[IC] Omnipocalypse [open]

[Skepic]

"Careful now tin man, that was quite an ominous statement there. Keep eyeing my equipment and your gonna need more than a robot eye to be able to see again." Hanna said, half serious, half teasing. They walked over to the jeep as the proclaimed ring leader got his things together. "Wow, a jeep? I haven't seen one these since I left the fath-" she stopped herself in mid sentence when she spotted the prospective owner/driver of the vehicle. The driver was your typical Azurian, about Hanna's height. Hanna broke into a grin and quickly rushed to meet the Azurian. "Oh, I did not know we had a fourth member! I am Hanna, Hanna Krauft. It is always a pleasure to meet an Azurian out here. Much like this jeep, I haven't seen one of you since I left my homeland!" She said, breaking rather suddenly from her usual self to a much more friendly person. After making finishing introductions, she took the passenger side of the jeep next to the driver, explaining it would be much easier to aim over a hood than to aim over each others' heads. With the directions given, they were off.

[SimplyJohn]

@Skepic "Careful now tin man, that was quite an ominous statement there. Keep eyeing my equipment and your gonna need more than a robot eye to be able to see again."

Holding his hands up defensively, trying to show no offense had been intended by his statement, Harry was just about to respond to the strange foreign girl when she walked off towards the Jeep. Spotting his new partner and the Blueberry already settled inside the vehicle Harry quickly unclipped the power lead, stowing it back in place before swinging his leg up over his radcycle. Giving a wave over to the Azurian he let her know he was ready to set out whenever they were.

[Midori]

T'Lora was fairly accustomed to waiting on humans since they needed to eat so much, although she was grateful for the water. Once Has'la got all his things in order another human approached.

"Wow, a jeep? I haven't seen one these since I left the fath-"

It was the girl she had seen a few moments ago getting hit on by the cyborg. Her accent clearly made her out to be from Germany, a place she had flown to in the past as it was one of the more civilized parts of the Earth after the calamity.

"Oh, I did not know we had a fourth member!..."

"Neither did I."

..."I am Hanna, Hanna Krauft. It is always a pleasure to meet an Azurian out here. Much like this jeep, I haven't seen one of you since I left my homeland!"

Despite being upset that the haul was going to be split into yet another portion, at least she had someone attractive to talk to. She started the Jeep as Harry gave his 'ready' signal and started to move towards Houston as instructed. "You're much too cute to be a male so I'm going to assume you're a female Mrs. Krauft. My name is T'Lora, and as you can see by my lack of a Kona..." T'Lora pointed to her forhead where those of higher social ranking would have a mark called a Kona indicating their status. "...that I'm of Qasan. Nothing special really, I used to be a pilot but now I make do pulling salvage. I suppose you'll be watching my ass today?"

[SimplyJohn]

The town was quiet this early in the morning, with only a few merchants and miscreants making their way through towards the market carrying their wares, or someone's wares at least. As the radcycle moved off between the buildings and into the wastes Harry settled in for a long ride, thumbing on his stereo to play his favourite tunes through his headset as his foot pressed the accelerator a little harder.

He was just hitting his stride when he spotted a shadow in the distance. They were far enough out of town now for it to be unlikely the stranger was a local, and there was precious little cover for an ambush, unless someone had spent the last couple of days digging trenches and foxholes. Easing off on the gas Harry pulled his cycle up onto the side of the road and glanced back over his shoulder. The Jeep was quite a distance behind him by now, but would be arriving momentarily so Harry wasn't too worried about being outnumbered, especially with some of the gear his new compatriots had been carrying.

Turning his attention back to the boy Harry noticed his limping gait and slender frame. Unless the boy was writing the world's most successful diet book he was obviously in need of assistance, and the twin heavy-tech pistols at his hips would certainly be worth a penny or two. Reaching back Harry unholstered his rail rifle, carefully resting it on his handlebars as he considered his options.

[TheUnknowable]

As they traveled down the road Has'la noticed a figure in the distance. He checked his weapon one more time in case it was a raider, then asked T'Lora to pull over, in case they could help him. When they stopped he got out and walked over to the man, holding his rifle in his hands as he did. "Hey," he said, " you need some help? You look like you could use something to drink." He looked back to make sure the others were ready in case he tried something, then slung his rifle over his shoulder. He searched through his backpack and pulled out a bottle of water and a bag of Algae chips, offering them to the man. "Here." he said.

[SimplyJohn]

As the Jeep pulled up behind him Harry gently swore to himself. Any opportunity he had to ambush the boy and loot him was gone now and as he swung his leg off of his radcycle and followed Has'la towards the boy. Taking his cue from his business partner, Harry shouldered his own rifle, but as Has'la reached out offering the stranger food and water the mechanic let his hand drop own onto his holstered blaster, his thumb casually unclipping the weapon, readying it to draw at the first sign of trouble.

Glancing back towards their vehicles Harry let his eyes wander across the scrublands surrounding the town, once again checking for signs of an ambush. Too many times before he'd found the bodies of good Samaritans left at the side of the road, their bodies picked clean of anything which could be of use, and he wasn't about to l4et himself get suckered into a trap.

"Is he still alive?" Harry finally asked Has'la, his tone impatient. The sun was already beginning to rise higher and soon the bandits and raiders would be out on the roads looking for their day's bounty and he'd prefer to get a little further from town before the scum had a chance not to brush their teeth.

[_Middle_]

Lincoln walked down the road, thinking. Thinking about giving up. "One slice." Lincoln considerably whispered, referring to...ending his walk. As Lincoln was about to stop, he saw a puff of dust down the road. Lincoln's face lit up as much as it could, considering he could barely walk and talk. He than rethought it; hallucinations. Lincoln stopped walking, almost about to break down. "I-I'm hallucinating." Linc barely said. The "car" was getting closer and closer. Linc fell onto his knees, tilting his head a bit. "Halluc-" Linc was interrupted by the car coming to a stop. He saw a man walk out of the passenger seat, talking he assumed. It was hard to hear him. Lincoln thought it was him speaking another language, but realized it is his body almost shutting down.

One thing he did understand was food and water he held out. Lincoln's eyes grew wide and snatched them. He barely opened the water up and started "drinking" it. More like pouring it on his face and getting about a third of it in his mouth. The bag of chips was a different story, he just couldn't get it open. Well, after all, he could barely talk. After trying at the bag of chips for a few seconds, he looked up as Has'la, "Th-Thanks." His hoarse voice barely getting it out.

@SimplyJohn@TheUnknowable

[SimplyJohn]

Stepping forwards with an aggravated sigh Harry snatched the packet of chips from the boy's hands and quickly opened the packet for him. Thrusting it back into the raggedy wanderer's hands the mechanic turned back towards his business partner, glancing at the rising sun as he did. "If you're done being all charitable we should get going. This place is a bandit highway and we need to get outta here before they show up."

With a gruff bark Harry stomped off back towards his radcycle, his hand resting back on his blaster and eyes carefully studying their surroundings. His ever instinct told him that some stranger in the middle of nowhere was definitely more than he appeared to be, and until the penny dropped Harry wasn't going to be letting his guard down.

[_Middle_]

Linc was startled a bit by the other man angrily get off his radcycle and snatch the chips out of his hands and opening it. Linc fell back on his feet (remember, he was on his knees) and looked at the aggravated man with a "really?" kind of look. Linc ate a chip and savored every bite, then looked back of to the odd angry man, "Listen," Linc hoarsely began, "Don't go through this apocalypse like that." Lincoln tried to sound nice, yet didn't know if he was or not. "Dicks aren't liked much out here, but I guess you gotta to what you gotta do." Lincoln didn't like douchebags very much, mostly because everyone in an apocalyptic world is pretty much equal. Ignorant people get themselves killed.

Lincoln felt like he wasn't wanted. When he finished his bag of food, he stumbled up onto his feet. "Good day," Lincoln chided at Harry, then looked at T'Lora, "And thanks." Linc began walking back down the road with a barely filled stomach yet a satisfied mouth. Lincoln didn't know where he was going, so he stopped for a second. He turned back around, his arms loosely swinging, "Umm...where'd you come from?"

@SimplyJohn@TheUnknowable

[TheUnknowable]

@_Middle_"Woah," said Has'la, "you don't have to go. Here, have another." He pulled another bottle of water out of his backpack and handed it to the man. "We came from a town called "Johnsville" about three kilometers down the road. If you're looking for work, though, I could use some more help." He pointed to the guy's guns. "I assume you know how to use those? If so, how would you like to go on a salvage run?"

[SimplyJohn]

Harry watched the boy carefully from the back of his radcycle as Has'la chatted with him. He seemed innocent enough, and he was certainly in need of assistance, but Harry's nerves were still on edge. It just didn't feel right for someone to be wandering so far out of town by themselves without any sort of support, and no injuries. He'd have expected the bandits to have already picked up the straggler and either robbed him, recruited him or eaten him.

His eyes slipped down to the kid's guns, still hanging at his sides. 'He must have some skill with those things if he's managed to last this long,' Harry thought to himself, still wondering how easily he could get hold of those guns himself, if only for a quick inspection to see how they worked.

Pulling his attention away from the boy Harry glanced off down the road and spotted a smear on the horizon. With a whirring click he activated the zoom function on his optic, closing his other eye as he did to avoid disorientation. The smear quickly snapped into focus, as though it were almost right in front of Harry, but that didn't help. All he could see was a dust cloud, and if there was anyone hiding in it he couldn't tell from this distance. Harry quickly snapped through a few other visual modes, scanning for heat sources and chemical composition, but still the traces were inconclusive.

Snapping his eye back to normal functioning Harry's hand reached back and pulled his rifle back onto the handlebars again as he looked towards his business partner. They'd need to be moving soon, otherwise they were going to be picked off, either by whatever it was approaching down the road or by an ambush led by the kid, Harry could almost feel the bullets and energy blasts already and his trigger finger was beginning to get twitchy.

Twisting around in his seat Harry looked back towards the Jeep. Neither of the girls seemed to have moved since they left the town and Harry began to wonder if the ambush was a lot closer to home than he'd first thought. Had he fallen for an old trick and let himself be lured out of town by a gang ready to rob him? Perhaps flashing his power cells in the bar hadn't been such a good idea after all.

With one hand on his rifle Harry moved the other onto the handlebars, giving the radcycle's engine a quick pump with his pedal to make sure it was running and ready to go in case the shit hit the fan. He was reassured as the throaty grumble rose between his legs, the comfortingly familiar voice of his best friend letting him know everything was going to be okay.

[_Middle_]

Lincoln chuckled when Has'la offered him so more food. Has'la more or less forced the bottle into Linc's hand, so Linc didn't really have a choice. Lincoln looked at the water for a bit, and looked up at Harry. Harry didn't seem to comfortable hanging around, which Lincoln couldn't blame him for. Lincoln chuckled when Has'la asked him if he knew how to use his guns, "Yeah. These babies have been keeping me alive. I guess instead of the father taking care of the baby, these guys have been taking care of me." Linc said looking down at both of his guns with a smirk. Lincoln was surprised when Has'la offered him a job for a salvage run. Linc had some good experience with salvage runs considering that's what he did to keep him and his sister alive. "Yeah, yeah. Of course I can do that." Lincoln said, nodding.

Linc noticed that Harry seemed on-edge about something, then noticed that he was looking towards the horizon. When Lincoln looked down where Harry was looking, he noticed the smudge of dust. Lincoln could only assume that they didn't have good intentions whoever they were. "Well, there's one problem," Lincoln added, taking out one of his pistols. As soon as he did this, he saw Harry fidget in his seat, "Don't worry, I am just gonna say that I ran out of cartridge ammo." Showing the two men the empty cartridge spot. "I am probably gonna need those incase we get into a sticky situation."

[Skepic]

Hanna had barely paid much attention to the boy and her business partner as the man attempted to get the kid back on his feet. She did take note of Harry's body language, quietly citing him under someone to watch out for. A man with a gun on edge will always be a potential threat in her eyes. However, she understood his eagerness to get back on the road. The whole time since they had pulled over, her assault rifle was at the ready, lazily pointed at the kid. She hopped out the jeep, seeing how her business partner just offered the kid a job, it would be a little longer, and wandered over to Harry. Noting him intensely staring down the road, her eyes rested in the same direction. A very fuzzy cloud could be seen, at least a few kilometers away now. She noticed Harry closing one eye, and his robotic eye changing, presumably analyzing the incoming objects. Hanna audibly cocked her weapon, a quiet electric hum now emanating from the gun.

"Well cyborg, it seems if our cowboy here doesn't hurry up, I might actually have something to do today instead of sitting around listening to nothing but Pferdescheiße." She said looking at him with a grin, weapon ready. "I guess this might be your lucky day to see a K99 Todesmaschine in action, ja?" She then turned to the boy and the supposed ring leader of this rag tag group

"Hey Cowboy! Might want to wrap up your saint of the wasteland act, we might end up doing some preliminary looting if you don't. Not that I don't mind, its just usually raiders don't carry anything of use to me."

[Midori]

Although helping strangers in need wasn't necessarily a bad thing T'Lora couldn't help but notice that both of their bodyguards were just as ready to get back on the road as she was. The stranger seemed to have all but withered away in the unforgiving wasteland so she didn't see how he could really be of any help to them. T'Lora wasn't sure what Has'la was thinking offering him a job. She gave her horn two quick taps and leaned out the window. "Hey Has'la, you two can chat in the jeep on our way to the job. Let's get going!" She slumped back in to the driver seat and revved the engine for emphasis.

T'lora reached into her glove box and pulled out a set of binoculars to survey the road ahead. She could see the trademark dust cloud ahead that indicated a vehicle, although she couldn't be sure of it's size or appearance it was clearly moving in their direction. T'Lora started to wonder if she had teamed up with a good samaritan or a fool. Either way she would have to deal with whatever was coming their way eventually.

[SimplyJohn]

@Skepic "Well cyborg, it seems if our cowboy here doesn't hurry up, I might actually have something to do today instead of sitting around listening to nothing but Pferdescheiße. I guess this might be your lucky day to see a K99 Todesmaschine in action, ja?
"Hey Cowboy! Might want to wrap up your saint of the wasteland act, we might end up doing some preliminary looting if you don't. Not that I don't mind, its just usually raiders don't carry anything of use to me."

Harry couldn't help but grin at the spunky young kraut as she moved up beside him. Her attitude mirrored his own impatience and he was almost tempted to invite her to jump on the back of his radcycle so the two of them could head off to find out what was coming towards them first-hand, but it was rash decisions like that that had led to his eye having to be replaced. Not that the new one wasn't better, it just itched like hell when dust got into the workings, and dust always got into the workings.

"You never know, schönes mädchen, one of them might be using a plasma injector as a club or some such madness."

[SimplyJohn]

While he waited for the rest of his party to get moving Harry kicked down the stabiliser on his radcycle and lifted his legs up onto the handlebars, getting himself comfortable. Pulling his rifle up onto his lap the mechanic reached down into one of the many saddlebags he had strapped to his ride and pulled out some dried meat, which he quickly started to chew. If he was going to be killed by bandits at any minute, he'd at least die with a full stomach.

Noticing the little German girl looking at him with confusion he held out one of the other meat sticks grasped in his oil-stained hand. "Turkey jerkey?"^@Skepic He offered, not entirely honestly. Hell, it sounded better than 'dried out three day old thing I scraped off the road'. In his profession Harry had learnt not to waste anything. And by that he did mean anything.

[TheUnknowable]

Has'la motioned the guy over and hopped in the Jeep. Once he was onboard, they set off. About 10km North of Houston, though, he had her slow down. "Ok, the ship is about a kilometer in that direction." he said, looking at his wristcomp and pointing. "Big, red ship, with a bit of corrosion but no openings that I could see. Another hundred meters in, though, and the Alpha radiation starts to increase, so I'd take my rad meds now. I've got some if you need them." He pulled out the bottle and layed it on the seat while he got out, then walked back to the man on the cycle to tell him the same info and ask if he needed any rad meds.

[SimplyJohn]

@TheUnknowable "Ok, the ship is about a kilometer in that direction. Big, red ship, with a bit of corrosion but no openings that I could see. Another hundred meters in, though, and the Alpha radiation starts to increase, so I'd take my rad meds now. I've got some if you need them."

"No need," Harry replied, listening in over his radio, "I brew my own."

Reaching back into his bike's storage compartment Harry pulled out a complicated looking device made of of straps, a syringe, sealed test tubes and a whole lot of tubing. Strapping the thing tightly over his left bicep, the mechanic pushed the plunger on the syringe down until the needle pierced into his vein, letting the homebrew radaway seep into his bloodstream. "Should be good for upto eight hours. I've used this stuff for years, I would share but it can be a little toxic to anyone without a resistance to gecko venom."

"We taking the vehicles any closer, or are we on foot from here?" He asked, peering back over his shoulder towards the horizon. Whoever it had been in the dust cloud back outside of Johnsville had followed them for a while before turning away, either deciding the runners weren't worth the wasted fuel or worried about crossing into another gang's territory. Not that the territory was worth much, all Harry'd seen for hour was rad-scorched wasteland, luckily with most of the radiation down under safe levels now, at least that's what the Geiger counter on his handlebars told him.