A/N: I know I said 1 chapter per episode, but the premiere was a 2 hour beast.../excuse

I took some liberties with a scene from the video game. I haven't played it, just seen a couple of LPs on YouTube, but...yeah. I changed a few things in order to switch the POV from the player to Nolan, hopefully things aren't totally ruined?

If you enjoy this fic, try Wounds by WomanTwiceDead. It's got the adorable Nolan/Irisa dynamic down pat.


"We got out of there just in time," Irisa said to him from her perch on the Roller. She handed him the binoculars.

"Oh, shtako," Nolan cursed. "They're headed straight for Defiance," he said, lowering the binoculars. "Make it about seven clicks. They should hit Bissel Pass just after sunset."

"Let's put some distance between us," Irisa said, and walked over from the Roller. She grabbed the binoculars from his hand. He rolled his head, brow furrowed.

"We could make a difference," he said. Irisa didn't respond. "They got Indogenes in that town. They could work up a burkus rig for this sphere, create a weapon the Volge wouldn't even see coming."

Irisa turned to him. "We'd burn out the sphere. We'd be left with nothing."

Nolan had made his decision already. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, but some things, they just need to be done."

Irisa shook her head, disbelieving. "You're doing it again," she accused.

"No, kiddo," Nolan tried to reason, but she was too angry.

"Don't!" she yelled, pulling a knife into her hand. The blade was familiar, comforting. An edged weapon had no surprises, didn't do anything but cut the way it was meant to. She pressed it to Nolan's chest. "Every time we get ahead, you blow it for us."

Nolan looked at her. "Yeah, this is different. There are kids in this town."

Irisa shook her head. "I don't care!" She turned and walked away a few paces.

Nolan shouted after her. "Little kids, and yes, you do care. Don't you say that to me, okay? I know you better than that, and I raised you better than that."

She got into the Roller, closing the door in Nolan's face. "Go ahead, get yourself killed."

"Hey, I got no intention of dying today," he said.

"Most people don't. It still happens."

"Well, where are you gonna go?" he asked, one final attempt to make her stay.

"Antarctica. I'd send you a postcard, but I know you've already got one." She revved the engine and took off, leaving Nolan staring after her.


When they'd first started Ark Hunting together in San Francisco, Irisa had been against it. There were too many people, people who would only get in the way and end up taking all the good loot. He'd managed to persuade her, and their first ark fall was just around the bend: a minor one, one that shouldn't draw too much attention in an area filled with much larger prizes.

"There she is, Irisa," he said. "Our tickets to Antarctica could be right inside that arkfall."

"Not if we let them claim it," Irisa said, gesturing to the approaching figure.

"Hey! This is our arkfall! Find your - wait, I remember you. You were on the stratocarrier." The man was wearing the same puffy white jacket as he had before the carrier had crashed.

"Shtako!" Irisa cursed. "Nolan. Look."

Hellbugs were swarming towards them, a roiling mass of vicious beasts with pincer-like legs and gaping tooth-filled maws. "This is a problem," he said, an obvious understatement. "No need to be greedy. We'll split the find. 50/50. What do you say?"

The man didn't say anything, too busy rapidly emptying his pistol into the approaching mass of creatures. Nolan took the hint and began unloading his own weapon, trusting Irisa to do the same. Trust didn't mean he wouldn't check up on his daughter every now and then, though.

"How you doin, kiddo?" he asked.

"You said this would be easy!" Irisa yelled back. Great, he thought, she's pissed at me. Again.

He unloaded a shotgun blast directly in the face of a small hellbug that had leapt from underground, intent on piercing his skull with one of its pincers.

"See?" he said. "Nothing to it."

The roar of chopper rotors answered him, as two of the rusting vehicles approached. A mutant inside launched a grenade at him, and he barely managed to roll away. He really did need to stop tempting fate, he realized.

Thankfully the other man seemed to be prepared for the arrival, as he lobbed a grenade into one of the vehicles before activating some sort of stealth field. The next thing Nolan knew, the loud blast of a sniper rifle resounded through the air, and both choppers began spiralling into the ground.

Not to be outdone, more hellbugs arrived on the scene, stampeding over the corpses of their fallen brethren in their eagerness to feast on the three people. The sniper rifle took most of them out easily, and the ones that managed to slip past met their ends in Nolan and Irisa's own weapons.

Finally, the coast was clear. A high-pitched whine was all the warning Nolan had before he tackled Irisa to the ground, the arkfall exploding behind them, sending a wave of scalding hot air over his back. A piece of debris flew through the air and lodged itself in his side, piercing through the skin and muscle easily. He cursed, and got up, groaning.

"Come on, let's loot this thing before the vultures swoop in." He ignored the pain from his side and turned to face Irisa, still on the ground. "This is fun, right?"

She got up, pointedly staring at the twisted metal still protruding from Nolan's side. "I want to punch you. Hard."

He smiled at her cheerfulness and turned to the sniper. He'd been a real help with the mutants, and he figured he could use the aid with some of the more difficult jobs.

"I'm sure glad you made it off that stratocarrier. Name's Nolan. This little ray of sunshine is Irisa." He extended his hand, and the sniper shook it. "We might have a little job coming up, maybe we'll be in touch."

He followed Irisa as she walked away.

"You got distracted," she chided him.

Nolan looked down at the debris. "It's not too bad, is it?"

"It looks deep," Irisa said. "I definitely don't want to be taking it out without a lot of bandages ready."

"Yes, yes, you told me so," he said. She'd insisted on packing medical supplies instead of more storage space for salvage, and right now, he was finding it hard to disagree with her logic. "Can we have less of the gloating and more of the doctoring up?"

"Depends," Irisa said. "Are we leaving soon?"

Nolan knew how much Irisa hated towns. There were too many people, too much instability. It was hard to earn her trust, and even harder to earn her loyalty, and with so many strangers around, she was constantly on edge.

But towns were a necessity. It was impossible to survive without anyone else, and he wasn't the one who needed ark salvage. Food, unfortunately, did not fall from the sky the same way Votan tech did, and until that happened, he needed the towns to trade the two.

"We need to trade in this salvage, see what kinda scrip we can get," he told her. "And then, if there aren't any good jobs, we'll get out of here. Promise."

Irisa sighed, but knew it would be the best she could get. Nolan did understand, after all, and he wouldn't ask her to stay long without good reason.

After six months in San Francisco, she learned her lesson: Nolan may have had the best intentions, but his promises usually amounted to shtako.


A/N 2: Like? Dislike? Wish I'd crawl in a hole and never inflict my writing on you again?