The Console War: A Soldier's Tale
Prologue
"Know thyself, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories."
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"War does not determine who is right — only who is left."
― Anonymous
"Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces."
― Julius Caesar, The Civil War, Book III, 68
"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."
― Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, ch. 3 (1514)
"A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."
— Ecclesiastes 3:8, King James Version
"Who are you, that do not know your history?"
— Ulysses, Fallout: New Vegas
"Burn the heretic. Kill the mutant. Purge the unclean."
— Imperium Thought for the Day, Warhammer 40,000: Dawm of War
"After the thing went off… a scientist turned to Father and said, 'Science has now known sin.' And do you know what Father said? He said, 'What is sin?"
— Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
The bright sunshine was unrelenting in the late mid-morning heat as the sun crept up from the east over the hills, encasing all the land in its bright rays. The sky was bare of clouds, the wind was nowhere to be found or felt and the heat, while not unbearable, was still pretty hot to deal with. The two wanderers that were travelling across the landscape walked together side-by-side with alert gazes, passing by rocky formations that led straight to a large dark brown rock mountain range – or canyon depending on whom was asked – with a dangerous path climbing up a steep side of the cliff. A large mix of dead trees, uprooted tree trunks and semi-living trees littered the area around them in a mix of cohesive and outright messy formations.
One of the wanderers groaned out of exhaustion and sat down on a tree trunk that laid upon the dirt-covered ground, a wide and outstretched piece of rock around twenty-odd feet that was shaped in a half upside down 'U' shape above the sitting wanderer acted as a piece of shade against the sun's rays. He appeared to be worn out and feeling under the weather due to the summer heat. The wanderer wiped his forehead, unbuttoned his red shirt and black sleeveless vest, and pulled out a bottle of water from a satchel that hanged by his left waist, then opened it and took a long swig of water. A deep sigh of relief soon followed after, along with a deep primal noise that sounded as if he wanted more of the cold liquid.
"Ahhh, that hit the spot," the worn out wanderer sighed before brushing aside his black cowlick out of his eye vision. "How much further until we get to our destination, Gareth?"
Gareth, the other wanderer, straightened the steel riveted leather pauldron that was strapped to his left shoulder before looking over at his travelling companion to give him an answer. "Well, we took the wrong path about an hour ago, so that had us go in the opposite direction, which then led us here - the middle of damn nowhere. Never thought Virtua Forest would be so big and confusing to venture through."
"So how frigging long before we get to the hot spot where all the loot is?" the black haired man asked again, this time with a more serious tone. "I don't want to spend all day searching for that pre-war loot and not find anything. You remember what happened along Route 13 near the ruins of that village."
The other wanderer by the name of Gareth grumbled something to himself, to which his travelling companion did not seem to pick up all that well, then proceeded to speak with a snarky tone of his own. "Look, I don't know how long it'll take to find the salvage site, so stop your whining already and get ready to keep moving. We're going to try and see if the pre-war salvage is up on the plains above that cliff face. There's a path that leads up there, though it's kinda steep and dangerous. Want to brave it?"
"Do we have a choice now? If we want that damn loot then we have to get to the location by any means necessary, even if we have to try and walk - or climb or something - up some rocky path," was the response Gareth received from his worn out travelling companion as he readjusted his . The worn out man went back to drinking from his water bottle, leaving his companion to access the way up the cliff.
Gareth wiped the sweat off his forehead and moved out of the shaded area to take a closer look at the path up the cliff, wondering if it was even possible to use the path that was nearby to get to the top. At first it seemed almost impossible due to how much rubble was in the way and how steep the thin road upwards was. The wanderer grumbled to himself about the path as he walked towards it. "Let's hope that there's a way up it, we need that Console War era loot so we can pay off our debtors. Damn that map to the Graveyard for misleading us here."
The wanderer scratched the back of his blue haired head as he approached the path, his eyes gazing over the start of the road, seeing the open pathway that led up the steep road covered with fallen rocks, collapsed pathway areas, the odd few bushes growing out of crevices and even a tree that had fallen down from the flat grassfield above the mountain range cliff. The path looked more hazardous up close and personal, especially around the middle area of the path, which steeped further upward and would essentially have to be climbed before they even got to three quarters up the way. By that point things looked easier, but it was the rest of the path that was on the wanderer's mind.
"Tch. How the hell are we going to deal with all that rubble and shit in the way? Ah crap, this is going to take ages to get over," the blue haired man grumbled as he shook his head, not knowing how to get around the problem facing him and his friend. There were a few options when it came to some of the more moveable rubble along the pathway, but some of the more heavier rubble, aka the boulders and tree trunk, would require some intense climbing. It almost looked impossible to cross over, but the mere thought of loot from the Console War would be enough of a stimulus to get him and his companion over the top.
"Ghhh. We can do it, we can do it," the blue haired man muttered as he wiped his forehead, removing the sweat that was there and proceeded to take a large swig of water out of his canteen, savouring the cool taste of water that passed his lips. He sighed in a deep, almost guttural noise after drinking the water. "Ahh, that's a lot better. Now, time to convince Jonathan to follow me up the damn mountain path. The sooner the better."
When Gareth returned to the small 'shelter' he saw Jonathan leaning up against the cliff wall that was protected by the shade, apparently finding the shade to be more than relaxing upon first discovering it. While it seemed enticing, the lure of valuable loot drove the blue haired wanderer onward. "Come on, we gotta get a move on now, that loot isn't going to be found on its own you know."
"Ergh. Five more minutes, man - this shade is just too good to leave," Jonathan responded, sighing with relief as he continued to lay against the cliff face, not wanting to get up or even move for that matter. He appeared to be somewhat enjoying the shade a bit too much in Gareth's unimpressed eyes.
"No, we need to move now, otherwise who knows what other prospectors might come along to find the loot before us - we need the money," the blue haired man responded sternly as he grabbed a hold of Jonathan's left shoulder, hauling him up onto his feet and pushing him back out into the open, much to his displeasure. "Now come on, we've gotta get up that path. You still have some water left, right?"
The black haired wanderer nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I still have some water left, even some Nowa Cola I got off some traders from the east. And no, you aren't getting any - this is mine."
The blue haired man seemed a bit surprised to hear about his wandering companion having some Nowa Cola, which was basically an almost foreign soft drink - or soda pop depending on where one was brought up. Gareth longed to drink some ice-cold Nowa Cola, but his constant debts proved to be the bane of that dream. He sighed and shook his head, keeping his thoughts to himself, although it was difficult to actually hide his longing for the Nowa Cola, the black haired wanderer could easily tell. Now Gareth had to watch out not only for other prospectors and the random monster, but also his travelling companion too. It was something to keep his mind distracted from the heat at least, aside from what they were going to do next: ascend the pathway to the top of the mountain range.
"Whatever, let's just get going already. I want to be up there before mid-day arrives. Come on," the blue haired man said as he beckoned Jonathan to follow him before walking in the direction of the cliff pathway, the black haired wanderer in close tow behind him with a look of despair upon his face.
When the two man group arrived at the very beginning of the dangerous pathway up the side of the cliff; the way up seemed more daunting that first seen. Jonathan looked over at his travelling companion with an expression that read of fear and anxiety, making it clear how he was currently feeling at that moment. They both stared at each other for a few seconds before finally giving in and started to walk up the path.
The wanderers treaded carefully as they ascended up the path as it became steeper the more they walked up it, and they were right to do so, for the path was much more narrow than first believed, and pieces of it were not entirely stable either. The latter became evident when Gareth almost lost his footing as the ground beneath it crumbled away, causing the blue haired wanderer to almost fall off back down to the ground. The fall would not have killed him due to his position upon the pathway, but serious injuries would have been sustained nonetheless.
Gareth gasped for air as he clung to the rocky cliff wall tightly as he looked down at where had once been a solid, smooth area where his left foot had previously been - it shook him greatly as he tried to calm his already shoddy nerves. "Okay, okay, it's fine now, just a little mishap, we can still do this. Come on, we're not even halfway there yet, and that's where things start to get really bloody difficult."
"What do you mean 'really bloody difficult'? This is already fucking difficult for crying out loud!" the black haired man yelled back in an enraged tone as they clung onto a large piece of outstretched rock, his eyes wide open.
"You think I don't know that already?! Oh shit, there's some wind coming in now. Wish we bought sunglasses or goggles with us," the blue haired man grumbled as a sudden gust of wind came brushing up against them, kicking up loose small pebbles that littered the area around them. The wanderer sheltered his face with his left arm, as did Jonathan too.
"Screw this shit, I'd rather deal with the debtors now than put up with risking our lives for some old Console War loot in the middle of fucking nowhere!" Jonathan shouted as he and Gareth continued on their way as cautiously as they could, especially since the more dangerous part of the pathway was just up ahead. It seemed that his black haired friend was inclined to agree, but they were already neck-deep in their current situation to change that.
The two wanderers had been attempting to ascend the mountain pathway for around fifteen to twenty minutes, some of which was spent trying to regain their breath and their nerves, but now Gareth - who seemed to be the brains of the two - looked on towards the middle of the path and saw how steep in an upward state it got from there. He sighed in a grumbling manner and continued onward, silently wishing he was back on the road and not in debt for once in his life, or climbing up steep rocky paths for that matter too.
About another fifteen minutes later Gareth and Jonathan got to the area of the path where the large fallen tree had made its home, passing by several bushes, small boulders and collapsed areas along the way. The ground beneath the tree appeared solid, although by this point Gareth knew not to trust appearances, even if it was not a first glance at it. The two men took a quick look at each other, nodded their heads and proceeded to carefully go forth.
What looked like a somewhat difficult obstacle turned out to be much more troublesome, and dangerous, than first realised. As it turned out, things were not quite as stable as the two wanderers were led to believe. The tree trunk that stretched out over the path began to creek and groan as Gareth climbed over it, causing him to stop suddenly and look down at the fallen tree trunk he was currently passing over, his eyes lit alight with fright. After a few minutes of silent waiting the blue haired man came to the conclusion that nothing more was going to happen, so he continued onward as carefully as they can, which proved more difficult than before.
"Shit, that was too close for comfort," Gareth muttered as he finished crossing over the tree trunk and collapsed onto the less than smooth path.
As he breathed in and out deeply the blue haired wanderer heard something, or someone, further up along the rocky pathway, when suddenly some dirt and small rocks tumbled down the cliff face. Gareth spun his head around and look upwards to see if there was somebody up there, and believed he saw that there was indeed somebody further up along the path as he saw some quick movement. Whoever was up there swiftly disappeared though, leaving only an image of a person's head covered with a helmet and some sort of object covering their face. It left confusing questions in the wanderer's mind.
"What the... Wh-Who's up there? Hey! Is there somebody up there?" Gareth called out loudly, his eyes darting about from area to area above him, only to see nor hear anything out of the ordinary. It was both frustrating and disturbing for him.
His companion, who had just finished drinking the last of the water in his canteen, looked over to the blue haired man and stared at him with narrowed eyes. "What are you complaining about this time? Saw another giant rat or something? Did it try to talk to you?"
"No, it isn't anything like that at all! There was somebody up there – another human," Gareth tried to explain as he pointed upwards to the top of the cliff face where the path ended, but there was nothing of interest to see up there.
The response he got from his travelling companion show how much he did not believe him. "Are you certain you saw somebody up there? You sure it wasn't just some wild imagination again? Got the Nowa Shakes happening again?"
"I'm serious here! There's somebody, or at the very least something up there spying on us. Trust me on this one at least, come on," the black haired man retorted grumpily, but soon after gave up when it became obvious that Jonathan was not going to believe him any time soon no matter what the black haired man would say.
Nevertheless, it was now Jonathan's turn to cross over the trunk. Easier said than done. The black haired man grumbled to himself, saying some sort of prayer or something of the kind under his muttering breath, then proceeded to carefully go forth onto the tree trunk. It did not go of to a good start. The trunk croaked once again as Jonathan began to cross over it, this time more violently than before, and more dangerously too. The two men glanced over at each other for a split moment as Jonathan stopped moving, his expression lit alight with uncertainty as the trunk kept groaning underneath him. He was not exactly a heavy person, but he had a bit more weight to him than the average person who lived in the territories near Virtua Forest.
"Oh for the love of the heavens..." the blue haired man grumbled for a short moment as the tree trunk beneath him continued to groan and crack, then without much further warning it split in two, revealing a hollow inside that looked as of it had been breaking under the effects of the weather for goodness knows how many years.
The sudden collapse of the unstable structure sent the black haired man tumbling downward, only to have his left hand caught by his companion, but it was not enough to stop the fall completely. Gareth yelped in shock as he too fell down after swooping in to try and save his comrade, his face scraping against the cliff face as his left hand grabbed hold of a small yet firm piece of rock. He gritted his teeth tightly as a panicked expression lit up upon his face and thoughts of death cluttered his mind.
"Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit!" Gareth yelled in abject fear as he gripped the stone tightly while keeping a hold on Jonathan's left hand. The blue haired man looked upward to see if it was still possible to climb back up, and much to his relief there was indeed a way up, in fact they had not fallen too far down at all, instead it seemed they had only fallen down a few feet.
However, there was a slight problem with the mere idea of even attempting to climb back up to the cliff-side pathway: Jonathan was slipping and Gareth was losing his grip ever so slightly, not to mention that he had no free hands left. Without much of a second thought, the blue haired man looked down at the man struggling to hold onto his right and barked an order at him, his tone being filled with stress and panic.
"Let go of my hand and grab onto my leg. Do it!" Gareth demanded in a rush as his left fingers did their best to tighten their grip on the outstretched stone.
"Which leg?" was the confused response that the black haired, Nowa Cola addict man gave, which infuriated his companion to no end at that specific moment in time.
Gareth merely looked back down and snarled at him in a fit of anger. "I don't give a flying fuck which leg you choose, just grab hold of one already you useless son of a bastard's bastard's bastard! I gotta have that hand free to get us out of this mess!"
"Tch. Fine, just watch your mouth next time, or else," Jonathan muttered in a dangerous tone before he carefully grabbed a hold of his travelling companion's right leg, moving from hand to leg swiftly afterwards.
It brought about a small sense of relief for Gareth, but it was to be short lived when he suddenly lost hold of his grip for a very short moment and slipped downward before re-catching hold of the rock, this time with two hands. The plan, it appeared, was not going according to plan at all. The two men merely dangled there for the next thirty seconds, neither of them moving their limbs about nor their heads, both fearing that even the slightest bit of movement from them would cause some sort of chain reaction that would lead to their deaths. It was not until a full minute had finally passed that Gareth opened his eyes and looked up to see his fingers slipping once more.
With a heavy sigh of defeat, the blue haired man looked downward and stared at Jonathan, his expression turning grim as he mentally prepared himself for his fate. "Well, been nice knowing ya. At least we won't be in debt now."
Surprisingly, this dark humour managed to make Jonathan chuckle right before he brushed aside his black hair that fluttered around his forehead. "Heh, true that. Still, would've preferred to die with a gun in my hands instead of this stupidity we got ourselves in."
Gareth seemed to agree with this, but there was little that could be done. Within moments his grip on the rock slipped, despite the attempts he made to grab hold of another rock to steady himself with, and began to plummet down to the earth below. Only something happened that he had not expected, for he had not managed to hear anything nor remember what he had seen back at the tree trunk. Something, or rather someone, grabbed a hold of his right hand and somehow steadied themselves to not fall off with them into the abyss below.
The blue haired man, shocked that his descent downward had been stopped, opened his eyes once more and looked up, see somebody that he had forgotten about many minutes ago. It was a person, a human, much like the one the leather-clad man had seen higher up on the pathway after he had finished crossing over the collapsed tree trunk. They were wearing a dark grey army helmet with some sort of small light attached to the left side of it, a red bandana around their lower face and a pair of welding goggles in front of their eyes. Aside from that it was difficult to tell anything else about them, mainly because of the sun, but it was clear from the person's right arm that they were wearing some sort of duster coat outfit with long sleeves and leather gloves.
"Hold on tight, I'm pulling you two up as best I can here. Stop flailing about and this'll be easier, also grab hold of any firm rock you can see to pull yourselves up – can't do this on my own," the mysterious figure called out to them, which was when both travellers realised that their saviour was a woman, a young one to be precise.
The two dangling men were eventually pulled back up onto the path, although it took quite some effort on both ends to get back onto the more stable area of the path, which took about a few minutes at least and almost broke the firm piece of outstretched tree root that stuck out of the side of the cliff behind her. The three of them collapsed onto the rocky path, panting for air like a pair of oversized runners who heard a rumour about some fried chicken down the street.
At the very least it gave the blue haired man a moment to take a look at their saviour. She was indeed wearing a duster coat, but it was different to the ones he had seen in the old war-time posters. This coat was made of a mix between leather and a dimmed light coloured cloth, there were several stitches around the top of the sleeves and there was a few pockets here and there. Aside from that she also wore weather-worn blue jeans with some tearing around the upper left leg and a pair of light brown comabt boots. A semi-automatic rifle was strapped to her back and some sort of handgun was resting in a holster strapped to her left waist. It was an odd look to say the least, especially in the current weather the canyon was experiencing.
None of the three uttered a single word to each other until Jonathan, who had just wiped the sweat off his forehead, took a double glance at the young woman, widened his eyes and his right hand went straight for the 10mm pistol that was resting in a holster attached to his right leg. He never actually grabbed the gun, but he seemed ready to do so given the chance he overly disliked the newcomer who had just saved them. "Wh-who are you?! Why're you here? Do we owe you money? Well?!"
The young woman merely stared at him, seemingly confused with his current action and what he was asking. All that came out of her was some confused mumbling and a prolonged gaze. Eventually she looked over to the blue haired man and tilted her head slightly before speaking to him. "Is your friend always like this, asking questions with wild abandon with a gun near him?"
"Only to strangers who come out of nowhere," Gareth responded as he got back onto his feet, then proceeded to extend a hand towards the young woman, who looked at him without uttering a word or moving at all. She seemed a bit confused at first, but soon took a hold of the hand and was pulled back up onto her feet.
"Uh, thanks for that," the young woman said as she dusted herself off. After a moment of self cleaning she looked back at the two men, who were now standing next to each other with their eyes firmly on her – it was concerning to say the least. "So... what's your names? You have names, right?"
"Of course we have names!" the blue haired man responded in a less than savoury tone, which he quickly rectified after coughing into his fist a moment later. "Feels a bit late for introductions, but better late than never I suppose. I'm Gareth and this here is Jonathan. We're... prospectors, of sorts. And you are?"
The duster coat-wearing woman hummed to herself for a few seconds, as if she was coming up with some sort of answer to the simple question. Soon enough she answered it. "You two can call me Sam."
"Sam? Is that some sort of nickname, or did your parents preferred to have a boy instead of a girl?" the black haired man asked with a raised eyebrow, sniggering at his own little joke, although whether the young woman took it as a joke was something he had not stopped to consider at all.
Sam, if that was indeed her real name, did not seem to take offence to the black haired man's words, but neither did she take it as a joke. Instead she simply sighed, shook her head and spoke. "It's just a nickname I go by, and that's all you two need to know about me right now. Anyway, why were you two trying to climb up this shitty path? You two looking for something, perhaps some old loot? If so then it would've been safer to go around the long way via the east then northward, then west around the canyon. Would take longer to get to the top, but it would have been much, much more safer."
"Heh. Yeah, that would've been a better plan than this, but we got lost since the map was, to but it bluntly, absolute shit. Should have just used my brain instead of badly drawn geographical images," Gareth responded, agreeing with Sam fully.
Even the Nowa Cola loving man nodded in agreement. It looked as if he was a little more easy around the young woman now that introductions were out of the way. "We're after some stuff from the Console War, apparently there's a whole stash of goodies up there that's worth a lot of money, and we need it."
"Let me guess: you're doing this looting because you two are in debt. Am I right?" Sam asked as she crossed her arms and glanced at the two men, switching between the two every few seconds as she waited for an answer. When Gareth and Jonathan looked over at each other with grim expressions, Sam merely chuckled. "Heh, I knew it, you two are in debt. Unfortunately for you lot, there isn't much up there, just some rusty ammunition crates, which may or may not have already been looted over the years, and the remains of some old artillery cannon. You're welcome to take a closer look though, might have missed something that I didn't see."
The blue haired man gazed at Sam with narrowed eyes, appearing less welcoming than before. "So what are you here for? Trying to take away the loot that you say isn't there?"
"Yes and no," was her initial response, but it became clear that she needed to explain it in further detail when both men appeared confused at stared at her with questioning gazes. Sam muttered something almost silently to herself before elaborating on her response. "Okay, well, yes I am looking for somthing but no it isn't the same as what you two are after. Is that clear now?"
Jonathan still seemed a little suspicious, as if he still did not have a proper answer, but overall he appeared somewhat fine with the young woman. His mildly leather-clad travelling companion seemed to share the same thought. "Well, all right then, I guess I understand that. What're you after though?"
"Something important that's going to help me with my search. I hope so anyway," Sam replied, her voice dimming down as she almost finished speaking. It sounded as if it was a personal matter to her, not one to be talked about with near looked back up the cliff and stared at the end of the pathway, sighing soon afterwards before glancing back towards the two men. "Look, I gotta get back up there. I suppose you two are coming as well? We'll be going the same way."
The black haired man looked up to where Sam had gazed at for a few seconds, glancing at the end of the pathway for a moment before looking abck at the young woman. "I suppose we might as well tag along with you, we'll be going on the same path as you said. Lead the way."
Sam nodded, saying nothing as she began to carefully walk up the pathway, followed slowly by Gareth and Jonathan close behind her. She led them up the path, passing by fallen boulders and even a few tree roots that stuck out of the cliff face in a mixture of jagged ways, there was also a few holes in the ground and scars from the Console War could be seen along the cliff; a battle had been fought here a long time ago. The tree helped each other when it was required of them to do so, mainly it involved them helping each other over holes, outstretched tree roots and any other obstacles in their ways.
There were a few close calls here and there, but after about ten minutes of carefully traversing up the path until they finally reached the end of the path, the top of the cliff. Gareth grabbed hold of a large piece of tall rock and pulled himself up onto the surprisingly grassy field, finally leaving the tripsy path behind him. He sighed a deep breath of relief and took a quick glance around him, seeing what the area they found themselves in looked like.
In comparison to where they had originally been a few seconds ago, the place atop the canyon mountain cliff was rather bright and colourful, mostly being green due to the grass and even a few living trees and overgrown bushes, although there were some areas where everything looked completely dead, although these areas were closer to the edges of the cliff barring a few craters that were further away, where Sam was walking towards. It appeared as if the hidden loot was over there. The two men, after regaining their breath, took a look at each other, nodded and followed after the young woman, who had already gained a large lead ahead of them.
"Come on, we've got some loot to take back with us," the black haired man said to his travelling companion, who nodded in response before the two quickly followed after Sam, passing by a bunch of overgrown bushes and vines growing across rock faces.
As they walked across the field, passing the rocks and taller areas of the mountain, their breath being taken away when the two men gazed out over the canyon below. It was oddly beautiful to look upon. Gareth sighed deeply, finding the view breath taking as his eyes gazed from area to area, watching the trees sway about in the wind and a river in the far distance glittering in the bright sunlight. The blue haired man glanced over at his travelling companion, appearing more at peace rather than exhausted.
"You know, after seeing all of this, I kinda feel... well, peaceful. Weird, isn't it?" the leather-clad man said, his eyes turning back to the view of the canyon below them.
Jonathan raised an eyebrow, seemingly not believing him for a moment, but even he finally appeared somewhat distant and peaceful. "I suppose I know what you mean. Isn't everyday you see something like this."
Gareth nodded, sighing deeply moments later. "True that. Still, we should get a move on with what we originally came here for. C'mon, let's get moving, don't want this Sam person to take anything of value away from us before we've even taken a look at it."
The black haired man nodded firmly and quickly followed his companion to where the young woman had disappeared to, which was several minutes away from where the two men had stopped to gaze over the land below. Gareth and Jonathan finally found the war scarred area where the loot was supposed to be found, seeing Sam bending down on one knee next to a large, tall rock covered in overgrown vines, a small rusty container resting on her raised knee as she rummaged through it. From what the blue haired man was able to see as he passed her in the direction of a rusty, half destroyed artillery cannon with several ammunition containers laying about in a disorderly manner. If there was anything of valuable in the area it would be around or near the artillery cannon.
Gareth and Jonathan rested underneath the shade of the tall mountain rock and swiftly began to rummage around the ammunition containers and the few wooden boxes that littered the area near the artillery piece, hoping to find something of value to take back and sell for whatever price they were worth. Unfortunately for the two prospectors, it seemed that Sam was right all along, for there was not much to look at save for some cases of unused ammo that belonged to some sort of rifle, a couple of artillery shells, empty biscuit tins and spam tins too. Overall it was not much, but the ammunition would sell for a small price to the right people at the very least, which was of some comfort to the two men.
"Ugh. Wish there was more here to loot," the black haired man grumbled as he sat down on the ground and leaned up against the rock formation behind him, wiping the sweat off his forehead. It was safe to assume that he was less impressed with what they found than his companion was.
"We'll take what we can get. Everything counts towards us getting out of debt," the man with the shoulder-pad on his left arm responded, his eyes darting towards the black haired with a stern look to them. "Besides, there are plenty of people out there who would charge a lot of ammo, especially artillery shells such as these babies 'ere."
Jonathan shrugged, being somewhat dismisive it would seem, but it looked as if he agreed with the blue haired man. "Yeah, guess you're right about that. Still, it isn't going to cover our debt, plus getting these shells back down to the lowlands."
It was then that Sam walked over to them, rusted tin contianer in hand; she had listened to the entire conversation. It was difficult to tell just what the young woman was thinking, or how she actually felt at all, but from how she sounded when talking, it was apparent that Sam was not all too pleased. "Selling artillery shells? What, are you trying to incite an armed conflict or something around here?"
Gareth raised an eyebrow as he stared grimly at Sam, resolute on his decision. "Look, we need the money, and I honestly don't care who gets the shells afterwards. Besides, it's not as if Gamindustri is in a complete period of peace you know. Self defence is still a thing, if you haven't forgotten."
"No, I haven't forgotten, but give weapons to the wrong people and you'll have a bloodbath on your hands. Do you want that on your conscisnous for the rest of your days?" she asked in a harsh tone, her eyes narrowing in the blue haired man's direction, although it was difficult to tell with the welding goggles she wore. The young woman seemed to take offence to anything that could lead to mass destruction, which on the outset seemed reasonable to say the least.
The two men merely gazed over at each other, giving a look that read of uninterest in what Sam's opinion towards the idea of selling artillery shells to random people who may or may not be morally correct in her world view, although just what her world view happened to be unknown. Gareth looked back at the young woman and and nodded slightly. "Uh huh, okay then, if you say so. We'll keep it in mind once we get it all back down to the lowlands. Now, speaking of the lowlands and money, we gotta move all this stuff."
The black haired man nodded, seemingly eager to get back to wherever he originally came from, taking all the valuable loot with him. "Yeah, we better get moving, we need that money. C'mon."
As Jonathan stood up, ready to start moving the ammunition crates, both men heard Sam couch into her right fist, gaining their attention pretty quickly. "Ahem! Um, guys, I don't want to dampen your dreams or anything, but I honestly don't think you're going to get all of this ammo and crap back down to the lowlands before night sets in, then come the monsters. You're better off staying put until the early morning, if you want my opinion."
The two travellers glanced over at Sam, then each other, and finally to the sky above them, only to see the evening sky and the sun starting to set over the western horizon. It sure looked like it was getting late, and neither men wanted to be out in the wilderness in the middle of the night, hauling large artillery shells in the dark when monsters could very well be nearby – it left an uneasy feeling in their hearts. The blue haired man sighed, shook his head and glanced back at Sam, who was fiddling around with some sort of small holotape.
"Fine then, guess we should stay put until the morning comes up again; hate to think about doing this for hours upon hours of end without break before getting ambushed," Gareth said in response to Sam's suggestion, finding some sage advice in her words. "Besides, we need a long break after getting up that damn cliff face pathway."
The group seemed to be in agreement, even Jonathan was, despite being hte one who really wanted to get back to the lowlands and sell all that they had found. With this agreement the three decided to do their best to set up a camp with the limited supplies and equipment at their disposal, which proved to be a little difficult considering that only Sam had camping equipment, but it was only enough for one person, aside form the food of course, to which everybody contributed. By the time the moon had started to rise higher into the sky, the group had set up a campfire, the only bedroll available – which Sam had carried alongside her backpack, which was left behind when she went to check out Gareth and Jonathan's predicament – and the group had started to roast a few pieces of food they had brought with them.
Overall it was not the most impressive camp, but it was going to be useful until the sun rose again in the morning. The three sat aroudn the campfire, each doing their own thing. Gareth comped away at some pieces of roasted meat, Jonathan was stitching up his left trouser leg, which he had torn when almost falling off the cliff, and Sam was looking over an old piece of paper alongside the iliac-coloured holotape, which she soon placed in a pocket and proceeded to pick up a penicl. It seemed the young woman was studying the old paper and drawing some diagrams on it. It caught the black haired man's interest.
"Hey, what's that you've got, a map or something?" he asked the young woman once he stopped stitching up his trouser leg, his eyes darting over to the piece of paper in her hands.
Sam glanced over the young scruffy haired man, seemingly surprised at first. "Huh? Oh, this? Yeah, kind of. It's more like notes, with a map here and there. The holotape is more important, since the notes say it's a map of old science facilities and military compounds from the time of the Console War."
"You a prospector after all then?" Gareth chipped in as he continued to munch away at his light meal.
"No, not really, just more of an wanderer who's looking to piece together holes in a patchy past," the young woman responded, her words becoming more grim the more she spoke. Sam sighed and placed the old paper in the pocket she put the holotape in a few moments ago, same with her pencil. This brought on several minutes of silence between the three.
After a little while of silence within the group, barring the occasional munching, slight coughing, fire crackling and rock throwing, Gareth had finished off his meal and belched into his left fist, apologising soon after. The black haired man chuckled slightly to himself and readjusted the collar of his vest. "Well, I guess none of us are going to get to sleep any time soon. Does anybody know any games we could amuse ourselves with, or maybe a story or two?"
The young woman seemed to perk up a bit, as was evident when her gaze fell upon the black haired man, and by the sound of her voice, which sounded more upbeat than before. "As a matter of fact, I do know a story that might interest the two of you. It's a true story, and it has effected the very world we all live in today. Want to hear it? It's going to take a long time to finish it."
The two travelling prospectors glanced over at each other, one shrugged their shoulders while the other simply nodded, then looked back at Sam, agreeing to listen to the story since they had nothing better to do. With an affirmative nod, Sam pushed up her goggles to reveal her eyes, then proceeded to pull out an old, weather-worn book out of her coat, opened it and began to read the first chapter. The title read: 'The Console War: A Soldier's Tale'.
A/N: So, here it is, the revamped version of A Soldier's Tale, now with a more elaborate title to boot. There isn't much I have to say, so this is going to be pretty short. There will be some differences between this version and the old, although the main plot will still be the same nonetheless, that's why I decided to get rid of the old chapters instead of creating a new story entirely. This has taken me a long time to complete, so progress will be slow every now and then, but this story is something I have always wanted to get back to since, well, I like the idea of an alternative dimension where the Console War took a much darker path in comparison to what we got in the games. Advice is welcome if you have any to share. Anyway, thanks for reading and have a good day if possible.