NationStates Jolt Archive

((Alrighty take a character and go, please know that this takes place in a nation that was turned into a radioactive wasteland. Have fun and join in.))

No one had ever foreseen what would happen over the next several minutes. Knightly looked our across the remains of the battlefield. The stress of running had taken its toll on him and by now he had begun to slip up. As he staggered out of the bunker that had defended him and Amber for the past half hour he breathed deeply before he felt a slug tear into his shoulder sending him to the ground with a hole in his right shoulder. Amber ran out after him crying out his name and knelt over top of him crying out in fear. “Josh, are you alright? Please don’t die on me,” she pleaded before sensing something behind her.
Alice stood thirty feet away, rifle in hand, aiming at Amber. Alice mouthed something that could easily be mistaken as an apology before she pulled the trigger. Seven rounds flew from the rifle and all seven hit Amber in the back, breaking through her already worn down armor killing her instantly.
Knightly didn’t see Alice fire but he heard the shots and saw the life that once filled Amber’s face vanish in an instant before she fell onto his chest, faint traces of a smile on her face.
Alice felt a tear roll down her face as she approached Knightly, preparing to finish the job she had been assigned and dreading. It didn’t matter then as she heard three gunshots and felt a horrible burning sensation in her chest. Looking down she saw three perfectly placed bullet holes in the center of her chest. She felt her strength leaving her arms and legs, dropping her rifle and falling to her knees before toppling onto her side gasping for breath.
Knightly stood slowly, sidearm in hand, and slowly walked over to her tears streaming down his face.
“Why? Why the fuck did you have to kill her? She just wanted to be with her lover!” he cried at her as he took aim at her heart.
“She’s with her real lover, they’re both dead!” Alice cried back in between gasps, “She was delusional and saw a dead man in you! I was following order just like you were before me!”
“Shut up!” Knightly screamed as he pulled the trigger on his pistol, missing Amber’s neck by an inch.
“If you plan on shooting me shoot me! Just fucking shoot me, it’s your fucking duty!” she snarled at him.
Knightly had heard enough by then and squeezed the trigger repeatedly lodging bullet after bullet into Amber’s chest until the pistol magazine ran dry and the slide locked back. By then the reality of his actions had set in and he fell to his knees sobbing.


Twenty-five years later…
His shoulder still throbbed with pain even twenty-five years after being shot by Alice, since then it was the same dream. Amber’s dead body falling on to his chest and him murdering his best friend in cold blood.
“Hey are you alright,” a female voice said, breaking through his hellish dream and jolting him awake.
“I’m fine,” he replied, getting out of the bed and walking towards the bathroom.
“You know after all these months I can tell when you’re lying,” the woman replied as she sat up, using the blanket to keep herself covered.
“It’s just that…same dream again, the one I have every night. The same day I received this scar,” he quietly said, placing a hand on his right shoulder.
“You know you never told me how you got that scar. After all I’ve done the least you could do is explain what caused it,” she prodded as she to slipped out of the bed and began to get dressed.
“It’s a bullet wound, that’s all. Don’t ask anymore about it,” he said as he to began to get dressed.
“Fine, just open up a little. I mean it’s not exactly easy keeping this hidden from my boss.”
“Whatever,” Knightly said as he reached for his jacket and headed to the door, “I’ll contact you when I need more information.”
“More like when you want a good fuck,” she muttered as he walked out the door, “Ungrateful bastard.”
The dawn had just begun to break in the shambles of what had once been a fort; the sentries had just been changed as Knightly fished in his jacket pockets for a cigarette. Finding one, though slightly bent, he lit it and took a long drag from it and muttered as he exhaled the smoke, “A pitiful attempt at slow suicide.”

A TX-30 ANGEL WING flew through a harsh storm in the skies. Inside was ANGEL UNIT Piolit Michiko Akira, struggled to keep the plane steady. Took her back to the stories of her grandparents and their tales of sea traval.

"This is Unit 88, I'm caught in a massive storm, stableizing troubles over."

The radio was garbaled. Lightning flashed brightly, her engin sputterd out on her left wing. "Damn it, I hate atmospheric flying."

"I've lost engin one, can anyone read me over?"

He plane started to dip, she pulled back on the control stick hard, untill she got the plane level, then managed to crash it. It dragged several feet before stopping.

The controll pannle was badly damaged, it didn't seem like she could send out the homing signal. "This is Angel Unit 88, I've crashed landed, and I'm straded. Any one there, over?

She figured she should walk to the nearest town. She busted open the hatch, and got out in the rain. She unravled her pink poncho, and started walking.

The storm that had begun only hours before was already in full swing, only a fool would walk out admits the radiation and the harsh desert winds without any protection than the cloths on their back. Knightly loved these times, hoping and praying that he'd finally be killed and his life that seemed to be his hell.
As he stepped through the smaller doors in the fort's walls and into the shantytown that had formed around it something caught his eye, the few guards that patrolled its streets looked up at a rare sight, a plane. Knightly looked up at the sight and studied it, his years in the military had led him to be able to tell apart any PSN fighter craft from whatever else took to the skies above the ruined nation.
As it fell several egger scavengers watching the event, in their makeshift environmental armor, began to take to the streets to see what they could recover from this aircraft.
“I have to see this,” he muttered, throwing the drenched cigarette aside and following them out to the wasteland, pistol in hand.

After only a hundred meters most of the scavengers had turned back leaving only the diehard and the insane to make their claims, with Knightly right behind them prepared to deal with them when something further ahead caught his eye, something pink moving towards them.

She saw people. "Hey!" She shouted, "Hey! Over here. Need help!"

The rain batterd down on her. She was glad for her poncho.

By then the scavengers were close enough to hear and see her, thus meaning to shoot at her. As the few the remained lifted their weapons to open fire five gunshots were emitted and five muzzle flashes from the darkness could be seen, all five headshots dropping the scavengers before they themselves could open fire and kill the newcomer.
"You picked the worst place on Earth to crash," Knightly called out to the figure as he holstered his pistol.

She pulled out a flash gernade. It wasn't lethal but it was enough to blind you for a short while. It was also her last. All her weapons she left behind.

She fled for some cover any cover

"There's no point in running, this is a wasteland. A radioactive hellhole that once was populated by over a billion people. Now if you plan on enjoying this hellish storm in the remains of whatever the hell you were piloting," he called out, "Would I kill you if I just saved your life, besides it'd be a waste of bullets."

She pulled out her I.D.

"Michiko Akira, Angel Unit, Space Guardians."

"Well then Michiko my name is Knightly, Joshua Knightly. Let me be the first to welcome you to the closest thing to hell Earth has to offer, the radioactive graveyard of Phalanix," he called out as he approached her, "Now then, what to do."

"My God what happend to your nation?"

"Third civil war, it was going all fine and dandy in system but of course right at the end the AEN did something stupid and suicidal. Five cruisers defolded in orbit of Earth and bombarded the nation, probably killed at least a billion people before being delt with by other ships in the area. Of course by now that civil war should be over now and a fourth one firing up out their between the remaining systems for all we know. Of course I only survived because I left the armed forces after the second civil war twenty-five years ago, not a pleasent time," he said, stoping infront of her, "You should be glad you didn't fly over the mountains, some of the air-defense weapons are still active. You'd be dead before you hit the ground."

"I see. I see." She knew and heard of nuclear holocausts, but never seen one her self. "Is there no way to contact out side? I need to call my comanders." She also hopped they could do a restoration program of this place. Idealistic maybe, but it's what she wanted.

"Unless you want to venture into Fallen Angel's pass, Paladin, or find a military base that hasn't seen the rain of plasma," he responded, brushing water from his face, "Oh just to let you know if you have any anti-radiation meds, start taking them. If not I suggest you prepare for a nasty bout of radiation sickness."

"It's no problem, we are all encoded with a Radiation Antibodi, when we enlist for the Space Guradians. I should be fine. Is there at least a place I can seek refuge for the night, out of the storm?"

"Good, because anti-rad nano's are hard as hell to come by here," He said, "Yes the fort over there, but I'd suggest gathering all your belonging's from your craft before the next group of scavengers come out in the morning."

"I'm fine, nothing more I have to gather from the craft."

She tredded on to the fort. It was warm and dry inside, she hopped she could have a bed, but she wasn't one to compalin. She's slept on the hard ground before, and even in her ship.

"Freaking outsiders," Knightly muttered as he jogged after her.
He was about to warn her that she had just entered into the deathclaw kennels.
"Don't move!" he hissed as several of the oversized beasts turned towards the door half expecting to be feed.

Outside several of the keepers ran over after seeing the light from the kennels shining.

((A Deathclaw (http://usuarios.lycos.es/ssluna/deathclaw-attack.jpg)))

She was taken back by the large beast. She reached for her gun holster forgetting it was empty. Her blaster was ruind on impact

Knightly quickly griped her by the scruff of her clothing, pulling her outside and slamming the door shut.
"If you ever value your life don't just walk into rooms. That thing could have easily torn you to bits if you even shot it with a plasma rifle, just remember it next time you try something so stupid," Knightly swore at her, "Remember this place is the closest thing to the physical manifestation of hell."
He turned to the trainers and yelled at them, "Next time lock the freaking door."

"Sorry."

"Sorry won't save you from a bullet or a claw, remember that," He snarled, "Now follow me, there is a hotel where the barracks are." He began to walk through the thining rain towards the barracks.

She followed him closely