• If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

RP Blood In The Water

Jack Pine

Well-Known Member
RP Date
immediately after Reaper attack
RP Location
Sirris VI - wilderness
A Blast and the cracking of rock......that's all he could remember as the cold impact of water woke up his body from the fall. Talos was only submerged momentarily as the current kicked him back up to the surface, the rain having aggravated the river greatly. Water logged and bleeding, the major bobbed back above the water as he was carried down stream, nature rushing by. The night was still so very dark, barely able to even make out any scenery upon the shore, his mind imagining more of those red optical eyes staring back at him. They were hunters, and he was their prey, but now he was vulnerable.

Desperately he fought the current, arms slapping through water in an effort to dodge rocks and other debris, painfully colliding with a fallen branch at chest level. Clinging on with his one good arm, this proved difficult given his other being dislocated or worse. Blood was rinsed from the fabric of his clothes, red intermingling with the dark waters. It was all his, from various injuries, some that should have remained out of water. Unseen in the almost non-existent light, black fluid also washed away gradually, the life liquid of his pursuers. Before his mind could worry if he was in the clear, Talos felt a tremor of fear not caused by the frigidness of the water, fearful of Kolorsha's safety. He had confessed his feelings to her this week, and invited her to a night with him out in the woods as he worked on his cabin. A despairing feeling building, he cursed himself for unknowingly bringing her into harm's way.

Talos thought to call out, to desperately call for her response as proof of life, but something struck him before knocking him from the limb he gripped to. His already weakening hold was merely slapped to the end of it's limit, something cold and metallic having locked him in it's grip. Under his head went as he struggled, beating elbow, head, and shoulder into his assailant. Both smashed into a rock, causing Talos to feel a painful crunch as something broke, but so did his attacker who suffered worse. They struck the rock with a muted scrape of sparks as their already damaged chassis took a blow that caved in their back structure. More black fluid splattered Talos as the being's chest systems took part of the brunt with grim effect.

Free, the struggle sent him into a wild careening in another direction. It was disorienting to even try and keep balance now, having lost his sense of direction other then the direction the waters carried him. To what he knew not, nor had the ability to think on as he fought pain, cold, and now exhaustion. Even if he made it to shore soon, his condition was already clearly not positive, his chances of survival waning with every minute he fought for life. Not to mention his much sturdier attacker could still be far from out of the fight, swimming for him again with no way to know. His Geist had no signal out here, and weapon was lost, not even to remember where he had dropped it in his fight on the cliff. He gave a rye chuckle at how things had gone to shit so fast.

Seemed to be the trend for the clone, a certain having been lost to his eyes after the passing of his mother. That's where his slow collapse began, forming self-destructive habits to cope which only worn his body down, something more then realized now as his chuckle ended with a wheezy note. Alcohol, smoking, long hours, isolation, giving false fronts to those he cared about to avoid talking, and almost drugs. The Major's life had become a mess, and he was just letting it get worse, but that seemed to lessen the idea he was even making it home now. If there was one thing he could be comfortable with, was that his siblings would live on without him, and just maybe Kolorsha had managed to escape. Another idea came to his mind as he simply relaxed, stopping his fight against the current, as the idea that maybe if died.......he'd see mom again, to join her in whatever place she was now.

A splash behind him broke that chain of thought, instincts refocusing Talos, as he turned to see the source. The Reaper was back, hissing and gurgling as it sought to end him, even with it's ravaged shell. A screech left it's maw as the thing swung a battered mechanical arm at him, to be weakly blocked by the Major's good arm. Closing the distance, Talos was the one to grapple this time, wrapping his arm around it's skinny torso to block one of it's arms as fingers curved around it's skull to push back. A sharp and pained grunt left his hoarse throat as claw pierced the lower right side of his abdomen. Talos had not the limb to block the appendage that now severely wounded him, the sharp digits yanked free and pulled back for another stab.

With a shift of his weight on it's much lankier and thinner frame, he spun them, the claw raking his back instead. A hiss left him, then a second time as it clawed him again as it pulled the limb back for another try. But it never got the chance as they were both suddenly weightless, the roar of small waterfall having been lost in their fight. Both went over the current, thrown out before the fall. At some point between the eternity of their fall, and the chaos of impacting the water below, Talos blacked out. When he awoke, he was on the shore, in pain and shivering as the rain pelted his battered and partially broken form. Somehow, the Reaper was no where to be seen, giving the clone a breather for now.

Trying to push himself up was met with a sharp yelp as he cried out in pain, having tried to use his most likely broken left arm. A ringing entered his hearing as stabbing, red hot pain shot up the entirety of his arm. Falling onto his right side, another much smaller one was felt that lead to a gasp, having shifted something stabbed into his back. With a trembling, shivering hand, he reached back to his side to feel a shard of metal with another gasp. Sucking in a breath and biting a lip, he took hold and yanked with as much strength his defeated body could give. A wet sound and a small stifled scream were what resulted as he pulled it free.

With labored breath, the man sank to the mud, a metal piece of what looked like a rib now in his hand. Dropping the shard, he simply laid there, trying to get a decent breath. For a moment, it seemed like he finally could rest and just stay there. But even nature was his enemy here, the sounds of distant fauna calling back to his sounds of agony. Shakily sitting up with a groan of shuttered breath, it was clear he needed to find shelter to wait out the night. Nothing immediate was clear in his limited range of sight, other then the waterfall. Thinking how he had been programmed to read the land, the rock side sloped in to suggest water based erosion. Thinking quickly, he scrabbled for a small rock at least until his fingers plucked one wetly from the mud.

With a grunt of effort, the object was tossed at the water fall, passing through the water to clack against rock with a echo. A echo.....that meant a cave! A pain in his left calf, and right thigh told his of damage done. It was a short trip, but it was going to hurt like hell the whole way there. But first, he had to take care of his immediate worry of the stab wound in his abdomen first. He wasn't making it otherwise, so taking a hand full of mud and preparing for a lot of pain, with great pressure slapped the mud into the wound. He gave yet another stifled cry, as it was at least sealed, even if albeit at the risk of infection.

Sucking in a breath again and biting a now bleeding lip, Talos pushed himself up to a pitiful stance. Pain brought dizziness and nausea, his legs bringing agony as they felt unsteady. Scared to fall and not be able to rise again, he fought these sensations as he sadly hobbled and shuffled towards the fall. Fighting his body to make it, he wasn't sure when he made it in, but suddenly being drenched in cold water focused him before almost rag-dolling to the rocky floor. Not safe to stay too close to the entrance, Talos crawled on his side until he reached the back wall which he sat up to slump against with a ragged wheezy breath.

Now able to rest, his vision faded as his perception moved inwards, his eyes closing as he passed out once more....

A tool......that's what they wanted from him and his siblings. To be tools of war, killing, dying, and obeying at their order. That's what he realized as They were in the beginning of tossing them away like spoiled goods, his cryopod having been the first to be pulled from the storage bay. He was defrosted and run through some tests, very much a drone, even sharing the unified features. A syringe was brought out, and mere inches from his arm before the facility rocked violently. The scientists stumbled in shock and worry, knowing they were suddenly under attack. Fleeing for their lives, Talos had been simply left standing there for a command that would never come. Clearly not getting any, the man sought to seek out an officer as he headed back to the bay.

A soldier was waiting at the door, at first mistaking him for someone else. Talos had simply ignored him as he walked by and entered the code for the door, opening up the lab and storage bay section. Oddly being followed in by the soldier in black and red power armor he now knew as Revenant, entered. They never stopped staring at him, even as someone else who was more authoritative joined them, soon following with the same behavior. Inside they encountered the two main scientist, who shared a brief argument with the soldiers before helmets came off, gasps were exchanged, and voices were raised along side weapons.

"They're a failed product, you were a failure, so are they! The programming was flawed, and weak! They will not do, and must be disposed of!"

"They're human beings, their their my clones, meaning you made me as a weapon!"

"A failed weapon, you were such a disappointment Jack.....Just like you Sarah. We had high hopes for you, hoping you would join us. Instead you talked about nothing but joining the army. Even your DNA failed us daughter, and that's why we left you to your ignorance."

A small sob from the female soldier was heard as she raised a sniper rifle which faltered before lowering again. The soldier by her side frozen as he couldn't process what he had learned, what lie was now broken. He only asked why quietly as his hand weakly gripped a pistol in his hand, unable to pull the trigger. However, Talos had stood there indifferent, his logic sorting out the data. With a small twinge of pain, and a sense of disappointment mixed with anger, he took the pistol from his hand. "If we are to be disposed, and thus eliminated by you, then by your own set standards......you are our enemy." he had said neutrally as the gun was raised, the trigger pulled without hesitation.

The man was first to die, a bullet through the head ending things quick. The female scientist dropped to her knees, with a sob, crying in denial that the man was dead. Still crying his name, Talos turned his sights on the woman before a scowl took to his features. The trigger was jerked twice, one through the shoulder, the second through the eye as she was jerked sideways by the first. Gathering the others from their tubes, they were brought to their new home. It was a day he never forgot, when he had killed for the first time, and felt no remorse for it.

What had followed that month were long talks as Talos opened up to who he was, the chains on his mind eventually just dissolving. He thought about it often, how brutal he had been, how he coldly took the lives of two people who had earned his first emotion of anger. Pretending to not have changed, he watched the others, looking out for them and seeing as they broke free over time. Eventually even his features changed, his hair turning black, and one eye swapping colors. It wasn't until later when Jacky and Lynn awoke to themselves that he felt love and happiness for the first time.

The version of him now curled into a ball as he recalled all this in his sleep, whimpering as his body was still racked from pain, shivering as he fought hypothermia setting in. "Momma....I'm....s-sorry......Kolo.....I'm....so-sorry.." he cried there on the floor quietly. The sound of hissing followed by a brief roar woke him as the sound of teeth meeting metal was heard outside. It was a very brief fight, but a victorious snort told Talos all he needed to know of who won. With a dark grin, he relaxed, finding satisfaction in his assailant's end. Once more he slipped back under, this time until the sun began to rise, light filtering through crystal water falling before the cave entrance.

Opening his eyes, Talos could not move, his body numb save for a feint tingle. His breath was shallow, ragged, and carried a whistle of wheeze. Smoking had impaired his breathing, making getting any additional oxygen difficult. His vision was blurry, unable to make out the cave interior even, but detected silhouettes outside. Voices could be heard, but not understood as they moved around. One entered with a splash through the water, stopping before shouting something inside a helmet by the muffled sound, to their companions. It wasn't a Reaper, Talos feeling excited and eager, thankful help had arrived. He was going to live, he was going to see his sisters again, and he would see Kolorsha safe.

His face gave a tired semblance of smile as the figure approached, but turned to a expression of fear as they came into focus. It was male figure in unmarked, grey armor, a helmeted head staring down at him. It had optics that focus and whirred quietly as they scanned him before a modulated deep voice spoke, "Target located. Detain for interrogation, the boss wants this one."

Talos tried to breath out a desperate protest as two more entered, his eyes widening as they did. He looked back up to the first figure before him, just as the butt stock came down on the side of his face and the world went black. As he faded from consciousness, and suited hands clamped down on his arms, he murmured one last time "I'm..s-s-sorry...."
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top