Black Sun
Chapter 8
Ruby and the Marked One trudged out of the Bar, heading off for Agroprom. Neither of them spoke as they walked; they had an alliance, to be sure, but it was an uneasy one. Ruby still didn't fully trust him, after all – she wasn't about to let her guard down around him, not when he had gotten a good friend of hers killed.
And so, the two of them marched on in silence. Ruby appreciated not having to speak with him, but it did make her feel a lot more on-edge – with neither of them talking, all the distant gunfire and mutant cries only became amplified, each one making her jump a little whenever she heard it.
She'd been in the Zone for awhile now, and she still hadn't fully adjusted. Part of her hoped she never would.
Getting to Agroprom required that they head through the Garbage, or at least that's what the map on her PDA told her. They were going to have to head for the center of the Garbage, then cut through the abandoned train station and keep marching west. From there, it would be a straight shot to Agroprom. That didn't mean it'd be easy, though – Ruby knew that nothing in the Zone was ever easy.
Eventually, though, they made it to the train station. Ruby blinked in surprise when she saw it off in the distance, stunned that they'd managed to make it there without having to fire any shots. She went to take a closer look, but the Marked One stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Wait," he urged.
"What is it?" Ruby asked.
"Hang back a bit, I want to make sure it's clear with my binoculars first."
Ruby nodded in understanding, then took a step back as the Marked One scanned the area. After a moment, he turned back to her, a grim expression on his face.
"Someone's already cleared the place out, it looks like," he said. "I see a few dead Bandits, and little else."
"Then we're good to move up?" she asked.
"For now, but be careful. If this was a Bandit stronghold, then they might be trying to move back in. Stay on your toes."
The Marked One rose to his feet, and Ruby fell in alongside him, both of them with their weapons at the ready. They cautiously approached the train station, sweeping the area as they moved, checking corners for any movement and watching to make sure they didn't get ambushed. Ruby let out a sigh of relief when they finally reached the other side of the station, though it was short-lived; out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement off in the distance, and hurriedly ducked behind an old box for concealment. The Marked One did the same, flattening himself up against a rusted rail car.
They were both just in time, as a series of shouts followed by bursts of gunfire began to rip through the area. Ruby had to fight to bite back a scream, only stopping when she realized that there were no bullets impacting around her – the Bandits weren't shooting at them. Surprised, she peeked out from behind cover, wondering what was going on, and got her answer a moment later, when her radio came crackling to life.
"If anyone can hear this, I need help! I'm under attack by Bandits in the old train tunnel, just west of the station! Please, someone, help me!"
With that, the radio went dead. Ruby's expression tightened, and she looked over to the Marked One. To his credit, he didn't seem to want to talk her out of it, and so she made her decision – she leaped from cover, the stock of her submachine gun pressed against her shoulder, and began letting off bursts of automatic fire into the nearby group of Bandits.
Two Bandits fell from her initial burst, one of them dead from a series of bullets in his spine and the other screaming bloody murder as he clutched at his shoulder. Ruby went to put the latter out of his misery, but incoming fire from the other Bandits in the group forced her back behind cover. She pressed her back against the steel gate at the end of the train yard, reloading her weapon behind cover as bullets impacted all around her. The Marked One came running up, his short-barreled Kalashnikov barking as he squeezed off rounds towards the Bandits to try and keep them behind cover. Ruby chambered a round, then nodded towards him.
"Move up, I'll cover you!" she called.
The Marked One broke from cover, sprinting for the next piece of cover, another rail car just outside the walls of the station. As he ran, Ruby let off several shots from her Vityaz, and several Bandits who had been taking aim at the Marked One were forced back into concealment. The Marked One made it to the train car unharmed, and then motioned for Ruby to follow him. She went to take a step out, but a rifle round impacting against the dirt between her legs forced her back into cover. Ruby again found herself pressed up against the steel gate; she took a deep breath, then peered out from behind cover, and found a Bandit sitting atop one of the train tunnels, a scoped Simonov carbine aimed at her. He let off another shot, and Ruby pulled her head back just in time. The bullet passed by and missed her by inches, the supersonic crack of the round causing her ear to ring as it passed by.
Ruby grit her teeth and took several deep breaths to try and calm her pounding heart. She exhaled, then poked the barrel of her rifle around the corner and let off a few short bursts up towards the top of the train tunnel. Once she was sure the Bandit was pinned down, she spun out from behind cover, and rushed towards the side of the tunnel. Ruby raced up the hill, and found the Bandit standing there, a shocked look on his face, clearly not having expected her to push him. She didn't hesitate, and dumped the rest of her weapon's magazine into his torso. The man seized as the 9mm rounds bored through him, then collapsed, leaking blood from a multitude of gunshot wounds. Ruby didn't spare a glance at his corpse, instead letting her SMG dangle as she scooped up the dead man's scoped Simonov and sank down to one knee, then took aim.
Across the way, she could see several other Bandits pressed up against an old rail car, firing into one of the train tunnels. She took a breath to calm herself, then centered the crosshair of the scope over one of the men's torsos, and squeezed the trigger. The Simonov kicked back into her shoulder, and her world blurred out from the recoil through the scope, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw her target fall. Ruby didn't waste any time; she shifted to the next target and repeated the feat, and a second corpse joined the first one face-down in the mud.
There were only a few Bandits left now, and they all focused on Ruby's position. She hurriedly threw herself to the ground as a spray of automatic gunfire raked her position. Rounds cracked by overhead, and she grit her teeth to keep from screaming out. The Simonov slipped from her grasp and fell off the top of the train tunnel onto the tracks below; over the sound of gunfire, she heard the rifle's wooden stock break, and let out a muffled curse at the sudden loss of her new weapon.
The Marked One came to her rescue then, pushing forward and firing at the Bandits in an attempt to get their attention away from her. It worked – the Bandits focused on him, which gave Ruby enough time to crawl off the top of the train tunnel. She made it back to ground level and inched towards the Marked One, eventually ending up behind the rail car alongside him.
"How many are left?!" she shouted.
"Two, I think!" the Marked One called back to her. He punctuated his statement with a spray of suppressive fire, then looked towards her again. "Can you see them?!"
A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she dropped down into the prone position and looked underneath the rail car. Sure enough, she could see the two Bandits advancing on them, though only from the waist down. Still, she didn't waste any time – Ruby shouldered her Vityaz and began squeezing off single shots at them. Her aim was true; with just a few pulls of the trigger, both men were on the ground, groaning in pain. The Marked One didn't waste any time, and came out of cover to put a bullet through each of their heads.
And then, just like that, it was quiet. Ruby looked around to make sure it was completely clear, then relaxed, letting out a heavy exhale before doubling over, gasping for breath, the sudden surge of adrenaline having finally worn off. Exhausted, she leaned up against the rail car as she reloaded her SMG.
The Marked One came back towards her, swapping magazines as he walked. The two of them exchanged a glance, and then he motioned for her to follow him.
"C'mon," he urged. "We went through all that trouble, we might as well go find out who we just saved."
Ruby nodded, still slightly numb, and the two of them moved towards the train tunnel the Bandits had been shooting into. It was pitch-black inside, save for a few electrical Anomalies that pockmarked the ground. Ruby eyed them warily, having decided in that moment that if whoever was inside there wanted to speak with them, he was going to have to come out.
"Hey!" she called. "The Bandits are dead, it's safe now! You can come out!"
For a moment, there was no response, but then after a few seconds, she caught movement – a lone figure hesitantly stepped out from behind a rail car inside the tunnel, then began to carefully move towards the entrance to the tunnel, navigating the Electro Anomalies with practiced ease as he did so. In just a few moments, he was standing a short ways away, a wide grin on his face.
"I owe you both big-time," he said. "What are your names?"
"Ruby," she answered. "And this is the Marked One."
The man's grin faltered slightly. "Strange names, but I suppose I've heard stranger. Anyway, I can't thank you enough for helping me out. I'm Seriy, by the way."
Instantly, Ruby's eyes widened. "Seriy? I met your brother, Fox."
"Did you, now? Let me guess – you had to save his ass, too?" Seriy huffed. "Crazy fool's always getting himself into trouble. Still, if that's true, then I really owe you one. What can I do for you? You looking for cash, or something else?"
"Information," the Marked One grunted. "Ruby mentioned earlier that you might know something about the Wish Granter, and about a man named Strelok."
Seriy brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "Hm… I know a little about both, but honestly, if you want more information, there's someone else you should be talking to."
"Of course…" Ruby said dryly.
"Oh, it's not all bad, I assure you," Seriy hurriedly added. "The man's name is Mole, he's a friend of mine. He's got a habit of poking around the old abandoned research locations and laboratories in the Zone. If there's something you want to know about the early days of the Zone, odds are that he can at least point you in the right direction."
"Know where we can find him?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, I think he's supposed to be at Agroprom right now," Seriy informed her.
Ruby blinked, surprised. "Really? We were just headed there, actually."
"Good fortune, then," Seriy said, his grin returning. "Anyway, you'd better get going if you want to catch up to him. But I'll tell you what – if you want to learn more, you can come back here on your way back and talk to me again, it's the least I can do for all the help you've given me and my brother."
Ruby nodded in understanding. "I'll take you up on that later, Seriy." She turned towards the Marked One. "Let's go."
The two of them then bid goodbye to Seriy and set off, searching for Mole.
As they walked through the Garbage, Ruby navigating the two of them using the map on her PDA, she suddenly became aware of a far-off noise – it sounded odd, almost like a series of extremely rapid drum beats.
"What is that?" she asked. "Hey, Marked One-"
She didn't get a chance to finish, as the Marked One suddenly took her and pushed her into a ditch. Ruby let out a yelp as he jumped in after her.
"Hey!" she called. "What'd you do that for?!"
He merely pointed up at the sky, and Ruby followed where he was motioning. Her gaze landed on a pair of helicopters flying off in the distance, specifically on the insignias painted on the side, which she recognized.
"Military…" she muttered. "What are they doing here?"
"No idea, but they're heading directly for Agroprom, it looks like," the Marked One told her. "Shit… nothing is ever easy around here, is it?"
"Do you want to turn back?" Ruby asked.
The Marked One shook his head. "I don't think we can turn back. I don't know why the Military chose now to go after Agroprom, but if they're trying to push in, then we can't afford to turn back. If they get their hands on those documents before we do, then we'll never find the information we need."
Ruby scowled. It was a difficult call to make – on the one hand, if they chose to move into Agroprom, they would almost certainly find themselves in a firefight with the Military. On the other, if they tried to pull back and wait the Military out, it was highly likely that they'd lose the documents they needed for good, and if that happened, Ruby might very well never find a way to get to the Wish Granter.
Reluctantly, she looked back to the Marked One and nodded. "I'm going in."
"I'll back you up," he promised. "I need those documents as much as you do, and I'm not letting you go in alone."
The two of them climbed out of the ditch, then began to move towards Agroprom once more. As they drew closer, Ruby saw the helicopters flying off, and heard the distinct sounds of a firefight being waged down further. Her and the Marked One both readied their weapons, then sprinted out towards the institute.
Agroprom, as it turned out, was split into at least two different facilities that she could see. There was a factory off to the right, and some other kind of complex off to the left. The factory had her immediate attention, since that was where the fighting seemed to be occurring. Even from her spot on the main road, she could already see bodies lying on the ground, and could hear the echoes of gunfire reverberating off the walls of the various buildings. She took note of the dead men as she ran past them – it seemed to be an even mixture of soldiers and Loners, though none of them matched Mole's description.
Ruby and the Marked One both pushed into the factory complex, their weapons at the ready. They swept the area, and after confirming it was clear, the two of them moved on. The Marked One peered out from around a corner, and a spray of gunfire greeted him, followed by shouts in Ukrainian. He answered them with some blind fire of his own, then moved back over towards Ruby and motioned for her to follow him.
"We're going to have to find another way around!" he called. "Follow me, I'll lead this time!"
Ruby nodded, then fell in behind him. Together, they retraced their steps a bit, making their way back to the entrance of the factory complex. This time, they went straight from the road instead of turning, and as it turned out, this was the correct choice – they rounded a corner in time to see a large, balding man wearing body armor come stumbling out from around the other side, clutching at his left shoulder as it leaked blood. His eyes widened when he saw the two of them, and he went to raise a pistol in his left hand, but Ruby paused him by putting her hands up.
"Friendly, friendly!" she called. "Seriy sent us!"
The man froze. "Seriy…?" he said. "Shit, I'm glad to see you two!"
The man, who Ruby recognized now was Mole, stumbled a bit, then leaned up against a nearby wall, gritting his teeth in pain. Ruby and the Marked One rushed over to him, but he waved them off.
"Help my boys," he grunted. "Military's pushing us back so they can get into the compound. Guess they found out I was here and figured they'd try to bring me in, but we weren't having any of that."
"What do you need us to do?" the Marked One asked.
"Fight them off, that's what." Ruby went to offer him a first aid kit, but he waved her off. "It's just a through-and-through; it missed the artery, I'll be fine. Just go help my men, before it's too late, please."
Ruby nodded in understanding, then her and the Marked One left Mole behind and cautiously stepped out around the corner he'd emerged from.
They walked into an ongoing firefight. In front of them, Loners and Military were both huddled behind cover, exchanging fire with each other. Ruby and the Marked One ran towards the nearest piece of cover, shooting as they went, trying to keep the enemy's head down. Incoming fire ricocheted off nearby walls and pieces of cover, and Ruby flinched a bit as several rounds passed by a bit too close, but she didn't let it get to her this time. Part of her noted that she was becoming eerily used to almost getting shot, but she pushed that thought away as quickly as it came; it wouldn't do to dwell on it now.
Her and the Marked One pressed up against a nearby wall, and she leaned out, spraying out a burst from her Vityaz. A few meters away, two Loners were huddled behind cover, staring at them incredulously.
"We're with Mole!" Ruby called to them over the gunfire. "How many of you are left?!"
The two men immediately relaxed slightly, thankful just to have some help. "Last I checked, there are maybe three or four of us!" one of the men shouted. "How many people came in with you?"
"We're it," the Marked One replied tersely. "How many soldiers are still up?"
One of the men peered out from cover, then hurriedly pulled his head back just as a burst of rounds passed by. He seemed completely nonplussed that he'd just about had his head taken clean off, instead turning towards them. "I counted about a squad – seven, I think, not including the ones who went underground."
The Marked One cursed under his breath. He turned towards Ruby. "What's the plan? We can't stay here, eventually they'll flank us or try to flush us out with grenades."
"We'll have to push out," Ruby said. Looking to the Loners, she added, "You two, give us cover while we move up."
The men nodded, then stuck their rifles over the top of the piece of heavy concrete they were hiding behind and began blind-firing. Panicked shouts from downrange told Ruby that they were succeeding in getting the soldiers to keep their heads down, and she nodded at the Marked One, and together they pushed out from behind cover.
When Ruby emerged from behind cover, the first thing she saw was a tall soldier downrange, hoisting up some kind of machine gun, about to deploy it. Without missing a beat, she shouldered her SMG and put a full burst of six rounds square into his chest. The soldier flinched, but to Ruby's surprise, that was the only effect she got – there were no spurts of blood or cries of pain at all. Instead, he turned towards her with a harsh glare and angled the belt-fed machine gun towards her, then laid on the trigger. Ruby barely had time to dive behind a nearby piece of concrete before the armor-piercing rounds began to tear through the air she'd just been a moment ago. And even that wasn't enough to save her – the machine gun rounds started to chew through her cover, and she screamed as one of them passed clean through it, grazing her arm.
The Marked One saved her, thankfully – he let off a burst from his own rifle, and by sheer chance, one of the rounds kicked up and hit the machine gunner in the head. The soldier fell over, dead, and the Marked One hurried over to Ruby and helped her up.
"These guys have body armor," he warned her. "Even my rifle won't penetrate it. Go for headshots."
Ruby simply nodded. Numbly, she looked at her arm, which had a thin trail of blood leaking out of it. Her whole body was shaking. A few more centimeters to the left and she would've lost her arm completely; a few more inches and she would've died. That was the closest she'd come to death since the incident with the dog.
And here she was, thinking she'd grown numb to it all. Apparently, that wasn't the case just yet.
The Marked One suddenly tapped her on the shoulder, giving her a serious look. "Are you okay? We need you in this fight."
Ruby shook herself out of it, then nodded. "Y-yeah, I'll be fine. Lead the way."
The Marked One looked at her with concern, but didn't hesitate, stepping out into the open again, his Kalashnikov barking as he advanced. Across the way, the soldiers tried to return fire, but the remaining Loners joined in, and together, they were able to keep the soldiers suppressed. With shaking hands, Ruby reloaded her SMG as it ran dry, then ran the action to chamber a round. They continued to move despite her trepidation, and eventually, the soldiers had no choice but to break cover and try to run to avoid being flanked. One of the men passed through Ruby's sights, and without thinking, she fired. Several of her shots got him in the legs, and he fell to the ground, screaming and clutching at his wounds. His comrades didn't even think twice about leaving him behind, instead continuing to run; the Marked One and the Loners made short work of them, and once they were all dealt with, Ruby turned her attention back to the wounded man she'd shot. He eyed her with fear, and she winced, but didn't hesitate.
Her gun bucked one final time in her hands, and then their brief encounter with the soldiers was over.
Once it was all quiet, Ruby swapped magazines and leaned up against a nearby wall to try and catch her breath. As she did so, Mole came running over, his shoulder freshly wrapped with bandages.
"Ha-ha!" he said. "My new friends! You have done us a huge favor!"
Ruby ignored his praise. No matter how she tried, it didn't feel right that she'd be getting praised for killing people. Instead, she focused on what was important to her.
"Seriy said you'd have information for us," she told him. "We're looking for some information regarding the Brain Scorcher. Know where we can find anything like that?"
"You're certainly in the right place," Mole said with a nod. "You'll probably have to go underground for something like that, though. I know what you're looking for – big blue binder laid out on a desk somewhere, most likely deep in the Agroprom Underground. Go far enough and you won't be able to miss it. Was there anything else?"
"I'm looking for a man named Strelok," the Marked One interjected. "Know anything about that?"
Mole brought a hand to his chin in thought. "I know where you can find information about it," he said. "Strelok had a hideout down there, hidden in a secret room. Look for a big drainage pipe with a ladder built into it – again, you can't miss it. Poke around in there and you should be able to find something of value."
Ruby and the Marked One nodded in understanding. "Where's the entrance to the Underground?" Ruby asked.
"Follow me." Mole said.
He led them back around to the rear of the facility, to an open manhole cover. Ruby and the Marked One exchanged a glance, and then Mole motioned for them to climb down.
"Good luck to you both," he said. "I hope you find what you're looking for."
With that, Ruby and the Marked One moved towards the ladder, and together, they descended down into the Agroprom Underground.
Cinder stared at Jaune as he slept, his leg still splayed out an odd angle. It was odd, keeping watch over a wounded person like this – back on Remnant, their Aura kept them safe and healed them; made it so that even grievous wounds were at least survivable, if not healed very soon. That wasn't going to happen here, though – without his Aura, Jaune was out of commission for quite some time. She furrowed her brow at the thought of it.
"Stupid boy…" she muttered. "Why would you take a bullet for me, at the cost of your own mobility? What if it had killed you?"
She would have been truly alone then, she supposed. And wasn't that a scary thought? To be completely alone here, in the Zone… as much as Jaune could get on her nerves, even she had to admit that being around him beat being by herself, if only because she had someone watching her back.
But that wasn't the case anymore, was it? After their little heart-to-heart the day prior, things had changed between them. They weren't casual with each other, not by a long shot, but Jaune at least was more… understanding of her, she supposed was the right word. For her part, she wasn't completely hostile to him like she had been in the past, though she knew she still couldn't match up to what he was showing her. Not yet, at least.
It still didn't make much sense to her, the way he was treating her and the things he had said. She had killed his teammate and partner – his best friend. And yet, here he was, trying to understand her. At least before then, she at least knew where they stood in relation to one another – he didn't like her and she didn't like him, but they were working together because they had to. Now, though? Now… she supposed they still didn't like each other very much, but things had changed, somehow. Jaune couldn't forgive her for what she had done to Pyrrha Nikos, and yet, here he was, trying to understand her.
Cinder ran a hand through her hair, letting out a frustrated sigh. None of it made any sense to her; Jaune was becoming more and more of an enigma with every passing moment, and she didn't like that.
Jaune suddenly stirred, then sat up on his cot. He let out a wince as his leg shifted slightly, but recovered quickly, instead opening his eyes to stare at her before letting out a wide, sleepy yawn.
"Cinder…?" he managed to rasp out. "You're still here?"
"I couldn't exactly leave you here by yourself," she said. She reached into her bag for a bottle of water and tossed it over to him; he uncapped it and began to drink greedily from it. "What if some Bandits came by, or some mutants? You are currently bedridden and would be helpless."
Jaune finished draining the bottle, then tossed the now-empty plastic aside and wiped the bits of water away from his lips. "So, what, you're not going to leave me alone?"
"Only while you are asleep. You can watch over yourself in the daytime."
Punctuating her statement, Cinder reached for his 870, which was leaned up against a nearby wall, and passed it over to him. Jaune stared at her in surprise.
"Hey, wait!" he called. "You going somewhere?"
"Out," Cinder replied. "After all, we still need to make money and buy supplies. I'm just going to the Bar."
Jaune relaxed at that, letting his shotgun fall onto the bed. "Hurry back," he urged.
Cinder nodded, and then set off.
The trip to the Bar was an easy one, thankfully – she didn't encounter any mutants or anyone shooting at her along the way. That didn't stop her from worrying, however – there were more of those hostile Loners still out there, no doubt; she didn't like the idea of leaving Jaune to fend for himself, especially not when he was already injured, but there was little she could do about it for now.
Cinder stepped through the underground bunker and approached the Bar. Barkeep eyed her warily as he polished a glass.
"Where's the other one?" he grunted.
"Wounded," Cinder replied.
"Hah. Figured it'd happen eventually. Anyway, you need something?"
"The usual supplies, and make it quick," Cinder said, passing him a stack of bills. Barkeep snatched up the money, and then disappeared into the back. He returned a few moments later with an armful of food and water. Cinder began sliding the cans and bottles into her pack, and as she did so, Barkeep cleared his throat.
"You know," he began, "there are Artifacts that can help heal wounds quickly."
Cinder's gaze snapped to him. "How much for one?"
"More than you can afford," Barkeep answered. "But the information on where to find one… now, that might be within your budget. I'll tell you all about it for a thousand."
Cinder glared at him, but didn't hesitate to pull her wad of money out and strip off a few more bills, then slide them over to Barkeep. He pocketed the money faster than she could blink, then cleared his throat.
"You're looking for one of four Artifacts," he said. "Either a Jellyfish, Stone Flower, Meat Chunk, or Soul will do. The Jellyfish will heal the slowest, and the Soul the fastest, but obviously, the better they are at healing, the more rare they are. And they all emit radiation so they will need to be taken in conjunction with anti-radiation medicine. For you, if you want him healed fast… your best bet is a Soul, but with the detector you have, you'll be stuck hunting for a Stone Flower."
"How much for an improved detector?" Cinder asked.
Barkeep blinked, surprised. "I wasn't aware that you cared-"
"How. Much?" Cinder growled.
Barkeep raised his hands in surrender. "Easy, easy. I'll sell you one of the Bear detectors for three-thousand."
Again, Cinder didn't hesitate to pay him what he was asking. It was almost all her money, and she knew he was price-gouging her, but she didn't care – she needed Jaune up-and-running as soon as possible, and this was the best way to do it. Besides, any other Artifacts she found, they could just sell.
"You'll want to head for the middle of the Garbage," Barkeep informed her. "Look for the Springboard Anomalies – I'm sure you know what those look like?" Cinder nodded, and he continued. "If you don't have any luck at the Garbage, you can find Springboards all over the place – try the Cordon, the outskirts of Agroprom, the Dark Valley, or the Army Warehouses. I suppose you could also try the Red Forest if you feel like dying a horrible death, too."
"Very well," Cinder said. "And how much for anti-radiation medicine?"
"Again, more than you can afford," Barkeep warned her. "You want anti-rad for cheap, you're going to have to speak with the Ecologists. That or just drink a lot of vodka – radiation is filtered out through urine, you see, and-"
"Yes, I get it," Cinder interrupted, impatient. She gathered up her supplies and scooped them into her pack, then turned and marched off.
"Don't let the door hit you," Barkeep called after her. She ignored him, instead leaving the bunker and continuing out into the rest of the Bar.
As she walked through the rest of the Bar, heading for the military checkpoint, Cinder considered her options. Truthfully, none of those Artifact-hunting locations really appealed to her – she didn't like the idea of leaving Jaune alone, so that ruled out the really far ones such as the Cordon, the Army Warehouses, and Agroprom. That left the Garbage and the Dark Valley, and they both had their own problems – the Garbage was still pretty far from Jaune, and the Dark Valley almost certainly still had some of those hostile Loners running around, looking for them. Still, she supposed it was the best option – it kept her relatively close to Jaune, after all; she was just going to have to watch her back while she hunted for Artifacts.
Her mind made up, Cinder set off.
"Swift, how the hell do you see anything through these things? They're scratched to shit!"
Rat shoved the old binoculars back into Swift's arms, then pulled out his own set. "You need to take better care of your things, man. When's the last time you even cleaned your gun?"
Swift shrugged as he shoved his binoculars back into his bag. "I don't know, a few hundred rounds ago. Why do you ask?"
"Because if you keep mistreating your gear, someday it's going to break on you when you need it most," Rat warned. He brought the lenses to his eyes and began to peer around the valley. After a moment, he shook his head. "Yeah, I'm still not seeing anything."
"I suppose that's scouting for you," Pyrrha mused. "It's a whole lot of nothing most of the time, followed by short bursts of excitement and terror."
"That's one way of putting it," Rat said dryly. "You want to take a look?"
Pyrrha nodded, and he handed her the binoculars. She looked through them, searching through the valley. The three of them were perched on a hill just outside the Army base, so she had a good view of the valley from where she was at. After a moment, Pyrrha took the binoculars down, then shook her head.
"Yeah, I don't see anything," she said. "I suppose there's not much excitement going on around here these days, ever since we cleared out the Bloodsuckers and forced those Duty members to keep their heads down."
"Shit, don't remind me of those guys..." Swift muttered. "It's sheer dumb luck we managed to get away from them last time, I can't imagine we'll get that lucky again."
"You think they're still alive?"
"Those were experienced Duty soldiers," Rat warned. "At least one of them even had an Exoskeleton. I'd be very surprised if they didn't simply retreat back to the Bar and regroup. They're almost certainly planning to attack us again."
Pyrrha was surprised. "I thought the Bar was neutral territory?"
"Neutral for everyone but us," Swift spat. "Duty is the muscle around there, they won't let anyone dressed in Freedom colors get close to it. It wasn't like that in the past, but these days, tensions are so high between us and them that they'd never let us get within a hundred meters of the place."
"Don't let that discourage you, though," Rat interjected. "You're not technically part of Freedom and you aren't wearing our colors, so you'd be fine if you decided to head for the Bar… well, probably."
"I'm not leaving until I've paid you all back," Pyrrha insisted. "But that's good to know, at least. Thank you."
Swift stood up, brushing the dirt off his uniform as he did so. "Well, there's nothing new going on here. What's say we-"
Their radios suddenly came to life, garbled static giving way to a desperate cry.
"Guys, Monolith are attacking the border!" the person on the other end said. "We need all the help we can get, now!"
The line went dead almost as soon as it had opened up. The three of them exchanged a surprised glance with each other for a moment before Swift let out a tired sigh.
"I had to open my fat fucking mouth…" he muttered. "Well, you heard the man – they need all the help they can get."
"Let's go, then," Pyrrha said.
They sprinted for the border checkpoint as fast as they could. As they drew closer, Pyrrha heard the sound of gunfire, followed by the occasional explosion. She swallowed her fear and pressed on, eager to help the people of Freedom.
The instant the three of them arrived at the checkpoint itself, Pyrrha found herself stopped by a burst of rifle fire that impacted just in front of her. She came skidding to a stop, then ducked behind a nearby tree, her squadmates doing the same. After a moment to calm herself down, she chanced a look out from behind it, and took in the scene in front of her.
It seemed to be a stalemate, if anything – there were two downed Freedom members lying on the ground, one of whom was clearly dead, judging by the pool of blood leaking out of his head. The other Freedom members had taken cover behind anything they could – trees, sandbag barriers, and old cars, mainly. On the other end of the checkpoint, Pyrrha saw several men dressed in black camouflage advancing forwards, their automatic rifles barking with every step. Each one of them was wearing a bug-eyed gas mask that covered their face, and they weren't speaking at all, instead continuing to silently pour fire down on the helpless Freedom members.
Pyrrha saw one of them move to flank a wounded Freedom soldier, and knew she had to do something. She peeked out of cover enough to bring her rifle to bear and let out a burst towards the Monolith soldier. The man didn't even flinch as the 5.56 rounds impacted against his body armor. Pyrrha's eyes widened as he suddenly turned towards her, the assault rifle in his hands angled in her direction; she barely had enough time to duck back into cover before a burst carved into the tree she was hiding behind.
And just like that, the fighting started up again, with everyone on both sides opening up on the other. Pyrrha grit her teeth as the deafening staccato of gunfire pierced her ears. Desperate, she looked around for Rat and Swift, her gaze finally landing on Rat before drifting to his rifle.
"Rat!" she called. "What caliber is that thing?!"
"Three-oh-eight!" he called back. "Why do you-"
"I'll cover you! Try to get him in the helmet!"
Behind his balaclava, Rat blinked, but then nodded in understanding. Pyrrha took a deep breath, then moved out of cover enough to bring her AR-18 around and fire at the approaching Monolith soldiers. There were only four of them, she realized – and yet somehow, with just four men, they'd managed to pin down the entire checkpoint. The thought made her shudder, but she pushed it away, instead laying on her AR's trigger. Rounds flew downrange, impacting against the first of the Monolith soldiers, and yet again, he didn't even flinch – not even when one of the rounds missed his armor completely and tore through his shoulder. Pyrrha's weapon clicked empty, and she ducked back to reload, but just as she was pulling back, she heard the telltale sound of Rat's weapon firing, and saw a puff of blood and brains come from the side of the Monolith soldiers head before he stiffened and fell over, dead.
The other Monolith soldiers immediately focused on Rat, pouring fire on his position. Pyrrha hurriedly reloaded her weapon, ripping out the spent magazine and inserting a new before running the charging handle, and then moved out from cover, firing her rifle as she went. She got a lucky hit on one of the troopers, and managed to get him through one of the eyepieces of his gas mask. The other two rounded on her, but that left them easy prey for Rat and Swift, who came to her rescue. A few shots later, and the remaining Monolith soldiers joined their fallen comrades on the ground.
And then it was over. Pyrrha stood there, panting as she tried to catch her breath. With shaking hands, she swapped magazines, then put her weapon on safe and slung it across her front. Rat and Swift came rushing over to her.
"You alright?" Rat asked her.
"I'm fine," Pyrrha insisted. "Sorry; I know that was bold of me-"
Swift waved her off. "Bold, yes, but it was exactly what we needed. Just warn us next time, yeah?"
"Pyrrha-" Rat began, only to look past her and suddenly stiffen, then raise his weapon. The others stared at him before following his gaze. Pyrrha froze when she saw another Monolith soldier standing there, though this one was different, somehow – he was shorter than the others, standing just under five-and-a-half feet, by her estimation. He was dressed similarly to the other soldiers, clad in black camouflage and a gas mask with opaque black lenses, but there was something about him that made him stand out to her.
And as she listened in, Pyrrha realized what it was – this soldier was clearly female rather than male.
"Onward, warriors of the Monolith," the woman said in a low drawl, one that was absent of any kind of accent. "Avenge your fallen brothers. Blessed, as they are in their eternal union with the Monolith. Bring death to those who spurn the holy power of the Monolith."
"It's a Preacher…" Swift muttered.
"Should we shoot her?" Pyrrha asked.
"Hold your fire," Rat growled. "She's got a Gauss Rifle – that thing will pierce straight through even an Exoskeleton. If she's not shooting already, then I don't want to give her a reason to start."
So, reluctantly, Pyrrha held off from firing, even as she brought her rifle to her shoulder and flicked off the safety with her thumb. She stared down the Preacher, the two of them holding the look for a few seconds, before the Monolith Preacher abruptly turned and began to walk away in the other direction, still praying to herself the entire time. As she left, Pyrrha let out a sigh of relief, then put her weapon back on safe and slung it again.
"What the fuck was that about…?" Swift wondered.
"No idea," one of the other Freedom members said as he came running up. "Must've just been a probing attack or something – a way to test our defenses. We'll have to reinforce the barrier now, just to make sure."
"We'll pass the message along to Lukash," Pyrrha offered.
The man nodded. "We're lucky you all showed up. Thank you."
Pyrrha waved him off. "It's no trouble." She turned back to her squadmates. "Let's go report back, then."
With that, they headed back to base. Pyrrha spent the entire trip back wondering about the Preacher, and the attack, and silently hoped that it truly had just been a probing attack like the others suspected.
Back again with a new one for what is still my favorite fanfic to work on. I love everything else I'm doing right now too, don't me wrong, but this one is my absolute favorite.
I don't have too much to say story-wise. Ruby and the Marked One are getting into some deep shit, Jaune and Cinder are getting closer, and Pyrrha is still doing stuff with Freedom. Despite that, I wouldn't quite call this a filler chapter, at least IMO – quite a bit's happening here that's actually pretty important, whether it's characterization or moving the plot forward a bit. I just can't go much into it because I don't think there's a lot to say about it or otherwise shed some light on, if that makes sense.
All that aside, the next chapter will hopefully be out soon as well, and it should be just as packed with good shit as this one was, for every POV character. So stay tuned for that at some point probably next month. I'm trying to make uploads on this story a bit more consistent, really – I don't like going too long without updating this story, both because I really enjoy writing it and because I don't want to leave you guys in the cold. I'm trying to shoot for around a chapter a month on this one, as opposed to two chapters for Darkbloom and Plastered Paradox. It may take a bit more time depending on chapter length, but honestly, I think at some point, chapters for this one might start trending towards 5-6k average instead of the lengths they've been, simply due to the nature of the story. But we'll see.
What else… I took my Benelli out to the range today and put some slugs through it for the first time in a number of months, since shotgun ammo is so expensive these days. And it rocked my world, holy shit. I was not prepared for how stout a slug at 1400+ FPS was going to be after several months of not shooting them. It wasn't unpleasant, but it was quite surprising, I'll say that much. The buckshot I had was a lot more forgiving. I really need to shoot that gun more, maybe I'll run some cheap birdshot through it just to keep my shotgun skills up and mess around with the gun a bit more.
I also have an IDPA clinic early tomorrow morning, so that should be fun.
And as far as other writing is concerned… I've been working on my second Amazon original. There are still some edits to do for it, but it should be out relatively soon. I'll make an announcement when it's published. As a reminder, the next original in the "series" is going to be straightforward/not a comedy, so if you go into it expecting pretty much a published crackfic like the first one was, you'll probably be disappointed lol. Figured I'd make that disclaimer just so nobody went into it with the wrong idea or anything.
Anyway, that's about all I've got for now. I'll talk to you guys later, have a good one and thanks for reading!
Enjoy my work and want to help me out a bit? You can support me, as well as read more of my writing, over on Amazon. My first original story is available for purchase now, you can find it by going on Amazon and searching for 'I Accidentally Summoned the Demon Queen' by John Haruspex. The story is available now for three bucks in ebook format (or free with Kindle Unlimited) or twelve bucks in paperback format, if you prefer physical media.
www . amazon dp/ B0BLFL72MX