[IC] Hell on Earth

[Thantos]

New York City, well, what's left of it anyways. After the falling of the bombs the city became a crumbling death trap, hardly anything worth remembering still stands and the people that didn't make it to safety in time became shadows on the wall. The Outlands are filled with dangers, bounty hunters, raiders, slavers, even the infamous Dread Riders. Dollar bills don't cut it anymore. Only thing that is worth money out here is caps and anything that means law out here is bullets, it all started when YOU left the safety of the Vault

Found out that life out here was tough and you did what you could to survive. I doubt you all would recognize each other, just know that if you think really hard. You...might just...Remember...

August 17, 2354...

a man was running covered in blood, panting in a panic, he stopped to catch his breath and looked around and there was the sound of a armored covered foot hitting the ground and he looked over his shoulder and could see a figure in the distance and kept running, he turned the corner and looked left and right and ran into a building on the left. And kept going to the he was stopped and he hid in a broom closet on the 16th floor. The armored covered man that followed turned where the man turned and looked left, then right. He looked at his wrist and pressed a button and his visor hummed and scanned the ground for a heat trail. He turned left and exhaled and dirty air came out of the helmets vents. He walked into the building on the left and followed the heat trail up to the 16th floor. He stood in front of the broom closet and the man inside pulled out his gun and fired 6 shots That pinged against the armored plated chest. The armored man clenched his fist and pulled his fist back and punched through the door with his power fist, grabbed the man and pulled him out shattering the door. "Mr. Hilton, for the actions of murder and rape. You have a bounty on your head for 400 caps. Time to cash in." And with that the armored man set him down, broke off the ring finger and punched him out a window from the 16th story. The armored bounty hunter looked out the window as man once known as Mr. Hilton hit the ground dead. "Justice is collected." The armored man walked out of the building and walked over to a armored car and pressed a button on his knuckle and the car opened. He took off his helmet and got in the car and placed the helmet on the passage seat and shut the door, and opened up a computer terminal in the dashboard and typed in a notice to collect his bounty. He confirmed that the target was dead, and pulled up the wanted list and saw that Hilton was X'd. He closed the terminal and started up his armored car and drove away from his kill to go collect his caps.

While driving across the Outlands he made a stop by his home in a abandoned garage, he got out of his car and looked around as he shut his gate and locked it and walked into his house. He turned on the security system outside and the turret on his roof started to scan the perimeter and a protectron and Mr. Gutsy walked the perimeter. While inside the man walked over to a desk with computer on it. 'Name and voice recognition' the man smiled. "Brett Mathis" the computer logged in and pulled up a lot of information on other targets. Unlocked his safe and pulled out a bag of caps and pulled out 400 caps and placed them in his shoulder compartment.

[MonsieurShade]

A figure quietly moved through a neighborhood that at one point had undoubtedly been a bustling neighborhood filled with all sorts of people. Some good, some bad, some a bit of both, though that hardly mattered now. The lines between good and bad were a thing of the past, having long since been trampled, blurred, and smeared in the blood of those who would do anything to survive. People like the man moving listlessly through the neighborhood as if he were sight seeing. Physically speaking, the man was fairly unremarkable in appearance; his clothes were covered in a combination of dirt, tears, and sloppily sewn together patches to cover even larger tears. His face was just as rugged as his clothing, covered in bandages and scars that, while considered tame -even mundane- in this day and age, would have made most cross the street to avoid him several centuries ago. The only thing on this man that was actually worthy of being given pause was the string of severed fingers that was tied around his neck, seven in total, and all of them in various states of decay.

The man snorted and spat onto the pavement as he approached a fenced in garage, casting a weary glance at the turret, protectron, and Mister Gutsy as they took aim at him. The man held his breath for a moment, wondering if perhaps he would be mistaken for an intruder rather than an ally. The breath would be blown out quite audibly as one by one the machines would turn away from him and resume their previous activities. "Those things are going to malfunction any day now, I swear..." He muttered as he reached out and rattled the gate, "Hey Brett, you in there man? It's me Dimitri! Turned out West Virginia was a treasure trove!" He shouted, heedless of whomever would be around to hear. The man -Dimitri- pulled the finger necklace from around his neck, not even flinching at the scent of decay that emanated from the digits. Dimitri had long since become adjusted to the smell of rotted flesh and death, it came with the territory after all. Even if he were still squeamish about the smell, the fourteen hundred caps to be received for turning in all of the fingers was more that enough to make him put up with it for a while. Dimitri smirked as he jingled the string of fingers for a bit, pleased with his work. With seven hundred caps to be split between Brett and himself Dimitri figured that he could potentially squeeze a night or two of food and refuge out of Brett before he moved on again, maybe even a bottle of whiskey to boot if he caught Brett in a good mood.

[Thantos]

Brett looked outside and turned of the security system and opened the gate and went over to the Ham radio and through the loud speakers he spoke. "Come on in Dimitri, I got a location for your next target from HQ, and we have to head to HQ in a few days." He got up and unlocked the door, and turned on the lights to the house, both he and Dimitri, we're high level bounty hunters and it's no laughing matter. High level bounty hunters are top class and dangerous to get in the way of. Brett, became known as the Steel Bruiser, because of his 298th contract. A target hired 500 raiders to protect him and Brett wearing his black steel power armor and wielding a power fist. He caved in the chests, broke the necks, shattered the spines of each raider and when he reached his contract he broke each bone before crushing the skull like a pancake under his boot, and took his finger.

[Tarantulass]

It hadn't been that exciting day for Zanny so far... though that was mostly due of her still sleeping over the early afternoon on the roof of an apartment building. When not in habitable spots of the city, she preferred outside at her campsites greatly... mostly due of no-one else thinking the same way. Sure, the cover from rain was nice, but then you also had competition. Zanny really couldn't handle competition as there were people who were good in what they did and then the people who would be biting dust due of the former people... and as much as Zanny didn't want to think of that, she was most certainly deep in the second department.

The snoring came to abrupt stop as the sun had reached to her eyelevel, Zanny grunting annoyed for a moment before sitting up, her back cracking a little from the movement after the rather uncomfortable spot. She was muddy, wet from the damp atmosphere, dirty... it would seem about time to get a bit of break and go back to the town. Then again, Zanny had been only gathering a little scrap from her few days, not nearly enough to let her have a hot meal, let alone a safe roof, or some clean water. Getting on her feet, Zanny looked down to the half collapsed blocks around her, taking a couple of looks in case of 'opportunities' as she called them. She wasn't too fond of a simple murder, but desperate times called desperate measures, and she got quite the vantage point to take out some lonely scavenger with backpack full of goodies down the street.

[MonsieurShade]

Dimitri let out a heavily exaggerated sigh as he stepped behind the gate. He should have expected Brett to get down to brass tacks the moment he laid eyes on his partner, "Hey Dimitri, how have you been? How was your trip? Why thank you for asking, i'm doing fine and the trip was lovely. Saw the sights, shot people, got shot at. You know the deal." The bounty hunter said sardonically as he entered the garage. Both he and Brett had reputations that preceded them, however the difference in their lifestyles had lead to the two having different levels of infamy, as well as attitudes and methods. Brett was always a bit more serious and brutal than Dimitri, he needed to be considering he took bounties on a slightly more local level than Dimitri, that meant he was well known in the area and had to resort to methods viewed as extreme even in the wastelands. Dimitri on the other hand was more laid back and focused on being crafty rather than outgunning the opposition when it came to how he did his work, his lifestyle had afforded him the luxury of some anonymity in most other states in exchange for the luxury of having a home.

As it currently stood, the only places where Dimitri was more easily recognized were Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and it was only due to the fact that he would frequently pass through those states as he attempted to work his way down the bible belt. "You know, some would find your lack of personal greetings to be rude." Dimitri said rather bluntly as he tossed the string of fingers onto the computer desk and unceremoniously flopped onto the floor. Dimitri stifled a yawn and stretched, hoping the action would disguise the shakes he was getting from ant nectar withdrawal as a shudder from the stretching.

[Thantos]

Brett shook his head and looked at the fingers. "Take it you found a good score." He looked at Dimitri as his computer started to go off. He looked at it and started typing. "Well I'll be damned, another good score. 50,000 caps for the heads of three." He pulled up the info. And smiled as he grabbed his helmet and looked at his partner. Requires two. Looks like they found a way to make us work together. Grab enough for your addictions, I got plenty in the car. Load up. We leave soon. I gotta take you anyway cause you know the Outlands better than the City Skirts." He grabbed his gauss rifle and a bag full of plasma grenades and ammo for the gauss.

"The targets are all together and then we can head to HQ, might as well collect the bounty while we head there."

[VATROU]

Joslyn Atoms

The morning was bright and clear by wasteland standards, Joslyn had just woken up in a hotel room as a man rolled over beside her. She looked over her shoulder and decided it was best to get up and leave before he too awoke. The settlement laid before her window a small town located on the foot of a mountain of skyscrapers that had long toppled over crumbling and rusting. A place called the Foothills, where law was nonexistent save a do good-er here and there. Joslyn had broken up a fight just last night over a lost bet between two gamblers. She preached the good news and to no surprise not a soul listened to her. Such was life in the wasteland.

But Joslyn had a goal, somewhere in these ruins was a Cult that took the young and scarified them to their god. And as a Templar of the Abby of the Road it was her job to put a stop to it. She had tied the laces to her boots as she took her gear in hand. Her shield in her left hand her laser scatter gun in the other. And the rest strapped to her back. The sleeping man groaned as he turned over yet again but by the time he would awake Joslyn would be gone and he just a few caps less.

The townspeople shambled as they moved about listlessly, they just tried to survive until the next day. Some who believed in the faith that the Abby preached saw Joslyn as a light shining in the Darkness, others saw her as just another disillusioned Cultist who spat nonsense. But Joslyn despite how hopeless it all looked faced the day head on. As she gathered information on this Local Cult.

[Master Crim]

Kyle laid out on a hill with a pair of binoculars scoping out the gate to a small slum outside of the main city. He watched as people casually walked out at different times waiting for a certain person. Just a few days before Kyle had been in that slum playing poker with a few guys, but the game seemed to be going pretty one way with most of the other players standing only a few hands in. Kyle, on the other hand, was determined, or addicted. Kyle wanted to show this guy up, but it was too late when he had figured out that he was cheating. This low life was cheating people out of their hard earned caps, but Kyle was going to expose him for the fraud he was. This was a great plan, if Kyle hadn't just lost all his money and now looked like just a loser wanting to get his money back from a card king. This is what put Kyle where he is now, waiting to show this guy that cards and friends a rich man does not make.

It was almost all day before the cheat finally came out with a group of three other men and two mules. Kyle smiled and whispered to himself. "This will be fun." Quickly Kyle packed himself up, and retreated. The man, on the other hand, had no clue that Kyle was waiting for him, and was getting ready to move his crew to another slum before he gets found out by the locals. Riding atop one of the mules the man hummed a song while patting a satchel with a smile on his face. They walked for about a mile and a half when they heard was sounded like a vehicle coming their way. This was a fairly normal occurrence along these roads as the imposed government used buggies to get to the more secluded areas for tax collecting. The group simply moved to the side of the beaten path, but when they saw what came around the hill the all started to panic and run.

Kyle came around the bend doing about 35mph, he really didn’t know due to the speedometer being busted, but it didn’t take long for him reach the group of panicking men. Kyle struck the man at the head of the group resulting in a short yelp followed by his body flopping down underneath the truck. Acting fast Kyle opened the small porthole on his metal grated window while doing a small power slide around the group and shooting another of the group with his sawed-off. The man recoiled from the shot and fell to the ground as Kyle stopped his slide, but not before striking one of the mules broadside making it flop to the ground. The cheat and his last man were choking on dust while trying to orient themselves for defense. The truck door swung open and the two men opened fire with some small arms pistols then stopped. A few of their bullets missed but most hit harmlessly on the crude armor of the truck. ”Well, go check it out!” the cheat said to his bodyguard. The man slowly made his way to the truck keeping his handgun fixed on the open door, but before he got to the truck another shotgun shot came from under the truck blowing the man’s ankle to pieces. Falling to the ground the man yelled in anger and pain before another shot came to kill him and leave his body marred. The cheat was now over whelmed with fear and began running for his life. The truck seemed to come to life on its own in the man’s panicked frenzy as Kyle began to chase him once more after getting into the truck. ”What did I do to deserve this!?” The man yelled. ”What is this truck from hell!?” It was not very long at all before Kyle caught up to the man and struck him with the truck sending him flying forward a few feet.

Stopping the truck Kyle stepped out watching the man writhe on the ground as he approached. ”I remember you!” The man said after turning to his back to look at Kyle. ”Is this what you do… lose at poker… then track down and kill the winner?” Kyle paid the man no attention as he walked up and cut loose the satchel from the man. The resulted in the man making one last attempt to shoot Kyle, but was stopped when Kyle stabbed his knife through the man’s forearm causing him to yell and drop the gun. Taking his knife back Kyle began to leave. ”Coward! You just going to leave!” Kyle stopped and turned to the man. "Your bleeding internally, have several broken ribs, a punctured lung and are bleeding out at an alarming rate from your arm." He paused as some ungodly creature made am equally ungodly sound in the distance. . "I am not leaving you here, I am just feeding the wildlife." Kyle got into his truck once more and drove off towards the city with his returned money plus interest listing for anything interesting on his CB radio.

[Thantos]

Brett loaded the car with all the supplies he needed and opened a side pouch on his hip and pulled out a cigar and lit it up with a match. He puffed his cigar and waited, "Dimitri, come on Comrade, we got a payment to collect!" He stood there in his power armor, he looked at his terminal and pulled more info on the targets. "Hmmmm. Interesting. These targets all hand out in the same shack gambling." he pulled more detail, and a security footage from the last hour. He watched carefully and noticed a large vehicle speed by and hit the targets, his eyes flared as he watched the man get out of the truck and take something from him and get back in his car and drive off. He then saw a Deathclaw, monstrous creatures and tough as nails, walk up to the target and start to eat him. "DAMN IT ALL" he flared and turned off his monitor. And sighed, "Dimitri, forget the payment, someone just fed our target to deathclaw, he walked in with his cigar and over to the fridge. It was empty. "Well no point in standing around. We need to get food and supplies."

[VATROU]

Joslyn Atoms

A shopkeeper open his locked gate for the new day as people began to meander by. He had his shotgun by his side fully loaded in case those thieves from yesterday come back round. He stepped back inside for but a moment and brought out a broom to sweep the entrance. As he kept a watchful eye a woman strode past him in heavy armor. She was tall and muscular and if he remembered correctly one of them Abby Missionaries. He paid no mind to her until a gunshot rang out a man fired a shot towards a fleeing man. And at that point she bolted after him turning a corner. He could only guess what would happen next.

"Stop right there!" Joslyn called out as she hoofed it after the man carrying a bag of stolen goods. He knocked down some crates and leaped over a rusted car that sat in the middle of the street. A Woman hanging laundry ran inside her home as he fired several more shots off while anyone else still around too cover where they could. "Last warning! Cease and desist or I will open fire!!" The man kept running and ran down an alleyway as Joslyn stopped and took a knee pulling out her revolver and steadying her aim. The man tried to scramble over a fence as she fired into his left thigh. He fell with a thud, and Joslyn gave chase yet again. Finding him slowly crawling away she hopped the fence with difficulty. And stood before him. He aimed his gun at her with his shaky hand as Joslyn stepped forward with her shield raised. "Give up and you yet may live."

"F- You B--" He said as he fired off a round which bounced off the shield. Joslyn sighed and fired twice, once in the heart the other in the brain. "Gonna need to bring back the stolen items. Right better get to that then." Joslyn said as she collected his things and walked back to the Shopkeeper.

[MonsieurShade]

Having been so absorbed in calming the shakes from his withdrawal, Dimitri hadn't been paying full attention when Brett began to explain the score. That is, he hadn't been paying full attention until Brett mentioned 50,000 caps. The bounty hunter's ears tuned in, his brain processed every word that had come before and after the numerical digit until he got the full picture. Dimitri sprung up form his sitting position, shakes be damned as he began to pat himself down to ensure he had everything. This excitement would be quickly quashed and replaced by the urge to scream as Brett returned with a somewhat crestfallen expression and a comment on how a Deathclaw had robbed them of their bounty. "ARE YOU FUCKING- HOW DI- WHY WO- FUCK!" Dimitri screeched in vehement rage as he turned and punched the wall. Dimitri hit it five more times as he lamented the loss of the caps before he settled down, though it was more so from the fact that his hang was now throbbing than it was from his rage subsiding.

He stood facing the wall for a few moments more, breathing in an out deeply as he processed Brett's request to focus on acquiring food now. "We don't stop looking until we've acquired some form of alcohol. I think I could use a drink or six to drown out the howling feeling of loss."

[Thantos]

Brett started the car and waited for Dimitri to get in. Once he was in they sped off for the nearest grocery outlet and Brett slammed on the breaks. A group of raiders just went in, and Brett put on his helmet and looked at Dimitri and opened the back of his car. He got out and picked up the hidden compartment. And revealed another set of power armor like Bretts and gave it to Dimitri. "Suit up. We gotta fight for our grub" he then grabbed his power fist and plasma pistol and opened his ammo pouch and placed plenty of ammo in it.

[MonsieurShade]

Dimitri shot Brett a somewhat exasperated look as the power armor was shoved into his hands. He'd undergone the proper training to use the stuff and was more than capable of doing it in a method that could at least be considered efficient, however he was never a big fan of wearing it. Power armor felt clunky and restrictive to Dimitri, two things that, to a nomad, where to be avoided whenever possible. The bounty hunter sighed and pulled off his jacket, pouches, and holster before donning the armor. One this task was complete he awkwardly went about strapping the pouches back onto the armor and snatched up his revolver before tossing the jacket into Brett's trunk "Here's hoping no one tries to carjack you while we're busy, eh?" Dimitri half joked.

[Thantos]

Brett chuckled as he loaded his weapon and closed the trunk and pressed a button on his wrist and the car was armed. As he turned to the store and walked up to it. "Yeah. Here's to hoping." When he got up to the door of the store he tested it and it was chain locked. "Hmmmm" He then looked at Dimitri "you want to or me?" He asked