The outback was a wasteland. The land virtually uninhabitable after the explosion. That was roughly twenty years ago though. You were only a baby when it happened, but you survived through the radiation and other hardships the new territory had brought. Junkertown was were you had originally lived for the first few years. Once you got into the groove of nonstop moving and scavenging, things became easy. You no longer lived in Junkertown, making the outskirts of Australia your home. Staying near beaches and ground zero, the spot of the explosion that made your home what it was. The radiation had gotten to you over the years, your mind scattered. Some call you insane, a maniac. You like to look at yourself as a visionary. Making mechanical wonders from what you found in the scrap, nothing like what others made. Junkers like yourself who preferred on creating things, were more on the side of robotics. Making things like the wrenched omnics.
Not you. You loved the look of vehicles. Tanks to be more specific. You loved the way they could run over the land and plow anything in their path. Putting your own twist on them was your favorite though, making a tall crow's nest or giving it a more boat like feel. A hope to make a tank that could go in the water as well, to get off this God forsaken land. You had your sights set on larger things. Or so you hoped, you had only heard rumors about lands outside of Australia and the wasteland. But you had never left Junkertown until just a few years back. But you heard tales of other Junkers who made their way out to the lands, a chance to pillage and create. The thought sent a chill up your spine, not being able to stop yourself from giving a maniacal little giggle.
Ground Zero was a large building that the omnics had been calling home after they were given the land. All you knew about the past was your people were very upset that your home was given away, so they took it back. Only down side was they had made Australia what it was today. An explosion here, caused a large hunk of the building to blow out, smaller explosions scattered from what was left. The building still stood, decaying in the outback heat. Barely standing on broken legs. You normally scavenged the inner parts of the main building, not many people daring to go that far in because the radiation got worst the deeper you went. But you didn't seem to mind. The more radiation just caused your hair to stand on end, nothing you weren't use to.
You were in a newer territory in ground zero. It's where some of the better scores were found. Microchips, conveyor belts, casings and remains of omnics. It was higher quality scrap among the junk. Boy was it heaven for you. Crawling on all fours as you went about climbing a seemingly vertical metal wall to get to the top of a destroyed part of what used to be a building that omnics stayed in. Your toes grip tight to the end of the wall as you lean over a larger pile of destroyed robots. Your skinny arms push away at the scrap, leaning in, you use your teeth to pull off a few wires. Taking them out from between your teeth you examine them closely. After deciding a few of them are worth keeping you shove them deep into a pocket in your baggy shorts, the only thing keeping them on was a rope tightly wrapped around your thin form.
You continue to push through the various piles of scrap, being picky in what you decided to either stow away in your bag or into your pockets. You didn't have a lot of room or a lot of space so you couldn't afford to grab everything that caught your eye. You were scrawny. Not doing too much to find food or trade for it. Whatever you found in the scrap heaps you kept as your own score. Whenever you did trade it was mostly for food. You had been wearing the same cloths for as long as you could remember. A baggy, once white but now a sickly yellow and brown colored, tank top. Your barley held up shorts and a backpack. You didn't need anything else. Shoes didn't hold up long enough for you to bother with them, you could get better grip and traction with your feet than you ever could with shoes.
It was getting dark, taking a glance around the ground zero site you took a breath. It was best to get back to what was yours before someone happened to find it. Before you could start to make your way down the heap you hear the sound of footsteps. A pair of footsteps to be specific. One heavy and softer ones off beat from itself, more of a patter. You quietly pressed yourself down into the mountain you perched on, blending yourself into the junk. Watching as you wait the pair of heavy footfalls made their way towards you. (E/C) eyes watching from a distance as you caught sight of the intruders coming through the far entrance.
One was a heavy and tall man, he seemed to be wearing a mask that was similar to the boars you came across. He didn't have a shirt on, exposing his gargantuan gut with markings on it. A gentle clinking of chains as you caught sight of his weapons on his waist, a makeshift gun of sorts and a hook on either side of him. His large meaty hand gently resting on the hook as he walked. Most other details were hard to make out from such a distance. The other was lanky, not quite as tall but still up there. He didn't appear to be wearing much other than a pair of shorts, and his weapons. From what you could see, they looked all like Jerry rigged explosives. A sound of wood tapping caught your ear, noting his peg-leg tapping impatiently as they paused in the door way.
The lanky fellow growled something to the heavy man, something you couldn't make out from this distance. You continued to watch them, they spoke more for a few minutes before the large one looked around. You could feel your muscles spasm in place, itching to get out of sight before you were noticed. Not that you were scared, you just didn't want the chance of them getting to your loot. You moved to back away, hoping to get down before you were noticed and out to safety. Only if omnics were still trying to ruin your life, even in death. Your foot got caught in the join of a broken bot, causing you to tumble half way down the mountain of garbage. In panicked flailing you managed to grab hold of a slab of metal jutting out of the side of the junk. Fingers and toes digging into the rusted metal.
The commotion had not gone unnoticed. As you returned to focus the two appeared alert, already weapons out at hearing the mass amount of scrap you pulled down the heap with you. Your eyes locked onto the lanky Junker, he watched with what looked to be a grenade launcher in a prosthetic fore arm. He grumbled something to the other Junker, causing him to nod. A toothy grin covered the grimy face of the shorter Junker, he put his launcher at rest over his shoulder.
"'Ello there doll. What brings a little lady like you all the way out 'ere? " The blond asked as he hobbled his way closer to you, the peg leg making a soft tap on the ground with each step.
You said nothing in response as you pulled yourself up onto the slab keeping you half way up the mountain of garbage and junk. You sat crouched, tilting your head as he approached you cautiously. Moving your attention to the large fellow that looked to have moved, looking around and ignoring the blonde's words to keep attention on him you caught sight of the fat man. He had somehow made his way towards you without your noticing. You crinkled your nose and gritted your teeth with a growl, much to that of an animal.
"Oi! Look to me ya stupid cunt!" The lanky Junker snapped, causing your gaze to fix on him again. "Just give us what ya got that's good, and we may let'a go in one piece. Don't that sound fine?"
In response you leap off your slab and clung to the wall of scrap, climbing up it on all fours as fast as you could. Your feet finding holds in robot heads, bent pipes, loose wires among other things. Never looking back, and not bothering to listen as he began to yell at you. Once back on top of the mountain you looked at your hands, the inner folds of your fingers were crusted with dried blood, most likely from when you caught yourself from falling. You could feel the same tingle your fingers gave from your toes as well. Oh well.
Ignoring the small sting you began to leap over bits of the mountain, leftover crumbled parts of the foundation of the building and broken omnics.
"Ah let her go! Nothen a mouse can do." You heard the man call from afar.
You slowed yourself at hearing this. Was it a ploy to get you to come back, a ruse set to get you to come back to your demise? Or was the bugger being serious? All in all, you didn't have all the parts you needed to finish your craft. You sure as hell weren't going to leave without them, let alone let these fools drive you away from precious material. With a quiet snarl you slowly pulled off your pack and began to pull out small things you thought would be useful. A handle of a screwdriver, a skinny but strong piece of rusted iron, and few pieces of rope. Pulling out a small battery operated welding tool you had made before you got to work.
Once you were done with your two creations, you had managed to make a small rusted dagger and a onetime grappling hook made out of rope and a few really strong magnets you had found a while back. As you crawled your way back, your grappling hook at your side and your knife in belt you perch yourself down against the ridge of the scrap. You saw them, they did appear to not be interested in you anymore, moving towards a blocked door to another room. The fat man groaned as he began to pull away debris blocking their way. A smile played on your lips, now was your chance to get a sneaky shot in, before you could reach for your grappling hook you heard a soft click from somewhere behind you.
Crouching lower you peered behind you and saw it. Brows furrowed as you glared at the bent over omnic atop a nearby heap. He didn't look like any omnic you had ever seen, mostly because it was in working order. It also appeared new, slick with a white coat of paint. Equipped with a rifle of sorts, taking aim at the two Junkers across the great room. A small snarl escaped your lips, you weren't going to get scared of and get your kill stolen all in one day. Taking hand of your grappling hook you took aim before tossing it up. The rope silently swung itself around, before lightly clicking to the magnet on itself. Giving a light tug you could tell the magnets would probably need that fat man pulling to ever get it down. You heard another soft click, looking over to see the omnic taking aim, its slick appendage heading for the trigger.
Kneeling you swiftly jumped up and the mountain, holding tight to the rope with the rusted knife in between your teeth tightly. Your feet landed on impact with the robots face, a shot fired out of its gun loudly echoing through the room. You didn't see where the shot landed and frankly didn't care. The kick wasn't nearly enough to take out a state of the art omnic. Without a word the ominic reached for you, pushing hard on your chest, you stumbled backwards a bit. A commotion went on behind you, stealing a glance back you could see the Junkers were now preoccupied with more omnics that had closed in after the shot fired off.
Turning back too late a cold metallic hand wrapped around your neck and heaved you up. Looking back into lifeless eyes that glowed a low red color, the omnic tightened its hold on you. You gave a low gurgled growl of sorts as you threw your leg up and kicked it hard under the chin. The omnic dropped you and catching itself before falling it seemed to stalk towards you again. Explosions behind you seemed to catch the omnics attentions, you took the chance, barreling towards the omnic as fast as you could, taking the knife from your mouth and jamming it into the robots side over and over. After a few stabs it fell to the ground, sparking and giving strange sounds, like metal scraping against metal. An omnic cry of distress.
Leaving it there you turned, seeing more omnics going after your kills you took action. The Junkers were seeming to have a blast as they continued to take out omnics, well at least the shorter one was. You couldn't tell what the big guy was thinking with that mask on. But they were getting cocky from what you could see, no longer watching their back. A larger omnic about the height of the big Junker was making his way behind them with a larger assault rifle in hand.
Taking no time to waste you spring off the new heap onto the rope again, running along the side of the mountain to gain speed. Your feet leaping, running and pushing of metal, wood and other various scraps on the pile to go faster. Swinging across the room you let go of the rope, soaring towards the large omnic from behind. It seemed more than startled as you wrapped your legs around his neck. The robot shooting randomly in startling surprise before attempting to pull you off, grasping at your hair and scalp and tugging hard.
Your legs kept there hold though as you plunged your knife into its shoulder, moving your foot hold some so you could rip back its head, giving away its weaker neck area. Plunging your head in you began to rip at its cords with your teeth, pulling out wire after wire with your teeth. The omnic sputtered as it began to spaz, giving out cries to stop. Taking your knife out of its chest piece and jabbing it into the broken cords and wires in its neck the animatronic falling to the floor with a stutter. Huffing, you stand above the dismantled omnic.
"Oi, look at the little savage we got 'ere Roadie!" The scrawny Junker exclaimed. "You're not what Oi thought ya were at all! You're much better."
Looking up you could see the two men approaching. You lowered your body to all fours and backed away, scrunching up your nose as you bared your teeth.
A laugh escaped the shorter man, more of a high pitched giggle that be. "Right ol' animal you are, wouldn' ya agree?"
"Feral child." The fat man corrected gruffly under the mask.
"What'vr she is, I think she would be a great addition to our heists. Small. Quick. Crafty! Definitely someone who would help with high security jobs overseas."
That caught your ear. Overseas. They had been there? Planning to go back?
The large man only grunted in response to the smaller man. "Remember last time we tried to get a third helper."
"Aye! It'll be different this time! She's not like that last one! She's smart!" He screamed with a laugh, "Plus any girl who will rip a walking piece of scrap apart with 'er teeth is got a place with us in my book. What'd ya say? Like to join us?"