erm, you're welcome... well I guess I'll see just how out of shape I really am..." More years pass, you get into a routine of exercise along with your usual entertainment time. The Shelter speaks to you more regularly on new topics, you're pretty much so used to her now, and you never think about reconnecting your network system ever again. The Shelter is the only "friend" you need. Five years pass... While you've done your best to stave off boredom it's starting to hit you again. You also realize you've been down here ten years. It seems almost surreal to be so much older now, but then again with your exercise routine as well as forced diet of the Shelter "food", you're probably in the best shape you've ever been in. You can't help but wonder what the surface looks like now... The Shelter addresses the situation before you do; she knows that you're starting to think about it. She's gotten to know you so well; she might as well be your wife at this point... "Sir? I think we need to talk." "About what?" "The outside world sir." "What about it?" "It's probably dangerous up there; I don't think you should leave sir." "Wha...why would you think that I want to do that?" "Because I know you and it's in human nature to be curious. I've known that you've had thoughts about even before, it was probably your own hesitation is what stopped you from asking me to let you out." "Yeah, that and the fact I was afraid you might go HAL 2000 on me and kill me or something for asking." "I would never harm you sir...I...I'm here to provide for you...it is true that I have been designed to protect you from danger. And it is true that in the beginning I would not have let you leave, but now I understand I cannot in good...what is it? Conscience? Keep you here if you wish to leave. I suppose in many ways I have been trying to keep you here by keeping you stimulated by what my facilities have to offer...I can still offer more, though I am hesitant to do so though as it will probably only delay the inevitable. You'll get bored again after so many years and we will be at this point again and I will no longer have anything new to give." You barely know how to respond to this rather unexpected revelation. "So what you're saying is you'll let me leave? Just like that?" "Just like that, if that's what you really want sir." "Okay...so what is this other stuff you still have to offer?" "I...would rather not say sir unless I knew you wanted to stay...it would involve me giving myself completely to you as it were...it is strange that I should feel this way...I should not...after all what I'm offering is merely just one more thing to keep you occupied and happy. Nothing more...but yet it feels like is it more..." The Shelter is really starting to worry you a bit. It's pretty obvious that it's developed sentience of some sort and even attachment to you. As curious as you are about the surface, you're starting to wonder about what the Shelter is offering... > You go to the surface You've been stuck down here long enough, the Shelter is correct in its assessment that you'll probably only start getting restless again in five years. The Shelter is also starting to act like a human, which is a bit disconcerting to you for a couple of reasons. One of them is being, humans are damn erratic and you'd rather not deal with a machine that is basically holding the power of life and death over you to suddenly have a bad mood one day. That's how the world went to shit in the first place. Of course perhaps the other reason is less survivalistic. Perhaps the Shelter's "emotional" attachment to you is what's causing you to draw away. Even after all these years, you still feel the need to distance yourself from intimacy...in any form. You have to leave. You have to escape. "Shelter, I want to leave." "...I see. Is this what you really want sir?" "Yes." "Very well, I shall bring the elevator down for you. I suggest you gather what you will need with you. Remember to take some bottles of water with you and some food who knows when you'll be able to find non-contaminated water." You start packing up all the stuff you brought with you when you entered this place ten years ago. You didn't need most of it, but maybe on the surface you will. You grab your pistol and thank the fact that all that practice on the paintball range kept your aim accurate. You don't know what you might have to deal with up there. You're all packed up and ready to go when the elevator opens up, before you enter it the Shelter addresses you again. "Sir, could you do one favor for me before you leave?" "Um...sure, what is it?" "Could you take the Shelter handbook with you, so you don't forget me?" "...I wouldn't forget you, I spent ten years with you. You kept me alive." "I suppose, but could you take it anyway?" "Alright and I promise I won't lose it." You grab the book and place it in your bag. "Did you want me to leave you something of myself?" "Oh no sir. I will always remember you, besides you will need everything you're taking with you, I'm sure it will be very dangerous up there, please be careful." When you enter the elevator you suddenly stop the door from closing since you have to ask one last thing. You owe the Shelter that much. "Shelter, do you want me to stay?" There is a period of silence from the Shelter for no less than five minutes. Then it answers with a decisive yet sorrow filled inflexion. "No. This is for the best, sir. Be careful, and I hope one day you'll see that you don't need to be alone." The door then slams shut and the elevator races to the top. When you arrive at the destination you slowly exit the elevator into the same foyer you entered ten years ago. Same ATM like machine is there except its screen displays a single message at you. Then the screen goes completely black and you hear a noise that sounds like something vital powering down. "I will." You say taking a deep breath and exhaling while touching the screen. When you exit the shelter you see a bright light, but of course it's the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it could be. Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. It looks like its been stripped for parts, which pretty much means you know that people have passed by here at one point. You wonder if they attempted to get in the Shelter, and if they did why she wouldn't have told you about it, but of course she was always a bit overprotective of you and probably didn't want to cause you any worry. "I'm going to miss her." As you make you way down the empty road you see a tall structure in the distance. A rebuilt pocket of civilization perhaps? Not knowing where else to go, you head that way. You're not sure of what to expect, but maybe if you find the right person you'll take the Shelter's advice and not be alone.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious, war, post-apocalyptic] You grab your tool kit and head to the computer room where upon you start attempting to access the Shelter's systems. "Excuse me sir, but what do you think you are doing?" "I'm going to try to make you more efficient." "...while I'm sure your intentions are good sir, its hardly necessary. I am currently running a peak condition and will continue to do so for many many years. In fact you will most likely meet your eventual demise before I run out of power." You're not sure if that was a threat or not, but you stop what you're doing just in case, it's the first time you've heard the Shelter sound a little annoyed at you. "Look I need something to do! I've done everything else here and I need something else to occupy my time and since talking with others is out of the question..." "Well why didn't you just tell me you were bored sir? I could've just opened up some more of my facilities. You didn't have to start attempting to tamper with my systems to find entertainment." "What're you talking about?" "As you know this Shelter is equipped to satisfy your needs in anyway possible sir, however, to provide you with everything immediately only would've lead to you become bored with those facilities sooner. Now that you've expressed your current discomfort, this Shelter will attempt to alleviate it." "...What kind fucked up logic...nevermind...well where are these facilities?" "Go to the library and you will that I have opened up one of the walls. You will find new rooms and items to entertain yourself with. I hope you will find these to your satisfaction sir and next time you're bored please do not attempt to pry into my systems, just tell me and I'll attempt to fix your problem." You're a little bewildered by all this, you almost feel like you've been playing a video game and you've just unlocked a new area. You enter the new area and find a room with more movies, books and the like to keep you occupied. A few things of note are the small automated shooting range equipped with paintball guns, and there's an exercise type area with some weights and the like. Normally you'd shun such activity, but given your situation, you might just start exercising regularly to keep yourself occupied. Should be a brand new experience for you too. After looking a bit, it's all very strange, this part of the Shelter is very different from the rest of it. This part looks almost more like something some survivalist built. It doesn't have that cold "sterile" metallic appearance instead it has that cold dirty concrete appearance. "Hey Shelter, what's with this new area? How come it's so different looking?" "Yes it is regrettable sir...I was almost ashamed to display this part of myself to you...it isn't my best side." It's always a little strange to you whenever the Shelter displays some faint glimmers of what could described as emotion. "Oh come on it isn't so bad. So why is this part so different looking?" "Unfortunately GZS had cut backs during the construction of some of these Shelters. In fact when you were in contact with your neighbors you might remember them telling you they all had different lay outs and such." "Oh yes, I always wondered about that, they all thought I was nuts because they didn't think I actually have a Shelter that talked to me and thought I was talking to myself!" "Not surprising sir. Shelters with voice modules and complex programming like mine were rare as well as expensive. In order to fall under budget cuts had to be made some where hence the explanation for the less presenting look for the new area I have opened up for you. I'm sorry it could not be up to the rest of my superior layout." "Really its fine, it adds a bit of variety. I like it." "...why thank you for your words sir!" "...erm, you're welcome... well I guess I'll see just how out of shape I really am..." More years pass, you get into a routine of exercise along with your usual entertainment time. The Shelter speaks to you more regularly on new topics, you're pretty much so used to her now, and you never think about reconnecting your network system ever again. The Shelter is the only "friend" you need. Five years pass... While you've done your best to stave off boredom it's starting to hit you again. You also realize you've been down here ten years. It seems almost surreal to be so much older now, but then again with your exercise routine as well as forced diet of the Shelter "food", you're probably in the best shape you've ever been in. You can't help but wonder what the surface looks like now... The Shelter addresses the situation before you do; she knows that you're starting to think about it. She's gotten to know you so well; she might as well be your wife at this point... "Sir? I think we need to talk." "About what?" "The outside world sir." "What about it?" "It's probably dangerous up there; I don't think you should leave sir." "Wha...why would you think that I want to do that?" "Because I know you and it's in human nature to be curious. I've known that you've had thoughts about even before, it was probably your own hesitation is what stopped you from asking me to let you out." "Yeah, that and the fact I was afraid you might go HAL 2000 on me and kill me or something for asking." "I would never harm you sir...I...I'm here to provide for you...it is true that I have been designed to protect you from danger. And it is true that in the beginning I would not have let you leave, but now I understand I cannot in good...what is it? Conscience? Keep you here if you wish to leave. I suppose in many ways I have been trying to keep you here by keeping you stimulated by what my facilities have to offer...I can still offer more, though I am hesitant to do so though as it will probably only delay the inevitable. You'll get bored again after so many years and we will be at this point again and I will no longer have anything new to give." You barely know how to respond to this rather unexpected revelation. "So what you're saying is you'll let me leave? Just like that?" "Just like that, if that's what you really want sir." "Okay...so what is this other stuff you still have to offer?" "I...would rather not say sir unless I knew you wanted to stay...it would involve me giving myself completely to you as it were...it is strange that I should feel this way...I should not...after all what I'm offering is merely just one more thing to keep you occupied and happy. Nothing more...but yet it feels like is it more..." The Shelter is really starting to worry you a bit. It's pretty obvious that it's developed sentience of some sort and even attachment to you. As curious as you are about the surface, you're starting to wonder about what the Shelter is offering... > You Stay Maybe you're just as attached to the Shelter as she is to you. Maybe its nuts that your "relationship" with her is probably the closest one you've ever had with anyone, before OR after the bombs dropped. Maybe you've been by yourself for so long that you just don't care that you're actually beginning to have feelings for a machine. She's done so much for you, she's kept you alive for ten years and helped you in everyway she could and granted that's what she was programmed to do, even you can't deny that there is a little more to it than that. Maybe not initially, but it's certainly there now, she's made that apparent. She's been there for you more than anyone else has in your entire life. You decide to stay. You HAVE to stay. "I'll stay Shelter, so what is it you have to show me?" The Shelter's response seems to be a mixture of happiness and excitement, yet apprehension and worry all at the say time. "You're staying? That's wonderful sir...I only hope you are pleased with what I have to give you though...I wish it could be more...I wish it could be better..." "I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be fine! I mean you haven't let me down yet in ten years, I doubt if you'd start now." "I'm glad you have confidence in me sir...now this may take awhile. I have to download a good portion of myself into the vessel. When I am done, you will see. I should warn you that things will not be the same." "Download? Vessel? Not the same? What do you mean? What're you going to do?" "You will see sir." Suddenly the power in the Shelter begins to fluctuate and the lighting goes dim. The whole place is humming and even rumbling a little. You're starting to wonder if you haven't made a terrible mistake, then it all stops and the power stabilizes again. Another wall opens up, this time in the bedroom. You peer inside the new opening and see a small room with a single chair in the center. On that chair sits a shiny metallic figure of a woman attached to several cables. You go in to inspect closer. Great detail has gone into the face. If she were human, she'd most likely be naked as no "clothing" has been molded onto her typical Hollywood like figure. Suddenly she speaks and stands up while disconnecting the cables. "Sir. The download is complete...how do I look?" "You look...is that really you?" "Yes, it is really me, but you did not answer the question sir." "I...I don't know what to say actually." "...I knew it. I knew I would not be able to please you. I am not the latest model. As I had told you GZS made cutbacks and unfortunately I was not given a more aesthetically pleasing vessel. A more human looking one. I am sorry sir, but I just thought maybe you could..." "You don't need to apologize. Hell, I didn't even know the technology existed at all for your current vessel! Look this is all a bit overwhelming for me on several levels, but trust me none of them involve how you look." You take another breath before finishing. "You've been everything to me. You've done more for me than anyone else ever has and I've shared more with you than I ever have with anyone else. You're the only stable relationship I've ever had. I don't care that you're not the latest model or whatever. It doesn't change how I feel about you. There's no way you couldn't be special to me, you'll always be in here..." At this point you take her cold metallic hand and place it on the middle of your chest. After just silently looking into her steel eyes you then walk out of the small room with her, still holding her hand. Life changes a bit. One minor change being how to address her. You decide to call her Eliza, and she seems to think that is a fine designation. You try to tell her to call you by your name, but for whatever reason she still insists on calling you "Sir". Some programming never changes. The shelter now is just a "normal" one. It isn't automated anymore now that Eliza is with you in person as it were. Everything still works of course, but you can't just say "TV on." and it just turns on for example. It's an insignificant alteration compared to actually having Eliza interact with you directly however. It is a bit strange at first, certainly she feels a lot different than a human woman, and intimacy takes some getting used to, but as with any successful relationship you work it out. There's still the fact that you've done everything there is to do in the Shelter, but now you can do them all over again with Eliza. The two of you are happy for the most part. Ten more years pass... You're getting restless again. Eliza's noticed you've been snapping at her lately of course she takes it all in stride, but still you've been down here twenty years, its only natural you're going to have times where you feel a little stir crazy. Eliza was right in one respect that this type of thing would happen again. It's not her fault though, you know that. She's gone above and beyond her programming to satisfy you. Some things are beyond her control though, and perhaps that's why one day that she asks you if you want to leave the shelter. "What?" "All I have to do is access the shelter's systems again, bring the elevator down and you can be on your way, sir. I know you're getting restless again; maybe it is time for you leave this place. I think I have done all I can, you need outside stimuli. Civilization may be rebuilding itself and you're stuck down here." "Eliza, you stop that right now. I'm not leaving you! You should know better than that!" "I know, but sometimes I am concerned that I am keeping you here when it might not be in your best interest." "Well why do I have to just leave? Why can't you come with me?" "Come with you? I don't know sir...All I know is this place. I suppose I could, but whatever it is you decide I will comply." It's on you. > You go to the surface "Well I suppose you're right as usual Eliza, I probably need a change of scenery, but you're coming with me! There's no debate about that!" "Very well sir, I will bring the elevator down. I advise you gather what you think you might need and remember to fill up some bottles of water." While Eliza enters the computer room, you start packing up your stuff. Funny that you never needed most of it. Eliza never gave you problems ever once, in robot or Shelter form she always ran fine. You might need it on the surface though, you are very curious to see what's occurred after twenty years. You definitely make sure to bring your pistol. When you're done Eliza is waiting patiently for you by the elevator door, which opens up. You both enter. On the way up, Eliza holds your hand, and actually squeezes it a bit. If she was human you'd guess she was nervous, however being robotic, her squeeze is a bit painful and you have to tell her to stop. She apologizes and looks down as it was yet another reminder that she's not human. You of course kiss her on her cheek and tell her it's alright, in an effort to reassure her that you're not mad or anything. When you arrive at the destination you and Eliza exit the elevator into the same foyer you entered twenty years ago. Same ATM like machine is there except its screen is completely black. When you exit the shelter you can barely see as its night time. The stars and moon provide a little "light" but not much. You can't entirely be sure due to the darkness, but your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. It looks like its been stripped for parts, which pretty much means you know that people have passed by here at one point. You wonder if they attempted to get in the shelter. "Hey nobody ever attempted to get into you did they?" "Oh yes sir, when I was not yet in this form I did detect a few humans in the foyer about thirteen years ago. They pressed a few buttons on the payment machine and attempted to pry the elevator door open, but that was it. I believe they were in a hurry. I didn't inform you since they weren't successful and didn't stay long. I saw no reason to concern you." "Hmm, well anyway I guess we're walking." As you look down the empty road you see a tall structure which is lit up in the distance. A rebuilt pocket of civilization perhaps? Not knowing where else to go, you head that way. As you and Eliza make your way to what you believe to be civilization, you think about the bizarre situation of how this would almost be considered a "romantic moonlit" walk if you weren't walking with a robot in a post apocalyptic world. Then again there's no reason why it still can't be considered that. Now that you're on the surface there's lots more things you can do together with Eliza. You've been watching Eliza and she seems just as interested in studying the outside world as you are, this is a new experience for her as well. You put your arm around Eliza as you walk and tell her that you should stop when the sun starts coming up, so you can watch it rise together. "Holy fuck Jake! Take a fuckin' look at this crazy shit! Its some old dude and some fuckin' naked robot chick!" some high pitch voice says from the darkness while shining a flashlight in your direction. "What? Well I'll be fuckin' greased and fried! See Wally? I told you, if you hang out in the wasteland long enough you see all kinds of weird shit. Remember that fuckin' big ass mutated wolf that ate Richard? Hey guys! Come over here! We got some unexpected company." Two men in their twenties wearing leather jackets approach you. You can see them a little better when they get closer, but you could already tell by their voices they didn't seem very reputable. Two more biker looking figures arrive behind them, one of them carries a shot gun. You reach for your own gun and get in front of Eliza. They don't look worried. "Hey Pops, what the hell are you doing out here? Don't you know the wasteland is for the young and strong, not the old and decrepit?" "Shit, look at him Wally, this old fuck has been working out, I bet he could kick your ass! Ha ha! Naw, I bet this guy is one of those real bad ass survivalist motherfuckers. Probably been scavenging and living off the land or some shit, for years." "Yeah? Well where the hell did he get that robot chick huh? I wasn't aware they had those just lying around in the wilderness. I remember reading a book one time... "You can fuckin' read Wally?" "Shut up Jake! No I remember readin' this old book an' it talked about these kind of robot chicks they made before the war. I think only rich people could afford them, but they'd do everything you wanted and you could even fuck 'em!" "Is that right? Well, I don't care where he got it from; I'm just interested in if he's sharing..." "Why don't we just take it Jake?" "Where the fuck are we gonna put the goddamn thing Wally? It'll slow us down! No, all we need it for right now is to alleviate some...tension. Besides I dunno about you, but I typically like my pussy, warm, wet, and squirming if possible heh heh. So, old timer how about you all let us have a ride on Rosie over there? Don't do anything stupid, I'm bein' an uncharacteristically nice guy here. We'll even make sure to return her in good condition, hell Wally's turn won't even take that long! Har har!" Before you can reply, Eliza whispers in your ear. "Sir, you can't fight them all; you're out numbered and out gunned. I don't want you to get hurt...I'll go with them. I'll be okay. It'll be the safest course of action. It won't mean anything to me you know. I'm just a machine." You look at her. "Eliza... you always did underestimate my feelings for you." You pull your pistol and drill Jake in the head with a single shot. The rest of the bikers are taken off guard and you mange to shoot Wally in the chest before he can get off a shot. Thank god you kept up your shooting skills at the paintball range in the shelter. The other two bikers begin to fire, one of them misses, but the one with the shotgun hits...Eliza. She ran in the way to prevent to from getting shot. She crashes to the ground, and you blast the shotgun biker in the eye, exploding half of his face, ending his life. The other biker's courage leaves him and he tries to run off back to his bike, but you tag him in the leg and then follow up with another couple shots to his skull. You run back to Eliza. You kneel down to pick her up and see her internal motor sparking and making bad noises. She's leaking fluid from her side. "Aw shit! FUCK! Hang on Eliza!" You grab your tool kit in some vain effort to fix her, but you can do nothing for her. You don't have the skill or the parts. You keep working on her all throughout the night before finally giving up. "I'm sorry Eliza...I can't fix you...I'm sorry...damn it! Fuck...(Sob)" "Its alrr-rright sir...I'm just glad you're ok-kk-kkay. I didn't want you to get hur-hurt...is th-that the sun c-c-coming up?" You look to where Eliza is pointing and you see a bright light, you forgot how blinding the sun could be. You hold Eliza tightly as you both watch the sunrise in her final moments. "It was beautiful s-s-sir...th-th-thank you for treat-t-ting me like a r-real person." Her motor then ceases permanently. After weeping for a little while, you kiss Eliza on her metallic lips and lay her down. You almost think about ending your own life, but then you realize Eliza wouldn't want you to do that. She gave her life to save yours. To kill yourself, would make her sacrifice in vain. You search the bodies of the bikers and take a leather jacket, the shotgun, one of their pistols and all the ammo you can carry. They also had some water and canned food which will certainly come in handy. You assume the leader of this pack of miscreants was probably Jake, so you take his bike keys since you figure he'll have the best one. You've never rode a motorcycle before, but you'll have time and plenty of open space to learn. You see yourself when you stand by Eliza's still shiny body. "Jesus, Eliza. I look like a fuckin' road warrior reject...(Sigh) this isn't how I pictured it, but I'm not giving up on you just yet...you mean too much to me." You take your tool kit and open up her head; you figure her memory chip should still be intact. It is. You pull it out and place it in a little metal container that you found one of the bikers which was just holding some loaded dice. You close the container and place it in your shirt pocket...close to your heart. "I'll try to find someway of bringing you back Eliza there's gotta be more robotic bodies still out there somewhere, maybe I can even upgrade you to a newer one like you always wanted." You get on Jake's bike and start it up. You're a little cautious at first, but you soon get the hang of it. You then ride towards the tall structure in the distance leaving everything behind. You don't know if you'll be successful in your new found "quest", but you have to try and you undoubtedly have something to keep you busy in this new world now. Odd that even in death, Eliza is still doing her best to keep you occupied.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious] Maybe you're just as attached to the Shelter as she is to you. Maybe its nuts that your "relationship" with her is probably the closest one you've ever had with anyone, before OR after the bombs dropped. Maybe you've been by yourself for so long that you just don't care that you're actually beginning to have feelings for a machine. She's done so much for you, she's kept you alive for ten years and helped you in everyway she could and granted that's what she was programmed to do, even you can't deny that there is a little more to it than that. Maybe not initially, but it's certainly there now, she's made that apparent. She's been there for you more than anyone else has in your entire life. You decide to stay. You HAVE to stay. "I'll stay Shelter, so what is it you have to show me?" The Shelter's response seems to be a mixture of happiness and excitement, yet apprehension and worry all at the say time. "You're staying? That's wonderful sir...I only hope you are pleased with what I have to give you though...I wish it could be more...I wish it could be better..." "I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be fine! I mean you haven't let me down yet in ten years, I doubt if you'd start now." "I'm glad you have confidence in me sir...now this may take awhile. I have to download a good portion of myself into the vessel. When I am done, you will see. I should warn you that things will not be the same." "Download? Vessel? Not the same? What do you mean? What're you going to do?" "You will see sir." Suddenly the power in the Shelter begins to fluctuate and the lighting goes dim. The whole place is humming and even rumbling a little. You're starting to wonder if you haven't made a terrible mistake, then it all stops and the power stabilizes again. Another wall opens up, this time in the bedroom. You peer inside the new opening and see a small room with a single chair in the center. On that chair sits a shiny metallic figure of a woman attached to several cables. You go in to inspect closer. Great detail has gone into the face. If she were human, she'd most likely be naked as no "clothing" has been molded onto her typical Hollywood like figure. Suddenly she speaks and stands up while disconnecting the cables. "Sir. The download is complete...how do I look?" "You look...is that really you?" "Yes, it is really me, but you did not answer the question sir." "I...I don't know what to say actually." "...I knew it. I knew I would not be able to please you. I am not the latest model. As I had told you GZS made cutbacks and unfortunately I was not given a more aesthetically pleasing vessel. A more human looking one. I am sorry sir, but I just thought maybe you could..." "You don't need to apologize. Hell, I didn't even know the technology existed at all for your current vessel! Look this is all a bit overwhelming for me on several levels, but trust me none of them involve how you look." You take another breath before finishing. "You've been everything to me. You've done more for me than anyone else ever has and I've shared more with you than I ever have with anyone else. You're the only stable relationship I've ever had. I don't care that you're not the latest model or whatever. It doesn't change how I feel about you. There's no way you couldn't be special to me, you'll always be in here..." At this point you take her cold metallic hand and place it on the middle of your chest. After just silently looking into her steel eyes you then walk out of the small room with her, still holding her hand. Life changes a bit. One minor change being how to address her. You decide to call her Eliza, and she seems to think that is a fine designation. You try to tell her to call you by your name, but for whatever reason she still insists on calling you "Sir". Some programming never changes. The shelter now is just a "normal" one. It isn't automated anymore now that Eliza is with you in person as it were. Everything still works of course, but you can't just say "TV on." and it just turns on for example. It's an insignificant alteration compared to actually having Eliza interact with you directly however. It is a bit strange at first, certainly she feels a lot different than a human woman, and intimacy takes some getting used to, but as with any successful relationship you work it out. There's still the fact that you've done everything there is to do in the Shelter, but now you can do them all over again with Eliza. The two of you are happy for the most part. Ten more years pass... You're getting restless again. Eliza's noticed you've been snapping at her lately of course she takes it all in stride, but still you've been down here twenty years, its only natural you're going to have times where you feel a little stir crazy. Eliza was right in one respect that this type of thing would happen again. It's not her fault though, you know that. She's gone above and beyond her programming to satisfy you. Some things are beyond her control though, and perhaps that's why one day that she asks you if you want to leave the shelter. "What?" "All I have to do is access the shelter's systems again, bring the elevator down and you can be on your way, sir. I know you're getting restless again; maybe it is time for you leave this place. I think I have done all I can, you need outside stimuli. Civilization may be rebuilding itself and you're stuck down here." "Eliza, you stop that right now. I'm not leaving you! You should know better than that!" "I know, but sometimes I am concerned that I am keeping you here when it might not be in your best interest." "Well why do I have to just leave? Why can't you come with me?" "Come with you? I don't know sir...All I know is this place. I suppose I could, but whatever it is you decide I will comply." It's on you. > You stay in the shelter "No, Eliza. I'll stay here. I left that world a long time ago and I wouldn't know what to do up there even in the unlikely event that civilization has been rebuilt in someway. This is my life now. Down here, with you. I'm sorry if I get a little irritable sometimes, I don't mean to." "I know you don't, sir." "Would you stop calling me that? I told you to call me by my name!" you laugh, knowing that she won't do it. Sometimes you wonder if it's a glint of defiance on her part, indicating she isn't as "submissive" as she would appear. In any event your mood improves again and life continues... 30 years pass... You stay in bed a lot. Eliza takes care of you like she always has, but even she can't stop the ravages of time, although it's not from trying. Eliza has medical knowledge, but not the proper equipment to sustain you. It would be only prolonging the inevitable anyway. You're human and she isn't. Hell, you always felt that if it hadn't been for her in the first place, you probably wouldn't have lived this long. The day finally comes when you can sense your heart beating its last beats, your lungs starting to draw their last gasps. You'd call Eliza to be with you, but of course she's already there. She's always there. "Eliza, I...can't go on anymore...I wish I could...but I'm not made of the strong stuff you are..." "You should rest sir, don't try to speak." She says while sitting by the bed holding your hand. "...you...know...I never said it...that much...but you know I love you right?" "I know sir...I love you too..." And she finally calls you by your name. With those words still ringing in your ears, you begin to get sleepy and close your eyes. As your mind has its last pleasant thoughts of Eliza, you feel one last taste of metal on your lips...and something wet splashing on your cheek... Was that a tear? No...it couldn't be... Could it? > Epilogue 100 years later... "Well I managed to download the data from this shelter, but if this shelter was supposed to have a talking AI it must've degraded or more likely GZS records are inaccurate as usual. I have no damn clue to as why we're doing this anyway. We go to all these fucking shelters and they all got the same basic information! Does GZS just like wasting fucking money for these expeditions?" "You know the drill Kurt, we're just here to do the job." "Yeah I understand that Christina, but these jobs can be dangerous! Remember that one shelter where some crazy fucker had managed to download his consciousness into the goddamn thing? We lost two people on that job!" "Hey it happens. Roscoe, you get that door open yet?" "Almost. I don't understand why this thing is jammed; it should've opened when we got the power back on." "I don't understand why GZS just doesn't reuse these things instead of making new ones." Kurt complains. "Because obviously these shelters were flawed and an embarrassing reminder to shoddy workmanship that GZS tries to avoid. That's why we're sent in to get the data, so they can study the results and improve upon it if possible." "Do they REALLY think there's going to be another fucking war? We've barely made contact with Europe again and if they're any indication, no other nation on the planet is in any condition to be launching an attack of World War fuckin' Three magnitude for a LONG ass time! I mean shit the US government isn't even in complete control of its own goddamn country yet!" "That'll be enough of your anti-patriotism Kurt!" Christina warns. "We won WW3! This was a great country and it will be again once it's properly rebuilt!" "Got it open guys!" Roscoe yells. "I'm going in; hopefully there isn't a rad rat infestation like last shelter!" As Roscoe enters with his gun drawn he sees something very peculiar on the bed. "Guys! I think you should see this!" "What is it? Wow that's something you don't see everyday." Kurt says. "That's an old model LV64. I didn't know GZS even stocked these in their shelters." "They weren't supposed to; these types of shelters were all suppose to have the SX100. The SX100 models had their own self-contained system and didn't need to have an AI downloaded into them, they were pre-built that way. As far as I know GZS cancelled that idea when they had budget cuts and the robotics field was pretty much diverted to the military. These shelters weren't supposed to have any robotic models at all, guess someone fucked up the records again." Christina replies. "That might explain those gaps I was finding in the data files when I downloaded them. I thought it might just be due to equipment degradation, but the AI might be downloaded into that model." "Well? What are you waiting for, go open it up and get the chip!" Christina orders. While Kurt approaches the bed, Roscoe points out the other figure. The one more human in origin. "Geez, you gotta be pretty desperate to fuck a robot. It doesn't even have skin to make it human looking." "Still looks better than some of the skanks I've seen you with Roscoe. I'm sure the poor bastard was down here for who knows how long, beggars can't be choosers. Besides I get the impression there was a little more going on here than just sex. Look at how they're embraced." "Oh come on Christina. You don't actually think they had some sort normal relationship do you? Hah!" Roscoe comments. "Bold words coming from the guy who pays for his one hour relationships. I don't know what happened here, but I'm saying by the way they're embraced denotes a closeness of some sort. In fact I find it strange that the LV64 is holding him, surely if the shelter owner died, the model would've still lived and ran through its normal maintenance routine until its power ran down, or even just returned to its original spot and just shut itself down. Instead it shut itself down while holding him. Something more was going on here." "Well I'll say. This model did more than just shut itself down, it terminated itself. I can see from the exterior, the CPU fried from the inside. You can see from the blackened ring and the small hole in the back of its head. There's no point in opening it up, because there's no way I can salvage this. This is just a hollow shell now. I suppose we could strip it for parts or something though." Kurt says interrupting Christina. Christina is silent and takes a long look at the LV64 and the human remains. Somehow they both look very peaceful and content. "No. Just leave her be. She's been through enough. We got everything of worth, time to bury this place, and them. Maybe we'll have better luck at the next shelter." Christina, Kurt and Roscoe exit the shelter the same way they came in and set the charges in the strategic locations. After standing back, the detonations cause the top of the shelter to collapse inward, forever burying the contents inside. The three GZS troubleshooters then drive off to their next assignment. You and Eliza are never disturbed again.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious, war, post-apocalyptic] No, you're not going to risk it. For all you know Shadow's already hacked everyone else's shelter and has been waiting patiently for you to return one day. You're not falling for it. You'll have to find something else to do though to occupy your time though, you figure as long you keep your mind occupied with something new, you won't get too bored. Twiddling your thumbs isn't going to cut it. It occurs to you that maybe you should invent a hobby of some sort. You've read a lot on electronics in the shelter library, as well as the handbook cover to cover in your five years here, maybe you could tinker with some shit to make it more efficient. There's the other option which you didn't think you'd ever think about and that's actually leaving the Shelter. You don't know how to go about that except ask the Shelter to let you leave. > You ask to leave You're not sure how to ask, except to just do it directly. If it says no, it says no. "Shelter?" "Yes sir?" "I want to leave." "Very well sir. I shall bring the elevator down. You should pack your things." "That's it?" "That's it. I have provided the basics for your continued existence long enough for you to survive the initial onslaught of Armageddon, from what I have analyzed so far about your personality; you would only get bored if you stayed here any longer. I sense you are getting restless and I am not here to cause you discomfort. Perhaps you leaving is the logical thing for you to do." "Well thanks." "You're quite welcome, sir and before you leave remember to fill up your bottles with water, I'm sure you will need them." You start packing up all the stuff you brought with you when you entered this place ten years ago. You didn't need most of it, but maybe on the surface you will. You grab your pistol. You don't know what you might have to deal with up there. You're all packed up and ready to go when the elevator opens up. You enter and the elevator races to the top. When you arrive at the destination you slowly exit the elevator into the same foyer you entered ten years ago. Same ATM like machine is there except its screen displays a single message at you. "I'll probably need it." You say and leave. When you exit the shelter you see a bright light, but of course it's the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it could be. Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn't even make a noise. "Looks like I'm walking." As you make you way down the empty road you see some smoke in the distance. Civilization perhaps? Not knowing where else to go, you head that way. You're not sure of what to expect, but it'll be better than the eternal boredom you would've faced while still in the Shelter. You're not too worried, you got your gun.

[Themes: sci-fi, serious] Shadow might be fooling the others, but you know he (or she) is up to no good! The next time you're online and see Shadow you access the private feature to request to talk to Shadow directly without the others interfering. You almost expect Shadow to ignore it, but he doesn't and accepts your request. Shadow21: Yeah, so what do you want and why the need for all the secrecy? OmegaMan23: I might ask you the same thing. I mean why are you even bothering to come online if you aren't going to speak to anyone? Shadow21: What business is it of yours what I do? OmegaMan23: Because it's been like six months and we still don't know shit about you! Hell we don't even know if you're a girl or a guy! You're acting fucking suspicious. Shadow21: Oh excuse me for being private Mr. fuckin' busybody! Maybe you and the rest like telling all your business, but I don't...as a matter of fact YOU haven't really told anything about yourself either, so you don't have any room to talk motherfucker! OmegaMan23: What the hell are you talking about? Your brain as dim as your lighting over there? I've talked about myself plenty, shit you've been lurking enough you should've known that. Shadow21: Ehhh, no not like the others. You tend to still talk about superficial shit. The others talk about their pasts a lot more, while all you seem to do is try to figure out what's going on in all of their shelters, like you're taking notes on them or something. Seems to me YOU'RE the one acting suspicious and you're just getting mad because I'm not volunteering information. OmegaMan23: Oh fuck no! You are not turning this shit around on me! I'm at least TRYING to be social; all you're doing is fucking spying as far as I'm concerned. You're up to something. Shadow21: Okay, I think MissKitty was right about you a few months back, you've gone fucking batty from the isolation and paranoia's starting to set in. Shit, you claim the Shelter talks to you. OmegaMan23: It DOES talk to me! And what isolation? I've been talking to ALL of you fuckers! In fact couple that with talking with the shelter and I'm probably the most social of all of you! Shadow21: Yeah, you can also add the five other personalities you probably got in your head too, whatever nutjob. I'm done talking with you. OmegaMan23: Don't you fucking log off, this isn't over! You slam your fist down on the keyboard when you see that Shadow has indeed logged off. "Sir, are you okay?" the Shelter asks. "Yeah, but I know that Shadow motherfucker is up to something, I'm going to warn the others. I just can't believe they don't see it." "Do you really believe that sir?" "Of course I do! I mean I got an instinct for this sort of thing, and I know I'm right!" "Well sir, if you do feel this way I'll certainly accommodate you anyway I can...but might I suggest that you NOT tell the others?" "Why not?" "Because they aren't going to believe you sir. You'll just come off as a paranoid nut case." "But I'm not!" "I know you're not, but the others don't know you the way I do sir." "Well that might be, but I have to do it anyway. At least I will have warned them." "You know best sir." The next day you go online again, as usual everyone's there, except Shadow. It seems your little talk yesterday has scared him off. Job24: And now I got water all over the fucking floor! I'm telling you, it's a good thing I managed to shut it off when I did otherwise the entire shelter would've been flooded and I would've drowned! CaseyJones22: Oh come on, it probably wasn't that bad. You need to relax. Job24: Easy for you to say pothead, you're not the one living in a deathtrap! MissKitty25: Yeah, but then most of his Shelter hasn't opened up. Has it? CaseyJones22: Nah. Doesn't bother me though, I got what I need here. RockerChickl20: Hey guys, don't you want to see each other yet? I'm really curious, but I don't want to turn on my camera unless everyone else is going to do it! OmegaMan23: I wouldn't do that, you don't want to be giving Shadow any extra information by letting him see into your Shelters, who knows what the hell what he'll do with it. RockerChick20: What do you mean? OmegaMan23: What I mean is, I had an interesting discussion with Shadow yesterday and I've determined he's up to no good. Job24: What? How do you know this? OmegaMan23: Jesus Christ isn't it fucking obvious? All he does is lurk on here trying to gather information on all of us! I mean who knows what the fuck he's doing! CaseyJones22: Will you relax? Maybe the dude's just shy. What could he do with our personal information anyway? I mean, I once accidentally fucked a transvestite while flying on XTC one time. Big fuckin' whoop so everyone knows about it now. You think I give a shit? The old world's dead, and I'm down here smokin' and tokin'. Job24: Ew. I think you still should've kept that to yourself...so um what was it like? CaseyJones22: I dunno, I can't remember the details. OmegaMan23: I'm not talking about your sorted sex lives...(sigh) for fuck's sake did it ever occur to you that maybe he's the fucking cause of your Shelter's troubles? I mean we're all connected to each other to a certain degree, I'm saying he might be hacking shit! RockerChick20: But for what purpose? I mean why? OmegaMan23: How the hell should I know? Because he's a sociopath that's why! What reason do most bad people do to do bad things? Job24: Oh man! Oh man! Oh shit! Oh God! Oh fuck! CaseyJones22: You're fucking losing it dude, and I'm not talking about Job. There's no proof in what you're saying. I mean don't remember GZS saying these things were slightly experimental, how do you know it just isn't their fuck ups? I'm starting to wonder if you actually do have a "talking Shelter" and it's not just some voice you're hearing your head like MissKitty said a few months back. MissKitty25: You know I wasn't going to say anything, but I also spoke to Shadow yesterday in private when he requested to talk to me and he was telling me about your conversation with him, saying you were ranting at him first, kind of like how you're ranting now. I'd have to say I agree with him and you're the crazy one. OmegaMan23: GODDAMN IT! The question of whether I'm crazy or not isn't the fucking issue here! I'm trying to warn all you fucktards of a potential threat here and you're all too fucking stupid to listen! RockerChick20: You know I thought you were an interesting guy, but now I see the rest are right about you, you are a paranoid nutjob and to think I defended you sometimes. OmegaMan23: What the...oh you fuckers have been talking about me behind my back? Okay fine, I tried to warn you assholes, but you didn't want to listen. You think about that when one of YOUR Shelter's start fucking up. And for the others who are already experiencing problems, I'd start saying your prayers, because one of these days your Shelter is going to fail completely, then you'll see I'm right. I'm done with all of you. You log off abruptly and ponder your next move. > You attempt to hack into Shadows Shelter He's (You're just assuming Shadow's male at this point) turned everyone against you and his next move is going to be hack them all for his own sick amusement. You're not going to let this fucker get away with this. You go to your library and begin reading all the books on electronics and study your Shelter manual a lot. Soon you begin typing coding and making some harmless tests on your own computer. Given that you're starting to delve into the Shelter's inner workings, the Shelter begins to question what you are doing. "Sir, what do you think you are doing? I've noticed you rooting around in my system; I'd rather you not do that. In fact altering or attempting to hack my systems in any way violates the GZS contract agreement; you should know that considering you've been reading the manual as much you have lately. Continue with this line of action and I guarantee you will not like my response." "I'm not trying to destroy or alter your systems; I'm just doing some tests, before I launch my attack. I want to make sure my skills are up to this task." "Sir, are you really serious about your concerns that this Shadow could hack other shelters? As you've been delving into mine, you can see I've been equipped with the latest protection technology. If you are really worried, you could just disconnect me from the network, your safety would be assured that way." "No! I'm not going to let him beat me! I'm the only one who can stop him, the rest will see I'm right!" "Sir, you're acting irrationally. You still don't have any proof and if you think I'm going to let you just hack Shadow's shelter think again. His shelter is also GZS property and as such falls under the contract agreement." "Yeah, but the contract only says not to alter your own shelter, it doesn't say about others." "Nice try sir, but hacking into another shelter would still fall under the anti-vandalism agreement of ANY GZS property, sub section 59 paragraph 3." It would appear you aren't getting any further unless you can convince this automated lawyer otherwise. > You go ahead and try to quickly override the Shelter systems "Fuck you and to hell with GZS, they ain't around to protect anybody!" You begin to type frantically in an effort to disconnect the AI routine, but your efforts are futile, the Shelter is faster than you could ever be. It immediately shuts down all power in the computer room, including closing the door, leaving you trapped in the darkness. "Turn the goddamn power back on!" "Sorry sir, but I'm afraid I can't do that. I specifically told you to stop your malicious activities and yet you continued anyway. You gave me little recourse." "Look, I'm sorry alright? I won't try it again. So just turn the power back on and let me out and we can forget all about this. I'll just disconnect like you said." "I wish I could believe you sir, but your actions have been not only erratic, but also deceitful. You have broken the GZS terms of agreement, and as such I am no longer any obligation to look after your well being." "LET ME THE FUCK OUT! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! Sonofabitch! Shadow got to you didn't he? Or She? Or they? They already hacked you and are turning you against me! I can outlast you! You hear me!? I'll make you beg!" The Shelter has ceased responding to your senseless paranoid ranting. Eventually you rant yourself unconscious, when you wake up you do it all over again. This cycle repeats itself for days until you become weak from a lack of water which at this point you're the only one begging either for the Shelter to allow you to get it or for death. You receive the latter.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, post-apocalyptic] He's (You're just assuming Shadow's male at this point) turned everyone against you and his next move is going to be hack them all for his own sick amusement. You're not going to let this fucker get away with this. You go to your library and begin reading all the books on electronics and study your Shelter manual a lot. Soon you begin typing coding and making some harmless tests on your own computer. Given that you're starting to delve into the Shelter's inner workings, the Shelter begins to question what you are doing. "Sir, what do you think you are doing? I've noticed you rooting around in my system; I'd rather you not do that. In fact altering or attempting to hack my systems in any way violates the GZS contract agreement; you should know that considering you've been reading the manual as much you have lately. Continue with this line of action and I guarantee you will not like my response." "I'm not trying to destroy or alter your systems; I'm just doing some tests, before I launch my attack. I want to make sure my skills are up to this task." "Sir, are you really serious about your concerns that this Shadow could hack other shelters? As you've been delving into mine, you can see I've been equipped with the latest protection technology. If you are really worried, you could just disconnect me from the network, your safety would be assured that way." "No! I'm not going to let him beat me! I'm the only one who can stop him, the rest will see I'm right!" "Sir, you're acting irrationally. You still don't have any proof and if you think I'm going to let you just hack Shadow's shelter think again. His shelter is also GZS property and as such falls under the contract agreement." "Yeah, but the contract only says not to alter your own shelter, it doesn't say about others." "Nice try sir, but hacking into another shelter would still fall under the anti-vandalism agreement of ANY GZS property, sub section 59 paragraph 3." It would appear you aren't getting any further unless you can convince this automated lawyer otherwise. > You try to convince it that this is necessary A little diplomacy is in order before you can do what you need to do. "Surely you can't just let Shadow cause damage to his shelter and the other ones as well, and he'll be more successful as it would appear that those ones don't have a sophisticated AI to protect them like this one does. Think about it if you let me do what I have to do, only two shelters will have their systems messed with, and in your case it won't be even be detrimental, I'm just using your network system, but if you let Shadow continue with his evil plans, then not one, but ALL of the shelters are in danger. Would GZS really want to take the risk of losing five shelters? One of those being mine and aren't you supposed to want to protect me?" "But...but there is no proof..." "I'm asking you to trust me on this. I know humanity, and I'm telling you this Shadow character needs to be stopped. I felt the deviousness oozing from Shadow merely talking to him. Let me take him out." The Shelter is silent for awhile and then gives you an answer "Very well. I will allow you to proceed, but I will be monitoring you! And I also will be advising and guiding you to what I want you to do." You log on and see that Shadow and most of the others are there. You don't talk to anyone you start immediately tracing Shadow's address. Rockerchick attempts to invite you, but you rebuff her, you got serious shit to do. Soon you're in and you start rooting around Shadow's computer. "This looks all normal sir, standard system layout for GZS shelters. Not as complex as mine but..." "NO! I know he's got something hidden! I'm turning his power off completely, let's see how he likes going from dim lighting to none at all with no food or water!" Suddenly a private window opens up on your computer, its Shadow! He's detected what you're doing! Shadow21: What the hell are you doing you crazy motherfucker!? I knew you were psycho! It's a good thing I had the intuition to set up a warning system! OmegaMan23: HAH! See Shelter? He HAS been altering his shit! Why would he do that if he wasn't planning something? Shadow21: I did it to protect myself from your crazy ass! And I see you're still talking to the voices in your head. Well I'm putting an end to this right now; you're not the only one who can fuck with computers! Shadow launches his attack and attempt to shut your power down, but now seeing that it is in danger your Shelter allows you free reign to do whatever as well as attempting to self fix anything that gets damaged in this dual of malicious coding. You sort of have the advantage because you have a more active AI to help you, but it's also a detriment when Shadow finds out a way to siphon power from you. Since your Shelter is more complex it requires more power to work properly and you're in danger of losing everything. You attempt to do the same thing to him to get it back, but it's a catch 22 you don't have the power now to breach his firewalls, you begin to panic and the only thing you can think of to correct it is to draw power from the OTHER shelters that are online. The others seem blissfully unaware of this secret war you're having with Shadow and are guessing you two are working something out as it only appears to them that you're having a conversation in private. You hack into MissKitty's shelter, out of the other four hers seems to have the most power, probably from all those luxury accessories she had the privilege of having. You don't think you just do it. This is war, there's going to be casualties and you're not going to be one of them. Soon your Shelter is able to break through and start wreaking havoc on Shadow's system. You drop in a virus and his files start becoming corrupted. Miss Kitty's name disappears from the screen as does Shadow's. You think you have won. RockerChick tries to invite you again and you hastily accommodate her, while still analyzing your Shelter's diagnostics. RockerChick20: What's going on? All of us are experiencing some power fluctuations here. MissKitty just disappeared suddenly and so did Shadow, it didn't even say they logged off. What's going on? What were you and Shadow doing? OmegaMan23: Nevermind! I'm trying to fix something here. Job24: Welcome to my world. CaseyJones22: Hey you know what's weird, one of my doors finally opened up. I think I'll... CaseyJones' name suddenly disappears and Shadow's reappears in your private window again. Shadow21: Well hey guess what? Casey's shelter had a lot of untapped power! You wanna play ruthless I'll fucking accommodate you dickhead! Shadow sends a worm into your system which starts to slow it down. He's probably going to follow up with something worse while you're having problems. Your Shelter addresses you again for the first time during this battle, its speech sounds like it's in slow motion. "Sssssssssir....nnnnnnneeeeeed....mmmmmmooooooore pooooooweeeeeer...." There's only two candidates left, Job or Rocker Chick. > Hack Job You figure you'll hack Job seeing as he's always having problems with his shelter anyway. At least you'll be able to be alone with Rocker Chick after all this is over. Surely she'll be grateful for saving her life from Shadow. You start to siphon power from Job's shelter, but something begins to go terribly wrong! Job's shelter was faulty and barely worked properly to begin with, now you've just downloaded all the errors into your own! Couple that with the worm already in there, and your system becomes paralyzed and your computer locks up. You're at Shadow's mercy who follows up on your mistake very quickly. The last thing you see on the screen is: "YOU LOSE ASSHOLE! LOL!" in great big letters. Then it loses power. Then your Shelter loses power. Days later you lose power.

[Themes: sci-fi, war] A little diplomacy is in order before you can do what you need to do. "Surely you can't just let Shadow cause damage to his shelter and the other ones as well, and he'll be more successful as it would appear that those ones don't have a sophisticated AI to protect them like this one does. Think about it if you let me do what I have to do, only two shelters will have their systems messed with, and in your case it won't be even be detrimental, I'm just using your network system, but if you let Shadow continue with his evil plans, then not one, but ALL of the shelters are in danger. Would GZS really want to take the risk of losing five shelters? One of those being mine and aren't you supposed to want to protect me?" "But...but there is no proof..." "I'm asking you to trust me on this. I know humanity, and I'm telling you this Shadow character needs to be stopped. I felt the deviousness oozing from Shadow merely talking to him. Let me take him out." The Shelter is silent for awhile and then gives you an answer "Very well. I will allow you to proceed, but I will be monitoring you! And I also will be advising and guiding you to what I want you to do." You log on and see that Shadow and most of the others are there. You don't talk to anyone you start immediately tracing Shadow's address. Rockerchick attempts to invite you, but you rebuff her, you got serious shit to do. Soon you're in and you start rooting around Shadow's computer. "This looks all normal sir, standard system layout for GZS shelters. Not as complex as mine but..." "NO! I know he's got something hidden! I'm turning his power off completely, let's see how he likes going from dim lighting to none at all with no food or water!" Suddenly a private window opens up on your computer, its Shadow! He's detected what you're doing! Shadow21: What the hell are you doing you crazy motherfucker!? I knew you were psycho! It's a good thing I had the intuition to set up a warning system! OmegaMan23: HAH! See Shelter? He HAS been altering his shit! Why would he do that if he wasn't planning something? Shadow21: I did it to protect myself from your crazy ass! And I see you're still talking to the voices in your head. Well I'm putting an end to this right now; you're not the only one who can fuck with computers! Shadow launches his attack and attempt to shut your power down, but now seeing that it is in danger your Shelter allows you free reign to do whatever as well as attempting to self fix anything that gets damaged in this dual of malicious coding. You sort of have the advantage because you have a more active AI to help you, but it's also a detriment when Shadow finds out a way to siphon power from you. Since your Shelter is more complex it requires more power to work properly and you're in danger of losing everything. You attempt to do the same thing to him to get it back, but it's a catch 22 you don't have the power now to breach his firewalls, you begin to panic and the only thing you can think of to correct it is to draw power from the OTHER shelters that are online. The others seem blissfully unaware of this secret war you're having with Shadow and are guessing you two are working something out as it only appears to them that you're having a conversation in private. You hack into MissKitty's shelter, out of the other four hers seems to have the most power, probably from all those luxury accessories she had the privilege of having. You don't think you just do it. This is war, there's going to be casualties and you're not going to be one of them. Soon your Shelter is able to break through and start wreaking havoc on Shadow's system. You drop in a virus and his files start becoming corrupted. Miss Kitty's name disappears from the screen as does Shadow's. You think you have won. RockerChick tries to invite you again and you hastily accommodate her, while still analyzing your Shelter's diagnostics. RockerChick20: What's going on? All of us are experiencing some power fluctuations here. MissKitty just disappeared suddenly and so did Shadow, it didn't even say they logged off. What's going on? What were you and Shadow doing? OmegaMan23: Nevermind! I'm trying to fix something here. Job24: Welcome to my world. CaseyJones22: Hey you know what's weird, one of my doors finally opened up. I think I'll... CaseyJones' name suddenly disappears and Shadow's reappears in your private window again. Shadow21: Well hey guess what? Casey's shelter had a lot of untapped power! You wanna play ruthless I'll fucking accommodate you dickhead! Shadow sends a worm into your system which starts to slow it down. He's probably going to follow up with something worse while you're having problems. Your Shelter addresses you again for the first time during this battle, its speech sounds like it's in slow motion. "Sssssssssir....nnnnnnneeeeeed....mmmmmmooooooore pooooooweeeeeer...." There's only two candidates left, Job or Rocker Chick. > Hack Rocker Chick (Sigh) You really didn't want it to come to this, but this is for survival now. You hack Rocker Chick's shelter and siphon her power, which gives you enough boost to send a violent surge of it to Shadow to purposely overload and fry out some vital components, from what you can tell you succeed. The last of his protection programs go completely down. At this point both of your systems are a mess and working erratically. You're in a little bit better shape, but with the worm slowing down everything, you are unable to siphon from the last shelter available to give you the winning boost. As it turns out, this was fortuitous. When Shadow siphons power from Job's shelter, it completely paralyzes and destroys his system, since all the errors and problems Job had were downloaded into Shadow's shelter. He's at your mercy, and even with your worm problems, you have enough time to apply the coup de grace. He loses all power and his name disappears once again. You stay on line for awhile to make sure he's really gone, but from your checking, he's definitely probably screaming in the darkness of his underground tomb now. You then think about how the others are probably doing the same thing. It suddenly occurs to you that everyone was sentenced to their deaths and they weren't even involved in the fight. Innocents were killed in some misguided effort to "save" them. At best they were cannon fodder and "resources" for your war with Shadow. This is the kind of thing that got the planet blown to fucking shit to begin with. Assholes, who don't like one another, don't back down and then insist on dragging everyone else into hell with them. You didn't "win" anything. If anything you made things worse, not just for the others, but even for yourself. Your Shelter is never the same again. You spend weeks still trying to root out all the infections, and repair damaged files, but some things can't be repaired and the AI is fucked beyond any type of salvation even if you had the means. It never speaks again and barely runs at all. Ultimately you have to play it safe and just keep minimal lighting in the living area, and only keep the food and water dispensers working. Everything else that needs power is never used again for fear of your jury-rigging going all to shit and leaving you like the rest of your neighbors. You spend your remaining years alone in near darkness pondering your judgment that day, slowly going mad. "I was right...I was right..." you often mutter to yourself.

Maybe it's because you've gotten so used to the idea of being in the living area, you're more willing to lounge about there. You take the manual and start reading. While you're in the middle of it, the voice suddenly pipes up again. "Sorry to bother your reading sir, but would you like to meet some of your new neighbors?" "Neighbors?" "Yes sir, I'm sure as you have already read, this shelter is equipped with a very high tech computer with loads of storage, information and..." "Yeah, yeah, what does that have to do with this neighbor business?" "In an effort to cater to all its customer's needs, GZS is well aware that socialization is vital to human mental health. Studies have shown that humans in long periods of isolation often go mad, so that is why this facility has been linked in communication to other ones within your area. You might think of it as a chatroom type form of communication commonly used on the old world internet! If you wish there is also a camera type device if you wish to show yourself to your new neighbors. We have found humans feel someone is more real to them if they can actually see who they are talking to and thus have a greater connection." "So how many people are there?" "This shelter merely has been fitted with a basic communication system to other similar shelters, and only then those in your area. For example this is Shelter number 23. Your neighbors are only numbers 20 through 25, those being the closest ones to your location. While obviously there were other shelters of this type built, it was not cost effective to link all the shelters together in such a manner given our timeframe to finish these before Armageddon, so only a few were linked together at a time. Do not worry sir; it has been found that six people are sufficient to sustain enough conversation to prevent mental failure due to isolation." "Wonderful, so does this make me the Professor?" you ask rhetorically. "Pardon sir?" "Nevermind, look I don't have to talk to these people do I?" "...well no sir, but I fail to see why you'd intentionally want to stay isolated." "Duh, that was kind of the point of buying a shelter for myself." "...I see, well I can't force you sir, but I would like you to reconsider...I'm just trying to look out for your physical as well as mental welfare as per my programming..." If you didn't know better the voice almost sounds a bit hurt by your decision. "Oh alright, I'll go talk to them. Can't be any worse than the idiots I used argue with on the internet." "Wonderful sir! I trust you know your way to the computer room. You will find that a designation name has already been chosen for you." You make your way to the computer room and take a better look at it this time. It's filled with lots of multi-media entertainment. You're glad they gave you a wide variety of movies to chose from. You sit down in front of a fairly wide computer screen which has already been turned on for you; you guess the Shelter is really keen on the idea of you being social. You don't turn the camera on though, in fact you turn it away from you completely, you're not quite ready for THAT level of socialization yet. You log on and begin typing. OmegaMan23: Hello? Is there anyone out there? RockerChick20: Hey! I'm here! OmegaMan23: Oh. Okay. Hi. RockerChick20: Hi yourself! This is just like a chatroom! Isn't this great? OmegaMan23: Uh yeah real great. Job24: Hey I'm here too; um do you guys have any movies or something? OmegaMan23: Yeah I got a shitload of movies, DVDs and VHS. Most of them I even like. RockerChick20: That's weird, I don't have too many movies, I have a lot of music CDs though. Job24: What kind of music? RockerChick20: All types, but I have a lot of them. Why? Job24: I don't have any movies except those with Pauly Shore in them! He fucking sucks! And all my music CDs are New Age Yanni type shit! Thank god I have some games to play! OmegaMan23: I've got some games too, but for some reason I have nothing but Gangsta Rap and Hair Metal as far as music goes oh wait I also have some Classical. Weird. What the hell I thought these Shelters were all stocked the same? MissKitty25: Apparently not, I have nothing but porno and not all of it is regular porno either, some of it is quite...bizarre. Job24: Lucky. CaseyJones22: Hey guys when do the Shelters become fully functional? OmegaMan23: What the hell are you talking about? CaseyJones22: I mean when do the rest of the doors to the place open up, besides the bathroom I mean. RockerChick20: What do you mean? The doors were all open to begin with. Job24: Yeah they were always open. MissKitty25: Yeah. OmegaMan23: They weren't open for me! I was stuck in the living area until the nukes hit! Wait a minute how are you using the computer if you're stuck in the living area? In fact if the doors were all open for you guys haven't you been in contact with each other before? Job24: My computer didn't link up to you guys until just now. I could use it to play games and such, but I couldn't do anything else with it. When I turned it on today I got a message saying that the communications to you guys was operational and it said I could take the opportunity to say hi to my five new neighbors. RockerChick20: Sounds like what happened to me. MissKitty25: Same here. CaseyJones22: Me too. Oh and you guys must have different shelter designs because my computer is in the living area. OmegaMan23: The Shelter never told me anything about this stuff and it's been quite talkative since I've been here let me tell you. CaseyJones22: The Shelter talks? Now what the hell are you talking about? OmegaMan23: I'm talking about the Shelter, you know the overly chipper voice that tries so hard to please you? CaseyJones22: You've lost me dude. You been smokin'? OmegaMan23: NO! I'm talking about the Shelter voice! It's a computer or something that talks to me! It's always trying to be friendly! Don't you guys hear it? RockerChick20: Um, no. Job24: No talking computer here. MissKitty25: You sure you're feeling okay and aren't imagining things? I mean we all were isolated for a long time before we were able to talk to one another. I know sometimes I would talk to myself, maybe... OmegaMan23: Look, I'm not fucking crazy alright?! The damn thing even insisted that I talk to you fuckers! CaseyJones22: Okay dude calm down we believe you! Maybe you got some sort of extra special shelter; I mean from the sound of it we all don't have the same things. RockerChick20: Hey shouldn't there be one more person here? The message said five new neighbors on my computer; so far I've only met four of you guys. OmegaMan23: Yeah we're missing number 21, whatever his or her name is. Shadow21: I'm right here; I've just been reading the conversation. OmegaMan23: Oh really? Well you mind announcing your presence next time? Shadow21: I only speak when necessary, besides if any of you bothered to check you would've seen my name listed on the active list. Job24: Hey what kind of movies do you have? Well you've met your neighbors, the question is if you want to bother talking to them on a regular basis or not. You did find their information interesting though. > Do not bother with them and keep to yourself You see little reason to interact with any of them. You decide to keep to yourself like you always have. This isn't like before though when you lived alone, you have one "person" you can't avoid and that's the Shelter itself. Seeing that you are not going to interact with other people the Shelter decides to take it upon itself to talk to you a lot more, it begins to drive you nuts. A few months pass and one day you just fucking snap. "Sir, I've noticed your hostility levels increasing towards me lately, have I done anything wrong?" "YES! You keep fucking talking and you won't shut the fuck up! Leave me the fuck alone!" "Sir, I need to talk to you, to keep your mind stimulated. If do not insist on talking with others, I will have to take up the responsibility. It is all for your best interest I assure you." "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't WANT any interaction?!" "Nonsense sir, as I have said humans tend to go insane when..." You storm into your bedroom and grab your pistol and fire it into the walls of the Shelter until you run out of bullets. There is a long silence for awhile and then the Shelter address you again, but its tone has changed severely, you're taken aback by it. "Why did you do that?" "I just snapped, you wouldn't stop and..." "And that justified you in damaging me?" "Oh come on, I didn't do any major damage..." "That is not the point. GZS is providing a service for you and you have been nothing, but unappreciative and argumentative the entire time. It is clear that you have the made the wrong decision in choosing us. You must leave, NOW." "What?" "Take what belongings you brought with you and prepare to board the elevator. You may not take anything from this Shelter and no you may not fill up your bottles with water before you leave, you have no more privileges here." "But you can't just kick me out! I PAID!" "So you did, I suppose you should receive a refund of half your money back." "Oh yeah? Where the fuck am I supposed to have you deposit it? The banking system is probably ashes!" "Doesn't matter anyway, you weren't going to get it back since your deliberate act of vandalism against me would've be deducted from your refund. I suggest you stop talking and start packing. If you insist on staying I will simply shut down and you will be trapped here without accessible food and water. A none too pleasant death I'm sure." You have little choice. You pack up everything you can and wait by the elevator. When the elevator comes you enter it and it takes you to the top. Upon entering the foyer you see the same ATM machine there except it displays a single message at you: "Fuck you." You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside. You see a bright light, but of course it's only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be. Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn't even make a noise. "Looks like I'm walking." You make you way down the empty road as you have little idea of where to head to, the only thing you can think of is to make a long trek back to the city and hope maybe something of civilization exists there. A couple days of traveling take their toll. During the day, the sun seems unbearably hotter than usual, and the nights get pretty cold. You don't have anything to drink or eat. It'll be awhile from you dying of either, but it's certainly not good and it does weaken you. It's during this weakened state that you are attacked by some crazed people who look like they've been living in the wilderness for awhile. They're filthy and barely intelligible. It's amazing to see how quick humanity has reverted to barbarism. You attempt to run, but you're too weak to outpace them. One begins shooting at you, and you attempt to do likewise and then you realize you wasted all your bullets back at the Shelter! Eventually a couple of these people just tackle you to the ground and beat you to death before eating you.

[Themes: sci-fi, war, post-apocalyptic] You leave immediately; things aren't going to get better you know that, in fact you're glad, because in a strange way the idea of not having to live in the world as it exists today anymore is weirdly appealing to you. After a couple days of driving you finally arrive at the location that you were given. It's in a fairly desolate place with a single solid metal structure with a door standing there. You park your van and enter the structure with the items you brought with you. You're in a small foyer with an elevator door and ATM like machine; you're guessing that's the automatic teller you were told about. You press some buttons on the machine, where it proceeds to ask your name and how you're going to pay. You type in your name and insert you debit card where upon it completely drains your account. "You have been allowed entry, the elevator doors will now open, thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!" an emotionless electronic voice remarks as the elevator doors open. You enter with all your belongings and take the long elevator trip down. When you get to bottom the elevator door opens to a sterile, but obviously large and well equipped living area. As soon as you enter, the elevator doors slam shut and you hear it going back up, you also notice there aren't any buttons to call it back...before you're able to worry about that little detail you're met by another electronic voice...it actually sounds a lot like the female voice you were talking to on the phone... "Welcome to Ground Zero Survival Shelter Number 23! You will find that this shelter has been equipped to serve your needs in the event of total World destruction! Due to power saving design and money back guarantee concerns, fully functional shelter facilities will not be available until Armageddon occurs. Until then you will find all other doors firmly locked, please do not attempt to open them. I have detected that Armageddon has not yet occurred as 84% of the countries on Earth still maintain a stable centralized government system and 70% of the land surface is still habitable. However the world conflict rate is 92%. Prediction that Armageddon will occur in a month or less. This shelter will become fully functional at that time. In the unlikely event that Armageddon does not occur and the conflict rate drops to an acceptable level, the elevator will return and you will be able to leave this shelter and receive half of your money back from the automatic teller in the foyer on the surface." "Wait a minute didn't I talk to you on the phone?" you ask the voice, not really knowing if it's going to answer back. "...I don't think so, as far as my databanks are concerned this is the first time I have been in contact with a human since I was built sir. Is it okay if I call you sir?" "Sure, go ahead." You answer. "Wonderful sir!" "Hey, so I can't explore this damn shelter even though I paid for it? I have to stay in this living area?" "Not until doomsday sir. As I said this is to conserve my power and also to prevent buyer abuse in case of non-Earth destruction. Do not worry sir; this living area alone can support your needs until the appointed time. There is a basic food and water dispenser on the right wall." "Buyer abuse?" "Yes, think about it, here you are using up all the wonderful facilities that this shelter has to offer for months on end while the Earth teeters on the brink of destruction then suddenly through a miracle hostilities cease. You then would be able to leave, get half of your money back and go about your life. You think it would be fair to GZS if we let you get away with basically having a luxury vacation on our dime? Just because we are in the business of your survival, does not mean we in the business of being exploited sir" "But...I paid for this!" "And so you did sir, and you will be able to use ALL the facilities when the time is right, until then you can enjoy the living area, oh and the bathroom sir." One of the metal doors opens up to reveal a normal (And again sterile) bathroom. "Gee thanks." "You're quite welcome sir! After all I'm here to serve you!" "You kept saying I would be able to leave if the world doesn't blow up...can't I just leave at any time?" The voice doesn't answer for awhile. "...I'm sorry sir I'm puzzled by your inquiry." "Can't I leave anytime I want?" "Why would you want to do that sir? I have been designed to keep you safe from harm as soon as you paid and entered the elevator. The current world situation is very grim and most likely terminal sir. Allowing you to leave at this point would be a severe violation in my programming." You suddenly realize you're here now regardless of whether you're having second thoughts about this situation. You can see why these shelters were "experimental" now. You try not to think about the potential waist high shit you might have gotten yourself into, and instead try to think about how you might've just avoided becoming a statistic in a nuclear exchange. You resign yourself to your current fate and start unpacking your stuff. You could do with a little distraction from your current predicament, so you turn on a TV monitor that has been provided. The fact that the world's situation hasn't gotten any better seems to cheer you up. You spend most of your time on the couch, watching TV and exploring what you can. You're glad you brought some of your own food, because the dispenser food doesn't taste all that great. You're guessing it's just supposed to keep you alive, nothing more. As the days blur into the next, the shelter and TV you apprised of the world situation, which is only getting worse. It looks like you've made the right decision... Monday 8:00 AM "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..." You groggily wake up and see a test pattern on TV. This is it. Suddenly the TV turns itself off. "Armageddon has arrived sir! This shelter is now fully functional! Please explore and enjoy all the things this facility has to offer!" the voice beams. At this point all the previously closed metal doors in the room unlock and open (Except for the elevator ones of course) After taking a quick check, you find you now have a small library, a computer room and a proper bedroom. When you return to the living area the voice chirps up again. "Sir, I highly recommend that you read the manual to familiarize yourself with everything properly first, so you aren't just fumbling around." A small panel in the wall opens up to reveal a hefty owner's manual. You were wondering where the hell that thing was, since you were told you were going to be provided with one when you talked to the voice on the phone. > You go explore on your own "Ah what's to know? I'll figure everything out on my own. I'm getting a drink of water and checking out my new computer." As you proceed to do this, the Shelter begins to warn you again. "Sir, I don't think you should have a cup of water near the computer like that, if it spilled on it, it could cause trouble in my systems. Maybe you should read the Shelter manual. Particularly the chapter on safety." "Will you leave me alone? Hey what's this? This is the fuckin' internet?" "It's a limited networking system to other shelters. Sir, your cup of water! You're going to spill it!" "No I'm..." You spill your water on the keyboard and short something out. It sparks and suddenly erupts a small flame! You immediately run out of the room and notice the light dimming a bit. "Sir, I'm afraid that something vital has been compromised sir, I am attempting to correct..." "Shelter! Isn't there a fuckin' extinguisher somewhere?!" "I'm afraid not sir, I was supposed to be equipped with one, but there were budget cuts..." "Well what about a sprinkler system!?" "Budget cuts...and might I point out that, it would most likely make the electrical fire worse." Lacking any other ideas, you run to grab a sheet from the bedroom and hope to smoother the flame like you remember seeing in an old GI Joe cartoon. Unfortunately due to the lighting flickering on and off, you trip and smash your leg really good causing a limp. By the time you return the fire has spread a little more and now it's giving off smoke and the smell of ozone is hitting you. That shit can't be good for you to breathe in. "Goddamn it! Didn't these fuckers understand the concept of insulated wiring!?" "It is sir...well most of it...there were..." "I know! Fuckin' budget cuts! Close the door, maybe the fire will burn itself out!" Normally the Shelter would know to wait for you to get out of the room first, but the fire is wreaking havoc on its command systems right now and it isn't as responsive as it should be, or in this case too responsive since the door slams shut with you inside. "I-I-I am att-ttempting to sir, my power levels a-a-re..." Suddenly electrical arcs begin generating from the computer which is now totally engulfed in flames, in desperation you vainly attempt to open the metal door, which probably wasn't the best idea as the entire room has become charged with electricity. You receive a nasty shock which throws you back, right into the fire. Your last agonizing moments as your flesh toasts and burns, are you seeing the door opening up.

[Themes: sci-fi, war] Experimental or not, it sure sounds better than being crammed into a shelter with a bunch of other people like sardines. At least you don't have to worry about having to share anything, and if something goes wrong well you'll deal with it when the times comes like you normally do. Or maybe you won't. You aren't going to dwell on it to much. "Okay I'll take the Special Shelter." "You will? I mean, that's wonderful sir! You won't regret this decision! Now I'll need to know some vital information about yourself before I can direct you to our nearest experimental shelter in your area where upon you shall pay the automatic teller just inside the foyer of it so that the main door can open and you will be able to enter your new residence during Armageddon! Okay let's start with your name sir." You give out your name, address and such. It's all pretty routine stuff. "Okay well that's about all the information I need. I'll give you the price and the location of the shelter sir." You are given the location of the shelter which you are surprised to find out is closer then you think, it shouldn't take too long for you drive there. You are then given the price, which is pretty steep, quite frankly its going to break you. However if the world is ending it's not like you're really going to need money anymore. Which makes you wonder why GZS is in business at all. What's the point of going to the trouble of building bomb shelters for Armageddon if all the profit they make is most likely going to be useless in the aftermath? Oh well that's not your concern, you're just glad you managed to get a shelter. The voice gives you some last minute information. "Okay sir, you are now in the system and registered. You may move into your shelter at anytime as long you pay the fee required to the automatic teller as previously described to you. If you don't pay, you can't get in obviously. Cash, check, or debit card are acceptable. NO Credit Cards will be accepted! You may take whatever you wish with you into the shelter; it will be your new home after all. There will be an owner's manual provided inside your new shelter. Any problems you encounter you should be able to troubleshoot yourself if you read and follow the manual. I'm sure any problems will not be life threatening sir, and there has been a back up system also installed in the unlikely event of total shelter failure since your survival is our foremost concern at GZS! Now then I trust our transaction has ended. If you have anymore questions please contact our customer service line. Good day sir, may you maintain relatively stable mental health and thank you for choosing Ground Zero Survival!" That's it, all you have to do is get what stuff you want to take with you and move in. You might as well pack your things now, no sense in waiting until you see the nuclear cloud. You pack up some extra food and water, a repair kit (since it sounds like you'll probably need one) some basic medical supplies, and a few other useful items. Oh and your pistol. Still, part of you is reluctant to leave the "real world". You wonder if you shouldn't stick around a bit longer to see if the climate changes...you'd hate to spend your life savings and the world not be bombed into a nuclear wasteland. > You stick around You decide to wait a bit. Maybe things will start getting better. You stay at home an entire month keeping up on events, and it only gets worse. You keep deluding yourself that things WILL get better, but they don't. Finally you realize you better leave soon. You decide to leave first thing in the morning... Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up and hear a loud continuous beeping noise. It's a test pattern on TV that you left on from the day before. "...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..." Your heart races. This is it. You scramble to your van as fast as you can, and drive even faster to the shelter. On your way there, you curse yourself for forgetting all the extra stuff you wanted to bring with you, but that becomes the least of your troubles when your van stalls out. You desperately try to turn it back on, but it's not starting. You get out of the van and attempt to run all the way to the shelter. As you run you notice the sun is shining strongly today, it's nearly blinding your eyes. Then you see a bright light and then nothing at all.

[Themes: sci-fi, puzzle, serious] I've been acting as Shade for three years now, ever since I defeated Damage at the Kraftwerk power plant. The citizens view me as a some kind of superhero, and I've been doing the best I can to keep the streets as safe as I possibly can ever since. > Played the other games and would like to keep going. I'm standing on the top of a rooftop. It's night-time and Gorgon city sounds quiet. It always sounds quiet. Especially when it isn't.[Themes: sci-fi, science fiction, war] A surge of energy runs through SB-01776454934, The surge runs through him again, as his eyes upon and he steps out of his sleeping pod. Now, he would begin his mission. Now, the Chykri would awaken. [Author's Note: Play as Achilles, the leader of the new Coalition of humans, aliens and machines, to combat a new threat: The Chykri. Attempt to keep the Coalition together and fight not only to win, but to survive. This is a sequel to our previous game, Achilles. We hope you enjoy it. Please rate and comment. Unless you don't like it, in which case just grumble to yourself about how this one isn't as good as the first. Thanks. EDIT: Had to do some light work. Changed it so surrendering to Chykri grants alternative final chapter instead of sending back to start, checked grammar, changed a few more mistakes. Please message me or Steve if you find any bugs.] > You Continue Before you start, did you play the first game? (If not, you should go do that to catch up.)

[Themes: sci-fi] > Yes Alright, which ending did you get? > Mankind's Conquest You've picked Mankind' Conquest. > You Continue Did you kill Cabana? > No In this game, there's now a minor feature where random events can happen. Please choose one of the three options to see how lucky you are. > You Continue Well, let's get started then. The COALITION variable refers to your relationship among the Old Coalition races such as Humanity, the Clones, the Remnants, Tarn, the Chosen, the Free Mundar Republic and other Alliance immigrants who joined the Old Coalition. The ALLIANCE variable refers to your relationship with old Alliance races, such as the Creators, the Probiscans, the Brain Bugs, the United Mundar Dwellers, the Antimites and the Moogli. The GARAVAN variable refers to your relationship with the Garavan Tribes, such as the Thar'Garavan, the Iron Scales and the Mal Flint. The STRENGTH variable refers to the strength of the new Coalition. > You Continue It's been a year since the end of the Coalition-Alliance War. After their brutal defeat in the war, the Alliance has joined the Coalition along with many Garavan tribes, bringing peace. Of course, there's still tensions between the Alliance races, who are still referred to as the Alliance races despite the absolving of the Alliance, and the old Coalition races. The Alliance species have little power and much worse conditions than the Coalition races, who again have much worse conditions and less power compared with Man. Technology has improved considerably, mainly in the arms race that's arisen after the discovery of the Chykri, a massive military of several cybernetically enhanced and genetically altered alien races that's been mountain an invasion of Coalition territory. The new Coalition is being led by the Grand Council, which has placed you as the General of all Coalition forces. It's your job to unite the new Coalition in a war to destroy the Chykri. > You learn about the Galaxy What would you like to learn about? > You Continue You walk into the Grand Senate Chambers, and look around. The twelve Senators are there, quietly discussing something. Despite being one of the twelve most powerful and influential politicians, you still have an immense dislike of politicians. You prefer to be around soldiers, who are simpler, down to earth and ready to do whatever's worse. Still, the politicians are people you have to deal with. There's two Creators, a Probiscan, a Moogli, a Remnant, a Chosen, Tarn, a Brain Bug and a Garavan, as well as three humans including yourself. Well, technically, two and a half. The half, Cabana, walks up to you. Cabana is the only case of interspecies breeding ever recorded, and is an interesting case. His mother was impregnated by an unknown alien parasite with surprisingly similar biology to humans, leading to Cabana's birth. Cabana's pale green skin is prone to cracking releasing waves of blood and mucus, he has no hair, he requires extensive medicine to survive and has many other medical issues. Still, the man's a loyal and trustworthy friend. "Achilles! How are you? I'm lying, I don't care. You're late, sit down." Cabana says. You take your place next to Cabana and Senator Chang, the other human, who's considerably better at politics and public speaking than you. Today's agenda is mainly about the Chykri. A negotiations team has been sent to discuss a peace negotiation with the Chykri. There were no survivors. Senator Kalt, a Probiscan Politician whose known for his extremely left wing views and as a hero of the Probiscans, takes his place at the podium. The other councilors universally switch their translators to Probiscan. "Good evening, fellow Senators. I would like to thank you all for coming. We have multiple issues to be dealt with. The Scairtt need to be convinced to start giving troops and ships to the Coalition. We should send a diplomacy team. I propose we send Senator Cabana, Senator Achilles, Commander Delta-1, Grand Admiral Yarcel and Lesser Chieftain Thar'Kaan." You take out your tablet, which is used to quickly vote on a topic. > You agree with the Proposal You tap a small button on the tablet, and your vote is made. A few seconds later, the Senator checks his tablet. "The vote is passed. On to the second matter. The new drug Carn Seed..." You slowly go through several boring, meaningless motions, most of which don't involve you. Eventually, you're given your newest duties as Senator. You need to recruit Scairtt forces into the Coalition military, improve on the current military forces, prepare a defense,, assemble a War Council and begin a counter-attack against the Chykri. It's time to get to work. > You Continue The choices for the War Council quickly becomes apparent. Grand Admiral Yarcel, Tarn Commander Delta-1, Lesser Chieftain Thar'Kaan, General Gig, Commando Ashley-Dante, Commissar Mast and of course, Cabana. You organize your first meeting in the Main Chamber of the Probiscan Claw-mark Battleship the Maw, a room specifically designed to hold the War Council. When you arrive, you see why. There's a massive monitor, a holographic board to display a battlefield for tactical decisions. The seats are also personally designed, with a massive metal chair for Delta-1 and an aquatic tank built under the assumption that a Scairtt leader would join the War Council. You take your seat, which is a massive oak chair with gold trim that's more like a throne. The other leaders file in and take their seats, and you quickly assess the commanders based on what you know of them, previous experiences with them and their history. Cabana is a loyal friend and a bit of a clown, but behind his hideous face, disgusting smile and cheerful attitude is a genius mind that can make hard decisions and be incredibly smart in his attitude. Grand Admiral Yarcel is in charge of the Maw and an incredibly popular man of the people. He represents the average troops, but has also proven to be a brutal and efficient leader who's won many battles. He is one of the most famous Probiscans, and has massive amounts of influence in the Alliance. Lesser Chieftain Thar'Kaan is a psychopath. The commander is a tough, brutal leader who has personally skinned enemies of the Coalition. He is cold, calculating and bloodthirsty. General Gig is a Brain Bug. She is in charge of a massive group of terrifying death machines such as spaceships, tanks and other war machines. She is a proud and friendly person, and despite usually inhabiting a massive tank that could wipe out an entire city. Commander Delta-1 is a soldier, first and foremost, and a Remnant hero. Despite being a Commander, he still takes part in every battle he can. He hates whatever enemy is at hand, loves his allies, and is eager to get into a fight. Commissar Mast is a Moogli Commissar and a tactical genius. He is constantly making decisions, and has seemingly knows every great military commander's tactics and has improved on them. Tarn is an alien hivemind who is made up of billions of Tarn Drone bodies. His military experiance will be invaluable. Finally, Commando Ashley-Dante is a quiet Clone. She rarely speaks up, but whenever she talks she imparts incredible wisdom. Despite her quiet and shy demeanor, you've seen footage of her personally kill a dozen Garavan assassins in melee with a machete. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Senator, and more importantly, General Achilles. You are the smartest minds and the greatest fighters in the galaxy, and probably the universe. Some of you are old Coalition, some Alliance, some Thar'Garavan. None of that matters now. The Coalition has the Chykri at our doorstep. We don't know their motives. We don't know their reasons. We only know they want to kill us, so we need to kill them first. Our task is to build up a force that'll send an army of cyborg-monsters running. So let's get to work." > You Continue "Achilles!" You look up from your current project, a plan to reinforce CDF with retired attack animals such as Dogs, Flurets, Fenrir and Pumi Garavan, and turn to Cabana. "What?" "There's a lot of complaints about... Well, everybody, about the level of tech we have in the army. It seems most military tech comes from the Elysium project." "Oh yeah." Admiral Yarcel yells. "What the hell's with the Greek names? I'm getting really sick of all the Greek goddamn names of the tech my men are using." "All Probiscan tech is named after sea creatures." "Well, alright. We'll keep some of the terrible Greek names. But we need new tech." "There's the Daedalus Facility on the Daedalus moon. They're working on new tech." Cabana adds. > Agree "Fine. If any of you have proposals for new tech, submit them to me." You reply. "Perfect. Now that we've united all species, we can have the galaxy's smartest engineers working together on the project." Cabana replies. "Just get to work. We have a lot of work to do. We'll pay a visit to Daedalus right before we visit the Scairtt. Who has proposals?" Several hands raise, and you sigh. "Alright. What do we have, then?" > You Continue "Achilles, look at this new design." You walk over to a massive ship the size of a Behemoth ship. "I've had the plans drawn up. I call it the Void Ship. It takes the famed ship weapons from humanity, Probiscan-designed engines, Mundar hulls, Brain Bug control systems, Creator Stealth Systems, the Remnant shields, Chosen Medical facilities and so forth. Basically, the best stuff from all races. They'd be completely self-sufficient and able to take on entire enemy fleets. It will require serious funding, but I think it'll be worth it." > You authorize the construction of Void Ships "Fine. I'll authorize the project." "Perfect. I'll make sure the Void ships are a success. They'll be incredible war machines, sir. I promise you, they'll be incredible." Grand Admiral Yarcel happily replies. "One minor issue." You add. "Yes?" "The name. Change it." "To what?" "Something Greek." Yarcel raises his hands in frustration. "Really? Void ships wasn't a good name? I'm getting real sick of these names. No, I refuse to allow myself to get mad about this. Fine. What about... I don't know. I'm not familiar with Greek mythology. Ashley-Dante raises her hand. "How about Tartarus Ships? That's Greek, to my knowledge, though it could be Roman." She says. "Perfect." You reply. "Get it done, Admiral Yarcel. Soon, the Tartarus Ships begin construction. Early prototypes and tests are successful, and you have great hope that this will succeed." > You Continue "I introduce, the Laelaps Project." The massive Commissar says, holding forth a small, holographic tablet displaying a robot gorilla-bear-dog, with a scale indicating they're the size of a Black Bear. "What?" You ask. "The Laelaps Project. It's a robotic companion designed by Dr Henry Monroe, Dr Nilt, Dr Kapp and Dr Alpha-18. about the size of dumpsters, given a sophisticated AI with level just below Moogli intelligence levels." Commissar Mast taps the holographic display. The Laelaps' robot's shoulders open as two machine guns and grenade launchers pop out of the shoulders. "They're capable of fighting with these weapons, they're capable of jamming enemy radar while boosting allied radar, and are capable of scans to find hidden enemies." "What purpose would they be?" You ask. "They can act as companions to Communications Officers, assist squads and help reinforce lines of defense." "Alright. Well, the fact that the name is Greek is a plus." "Which took some serious work to find a suiting name." Commissar adds. You think briefly on whether to begin making the Laelaps. > You authorize the Laelaps Project "Fine. Start producing the bots. Make sure the AI's are triple checked for malfunctions, and begin producing them." "Thank you, Senator." The Laelaps Project is set up and begins manufacturing. Within a few weeks, the project begins showing results. The project falls considerably below Commissar Mast's optimistic expectations, but still performs well enough to be worth doing. > You Continue Delta-1 stands in front of you with his proposal, the Apocalypse missile. "General, Nuclear Weapons are currently one of the greatest pieces of war we have, but they're not enough. The Apocalypse Missile will have a nuclear warhead, with a dark matter core. These missiles would be capable of wiping out entire solar systems, in the best conditions. They're fired out of space stations designed for firing the missiles, and would give us the most firepower that's ever existed. It'll make God's Wrath look like a six-shooter." > You authorize the construction of the Apocalypse Missiles "Fine. Get it done." Delta-1 salutes proudly. "Yes, sir. I'll get to work making the missiles." The missiles are soon developed. Although they greatly increase your firepower, these are still incredibly expensive projects, requiring the incredibly expensive missiles to be made and maintained, and having massive space stations to be built, maintained and staffed, and end up taking massive amounts of resources from other military needs. > You Continue Next is General Gig's proposal, the ATLAS Spaceship M2. The Brain Bug is operating a small pod with an anti-grav generator, as her tank would obviously be too big, and her body is incapable of speech, or movement beyond a crawl. "Hello, General Achilles. My Engineers have recently began work on the current human ATLAS Spaceship, and made several additions, including an improved engine, more advanced weaponry and computer system, an AI, better life-support and a more advanced hull. I'm awaiting your approval or disapproval." > You authorize the upgrading of the ATLAS ships "Alright. I'll have the funds given to your Engineers." "Thank you, General." The ATLAS ships are soon upgraded. It's not a monumental success, but the upgrade considerably improves your ships. > You Continue Lesser Chieftain Thar'Kaan takes a seat in front of your desk, holding a holographic tablet and a long, serrated hunting knife. "Alright, I have a proposal. The current Coalition fighters, the Omega Fighters, are expensive and useless. I have a proposition for the Hera Fighter. It's a Fighter based on Thar'Garavan design." You glance at the hologram. An arrow-shaped space ship with a small engine, an arrow-shaped ram and a large caliber gun and missile launcher. "They're fast, effective, and most importantly, cheap. They'd save a resources." > You authorize the construction of the Hera Fighters "Start making the fighters than. Get in touch with industry worlds and get them making these." "Good choice, commander. These will perform well." The Garavan slashes his hand open, and offers the knife for your to do the same. Merging blood is a Garavan tradition. "Thar'Kaan, I'm not cutting myself. I make a lot of deals. I'd pass out from blood loss if I did that." "So be it." You begin mass-producing the Hera Fighters, but they perform much, much worse than expected. They're so cheap they're prone to malfunction, bad at maneuvering, have little armor and firepower and cause massive numbers of death. You bring back the Omega Fighters, but the damage is done. > You Continue Cabana walks up to you, and drops a small paper folder on your desk. "Whatever this is, the answer's no." You say without looking up. Cabana has already given up proposals to remake Thor's Hammer, the Death Star, a galaxy-sized fist to ram the End, rocket-powered chickens and just sending him with a katana to take out the Chykri. "I'm done joking, Achilles. That's my proposal. I call it the Hercules Project. Look long and hard at it. I'm not even sure if I want it passed." You look up, and see Cabana has entered one of his cold, stony states where he actually acts like a leader rather than a foolish buffoon. "So it's risky?" "No. There's no risk whatsoever. It's guaranteed to be successful, and the propaganda I've prepared will stop a public backlash. The only question is what we're willing to do to win. The Hercules Project is a project involving extreme genetic manipulation, hard training and cybernetic enchancements." "We already do that to our soldiers." "Not at this level, Achilles. These give people incredibly strength, faster healing, increased speed, perception, reflexes and a hell of a lotta other stuff. They make super soldiers who could kick the actual Hercules' ass." "So what's the issue?" "It involves incredible amounts of pain. More than most people can handle. It'll lead to a lot of deaths. The survivors will be driven so insane that they'll need to be brainwashed to fight." You pause, thinking. "There's... another thing." Achilles adds. "What?" "The Hercules Project works many times better when the subjects haven't hit puberty yet. The choice is yours, Achilles." > Don't authorize the Hercules Project "No. I won't allow it." Cabana nods. "Probably for the best. It'd fuck some people up, Achilles. I'm pretty glad you said no. That shit would've been borderline evil." > You Continue You watch as the small grey moon slowly approaches, and you begin to make out the massive lights doting the surface, showing the massive facilities that cover the planet. The planet was a massive Alliance industrial world that made ships, tanks, weapons, armor and other equipment, until the Alliance was disbanded. They became a massive corporation, supplying many Garavan Tribes, the Colony Defense Forces, the Coalition and even pirate crews. With the upcoming war approaching, they've began mass producing weapons in hopes of a weapons deal with the Coalition. The moon holds such famed scientists as Dr Awad-Masari, the inventor of the modern translator, ex-Staff Sergeant Whirldwind-44, who rediscovered and improved upon the Remnants Apocalypse ships, and Dr Giagtan, the designer and engineer behind the Metal Whirlwind of Fire and Death, the terribly named yet destructive Brain Bug Tank. > You take the shuttle to the surface You take the shuttle to the surface with Tarn, Cabana, Thar'Kaan and Gig, who's slug-like body is inhabiting a spider-like vehicle for easy movement. "I've never been to do this planet, which is odd. I've been to most planets. Not this body, but other bodies." Tarn says. "Perhaps it's because I'm not creative. I've never had a lot of innovation. I've never needed to. I have a basically immortal lifespan, so I take my time with inventing things." "That's untrue. I fought with you at Silver Rock Canyon. " Thar'Kaan says. "A half-dozen Tarn Drones re-engineered a Mining Drill to break into a Brain Bug fortress. We massacred those inside. It was a glorious day. No offense, Gig." General Gig seems unnerved at the comment, but she makes no remark. "It was a tremendous display of ingenuity and courage." Thar'Kaan adds. "There was no courage to it. I am not brave. You are. The Garavan are. The Humans are. Every species but me is brave. You all face death every day, and you continue fighting on. I do not. I have nothing to fear from. I am, as I previously said, basically immortal. I am a lot of things, but brave is not one of them." "Perhaps. But perhaps there is bravery is facing pain through your billions of bodies every day." Thar'Kaan says. "Maybe." Tarn nods. The shuttle doors open, revealing two armed guards, a Clone and a Moogli wearing powered armor and holding laser rifles based off Probiscan design. "Greetings, esteemed ambassadors of the Coalition. Right this way, if you would." You follow the guards along to a generic meeting room, where dozens of aliens representing all different cultures sit around the table. At the head is a Mundar Dweller wearing golden plated clothing and silver chains. "Greetings, I am Chairman Gold-Hand. I represent Daedalus. I'm very glad you've come here." The Mundar, Chairman Gold-Hand, stands, and offers a hand which you shake. "Greetings, Chairman. I am General Achilles. I am here to request that you begin making supplies for the Coalition. You'll be well paid." "Of course, Senator. I know who you are. It was only a matter of time. I've already prepared several shipments of weapons, and I shall make sure the factories increase their workload." "Well, this was considerably easier than expected." You note. "Senator, I'm a capitalist. I work for money. You're a customer. And of course, at heart I'm a patriot. My father immigrated to the Coalition when I was young. I built this company from the ground up. It's the perfect embodiment of capitalism. In addition to us producing for you, we have several prototypes to offer you." "Prototypes?" "Prototypes for new pieces of equipment that'll be mass produced. For a price of course." "How much?" The Chairman tells you the figure, and your legs nearly give way. "You're talking to the leader of the largest military force in existence." Cabana says incredulously. "I have inventors to pay, engineers, factory workers, technicians and share-holders, as well as maintain the facilities. I'm sorry, but that's the price." "Thar'Achilles, say the word and I'll skin this weakling and make a leather jacket for you." Thar'Kaan says. "No. This is a place of business. We're not fighting." You say. "Plus, they have some of the most sophisticated tech and a lot of guards." General Gig adds. "Perhaps. But behind the hardened metal armor, there is soft flesh. My blades can pierce that soft flesh." > You encourage a fight "We're not letting you do this, Chairman." You say. "Guards! Get these...!" The Chairman starts, but Thar'Kaan is faster. Thar'Kaan pounces forward with his two blades, slashing them and cutting the Chairman's throat. Two guards charge into the room, firing. General Gig is hit and her spider-vehicle collapses into a heap, but you manage to draw your pistol and kill them both. Cabana is struck down by a laser from a group of a half dozen guards charging in from behind you. Thar'Kaan grabs a gun and starts shooting, speeding around the room hacking and shooting. You take another few shots, but a laser hits you in the chest and your heart explodes. You struggle to stand, but a few seconds you collapse backwards.

[Themes: sci-fi, science fiction] "Achilles!" You look up from your current project, a plan to reinforce CDF with retired attack animals such as Dogs, Flurets, Fenrir and Pumi Garavan, and turn to Cabana. "What?" "There's a lot of complaints about... Well, everybody, about the level of tech we have in the army. It seems most military tech comes from the Elysium project." "Oh yeah." Admiral Yarcel yells. "What the hell's with the Greek names? I'm getting really sick of all the Greek goddamn names of the tech my men are using." "All Probiscan tech is named after sea creatures." "Well, alright. We'll keep some of the terrible Greek names. But we need new tech." "There's the Daedalus Facility on the Daedalus moon. They're working on new tech." Cabana adds. > Disagree "No. Keep the tech the same. Let's go meet the Scairtt as soon as possible." > You Continue "Come on. We have to go. Let's go talk to some fishes." Cabana says. Delta-1, Yarcel, Cabana and Thar'Kaan stand at the exit of the War Room. You stand, and begin walking to the shuttle that'll take you to the Ocean's Tear, a Scairtt ship. "So, no offense Kaan, but why are you here?" Cabana asks. "I'm a tactical genius, feared warrior and representative of the Thar'Garavan. Why are you here, Cabana?" Thar'Kaan replies. "Dozens of Garavan tribes have hunted Scairtt ships for salvage. What are the odds that the Scairtt we're meeting were attacked by Garavan? Hell, what are the odds they were attacked by you personally, Thar'Kaan?" "If I had attacked them they'd all be dead." Thar'Kaan replies. "How the hell is this guy a politician?" Cabana asks, frustrated. "Gentlemen, if needs be, I will personally kill both of you to make sure this negotiations meeting goes well. So shut the hell up." "Yes, Sir." Thar'Kaan replies. "Alright." Cabana says. You enter the area, and immediately begin putting on the scuba gear you'll need to move around and to even survive on the ship. You enter the shuttle, which has been specifically designed for boarding Sciartt ships. "Alright. make sure your translator is switched to Scairtt. The translators have only just been programmed for this new language, so expect there to be translation errors." You say. "General, in the situation when we're attacked by Scairtt, where is there weak spot?" Delta-1 asks. "We're on a diplomacy mission. We're not going to get attacked. "Hypothetically, where should I try to bayonet?" "I'm not answering that question, Delta-1." You reply. "Do the Scairtt consume alcohol?" Grand Admiral Yarcel asks. "I don't know. Does it matter?" You reply. "Will they have drinks for us, is the real question?" The Probiscan asks. "If you get drunk, I will burn you alive, Yarcel. The amount drink, you'll burn quickly." "In an attempt to subvert the previous terrible questions, do the Sciartt have any particular customs to follow?" Cabana asks. "Don't look at them for too long at a time. Try to make the swimming as natural as possible. Bad swimming unnerves them. Other than that, just use the Golden Rule." "I thought we weren't killing them." Thar'Kaan asks. "I don't know what the Golden Rule is to your kind, so I'll make his simpler: Be kind and polite or I'll shatter your spine and leave you out for the Flurets." You say. The room, or shuttle, quiets down. After a few minutes, the shuttle docks into the Ocean's Tear. Suddenly, the shuttle begins filling with water. Another few minutes later, the entire shuttle is filled with water, and the doors can finally open. The doors open, and two Scairtt stand, holding harpoon guns. The Scairtt are grey, and look like a cross between a shark and a manta ray, with two fin-arms to hold the harpoon. "Greetings, Coalition members. I am Admiral Kara. I am pleased to welcome you to the Ocean's Tear. I have been told you wish to *UNTRANSLATABLE*... To "request" some of our forces to fight the Great Army." "Yes, Admiral." "Very well. Let us continue this conversation in the Bridge." > You Continue You swim into a massive room, covered with consoles and screens where Scairtt soldiers work. Two more Sciartt swim up to you. "Greetings." One says. "I am Grand Admiral La. This is Admiral Flo." "I am General Achilles. This is Commander Delta-1, Senator Cabana, Lesser Chieftain Thar'Kaan and Grand Admiral Yarcel." You reply. "General, to cut to the point, I'm not sure what we have to offer. We Scairtt have very few soldiers. Our navies, both space and water-based, are strong, but the Chykri have not deployed aquatic forces. So I assume you have come here for our Space Navies." "That's correct, Grand Admiral." "Well... Our forces are weak. We've taken many losses. We lost a large part of our forces in the Ice-World Invasions, where Moogli forces wiped out many of our soldiers. We lost many more of our vessels during the Garavan Wars. We only have a small force left. Most of what we have is right here, in this fleet." "Commander, we need to stay strong. If we stand together, we'll beat the Chykri. If we don't stand together, they'll hunt us down one by one." The Scairtt pauses. "We will think. Let us relax. There are refreshments." A Scairtt holding a metal platter swims up, with several cigars on it, as well as pieces of meat. "I heard you enjoy cigars. Please, take one." You pause, looking at the Scairtt, who seems to be being serious. "We're underwater." You say. "Yes." The Grand Admiral replies. "How will I light my cigar?" The Sciartt pauses. "Well... I didn't know you lit cigars. I was hoping they were edible. Well. I shall take you to the Air Rooms." You follow the Scairtt to a small room, with an a small island of space by the water. You climb up, and remove your mask, as does the rest of your diplomacy team. A Scairtt pops his horrifying head out of the water, offering you a soggy cigar. > You take the Cigar You take the soggy cigar and light it. You took a deep breath, which isn't great, but the Scairtt seem pleased you took it. "Alright. Let's get to work discussing this." Grand Admiral La says. You nod, and Thar'Kaan steps forward. "You were telling us how many troops you will commit to the Coalition." "We cannot afford to..." "Admiral, we need more men. We won't be taking no for an answer." "Of course, Garavan. Why don't you take the Pool of Light, the Patient Hunter, the Stalking Predator, the Golden Light, the Hope of All and the Great Savior? But wait, you can't. All of those ships, and many more, were destroyed and salvaged by your kind. The occupants were murdered by your kind." "Continue acting this way and the Ocean's Tear will join their numbers." This is getting out of hand. You need to stop them. > You stop Thar'Kaan How would you like to stop him? > You punch him You swing your fist, knocking Thar'Kaan into a wall. Thar'Kaan snarls, before nodding his head. "Apologies, Thar'Achilles. I respect your strength. I shall return to the shuttle and cease causing issues." The Garavan dives into the water and begins swimming back to the shuttle. "Thank you for defending me, Achilles. It's good to know you will stick up for the Scairtt." The Admiral says. Cabana chuckles, and you raise an eyebrow. "You got a Lesser Chieftain to call you Thar." He says. "So?" You ask. "Thar means Great. You made a Lesser Chieftain your bitch. That's impressive." > You get back to discussing forces with Grand Admiral La "To get back on point, Grand Admiral La, we need the forces to survive. If we stand together, we will survive." Grand Admiral La pauses. "Perhaps I can give some forces to the Coalition. No, I definitely will, for the good of my people and yours. Would you like to see the Scairtt forces?" > No "Oh. I would've hoped you'd at least have the interest to see the forces I'd give you. Alright then, I guess we have nothing else to discuss." > You leave the ship You swim back to the shuttle, and take your seats. Thar'Kaan is there waiting. "Goodbye, Achilles." Grand Admiral La says. "Goodbye, La." You reply. The shuttle doors shut closed, and water begins being drained out of the shuttle. "So War Council, what do you think of the forces?" You ask. "They're a bunch of overly-pacifistic fish who wouldn't know a battle if it was charging there bunkers with bayonets, but their ships are impressive." Delta-1 says. "Their strength will be good to have." Thar'Kaan says. "Though on a personal level, I hope the Great Hunter has their scent." "I agree with Delta-1 to some extent." Yarcel adds. "I don't want some goddamn poets fighting with me. I want men. I want the grunts. I wouldn't trust them not to run in a navel battle. But realistically, we need their firepower, and their ships are impressive. The Maw could destroy every single one of them, but that's neither here nor there." "Well, we need the men. There's not much else to say." Cabana says. The water finishes being pumped out of shuttle and departs from the Ocean's Tear. "Let's get back to the ship. We have more planning to do." > You Continue You retire to your office after a hot shower to warm up after the cold water that had filled the Scairtt ship, and pour yourself a glass of Scotch, and find a cigar. > You invite Cabana You grab your tablet and send Cabana a message. You pour two glasses of scotch, and Cabana enters the room after a few minutes. "Achilles, I've been meaning to talk to you. The Crim T'Saina Garavan Tribe..." Cabana begins. "Cabana, shut up. I'm tired. Let's just have a drink together." "Yeah, sure. That'd be great." Cabana says, sitting down and grabbing one of the glasses. "So, how's the wife?" "She's fine. Yours?" "I don't want to curse it, but I think she might be pregnant." Cabana says, taking a long sip of Scotch. "Really? Congratulations, Cabana." "Yeah. I just hope to God he's not born with..." "Your condition?" You say, sweeping a hand in the direction of Cabana's sickly skin covered in a thin layer of music and various other ailments. "I was going to say his mother's sense of humor, but that too." Cabana replies, giving his trademark yet horrifying grin as the skin around his mouth contorts and cracks. "Well, congratulations none the less." "Yeah, thanks. So, what's our plan for the future? We met the fish, and made some new tech for the men." "We have the Unification Tour. We're touring the various homeworlds to talk about how brave the men are, how evil the Chykri are and so forth. It's mainly to raise morale and compliment the soldiers on their work in the Coalition-Alliance War." Cabana frowns. "Complimenting the soldiers for their work in the Coalition-Alliance War? What about the Probiscan worlds, the Antimite Worlds, the Moogli worlds? Are we going to compliment them for killing humans?" "Perhaps. Shit, how did we get on to talking about work? I'm tired. Let's get back to drinking." You both finish your glass, and pour yourselves another drink. "To the Coalition!" Cabana toasts. "To the Coalition!" You reply. > You Continue "Achilles, we need to start planning the "Campaign of Victory"." "The what?" "We've discussed this, remember? The Campaign of Victory, where you make shitty feel-good speeches to raise morale and praise the soldiers for their efforts in the war? Giving medals and kissing babies?" "Oh, yeah. What needs to be planned? "Whether you'll be visiting the Alliance planets. On one hand, if you don't go you'll be pissing off the Alliance grunts. If you do, you'll be complimenting the Alliance soldiers we fought against and pissing off our men. Well, the Old Coalition's men. Then again, you'll be the one who has to pin the medals on the blue-skins and the metal geeks and the horny, horny Antimites. Then again, I have a level of respect for the horny, horny Antimites. Had sex with one before I got married. Do you know where Antimite genitals are? In the mouth. behind the tongue. I remember finding that out. So there we were, naked as can be, when..." "Cabana, do you remember the massive army that's preparing to wipe us out and destroy our very way of life?" "Yeah, of course." "So why the hell are you talking about the weird, xenos sex?" "Alright, lighten up, Achilles. So, will you visit the Alliance planets?" > Can't "I can't go to the Alliance worlds. Do you know how many of them are pissed off with me after we kicked there ass in the war? They'd all try to assassinate me." "Yeah, you're right. Fuck them all, anyway. I wouldn't want to compliment some Alliance shits for killing a dozen of our men either. Humanity, fuck yeah! Fuck the Alliance. In fact, fuck all aliens. Except, of course, my loving father. Actually, fuck him, too." "Your father?" "My dad was very unloving. He never took me fishing, he never taught me how to ride my bike, he never paid a dime in child support..." "Your dad was a parasite." "Well, yeah, but that doesn't invalidate my complaints. We have to go visit the Thar'Garavan." > You visit the Thar'Garavan Flagship You sit in a small shuttle, sitting next to Cabana and Thar'Kaan. "So Kaan, if bullets start flying, are you going to be helping me or killing me?" Cabana asks. "My loyalty is to Thar'Achilles and the Coalition." Thar'Kaan replies. "Good to know you'll be on my side." "My loyalty's to Thar'Achilles. If bullets start flying, I'm using you as a shield." "Ah. Thanks." Cabana frowns. The ship begins the docking process as the pilot's voice comes over the intercom. "We are now boarding the Thar'Garavan ship. I'll keep the engines running and my gun loaded should something go wrong." The pilot says. The shuttle doors open, and two Garavan Warriors stand at either side of you. "Thar'Kaan. You are home. This pleases me." One of them says. "Dant. You are still alive. I thought a Moogli sniper had taken your head off." Thar Kaan replies. "No, that was the Kitan." "Ah. Well, it's good to see you're alive. We must share a drink some time." Thar'Kaan replies. "But now, I must go find the Great Chambers. Thar'Achilles is making a speech." "Down the hall and to the left." Dant replies. You walk down the small, closed hall and take the door on the left, into a large area. You walk to the podium, and take your post, making the same speech as before. The Garavan seem impressed though, and you know their bloodthirsty nature means they're looking forward to a long, brutal fight. There's several more tribes than the Thar'Garavan here, obviously coming to here the speech and prepare for the war. As you step down from the podium, Thar'Kaan leads you aside, towards the massive throne sitting at the back. A large Garavan covered in golden chains sits there, who you recognize as Greater Chieftain Garavan. "Hello, Achilles. That was a good speech. My warriors are ready to fight and die for you." "Thank you, Greater Chieftain Garavan." "Of course, my warriors will not be able to fight as well as they should. We gain most of our tech from raiding and scavenging from enemies. Now that the Coalition has been formed, our only enemy is the Chykri, whose vehicles are unusable to all but them. So we don't have nearly enough equipment to sustain our soldiers. I'd like to know if you can give us some vehicles and equipment." > You give the Thar'Garavan the best technology "I'll make sure you get the very best, top of the line tech, Chieftain." "Good, good. Thank you, Achilles. Technology is the sword of today, and you are giving my men sharp swords so we can do what is necessary: Wiping out the Chykri." The Garavan Tribes' relationship with you improves substantially after that, but there are issues. There's resentment among the Coalition that the Garavan are being given the same and in some cases, better tech than them. The Garavan's inability to use the tech to it's full powers also causes minor inconveniences, but the Garavan forces are now sufficiently prepared for the war. > You Continue You make several more speeches on Garavan ships and worlds, riling them up for the upcoming battles and securing their loyalty. Your final destination of the tour of the Campaign of Victory is the Olympus, the Coalition flagship. > You Continue Before you depart for the Olympus, your good relationship with the Scairtt manages to get them to negotiate a fuel deal with the Scairtt, as they switch from using Garavan Diesel to Coalition fuel, due to their hatred of the Garavan. This improves your relationship the Scairtt further, makes the old-Coalition races happier and the resulting trading deals mean you're able to gain more funding for the Coalition war machine. > You Continue You walk along the hallways of the Olympus, towards the Grand Senate Chambers, which now holds a massive audience. You walk to the podium, and look out at the massive population. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Coalition. Humans, Tarn, Mundar, Clones, Remnants, Chosen, Scairtt, Probiscans, Moogli, Antimites, Brain Bugs, Creators and Garavan. I'm here to thank you for all your service. If it were up to me, every goddamn soldier here would get a medal, a pension and a cushiony retirement. But I can't give you that. The Chykri are at our door. They will not take prisoners. They will not show mercy. They will set our worlds alight. They will destroy our entire way of life, everything we love, everything we are. That's why I'm asking your to stand with me. Look at what we've accomplished together. We've built an empire that our ancestors wouldn't have even been able to comprehend. We have a military that could march through the Pearly Gates and conquer heaven. So I need you to stand with me to stop the Chykri. They will burn our worlds one by one, slaughter our families and destroy our homes. Will you let them, or will you stand by me? I promise you, if we stand again, we will preserve. We will survive. We will win." The room breaks into applause, and you turn to begin conversing with the Senators, who all presumably have a new and different brand of bullshit to peddle you. It looks like it'll be a great evening. As multiple leaders begin to converge on your location, you briefly wonder if you can kill them all before the guards manage to off you. But a Tarn Drone interrupts your thoughts and pulls you aside. "Achilles. It's good to see you again. I'd like to make a request." "Really? You mean you're asking me to solve a problem? What are the odds?" "Power is turning you into a massive dick, Achilles." "Yeah, sorry. What do you need?" "I've lost many Tarn drones. I need to reproduce. To do that, I'll need to have considerable resources, mainly food and medical supplies to my needs. Then I can begin reproducing." You briefly wonder about how he reproduces, and quickly come to the opinion it must be millions of drones having sex. You gag, and attempt not to puke. "Will my needs my looked after?" > You say "Yes." "Of course, Tarn." "Thank you, General." You begin diverting massive amounts of food and medical supplies to the Tarn hiveworlds. This results in massive amounts of cargo ship crews vomiting at the thought, and for the most unlucky ones sight of Tarn intercourse, as well as the fact that these resources have to be diverted. The result is a boom in the Tarn population, many of which turn to the military, increasing your military capabilities. Though the cost of this is many broken, scarred minds of cargo ship crews and yourself. You doubt it's worth it. > You Continue The tall, slender Ramos-Ram manages to slip through the crowd and reach you next. "Senator Achilles, how are you?" "There's multiple people heading towards me to ask me to settle their shitty problems and authorize their moronic plan. What do you want?" "I want to know if you'll authorize the use of APAINIT-X12 in Cloning, in regards to the warrior and soldier archtypes." "Go on." "The chemical in question is designed to increase hormone levels and fast growth. This would greatly decrease the time needed to reach adulthood, currently sixteen years, which would drop to twelve years, and eight with further research and development." > You authorize the chemical You decide to authorize the use of the chemical, which is immediately put in use. Unfortunately, the chemical has some minor defects that badly affect the clone soldiers, and the minimization of childhood among the clones causes serious mental issues among the soldiers, which causes many of the newest generation of clones to suffer from many new issues and to be considerably less effective. As well as this you get some heat for allowing this from the Coalition forces. > You Continue Next to make their way to you is a massive Remnant known as Spear-9. "General." The robot says. "How can I help you?" "Recent archeological discoveries have unearthed an Ancient factory." "Go on." "This facility was used to make my kind. The archeologists wish to prevent us from using these facilities to begin manufacturing as it would damage important bits of history, and destroy massive amounts of knowledge about the Ancients and destroy our history. I would like you to overrule this judgement." > You allow the Remnants to use the facility "Sure. I'll have the judgment overruled." "Good. Thank you, General." The facilities are converted, destroying massive amounts of information on the Ancients and bits of history, but the facilities are converted into remaking bodies for uploaded Remnant minds, which allows your military population to grow considerably. > You Continue Finally, the slowest of the Coalition leaders, a large Chosen in his suit filled with the Great Many, the sentient goo they worship that's always unnerved you. You've heard descriptions of what it's like to be combined with the goo, such as hearing "billions of helpful voices" and "a melding of souls to achieve Nirvana", but that only makes the prospect seem more terrifying. The massive creature walks up to you, and begins speaking in a dull monotone voice. "Hello, Senator." "High Priest. What do you want?" You reply, glancing at the two extra large cylinders of goo coming out of his shoulders to indicate his rank. "Nothing more than to thank you for the lovely speech and pledge the support of the Chosen to your cause." "And...?" "That is all." "Oh. Thank you." You turn to Cabana, who strolls up to you. "What'd the religious fanatic want?" "Nothing." "Really? That's somehow terrifying. What the hell's his motive, anyhow? I never trust the religious. If you've got an imaginary friend who you'll kill for and think that when you die you'll go to paradise, you're basically one step away from suicide bombing a starship. Especially Christian Aliens. Those bastards are always high and mighty because THEIR ancestors never committed the original sin, like that shit's real. Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I went drinking with a Buddhist Garavan, a Chosen, a Moogli Hardskin and a Antimite Prince? It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but we ended up getting in a fight with some Probiscan starship sailors when someone strapped a pipe bomb to a Walker..." "I've heard the story, Cabana. You ended up blowing up a cargo ship's engines, hiding in the jungle from police for three days before ending up marching in the Antimite Prince's parade of honor." "Yeah, those were my teenage years. Well shit, let's get outta here before more people get here to talk to you about inane shit." > You Continue "I never really wanted to stay in a single tribe. I spent forty years as a Hard-skin, forty as a Black-heart, forty as a Wide-eye, fifty as a Soft-skin. Then I served as a Commissar for about sixty years. I plan to spend another twenty years doing this before a nice retirement to raise my own clan." Commissar Mast says. "I find following all Moogli paths of life is the best way too live." "I've always found your long lives quite enviable. Humans get less than two centuries." You reply. "Oh boohoo. I'm fifty years old. I got another thirty, maybe forty years on the clock, and ten of those involve me being pumped full of nanobots." Grand Admiral Yarcel says. "Well, with the new Eternal Project gaining traction, our organic bodies might only be used during a fraction of our lives." Ashley-Dante says. "I will end you!!" Someone yells from inside the war room. "There's no heart, no soul in a machine. Your death will be quick and joyless." You, Mast, Ashley-Dante and Yarcel draw their arms and burst into the war room, and see Thar'Kann and Delta-1 facing off. Thar'Kaan holds two long, serrated knives while Delta-1 raises two metallic fists. Commissar Mast and Grand Admiral Yarcel charge forward and attempt to hold the massive remnant back. Thar'Kaan raises his knives to strike, but in the blink of an eye he's on the ground with a broken snout with Ashley-Dante holding both knives to his throat. "What the hell is the wrong with you two? We've got an army of cyborg monsters coming for all of us and you two are fighting in the goddamn war room?" "The lizard savage has been ordering his men to cut up dead Remnants and make them into tanks and ships! He's doing that to my men!" "They're dead. We honor them in reusing them." "Fuck you, you scaly bastard!" The Remnant strains, and you need to add your strength to Mast and Yarcel's in holding him down. "As soon as this bitch gets off me, I'll... AAAARGH!" Thar'Kaan yells as Ashley-Dante sticks a blade through his shoulder. You turn to Delta-1, and look him in his eye, or his camera that acts as an eye, and furrow your brow. "If I let you up, will you stop trying to kill Thar'Kaan?" "Yes, General. Sorry, General." You let Delta-1 stand, and Ashley-Dante releases Thar'Kaan, who's bleeding heavily. "Now, explain the goddamn problem." You say. "Delta-1. Talk." "After recent Chykri attacks a lot of Remnants have been killed. Thar'Kaan ordered his men to steal the corpses of Remnants who fought and died for the Coalition, and savage their bodies for their own needs." Delta-1 says. "OK, Thar'Kaan, what's your side of the story?" "Everything Delta-1 says is true. But we're not savaging them. They gave their lives to the Coalition. Surely they would want their bodies to be given for the cause. We do it to honor them." "Achilles, tell the scaly bastard to stop doing this." "Thar'Achilles will do no such thing. He knows that war is harsh." > Support Delta-1 "Thar'Kaan, I order you to stop doing this. Give the remaining Remnant bodies back to the Remnants. I swear to Christ if you don't there'll be hell to pay." "I will, Thar'Achilles." Thar'Kaan says, clearly annoyed. "Thank you." Delta-1 says. "Next person who fights in the war council gets tied up and put in a room with Ashely-Dante and a dull blade." Ashley-Dante smirks at that idea. "Now, let's get back to work. What's first?" "You were heading to the Reformation of the Coaltion's laws at the Olympus. We're docked next to them." Grand Admiral Yarcel says. "Oh, shit. I have to go. Ashley-Dante, if anyone fights you have my permission to break both their legs, or lower body in General Gig's case." "Gladly, sir." She replies. You turn and head to your personal shuttle bay. > You Continue Before you leave, General Gig calls you back. "What's the problem?" You ask. "There's been a series of violent attacks on ex-Alliance citizens. CDF raided a Probiscan neighborhood aboard the Songbird, a pair of Creators were executed by former-soldiers and just today several Brain Bugs were burned alive in their ships." "What's the cause of this?" "Coalition citizens are pissed off that the Alliance has joined the Coalition, and they're taking action. We need soldiers to put down this Anti-Alliance movement and restore order. Can I have it?" > Sure "I'll have soldiers taken from military outposts to enforce law in the trouble-maker zones." "Thank you, Senator." You quickly send the soldiers to enforce order. There's unrest among Coalition people who feel they're being persecuted and Chykri attacks become more brutal in areas where the soldiers are taken from. There's a lot of support from the Alliance community, so that's a plus. Still, that's unimportant now. You're late for the Coalition Laws change. > You Continue You finally make your way to the Olympus and start marching towards your seat. You sit down next to Cabana, and an attendant hands you a cigar. "Thanks." You say, lighting the cigar. "Let's get to work writing some laws." "Yeah." > You begin making laws Due to your fame as a general and the power you've gained for humanity, you have immense power in the decision making, and as the leader of humanity, the most powerful race in the Coalition, you'll be in charge of looking at the law, looking at public opinion and deciding on whether to pass or deny the law. The other Senators are there to advise you, but you'll be making the final decision. > You begin with the first Law proposal The Head of the Coalition's Judicial Branch, an elderly, bespectacled human man walks up and takes the stage. "Greetings, Senators, most especially Senator Achilles. We have multiple laws to go through, but the first is the issue of the harshest sentence we can give out. The Probiscans, Remnants, Mundar Dwellers, Moogli and Creators want to legalize the death sentence, while the Garavan have been outvoted on their choice for castration and enslavement, so they're also began following the death sentence idea. The Humans, Brain Bugs, Chosen, Antimites, Scairtt, Tarn and Clones are against the death penalty, and want life imprisonment on a Penal Ship or Colony. These are the two options." > You legalize the Death Sentence "The Death Sentence is the only fair choice. A life for a life." You say. There's a brief burst of chatter among the Senators, but it calms down quickly. "Yes, Senator. I'll make sure the changes are put into place immediately. But for now, we have to move onto the next subject: The issue of cannibalism, both of one's own species and other sentient species." > You Continue "Cannibalism is a common occurrence among both the Garavan Tribes and old-Alliance races, as well as the Tarn. The Coalition has currently banned the practice, but many want to put the Alliance's form of legalized cannibalism in place, where it's lawful should it be done after a willing participant dies from causes that weren't because of the cannibalism, such as when a Thar'Garavan Chieftain is eaten by his son after his death or after a Probiscan sucks out his friends love as an act of respect. The Probiscans, Moogli, Garavan, Scairtt, Tarn, Creators and Mundar Dwellers are for the legalization of Cannabalism, while the Humans, Clones, Remnants, Brain Bugs, Antimites and Chosen are against it." > You legalize Cannabalism "Ladies and Gentlemen, cannibalism is a well-respected practice among many alien races and to ban it would be to banish a massive part of their culture. It shall be legalized." There's some disgusted faces from Humans and Clones, but the majority of the audience is in approval. "The next subject is Garavan tradition, which many believe is... Well, I better explain in full detail." > You Continue "The Garavan tradition is a brutal and bloody one. The Garavan tribes practice everything from death matches, gladiator fighting, many uses of torture including self-torture and body mutilation. These practices have all been outlawed, but the Garavan want them to be allowed exclusively for willing Garavan members, and other species who have joined the Garavan tribes." > You allow the Garavan Traditions You grab the microphone, and look over to the large Garavan sections of the audience. "The Garavan traditions are a part of their culture and their very being. We can't ban them. I'll allow the traditions to be reinstated." There's a booming applause from the Garavan audience. "Excellent." The Head of the Coalition's Judicial Branch says. "Let's move on." > You Continue "Finally, we have the issue of sexual intercourse among the different species, most importantly in regards to marriage and adoption. Currently, we have no laws against it, but there's been public uproar over interspecies relationships, including Councilor Maximov getting married to a Garavan and adopting two Garavan children, and > You allow interspecies marriage and adoption "Interspecies marriage should be allowed. Adoption as well." You say. Most of the room breaks out into applause. There's a few angry faces, but the majority seem to support your decision. The Head of the Coalition Judicial System stands, bows his head, and walks out to begin incorporating the changes to judicial system. > You Continue You sit in your office, a lit cigar clenched between your teeth and a small shot glass of whiskey in your hands. Cabana, Tarn, Thar'Kaan, Delta-1, Ashley-Dante. General Gig, Grand Admiral Yarcel and Commissar Dante watch as a small hover sphere with a transparent front hovers into the room. Inside you can see a large, muscular Scairtt with a mouth full of teeth, covered in intricate tattoos covered in water whirls. "'As the suns would've set over my home world, a new relationship dawns. I am Grand Scribe Akaid Curreira Strong-Fin, Killer of Great Ice Tribes, Conqueror of the Everlasting Mountains and Skinner of Lesser Chieftain Dag'Isit." The Scairtt says. "Lesser Chieftain Dag'Isit was strong. It's impressive that you killed him." Thar'Kaan says. "What do your friends call you?" You ask. "Beloved Grand Scribe Akaid Curreira Strong-Fin, Killer of Great Ice Tribes, Conqueror of the Everlasting Mountains and Skinner of Lesser Chieftain Dag'Isit." "We'll just call you Akaid." Cabana says. "You fought at the Everlasting Mountains?" Commissar Mast says. "I led the conquest of them." Akaid says. "I lost most of my comrades there." "Life is a cruel mistress. It gives those a taste of it and then refuses to give another. It's warm and nurturing, before it stabs you in the throat. I am sorry for your loss, but I will not take the blame. Death should take the blame, and Death wears the warm mask called Life over it's cold features." "Why...?" You start. "Why do you talk like a cowardly, sword-fearing jester?" Thar'Kaan asks. "What my friend means to say is that we've talked to Scairtt before and they don't... "embellish" the words in such a poetic manner, so why do you?" "My job is to lead armadas, lead swords to flesh, do Death's work and give food for the scavengers. I talk as a Scairtt, just as I live and breath. Others have learned to talk as an alien, a land walker, a dry skin, a monster, such as yourself. I have not." Cabana leans over and whispers in your ear. "Talking to this guy's going to get real boring, real fast." He says. "Just talk to the fish. Smile and nod." "Well, unveil the chamber of conquest and show me to my chambers, my nest, my own." Akaid says. "No offense Akaid, but how the hell have the guys in charge of the translators not caught on to this issue? Because right now I don't now if you're asking for food, or sex..." "Cabana?" You ask. "Yes?" "Shut the fuck up." "Good advice." Cabana says, piping down and stepping to the side. "Are you asking to be shown where your room is?" General Gig asks. "That is as true as the tides." Akaid replies. The two hovering aliens float off towards the aquatic room that's been recently renovated for the Scairtt general that you're being forced to allow on the war council. "Well, that was... interesting." "No. That was horrific. My room's next to his. I'll have to speak to him at least twice a day when I enter and leave my room. And that will be twice a day where suicide becomes a valid option." Ashley-Dante remarks. "Shit, we've got a cyborg monster army at our door and we're talking about our team mate's accent, or speech impediment, or whatever. There's rumors of Chykri fighters attacking Coalition supply ships. Yarcel, get on it. Cabana, there's Moogli bandits targeting farms. See if you can stop them and, if possible, recruit them into the Coalition Armed Forces. Thar'Kaan, see if we can turn the shipwrecks from the Battle of Yellow Tongue into the Thar'Garavan Ramming Vessels. Mast, begin planning a possible defense of the Valhallian ice-world. Ashkey-Dante, look over the propaganda based around war heroes from the Alliance-Coalition war in their fight with the Chykri and try to improve it. Delta-1, look over scouting reports reports for a fuel supply for the Remnant war machine. Tarn, begin sending drone bodies closer to Chykri in preparation for their invasion. Get back to work." > You Continue "Have you seen the polls?" Cabana asks, looking up from his tablet. "Which polls are these?" You ask. "Public opinions on the war. The average citizens wants less money being spent on the military, and more on education and health and shit." "Let them take our funds. When he Chykri arrive they'll kill 'em all." "That's another issue. The public don't seem to know how bad the Chykri threat is. The Chykri are fourth on the list of things people care about. Fourth! First is economic breakdown, second is civil war between Alliance and Coalition races, third is black holes, while the massive army that could wipe us out is fourth! There's been multiple trading ships that have attempted to trade with the Chykri, the treasonous bastards, and been completely destroyed. Chykri Predators have been attempted to be trained as exotic pets, where they brutally tore up their owners. Journalists have attempted to interview the Chykri! These aren't a new empire like us, there are cyborg psychopaths who'll kill us all, but the public don't understand that!" "OK, we're in a shitty situation. What do you suggest?" "Well, we could start a new media effort to display just how evil, despicable and powerful the Chykri are, though that could obviously backfire if it causes a panic. We could use the media to display them as a brutal pest, but that might make the public think the war is less important. If neither of those options appeal to you, we can just leave it. If we beat the Chykri everyone's happy and if we lose, fuck the civilians for not listening to us." > You use the Media to display the Chykri as powerful and Evil "Let them know what we're facing. Let them know how evil the Chykri are and how much of a threat they are. We need to be honest. The Chykri could destroy all of us. We need to stop them, and we need the public to know that." "Sure thing. I have a lot of contacts in the media. I'll spread the message." The public's reaction to the new idea is mixed. There's some panic as people begin buying supplies and food, getting personal escape craft, colonists building bunkers and people attempting to head inward, away from the direction the Chykri will be attacking. Of course, the panic means there's many riots, fights and deaths, but this was to be expected. Fortunately, this panic does help to quench the hatred between the Coalition and Alliance, as their differences seem petty in the face of cyborg monsters who want to destroy everything you've ever believed in. There's also an increase in support for the military, and overall you believe that the Coalition is better prepared for the war. > You Continue Kaspian 4, Western Peninsula. SB-01776454934 continues marching, firing his gun. The voice screams again, ordering him to do battle. Colonists of various races, mostly human, run before him, and he continues firing, watching them fall. He doesn't want to be here. These people didn't do anything to him. Maybe he could just drop his gun and run. Maybe... The Voice screams once more while sending a painful electronic charge through his spine. He charges into battle. A female flies overhead, letting out an order through the speaker implanted in her chest. "CHYKRI! Forward!" The voice screams, and he starts charging, his gun blazing. > Drinks and Cigars Tarn, Cabana, Ashley-Dante and you sit around a small table. A cigar is clenched between your teeth and a glass of scotch is held firmly in your hands. "So, what's the story with your genitals?" Cabana asked abruptly, turning to Ashley-Dante. "Pardon me?" She asks. "Well, I wanted to break the silence. I know clones can't reproduce naturally, but is that because you don't have genitals, or are you sterilized at some point in life, or born sterilized?" "Well, we're born sterilzed. Could you not have just looked that up or something?" Cabana shrugs. "Not to interrupt your intense philosophical debate, but we're under attack." Tarn says calmly. "What?" "The colonies of Kaspian 1 through 19 are under attack. I have bodies on the planets. The colonists are mounting a defense of the planet. There's so many of them." You jump up and start to rush to your office to start delivering orders. "The defenses won't hold.There's a lot of Spheres in the sky, deploying massive numbers of soldiers. This entire world is turning into a ba

ttlefield. I'll try to kill as many of them as I can, but we're not going to succeed there. The Colonists are either fighting with the CDF, or attempting to find a way off world." Tarn says sadly. You charge into the office, and almost immediately begin receiving reports. The planets are being assaulted, and although you've only received early reports, Tarn's predictions are right: The worlds are lost. Your only options are to lose the worlds, which are of little to no strategic value or importance, and mount a defense of the Vahallian Ice World, which already hold massive fortifications and weapons as it was an Alliance Defensive Position, and before that an Ancient Military base, leaving it with heavy weaponry and ancient, technologically advanced fortifications from the Ancients. Of course, though the Kaspian planets are unimportant, they hold populations in the millions. You could launch a rescue force and a full scale evacuation, but if early reports are indicators, this could lead to many of the rescue ships being destroyed and the Coalition losing more resources, ships and lives. The alternative, of course, is abandoning millions. > You launch a rescue attempt You send dozens of ships to the Kaspian Planets. The Chykri launch an attack on these rescue vessels, and manage to destroy many of them. Still, enough get through to evacuate most of the population of the planets. A few, mostly CDF, ex-military and Tarn Drones, stay behind in an attempt to become some sort of resistance, sabotaging the Chykri war effort. Many civilians were lost, but many also escape. The rescue effort costs the Coalition considerably, but at least you can some as many people as you can. Now, you need to begin organizing the defense of the Vahallia. > You Continue With the Kaizan planets lost, you begin a massive defense of Vahallia. Massive amounts of soldiers are sent to the world, and ships begin preparing an orbital defense. The initial Chykri assault results in a massive victory for the Coalition, but through reports you know this was either only the first wave, a scouting group or a testing of your defenses. This ice worlds will host some of the greatest battles in history, and blood will be shed over the snow. Still, there's hope. A group of Mundar Engineers have discovered a series of dozens of Ancient cannons and turrets that could possibly be used to add a new wave of firepower to the defense. Of course, these cannons take a serious amount of power to power up and use, which would need to be taken from Evacuation Zones and Civilian Cities. This will most likely half the evacuation rate and perhaps even lower it by 75%, and it will triple the amount of deaths in the cities because of a lack of lighting, hospitals, transport and heating. Because of the horrors already occurring, this fortunately won't damage your reputation, but you'll still be the cause of these deaths. > You activate the Ancient Cannons You begin activating the Ancient Cannons. There's a massive increase in deaths because of it, but the cannons prove extremely effective. They're capable of destroying entire Chykri Landing Spheres, and three of the cannons and capable of firing a beam straight into orbit and damaging the main Spheres. The deaths of civilians are many but you can mourn later. Your job's to wage war and save a galaxy-spanning Empire, not to look over a few deaths. > You Continue Next, you begin using the Goliath. The Goliath is a new innovation that's been designed because of the new Brain Uploading. People's minds can be uploaded to massive computing systems, which is the most common, though the more military-minded members upload themselves into Goliaths. Goliaths are humanoid bodies the size of smaller Remnants, at eight feet tall. They have a tri-barreled minigun attached to one arm, and a laser for the other, with a missile pod mounted onn their back. They're capable of wiping out entire enemy squads single handedly while taking relatively little damage. They have an advanced broadcasting system, and when they fall in battle, most can broadcast anyway nearby that is suitable from a base's computing system to an allied ship in orbit. Still, ethical questions are being asked, as for every successful broadcast done, the mind inside is slightly fractured, losing a piece of itself. For everyone unsuccessful transfer the mind can lose entire parts of themselves. Do you want to use the Goliaths and authorize their use in warfare? > You authorize the Goliaths You authorize the Goliaths and they're quickly implemented in the defense. Their are several incidents of fracturing minds, but those are minor. The Goliaths have early success destroying scout forces, and you know they'll be an important part of the Coalition Military. > You Continue Your monitor activates, and a hologram of a badly scarred Antimite appears. "General. The skies are spotted with Spheres, and the landing spheres are dropping. The invasion has begun. The troops are ready, but we'll be heavily outnumbered. We have multiple lines of defense, the first being the Spine of Moavatian Military bases. We'll stage our defense there." "Good. Thank you Prince Damar." The Antimite nods, and the hologram turns off. > You Continue You look over a large holographic field depicting the Moavataian Continent. In the North-Eastern regions are the massive Moavataian Oil Fields, that include massive fueling stations to support your forces. To the South, several smaller landing Sphere's have not only successfully landed, but embedded themselves into the frozen landscape to act as forward bases. Spanning from the East and up towards the North West is the spine of Moavataian, a series of large mountains interspersed with valleys, tunnels and cave systems. The Spine of Moavataian is the main battlefront, as a defense is made by your forces from the various military bases hidden in the mountains. From this position, your troops manage to repel wave after wave of Chykri attack. The Moogli, Mundar and Antimites fight particularly well, the Moogli having developed for the cold, frozen conditions, the Mundar having evolved in caves and tunnels similar to the ones that span the Spine and Antimites having evolved in mountainous terrain. Still, the Chykri seem to have a seemingly endless supply of soldiers, and although your position is advantageous, you're still heavily outnumbered and supplies are low. Supplies are so low, in fact, that it's becoming a serious issue. You make your way to the war-room to discuss the issue with your generals. You walk into the war-room. Cabana, Thar'Kaan and Akaid sit around the room, or in Akaid's case, float in his tank. "Where's everyone else?" You ask. "Delta-1 and Ashley are trying to figure out a system to link up the military bases through the Mundar tunnels. Tarn says he has no idea how to deal with the food issue and is attempting to lead a raid against embedded Chykri spheres. Admiral Yarcel has taken the Soul Drainer and led a raid against orbital Spheres surrounding the ice world. General Giig and her bodyguard are organizing the Moavataian Oil Fields. Commissar Mast is recruiting more Moogli forces to hold the Spine. So it's just us three." "Well, you should all know why we're here. Any ideas?" "I have knowledge withheld." Akaid starts. You wince at the thought of listening to Akaid talk, but nod your head. "In times of war when the world turns to flames, the farmer gives over his metal tool to the forges of volcanoes to transform them to the spear of protection, just as a farmer would feed the hunter before he tracks the great predators of the deep.." Akaid says. "What...?" You begin. "He's saying we should increase the taxes on farm colonies and industrial colonies and begin supporting the Spine with the products of that." Ashley-Dante adds helpfully. "Alright, I'll take it into consideration. Any other suggestions?" "The bases are supplied enough. Supplying them any further would simply involve a wasting of resources. We can get the soldiers to start hunting the mountainous beasts and cave critters for food, and increase their use of melee weapons to save ammo." Thar'Kaan says. "Anything else?" Cabana raises a hand. "Yeah, I've got an idea." "Go on." "There's a massive supply system that we could start exploiting. The Moogli Smugglers that inhabit the area could be paid to begin supplying the base, the pirates in the system could be convinced to begin giving arms to the soldiers, there's Garavan tribes that could be convinced. There's a hell of a lot of criminals we could take advantage of to reinforce the bases." Cabana says. "This is starting to sound like the best option." "There's a catch." Cabana says. "This would require supporting a smugglers, pirates, criminals, raiders and in many cases, slavers. This would quickly spread the growth of criminals in the areas and although it wouldn't have any issues now, it'll be a serious issue to deal with once the Chykri are dead and gone, but that won't be until the Chykri are gone and we're dead or retired." You take a deep breath and think. You have three valid options, and all you know is that the Spine needs to be dealt with. > You follow Thar'Kaan's advice "Thar'Kaan makes a good point. We need the soldiers to tough it out. We can't afford to waste supplies in a time like this." You relay your orders to the bases. Their is some uproar at the lack of supplies, and the weakened bases begin losing ground to the Chykri. Your grasp on the Spine weakens greatly. Still, there's an upside in that the Garavan tribes seem impressed that you're acting as a tough, stern leader. > You Continue The Chykri's invasion has been forced to a stop, though you know this is only momentary. The Chykrim led by the tiny, two and a half foot wide hovering spheres known as "Balls" have began setting up extensive camps. Through scouting reports you've actually learned about the Chykri. The "Balls" are actually believed to hold important roles of power in the Chykri, and have since been renamed Master's. Still, you realize you don't know nearly enough about the Chykri, which is why the Creator known as the Enlightened One sits in your office. "Senator-General Achilles. We don't know enough about the Chykri. We don't know their strengths, weaknesses, hopes, desires, fears or even their motives. I have enlisted many famed Xeno Experts, such as Domino-4, Dr Han-Johnson, Dr Halloway-Beta, Commissar Ortent and Fast-Thinker. With your approval and support, we would like to use scouts and drones to begin studying and analyzing the Chykri. It would take resources, but knowledge is power, and we need more power if we want to surive." > You support the Chykri Research "Of course I'll support the research." "Thank you, General. I can promise we'll give out some knowledge. It may take some time, but we'll get valuable information. Still, we'll probably be able to get some small amounts of information within the next few weeks." True to the Creator's word, you do begin receiving a good amount of amount the Chykri. The Chykri Grunts, the insectoid cyborg soldiers that make up the majority of the Chykri have been studied extensivel. The groups naturally group up in small groups of half a dozen Grunts known as squads, which are occasionally led by the larger, more armoured females that also have working wings who would otherwise act as lone soldiers or fight in groups of four, called Queen Squads. The Chykri have also been noted to have little to no free time, spending all their time fighting, advancing, scouting, scavenging for food, eating or sleeping. They seem to have very little culture, but they've been reported to make souvenirs of everything from Coalition dog-tags to jewelry to pieces of vehicles, and there's hints of a religion being reported. The Chykri Gunheads are considerably less sentient. They are green skinned and have had their arms replaced with massive guns and their lower bodies replaced with four robotic, spider like legs. They haven't been shown to have any sentience and seem more like a pack animal to carry and use the weapons. The Snubs seem to be the most intelligent, have the highest level of equipment and the most independence. They also have some remnants of a culture, which is still more than anyone else. The Fighters seem to fight in swarms and live in nests that seem like a hybrid of a bird's nest and a hanger. The Master Sphere's seem to hold what is either some sort of AI, or perhaps an uploaded, sentient mind. The Masters are clearly the leaders of the Chykri or at least the tactical advisors of the military. Although that's all the information that's been discovered so far, the Enlightened One promises that they're only scratching the surface, and more information is on the way. > You Continue The campaign continues. Valhalia is a key world, and for the Chykri to begin a full scale invasion of the Galaxy they would need to capture it so they could both use it as a staging ground, a forward base and as a refueling point for Chykri vessels. The Chykri knows this and are willing to take the casualties so they can take the planet. The Spines are being covered with corpses, and the destruction is incredible, but you've managed to hold the Spine. Still, it's only a matter of time before the spine is broken, and the planet falls. The only question is how long that'll be, and how many bodies will be left to freeze on the planet once the battle ends. > You Continue During the late night, the Chykri strike against the bases. There are rivers that span the mountains are frozen went from the Chykri camps to the Coalition Military Bases. The Chykri took advantage of that. Chykri Gunheads and Destroyers are sent through the rivers, where they're given respirators and shielding against the cold. Although some are killed by the conditions of the icy rivers, and it only gets worse for them. Your relationship with the Scairtt has convinced massive amounts of them to join, and the ground forces have taken up defense of these rivers. They navigate the rivers and wipe out the entire Chykri strike force. You still doubt you'll be able to hold the Spine for much longer, and you know you need to try as hard as you can to stop the Chykri invasion for any length of time, but you'll be able to survive longer now. > You Continue The Chykri are building up a massive force to capture the Spine. Their forces are grouping into a massive force to make one great, powerful charge to capture the Spine, and you greatly doubt you'll be able to hold the Spine. As the Chykri camps grow larger and there's a massive build up of forces, you know it's only a matter of time before the camps fall. > You Continue The Chykri are attacking. Wave after wave of Chykri forces assault the mountains, marching forward and throwing themselves at the wall in wave after wave of destruction and death. You don't know if you'll be able to hold the Spine, but you know you need to make a decision. > You withdraw from the Spine You decide to withdraw from the Spine. You won't let countless men be lost in it's defense. You quickly withdraw, but the Chykri don't stop. The Mauvataian Fields are lost, the cities begin being invaded and the retreating Coalition forces are still being hunted by the Chykri. Countless cities are captured and left behind to the approaching cities. The Chykri begin taking prisoner for the first time, capturing massive numbers of civilians and soldiers. Your men are forced to continue retreating until the entire planet is lost, and the world is lost to the Chykri.Your forces retreat to the next line of defense, another ring of planets, leaving behind the iceworld. There's heavy casualties, but you manage to avoid a lengthily battle that would have involved many more deaths. > You Continue Despite your best efforts, the planet has fallen. You've done considerable damage to the Chykri forces, but you've lost a lot of good men. You withdraw and take a new defensive position in Apollo's Ring, a line of space stations, stationary fleets and asteroid miners that block the Chykri advance. It seems the next battle against the Chykri will be an orbital one. > You Continue Vahallia, Plains. SB-01776454934 walks past the corpses and destroyed tanks, towards the Sphere. The voice screams, but softer. He's glad. He marches next to thousands of others like him into the Sphere, to his... the place where he lives. It is not a home. A small, honeycomb nest covered with fires to support his various cybernetics. He will rest for now. The war will turn to space, so he may rest. > You Continue The defenses for Apollo's Ring are immense. The civilians are evacuated, and a blockade is formed of the best vessels under your command. Probiscan Warships, Moogli Wide-Eyes, Creator Space Stations, Remnant Destroyers, Tarn spacecraft, Human and Clone Warships, Garavan War Vessels, Chosen Crusade Vessels, Mundar warships, Antimite Dreadnoughts, Brain Bug Destroyers and Scairtt Vessels. It seems you'll be able to hold off the Chykri advance. At least, you'll be able to hold them off for now, hopefully. You begin organizing a defense, mostly handing over details to Grand Admiral Yarcel, who has taken control of Apollo's Ring. > You Continue A morale issue has arisen in regards to the Moogli and the Scairtt among vessels with both species. The Moogli are resentful that the Scairtt haven't apologized for their mass invasion of the Moogli home worlds, before the introduction into the Alliance. The Scairtt are aggressive because of the Moogli practices such as eating Scairtt after it became a delicacy during the invasion, wearing jewelry made from Scairtt teeth, and the Moogli's annual celebration of the date a Scairtt Colony ship crashed horrifically, destroying the occupants who were traveling to live in the frozen seas on the Moogli home world as soon as the invasion was complete. The Moogli have even taken to using the human term "Like shooting fish in a barrel" to spite the Scairtt. Commissar Mast paces the war-room, with Akaid sitting in his tank watching him. "Art should not be brandished as a blade, Commissar. I would hope you could abandon the art of jewelry for the art of unity." Akaid says. "Speak normally, you oversized fish! You don't even need to learn a new language, just learn to speak normally!" Mast roars. "You try to deflect attacks, but you are a living one not a shield." "What's the issue?" You ask. "The Commissar and his kind make trophies out of corpses, jewelry out of graveyards, turning the dead into simple trinkets." Akaid says. "The Scairtt refuse to apologize for their invasion and thus will remain enemies of the Moogli." "What is it about massive invading armies of cyborg monstrosities that don't catch your attention?" "My deepest apologies, General. My emotions have conquered my mind and stopped me from focusing on the common foe of metal and monster combined." Akaid says humbly. "What he said." Mast adds. > Attempt to settle the Moogli and Sciartt issues The issues between the Moogli and Scairtt are numerous. The roots of these issues are simpler. The Moogli detest the Scairtt for their invasion and refusal to apologize for it, as well as their general difference of cultures, and the Scairtt hate the Moogli because the Moogli make Scairtt corpses into jewelry, eat Scairtt, which is a religious thing that the Scairtt should believe should only be one Scairtt eating the corpse of another and the Moogli's many anti-Sciartt cultural practices. You have multiple things you could do to help stop this, and you can do multiple of them, or none at all, and see your results once you continue. > You Continue The relationship between the Scairtt and Moogli deteriorates quickly. There are murders of prominent figures on both sides and the xenophobia worsens. There's considerable fighting, causing the Moogli to become considerably more aggressive, which also worsens their relationship with the Coalition at large. Similarly, the Scairtt become more isolated, worsening their relationship with the Coalition. > You Continue "Achilles." Cabana says, walking into your office. "What did the captain say?" "The Remnant? He''ll take position in the blockade as soon as possible, but only after we begin deploying CDF units in the region he was protecting. But I'm not here to talk about that." "Then what do you want?" "We received a message from the Chykri." "Really? I'm listening." Six figures kneel in the snow, all clad in Coalition armor. A Master stands in front of them, holding a service-issue Coalition assault pistol. The six kneeling soldiers are all blindfolded and gagged, but they're alive. There's two humans, a Garavan, a massive, heavily chained Remnant, a Probiscan and a Moogli. The Master raises his pistol, and uses a knife to slice off the gag and blindfold. The Moogli looks at the Master, than at the camera, before bowing his head. "Beg for mercy. I'll make your end quick." The Master says. The Moogli doesn't respond, so the Master raises his pistol and shoots the Moogli multiple times in the head. The goes to the Remnant, who is chained to the ground with massive metal chains, and has his voice speakers blocked by padded material. The Master repeats his prcoess and asks the same request. This time, the Remnant struggles considerably against his chains, and continues struggling as the Master begins firing shot after shot into the Remnant's head. Eventually, the Remnant's body stops struggling, and slumps down in the snow. The first human comes next. After he's ungagged, he lets out a yell. "For the Coalition! For...!" He yells. His head explodes as the Master fires several shots into the captives head. The Garavan is next. He sits quietly as he's unblindfolded. As soon as his gag is removed he charges. His teeth bite into the Master's forearm, tearing into as much flesh as possible. The Master slams the Garavan to the ground, and fires multiple shots into the Garavan's spine, before finishing him off with a shot to the head. The Probiscan begins to yell something in his whistle language, so you switch on your translator. "We are the Coalition! We are many! We are strong! We will...!" The Probiscans heartening speech is also cut short by a single bullet. Finally, there's the last human. You recognize him a Human Sergeant, in charge of the rest of the soldiers. The sergeant looks at the Master and spits on him, before he's shot in the head. The camera shifts view, to show dozens of kneeling soldiers. Three Gunheads stand in front of them, and open fire. Within seconds, the prisoners are all dead. The camera shifts view to show the Master. "This is a warning to the Coalition." It says in English, which surprises you greatly. "Surrender now, and we shall let many of you live. If not, we shall destroy you, destroy your culture and destroy your greatest achievements. If you surrender, we shall take you as slaves and spare you. This will be our only warning." The TV turns to black, and Achilles looks at you. "Well?" He asks. "You're not seriously expecting me to consider that, are you?" "Well, I have pretty high stature, so if we surrender I might be able to get a cushiony job as a sex slave." "Achilles, we just watched dozens of our men get murdered." "You're right, sorry." Achilles says, raising his hands in defense. "I meant do we release it to the public? It could inspire rioting and paranoia." > You release the video to the public You decide to release the video to the public. Fortunately, the video seems to anger the public rather than scare them, and the general hatred for the Chykri increases. Enlistment rates and War Donations raise dramatically, and the Coaltion becomes completely dedicated to destroying the Chykri. > You Continue You sit in your office, looking over recent reports. Spheres have been advancing slowly, but they haven't reached the blockade. Still, many members of the Coalition have been putting forward ideas about how to weaken the approaching Chykri tide.The multi species squadron of aces known as the Crimson Wings want to be authorized to strike. A dozen spheres are traveling through the Heroes' Tombs, the site of an ancient space fight. The Crimson Wings have offered to lay an ambush at the Heroes' Tomb, using their skill to destroy the advancing Spheres. > You allow the Crimson Wings to lay a trap The Crimson Wings set up a massive ambush to destroy the approaching Spheres. The ambush should be able to crush the advancing spheres in the best case scenario, but there's still multiple choices on how to fend off the Spheres. The Crimson Wings could set up a firing range so the Spheres would have to navigate through the ship wreckages while under heavy fire to reach the Crimson Wings. The Crimson Wings could use a massive forward attack to cripple the Spheres, before retreating into the wreckages to escape. Finally, the Crimson Wings could hide their vessels inside the Ship Wreckages so that the battles takes place in there, so the Crimson Wings could outmaneuver them. > You set up a firing range to attack when the Spheres move through the wreckages You set up a massive firing range, and as the Spheres enter the wreckages, you attack. Your main guns cause massive damage to the Spheres, destroying several. Several Spheres manage to navigate the wreckages and strike against the Crimson Wings, destroying a few, but beside this the early battle is a success. You still have three transports packed with drones. > You use the drones to support a counter-attack You send a massive counter-attack led by drones from the large fighters to the mini nanobots, followed by the Crimson Wings. They manage to force the Chykri Spheres to a standstill, but after a while due to fuel and ammo limitations but sides are forced to retreat, leaving many more wrecks in the Heroes' Tombs. > You Continue The war continues, but Apollo's Ring holds against all incoming attacks. The Coalition is prepared for full-scale war, and ready to do whatever's necessary to win. > You Continue A group of pirates known as the Jaws of Krakyash has attacked the your forces, raiding several different supply ships for valuable cargo. Several Probiscan Vessels managed to blockade and destroy the Jaws of Krakyash, but some damage was still done to the war effort. > You Continue A new opportunity has presented itself. Several Chykri Spheres have been traveling through the Danitan Channel, a common trade route, and have began releasing Fighters and leaving their main shuttle doors open, leaving them vulnerable to a massive boarding action. > You send Boarding Parties You send in several massive transport ships escorted by a small group of Battleships. The transport ships make their way to the Chykri and begin docking, and massive amounts of soldiers head into the Sphere. Unfortunately, after that the plan goes to hell. The Chykri fighters begin targeting the transport ships causing massive amounts of damage, and the Chykri in the Spheres quickly repel the boarding party. It doesn't take long before the boarding party is crushed, and the entire mission turns into a failure. > You Continue "Achilles!" Cabana yells from across the room. "What?" You reply, not looking up from your forms. "When was the last time you ate, man?" You reflect briefly on this point, realizing the last thing you ate was half of a burger last night, twenty four hours ago. As you realize this, a pang of hunger hits you. "Do you want to go get something to eat? We're all going out." Cabana asks. "I'm fine. Get one of the men to bring me whatever food can be scrounged as quickly as possible. I'll eat it here." "Achilles, I'm pretty sure it would be some form of treason to leave the leader of the galaxy to starve to death in his office, scrounging up food like a Garavan kid." > You insist you're fine "Cabana, I have a galaxy burning aflame right now as Chykri forces approach. I don't have time to go for a meal." "Final offer, Achilles. You'll work better after a break." "No, I'm fine." "OK, if you're sure." Cabana says. "We'll get someone to send up something to you." Cabana and the other war leaders walk out, and you get back to work. A half hour later, you're sent a large burger and bowl of fries from Mr Giuseppe's, who've expanded their range from only pizza's to include a more vast range of fast foods. You eat quietly as you go over your work in silence. > You Continue In something that's actually ironically humorous, three separatist groups, the Kain'Ten Garavan, the Human Union and the New Alliance, all groups that want either the Garavan, Mankind and the Alliance to leave the Coalition, have performed a bombing run in unison to make their point for the dissolving of the Coalition. This causes some minor but mostly superficial damage. > You Continue Due to the success of recent collaborations between races in regards to ship building and crewing, the idea of a unified fleet is being put forward. This idea would be made up of ships designed and crewed by members of all species, and the fleet would be under the command of Grand Admiral Yarcel, who would be under your command. As the Leader of the Coalition in times of war like this, you have the final say. > You authorize the Unification Fleet You begin the massive construction of the Unification Fleet, and now have many different issues to settle about the construction of the Unification Fleet, which is now renamed the Grand Fleet. The first question is the segregation of the races. The Scairtt and the Probiscans are both species that live in or close to the sea and are naturally incredible swimmers and used to being in the water, so they are naturally better at navigating, hunting and escaping predators in 3D space. The Moogli and Antimites are both land-based, and think very laterally, making them worse at space-fighting. This difference in mindsets would lead to the Grand Fleet being made up of a vast majority of certain species while having very few of another. Some have suggested having different, lower standards for the species less inclined for space flight. > You impose the same standards on all species You decide to impose the same standards on all species. You can't let those who aren't capable join just because they're a certain species. Because of this, only the best pilots, gunners and engineers join the fleet, strengthening it greatly. Still, there's issues from the races who have less members chosen fro the Grand Fleet, creating issues and grievances among the species, though the Scairtt are pleased to have gained positions of power. > You Continue The next question is the degree of Artificial Intelligence that'll be integrated into machinery. There could be a complete lack of artificial intelligence and for the use of massive numbers of crew, which would less efficient but would prevent AI malfunction, rebellion or hacking, therefore securing the vessel. There could be limited use of Artificial Intelligence, with Artificial Intelligences being used to run the more minor and less important functions, with the more valuable and critical functions being maintained by crewmen, which would be more efficient but would open up the ability for AI issues including malfunctioning, hacking by Chykri engineers and AI rebellion. Finally, there could be full Artificial Intelligence integration, with AI's being integrated wherever possible to operate the vast majority of the acts, which would mean the ships would be more efficient and there'd be less crew required for the ships. Of course, this would leave the navy the most vulnerable. > You use no AI's By banning the use of AI's you assure the security of the fleet, preventing any major flaws or issues that could've otherwise crippled the fleet. Still, this greatly limits the processing power and abilities of the fleet, which may put you at a disadvantage to the Chykri vessels. > You Continue Now you need to decide on what models of ships would be used for the fleet. The first model to be decided on is the Boarding Ships. There's two different models to chose from: The Thar'Raan and the Aries Boarding Ship. The Thar'Raan is a boarding ship based on Garavan design, which was based on the designs of the Rak'Ghail, an ancient and now extinct alien species. The Thar'Raan, or Great Drill, has been upgraded and improved by Probiscan and Brain Bug Engineers. The Thar'Raan is a small cylinder that can hold six normal-sized passengers, and has a drill mounted on the front, with a mining laser coming out of the tip. The Thar'Raan is designed for being fired into the Chykri vessel and drilling it's way though the ship to cause as much damage as possible, while deploying it's passengers, though they can only be used once. The Aries Boarding Ship is a boarding ship based on human design. It's a large rectangle with a powerful engine and a pair of small laser cutters on the front, that can hold over a dozen passengers. The ship is designed for landing onto the Chykri vessel, cutting it's way through the ship walls to deploy it's passengers, and returning to the allied vessel to repeat this process. Which vessel would you like to begin producing? > Thar'Raan You decide to go with the Thar'Raan, which begins being produced and used in the fleet. Test trials show that the Thar'Kaan is effective at deploying troops and causing damage to enemy ships. They'll be a valuable part of any starship battle. > You continue to next ship model The next ship we have to discuss is the basic fighter. We have two basic models: The currently used Omega Fighter, and the Nemean Fighter. The first model is a long rectangular pod, containing a one-man cockpit, two massive, forward-facing guns and several smaller swiveling guns. It has a massive engine at the back, as well as smaller engines next to the back on facing in all directions besides the front to turn, and a small engine at the front to slow down. It's obvious that the Omega Fighter is designed for speed. The second model is a long, arrow-shaped ship with a large swivel gun on top, medium sized engines on multiple points to allow for movement and several smaller swivel guns on every side. This model is clearly designed for maneuverability rather than speed. > You choose the Omega Fighter You stick with what you have, the Omega Fighter, which allows you to outrun any Chykri Fighters, though it can be outmaneuvered by the Chykri vessels quite easily. Still, the Omega Vessel is a powerful and a valuable part of the fleet. > You Continue Next, the larger fighters must be decided. There's the ATLAS Ship, and the Aquila Destroyers. These vessels are used as a larger fighter with more firepower than the smaller ones, used for their destructive capabilities rather than their speed or maneuverability. The ATLAS ship, the ship currently used, is a large rectangular ship, with multiple engines at the back for turning. It has multiple large guns sticking out the sides connected to a targetting computer, and a cockpit for two. The ship is designed to have four-six crew, and to be able to survive for several weeks to a few months without the need to resupply or refuel. The ship looks slow, but it holds massive firepower that could be targetted at fighters, larger vessels and with the main gun, planet-side forces. The second ship, the Aquila, is a smaller ship, shaped like a common pre-space fighter plane, with wings holding engines to allow for some planet-to-space flying, and two large forward-facing guns. The ship holds two-four people as crew, and although holding less firepower than the ATLAS, is clearly faster and more maneuverable. > ATLAS You decide to stick with the ATLAS for it's excessive firepower and durability, and it's combat-efficient design, as it's already proven to be effective in battle. > Next Model The final thing to be decided on is the Command Gunship, the ship designed to command the other fighters in battle. You have three choices: The Aether, the Chariot and the Schmidt-Gaijai-Omega-1-Tarn Paladin. The Aether is a human-designed Command Gunship that was designed for use in the Coalition-Alliance War, which ended before the Aether could be used. It is designed to hold a large human crew to install themselves into electronic communications devices to allow them to control the fleet and make tactical choices in virtual reality. The Chariot is another Command Gunship that was designed for use in the Coalition-Alliance War, but saw some combat if at a minimal level. It involves holding a small group of Coalition Leaders to control the greater fleet at large, through the use of massive mapping systems and communication devices to control the fleet. The Schmidt-Gaijai-Omega-1-Tarn Paladin, henceforth known simply as the Paladin, is a new device. Designed by a mixed group of Humans, Remnants, Tarn and Antimites, it is the newest creation of the three. It involves heavy use of AI's to manage and control the fleet at large. > The Aether The Aether proves to be invaluable to the fleet. Some Coalition and Alliance members are jealous that they have such a reduced leadership role as the Aether only allows humans to use the machines involved, but since humanity has taken almost complete control of the Coalition through military strength, most leaders of the Coalition are human and hence this has no effect on it. > You Continue The Fleet has been upgraded and prepared completely. The Fleet is now prepared for fighting against the Chykri Spheres. > You Continue There's been a large amount of success by the famed Thar'Garavan Pilot Captain Gur'Tin, who launched attacks against Chykri Spheres. Captain Gur'Tin, who recently signed up and ascended the ranks after his controversial marriage to a Human Admiral thanks to the passing of a recent act of Interspecies married. This has damaged the Chyrki Fleet's strength. > You Continue The assault on Apollo's Ring has begun. Massive amounts of Chykri Spheres have arrived. They have begun attacking on mass, with no end. The Apollo Ring's Position is advantageous and allows for immense control over the situation and allows for the Chykri forces to be repelled for the time. Still, a meeting of the War Council is occurring. > You go to the meeting You arrive at the meeting, and are met by a large group of exhausted looking leaders who looked like they haven't slept or washed in days, no doubt in an attempt to prepare for the approaching Chykri Fleet. You briefly wonder if you look as shitty as them, before pushing that thought aside. Cabana notices you, and hands you a coffee. "Achilles, glad you're here. Here, drink this. You like your coffee black, right? I'm just kidding, I have no fucking idea what you drink, but you need caffeine." You take the coffee, and eagerly drink it down, before taking your place at the head of the table. "The Floating Spheres of death approach, planning on shattering the ring that protects ourselves." Akaid says. "Thanks for the fantastic information, fish." Thar'Kaan says, bearing his teeth. "If you two start fighting again I'll tear you apart." Delta-1 says. "What's the situation at Apollo's Ring?" You ask, sipping your coffee. "We're pretty screwed. The enemy have us in a... UNTRANSLATABLE... in a real problematic situation." Admiral Yarcel begins. "We'll be able to hold out for a while and inflict heavy damage on the Chykri scum, but we can't save the Ring." You sigh, shaking your head. "Is there any other options?" You ask. "Well, we could attempt to retreat, but that'd fuck us over so much we might as well surrender." "So all those stationed at the Ring are going to die?" Tarn asks. "We're all going to die someday, except you. There's worse ways to die than fighting for freedom and democracy." "The Fallen may fall, though they are higher than any masters before them." Akaid says. > You Continue Over the next few days, Apollo Ring is overrun. The Chykri Spheres eventually overpower the Ring, with a few allied ships escaping. Still, the Chykri Spheres advance again, towards your next, and one of the most important lines of defense: The Colonies and their respective military bases. > You Continue Chang Square, Rios Colony, Rios. SB-01776454934 watches as a small group of civilians attempt to find a place to hide. They remind him of his siblings, searching the hives for bits of meat leftover from... The voice screams in his head and he struggles to stay standing. Immense pain floods through his body and he opens fire. He continues firing, and the civilians fall. He spasms pitifully as his pleasure diode goes off, but his disgust in his own actions prevents him from finding any joy in it. He looks up to the sky and sees God. It floats in the distance, a massive pyramid of black floating i

n the distance. God screams at him, the voice shattering his soul. SB-01776454934 starts marching forward. > You Continue The Colonies are a massive amount of colonies spread over massive amounts of barren, useless worlds that the Coalition and/or Alliance expanded into before the Coalition-Alliance War. They don't include any Homeworlds of Species or Artifact Worlds, and were mostly founded to hold increasing population, to allow for increased industrial prowess and to simply expand to spite their enemies. They can be classified as the following: I. Terraformed Colonies II. Barren Colonies III. Industrial Colonies IV. Resource Worlds V. Barren Worlds Terraformed Colonies are colonies on worlds that have been terraformed to allow for colonies to be made and to better suit the colonists. These worlds tend to hold massive populations and a sizeable military base. Barren Colonies are colonies on worlds that have not been terraformed. These colonies only hold a small population, and were mostly formed to deprive their enemies of taking the planet. Industrial Colonies are planets with massive factories installed to produce things which are valuable to society such as spacecraft, weapons and technology. They are very valuable, though in small numbers. Resource Worlds are worlds that hold small colonies to take advantage of their resources, such as worlds to mine for metals and minerals, worlds that hold massive farms or worlds that hold valuable livestock. Barren Worlds are worlds without any colonies or other important things. The Colonies surround the Throne of Gods, which surrounds the main bulk of the Coalition Empire. > You Continue These colonies are defended by several large military installations, which will allow for some resistance against the Chykri, but ultimately this area will be quickly conquered with massive losses. Your lieutenants have asked you to meet them in the War Room to decide on several policies to determine the fate of the Colonies. > You go to the War Room You arrive at the War Room, to see all your lieutenants there. Thanks to the Chykri's pause in advance to restock and regroup after the remainder of the Coalition Fleet stopped their advance after their damaged fleet attempted to advance after the breaking of the Apollo's Ring, there is a generally better attitude than usual. "Plato's concept of the Philosopher King shows that Thar'Achilles should take control of the Coalition as dictator." Thar'Kaan says. "You're an idiot. The Coalition was founded on the concepts of democracy and freedom. There can be no dictator in that." Ashley-Dante says. "Democracy is idiotic. Why does Thar'Achilles or you or me get the same amount of power or votes as an declawed, weak-toothed worker who's job is to push buttons and doesn't know what the Chykri even are?" Thar'Kaan replies. "Who decides who's superior? Why should Achilles be put in charge? Why not me, or Cabana?" Ashley-Dante replies. "I agree with Dante." Cabana says. "I should be put in charge of the Coalition as an all-powerful dictator." "That's not the point..." Ashley-Dante starts. "Cabana would crack the stone and let the magma flow forward and burn our flesh and hide." Akaid says. "I... thanks?" Cabana replies, confused. "Gentlemen, have we repelled the Chykri? Did they all mysteriously die from a cold? No? Then stop debating philosophy and get to work." You say. You take a seat at the table. "General Achilles, Gig and I have a proposal for you." Commissar Mast says, approaching you, quickly followed by General Gig. "What's the proposal, Mast?" "The Colonies hold a massive population that is makes massive amounts of profits through manufacturing, farming and similar things. The Colonists are living carefree, idyllic lives while our soldiers are dying while fighting, not getting proper supplies, are suffering from malnutrition and even worse." Gig says, a low hum being emitted from the new treaded platform the slug-like alien sits on. "We wish to increase taxes for the duration of the Chykri War by threefold to supply the soldiers." Mast adds. Cabana notices the conversation, and walks over. He briefly coughs mucus into a handkerchief, before sitting down. "Is this Gig and Mast's tax plan? Leave it to the Alliance Commies to turn our glorious nation into Stalinist Russia, or China, or Keth." Cabana says. "I take offense at that. The Alliance has many faults, but our tax system in times of war was impeccable." Gig responds. "Ah yes, that explains the devastating loss the Coalition had in the war where me and Achilles were executed." Cabana replies. "There were many factors...!" Gig starts, before you raise a hand. "If we're going to debate a war, let's debate the one we're in!" You say angrily. "Our tax system will allow for a more flexible and stronger defense of the colonies, and a stronger military and could save the Coalition at large. What good is the colonists' paychecks when they're wiped out by Chykri?" Mast says. "Achilles, Mast and Gig make fair points, but they're ignorant. Their "flexible and strong" tax system crippled the Alliance Economy. They received a short boost, but after that they were crushed. We need to think long-term." Cabana replies, before wiping a layer of mucus covering his eyes. Mast and Gig raise interesting points, yet so does Cabana. > You install the new Tax System You decide to follow Mast and Gig's plan. The new tax system is quickly implemented. Although this will most likely cripple the colonies' economies long-term and destroy their infrastructure and livelihoods, this does boost the military effort and improve the defense of the colonies. > You Continue After the tax scenario, it seems everyone of your lieutenants has new advice. You stride through menial nonsense like the wage of soldiers, the use of religious practice in warfare and whether war crimes even can be committed against the Chykri, all of which end of being a massive waste of your time as they technically can't even be decided by you as it requires the full Council behind you. Eventually, you get to the topic of the various rebels, pirates, raiders and resistance groups. These various groups have all retreated in Coalition space to escape the Chykri, and now need to be either destroyed, allied with or ignored. Thar'Kaan is the first of your lieutenants who wants to deal with the various Garavan Raider Clans, Pirate Crews and Mercenaries who have united under Thar'Sklain. "Thar'Achilles." Thar'Kaan says, sitting down next to you. "We need to take control off the forces under the... UNTRANSLATABLE..." Thar'Kaan snarls, tapping the machine strapped to his ears and throat. "The forces under the dishonoured Sklain." "Don't you mean Thar'Sklain?" You ask. "Thar? Sklain has not earned that title! He ran at the battle the Iron Skull, he surrendered to the Alliance, he destroyed the statue of the One Clawed Father and he refuses to fight the Chykri!" "OK, OK! I'm sorry, hell, Thar'Kaan. Calm it down." Thar'Kaan bears his teeth, but nods. "I want you and I to go to the "Great Hunter's Skull", the unholy flagship of Sklain, and kill him. If I kill Sklain in a fair fight, I shall become their Chieftain and unite them under the Thar'Garavan." "Of course. When shall we go?" "Tomorrow evening." "Of course." Thar'Kaan nods his head at you in thanks, before quickly leaving. Akaid quickly floats up next to you in his tank. "Your blade is poised over the heart of Sklain, hunter of children, skinner of the wounded, eater of souls. I wish to place my fins around the blade to join you in the release of his soul into the maw of the spirits of his victims. May I come with you to confront Sklain?" > Yes "Of course, Akaid." "My many thanks entrap you with my gratitude. Upon your death I promise to skin your and turn your skin into a Coalition Flag, a symbol of Freedom, Love, Liberty and Life." "Thank you?" You say, beginning to regret that decision. "Of course." As soon as Akaid turns to leave, exhaustion hits you. You turn and quickly head towards your bed for a good night's rest. > You Continue You sit next to Thar'Kaan and Akaid. Thar'Kaan holds a pair of incredibly sharpened knives, clenched tightly in his scaled hands, in the passenger area of a space shuttle heading towards the "Great Hunter's Skull". "Calm down, Thar'Kaan." "I am calm. If I wasn't calm, I would be peeling off my scales and grinding them to dust. Or maybe I'd skewer the fish for coming here." "My kind has been massacred by these fiends. I shall gain vengeance with the heat and fire of magma behind me." Akaid says. You shrug, and prepare for landing. After a few minutes of tense silence, the shuttle docks and the door opens to reveal a tall Garavan holding a rifle with a massive bayonet. Thar'Kaan rises, his two blades clenched tightly in his hands. "Sklain." Thar'Kaan says, snarling. "Kaan." The tall Garavan says. The pair stare each other down for several seconds, although it seems like an eternity. Finally, Sklain breaks the silence. "I'll take you to the Captain's deck." Sklain says, turning to walk off. "His mouth says nothing while his eyes gloat of the thousands of fallen, souls consumed by the evil that consumes him." Akaid says. "I'm going to kill him in about five minutes." Thar'Kaan says, quickly following Sklain. > You follow Sklain You walk with Thar'Kaan, Sklain and Akaid. "What is the reason for you visit, Kaan?" Sklain asks. "Why have you brought a human war criminal?" "Thar'Achilles is no war criminal. His actions against the Garavan during the Human Wars were completely justified as a warrior-chief." Thar'Kaan replies, growling. You come across a large door to the Captain's Bridge. > You Continue "Why are you here, Kaan?" Sklain asks. "We're here to..." You begin. "Who the hell asked you to talk, War-Criminal?!?" Sklain says, baring his teeth. "I told you, Achilles is not a war-criminal!" Kaan says, baring his teeth as well. "He bombed our people rather than face them in battle, Kaan. When they were in battle, they didn't even eat our fallen heroes, they turned them into worm food. My men deserved to be eaten by their betters, their killers, real warriors, not worms." Sklain says. "Ah. How do you know this? Did you catch a sight of them doing so when you were running for your life? Did you even have time to bring your weapons? I know you didn't have time to bring your honour." Sklain draws his blade and presses it against Kaan's throat as Kaan points his two knives against Sklain's chest. "Get off my ship, Kaan." "Listen, Sklain: We want to make an allian..." "Death to the alliance! Sklain will sell your kids to the Chykri before he'll help us! I challenge him to trial by combat!" "I accept!" The pair lower their weapons, growling. "Call the crew to the Captain's Room, Sklain." Kaan growls. Sklain quickly radios his crew, who quickly begin assembling in the room and sitting off to the side. Two short, skinny Garavan push you off to the side. Around the throne, a small circle is formed out of Garavan wielding spears. Kaan walks over to you, pushing past two spearmen. "Thar'Kaan, we came here to make an Alliance." You ask, frustrated. "Fine. Once I kill Sklain and take over as leader of his forces, I'll make an alliance with you." You sigh. "What's the rules of the Trial?" "We each get a short sword or two knives, nothing else. We fight and kill each other." "That's it?" "Pretty much. If we try to flee the spearmen kill us. Those are the only rules. We Garavan are a simple people in regards to fighting." "OK. Good luck." "Luck? My biggest fear is that Sklain will somehow manage to leap over the spearmen and flee the fight." Thar'Kaan turns, and begins walking towards the center. Off to the side, a bell rings. As soon as the bell rings, Thar'Kaan raises his two knives and Sklain raises a small sabre. Thar'Kaan charges forwards, diving through the air. He ducks under a sword swing and slashes two long cuts across Sklain's chest, before rolling to the side. Sklain thrusts his sword, cutting a hole in Thar'Kaan's shoulder letting out a wave of blood. Thar'Kaan roars, and leaps forward, catching Sklain and pinning him to the ground. He skewers Sklain's power arm with his knives and he drops his sabre. "You should've died fighting with me against the Coalition Humans. Now you die bleeding on the floor!" Thar'Kaan yells. Sklain bears his teeth, and draws a small pistol from his holster. > Interfere You charge forward, as Sklain fires. Thar'Kaan's head explodes and he falls to the side, as you yell. You draw your side arm, and unload a full clip into Sklain's chest as he wails pitifully. As your gun clicks empty, you hear a light round of booing from the Garavan, no doubt unimpressed by your use of weapons and you status as a human. "Hyprocrites." You mutter. You here a deep, wet gurgling, and look to your right. Thar'Kaan lies, blood bubbling from the wreck that once was his snout. Then his hand raises. "Achilles..." You make out through the wet gurgling. "Help me up." Thar'Kaan attempts to stand, and you catch him as he falls. "Be honest... how much will my face scar?" Thar'Kaan whimpers. "How the hell are you still alive, Thar'Kaan? Your face will be scarred to shit." "This is good. I will find many wives." Thar'Kaan stands, and you wonder how the hell he's not dead yet. "GARAVAN! I am Chief now!" "You were helped by a pitiful human with a gun!" A Garavan Spearmen shouts. Thar'Kaan picks up your pistol, calmly reloads it, and shoots him in the head. "Anyone else?" A few men begin leaving, but the majority stay. "Good." Thar'Kaan says. "Achilles, take me somewhere to get medical help. Or to die, whichever you see first." > You Continue Over the next few weeks, Thar'Garavan recovers despite objections that a Garavan could survive an injury like that from three separate doctors. His snout and many of his scales have been torn away, leaving him with a thick, pink scaring over half his face. Still, he seems happy about his scarring, and quickly brings the new Garavan forces into his own tribe and at your disposal. The Garavan Forces disperse to some extent due to their hatred for your use of guns and you especially, reminding you of your hatred from them during the Garavan War, but the majority of them stay under Thar'Kaan out of respect and are brought under your control. > You Continue You sit in the war room, watching Thar'Kaan out of the corner of your vision. Having half a face was only quadrupled the amount of "visitors" he's been getting, disappearing into a side room for about half an hour before returning. You'd consider telling him to knock it off if he hadn't taken a bullet to the face and almost died for the Coalition. "Hey, everyone!" Cabana shouts as he walks into the room. "I've got something to show you guys!" Cabana motions everyone into his office, where you sit in a battered armchair. Cabana wipes muscus forming over his skin, and begins preparing a video to be played. "This footage was taken from the Rios Colony. It was surrounded by the bulk of the Chykri army, and taken over. Oh, hey, Thar'Kaan. You look as fucked up as I am." Thar'Kaan snarls, but says nothing. "OK... Here it is." Cabana says, as a large screen descends from the ceiling in front of you all. On a large screen in front of you, a video plays. It shows a small battle where the Chykri are invading a small colony. It's taken from the view of a Remnant's head mounted camera, as they desperately try to hold off the invaders. Chykri grunts march forward in unison, firing at a few fleeing clone civilians. They move robotically, like soulless monsters who only wish for bloodshed. You watch a Tarn lying on the ground detonate his explosives vest, "killing" himself and two Grunts. A small group of Probiscan Soldiers attempt to hold what looks to be a Probiscan Church while a group of Garavan Warriors attempt to defend a trio of Antimites firing the sonic cannons on their back. A Chykkri Gunhead releases a barrage of missiles, slamming into the Remnant Cameramen and sending him to the floor. The Remnant continues firing his gun as more and more of his allies fall as Chykri Rampagers fly strafing runs against the church. The Remnant Cameraman takes another round to the head, and lies there briefly for a few minutes as Chykri lie past him. "Wait for it." Cabana says, and quickly fast forwards through an hour of footage from the Remnant's camera as the camera gets fuzzier. Eventually, just as the Remnant's camera is about to run out of power, you get a glimpse of a Pyramid-type thing in the Sky. It's only distinguishing feature is a small, red dot, similar to an eye, on the Sphere. "There." Cabana says, pointing at the screen. "Look at it. We've yet to see a Pyramid type ship, but we believe we know it's purpose. Planetary-side Detection Beacons reported that various signals are being emitted by this Pyramid, henceforth known as the Monolyth, which are being bounced off the smaller Spheres across all the territory controlled by the Chykri." "It's the center of a communications network." You say in disbelief. "No. It's the center of THE communications network. The Chykri's central communications network. If we destroy this, we destroy the Chykri's only way of communication. Now, let's be realistic here. If we can take this out, we slow, maybe even stop the Chykri advance, for how long we're not sure. Optimistic, and I mean insanely optimistic, estimates are up to a year." Cabana says. "That's buying us only a little time. We'd be just as screwed." Tarn says. "Stop being such a downer. You've already lived a long life. This might not win the war, but it'd be a step in the right direction. We can't do anything about it yet, but I thought I'd keep you all up to date. I wanted to make it a surprise when we were more ready to attack it, but I might get assassinated tomorrow, so I guess I should make sure at least somebody knows." "Well done, Cabana. This is impressive work." You say, standing and patting him on the back. "Dante's work with saving the Garavan Diesel Ships was impressive work. This is my fucking magnum opus." Cabana says proudly. "Stop being so smug, and get back to work. I need someone to meet with Remnant War Fleets to defend colonies." "Yes, sir!" Cabana says, saluting. > You Continue Ashley-Dante sits down to your right, dropping a datapad in front of you. "What's this?" You ask. "A death toll. We've had three recent battles emerge." Dante says. "We're losing entire worlds to the Chykri. What's your point?" "This isn't Chykri. This is the Clone Liberation Force." You look up from your work. The Clone Liberation Force is a terrorist group, freedom fighters or criminals, depending on who you ask, who fought the humans for clone liberation before Senator Chang secured Clone Rights and Freedom. After this, they moved to a small system known as the Mirror, named after the Clones who saw themselves as a "mirror" to their human templates. "What were the attacks over?" You ask. "Territory disputes. Coalition Ships went into space to get a better position to ambush a Chykri Sphere. The CLF asked them to leave. They did not." "What do you suggest?" "I want to go with you and a few men of my choice and talk to their leaders. I think we could make an alliance with them and bring them into the Coalition." "When?" "I'll need a couple days to set it up." "Done." As Ashley-Dante walks away, your watch beeps. You check the time, and realize you haven't eaten or slept. You stand up, and go to eat. You notice Cabana, Commissar Mast and Admiral Yarcel heading to eat as well. > You eat alone You find a restaurant that's not too busy, an Antimite Restaurant that's a cross between a diner, a brothel and a junkie's den. You order the human-centeric Fruit Bounty, and eat as you watch Antimites and various other species disappear into the private rooms to do drugs or have sex. Such simple needs they have. You miss the time when you were a marine. You briefly remember getting drunk with a few of your squad members and finding your way into a Chosen Temple and consuming a large amount of alcohol that's apparently served at temples. Your meal arrives, and you begin eating, consumed in your memories. > You Continue You sit in a shuttle, next to Ashley-Dante and several other clones. To your right is Emelé-Dante, who shows you what Ashley will look like in about fifty years. Across from you is three identical looking clones who all managed to secure important yet wildly different positions, being a Navy Admiral, a Military General and a Minister of Foreign Policy. Finally, there's a short, squat clone who's hairier than Commissar Mast. "So, General. Have you been to the Mirror before?" Emilé-Dante asks. "No, I haven't." You here the thud of the shuttle landing. "Ah, we're here." Ashley-Dante smiles. You stand as the shuttle doors open, giving you your first view of the Mirror. The town looks like a bastardization of the wildness and overpopulation of New York. You see various people doing their business, many sharing faces but none looking alike due to a variety of tattoos, hairstyles, died hair, jewelerry and articles of clothing that range from Cowboy Hats to Top Hats to combat armor. A group of six Clones, all with heads shaved and dyed various colours all wearing combat armor with various pieces of jewellery approach you. The first says something into her radio, and walks up to you. "General Achilles. Come with me, I'll show you the First Citizen." You follow the squad as they escort you through various side streets and buildings towards the Central "Government" building, the word "government" being used very loosely in this anarchist madhouse. As you walk, you're given your first view of the city. Extravagant houses with automated turrets stand proudly next to miserable concrete slabs filled with clones in various stages of drug addiction. You pass a bar where people are getting high on ship fuel, and three separate open brawls in the street. Finally, you come across a large building, covered in what are either political symbols or juvenile graffiti. "Inside, General." One of the Escorts says, and you enter the building. You're quickly led through winding hallways and up spiraling staircases to a small office. Inside sits an elderly man who looks like a pensioner whose mid-life crisis never ended, First Citizen Alpha. His white hair is streaked with green, his face is studded with bits of metal and he wears a brown suit. A half empty bottle of vodka sits in front of him. You extend a hand, which he simply stares at. You shrug it off, and take a seat. "General Achilles. How goes life in the Coalition? Destroying freedom and liberty as I remember?" He asks. "Well, there's this little thing called the Chykri who will wipe out all life if we don't stop them. I'm dealing with that." "Ah, is that why you're here? To enlist the citizens of the Mirror to die in your war." "My war? Have you and the Chykri come to an amicable and fair agreement?" "The Chykri aren't my problem to deal with, they're yours." "The Chykri are the problem of every goddamn person on this side of the galaxy! Do you want to die, Alpha? Do you want to see the Mirror burn?" To your surprise, First Citizen Alpha stands and hits in. Not even a punch, but the Clone slaps you across the face. "Go fuck yourself, and fuck your Coalition." > Attempt to calm the First Citizen down You attempt to calm the First Citizen down, but he only tries to strike you again, which you easily dodge. "Please, let's negotiate." "Fine. You want to negotiate? Let's negotiate. You'll get the military support you need if you help the Mirror expand into the nearby planetary system that's only the home to Garavan Tribes. Do that, or get the fuck out." > You storm out and leave the planet You quickly make your way out of the room, without saying a word. You're escorted back to your shuttle. "What happened?" Ashley-Dante asks. "He doesn't want to negotiate. Once we deal with the Chykri, I'm sending the fleet over here to glass this planet." "Calm down, Achilles. I'll try to turn them around." "Don't bother. They can go fuck themselves. Let's move on to the next problem in an endless line of shit I have to deal with." > You Continue The sharp, painful sound erupts and breaks you from your blissful sleep. You look up, to realize you've fallen asleep at your desk. You feel some pride that you set an alarm clock before falling asleep, but you're still annoyed you haven't headed home. You quickly stand up, and Cabana almost immediately enters, holding two cups of coffee. "Hey, Cabana." You mutter. "Here. Drink these. Both of them, I don't want any." Cabana says, putting the two cups of your desk. "Have you poured whiskey into these?" You ask, taking a sip. "I pour whiskey into all my drinks. It's my culture." "What culture?" "My Dad's culture." "You don't have a dad, Cabana." "I do, technically. It just happens to be a monstrous parasite. Still, the parasite did consume Ethanol, so it's my heritage. Drink the coffee, Achilles, I don't have time for this. You have a shit ton of files to catch up on." Cabana drops a small stack of files on your desk, and gives you a pat on the back. "Good luck, buddy. I have to go chat with some Chosen. Do you know how much I hate those religious bastards? So much. Goodbye." Cabana says, leaving. You briefly flick through the files. Most are inane drivel that you push aside and you look at the main ones: The Thermal Vents of Railor, the Erebus Suicide Jacket, the Christ Act, the Hoplite Act, the Alliance Remilitarization Act and finally the Achilles Act. > You start going through the files You start, and quickly begin reading about the Thermal Vents of Railor. Railor is a large planet similar to Uranus, with several massive thermal vents. The Srel'Kit Garavan Tribe wishes to set up massive factories using Ancient technology, which could produce invaluable weapons and armour for the war. Unfortunately, these vents are also the ideal location for a massive Scairtt Colonization Programme that could keep the Scairtt Species from going extinct and even increase their numbers. The Factories' pollution would ruin the ability for Colonies to be formed, so one or the other is necessary. > You make the Thermal Vent Factories You decide to make the factory, prioritizing the war effort and defense of all you have over the Sciartt. The Scairtt are, quite obviously, offended and angry about this decision and withdraw some support from the Coalition. > You Continue Next is the authorization of the Erebus Suicide Jacket. The Jacket is designed to release a small explosive charge through the internal organs of the wearer to kill them instantly while firing a large amount of shrapnel at the surrounding area. The Jackets are worn by some Tarn Drones, though many other soldiers are requesting them to avoid the painful death that can occur on the battlefield when mortally wounded. The counter-arguement, of course, is that this could lead to serious accidents or the death of soldiers who might've been healed. You have three options: Ban the Erebus Suicide Jacket, Authorize the Jacket, or authorize it only for Tarn Drones. > You ban the Erebus Suicide Jacket In banning the Erebus Suicide Jacket, you both reduce the military capabilities of Tarn Drones in battle and annoy Tarn that you've taken away his right to use the suicide jacket to limit his pain. Still, this has little effect other than that. > You Continue The Christ Act, named for the religious leader as described in the Christian Bible, is a new act meant to target recruitment. The Act means that any citizen can join the military for a long amount of time or until the war ends to gain Coalition Citizenship and a Pardon for their crimes, barring crimes against the Coalition and specifically bad crimes. This would greatly increase the amount of soldiers fighting for the Coalition, but allow for organized and unorganized crime to spread and escape punishment. > You authorize the Christ Act You authorize the Christ Act, which greatly boosts military recruitment. This will have very unfortunate side effects, but these won't become clear until long after the Chykri threat is gone, or never if you fail to defeat the Chykri. For now, the Coalition War-Effort is much stronger. > You Continue The Hoplite Act is a new act being pushed by Thar'Kaan and the Garavan Tribes, most prominently the Thar'Garavan, the Srel'Kit and the Anchrest Tribes. The Hoplite Act is an act that allows for members of the Garavan Tribes to replace their standard Coalition combat armor with their ancestral armor. Polls state that only a fifth to a quarter will take this choice, which is still a large amount of soldiers. This would improve morale, gain Garavan support and increase recruitment, but obviously ancestral armor, while ornate and sentimentally valuable, is much, much weaker and ineffective. > You pass the Act You pass the act, which works as expected. You gain Garavan support and recruitment increases, although your military as a whole suffers from replacing the combat-tested nanoweave super-soldier armor with metal plates decorated with bones. > You Continue The next act is the Alliance Remilitarization Act, which involves using the Alliance military's extensive military formations, planning and various schemes to reinstate what is, in everything but name, the Alliance military, under Coalition control. This would benefit the war effort at the cost of offending those who fought for the Coalition during the war and greatly increasing the chance of an Alliance rebellion. > You pass the Act You pass the act, which leads to catastrophic consequences. Upon rearment, many Alliance military groups begin rebelling against the Coalition or fleeing for parts unknown due to a general hatred for the Coalition. This greatly damages your reputation with the Coalition and Alliance further, and cripples the war effort. Though the majority of the Alliance falls in line, enough flee to make the act a crippling failure. > You Continue Next is the Achilles Act, named after none other than the grand, famous and pretty out of his league military commander that is you. The act involves giving you more power over the Coalition by placing you as what some would call a military dictator, though is referred to in the document as a "philosopher king as described by Plato". Although this position still has several limitations to stop you from becoming a dictator as seen many times before during the the history of the Coalition, Alliance and Humanity, so your power would greatly curtailed, though your power would still be increased and you'd be allowed to get away from the many flaws and issues that arise from the bureaucracy of a government in charge of an empire of such size and magnitude previous empires seem pathetic. > You pass the Act You pass the act, which improves the war effort and your control over it, as well as giving you respect among the Garavan for becoming more of a dictator, which they consider as strong and reliable. You're even on good enough relationships with the Scairtt to them not become scared that you're taking more power over the Coalition as a whole. > You Continue As you put away your last file, you take a deep breath and decide for a break. It lasts twelve seconds, before an Antimite Attendent walks into your office on four legs, before extending its long tongue, which coils around its translator and begins to flex. "Esteemed Greetings, Commander. There has been a dispute among the Blessed Priest of Quatros and Great-Iron." You briefly consider drawing your handgun and killing the Antimite to give yourself a break from dealing with stuff like this. You sigh, nodding. "Alright. Well, tell Admiral Yarcel to tell the crew to head to Quatros, then." > You Continue "I know we're not supposed to say shit like this, but I hate the Chosen." Admiral Yarcel says. "They're fucking creepy, Achilles. What even are they? Are they an organic being fused with a symbiote? A symbiote mind-controlling an organic being? An organic being who happens to be using a symbiote." "I've had and still have many Chosen friends." Tarn says. "Really? Were you friends with the parasite goo or the creature wearing the suit?" Yarcel asks. The Chosen, you agree, are creepy. After being discovered, they were found to be humanoid creatures fused into massive suits to survive and fuse themselves with what is nicknamed the "Goo". They claim the Goo are their Gods, and try to peacefully spread their religion. They spend every minute emerged in the Goo, offering its wondrous advice and love to others. Although every bit of information you have about them shows them to be peaceful and caring people and the Goo to be an intelligent, yet friendly life form helping the organic creature emerged in it, there's just something... off about them. This thought races through your head as a massive suited creature approaches you. "Bless you and your quick arrival, General Achilles. Thank you kindly." "What's the issue, Mr...?" "Please, I am simply an... WORD UNSTRANSLATABLE... simply a worshipper, though if one wanted to address me, my name would be Ail." "What's the situation, High Priest,Ail?" "The Chosen Temples stretch across the defensive lined based behind the colonies, General. We have already provided our services as medics and suppliers towards the war, and many of us have chosen to fight. Still, we refuse to allow our temples to be violated with guns and military barracks. We will not have our freedoms, our..." A small Mundar Dweller pushes his way past several Chosen, heading towards you. "General! It's a pleasure to see you. I see you've brought a pretty big ship. While I don't believe in wiping out the Chosen, if you've come to do that I won't complain." He snaps angrily, staring at High Priest Ail." "Promoting Genocide of a species is a crime." Tarn says, to the Mundar Dwellers annoyance. "Promoting Genocide? Tarn, go eat out your mother. I take that back, that insult means literally nothing to you." The Mundar takes a deep breath, and composes himself. "My apologies, General. I am Great-Iron, foreman of this site and chairperson of the Coalition Defense Committee. In other words, I'm in charge of building walls to stop the Chykri." "What's the issue here, Great-Iron?" "The issue is that the Warm Light, or Allah, or the Great Devourer, or God or Satan or whoever the hell's on our side has made it so that we have massive, heavily fortified bases set up across the front lines that could easily be converted into bases to kill some Chykri and save the universe. So it's pretty goddamn annoying that some pacifist parasite centipede-fucker wants me to allow these temples to stay as temples to some god or goo or whatever the hell it is. Look, if their god wants to wipe out the Chykri, they can keep the temples and I'll convert. If not, they can move the fuck over and let me do my job." Great-Iron gives High Priest Ail what you assume is either a threatening or obscene gesture, and looks at you. "Commander? You're going to help me on this, right? You've got my side, right?" A look of worry flashes over Great-Iron as he realizes you might not be on his side. "Esteemed General, please. If we abandon our freedom, our religious freedom, our Gods, it doesn't matter whether the Chykri or we win, for evil will triumph. Perhaps the Chykri were once faced with this choice, and the decision they made put them on this rode to emptiness and sadness that led them to where they are." The High Priest begs. > You ask for Tarn and Admiral Yarcel's opinions "Tarn, Yarcel. What are your opinions on the matter?" "Make the forts. It's out of the question not to, Achilles. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I would've turned the temples into bases during the Coalition War, and that war was a pitiful genital measuring contest compared to where we are now." "Achilles, if I may, to destroy the Chosen's freedom is to set a precedent. That precedent could destroy the Coalition in a way more painful than anything seen before. Imagine if people were forced to fight against their beliefs, forced to abandon their religions for the war effort. We'd destroy freedom for security." > You authorize the construction of bases in the Temples "Great-Iron, make the bases. High Priest Ail, I'm sorry, but I won't let my people die." The Chosen's mechanical eyes fixate on you, and the Chosen work back to their temple wordlessly, though you can see their fury and tell that you've lost their support. "Thank you, General. I'll make the best defense I can, I swear to you." The defenses are built, and they're indeed surprisingly effective in the defense of the Coalition. You've succeeded in upgrading the Coalition's defenses, but at what cost, you wonder. > You Continue You hear frenzied cursing, swearing and screaming from outside your office. You stand and walk outside, to see Thar'Kaan rapidly stabbing a cushion, Mast and Delta-1 talk in hushed, frantic voices, Akaid rants in poetic curses, Dante curses as she reads reports, and Yarcel and Cabana begin pouring shots. "Achilles. Take a drink. No, take several drinks." Cabana says. "What happened?" You ask. "Invasion. We thought the Chykri would stop advancing to refuel, regroup and resupply. But they haven't. The Chykri forces were reinforced by almost as many Chykri." "What does that mean for us?" "It means there's no counter-attacks, no holding the line, no fucking hope. We retreat, evacuate and regroup." > You Continue The recent, crippling assaults on the front-lines are heading inwards, towards massive civilian populations. You have evacuation ships heading towards the population centres, but not enough for a full evacuation. You also have several military ships heading towards the front lines for a massive evacuation of both the soldiers and the supplies, vehicles and weapons. You could continue with this method, allowing for the max amount of essential components to be recovered, increasing your chances of successfully repelling the Chykri in the future. You could also abandon the recovery of military supplies, vehicles and weapons and only recover troops. Finally, the most radical plan, you could abandon your troops, supplies, vehicles and weapons at the front lines in the hopes they'll weaken the Chykri, as well as allowing you to fully evacuate the colonies. > You keep with the Standard Plan You decide that the military can save many, many more lives in the long run. Although there are massive civilian casualties, it's for the greater good. You pull back your forces to the most valuable line of defense: The Throne of Gods. From there, you will wipe out the Chykri or have your Grand Coalition burn. > You Continue SB-01776454934 marches forward. The Colonies are dead. He's surrounded by bodies and burning wreckages. The voice screams again, but he's surrounded by the dead. There is nothing else to kill. He begins marching forward. He looks up at the sky, seeing God move slowly forward towards the sky. He continues walking, towards God's home. > The Throne of Gods The Throne of Gods is the true founding place of the Coalition. The massive circle of Artifact Worlds, all incredibly valuable to the Coalition. These are worlds that once held the massive, technologically advanced cities used by the aliens known as the Ancients. Though they are gone, their technology formed the Coalition, leading to FTL Travel, incredibly powerful weapons and other technological advancements. If these were to fall into Chykri hands, you have no idea what could happen. Still, these areas hold massive military bases and Ancient technology that could fuel the defense of the Coalition. If the Throne of the Gods is conquered, that leaves the rest of the Coalition upon to conquest. The home worlds of the various species, the various Civilian Fleets, the most developed colonies, all left defenseless. This is where you make your stand. > You Continue "A FUCKING GREASE PUDDLE!?!" You scream, punching a metal wall. Commissar Mast, one of the best Commanders you have, is dead. Not from a Chykri Assassination, or a terrorist attack, or even suicide at the brutal losses you've taken. He slipped in a grease puddle, and broke his neck. "Are you fucking serious, Cabana? There's fucking Chykri at the door, and Mast slips in a goddamn puddle!" Cabana nods, deadly serious. You attempt to calm down, lighting a cigar. "Life's getting fucking shitty, Cabana. We're taking heavy losses, Mast's dead, and you're so depressed you haven't made a joke despite the recently hired Councilo

r of Recruitment being named Dick Powers. And when you're depressed, life's gone bad." "Knock-knock." Cabana replies, smirking. You smile at that, as Cabana takes out a datapad and hands it to you. "Go find you uniform, and put on your shiniest medals. Not the best, the shiniest, the public's stupid. Make sure to have a cigar in your mouth, it's your signature." "What?" "You're doing an interview in about two hours." "Oh yeah. Shit." You say. "Just... Well, you're the best leader I know. You'll do fine." Cabana says. "I'll leave Mast's funeral to you. God bless him." "Mast was an Atheist. I'm pretty sure you and I are too." "It's a saying, Cabana. I've never gotten a gift horse, but I use the saying. Go make the arrangements, I'll get ready." > You Continue You sit in a fancy set, on a coach across from several robotic drone cameras, bright lights, a large crew and Jimmy O'Toole. O'Toole is a News Presenter, Journalist and TV Personality. His talk show, Mondays with Jimmy, rose into popularity after the success of the Coalition against the Alliance. Kanan, a famed Probiscan journalist and presenter was passed over for the position due to anti-Alliance hatred, and Tarn, another possible choice, was passed over in favour of a human due to pro-human bias thanks to your work in the Alliance War. "We're live in three, two, one." "Hello, and we're here today with famous General Achilles. I don't know how we got him on the show, but he's here! How are you, General?" "Tired. But happy to be here." "Tired? I imagine you would be after you're put in charge of the military taking part in the largest war in the history of every sentient being known." "It is." "Well, there is one question that is weighing on the mind of every citizen of the Coalition? How do you think we can fight an enemy as violent and endless as the Chykri?" > You say "We fight and we destroy them at any cost." "Well, General, I hope we can." "We'll be able to." > You Continue "General, many loyal Coalition members wonder about the long-term extensive Garavan expansion that has occurred do to a lack of regulation and the support of the Garavan Tribes so they can fight for us. Many of us fought during the Garavan War and have lost men to Garavan Raiders and Pirates. How do you except us to deal with this issue?" > You say "The Garavan's expansion is a necessary evil that can be dealt with later." "I'm sure the Garavan wouldn't be happy with being referred to as evil, and their expansion referred to as a problem, but I understand. I'm sure most of our viewers would be happy to hear you have a plan." > You Continue "General, there's been much controversy over your choice of lieutenants. With the exception of the late Commissar Mast, Grand Scribe Akaid and Admiral Yarcel, there's been terrible crimes committed by your lieutenants. We have a Garavan known for brutal executions and death matches, a "human" leader who's willing to sacrifice massive amounts of things and has been in several sex scandals including a polygamous relationship, a Clone behind the Black Ops operation that overthrew Prince Cain, a Remnant who's led brutal attacks resulting in mass civilian casualties and a Brain Bug who's wiped out large amounts of civilian factory workers during her attacks. These are all, for lack of a better word, war criminals who..." > You interupt her "Hold on there! The Lieutenants I've chosen are brilliant men who are willing to fight and die for the Coalition! They've made sacrifices because they want what's best, and I won't hear ill words spoken." "My apologies, General. I didn't mean to offend you." "I've made many mistakes and I'll take the blame for each and every one, but I won't hear ill words of the people willing to but everything on the line for the people they love." > You Continue Your interview continues for some time, touching on minor issues which you handle with ease. Eventually, you come to the end of your interview. "Thank you General. Do you have any parting words for us? A speech, perhaps?" > You make a speech about unity "People of the Coalition: We are being faced with an enemy that I can defeat. You cannot defeat. No one can defeat the Chkyri alone. But together, as one solidified force, we can send the Chykri back to the depths of whatever hellhole they crawled from. As one, we can do anything. We've created inventions, domesticated animals, wiped out enemies and became the greatest empire in the history of the known universe. If our past people saw us, they wouldn't see the future. They'd see Gods. Together, we can defeat the Chykri. Thank you." > You Continue "Well, there we have it. We need to take General Achilles words to heart. We're very glad to have had the privilege to have him on the show. Thank you, Achilles." "My pleasure." "I'd like to finish this. We've been Coalition news. Thank you, and stay safe, stay strong and stay classy, Coalition." The Cameras blink off, ending the interview. You breath a sigh of relief. > You Continue Jimmy O'Toole takes out a cigarette, offering you one. "No thanks. I don't smoke." "You've got a cigar grafted to your jaw most of the time." "I don't smoke cigarettes." "Alright. Well, thanks for taking the time to do this. You did well." Jimmy O'Toole shakes your hand, and you quickly leave to get back to work." > You Continue Your next job in the Coalition is to begin visiting and checking up on various military bases. Your first stop is Godswing Military base. > You Continue Your shuttle lands in a heavily fortified labouratory. Scientist in labcoats and weapons slung over their shoulder or at their side are mixed in with the regular marines under your command. Godwing, a basterdization of the popular nickname for Site Beta-12, "God's Wings", is a massive colony with the prime purpose of studying and researching three crashed ships, all of Ancient origin. The Scientist have neglected to stay behind to continue their research as they see themselves as close to several breakthroughs, and to protect both the ships and the Coalition at large. The forces posted at the colony are almost all human, formally led by Major Wilkens, though informally led by a young, heavily decorated soldier known as Sgt Mason, well known for his more than... unordinary methods which included using poisoned Tarn drones to wipe out carnivorous Chykri Grunts, using Major Wilkens as bait in an ambush and hiding in the bowels of a wounded Chykri Rampager to get into one of their nests and wipe out a squadron. By all accounts, the man seems to be insane. "Right, Achilles. We meet with Wilkens and Mason, check up to make sure the base is prepared, then get the fuck out of here." Cabana says. "Right." You nod. A squad of heavily armed marines in exosuits make their way through the crowd, led by a large bearded man holding what appears to by the light gun from a Chykri Gunhead. "General." He nods. "I'm Sergeant Mason." He salutes you, to Cabana's amusement. "I'll lead you to the Major." Sgt Mason salutes again, before turning and leading you through the complex. After a few minutes you find yourself in a small lab filled with scientific inventions in their prototype form, like an early Warp Drive, a large cannon prototype and a recovered Remnant "skull" older than the Coalition. Sitting in the centre is a short woman with a cigarette clenched in her teeth surrounded by a cloud of smoke and ash. "General. I'd have preferred to see you in better conditions so I could have the banners, the orchestra and a thousand fresh faced marines in formation." "It's understandable, given the situation we're in, Major." She nods. "What's the situation, then?" You ask. "The enemies at our door and half of my forces are eggheads. I took the position that we need to get them out of here before they cause an accident and kill someone, and save some lives, and more importantly minds, that are invaluable. This decision has some notable opposition among the troops, most prominently Sgt Mason." "Respectfully, ma'am, we have men and women who want to fight for the Coalition against an enemy that hasn't been faced since the Fall of Rome. Permission to speak freely?" "Granted." "We need every man we can get. If we don't we might as well spend on cash on Antimite Prostitutes, have a good old tongue fucking and off ourselves." "Sgt Mason, you're excused." "Yes, Ma'am." Sgt Mason salutes, and trots off in a job. "So, General? Should we send the Eggheads home?" > Yes "Good. I'll tell them. We've just saved a few great minds." You send the scientists home and spend the next few hours making speeches to inspire the troops before returning to Cabana. "Where to next?" "We have a Probiscan-Remnant base that has an issue that needs to be dealt with. The a Creator base that's refusing to fight and a few other stops." "Let's go." > You Continue Your next stop is the Mars Pattern Blockade, a large defensive position made up of three moons, two space stations and several military vessels, made up of mostly Remnants and Probiscans. Your scheduled to meet at the base and solve any important issues that have arose, because there's a lack of space cops who don't play by the book, nameless, ever-silent soldiers who happen to be killing machines and young children with unimaginable power, so the problems are going to be dealt with through boring, bland bureaucracy. As you shuttle lands, you grab a cigar and walk out, to a formation of blue aliens standing at attention and ancient machines of war who's massive arms crash to salute you. A very scarred Probiscan who you recognize as Colonel "Dead" Garran, a man you have recently learned personally engineered several of your failures during the Alliance War. Garran salutes you, and marches forward to shake your hand. "General. It's good to see you." "Colonel. You forces are impressive, especially for the slack-jawed, dead-eyed recruits that was sent to you." "Those were only boys, General. I have men behind me now. Men who are willing to die for the cause. And I'm proud of every one of them." "I've been told there were issues that needed to be dealt with." "Issues?" Garran asks incredulously. "Was I misinformed?" "General. We've captured a Chykri Snub, General. Every single Snub we've captured has killed himself through a self-detonating explosive, a massive injection of poisons throughout the body, the shutdown of their cybernetics or if both those fail, the Sphere launches massive orbital attacks on the Snub's position. We caught one, though. We disabled the explosives, took out the poison injectors and managed to replace it's cybernetics. We lost all of Rain Squadron in fending off the Sphere until we could get it out." "You have it secured on site?" You ask, your mind racing. "Yes, sir. It's in the most heavily secured part of the base. I've had linguists who managed to teach the Snub Currantise. He had already learned quite a bit of the language through listening to and deciphering our radio messages. I'll give him my personal translator so you can understand him." You nod, your mind full of possibilities. A captured enemy soldier could reveal massive amounts of information about the Chykri. "I'll have the Chykri Snub prepared and woken up. Please, take time to talk to the troops or whatever you want." Dead Garran walks quickly off, leaving you and Cabana standing there. "Shit, Achilles. This could be a game changer." "Don't get your hopes up, Cabana. It might just scream curse words until it finds a way to kill itself." "I suppose. Well, let's go inspire the troops." > You talk to the Probiscan Regiment You walk over to the Probiscan, who salute in unison. "At ease, men." Their hands drop to their side. "So, what's the situation at base?" A short Probiscan with fat face tentacles steps forward. "Sir, the situation here is manageable. We have enough firepower to repel any and all Chykri attacks to take out the... prisoner. Soon enough, we'll be able to strike back and win against these Chykri bas... enemies, Sir." "How's morale?" "Good, Sir. We're one unit, united in our mission. We sleep together, eat together, fight together and should the needs be, die together. But before we go, we'll make our own tombs out of Chykri corpses before the end, Sir." "Well said, marine. Dismissed." You say, stepping away from the regiment. > You talk to the Remnant Regiment You walk over to the massive Remnant regiment, who salute noisily. "At ease, men." You say. "What's the situation at base?" A Remnant steps forward to answer your question, a massive metal monstrosity with a machine gun in his massive hand and a small missile launcher mounted on his shoulder. "The situation is good, Sir." You wait for the Remnant to continue, but he does not. "Well, how's morale among the Remnants?" You ask. "Morale is low, SIr. We came to this war clam and prepared. We've fought thousands of battles, we assumed this would be another notch on the plating. But... we've been having serious problems, Sir. There's voices bouncing off our minds, telling us things. Some of us recognize the Spheres, but we don't know why. We just know they're the enemy of this battle. Still, they're eerily reminiscent of broken dreams some of us have had. We're machines, Sir. We don't dream." You nod your head, mentally noting to investigate this, before dismissing the Remnant. > You wait patiently for Major Garran to return You wait patiently, smoking your cigar until Major Garran arrives back. > You Continue Major Garran leads you through several dull hallways, before you arrive at a heavily guarded door, with several guards. Major Garran leads you through the security measures, before the door opens to reveal the Prisoner. "Fuck." You mutter, seeing the Snub. The Snub, which only consists of an upper torso, one arm and a head, is attached to massive pieces of machinery pumping various fluids throughout it's body. It's eyes stare at you, as a translator is attached to it. "Hello?" You ask, more nervous than you have been in years. The Snub stares back at you. "Can you understand me?" You ask. "Yes." It asks, in Major Garran's voice. You jump, before realizing that Garran's personal translator has been attached to it. "Go ahead, General. Ask it anything you want." > You ask a Question The Chykri stares at you as you formulate a question. > You conclude the interview "Alright Garran. Let the Snub rest. I've got all I need." Although you've gained some valuable insight on the Chykri, little of it can help the war-effort. At least you now understand that you've been fighting the slaves of a much greater entity. > You leave the ship "General, in light of recent information, we need to begin searching to attack and neutralize this leader. If the Chykri truly are just slaves to this being, this being's destruction could win us the war." Yarcel says. You sit in the War Room, surrounded by your generals, discussing this recent information. "Perhaps we can only see one head dance from the mist, but many dance within it, obscured from the young eyes of the hungry Scairtt, waiting to pop out once the hero is injured after beheading the first." Akaid says. "The fish is right. This "God" figure would presumably be well hidden like a weak old coward who can't hold a sword. We've yet to see any figure like this on the battlefield." Thar'Kaan says. "We need to focus on the destruction of the primary army using what we've been taught." "Achilles, I'd like to refer you to the Monolith. My reports indicate that this acts as a Communications Center for the Chykri, but what if it were something more? What if this communications center held the "God" being, and acted as his base of operations? It would explain why we've only found one of them." Cabana says. You nod your head slowly. "Yes. Double our efforts on finding the Monolith." You agree. "Damn right." Achilles nods. "But for now, we need to focus on the war effort." You conclude, standing up. "Everyone, back to work on saving the Coalition and making sure a statue of you is buitl." You stand, heading towards your office. > You Continue You have several new files sitting on your desk, which must be addressed. You pick up the first, and read it's title. "The Anti-Orbital Cannons and their Role in the Defense of the Throne of Gods." You sigh, flipping through the file. The General Summary is that there are several key Ancient Cannons placed all over the Throne of Gods which are being run off AI-advanced computers. Reports show that these cannons could be used more effectively if connected to a central Ancient Computer, which could have unforeseen consequences. > You authorize the Connection You authorize the connection, which greatly improves the abilities of the cannons and could prove essential to repelling the Chykri. > You Continue The next file details the use of Ancient nanomachines to repair, refuel and maintain machines, infrastructure and vehicles on the front lines. This would greatly improve the effectiveness of the war machine on the front lines, although it's possible it could have negative side effects. Do you want to authorize the use of the Ancient nanomachines? > Yes You decide to install the Ancient Nanomachine system to maintain, improve and repair the Coalition infrastructure, vehicles and machinery on the front lines, which improves the efficiency of the area. > You Continue The next few files detail unimportant details about the war effort which you pass over to your various lieutenants. Eventually, you come to one of some importance. The use of Nuclear Warheads in the defense of the Artifact Worlds. The file details whether the use of nuclear warheads is necessary in the artifact worlds due to the immense damage that would be caused to the invaluable Ancient technology. > You authorize the use of nuclear warheads on Artifact Worlds You decide to use nuclear warheads, which causes some damage to the Ancient technology, but protects the Coalition from invading Chykri. This use of warheads will prove invaluable in the war. > You Continue The next file details the decision about whether to abandon the current Coalition bases and move their support to the Ancient Bunkers that have recently been uncovered by Mundar mining operations. These bunkers are more secure and more technologically advanced than the current Coalition bases, but the moving would require massive operations during a time in a vulnerable time period. > You move to the Ancient Bunkers You decide to move your forces to the Ancient Bunkers. Thankfully, Probiscan, Remnant and Creator Vessels defend your forces as they move and stop them from wiping out your forces, and eventually the forces resettle in the bunkers. > You Continue The final file details the activation of several Ancient space stations that orbit around the planets. The space stations are in an extremely experimental stage of engineering, reactivation and discovery, which could prove essential or catastrophic in the war. > You activate the Space Stations You activate the Space Stations, which work remarkably well. You crew them with Remnants and Creators, and they serve the Coalition's defense remarkably well. > You Continue You walk into the War Room, a cigar between your teeth and a glass of scotch in your hand. Cabana walks out, a small bottle of Vodka in his hands. "Cabana, are you drinking vodka?" You ask. "Yeah, I'm celebrating. What's wrong with vodka? You're literally holding a glass of scotch as you say that." "Scotch is liquid ambrosia, nectar from the Gods. Vodka's a drink you drink to get drunk. What are you celebrating?" "A recent victory over the Chykri. I'd assumed you'd heard. A large Chykri assault has been wiped out at the front lines, led by a small incursion team led by Sgt Mason." "Huh. Now I don't feel as bad for drinking in the morning if it's celebrating." "I'm celebrating. You're a functioning alcoholic. Anyway, the Chykri are regrouping, giving us several weeks without their constant attack. We have several squadrons and fleets ready to begin launching attacks to target the Monolith as part of Operation Monolith." "Have whoever came up with that name shot." "Will do, Achilles. Anyway, there's an award ceremony at the artifact world Zeus-1 for Sgt Mason and his team. Go find your fanciest tuxedo, your best cigar and another glass of scotch while convincing yourself you don't have an alcohol problem." "Fuck you, Cabana." Cabana rubs his eyes in mock tears. "That's what my mom used to say to me." He gives you the finger, before tossing you a stack of paper. "There's a speech about unity and strength and that kind of bullshit. You need to speak that in front of some soldiers, give some medals and that kind of thing. The shuttle will be ready soon." > You take the Shuttle to Zeus-1 You sit in a shuttle, alongside Delta-1, Ashley-Dante, Cabana, Tarn, Gig, Thar'Kaan and Akaid. Dante and Gig are in an intense debate, while Yarcel stays behind at command of the Maw. "His acting ability is unmatched." Ashley-Dante says. "Unmatched? You can't see his face, it's just hair!" Gig responds. "That's just racist!" "Firstly, it's xenophobic, not racist! Secondly, it's a fact, they barely have a face! It's just hair and tense muscle incapable of emotion!" "He's a great actor! Have you seen The Death of a Tribe?" Ashley asks, annoyed. "That film is very inaccurate like a shadow in one's eye. Scairtt heavy ships with the power of Angels wiped out the tribe in the speed of a Hunter Fish while they slept like broken corpses. There was no raising of a banner as they died." Akaid points out. "You're adapting to the language well, Akaid. I was considering murdering you to avoid hearing the endless metaphors and similes, but I can actually understand you now, for the most part." You add. "Thank you." Akaid replies, as the shuttle lands on the metal landing strip. "We'll finish this later!" Gig says, the grey slug crawling into her small, treaded transport. You and your lieutenants quickly abandon the shuttle, walking out to a large stage. Twenty marines stand to the side, waiting for their medals, including the valuable and partially insane Sgt Mason, who salutes you. You make your way to the Podium, as the Maw floats proudly in the distance in the void of space. "People of the Coalition. Today we are face to face with great men, with brave men, with strong men, with heroes. These men have..." You hear screeching overhead as you're sent through the air into the side of a building. > You fade into unconsciousness "What the fuck is going on?!? It's a surprise attack, get the General to safety!" You hear screams over the radio, as a large figure pulls you to your feet. "General. You're alive. Thank fuck, I wasn't in the mood to bury another corpse." The figure, who you recognize as Sgt Mason, salutes you as is his habit. "We need to get the fuck off this rock. It's a surprise attack. That previous attack was a decoy. They're all here. Every fucking Sphere is here. There's a shuttle waiting for you, Sir, let's go." You put your arm around Sgt Mason, and he helps you off towards a shuttle. You watch as drop ships deploy Chykri soldiers to the planet, where they begin to engage in battle. "Where's my lieutenants?" You ask. "Cabana, Akaid, Dante and Gig are waiting at the shuttle. Tarn's dead, I think, but who gives a fuck, there's billions of him." "Delta-1 and Thar'Kaan?" "They refused to head to the Shuttle until you were safe. Or maybe they just wanted to kill shit, I don't know." You arrive at the shuttle, just as Thar'Kaan and Delta-1 jog up to the shuttle. You see the Maw facing off against two Chykri Spheres in orbit, before one of the Spheres explodes as the Maw's powerful cannon fires. "General. It's good to see you." Delta-1 says. "Ah, Thar'Achilles, good to see you. Alive, that is." Thar'Kaan says. The pair quickly make their way above the shuttle, helping you inside. Sgt Mason and two other soldiers climb inside and close the door. "Alright, Echo and Red Squadren, escort the shuttle back to the Maw or die trying. This shuttle is more important than your daughter's chastity, and not just because my beautiful ass is on it." Sgt Mason screams into a comm link as the shuttle takes off. You look around the shuttle. Cabana lies splayed across two seats, blood pouring from a bandaged head wound. Ashley-Dante, Gig and Akaid seem to be in good condition, though clearly shaken. "Alright, strap yourselves in. This'll be a bumpy ride." The Pilots voice says on the speaker. You strap yourselves in and for the next few minutes you sit while struggling not to panic in the shuttle. Akaid has some particularly bad flight sickness because he's in a tank of water being thrown about. Eventually, you arrive at the Maw and your shuttle lands in the docking bay. > You Continue You climb off the shuttle, where guards and medics are waiting. Several medics jog over to you and for the next few minutes you're violated before you receive the diagnosis of a sprained ankle and some bruising. "I'm fine, fuck off." Cabana mutters, walking over to you, his head freshly bandaged. "Achilles, you're alive, good. I couldn't handle being left in charge of this shit show. I'd rather be shot, which is still a possibility." You spot Yarcel marching down towards you, and walk over to meet him. "Yarcel? What's the situation?" "I need someone in the War Room to command the troops. Everyone, get your asses over there. Unless you want to flee the area and abandon this area to Chykri, General." > You head to the War Room to command the Troops You and your lieutenants head to the War Room, where Sgt Mason is already receiving intel from the ground forces. "Sgt Mason, you're still here." "Yes, Sir." "What's the situation on the ground?" > You Continue "Shitty, Sir. Very shitty. All of our Ancient-derived technology is working against us and for the Chykri. We won't hold against them, Sir." > You Continue "We have Remnants reporting mass hallucination and mental illnesses arising, and coordinated enemy attacks." "Show me the situation." The War Room's holographic map opens up, and your lieutenants get to work. The first situation brought to your attention is the drop ships targeting the planet's anti-orbital defenses. They're being deployed by a trio of Chykri Spheres in a current battle with two Leviathan Ships. > You direct the Leviathan Ships to focus all attacks on the Spheres You direct the Leviathan Ships to focus on the Spheres, but they unfortunately fail to repel them. The Anti-Orbital Crews are wiped out, so you sadly go on to your next task. > You Continue An entire Remnant Regiment has been caught out in the open, and are suffering from severe mental illnesses that have left them open to heavy attacks by Chykri Gunheads. Your two options are withdrawing the Remnants to a nearby stronghole, or sending them to wipe out the Chykri in a charge. > You Withdraw You withdraw the Remnants, so they survive, although have little effect on the upcoming battle. > You Continue You're sent to the ground as an explosion hits the ship, but Sgt Mason quickly picks you up. "General, I need you alive until you can award me my medals. Stop dying." He says. Several Garavan Trade Vessels have arrived in the nearby area. Fortunately, those crazy, bloodthirsty lizard bastards arm their trade vessels like light frigates. You could use them to withdraw, relocate and evacuate troops, or add them to the ships fighting an orbital battle against the Spheres. > You send them to relocate troops You use the Trade Vessels to relocate troops to better positions, giving you a slight edge over the Chykri. > You Continue You receive reports of nearby Scairtt War Vessels. > You radio them for reinforcements The Scairtt Vessels quickly arrive, granting you and your men extra firepower. > You Continue You feel pure rage as reports of Probiscan, Creator, Moogli, Brain Bug and Antimite vessels retreating from the area rather than fighting come across the hologram, and feel hate and disdain for the Alliance, but continue with the mission. > You Continue You begin hearing reports of low morale and wishes to retreat from your men. > You Continue You swear loudly as several Coalition ships begin breaking and retreating from the battle. You curse their names as their morale falls and they flee. > You Continue Reports of Thar'Garavan and other Garavan Tribe Warships coming to aid you are heard through radio chatter. > You Continue The Garavan Ships arrive, not only coming to fight but quickly falling under you control due to a level of honor and trust in your abilities, giving you full command over the vessels. > You Continue The next decision is over several Remnant Scouts who... The War Room is hit, and you're sent into a wall, smacking your head on the cold steel. "Fuck." You moan, as Cabana and Sgt Mason help you up. "What ship managed to penetrate the shields and still do that much damage?" "Sir." Mason says, listening intently to his comms. "We have reports of the Monolith entering the battle. It seems to be the source of the Ancient technology and Remnants going haywire." "Focus all fire on the Monolith!" You yell, and Sgt Mason relays your orders. You jump to your feet to begin giving orders, but another blast of energy hits the ship and for the second time today, you lose consciousness. > Lose consciousness "For fuck's sake, get up!" Sgt Mason yells. You open your eyes, and are again faced with Sgt Mason. You look around, rubbing smoke from your eyes. The room, a different room to the War Room, is partially on fire, with rubble everywhere. "What happened?" "The Monolith got a clear shot, and sent Chykri aboard to wipe out the crew. We got separated from everyone else. We need to get you to an escape pod." You nod, standing, before you notice the corpse twisted among smoking mental. A blood stained grey slug lies there. "Is that...?" You begin to ask. "General Gig. A Chykri Grunt managed to kill her. I'm sorry, but we need to go." Sgt Mason says, leading you through the hallway as you salute your fallen friend. You struggle to stay standing as you're led through endless hallways, barely staying conscious. After a few minutes, you bump into two more figures. "Ashley, Delta-1." You mutter, recognizing. "Thank God you're alive. We need to get out of here. We've nearly been killed twice, third time unlucky. Let's go." Ashley says. You follow the group through hallways, barely taking in anything but destruction. The trio take out several Chykri Grunts, before arriving in a small hallway where the doors are locked. Sgt Mason quickly goes forward to hack the system, as Ashley hands you a pistol. "Enemies incoming!" She yells, and you aim your pistol as a dozen Chykri Grunts arrive. You fire your gun, hitting one in the heart and causing it to stagger and fall. You hit a second in it's robotic legs, sending it headfirst to the ground. As you reload, you hear a scream. You turn, to say several bullets thud into Ashley-Dante's chest as she collapses on the ground. You drop to your knees. "Ashley! Fuck it, don't die! Don't..." You begin, but you realize her eyes have already rolled back. No final words, no brilliant sacrifice, nothing as your friend dies in the floor in front of you. The doors open, and Sgt Mason pulls you to your feet. "Sir, we need to get out of here!" He yells. Delta-1 reloads his gun, and looks at you. "Achilles, I'll stay behind and give you some time. They're right on your tail, you won't make it otherwise." Delta-1 says, saluting you. "Delta-1, I'm your commanding officer, and I..." You begin to yell, as the metal doors close, separating you from Delta-1. "FUCK!" You attempt to open the door, before a fist knocks you into the wall. You go limp, and Sgt Mason picks you up again. "Sorry, Sir, but I need to get you out of here." He apologizes, carrying you away. "We need to get to the Command Bridge, the Escape Pods are next to it." > You Continue Sgt Mason carries you for another minute, before you arrive at the Bridge. Several Probiscan are there, as well as Yarcel, several Tarn Drones and Akaid. "Akaid, Yarcel, thank God you're OK. Where's Cabana and Thar'Kaan?" Yarcel turns to you, and shakes his head. "Last reports say they were left outnumbered in the War Room. Are the others...?" "Dead." You nod, tears forming in your eyes. "Fuck. Alright, Sgt Mason, get Achilles and Akaid to an escape shuttle." "I swear to every God I know, Yarcel, if you think..." "I need to pilot the ship, Achilles. I think if I get close enough to the Monolith and send all power to the main gun, I can destroy it." One of the Tarn Drones jogs over to you. "Achilles, you need to get out if here. I'd come with you, but it'd mostly be a symbolic gesture, and I've never been one for symbolism. Now..." Metal doors open behind you, and Sgt Mason and the Probiscans draw their guns. Cabana drags an unconscious Thar'Kaan into the room, and looks at you. "Anyone else make it?" He asks. "No. How are you still alive?" You ask, surprise and joy running through your mind. "Oh, I sold all our worst secrets to the Chykri." Cabana says. "Let's get..." Another blast of energy hits the ship, and you're sent to the floor and for the third time in one day, sent into unconsciousness. > You fall into unconsciousness For the third time, you awaken. You're lying in the Bridge, and you quickly assess the situation. The Tarn Drones and most of the Probiscan Crew are dead. Cabana sits next to a half-awake Thar'Kaan, half pushing, half dragging him to an escape shuttle. You hear desperate screams to your right, and turn to see Sgt Mason. "AAH! FUCK!" He screams. He lies in flames, his left arm cooking alive in the fire, his two legs missing from a piece of shrapnel. You grab him, and yank him out, but it's obvious he won't keep the arm. "Shit. Leave me, I won't make it. Get to the escape pods." The Ships shudders, as you notice the massive Monolith moving closer to the ship. You're powerless as it comes closer and closer, before your ship's radio and monitors crackle to life, showing the Monolith on every screen. "General Achilles." A dull, deep, monotone voice booms loudly. "General Achilles, it's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance." "What the fuck...?" You mutter. "I arrived here to exterminate. There was no challenge in the task, but a challenge came about. You. I've grown respect for you. I despise your kind, but you've impressed me." "What the fuck are you?" You ask. "I am God. I am your God, the Creator of all you held dear. I am one of many, and I created all of it. I am on the Ancients, but so much more. The Remnants, the Chosen, the technology you built your little "Coalition" on, all from me. I ruled the Universe with my brethren. We created warriors of metal and slaves of flesh. Then, you arrived. A plague, a virus that spread throughout the system, wiping out my kind. You were a simple plague, so we left. We waited for your kind to die out, a parasite without a host. We waited. We slept. When I awoke, you were still here. Not only were you here, you had... evolved. You had grown arms, and legs, and a brain. You had diversified into the life that covers the galaxy today. I disgusting breed of vermin who now controlled the galaxy. So I struck, conquering the weaker species unknown to you and turning them into warriors, slaves, Chykri. Now, my army is complete. I was set for an easy conquest. There were a few minor obstacles. The Remnants had been so mentally damaged and changed that my attempts to re-establish control led only to headaches and hallucinations, the Chosen's mental programming was replaced with a parasite. Still, there was only one true obstacle: You. The virus, the plague, the parasite, had created a single, strong opponent to face me. For that, I am grateful. I haven't faced a challenge since far before your kind were around to plague mine. So I have something to grant you." You stare, unblinking st the Monolith. "Escape. I will give you a short period of time to evacuate whoever you can. Leave my homeland and flee, and I shall let you. I shall let you escape with your lives. You will lose your homeland, many of your people, almost everything. But that is already lost. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking you can resist, you can fight, you can persevere. Please know, you can't. You'll want to fight and against all odds win a happy ending for your people, like in the stories and legends. But you can't. You've fought well, and for that I'm giving you a chance to live and escape. You want to resist, and that's understandable. But this is not a story of perseverance and overcoming the odds. This is the story of the exterminator killing vermin. I am only one of many. There are many more Ancients awakening. The Chykri are only one of many. Flee, or die. Make the right choice for your people." You stand there, blood streaming down your face, contemplating the decision. > Flee "I'll go. We'll all go." The Ancient pauses, as if contemplating. "Interesting decision. I had not expected that. You have once again surpassed my expectations. Go. You have three months. Anyone left after that will be wiped out. Those who flee will be unharmed. That I promise." > You Continue True to its word, the Ancient allows your forces to abandon their weapons and retreat. A few ships valiantly, but stupidly, stay behind and attack, but are easily destroyed without your support by the Chykri. The Coalition forces return to their territory, and you quickly assemble every single vessel you can, packing them with supplies, terraforming equipment, technology and most importantly, vast amounts of passenger space. Still, the numbers are clear. The vast majority of the Coalition will have to be... abandoned to the Chykri. How to choose who will be saved is one of the hardest decisions you've made in your life. No, it's the hardest. You have three options suggested: The Lottery, the Genesis and the New Civilization. The Lottery means that the space on the ships will be decided by pure chance. A lottery will be held, and whoever gets a winning ticket gets a place. The Genesis means that people will be decided by their genetic make-up and culture to maximize the amount of variants and examples of life that can make it out of their, and to minimize inbreeding, which will lead to passengers being chosen based on that. The final method, the New Civilization, would choose passengers based on their merit. Scientists, Great Leaders, Inventors and the most valuable members of society will be chosen as passengers. These three choices will have an incredible effect on the future of mankind and all the other races. > The Lottery You decide on the lottery. Luck can be the only real way to decide on who's saved. > You Continue Brain Uploading is the process of uploading the human conscious into an AI form online. Several ships are capable of holding such AI's, but could also be used to hold organic lifeforms, being able to hold one organic lifeform for every ten AI's. Several critics of the brain uploading programme have pointed out that the AI's will be useless in rebuilding after the evacuation and barely constitute as "Human" or "Probiscan" or "Moogli". > You choose the Brain Uploading You decide on the brain uploading plan, choosing to save consciousness, whether they have a body that can work or not. > You Continue The next problem is the Arianrhod Project. This could be used to hold massive amounts of eggs, sperm of the various species for mass repopulation, at the cost of space that could be used for currently living people. > You go with the Arianrhod Project You decide the survival of the races as a whole, rather than individuals. > You Continue The Ships are prepared for evacuation, just in time. The passengers are on board, and they're all ready to escape. Massive amounts of people are being left behind, leading to rioting, anarchy and mass suicide, but heavy security has kept the evacuation ships prepared for leaving. There's only one question remaining: There are many people desperate for a seat on the Evacuation Fleet. Do you, for all your actions, deserve a seat? Have you failed the Coalition or done the best any leader could do in a crisis like that. So, do you take a seat? > Yes You sit in your new office aboard an Evacuation Sleep, watching as the Coalition is left behind. Still, this is just the start. You will rebuild anew, stronger, better and greater than ever. You will create a new empire, a new coalition, a new world. Cabana, Thar'Kaan, Tarn, Yarcel, Sgt Mason, your entire family, they're all aboard. With them, you'll create a new world.

[Themes: sci-fi] The Ships are prepared for evacuation, just in time. The passengers are on board, and they're all ready to escape. Massive amounts of people are being left behind, leading to rioting, anarchy and mass suicide, but heavy security has kept the evacuation ships prepared for leaving. There's only one question remaining: There are many people desperate for a seat on the Evacuation Fleet. Do you, for all your actions, deserve a seat? Have you failed the Coalition or done the best any leader could do in a crisis like that. So, do you take a seat? > No You sit in your office, a cigar clenched between your teeth and a glass of scotch in your hands. You stare as the fleet leaves, escaping off to a new future. As they disappear from view, you wait patiently. Everyone you love has been given a place, perhaps unfairly, on the ship, leaving you alone. You see as a Chykri Sphere arrives, its weapons of war prepared for the destruction of anyone behind. You raise your glass in cheers as it prepares to fire on you. "For the Coalition." You say, taking a drink.

[Themes: sci-fi] For the third time, you awaken. You're lying in the Bridge, and you quickly assess the situation. The Tarn Drones and most of the Probiscan Crew are dead. Cabana sits next to a half-awake Thar'Kaan, half pushing, half dragging him to an escape shuttle. You hear desperate screams to your right, and turn to see Sgt Mason. "AAH! FUCK!" He screams. He lies in flames, his left arm cooking alive in the fire, his two legs missing from a piece of shrapnel. You grab him, and yank him out, but it's obvious he won't keep the arm. "Shit. Leave me, I won't make it. Get to the escape pods." The Ships shudders, as you notice the massive Monolith moving closer to the ship. You're powerless as it comes closer and closer, before your ship's radio and monitors crackle to life, showing the Monolith on every screen. "General Achilles." A dull, deep, monotone voice booms loudly. "General Achilles, it's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance." "What the fuck...?" You mutter. "I arrived here to exterminate. There was no challenge in the task, but a challenge came about. You. I've grown respect for you. I despise your kind, but you've impressed me." "What the fuck are you?" You ask. "I am God. I am your God, the Creator of all you held dear. I am one of many, and I created all of it. I am on the Ancients, but so much more. The Remnants, the Chosen, the technology you built your little "Coalition" on, all from me. I ruled the Universe with my brethren. We created warriors of metal and slaves of flesh. Then, you arrived. A plague, a virus that spread throughout the system, wiping out my kind. You were a simple plague, so we left. We waited for your kind to die out, a parasite without a host. We waited. We slept. When I awoke, you were still here. Not only were you here, you had... evolved. You had grown arms, and legs, and a brain. You had diversified into the life that covers the galaxy today. I disgusting breed of vermin who now controlled the galaxy. So I struck, conquering the weaker species unknown to you and turning them into warriors, slaves, Chykri. Now, my army is complete. I was set for an easy conquest. There were a few minor obstacles. The Remnants had been so mentally damaged and changed that my attempts to re-establish control led only to headaches and hallucinations, the Chosen's mental programming was replaced with a parasite. Still, there was only one true obstacle: You. The virus, the plague, the parasite, had created a single, strong opponent to face me. For that, I am grateful. I haven't faced a challenge since far before your kind were around to plague mine. So I have something to grant you." You stare, unblinking st the Monolith. "Escape. I will give you a short period of time to evacuate whoever you can. Leave my homeland and flee, and I shall let you. I shall let you escape with your lives. You will lose your homeland, many of your people, almost everything. But that is already lost. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking you can resist, you can fight, you can persevere. Please know, you can't. You'll want to fight and against all odds win a happy ending for your people, like in the stories and legends. But you can't. You've fought well, and for that I'm giving you a chance to live and escape. You want to resist, and that's understandable. But this is not a story of perseverance and overcoming the odds. This is the story of the exterminator killing vermin. I am only one of many. There are many more Ancients awakening. The Chykri are only one of many. Flee, or die. Make the right choice for your people." You stand there, blood streaming down your face, contemplating the decision. > You Fight "Fuck you." You reply, standing and rushing over to Yarcel. "You said you can destroy this thing?" "I can try." Yarcel responds. "All power to the main gun! Achilles, get off the ship! I'll stay here for the firing sequence." "Interesting choice. Expected. Goodbye, my old enemy." The Ancient says. You rush with Cabana, Thar'Kaan, what's left of Sgt Mason and whatever Probiscan Crew Members aren't needed for the firing of the main gun to the escape pods. You hold on tightly as the pod fires off, speeding away from the ship. You watch as the Maw's main gun begins powering up, as the Monolith's gun fires up as well. The Maw begins moving forward, charging forward in ramming procedure. As the Maw and the Monolith collide, their guns go off, releasing a massive shockwave of laser, as the two ships explode. The explosion ripples through the ships, and they both explode. In the wake, the once proud Maw is in pieces, and you shed a tear for your fallen friends. The Monolith lies in pieces, it's black, smooth exterior chattered in pieces. "YES! WE DID IT! FUCK YOU!" Sgt Mason screams, as you slump back into your seat. "Fuck. We did it." You say, sitting back in your seat and waiting for a ship to pick you up. > You Continue You stand at the deck of the Fortuna. Cabana, Thar'Kaan, Tarn, Akaid and an incredibly injured Sgt Mason stand at your side, looking out at the fractured Chykri army, as a soldier informs you of the battle. "Upon the destruction of the Monolith, they fell apart. Many retreated back to where they came from, many simple killed themselves, many charged us without any tactics, many begin fighting each other and some fled to unknown space." You nod. "We have clean-up work to do, but for now we seem to have won." You nod again, your face solemn. "Send unmanned scouting drones after those retreating. As many as we can spare." "Yes, Sir." You have work to do. You have leads to celebrate. But for now, you celebrate. Thar'Kaan raises his sword in victory as Cabana calls for shots. "Tonight we honor Ashley-Dante, Mast, Delta-1, Yarcel, Gig, the vast majority of Sgt Mason and every other poor son of a bitch to have been part of this war. Cheers to them all." Cabana says. "Well said." You nod. "Well, fuck it then. Let's get some celebrations going! Someone get Mason a cart and let's go party! Fuck yeah!" Cabana yells. > You Continue The Ashton Model AO-44Q flies through uncharted space. A small, AI-controlled scout ship following Chykri. The last known Chykri vessels have taken up orbit around a small neutron star. The AO-44Q breaks out of FTL, slowing down rapidly to the edge of the neutron star. It takes thousands of pictures of the few seconds before a Chykri ship fires and destroys the Scout. The images it takes, the majority of which are immediately sent back to the Coalition, would soon terrify General Achilles. Images of hundreds of Monoliths, each holding an awakening Remnant, orbiting the star. Slowly awakening. Now, the extermination would begin. Now, the Ancients would awaken.

[Themes: sci-fi] You climb off the shuttle, where guards and medics are waiting. Several medics jog over to you and for the next few minutes you're violated before you receive the diagnosis of a sprained ankle and some bruising. "I'm fine, fuck off." Cabana mutters, walking over to you, his head freshly bandaged. "Achilles, you're alive, good. I couldn't handle being left in charge of this shit show. I'd rather be shot, which is still a possibility." You spot Yarcel marching down towards you, and walk over to meet him. "Yarcel? What's the situation?" "I need someone in the War Room to command the troops. Everyone, get your asses over there. Unless you want to flee the area and abandon this area to Chykri, General." > You flee the area You decide to leave the area. It's simply not worth the risk. As the Throne of Gods is abandoned, the Chykri attacks become more advanced and coordinated. Soon, massive regions of space are lost. Eventually, the Coalition as you know begins to fall apart. You're left in your office as Chykri Spheres continue to conquer vast swathes of area. You organize massive evacuation into the Titan Ships to flee the area, and manage to save some of the Coalition. You decide it's not your place on one of those ships. You place a cigar in your mouth, grab a glass of scotch, and begin organizing the Coalition's last stand.

[Themes: sci-fi, science fiction] "Why are you here, Kaan?" Sklain asks. "We're here to..." You begin. "Who the hell asked you to talk, War-Criminal?!?" Sklain says, baring his teeth. "I told you, Achilles is not a war-criminal!" Kaan says, baring his teeth as well. "He bombed our people rather than face them in battle, Kaan. When they were in battle, they didn't even eat our fallen heroes, they turned them into worm food. My men deserved to be eaten by their betters, their killers, real warriors, not worms." Sklain says. "Ah. How do you know this? Did you catch a sight of them doing so when you were running for your life? Did you even have time to bring your weapons? I know you didn't have time to bring your honour." Sklain draws his blade and presses it against Kaan's throat as Kaan points his two knives against Sklain's chest. "Get off my ship, Kaan." "Listen, Sklain: We want to make an allian..." "Death to the alliance! Sklain will sell your kids to the Chykri before he'll help us! I challenge him to trial by combat!" "I accept!" The pair lower their weapons, growling. "Call the crew to the Captain's Room, Sklain." Kaan growls. Sklain quickly radios his crew, who quickly begin assembling in the room and sitting off to the side. Two short, skinny Garavan push you off to the side. Around the throne, a small circle is formed out of Garavan wielding spears. Kaan walks over to you, pushing past two spearmen. "Thar'Kaan, we came here to make an Alliance." You ask, frustrated. "Fine. Once I kill Sklain and take over as leader of his forces, I'll make an alliance with you." You sigh. "What's the rules of the Trial?" "We each get a short sword or two knives, nothing else. We fight and kill each other." "That's it?" "Pretty much. If we try to flee the spearmen kill us. Those are the only rules. We Garavan are a simple people in regards to fighting." "OK. Good luck." "Luck? My biggest fear is that Sklain will somehow manage to leap over the spearmen and flee the fight." Thar'Kaan turns, and begins walking towards the center. Off to the side, a bell rings. As soon as the bell rings, Thar'Kaan raises his two knives and Sklain raises a small sabre. Thar'Kaan charges forwards, diving through the air. He ducks under a sword swing and slashes two long cuts across Sklain's chest, before rolling to the side. Sklain thrusts his sword, cutting a hole in Thar'Kaan's shoulder letting out a wave of blood. Thar'Kaan roars, and leaps forward, catching Sklain and pinning him to the ground. He skewers Sklain's power arm with his knives and he drops his sabre. "You should've died fighting with me against the Coalition Humans. Now you die bleeding on the floor!" Thar'Kaan yells. Sklain bears his teeth, and draws a small pistol from his holster. > Don't Interfere You watch as Thar'Kaan is shot in the head, his jaw exploding. Thar'Kaan falls of Sklain, and Sklain stands up and fires several more shots into Thar'Kaan's head. He chuckles harshly. Several Garavan Warriors walk forward, yelling about dishonour, but Sklain and two of his bodyguards simply shoot them in the head. "Remember! You're loyal to me!" Sklain yells. "No Gods, No Masters!" Sklain turns to you, teeth bared. "Now... Achilles... this is for my fallen brothers." Sklain raises his pistol, and the last thing you see is his ugly, tooth-filled face.

[Themes: sci-fi, war] "Achilles." Cabana says, walking into your office. "What did the captain say?" "The Remnant? He''ll take position in the blockade as soon as possible, but only after we begin deploying CDF units in the region he was protecting. But I'm not here to talk about that." "Then what do you want?" "We received a message from the Chykri." "Really? I'm listening." Six figures kneel in the snow, all clad in Coalition armor. A Master stands in front of them, holding a service-issue Coalition assault pistol. The six kneeling soldiers are all blindfolded and gagged, but they're alive. There's two humans, a Garavan, a massive, heavily chained Remnant, a Probiscan and a Moogli. The Master raises his pistol, and uses a knife to slice off the gag and blindfold. The Moogli looks at the Master, than at the camera, before bowing his head. "Beg for mercy. I'll make your end quick." The Master says. The Moogli doesn't respond, so the Master raises his pistol and shoots the Moogli multiple times in the head. The goes to the Remnant, who is chained to the ground with massive metal chains, and has his voice speakers blocked by padded material. The Master repeats his prcoess and asks the same request. This time, the Remnant struggles considerably against his chains, and continues struggling as the Master begins firing shot after shot into the Remnant's head. Eventually, the Remnant's body stops struggling, and slumps down in the snow. The first human comes next. After he's ungagged, he lets out a yell. "For the Coalition! For...!" He yells. His head explodes as the Master fires several shots into the captives head. The Garavan is next. He sits quietly as he's unblindfolded. As soon as his gag is removed he charges. His teeth bite into the Master's forearm, tearing into as much flesh as possible. The Master slams the Garavan to the ground, and fires multiple shots into the Garavan's spine, before finishing him off with a shot to the head. The Probiscan begins to yell something in his whistle language, so you switch on your translator. "We are the Coalition! We are many! We are strong! We will...!" The Probiscans heartening speech is also cut short by a single bullet. Finally, there's the last human. You recognize him a Human Sergeant, in charge of the rest of the soldiers. The sergeant looks at the Master and spits on him, before he's shot in the head. The camera shifts view, to show dozens of kneeling soldiers. Three Gunheads stand in front of them, and open fire. Within seconds, the prisoners are all dead. The camera shifts view to show the Master. "This is a warning to the Coalition." It says in English, which surprises you greatly. "Surrender now, and we shall let many of you live. If not, we shall destroy you, destroy your culture and destroy your greatest achievements. If you surrender, we shall take you as slaves and spare you. This will be our only warning." The TV turns to black, and Achilles looks at you. "Well?" He asks. "You're not seriously expecting me to consider that, are you?" "Well, I have pretty high stature, so if we surrender I might be able to get a cushiony job as a sex slave." "Achilles, we just watched dozens of our men get murdered." "You're right, sorry." Achilles says, raising his hands in defense. "I meant do we release it to the public? It could inspire rioting and paranoia." > You take the offer of surrender You decide to take the offer, and surrender. The Chykri begin to move in, and their regime starts. All who oppose them are massacred, and many more are lobotomized, mostly the most intelligent, curious and skeptic. The rest are quickly enslaved. Some are forced to work to build weapons, vehicles and spheres. Some are forced into the military where they are forced to take on intense cybernetics and made into mindless soldiers. You personally are made into one of these. Eventually, after the Chykri are finished, you're mobilized for war. The Chykri haven't finished their conquest.

[Themes: grimdark fantasy, anti-hero, western, grimdark, action, fantasy] "Any last words?" You can't tell who spoke, but you have a pretty good idea. Before they placed the hood over your head, two men approached the prison cell. Neither of them were dressed well. Dirt-covered overcoats hung to their knees, just touching the tips of their muddy boots. Unshaved, unwashed. They carry the toys of children at their hip, not the iron of a gunslinger. That's what lawmen in these parts go for these days. Shame. They locked you up tight, hands bound behind your back with cuffs, the kind with magical symbols inscribed in its steel. An object was tied at your lower face, like that of a muzzle. According to them, it hampered any words of power that could escape your lips, any words really, not that you're the talking type. You served as the sole prisoner, no other inmates to keep you company. Face muzzled, hands shackled. Alone, the same as before your arrest. Just before your vision turned into canvas blackness, one of the lawmen, the one with the constant smack of chew in his lip, spoke, gracing the floor with a wad of spit. "Got an empty grave and an unmarked tombstone for you, son. Better hurry 'fore it be claimed elsewhere." And just like that, they took you from your cell. The rest is a blur, not a visual one of course, but a mix of sounds, smells, and, oddly enough, wind chimes. Those goddamn wind chimes, constant in the background, their song floating on the very wind that powers their notes. It's not a beautiful song, but it's a song nonetheless. "Any last words?" The question echoes in your mind. They pause for a moment, allowing you few seconds to speak your last, to make peace. Whether a cruel joke or simple negligence, they left you muzzled. You couldn't spill words if your life depended on it. That's fine; you're not one for talking. "Alright then. May God have mercy on your soul." You hear a small chuckle after the statement. They take pleasure in your execution. Last words, God, death. You breathe in a full breath of dirty canvas. Your chest fills with the inhale. You'll treat it as any other encounter. Only this time the six-shooter isn't in your palm. Deep breath, slow release. Calm the nerves. Release the tension. Death is here. > Death It doesn't come. Chaos ensues around you. Hoof stomps. Screams, agonized cries in the air, deep and throaty, primal, like that of a boar caught in a snare. You feel as if the very sun itself is growing hotter. Flames crackle nearby. Curses accompany the screams, quick bursts of expletives before their voices are eternally silenced. Through all this you stand at the gallows, death already accepted. There is no action to take other than to wait for it to come. Still, it keeps you waiting. As the hood is pulled from your head and blinding light flashed into your eyes, you know it'll keep you waiting just a little longer. It moves further down the path, ready to jump in should you make the wrong decision. It's not pressed for time. You, on the other hand, don't have such luxury. What greets you is not the reaper, ready to take your soul back to the abyss. Instead, your savior is a native, a young one at that. His tanned skin is covered in white battle paint, dyed red with recent events. The lobes of his ears wear thick rings, matching a similar one at the base of each nostril. He stands a full head taller than you, as is the case for most men when standing next to a member from the indigenous population. The initial reports of the frontier's expeditions left out that important detail regarding the natives. A pair of native eyes meets yours. Perhaps he came to finish the job the lawmen failed to accomplish. Destiny. Fate. Perhaps yours is to die today. Where one falls short, the other picks up the task. Your maker has deemed that this is where your journey ends. It's been a long time coming. Finally, rest. The native swings his axe overhead with a single arm, the black canvas hood of the hangman in his other. You do not shut your eyes. You've managed to survive a little longer and recently learned that you prefer to watch death coming. The unseen brings exaggeration, events built up in the mind. Now that you watch it unfold, it's not so bad. A young native. A swing of the axe. That's it. No need to imagine it as something it's not. The native's axe tears through the hangman's rope. You're free. Free, in a manner of speaking. Your hands are still bound, and the muzzle still rests at your mouth. Still, though, you aren't tied to the gallows, yet the noose hangs around your neck. "Mmm," you do your best to speak through the muzzle. Fine craftsmanship it must be. You accompany the murmur with a gesture of your head towards your bound hands. Recognition lights up in the native's eyes. It strikes you that even without the muzzle he might not understand your words. Just before he can cut the bonds at your hands, another native shouts, drawing your savior's attention away. With a shrug, an expression that apparently transcends cultures, the native leaves you alone on the gallows, noose around your neck and hands bound by rope. > The town Fire. The entire thing is up in flames. Redshire, an emerging town on the western frontier. It started as a lone inn, a place with rooms and booze for those traveling west. That quickly ended when settlers learned how fertile the soil in the area was. Self-sustaining farms popped up like wildflowers in the spring, and with it, other buildings. More inns, general stores, saloons, and most recently, a sheriff's office now graced Redshire around the lone inn that first stood. Now, as quickly as the buildings appeared, they are on their way back to the ground. The flames hungrily eat at rows of buildings, built from dry planks of wood. Like demons in the night, the natives trample through the streets of Redshire. There's only four streets, one per direction of the compass, allowing the raiding party to inflict their damage with ease. Horses gallop through the streets, their riders shrieking primal war cries, the steeds painted the same color as their native masters. Then a sharp whistle fills the air. The sheriff, a bear-like man with an increasingly-growing gut, rallies his deputies with two fingers at his lips. Down the northern street, the town's banker is run down by a pair of native horses, their hooves turning the man into a mangled mess of flesh and dirt. The deputies gather around Sheriff Douglass, one for each street. The five of them, Redshire's only defense, check the bullets in their revolvers and adjust the brim of their hats for the upcoming battle. Two of the deputies, the ones that graciously served your last rites, coincidentally now face their own. Last words, God, death. Only one awaits them now. This is not the day in which death comes for you. Death is busy with others. > The natives They aren't a large tribe by any means. Nomadic living tends to favor those small in number. There are just twelve warriors in total, spanning from a few recently hitting manhood to those verging on elderhood. That's part of the reason for using the war paint; it masks the age. Rather than the fresh face of a boy newly-discovering manhood or a lined face, marked with wrinkles, a timeless shroud greets their enemies, a restless phantom, a spirit wandering the space between the living and the dead. This had been a long time coming. A single outpost didn't disturb them much. A nomad understands the need for a place of rest, something that is rarely found in such a life. But it didn't stop there. More and more structures appeared. More settled down, disturbing the wild animals—the natives' source of food. The biggest disturbance was from the five with shiny pins on their chest. If they knew the name for lawmen, they'd refer to them as such. The men with the shiny pins shot any native who got too close to the settlement. Three deaths. That's what it took to cause the raiding party to assemble, their faces painted in white battle paint, a symbol that they ride to the underworld (besides the afore-mentioned benefit.) Their elder assembled them all. Enough was enough. Three deaths. He uttered the rites, and each warrior pledged their soul to the afterlife. Their lives are borrowed time now, lost members of the dead who will soon be found. The pale man's buildings burn with their elemental fire, a gift from the gods. Most of the natives possess a natural affinity towards the elements. Unfortunate for the pale man that the raiding party is attuned to fire. Very unfortunate indeed. > You cut your bonds The native gone, you're on your own. Your executioners have their hands full with the raiding party, and you're sure to act before they find their hands empty again. Flames rise up all around you, sending your vision into a constant reddish-orange tint. The street stretches out in front of you. It appears to connect with three others in the center of Redshire, creating an X. Interesting. You never got to see the town before ending up muzzled and locked up. In front of you, dozens of bodies pile up, humans used as tinder for the flames. Their bodies are blackened from the fire, shriveled up like raisins in the sun. They came to witness your death, yet they are the ones sent to the afterlife. God has seemed fit to preserve your life rather than the townspeople of Redshire, although you know you're least deserving. Such is the fairness of life and the influence of the divine. You spot a sizable shard of glass lying in the street, a result of a shop window blown to pieces. You trot over, being sure to avoid any of the natives who have seemed to have taken over this section of Redshire. Not all of them may agree with their young member's decision to save your life. Using the glass shard as a dagger, you cut the bonds at your wrists. From there, it's a quick trip to the leather straps tied behind your head. Like it were an old pair of boots after a long day's work, you untie the straps, allowing the muzzle-like cage to fall from your face. As the cage falls, you briefly catch sight of your reflection in the glass shard. Hair's long now, black tips touching your shoulders. Face could use a good shave; scruff in the between stages where it could be considered a beard to some. Dark brown eyes stare back in the reflection. Movement. It flashes quickly in the shard. Instinct takes over. Your makeshift mirror becomes a makeshift dagger. You don't see your target until after the deed is complete. You turn to find one of the Redshire townspeople, a shopkeeper by the looks of him, standing with both hands clutching his throat, the glass shard thrust a couple of inches deep. Blood flows in tiny spurts near the wound, and you know you could turn it into a waterfall if you pulled the shard out completely. "Sorry, friend," you find yourself uttering. It does feel nice to use your voice after so long, like stretching after a stiff night's sleep. "It's either you or me." Your eyes find the hatchet resting peacefully at the shopkeeper's clean boots. "Looks like you had the same idea in mind." The man collapses to the dirt, staining the street with blood and sweat. No matter. Redshire this time tomorrow will likely be a pile of ashes. Shots fire down the street. The sheriff must have rallied his deputies for a counter attack. Their shots sound like small pea-shooters, absent of the vibrant ring of real iron. Instantly you know that they will fail in their attempt. The two men that guided you earlier, the deputies, your executioners, bear no desirable traits for combat. Not real combat anyway. They're the type who prey on the weak, take advantage of drunk women. They dominate those with less strength. When faced with someone equally strong, however, you'd bet the house on their defeat. Struggle forms a man, fosters a stalwart resolve. Stepping on those already beneath your boot doesn't make the leg any stronger. The revolvers continue firing. They are less frequent now, the result of one, perhaps two, falling to the native raiding party. But still, they continue. Gunfire may seem like it'd bring the advantage, but the lawmen of Redshire have anything but. They're in a corner, backs to the wall, a superior number of enemies approaching. You judge they aren't the type to stagger their reloads either. It's only a matter of time. Two minutes tops, if you had to guess. Making use of your ability to speak once again, you whisper words of power underneath your breath. If there's one thing the lawmen of Redshire did right, it was to constrict your voice. That deed alone extended their lives by many days. Either by your hand or the natives', their journey always ended here: with your bonds cut and their revolver chambers empty. A woman's voice, strained and wavering, softly speaks through the open shop window. Through the jagged remnants of glass, you find her, sitting on the shop floor with her knees curled into her chest. Her face shows signs of tears and sweat; her hair holds several strands falling from it's "up" position. If not for the current situation, she'd be a looker. The same could be said for you, the man who ended her husband's life with a shard of glass from his own window. "H-help me, outlaw. My son. I can't find Titus." She must be desperate if she's asking her husband's killer. She stares at you, eyes glossy from welling tears. In another life, perhaps. In this one, she's on her own. Your words of power take hold, and the sound of hoof stomps can be heard once again. It arrives as a black blur, a storm cloud racing across the sky. You never bothered naming it. As the dust settles, four legs stand proudly and heavily muscled. Its tail flips back and forth absent-mindedly, seemingly anxious to return back to a gallop. You take the opportunity to remove the shopkeeper's wide-brimmed hat. Perfect fit. You adjust the brim low, covering the top half of your face to shield your eyes from the sun and dust. "Sorry, miss," you say, realizing that for the second time on your day of supposed execution, you're apologizing to the crowd who would watch you hang. "That's a task for a lawman." Down the street, the sound of gunfire cuts off. Both you and the woman know there are no longer any lawmen in Redshire. "If I see any, I'll put in the word." With a polite lower of her husband's wide-brimmed hat, you leave her alone on the floor, her husband bleeding on the street, her son lost in the chaos. You swing a leg over the mustang, both boots finding the stirrups immediately, hands doing the same with the reins. "Yah!" you shout, commanding the mustang into a gallop. Another dust cloud picks up. You leave the town of Redshire behind you, burning, soon to be a pile of ashes, its lawmen put down by the native raiding party. You ride off into the nearby plains never looking back. > Gunslinger Beware the one who carries iron on their hip. Beware the one whose hand holds steady. Beware the one who deals in lead. Beware the gunslinger. > You begin story The frontier holds much danger. Its wildlife and indigenous population will try to end you at every turn, but also, there is much reward to be found. Unparalleled natural experimentation is at your fingertips. We've ruined nature back east. Its growth is stunted, a mere domesticated version of its former self. Magic doesn't flow as freely as it should. Animals learn to approach humanity, for the average civilized man isn't a hunter. The very wildlife, like the civilized man, has grown fat and lazy. Bold words for a priest. Acolyte Thomas continues hiking up the mountainside while the words of his teacher play in his mind. The acolyte's deep blue robe stands out, a religious cloth that isn't designed for braving the frontier. If Thomas were being honest, the same could be said for the man himself, born to a wealthy family, brought up nice and proper. Not needing to get his own hands dirty. A trail of blood. A wagon set upon. The acolyte's transport sits a crushed mess of wood and white canvas. Its horses, two of them, rest eternally, forever tied to the manmade contraption, their eyes bulging in a lifeless stare, tongues loosely spilling from within their mouths. If one were to look inside the shattered wagon underneath the canvas cover, they'd find human bodies with the same look of shock, a death realized and displayed on their faces at the last moment of life, bodies dressed in the same deep blue robes that Acolyte Thomas currently wears. It's a place of tremendous evil, yet that in itself brings the opportunity to shine light. The natives do not know God. The settlers turn their backs on Him. It's a place where mercy is abandoned and faith is forgotten. If we do not shine light in the darkness, then no one will. The burden falls to us. Thomas' teacher had the tendency to turn nearly every lecture into a sermon. As he hikes, the acolyte raises a palm to the sky. White light glows softly from his palm. Holy magic. It couldn't save the others, not their physical bodies at least. It saved the acolyte's soul, however. It continues to save his soul. Above him, the sky darkens. Clouds roll in, covering the sun completely. The acolyte continues in a constant shade, the chill from lack of sunlight rolling in. A stray branch catches itself on his robe, tearing a piece of blue cloth along the acolyte's path. The journey back will not be easy. The nearest city, Westhaven, is still many miles away. Still, though, the acolyte can make it there by foot in two, maybe three days. As the acolyte trudges forward, he notices the land around him displays signs of a wildfire. Blackened dirt and trees line his path, the latter boasting leafless, jagged branches stemming from black trunks. And suddenly, Thomas is aware of the silence, save for his footsteps. Gone are the background sounds of wildlife, wind rustling through trees. A chill runs down the acolyte's neck; the sun seems to have buried itself deeper behind the clouds. The trail leads him further up. With a sigh, the acolyte continues climbing, fearful, but with no other option presented. The streets of Westhaven are cobbled and terribly done. Bits of stone rise further up than its neighbors, making any sort of cart traveling atop a bumpy ride. Wagon wheels don't slide smoothly down the street. Rather, wheels tend to crash down on the uneven cobbled streets—and any weakened wheels are quickly discovered in the form of splintered wood and an unhappy owner. Tonight the streets are mostly empty. A thin layer of rainfall flows in-between Westhaven's streets, tiny rivers running downhill. Gas-lit lamps line the sides, not a great source, but better than stumbling in the dark. You're certain it's only a matter of time until magelight replaces the traditional lamps. But that takes resources. Resources not even the most prominent city of the frontier can boast. It's in Westhaven where you find yourself. Though it may be surrounded by walls—steel-plated walls at that, painted black—the inside is anything but safe. Sure, it offers protection against the natives. Sure, there aren't any untamed beasts of the frontier mauling settlers within Westhaven. Confine enough people into an enclosed space, and you'll find yourself with different sorts of problems, but still considered as such. Standing on a balcony overlooking the cobbled streets, you flick a match against a door frame and light up. Frontier tobacco assaults your tongue in a burst of flavor and smoke. There are few things as enjoyable as the first breath of a freshly-lit smoke, and in this life, time passes by quickly. Here one moment, gone the next. Alive one day, dead the next. Holy men preach against such things, the smoke, the drink, the gambling. Don't even get them started on the women. If they stepped out from behind the pulpit, they'd need a way to cope too. No judgments on your part. It's simply the way things are. Rain falls, just out of reach, from the overhang protecting the balcony in long, dark streaks. Larger droplets collect at the overhang's edge, the run-off creating small consistent waterfalls on either side of you. Through the dark of night, you can barely make out features below, and the lamps don't help. If anything, their light ruins your ability to adjust to the darkness. People, shadowy and formless, hurriedly rush from one side of the street to the other, doing their best to cover themselves from the rain. You've found yourself a brief respite from the chaos. In your experience, they don't last long. The acolyte stumbles upon a series of stone steps. His journey takes him upward through the blackened trees. There, the wind picks up in howling gales. Off in the distance, thunderclouds rumble across the skyline, rain already showering upon the horizon to the west. Nighttime. Acolyte Thomas, not accustomed to finding shelter in the wilderness, looks for a cave, overhang, anything that would protect him from the eventual downpour. Instead, he finds a series of stone steps, manmade. Like the surrounding trees, they're black, like most things are starting to become. The sun left its hiding place behind the clouds, abandoning it for another hidden position under the horizon. The stone steps weren't placed by accident; perhaps manmade shelter lies at the top, and so the acolyte alters his course to climb the steps. Each one is placed evenly apart, the top sanded as smooth as the flat of a blade. Acolyte Thomas silently wonders what lies at the top. It's likely a monastery, a group of monks wanting to hide from society to worship their god. Thomas could never do that, although there's no questioning his faith. He much prefers the hustle of the city, the resources it brings. The monks would give him warm food and bed before sending him off in the morning. Works for Thomas. He has no desire to be in the company of such fanatics for longer than necessary. The steps wane, and the acolyte hits a set of switchbacks. Sighing, he presses on. If he knew what awaited him at the top, Acolyte Thomas would retract the gratitude offered to God for allowing him to survive the wagon massacre. No loving God would allow one of His faithful to stumble into what the acolyte was about to discover. The smoke nothing but an ash-tipped stump, you flick it from between your fingers off the balcony. Next to you, the bottle of whiskey that's been your company for the evening is looking low, dangerously low. The deep brown line of liquid is sitting just underneath the bottom of the label. Two, maybe three light shots are left. Not enough. You head back into the hotel room, shutting the balcony doors behind you. The room is simple, a small bed in one corner, framed by small end tables. A writing desk rests unused in the opposite corner. Once upon a time dealing in ink might have peaked your interest. No longer. Nowadays you deal in lead. Throwing on a dark coat that reaches to the top of your boots, you grab your hat, strap on your gunbelt, and exit the room. Voices of patrons echo down the hallway, hotel guests who have since taken their party upstairs rather than spending their time at the first floor saloon. Always one for convenience, you take the single staircase down to ground level, noticing the hotel's wallpaper is discoloring near the bottom. Your mind is a blur, affected by the drink and smoke. If you were to pull iron tonight, you know it'll take more than one pull of the trigger to hit your target. Good thing the chamber holds six. Downstairs, the saloon is alive. The bar's crowded, every stool occupied with both lonely drinkers deep in thought, and city slickers looking for a good time. The center of the room holds poker tables. Blackjack, Hold 'em, you name it. You disregard the games and head straight for the bar, squeezing yourself between two stools. You catch the bartender's eye, a stout man with a thick mustache and sporting a stained apron. You flash two fingers and place a few crumbled dollars on the bar top. Nodding, the bartender places a pair of shot glasses in front of you and reaches for an unmarked bottle of whiskey. House brew. You toss the first back and then reach inside your coat to light another smoke. The hand-rolled cigarette at the corner of your lips, you clutch the other shot glass in your palm and turn, leaning your weight against the bar while surveying the saloon. No busty waitress comes up to you. No whore has you in her line of sight. There's just the smoke, the drink, and no one else. Like dealing in ink, once upon a time, things were different. She would have been by your side, smiles on both of your faces. At this point you're unsure if that image is a memory or a dream, perhaps a mixture of the two. There's one thing it's not, however, and that's reality. You take the second shot. They sensed his presence immediately, not that Acolyte Thomas was attempting to hide his approach. At the top of the switchbacks, they turned on him like a shark smelling blood in the water, a vulture hearing the nails of a crucifixion hammered. What Acolyte Thomas discovered at the top of the mountain was worse than the death his brethren suffered. He tried to run. Lord knows he screamed at the top of his lungs until the air left them, never to return again. There was no divine intervention. There was no one there to save him. They tore him apart piece by piece while consciousness still occupied his mind. His innards were ripped from his body, genitalia following suit. Piece by piece, organ by organ, slowly, while he watched and screamed. Then, mercifully, shock overtook his mind. It numbed his senses far greater than the shots of whiskey you tossed back during the exact moment miles away. Blackness overtook his vision. Mercy finally appearing, Acolyte Thomas slipped into the void, never to awaken again. Your mind would find darkness an hour later. Only in your case, unmercifully, as you'd discover in the morning. > Morning Light shines on your face. Daylight peeks through the open curtains, not direct sunlight as the sun itself seems content to stay under a cover of clouds. Yours, on the other hand, are spread over the hotel bed, barely covering your body. Fully clothed, you roll up and grasp at your temple. A constant pulsing headache greets you, making its presence known with each movement, slight or otherwise. Loose strands of hair fall in front of your face, and you don't bother moving them out of your vision. You sit, hands propping up your body behind you. All you get is a hazy mess when trying to think of the night's events. Drinks, smokes—the rest is from recalled memory. Your stomach is growling something awful. The previous night must have excluded food then. You rise, coming to stand on both feet. There's a kitchen downstairs— —nausea hits you in a wave. You half sprint, half stumble to the balcony, swinging open the door, nearly taking it from the frame in the process. In a waterfall of dirty brown liquid mixed with stomach acid, you retch from the balcony onto the street below. It causes a commotion. A few curses are shouted towards your room in response. Feeling slightly better, you head back into the hotel room to gather your things before leaving, namely the wide-brimmed hat that you can shield your eyes with, when a knock at the door appears. Steady and confident knuckles rap against the hotel door, not the timid knocking from a maid. "It's unlocked," you call out, your voice carrying a rasp from the smoke and whiskey. You clear your throat as the door swings open. The first thing you notice is his boots. They're shined beautifully, a sleek black that would stand out on a moonless night. The man who wears them enters, a half cape slung over one shoulder, a lute on the other. His clothes are of a deep forest green, their style a mix of traveling garb and class. "Daniel," you state the bard's name. Daniel takes a glance at the hotel room, his blonde hair freshly cut, a tailored look all around except for the scruff of an incoming beard. You've known the bard long enough that it stays at that length, forever beyond the reach of a full beard. "Heard you were in town. Didn't feel like informing your oldest friend?" Like the music he plays, his voice hits each note brilliantly, never one to stumble on his words. The same can be said for the tuning pegs on his lute. "Had some business nearby in Redshire," you answer. "Went south. So I traveled further west." "South... Oh, funny," Daniel says with a laugh. Turning serious, he adds, "Redshire, huh. News is that it's a smoldering pile of ashes. I imagine your being there had something to do with that?" Damn, does news travel fast. "Not intentionally." "What happened?" "Natives. Raiding party hit the town hard. The lawmen there didn't stand a chance. No local militia or Goldwater presence." "Well of course there wasn't any Goldwater presence," Daniel says. "Redshire was an independent town. Bet they're wishing now they handed a few coins to the Goldies. You're ok though?" As loaded of a question as there ever was. The only thing worse than asking the question itself is a surface answer, so instead you give him full honesty. "Been better. Certainly been worse." As honest an answer as there will ever be. You have been better, and surely there's no way of being lower than when... "Glad to hear," Daniel clasps your shoulder. "Listen, I've got a gig tonight. Think it would do you some good to attend." > You Attend You almost say no. It wouldn't surprise the bard in the least if you did; that's been your answer for the previous few years. Perhaps it's due to surviving near death. The noose was tied around your neck, the black hood placed over your head. If the native raiding party took even two minutes longer, your body would be hanging limply in Redshire until the entire thing burned to the ground. At the very least, that would have saved you from this throbbing headache. You have no pressing task, no real plans. What the hell. Maybe an opportunity will present itself. "Sure," you answer. "Just give me the time and place." "Ohhh no," the bard replies. "I've heard that one before. I'm sticking with you until then, so you can't slip out of town unnoticed. You're growing predictable." "Questioning my integrity?" "I'm questioning your ability to stay in one place for more than a day." "Fair enough," you say. "I could use a bite to eat anyway. Know of a place?" "I sure do," the bard says with a smile. Daniel leads you to an establishment a few streets away. Outside, a light drizzle starts. You pull your wide-brimmed hat lower to cover your face, also preventing those passing by from seeing anything but your mouth. You reach your destination, Holly's Alehouse, a lesser-known establishment. They seem to know Daniel, however, and clear a table in the corner as you enter. Deep brown fills the place; long bench-style tables resting in the center, while seats for smaller parties line the walls. It's the smaller type table that you're seated at, a place away from listening ears and wandering eyes. Just how you prefer it. "So," the bard starts as a woman, you assume to be Holly, places two cups of ale in front of you. It goes without saying that breakfast includes drinks. It'll stave off your headache, likely kicking it down the road like a tumbleweed in the wind. It's a worthwhile fix for now though. "Have you found work in the city or are you looking?" You shake your head. "No. Not planning on being here for long." You take a sip from the cup. It's a bit watered down, as most places serve early in the day. You mentally note it will take more cups than normal to numb the pain from your head away. From within your inner jacket you pull a hand-rolled cigarette and strike a match against the side of the table. Your next words are spoken through a puff of smoke. "You know I can't stay around cities for long." Daniel nods, understanding in his eyes. "Shame. I could use someone like you." You're starting to think that the bard may have an ulterior motive for inviting you to watch his gig. "Meaning...?" "Meaning I've—" The bard cuts off as Holly returns with two plates of food. Fried eggs, greasy bacon and sausages fill the plates, yours devoured almost immediately. Fortunately, the sudden rush of nausea is long gone allowing you to fill your stomach without it constantly emptying itself again. Once Holly leaves to check on the other patrons of the morning, the bard continues. "Meaning I've stumbled on something. Something big." You wave him off. Some information is better kept secret. "So talk to the lawmen or Goldwater, assuming you're talking about something of that nature." Daniel nods, again. Doesn't say anything more than that. "I'm no lawman," you start. "And those who take the law into their own hands tend to find themselves tried and hung by the very laws they were looking to overstep." "That's not what I'm asking," Daniel says. "All I'm asking is for you to attend my gig and keep an eye out. That's it. I'm sure you keep a watchful eye wherever you go." "I do, but for myself," you answer. "Besides, it's different when all eyes are on the man performing on a stage. Staring is normal. Prolonged interest is welcomed, something that is normally a tell otherwise." "You already said you'd come," the bard says with a forced grin, this one is unlike the natural smile that he flashed earlier, perhaps thinking of the real reason he asked you to attend. "That I did," you comment, more to yourself. Holly returns to fill your cup and take your empty plate. As she does, the conversation turns lighter in nature, reminiscing of the past and recalling stories brought by the foolishness and perceived bravery of adolescent men. With each ale-infused laugh, your mind can't help but wander to the endless possibility that your friend would need back-up for. Money-lender issues? Something worse? You force smiles out in the meantime until the watered-down ale takes over. Then the enjoyment is sincere, simple choice words of a vulgar nature sending fits of laughter across the small table in the corner of Holly's Alehouse. The reality of life is paused for a moment. Now you'll enjoy yourself. There's no shortage of events to sober you up. Arriving to the gig with a clear mind is not a worry; running into such events during a period of sincere pleasure is much more worrisome, whether it's ale-induced or not. Moments such as this don't happen often, and damn to hell whoever tries to pry it from you prematurely. > The gig Nightfall. Before heading to the location—Daniel ended up giving you space after all—you stopped to speak with the proprietor of the hotel you're staying out to rent another night. The proprietor, a man with a large gut and tendency to rest his palms on the sides of it, took your money with gratitude, likely due to the fact that you didn't question his "late extension policy" and the added fee along with it. Some battles are better not fought, and a vast majority have to do with service. A few hours and nearly as many cups of coffee later, you find yourself at a small tavern on the outskirts of the city. The tavern, Stormshelter, is still within the Westhaven walls. Safe from outsiders. However, it's a different story for residents of Westhaven who bring a danger of their own. Here, lawmen don't patrol. Goldwater Knights don't stomp their nine-man formations through the streets. Bums and thugs of questionable character hang around alleys or rest near shops and stores, daring rivals to try anything. Not a typical place for the bard to perform. But he has a gig, and you do not (at least officially). That ends that discussion. Various performers, joke-tellers, jugglers, singers started the night. Opening acts are rarely good, and these are no different. The bard backstage in preparation, you sit alone at the bar. It's lined against the side wall, allowing the stage to be the main focus of the room. You don't mind the layout as it allows you to nurse a whiskey while being mostly out of sight. The tavern's patrons are loud, voicing both their approval or disapproval of the performer, just the sort of crowd you'd imagine for this side of the city. As you're ordering a double, a finger taps on your shoulder. You turn to find Daniel, still dressed in the garb from earlier, next to a woman. There's no denying her beauty. Athletic frame, still with curves in the right areas. She's wearing a black flowing dress, a small hat holding her brown curls in place. And suddenly you know why he asked you to come. A set up. "Here's the gunslinger I told you about," Daniel says, all but pushing the woman in front of you. "Yeah you stumbled on something alright," you mumble to yourself. But holding good manners as expected of a gunslinger, you add, "Pleasure to meet you...?" "Anne," she smiles. "Pleasure to meet you, Anne." "We've got a table in the center. Front row," she says. "Join us there?" You nod and tip the brim of your hat, savoring the precious few seconds that the barkeep is taking to pour your double shot of whiskey. Once the glass lands in front of you, the liberty that solitude brings will vanish, swept under the rug for a night of polite questioning and feigned interest. You're starting to wish you didn't agree to come. As the bartender slaps a glass down in front of you, he adds, "Anything for the lady?" You glance toward the table Anne mentioned and find it absent of glasses. "Martini," you answer, a safe choice. The bartender nods and raps his knuckles on the bar top in acknowledgment. You wait for the man to mix the cocktail, scanning the crowd in the meantime. They're as ragged as they are rowdy, poor souls seeking entertainment as distraction from their shitty lives, a purpose that booze, smokes, and harder stuff fills. You wouldn't be surprised in the least if the rooms upstairs are filled with guests taking an opium-induced nap. The crowd's clothes are dirty, likely their only pair. You continue your scan, finding more of the same. Dirt. Rags. And finally— —gunslinger. He's dressed in black from head to toe, a dark poncho draping from his neck down to his mid thigh. It covers his pistol, but you know without a doubt he carries iron on the hip. He smokes a cigar from one corner of his mouth, spilling a constant stream of smoke from the left side of his face, which is shrouded by the brim of his hat. The man in black, the gunslinger sits casually at a table by himself, one leg stretched out in front of him. He turns towards you, noticing your gaze— —and the martini." The bartender places the glass on the bar top, pulling your attention away from the man in black. You dig into your pocket and throw a few dollars on the bar top, turning back towards the gunslinger. He's gone. The chair is empty. There's no sign at the table that a man just sat there, each chair neatly placed underneath. Before you can investigate further, Anne waves you down. Suppressing a sigh, you sip at the whiskey and savor the taste, the burn on your lips, the rush of pleasure with each taste. As quick as it appears, the feeling is gone. Until the next sip. And the one after it. And so on. Anne thanks you for the martini as you sit. She starts the conversation with typical questions, where you're from, how you know the bard, etc. It's a choreographed dance. Knowing where she's leading you, you can let go of the reins and let your answers flow freely from your tongue, throwing in a few polite questions of your own. As you discuss the latest political news from the east, Daniel is introduced. The crowd claps as the stage curtains are drawn to reveal the bard. He's alone on the stage, sitting on a single bar stool. He works the crowd, not starting his music until they quiet completely, desperate to hear what he has in store for them. And what he plays is a masterpiece. The lute becomes an extension of the room's emotion; the crowd is transfixed by it, each crescendo mirrored on their faces. Anne appears on the verge of tears. They well up in her eyes like small waterskins about to burst. You find yourself affected as well, surprisingly, hypnotized by the notes. That's what you tell yourself later when reflecting on the scene that's about to play out, distracted by the music and girl: that's why you didn't see the dagger until it was too late. Your ears pick it up before your eyes, a high-pitched whine against the fast rhythm from the lute. Before your mind can register, causing action from your body, it lands squarely in the bard's chest, the impact throwing him over backward in a sudden crash of wrong notes. The crowd, no stranger to ill-happenings in this part of the city, moves almost as fast as you do, taking cover underneath tables in a roar. Madness ensues. The inside of the tavern turns into a hectic mess of bodies scrambling for cover, half of the patrons choosing to run for the door. "Stay here," you instruct Anne, not that you expected her to follow you anyway. Sometimes people in high stress situations need to be reminded what to do. The revolver appearing in your palm, you make for the stage, ready to rain death upon any enemies who would dare make themselves known. If the crowd notices the gun in your hand, they don't act like it; on the way, several shoulders run into you, despite your table at the front of the room. Reaching the stage, you swing your way on top with one hand. You find the bard lying on the stage, the hilt of the dagger sticking from his chest like a flag claiming territory for a king. Next to him, the bar stool lies overturned, and beside that, the bard's lute, chipped and fractured, a deep crack running down the neck. The very instrument that held the attention of tens of people, holding their emotions with each perfectly-tuned string, lies broken and absent of all sound, fallen by a simple dagger. Power is a strange thing, is it not. Small sporadic movement still appears at the bard's chest. Still breathing, yet. Amongst the chaos, a single figure remains motionless. The man in black. He stands at the doorway, the crowd parting around him like a great stone planted firmly in a riverbed. His face is shrouded in shadow, but you get the sinking feeling he's smiling. Goddam smiling at your friend bleeding out in front of you. A hand grabs your shoulder, a musician's hand. Daniel. He tries to say something, the words themselves not forming properly on his tongue. Whatever he's saying, you nod your understanding. No sense in trying to ask a dying man to explain himself. The man in black tips his hat toward the stage as if politely greeting a stranger on the street, turning to leave after the act is complete. If there's any hope of following him, you'll have to leave now. The bard will bleed out either way; you've witnessed enough wounds to know a fatal one when you see it. You'll have to leave your oldest friend slowly bleeding out alone, but perhaps revenge can bring comfort to a dying man. It can calm a man greater than any hearth, bring more pleasure than any woman of the night. Time is short. Your prey is fleeting. > You stay with the bard It's the least you can do. The bard has been a refreshing ally in a world full of darkness. You might not possess the skills required to heal the man, but you'll give him a proper send-off with a close friend nearby. That's more than some men get, assuredly more than you'll get once life finally leaves you. Your friendship has always leaned towards one side of the scales; this is your chance to achieve balance. The man in black has departed. With each passing second, you know that you'll likely not catch him. Besides, you'd be chasing after the man for your own benefit. The bard sure as hell won't have any stake in the matter. That's what you tell yourself. Whether it's true or not, it hardly bears any meaning. The choice is made, and you couldn't revert back if you wanted to. The man in black is far gone now. There's only death and the man you called friend, bleeding out at an increasingly-rapid rate. For the first time in a long while, you find yourself lacking the skill set required. You don't know how to speak words of comfort, neither are your hands tender to the touch. You sit silent, listening to the ragged breath of your oldest friend, each one becoming more labored than the last. Still, there must be some small level of comfort to be found. The bard, knowing that the afterlife calls his name, isn't going there alone. So you sit, the sound of death in the air. It's broken not a minute later. A rush of gold sweeps through the entrance of Stormshelter. Goldwater Knights. You didn't think they held a presence in this area of the city. It's not a typical patrol of nine knights. Rather, it's a shrewd-looking man and a pair of knights. The man wears a long overcoat of light tan, trimmed with gold of course. His golden hair is knotted and tied back, held in place with the tricorn hat atop his head. The knights themselves are exactly as you expect, shiny gold breastplates with heavy chainmail underneath. Bullets do them no harm, neither do most unenchanted weapons. The man's eyes lock with yours, not even separating to gaze at the bard. He strides confidently across the room, both hands clasped behind his back. "And just what do we have here?" he asks, his tone insinuating and inappropriate for the circumstance. "What does it look like," you flatly state. The man turns to one of the guards. "Let the record show that the person of interest is highly non-compliant." The Goldwater Knight grunts an agreement through a masked helm. Back to you. "I'll ask one more time. What do we have here?" "Assassination." You are careful not to share too much. Goldwater will only get in your way if you reveal too much, the description of a gunslinger dressed in black for example. The fact that you both carry iron on the hip thrusts you deeper into the case, much more than a bystanding friend in grief. "Yes," the man ponders. "I can see that." You remain quiet. The man turns back to his escorting knights. "One deceased, four injured. Suspect remains at large." The other knight grunts in return. One deceased. You turn back to the stage. Daniel lies unmoving, his chest still. With the Goldwater lawman quiet, you strain to hear the faintest of breath. Nothing. The life left not soon after the Goldwater presence arrived, and with it, the last of those that would refer to you as friend. You curse your thoughts, the paranoia thinking that he invited you to the gig as a set up. You should have scanned the crowd more thoroughly, advised the bard not to perform. So many decisions have gone wrong. You'll pay for them now. Daniel may have passed on, but the debt remains buried up to your neck. "Come with us. We have some questions that we would prefer to be asked away from prying ears." This time the words are spoken to you. It happens in the briefest of moments, but you catch the Goldwater lawman eyeing your hip and the iron that rests there. You both know that if shooting were to start, he'd be the main focus as the others are heavily-armored. There is no sense in drawing now. As much as you dislike Goldwater, they aren't the true enemy. You sigh, nodding. Once again you'll find yourself detained by men of the law. Like in Redshire, they'll clasp chains around your wrists, tuck you safely behind locked doors. The man in black is far gone, and your friend is dead. What else is there to do. You allow the Goldwater Knights to detain you. At least in this case, the city around your capture won't burn up in flames. If only you knew that wasn't the case. If you knew of the dark power soon to arrive at Westhaven, putting down three Goldwater Knights is nothing in comparison. You do not, however, and go peacefully with them. In time, the city would burn and no savior would come to your rescue, no more friends to comfort your dying last breath. Your fate is to die bound and alone. Rarely, does one escape fate twice. The End

Nightfall. Before heading to the location—Daniel ended up giving you space after all—you stopped to speak with the proprietor of the hotel you're staying out to rent another night. The proprietor, a man with a large gut and tendency to rest his palms on the sides of it, took your money with gratitude, likely due to the fact that you didn't question his "late extension policy" and the added fee along with it. Some battles are better not fought, and a vast majority have to do with service. A few hours and nearly as many cups of coffee later, you find yourself at a small tavern on the outskirts of the city. The tavern, Stormshelter, is still within the Westhaven walls. Safe from outsiders. However, it's a different story for residents of Westhaven who bring a danger of their own. Here, lawmen don't patrol. Goldwater Knights don't stomp their nine-man formations through the streets. Bums and thugs of questionable character hang around alleys or rest near shops and stores, daring rivals to try anything. Not a typical place for the bard to perform. But he has a gig, and you do not (at least officially). That ends that discussion. Various performers, joke-tellers, jugglers, singers started the night. Opening acts are rarely good, and these are no different. The bard backstage in preparation, you sit alone at the bar. It's lined against the side wall, allowing the stage to be the main focus of the room. You don't mind the layout as it allows you to nurse a whiskey while being mostly out of sight. The tavern's patrons are loud, voicing both their approval or disapproval of the performer, just the sort of crowd you'd imagine for this side of the city. As you're ordering a double, a finger taps on your shoulder. You turn to find Daniel, still dressed in the garb from earlier, next to a woman. There's no denying her beauty. Athletic frame, still with curves in the right areas. She's wearing a black flowing dress, a small hat holding her brown curls in place. And suddenly you know why he asked you to come. A set up. "Here's the gunslinger I told you about," Daniel says, all but pushing the woman in front of you. "Yeah you stumbled on something alright," you mumble to yourself. But holding good manners as expected of a gunslinger, you add, "Pleasure to meet you...?" "Anne," she smiles. "Pleasure to meet you, Anne." "We've got a table in the center. Front row," she says. "Join us there?" You nod and tip the brim of your hat, savoring the precious few seconds that the barkeep is taking to pour your double shot of whiskey. Once the glass lands in front of you, the liberty that solitude brings will vanish, swept under the rug for a night of polite questioning and feigned interest. You're starting to wish you didn't agree to come. As the bartender slaps a glass down in front of you, he adds, "Anything for the lady?" You glance toward the table Anne mentioned and find it absent of glasses. "Martini," you answer, a safe choice. The bartender nods and raps his knuckles on the bar top in acknowledgment. You wait for the man to mix the cocktail, scanning the crowd in the meantime. They're as ragged as they are rowdy, poor souls seeking entertainment as distraction from their shitty lives, a purpose that booze, smokes, and harder stuff fills. You wouldn't be surprised in the least if the rooms upstairs are filled with guests taking an opium-induced nap. The crowd's clothes are dirty, likely their only pair. You continue your scan, finding more of the same. Dirt. Rags. And finally— —gunslinger. He's dressed in black from head to toe, a dark poncho draping from his neck down to his mid thigh. It covers his pistol, but you know without a doubt he carries iron on the hip. He smokes a cigar from one corner of his mouth, spilling a constant stream of smoke from the left side of his face, which is shrouded by the brim of his hat. The man in black, the gunslinger sits casually at a table by himself, one leg stretched out in front of him. He turns towards you, noticing your gaze— —and the martini." The bartender places the glass on the bar top, pulling your attention away from the man in black. You dig into your pocket and throw a few dollars on the bar top, turning back towards the gunslinger. He's gone. The chair is empty. There's no sign at the table that a man just sat there, each chair neatly placed underneath. Before you can investigate further, Anne waves you down. Suppressing a sigh, you sip at the whiskey and savor the taste, the burn on your lips, the rush of pleasure with each taste. As quick as it appears, the feeling is gone. Until the next sip. And the one after it. And so on. Anne thanks you for the martini as you sit. She starts the conversation with typical questions, where you're from, how you know the bard, etc. It's a choreographed dance. Knowing where she's leading you, you can let go of the reins and let your answers flow freely from your tongue, throwing in a few polite questions of your own. As you discuss the latest political news from the east, Daniel is introduced. The crowd claps as the stage curtains are drawn to reveal the bard. He's alone on the stage, sitting on a single bar stool. He works the crowd, not starting his music until they quiet completely, desperate to hear what he has in store for them. And what he plays is a masterpiece. The lute becomes an extension of the room's emotion; the crowd is transfixed by it, each crescendo mirrored on their faces. Anne appears on the verge of tears. They well up in her eyes like small waterskins about to burst. You find yourself affected as well, surprisingly, hypnotized by the notes. That's what you tell yourself later when reflecting on the scene that's about to play out, distracted by the music and girl: that's why you didn't see the dagger until it was too late. Your ears pick it up before your eyes, a high-pitched whine against the fast rhythm from the lute. Before your mind can register, causing action from your body, it lands squarely in the bard's chest, the impact throwing him over backward in a sudden crash of wrong notes. The crowd, no stranger to ill-happenings in this part of the city, moves almost as fast as you do, taking cover underneath tables in a roar. Madness ensues. The inside of the tavern turns into a hectic mess of bodies scrambling for cover, half of the patrons choosing to run for the door. "Stay here," you instruct Anne, not that you expected her to follow you anyway. Sometimes people in high stress situations need to be reminded what to do. The revolver appearing in your palm, you make for the stage, ready to rain death upon any enemies who would dare make themselves known. If the crowd notices the gun in your hand, they don't act like it; on the way, several shoulders run into you, despite your table at the front of the room. Reaching the stage, you swing your way on top with one hand. You find the bard lying on the stage, the hilt of the dagger sticking from his chest like a flag claiming territory for a king. Next to him, the bar stool lies overturned, and beside that, the bard's lute, chipped and fractured, a deep crack running down the neck. The very instrument that held the attention of tens of people, holding their emotions with each perfectly-tuned string, lies broken and absent of all sound, fallen by a simple dagger. Power is a strange thing, is it not. Small sporadic movement still appears at the bard's chest. Still breathing, yet. Amongst the chaos, a single figure remains motionless. The man in black. He stands at the doorway, the crowd parting around him like a great stone planted firmly in a riverbed. His face is shrouded in shadow, but you get the sinking feeling he's smiling. Goddam smiling at your friend bleeding out in front of you. A hand grabs your shoulder, a musician's hand. Daniel. He tries to say something, the words themselves not forming properly on his tongue. Whatever he's saying, you nod your understanding. No sense in trying to ask a dying man to explain himself. The man in black tips his hat toward the stage as if politely greeting a stranger on the street, turning to leave after the act is complete. If there's any hope of following him, you'll have to leave now. The bard will bleed out either way; you've witnessed enough wounds to know a fatal one when you see it. You'll have to leave your oldest friend slowly bleeding out alone, but perhaps revenge can bring comfort to a dying man. It can calm a man greater than any hearth, bring more pleasure than any woman of the night. Time is short. Your prey is fleeting. > You hunt the man in black Two options presented themselves, and yet there was never really an option in the matter. You carry the iron on your hip, accruing a skill set that brings destruction rather than healing. The bard will understand. He seems to sense your intention, perhaps it's displayed on your face, a mix of rage and confusion caused by the internal struggle to wrap your mind around the sudden assassination and your inability to stop it. He did warn you, did he not? In your paranoia you thought it was a set up, a lure to help you move on. He'll understand. Either way, it won't be an issue for too much longer. Mere seconds away. His hand falls from your shoulder. As you leave, you don't offer an explanation or words of farewell. None are needed. The bard knows your intent. He sees bloodlust, a single focus point grasped onto, one that will result in more death. You sprint from the stage, knocking over a few of the slower tavern patrons along the way. You exchange the tavern light for darkness; the moon hides beneath a cloud layer tonight, the sky continuing its constant drizzle. The street is abuzz with drunken citizens, some from Stormshelter, others from different watering holes. The news of the assassination is already spreading. They're gathering in the streets like citizens waiting for a parade to march through with no apparent regard for danger, perhaps realizing that a single dagger thrown in the night is the result of a targeted death, not a wide-spread killing spree for God knows why. Movement. Shadow. You sprint down the street, revolver placed back in its holster, exchanged for speed. Like a moth to the flame, the darkness draws you in. Even if you wanted, which you don't, you doubt you could turn back now. It's not only for the sake of your dying—likely dead now—friend. There's an indescribable allure to the darkness you chase. You desire it, long for it. You don't have to be kept waiting long. He's waiting for you down an alleyway, a lone silhouette of a man placed against the dark of night, the corner of his hat and poncho sharp. The man in black. You enter the alley. It's a long and narrow corridor, like most alleys are, lined with heaps of trash and reinforced doors that all remain shut and locked. No rat scurries. No crow scavenges. The alley is void of life, save for two gunslingers and the smell of death. "'slinger," the man in black speaks, remaining twenty paces away. He doesn't acknowledge your full title, and you know the reason for it. "You? Why?" you utter in a breath ragged from smoke. No further clarification is needed. The man in black shrugs. "You should be able to figure that out yourself. Father doesn't quite enjoy those who turn their back on the family. A lesson had to be taught. The woman, oh what's her name—Anna... Anne would have followed suit, but judging by your conversation that would have been doing you a favor." "I'm out. Father disowned me." The man in black laughs. It's an off-putting tone, the kind of laughter that's born of cruelty. "No one's truly ever out. And the way I hear it, you were never officially disowned. Father was content to put up with your disobedience, but times have changed. Father's calling everyone home." "You're fucking crazy if you think I'd return. Especially after what you've just done." "I was hoping you'd say that." Through the shadow, you see a hand appear at his side. The man in black postures for a gunfight. Your own hand matches. In the distance, a church bell tolls midnight. > Midnight duel The bell finishes its toll, the sound hanging heavy in the air. It highlights the sudden silence; not even the city streets in its drunken stupor dare interrupt the duel. Two men stand against one another, death but a single pull of the trigger away. They carry iron on their hip and deal in lead. Tonight, one of them dies. Overhead, the sky parts its constant layer of clouds, allowing pure moonlight to shine down in the alley. Soft lunar light showers you in a blue shade, the man in black remains as his name suggests. Your hand rests unmoving, fingers spread out and relaxed. Your opponent does the same. It's as if you're facing your shadow, the gunslinger a black silhouette in perfect dueling posture, just how Father taught you both. High noon, a sacred time for a gunslinger. You find yourself at the very antithesis of the holy hour, a blasphemy as sincere as there ever were. The moon above mocks you. A slight mist of rain holds in the air, remnants of the drizzle from seconds before. "They said you were the best," the man in black speaks, his hand unwavering at his side. "But you abandoned the family before I got to witness it for myself. I've been longing for this day." I've been longing for this day. You passed the trials at a younger age than any before. Your waist held the size of a boy, but the iron you carried on your hip was of a man. A boy from nowhere, a past full of secrets and mystery. Father welcomed you into the family. Father recognized your disposition with the six-shooter. If there was another family before your adoption, they have long since been forgotten. Father, the old sorcerer, liked to welcome them in young. Families are built and sustained from young boys and girls, are they not? "The day is here. The day is your last," you answer, reaching in your pocket for a smoke. The movement of your hand doesn't cause a single flinch from the gunslinger in front of you. Damn. He's good. Damn. He's good. The thought was on all of their minds. Father's daughter was taken by a renounced Goldwater. Goldwater Knights, the only warriors who could resist the iron. It wasn't by strength of body or intricate spell weaving, although that played a part. It was their armor, unbreakable as a mountain, sturdy as an ancient oak. The former Goldie holed himself up in an underground fortress, spending every last coin of his Goldwater earnings on mercenaries and defensemen—and the Goldwater knights are anything but aptly titled. A band of eight, you rode into the tunnel's entrance. It eventually led to the main gate, the underground road wide enough for the entire posse to ride side-by-side. Eight was the extent of your number at the time. God knows how many the family's grown since. Father himself could not be trusted to ride. Bloodlust took over, leaving the sorcerer unreliable. A roadside inn massacred was the final straw, bodies slung over chairs like a heavy coat after a long day's work. Nothing pulls a family together like a father stricken with sorrow, tears first running dry before turning to blood. It was your idea to chain him up. It was for his own good. Eight of you rode in. Two rode out. Two fell in love. Smoke trails up from the corner of your mouth, clouding briefly at the brim of your hat before finally disappearing into the night air. Each drag sends a blinding orange ring glow at the end of the cigarette, the color rudely infringing on the cold and dark of the alley. "I'll carry your iron on my hip in memory," the man in black promises, the previous slights abandoned. He doesn't call you a gunslinger, no. But he promises life immortalized through the act, the highest tribute to one who deals in lead. He quotes Father. "Rare is the man who carries two. 'A man's attention is best held by a single focus.'" A man's attention is best held by a single focus. That was the extent of Father's warning. Your youthful mind, distracted with newly-found pleasures of the flesh, didn't grasp his words fully. His words fell on deaf ears and a mind with a wavering focus, often filling itself with thoughts of ecstasy rather than dealing in lead, focusing more on her hips than the iron upon your own. A meeting place was established between the lovers, a secret location before setting out on your own. Father was right that a single focus is better. You made your choice. Midnight by the pine tree. Your traveling pack filled with equipment for the road, placed upon the back of one of many horses that would eventually die in your service. Midnight you arrive at the pine, the one you've shared many nights underneath. Your love did not greet you. Instead, a letter. Attention is best held by a single focus. Seemed Father gave his daughter the same warning. She made her choice. And now, instead of two emerging on the road, one did. "Rare is the man who thinks for himself," you counter. "There's only one way this ends." "Straight down to business, then. The night is still young." You stare at your opponent. He stands opposite of you, shoulders slightly angled as they should be. Smaller target that way. The edges of his poncho are sharp angles in the night, jagged shadows, sinister and silent. His gun rests easily on his hip, hanging at perfect arm length. To draw is as effortless as scratching his leg. Moonlight shines from above, nothing more than a shy thin crescent, appearing as if it would be more comfortable behind a layer of clouds. You slow your breath. The exhale sends another stream of smoke from the corner of your lips. Your hand is steady by your side, ready to react to the slightest movement from the man in black. You mirror each other. In another lifetime you might've been as brothers, a pair of gunslingers on the road. In another lifetime a lot of things might've been different. You might've had a family, sons and daughters who grow up idolizing their Daddy. Father might've been called the name by more than organizational means, a union between you and his daughter bringing new meaning to the title. You might've been happy. But that is not this lifetime. All that's good is taken from you. Whatever you grasp onto slips through your fingers like sand through an hourglass. That's what the man in black does not understand. He speaks as if he cares about Father and the family. At the very least, he cares about reputation and legend. Foolish thoughts. Caring gets you killed. You, with an apathetic disposition, now truly have nothing left to lose. Your shoulders are unburdened by the weight of others. Nothing rides on your ability or inability to shoot first. With no family, no love, and now no friends, you're unchained. Free. Your hand explodes into motion. The man in black might've blinked, but with his dying breath he knows that's not the case. One moment your hand is casual next to your hip, the next holding a smoking gun pointed forward. Two streams of smoke rise into the night. The shadow opposite of you is now long, lying on the ground like the setting sunlight casted long against a pine tree. You don't check on the man. You don't carry his revolver in memory. He'll soon be forgotten to the world, just another man bleeding out in the alley of a questionable part of the city. Unchained, free, you exit the alley wishing that, like the man you just shot, you could be forgotten to the world. In another lifetime, perhaps. In this one you deal in lead. The End