Yangfan
Inactive Member
ON> Nepleslia
Tommy, with a duffle bag over one shoulder, stretched lazily as he stepped out of the cargo freighter that transported him to the planet. He nodded and waved to the few other passengers as they disembarked from the freighter and dispersed into the sparse crowd at the star port. It was rather disturbing to contemplate that there isn't enough tourism to justify passenger ships, and Tommy had resolved not to think about it too much.
As Tommy took in his surroundings, he could sense a slight hint of panic in the air. Armed soldiers and militiamen marched to their destinations with a brisk, almost urgent pace. An occasional wounded soldier could be seen, being carried away on a stretcher by medics.
Nepleslia smelled particularly rank today. Each gust of wind seemed to blow the stench of rot into his lungs. From Uesureyan Fields, he could see the massive skyline of Funky City, it's footprint starting on the other side of a nasty-looking river. There seemed to be some sort of crisis, as soldiers were wearing protective masks in addition to their full body armor and heavy weaponry. The sounds of gunfire echoed in the distance.
Being new to the planet, Tommy didn't really know what to think. He actually found himself hoping that the planet was really always like this, that he didn't just find himself in the middle of a rather nasty situation, despite what his instincts were telling him. "Um, nice weather we are having today?" he asked probingly as the pilot of the freighter emerged from the cockpit. "Not really," commented the man, as he lit up a cig and then clicked off the safety of his pistol.
A fireball that was previously some sort of aircraft came crashing out of the sky and into the ground about a football field away, exploding in a thick rising orange ball, and leaving a tower of dense, black smoke. The tanks at the gates to the base fired a few bursts of 35mm rounds at something down in the river. A nekovalkyrja walked by, followed by two towering, very muscular men in the old Army of Uesureya uniform, who were carrying some sort of case.
"Huh," said Tommy, letting the conversation end there. He looked about with a worried face, expecting to see someone in an YSA uniform to greet him but not seeing any. The stench was really beginning to get to him. "I wonder where I can get one of those gas masks that the soldiers were we..." and that's when the sound of the explosion overwhelmed his train of thought.
Tommy was 95% sure that crashing aircrafts were not considered normal, even by Nepleslian standards.
"Do you have a weapon?" somebody asked Tommy from behind.
"Um, yes..." Tommy replied, his hand on the holster as he slowly turned around to face the voice. Panic was building up in him as his brain desperately tried to figure out what exactly was going on.
BOOM! A nearby tank fired its main cannon at something off in the distance. A platoon of Star Army marines ran by carrying machineguns, loading up into several very old-looking helicopters that touched down on the deck for a moment. A measly two firefighters desperately tried to hose out the burning wreckage, but the rotor wash wasn't helping. The voice came from a man in a olive-drab suit, a green flak jacket, who was wearing a Taii "pin" that was drawn with black and red permanent marker on white strip of cloth duct-taped to the armor. He had a half-beard and was carrying what appeared to be a pump-action shotgun.
Tommy was pretty sure by now that PNUgen had sent him to a war zone. He wondered just who he had pissed off. "Hello, sir," he said as he cautiously walked up to the Taii. "I'm expecting someone from 1st Expeditionary Fleet, 2nd Division... I don't suppose you are from that division?"
"I don't know. The Rave and Jade left a day or two ago," the man said. "I don't blame 'em. Want to go for a helicopter ride?"
Tommy looked exceedingly out-of-place in his stylish white dress shirt and black slack pants. The GP-3 that hanged by his hip made him look like some sort of wanna-be cowboy. "That depends, sir," replied Tommy in a polite voice. "Are you offering me a ride to a more secure location, or am I being drafted?"
"Well," the Taii said, as one helicopter left, and another one landed in its place, covered in blood and pocked with bullet holes. Clearly it had had someone aboard when it left. "We've got a lot of blocks to secure."
Tommy quickly thought it over. The names of the ships that the Taii mentioned sounded familiar. One of them was probably the ship that Tommy had been assigned to, and both had left the planet. Which could only mean that... "I guess I missed my bus," said Tommy with a sigh. He did, however, promise to provide coverage on Star Army personnel, and here was his opportunity. "Can I at least get a flak jacket, sir?" he asked.
"Sure. You can," the man said, looking at the blood-soaked seat in front of a machinegun, "um, be the door gunner." Another soldier dumped a thick green flak jacket in Tommy's arms. "I've got the other side," the Jôtô Hei said, wiping off the seats with a oily rag. There was a single pilot up front, in an armored compartment, who had a red beard and eyes. "Going up?" he asked with a wicked grin.
Tommy got the flak jacket on himself as quickly as he could, and hanged his duffle bag, which was very light anyway, on his left shoulder. He got into the helicopter and took up his position on the side machinegun. "Since I'm helping you guys, could you at least tell me what's going on?" he asked.
"Some aliens are killing or getting inside people and using their bodies...weird shit. We're doing fly-bys and taking back the infected parts of the city, block by block. You see anyone acting hostile towards the Army, or any people that look injured, shoot them. It's hard to tell," the Taii with the shotgun answered, getting in the helicopter. The Jôtô Hei manned the opposite door. With a whine of the engine, the small helicopter unsteady lifted off the ground and rose in the air over the chaotic activity in the base.
"I see..." said Tommy, as he checked the machinegun in front of him. The interface of the weapon was disturbingly identical to the ones used in video games popular among young adults his age, to the extent that Tommy had no need to ask questions about how to operate it. The whole situation felt incredibly surreal as the helicopter gained altitude. Tommy felt as if he was in some sort of violent video game.
The helicopter floated into the City, its blades carrying it down a 4-lane street from about sixty feet in the air. They were flying over the already-secured part of the city. Below, bombed-out vehicles and dead bodies and parts thereof littered the streets. Soldiers were torching them with flamethrowers and improvised Molotov cocktails.
Tommy had a good view of the cityscape below from his position. "May I take pictures of the scene?" he asked the Taii.
"I'm a journalist," he added. He didn't want anyone to think that he took pictures of body parts for fun.
"I guess so. We kind of got orders to keep this on the low, though..." the Taii with the shotgun responded. "You know, keep the Imperial from sending any Star Army troops. Nepleslians take care of their own business, you know?" he smiled. Just then a burst of machinegun fire from below hit the chopper right in the windshield. Flying over the barricades of tanks, the helicopter was now in one of the "quarantine" zones. The other door gunner started firing short bursts of 35mm rounds, tearing apart the wandering corpses in the street that he saw.
Tommy wasn't thinking about anything close to taking photographs as bullets and energy bolts began flying past the helicopter. His machinegun roared as he returned fire with surprising accuracy at the infected bodies below.
Pop-pop-pop! More heavy machinegun fire cracked in the air. Tommy could see tracer rounds flying perilously close. A large group of infected (?) people was manning some sort of artillery position below on Tommy's side. He could see the gun tracking the helicopter.
Tommy figured that he would just be another mangled body in a flaming wreckage if he didn't react fast. He trained the crosshairs at the barrel of his machinegun at the ammo belt of the machinegun firing at him and opened fire.
A rocket-propelled grenade flew up at the helicopter, leaving a white smoke trail. The helicopter pilot veered to the side, nearly hitting a skyscraper, and the rocket flew through the blades and into the glass windows above the helicopter. There was a loud clatter as the other gunner fired into (and all over) the dumpster from which the rocket had originated, while the helicopter righted itself in the midst of a shower of glass shards.
Tommy could see the artillery position was still around, and still firing. The sudden movement of the chopper had thrown off the shot. Sparks flew from the engine over Tommy's head as one of the rounds hit it. A fire started.
Tommy cursed as his aim was thrown off by the helicopter's sudden maneuver. He wouldn't have missed otherwise. "Is someone gonna take care of that fire?" He shouted as he readjusted his aim. He wasn't exactly scorched right now, as the flames from the engine above him shot upward, but he knew that fire on an airborne craft was bad news.
"I have you now..." murmured Tommy in a surprisingly sadistic tone as the crosshairs re-centered on the ammo belt of the offending machinegun. His 35mm side machinegun screamed with fury.
"Yeah," the Taii yelled over the sound of the helicopter, spraying the fire out as best he could with a very cheap-looking fire extinguisher. Creamy foam dripped on Tommy's back. The helicopter continued down the street, out of view of the artillery position just in time for Tommy to see what may or may not have been an explosion. The pilot was saying something over the radio, but it couldn't be heard. Then there was another, very close burst from a building window, and the other gunner started screaming. Tommy could see the Taii looking down at a bullet hole in the empty fire extinguisher for a moment.
Tommy didn't even notice the extinguisher foam on his back. It was the least of his worries anyways. He did notice, however, the empty extinguisher. Another fire onboard and they were probably screwed.
The Taii leaned over the other gunner, who was still making a lot of noise. The man had been shot through the hip and the thigh with a large-caliber weapon and was bleeding all over the place. The pilot signaled that he wanted to set the helicopter down, pointing at the destroyed engine above Tommy. Their altitude was already decreasing.
"Oh lovely," said Tommy in a sarcastic tone as the helicopter slowly went down. "We get to do this all over again, on foot." He felt sorry for the wounded soldier, but there wasn't really anything that he could do for him.
The helicopter set down in front of a decrepit housing project, it's blades beheading a small palm tree. "Alright. I can get this thing back to the base, if everyone gets off," the pilot said. "Or we can take off the guns and ammo, and I can get one person, maybe two, back."
"I don't think it's a good idea to go flying in that thing with no machineguns or ammo. But that's just me," said Tommy to the Taii.
> PAUSED
JP by:
Wes (Nepleslian soldiers)
Yangfan (Thomas "Tommy" Chen)
Tommy, with a duffle bag over one shoulder, stretched lazily as he stepped out of the cargo freighter that transported him to the planet. He nodded and waved to the few other passengers as they disembarked from the freighter and dispersed into the sparse crowd at the star port. It was rather disturbing to contemplate that there isn't enough tourism to justify passenger ships, and Tommy had resolved not to think about it too much.
As Tommy took in his surroundings, he could sense a slight hint of panic in the air. Armed soldiers and militiamen marched to their destinations with a brisk, almost urgent pace. An occasional wounded soldier could be seen, being carried away on a stretcher by medics.
Nepleslia smelled particularly rank today. Each gust of wind seemed to blow the stench of rot into his lungs. From Uesureyan Fields, he could see the massive skyline of Funky City, it's footprint starting on the other side of a nasty-looking river. There seemed to be some sort of crisis, as soldiers were wearing protective masks in addition to their full body armor and heavy weaponry. The sounds of gunfire echoed in the distance.
Being new to the planet, Tommy didn't really know what to think. He actually found himself hoping that the planet was really always like this, that he didn't just find himself in the middle of a rather nasty situation, despite what his instincts were telling him. "Um, nice weather we are having today?" he asked probingly as the pilot of the freighter emerged from the cockpit. "Not really," commented the man, as he lit up a cig and then clicked off the safety of his pistol.
A fireball that was previously some sort of aircraft came crashing out of the sky and into the ground about a football field away, exploding in a thick rising orange ball, and leaving a tower of dense, black smoke. The tanks at the gates to the base fired a few bursts of 35mm rounds at something down in the river. A nekovalkyrja walked by, followed by two towering, very muscular men in the old Army of Uesureya uniform, who were carrying some sort of case.
"Huh," said Tommy, letting the conversation end there. He looked about with a worried face, expecting to see someone in an YSA uniform to greet him but not seeing any. The stench was really beginning to get to him. "I wonder where I can get one of those gas masks that the soldiers were we..." and that's when the sound of the explosion overwhelmed his train of thought.
Tommy was 95% sure that crashing aircrafts were not considered normal, even by Nepleslian standards.
"Do you have a weapon?" somebody asked Tommy from behind.
"Um, yes..." Tommy replied, his hand on the holster as he slowly turned around to face the voice. Panic was building up in him as his brain desperately tried to figure out what exactly was going on.
BOOM! A nearby tank fired its main cannon at something off in the distance. A platoon of Star Army marines ran by carrying machineguns, loading up into several very old-looking helicopters that touched down on the deck for a moment. A measly two firefighters desperately tried to hose out the burning wreckage, but the rotor wash wasn't helping. The voice came from a man in a olive-drab suit, a green flak jacket, who was wearing a Taii "pin" that was drawn with black and red permanent marker on white strip of cloth duct-taped to the armor. He had a half-beard and was carrying what appeared to be a pump-action shotgun.
Tommy was pretty sure by now that PNUgen had sent him to a war zone. He wondered just who he had pissed off. "Hello, sir," he said as he cautiously walked up to the Taii. "I'm expecting someone from 1st Expeditionary Fleet, 2nd Division... I don't suppose you are from that division?"
"I don't know. The Rave and Jade left a day or two ago," the man said. "I don't blame 'em. Want to go for a helicopter ride?"
Tommy looked exceedingly out-of-place in his stylish white dress shirt and black slack pants. The GP-3 that hanged by his hip made him look like some sort of wanna-be cowboy. "That depends, sir," replied Tommy in a polite voice. "Are you offering me a ride to a more secure location, or am I being drafted?"
"Well," the Taii said, as one helicopter left, and another one landed in its place, covered in blood and pocked with bullet holes. Clearly it had had someone aboard when it left. "We've got a lot of blocks to secure."
Tommy quickly thought it over. The names of the ships that the Taii mentioned sounded familiar. One of them was probably the ship that Tommy had been assigned to, and both had left the planet. Which could only mean that... "I guess I missed my bus," said Tommy with a sigh. He did, however, promise to provide coverage on Star Army personnel, and here was his opportunity. "Can I at least get a flak jacket, sir?" he asked.
"Sure. You can," the man said, looking at the blood-soaked seat in front of a machinegun, "um, be the door gunner." Another soldier dumped a thick green flak jacket in Tommy's arms. "I've got the other side," the Jôtô Hei said, wiping off the seats with a oily rag. There was a single pilot up front, in an armored compartment, who had a red beard and eyes. "Going up?" he asked with a wicked grin.
Tommy got the flak jacket on himself as quickly as he could, and hanged his duffle bag, which was very light anyway, on his left shoulder. He got into the helicopter and took up his position on the side machinegun. "Since I'm helping you guys, could you at least tell me what's going on?" he asked.
"Some aliens are killing or getting inside people and using their bodies...weird shit. We're doing fly-bys and taking back the infected parts of the city, block by block. You see anyone acting hostile towards the Army, or any people that look injured, shoot them. It's hard to tell," the Taii with the shotgun answered, getting in the helicopter. The Jôtô Hei manned the opposite door. With a whine of the engine, the small helicopter unsteady lifted off the ground and rose in the air over the chaotic activity in the base.
"I see..." said Tommy, as he checked the machinegun in front of him. The interface of the weapon was disturbingly identical to the ones used in video games popular among young adults his age, to the extent that Tommy had no need to ask questions about how to operate it. The whole situation felt incredibly surreal as the helicopter gained altitude. Tommy felt as if he was in some sort of violent video game.
The helicopter floated into the City, its blades carrying it down a 4-lane street from about sixty feet in the air. They were flying over the already-secured part of the city. Below, bombed-out vehicles and dead bodies and parts thereof littered the streets. Soldiers were torching them with flamethrowers and improvised Molotov cocktails.
Tommy had a good view of the cityscape below from his position. "May I take pictures of the scene?" he asked the Taii.
"I'm a journalist," he added. He didn't want anyone to think that he took pictures of body parts for fun.
"I guess so. We kind of got orders to keep this on the low, though..." the Taii with the shotgun responded. "You know, keep the Imperial from sending any Star Army troops. Nepleslians take care of their own business, you know?" he smiled. Just then a burst of machinegun fire from below hit the chopper right in the windshield. Flying over the barricades of tanks, the helicopter was now in one of the "quarantine" zones. The other door gunner started firing short bursts of 35mm rounds, tearing apart the wandering corpses in the street that he saw.
Tommy wasn't thinking about anything close to taking photographs as bullets and energy bolts began flying past the helicopter. His machinegun roared as he returned fire with surprising accuracy at the infected bodies below.
Pop-pop-pop! More heavy machinegun fire cracked in the air. Tommy could see tracer rounds flying perilously close. A large group of infected (?) people was manning some sort of artillery position below on Tommy's side. He could see the gun tracking the helicopter.
Tommy figured that he would just be another mangled body in a flaming wreckage if he didn't react fast. He trained the crosshairs at the barrel of his machinegun at the ammo belt of the machinegun firing at him and opened fire.
A rocket-propelled grenade flew up at the helicopter, leaving a white smoke trail. The helicopter pilot veered to the side, nearly hitting a skyscraper, and the rocket flew through the blades and into the glass windows above the helicopter. There was a loud clatter as the other gunner fired into (and all over) the dumpster from which the rocket had originated, while the helicopter righted itself in the midst of a shower of glass shards.
Tommy could see the artillery position was still around, and still firing. The sudden movement of the chopper had thrown off the shot. Sparks flew from the engine over Tommy's head as one of the rounds hit it. A fire started.
Tommy cursed as his aim was thrown off by the helicopter's sudden maneuver. He wouldn't have missed otherwise. "Is someone gonna take care of that fire?" He shouted as he readjusted his aim. He wasn't exactly scorched right now, as the flames from the engine above him shot upward, but he knew that fire on an airborne craft was bad news.
"I have you now..." murmured Tommy in a surprisingly sadistic tone as the crosshairs re-centered on the ammo belt of the offending machinegun. His 35mm side machinegun screamed with fury.
"Yeah," the Taii yelled over the sound of the helicopter, spraying the fire out as best he could with a very cheap-looking fire extinguisher. Creamy foam dripped on Tommy's back. The helicopter continued down the street, out of view of the artillery position just in time for Tommy to see what may or may not have been an explosion. The pilot was saying something over the radio, but it couldn't be heard. Then there was another, very close burst from a building window, and the other gunner started screaming. Tommy could see the Taii looking down at a bullet hole in the empty fire extinguisher for a moment.
Tommy didn't even notice the extinguisher foam on his back. It was the least of his worries anyways. He did notice, however, the empty extinguisher. Another fire onboard and they were probably screwed.
The Taii leaned over the other gunner, who was still making a lot of noise. The man had been shot through the hip and the thigh with a large-caliber weapon and was bleeding all over the place. The pilot signaled that he wanted to set the helicopter down, pointing at the destroyed engine above Tommy. Their altitude was already decreasing.
"Oh lovely," said Tommy in a sarcastic tone as the helicopter slowly went down. "We get to do this all over again, on foot." He felt sorry for the wounded soldier, but there wasn't really anything that he could do for him.
The helicopter set down in front of a decrepit housing project, it's blades beheading a small palm tree. "Alright. I can get this thing back to the base, if everyone gets off," the pilot said. "Or we can take off the guns and ammo, and I can get one person, maybe two, back."
"I don't think it's a good idea to go flying in that thing with no machineguns or ammo. But that's just me," said Tommy to the Taii.
> PAUSED
JP by:
Wes (Nepleslian soldiers)
Yangfan (Thomas "Tommy" Chen)
