Siren
"Who knew Old Haven would be such an easy grab, eh boss?" a bandit asks his rugged looking leader.
"Yeah, but don't forget, a small group of citizens managed to get a smoke signal up for a little while before we finally shot 'em. Just that small amount of time would've been enough for someone on the outside to see." The leader tells his brother-in-arms.
The bandit looks up into the night sky, and then back at his leader, "Well, if they did send someone, wouldn't they have been here by now?"
"Maybe, but you can never be too careful. Now shut your mouth and get back to your rounds." The leader orders, and then takes a swig from his bottle of booze.
The bandit then gets to his feet, turns away from his leader, and starts on his nightly patrol. His duty is quite simple. He walks around the parameter of the town and asks his fellow bandits in the watchtowers if they've seen anything out of the ordinary.
He approaches the first tower and looks up, "Oy, seen anything suspicious Max?"
After a few seconds, the man he called out to peeks over the side. "Nothin' out of the ordinary here Rufus." Max replies.
Rufus gives him a nod and then continues onward. He approaches the next tower and calls up. Another bandit leans over and tells him everything is fine, and so Rufus heads over to the next tower. Upon arrival, he calls up, only this time, he gets no reply.
"You better not be sleepin' on the job!" he yells upwards.
A body suddenly lands in front of him, a single bullet wound between his eyes. A sudden blur rushes past Rufus, and he immediately yells out in alarm. "Intruder! We got us an intruder boys! Notify the boss!" he shouts as he runs past the previous towers he's been by.
As he's running back towards where his leader should be, the sound of gunfire breaks the silence.
"They're over there, in the bushes!" he hears one of his comrades yell.
Two bandits armed with Sub-Machine Guns rush forward and unleash a hail of bullets upon where they had last seen their attackers.
"What are you dumb shits doin'? They just went into this here building!" another bandit yells.
Three bandits enter into the darkened building, and as soon as they leave Rufus's line of sight, the building erupts into a ball of flames. The force of the blast knocks Rufus onto his back, and the surrounding area is covered in a cloud of dust and smoke. Continued gunfire rings in his ears as he scrambles across the dirt in an attempt to escape being caught in the crossfire.
His heart races as he darts between the empty buildings, firing this way and that every time he catches a glimpse of movement. He finally breaks free of the cluster of buildings and now he knows it's just a straight shot to his leader's camp. He grasps his chest and breaths heavily. His feet and legs are throbbing, and all of the chaos has sent massive amounts of adrenaline coursing through his body. He breaks off once again, the gunfire still ringing out around him, and just as he reaches the halfway mark, a bright blast of energy erupts just a few feet in front of him, sending him somersaulting through the air.
He lets out a loud grunt as he attempts to get himself up off the ground. He grabs his combat rifle and checks to see that it's not damaged. Once he's finished checking his weapon, he suddenly realizes that everything is quiet, and there is no one to be seen in the immediate area. The dust doesn't affect his breathing since he has his mask pulled down over his face, but the goggles are covered in grime, which causes his vision to become tunneled. He maneuvers the sights of his weapon this way and that in a paranoid manner and spots a shadowy figure perched on the wall just ahead of him and fires off a few pot shots.
The figure immediately vanishes into the darkness, and Rufus is left alone once more. He glances over his shoulder, then back up at the wall. In a last ditch effort, he breaks off into a final sprint back towards his leader's tent. A few moments later, he arrives at his destination.
He can see his boss standing at the edge of the ring of light cast by the fire and lets out a sigh of relief.
"Boy am I glad to see you boss. We've lost a lot of our boys, and we still don't even know how many guys we're dealing with!" he informs him as he loads another clip into his rifle.
When his leader doesn't answer, he looks up from what he is doing and says, "Everything okay boss?"
The only response he gets is his boss dropping to his knees, and then flat on his face. Rufus immediately raises his weapon and aims off into the darkness just outside the ring of light.
His weapon shakes uncontrollably in his hands as he scans the area with his unsure eyes. It's so quiet he can hear his pounding heart, and each breath he takes is short and labored. The silence is unnerving, but he knows he can't drop his guard.
A sudden bolt of blue light springs forth from the shadows and pierces through his gut, instantly shooting millions of volts of electricity throughout his entire nervous system. His jaw locks up, and his trusty rifle falls to the ground. The feeling leaves his legs, which causes him to slink onto his side in a sloppy manner. Blood seeps from his closed lips, and his vision begins to fade.
Lying there alone and on the verge of death, he sees a pair of high-heeled feet walk up to him. He is pushed onto his back, and he is greeted by the sight of a beautiful woman with flaming red hair staring down at him. In her hands she holds an odd looking sniper rifle emitting a feint blue glow. All Rufus can do is stare up helplessly at her as she loads another round into the chamber of her weapon. With a slight sneer, she aims the sniper down at his head and lets her finger run over the trigger.
A loud bang echoes throughout Old Haven, and travels down into the eastern end of the Rust Commons. All is silent once more, and the inhabitants of Pandora go on none the wiser that the Siren has rid them of yet another group of bandits.