NationStates Jolt Archive

A light breeze rustled the leaves overhead, temporarily distorting the jets of mid-day sunlight which penetrated the canopy as the branches swayed. Several birds took flight and began squawking as their particular branches became slightly unstable. The birds circled around just above the thick, temperate forest for a while until they could find new places to perch themselves.

The soft forest floor was littered with vibrant bushes and flowers. Combined with the mystical columns of light which managed to get through the leaves above, it was an eerie yet beautiful place.

Two people disturbed the scene somewhat, however. They pushed through the underbrush as quietly as they could, disturbing the slumber of small animals as they cracked twigs and rustled leaves with every step upon the soft, earthy ground.

A young woman was apparently leading the way. Faith was her name, and 19 years of age she was – not old by most standards, perhaps, but well into adulthood by theirs. She was a slender figure, barely covering her soft, lightly-tanned (if a little grubby) skin with an assortment of roughly-cut leather garments and poorly-made cloth leggings. Her leather boots appeared to be of higher quality, cut from soft leather and elegantly sown together. She probably made them herself. Her scruffy, brown, shoulder-length hair occasionally dangled in front of her attractive face, which sported a pair of dazzling green eyes. The bow she carried in her left hand, and the fact that despite her skin being soft and radiant it was marked with dirt, suggested she spent a lot of time outdoors. Which was odd considering that typical women of the Ravenclaw tribe would traditionally have been ‘given’ to a husband by the age of 14. Her father was far from traditional, though. It may also be of some surprise that this forest dwelling girl was the daughter of a very powerful nobleman, though she rarely told anybody. Including the man called Vigil.

The fellow who followed her looked most uncomfortable in this natural environment, unlike Faith who appeared to revel in it. He was a noble, 25 years of age, who went by the name of Vigil. He wore a decidedly more elegant, yet wholly impractical set of clothing. A white wrap-around toga-like piece of fabric covered his pale skin. It appeared to be made from a silk-like fabric, but by now it was so dirty and torn that it could have been made from anything. Vigil was cautious with every step, apparently fearing the attentions of some imaginary carnivorous creature. This man had obviously never left his servants behind on any trip in his life.

“You stink, peasant!” Vigil suddenly came out, referring to the ‘natural’ odour which the woman carried with her. Years of exploring the forest and sleeping rough could do that to a person, of course. He was mostly irritated that yet another branch had torn into his silk clothing, though. Each time it happened, he found something new to complain about.

“There are no servants to bathe me out here, sire,” Faith sighed, not even stopping to look at him. “Ordinarily I would use the nearby river, but ‘somebody’ in this forest has an inexplicable fear of nudity… besides, some people quite like the smell…”

“Well it is common dignity!” the man harrumphed. “You do not simply strip off in a pond – it is simply not done!”

“Dignity?” Faith said thoughtfully. “That’s what nearly forced us to turn around and go back to the city because you couldn’t excrete without the presence of a dozen servants and a golden pot, isn’t it? Seems like a pretty useless concept to me.”

“That is why I am the noble and you are the peasant,” the man said, rather ignorantly. He appeared pleased with himself, though it faded quickly when she didn’t respond how he might have liked her to.

The two kept walking for some time in silence once again, pushing through the lush forest at a decent pace. It was quite obvious that Faith was physically fit, having lived outdoors for the majority of her life. The nobleman was on the opposite end of the spectrum, having never lifted a finger in his life, and thus his slightly protruding gut was more of a hindrance than anything else. He puffed and panted, sauntering along quite slowly as he occasionally tripped on logs, and sweating so much he rivalled the moisture of the world’s largest waterfall.

Faith sighed as she heard yet another tear followed by an angry growl. Any second now…

“Are we nearly there yet? Do you even know where they are?” he shouted. He stopped walking as she turned around and furrowed her pretty face into a scowl.

“Listen here ‘golden toothed man’,” she snapped. “This entire forest is my home and I know it better than anyone alive. If you would stop moaning so loudly that you have attracted the attention of every single predator in the entire forest, we would get there a lot sooner!”

Vigil looked angry at first, shocked that any would speak to him in such a fashion. His face then suddenly turned to an expression of child-like worry.

“Every… single… predator…?” he gulped. She pulled her full lips up in a mischievous grin as she saw his face.

“Oh yes,” she nodded. “Can’t you smell them? Or hear them? We are being followed by many wild cats, and even a couple of bears I would say.”

“…are you certain?” he asked.

“You really can’t smell them?” she asked. “They are definitely there. We are downwind of them, fortunately, but you keep shouting and giving away our position. You must stop talking – I can’t shoot them all, there are too many!” She tapped her bow gently.

“But we must…”

She stopped him by holding up her hand, looking around as she heard something.

“What now?” he demanded nervously.

“Shh, I can hear something,” she whispered, cupping one of her ears. She dropped to a crouch, dipping into the underbrush. Reluctantly, the nobleman did the same thing.

“What is it?” he hissed.

“Can’t you feel that? The ground is rumbling, ever-so slightly…” she said, placing her delicate fingers against the ground and digging them into the soil. “A herd of animals is nearby, I think. Big animals. And can you smell smoke…?”

She turned her head and sure enough, a big plume of black smoke was forming some distance behind them. Even Vigil heard a loud explosion coming from that direction. He nearly jumped into a tree as he span his head in response.

“Let’s run in that direction!” Vigil whispered loudly, pointing in the exact opposite direction to the plume of smoke and the strange sounds.

“Very brave of you, sire,” Faith said mockingly. “No, we must head that way. If it is a forest fire we must douse it. If it is something else… we must warn the city.”



Despite his protests, the two began the long trek towards the plume of smoke. They stopped only for a drink as they passed a lake, and then continued towards it. The closer they got, the louder the sounds became and the more they could feel the ground shaking as though a herd of elephants were running nearby. It wasn’t until they were quite close that the sounds simply stopped. The two paused for a while, waiting in the bushes as they imagined some large predator was going to jump out at them at any second. But nothing happened, and the plume of smoke began to get thinner as the minutes went by.

Faith was the first to push some branches aside and look into the clearing. The crackling of fire was quite near now, and tantalisingly curious. She fell backwards and began to breathe quickly almost as soon as she did.

“What is it?” Vigil asked, working himself into a panic.

“I… don’t know,” she gasped. “I have never seen anything like it before. It looks dead, but…”

Vigil plucked some courage from deep within himself, and stepped forwards, pushing aside the bushes.

He was presented with a curious scene. A large clearing in the forest, apparently not a natural clearing, had apparently become a graveyard for a large number of peculiar creatures. These creatures were not like any he had seen before, though. They were huge metal beasts, with no recognisable features whatsoever. They had a series of wheels beneath them, with strange belts stretched around them, and large ‘noses’ protruding from the front. Or at least, what he thought was the front.

All of the metal corpses burned, with smoke and fire spewing from their various orifices, their metal skulls cracked open horribly as though hit with the force of the gods themselves. Some of them even had what looked like dead people hanging out of their ‘heads’.

“They look to be deceased,” Vigil whispered back. Faith stood up and cautiously poked her head out of the bushes. When she was satisfied that she couldn’t smell, see or hear anything other than the flames that burned on these strange creatures, she stepped out into the clearing for a closer look. Vigil stepped out after her, apparently taking cover behind the woman like a coward – whatever spark of bravery he’s found had apparently dissipated.

“What manner of beasts are these…?” Faith pondered out loud. She reached out and gently touched the hot metal husk of one of the beasts with her fingertips, half-expecting it to roar to life and devour her. No such thing happened.

“They look like man-eating monsters, made from metal,” Vigil said, and pointed at one of the ‘monsters’ that had a dead man hanging from a hatch on the top. “Look, it has regurgitated one of them.”

They surveyed the devastation, avoiding the masses of debris while looking at each of the beasts in turn. They were nearly finished looking at each of them for clues as to what they were, when Faith dropped down once again.

“I hear something, coming closer,” she whispered. He nodded, feeling the vibrations in the soft ground also. A deep rumbling sound, growling and growing louder by the minute. “Get back behind the trees, quickly.”

The two scrambled across the ‘graveyard’, jumping over chunks of metal and shattered logs and plunged back into the forest.

Their timing couldn’t possibly have been better. Almost as soon as Faith’s soft leather boots dug into the ground did one of the massive metal creatures smash through the underbrush on the other side of the clearing. It rumbled and growled menacingly as it moved rather mechanically on its ‘tracks’. Faith held up a moistened finger, making sure they were downwind of the enormous, menacing creature. Two men – dressed in bizarre clothes – walked ahead of the beast, carrying strange black sticks in both hands.
Another creature burst out just behind that one, following it. They dodged whatever debris they could, or simply smashed into the broken husks of their fellow species and rammed them to one side. Seven of the creatures rumbled across the clearing before disappearing into the forest on the other side. They appeared to stick to areas of the forest with young trees, so they could simply plough their way through. But this meant that it would take them a very long time to get even close to the city.

“We have to return to the city,” Faith said after a while, standing up once the metallic monsters were gone.

“Did you see those people on the tops of those creatures…?” Vigil asked. “They looked to be controlling them… and those people walking ahead of them were doing so without being attacked…”

“We can think about it later, but right now we have to run,” Faith said. “They didn’t look very friendly, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they killed those other creatures. Now let’s go!”

Vigil sighed. He was still tired from their many days of hiking. He had no idea where Faith got her energy from, but she was going to use it. He struggled to run after her as she took off into the deeper regions of the forest.

OOC >>> Bump.

OOC: That looks excellent.

How would one go about joining in?

OOC >>> Thanks. Well, you could be the owner of those destroyed tanks, or the live ones. Or you could just have some random exploration team snooping around. Whatever floats your boat really, so long as no-one decides it'll be fun to come in and carpet-bomb the place or something equally decisive. Maniacal genocidal dictators need not apply :p. But other than that I'm fine.

The jungles of the island were moist, hot, and uncomfortable. The Red Tide Mafia Of-Capo(a fancy name for officer), Adre'ych Alexander Narmonov, was sweating like a pig.

"The scrapyard should be coming up." He thought.

Finally the tractor infront of his car crashed through the trees and into a clearing. The car followed the clear path, followed by a FAT-V(a more advanced version of a Humvee) with a mounted 15.5mm heavy machine gun, behind that was a rented eighteen wheeler to carry off any spare parts they found. The tractor moved to the side and the car followed into the clearing. Smiling, Narmonov got out of the car, sunglasses reflecting as he looked at the scrapyard of tanks.

"Good thing we were told of these scrapped tanks. We can get spare parts off of them." He thought.

He looked them over, they appeared to be M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks. Good, they would probably find a IR scope, maybe a laser range finder, even a fire control system if they were lucky.

A plane flew over the shore. It was a piston-engined plane, rather noisy and visible. On the bottoms of the wings were two circles, half yellow and half black, the Barkozian insignia.

The copilot opened the door from the cockpit and poked an elven Barkozian officer.

"Eric, time to jump."

Eric Banathelyi got on his feet, obviously strained by the heavy equipment. He had a parachute strap, supplies, a gun, and a camera. He then remembered his mission: he was to try and complete a photo reconnaissance mission and gain valuable intelligence experience. His reward would be a very high rank and an equivalent increase in payscale. He certainly didn't mind.

Elves in Barkozy weren't particularly different from humans. While more numerous, the elves mostly descended from or are refugees and escaped slaves. While a human controls the government, elves have many important positions and form much of the army. Barkozian elves do not have any sort of magical powers and have divorced themselves from much of their 'traditional' mysticism.

The copilot opened the side door, causing air to rush into the cargo area. Eric stood at the door, awaiting his time. The copilot stood behind, looking at his watch.

"Go!"

Eric jumped out of the plane in a most ungraceful fashion and opened his parachute a bit too high. The round parachute offered little in control and opening too high meant going way off the LZ, while opening too low meant becoming modern art on the ground. Higher, of course, was the natural thing to do. The extra height took him past a clearing. He saw it and leaned himself to no avail, trying to land in it. Instead, he found a tree and literally fell through the branches until he was hanging from his parachute. The younger elf looked down and noticed his predicament.

"Damnit!"

The agent then took out his survival knife and reluctantly cut himself away from his chute, sending him to the ground. Eric landed in a completely poor way, his ankle landing sideways, nearly breaking the bone. It was by sheer luck that he was not immobilized there. He slowly tried to get up, but to no avail. Only when he used the assistance of a tree to pull himself up was he successful and then he felt an intense pain. There was good news, though: his equipment remained intact, even the fragile camera.

Eric made it to the middle of the clearing before sitting down out of pain to his ankle. He used the rest to look at his map. The mission allowed him great latitude, so long as he did not cause a diplomatic incident. This was, after all, supposed to be for the experience. It wasn't very well mapped at all, virtually the only feature was the general shape of the island. Maybe this could be fixed and he could do more than waste Barkozian money. Extraction was to be via helicopter if available, otherwise via raft to the nearby destroyer, E-6.

The agent then got up, putting his map away. He had to move, and move he did. The elf made his way out of the clearing with an obvious limp in his walk. He would not be a difficult target for anyone, though he did carry a Mauser C.96 pistol(pic on request).

Pieter Brunmann waited impatiently. The Barkozian agent was late, about twenty minutes late, and this was not good. He re-checked his equipment, for the third time.
Water? Yes. Pistol? Yes. Reloads? Eight. Watch? Obviously. GPS? Stupid thing had been showing static for an hour. PDW? Yes, it's that heavy thing hanging from my side...
Everything was there, but the agent was not....wait. A rustling in the distance. This amateur was making so much noise that the only way to expose himself any more would be to shout. It couldn't be the agent...?
Pieter lay prone in a dense cluch of ferns as the man limped into view. No mistaking those ears.
He stood up again.

"You're late"

OOC: Zup. Tribe says s/he's going to be away for a bit, but should be back on Thurs. Oh, and we're in a bit of woodland, Bark. In case you wanted to rp the environment. I figure most of the island(?) is forested.

Both of the weapons he's carrying are detailed on my storefront, but just to brief.
Verghastinsel Armaments Maschinenpistole 1995 Model 3 - MP95M3 (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/Verghastinsel/MP95M2.bmp)
Verghastinsel Armaments Pistole 2004 Model 1 - P04M1 (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/Verghastinsel/P04M123.bmp)

Eric stood and leaned against a tree to rest his bad ankle. He carried a handgun that seemed kind of odd-looking. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/C96-5_.jpg)

"The plane was late, and I didn't have a comfortable fall.

Were you expecting Tolkien?"

He handed Pieter one of his cameras and looked around.

"Have you any idea which way we should go?"

OOC: You do realise that the bullets sticking out of the top of that pistol are actually on a stripper clip, so they can be easily loaded? You just push it down and the whole thing dissapears into the gun. The idea of detatchable magazines hadn't really come around then, as the gun is a pre-WWI model.

IC: Pieter looped the camera over his head, "There's the best part of an armoured regiment about five miles north, with a division of infantry behind. They're travelling on the only road through the forest fit for heavy vehicles. Could be more behind, but I didn't have the time to find out"

He took a packet of cigarettes from a pocket, offering one to Eric.

"I've come across a couple of soldiers in the woods, I think they're piquets for the main force"
He smiled an unnerving smile, "I only have one uniform right now, but if we see another we can get you one too"

OOC:Are you guys referring to my Mafia Thugs? Because the Red Tide Mafia DOES have tanks.

OOC:Are you guys referring to my Mafia Thugs? Because the Red Tide Mafia DOES have tanks.

OOC: No, Red. I was on about the guys you're scavenging from.

He two ran through the forest at speed, ducking beneath branches and leaping over fallen logs and underbrush as they went. Faith repeatedly had to turn around and lift Vigil to his feet because he had tripped over something, but despite this they made good time.

“What is that?” Vigil said, pointing behind him and paying absolutely no attention to where he was going.

A strange humming sound in the distance had made its way to their position. He pointed at a flying metal bird, flying across the distant shoreline. It almost looked as if it was ‘relieving itself’ in a giant fashion, as something tumbled away from it as it fell.

“I don’t know, but we can’t stop – look where you’re goi…”

There was a loud thud, followed by the sound of a body hitting the soft ground. Faith stopped and turned around. Vigil had run straight into a large tree trunk, and topped over to his back. She sighed and bent down, making sure he was alive.

“Silly fool,” she sighed. “I can’t wait for you to wake up – I will come back for you later.”

She backtracked some distance and made sure there were no tracks leading back to his unconscious body, and then began heading back. She moved faster without his encumbrance.

Within an hour she burst out of the thick forest and into a clearing, of sorts. Ravenclaw City, in all its old-fashioned glory, lay ahead of her. Wooden buildings on the ground, buildings perched high in the treetops, with wooden overhead walkways connecting them all, all surrounded the central square. The city itself was covered by the canopy of the forest, but some buildings were quite close to the top. Columns of light streaked down to the ground, keeping the city moderately bright.

She looked around briefly, marvelling at it. She did not enter the city very often; in fact, she hadn’t been back here for several years. People bustled around, wearing all sorts from rags, to silk, to hardly anything at all. The rickety spiral stairways that led up the thick tree trunks were full of people going up and down between the various levels of the city, as usual, as were the streets on the ground. It was market day, apparently, and people were determined to go about their business.

Pushing through the crowds of people, she made her way up one of the spiral staircases and onto one of the wide walkways. Stalls stood at the sides of the walkways, hocking their various wares in a loud and unashamedly blatant way. She was grabbed by several of the merchants and offered various things she could never have a use for – everything from rugs to kitchen utensils. The blacksmith worked hard on his latest technological advancements; he was renowned across the island for his sophisticated, ultra-sharp swords. Nobody quite understood his metallurgic methods, but hopefully his son would continue the trend when his father passed on to the next world. Faith hoped so anyway, as she owed a lot of her arrow heads, and her knife, to that blacksmith.

She followed the walkways around several trees and past several buildings until she reached the largest building of all. The House of Elders, home of the most powerful nobles in the land. Between them they owned half the city, and administrated the rest of it, and kept the wilderness and nearby villages as safe as they could. Taxes went to them, which they then distributed to workers to build and maintain the walkways high in the trees, as well as to the militia who guarded travellers from animals and some less-civilised tribes deep in the forest.

This was where she needed to go. She entered through the wooden door, her first time indoors for many, many years, and looked around at the elegantly designed room she was presented with. A guard attempted to ask what her business here was but she pushed past him, nearly breaking his arm when he attempted to grab her shoulder. Through a maze of corridors, she finally found it.

The doors opened to reveal the main chamber. An amazing domed roof, with golden decorations painted into it. White-painted walls with murals of mythology on them. And seated in a circle were all 20 of the Elder Nobles, discussing various issues that would have bored her to tears. They all looked over at her as she pushed into the room followed by several shamed guards.

“We have a serious problem!” she panted as the guards grabbed her to make sure she didn’t get any closer to their leaders.

“Sorry Sires,” the lead guard said desperately. “She… took us by surprise. It won’t happen again.”

The Elders simply looked in silence, glaring at the guards.

“I… uh… will escort her out now,” the guard said, turning to leave.

“You will do no such thing,” one of the old men spoke up, standing to his feet. “Faith, what are you doing here? Where is Vigil? Did you find the ruins?”

“Sorry father,” Faith panted. The very mention of the word father caused all of the guards to instantly release their grip on her and stand back, bowing their heads. She couldn’t have cared less about such formalities, and ignored them. “Vigil is still in the forest. I had to leave him to get here as quickly as I could.”

“Is it not enough that you let your daughter gad about around in the wilderness without a husband?” another elder called, annoyed. “Now you let her interrupt our meetings as well?!”

“She would not do so without reason,” her father snapped at his peer, and then looked back at his grubby daughter. “I trust… you have reason?”

“We saw… creatures, in the forest,” she said. “I have never seen such beasts before. They were made from metal, heavier than a herd of florrin, and louder than a flock of seeker birds! There were some dead, with holes in their great metal skulls and flames pouring from the cracks in their skin. As there were people hanging from these holes, we assumed they had eaten them, but… then we saw live ones. With people walking beside them, and even riding them! They were heading towards the city, through the patches of young trees…”

“What madness is this?” another elder shouted. “Beasts of metal? You must take us as fools! Where is Vigil?”

“He saw them too, I will return to take him home,” Faith assured them. “But I needed to hurry and warn you of this threat. And it is real, I swear to you. Father, have I ever lied to you before?”

“No…”

“You must call upon the militia to guard the city, and ask people to stay indoors as much as they can,” she told them. “Such beasts will not be able to get here through the forest any time soon, but when they do we need to be ready! I also fear we may have seen some kind of gigantic metal bird, but I do not know for sure…”

“We will consider your words, woman,” an elder snorted. “Beasts of metal indeed! Escort her out, guards.”

Her father frowned at her as she was dragged from the room, unsure of what to believe.

OOC >>> Sorry for being later than I said I would be, but I've been fairly busy lately and didn't have chance to post anything. Hopefully I have sorted everything out now, though.

Eric shook his head.

"I don't smoke, and I doubt a uniform would do me any good. It would be nice to ascertain the direction of the armored regiment's movement, it might lead to something useful. Let's head in that direction."

The two of them walked northward until they came across a fat man on the ground.

"Hey.. look at that guy. Looks like something straight out of ancient history."

Eric slowly checked his pulse. To his bewilderment, this man was alive. The young Barkozian elf was completely overwhelmed by this.

"He's alive."

After the surprise waned he quickly stepped back and snapped a picture, hopeful it would be a discovery in history.

Narmonov had loaded up all the goods they found. They were extremely lucky here. More then one of the tanks had their fire control systems, laser range finders, AND IR Scopes intact. Narmonov took one last look at the scrapyard, then he climbed into the car. The rest of his men climbed back into the bulldozer and the Humvee. They began moving deeper into the jungle, hoping to find more scrapyards.

Faith caught the rickety wooden rail as she was shoved out of the building. Had it broken just then she might have toppled over the side, likely followed by several of the guards as their masters punished them for her death. Fortunately it held, and all the guards got was a scowl from her as she looked over her shoulder at them.

She looked around, unsure of what to do next, until she suddenly remembered that Vigil still lay unconscious in the wilderness. Had he woken up by now she could probably follow his screams. But first, she needed to pay a visit to the blacksmith…

***

Vigil suddenly bolted upright, clonking his head on the tree trunk almost hard enough to knock himself back down again. He looked around, rubbing his sore head, and as his eyes focussed he saw two people. Or were they people? They were dressed strangely, carried bizarre devices designed similarly to those carried by the beastmasters he had witnessed earlier, and they were both looming over him ominously…

He screamed and jumped to his feet (well, ‘jumped’ is an exaggeration…), quickly looking around and grabbing the nearest stick he could find. He waved it around to force them to back away, all the while he shouted in his own language, “get back, get back! Who are you? Get back!”

Pieter quickly stepped back as the man started shouting, his PDW appearing in his hands. The man swung a thick stick at him, and continued to shout.

"Eric, this idiot is going to get us shot!" snarled Pieter.

The elf was staring at the man, and barely registered him speaking, "What?"

"Eric..." started Pieter, but decided against continuing. He looked at the stranger again, who was now backed up against a tree, and shouting a single word. Pieter dropped his weapon, and put his hands out, palms forward. He edged towards the man.

"Look, you have to be quiet. There are a lot of unfriendly people about, and if you don't shut the hell up then they are going to find us..."

The man panicked, and flailed with the stick. Again, he shouted. Pieter grabbed the stick, and twisted it, the man't wrist twisting with it. He pulled him close, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and quickly brought his knee into the man's stomach. He crumpled, and struggled to breath.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" blurted Eric.

"He would have alerted the enemy. I shut him up" Pieter ripped a strip from the man's clothing, and bound his hands behind his back, then blindfolded him with another.

The elf sighed, "Well, let's just try not to beat any more non-combatants senseless, and get on with the damn job..."