Yes, quoting is necessary to provide context, but you don't need to quote the *whole* post. Twice on the previous page, you quoted the entirety of ltemplar's post just to make a small reply.
anyway i hope you got what i'm saying i'm re-editing and removing the huge post. I'm asking nicely consider it a favor to your fellow oni lover ^_^ not demanding nor "backseat moderating".
]]>Certified wrote:It seems you didn't follow your own advice concerning quoting.
quite annoying isn't it ?
I will when you do http://oni.bungie.org/community/forum/v … 229#p45229l
There's a difference between keeping a relevant conversation in a multi-faceted thread and quoting huge posts, which is a thing which typically gets people banned in most forums I frequent.
]]>It seems you didn't follow your own advice concerning quoting.
quite annoying isn't it ?
I will when you do http://oni.bungie.org/community/forum/v … 229#p45229
I will continue this story, it is not over, not yet.
cool
]]>are you going to continue this ?
It seems you didn't follow your own advice concerning quoting.
Yes, I will continue it, I'd say at present it's on a "Mid-season break" for a time while I work on my latest fan fic, VC: The Eastern Heat (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8975771/1/V … stern-Heat).
After all, I can't let this one dominate my hobby, it deserves some rest for now, and besides, my writing was starting to get choppy from how often I was pushing a piece of it out onto here. Simply wasn't enough time to revise with me putting myself on such a rapid schedule. But yes, I will continue this story, it is not over, not yet.
]]>Obersalzburg, EPR
Berghof Estate (Now under Raider control)
A single guard stood by the door to the command center, milling about with a UniTool texting someone. I waved him down, asking for his attention.
"Sergeant, I need to see Commander Nash."
"And you are?"
"Lieutenant Hasegawa"
I flashed my papers in his face for a moment. No care came from his face as he yawned and continued texting
"Holy hell when did you get back? You've been missing for at least a week."
"Just now, Sergeant."
"Eh, whatever, I'll let you into the command center we got set up"
He pulled out a beer, flicking it open and drinking it before he so much as to bothered to type in on the keypad. The door pulled back in automatically for us as we went in.
"Commander Nash, Lieutenant Hasegawa is here to see-"
I pulled back on the front of his head, instantly breaking his neck at at least three different points as he gurgled in his last throws of pain before suffocating.
Yukie Kojira
Four different guards already had their rifles aimed at my head as Nash laughed and smoked a cigar in his little office chair in the center of the room. The table behind him was littered in documents and other plans of his for what I had guessed was some sort of coup against the WCG, or some campaign against the Syndicate.
"Nice entrance, I was wondering when you'd show up."
Commander Jonathan Nash
"Nice entrance, was wondering when you'd show up"
The bitch stared at me in awe, eyeing around the room for whatever she could find. Best guess was that she was a Syndicate spy or one of the stragglers from the Verstosenen. It was painfully obvious she stole that uniform off one of our casualties, I couldn't believe the guard didn't check the tag. She had Kowalski's uniform and claimed to be Hasegawa. Classy. The other soldiers began to advance on her, flipping safeties off.
Her eyes stared into space, suddenly shifting to and glowing red.
"What the-?"
In a moment she flashed across the room, breaking one of the troop's necks. Before any of us could adjust to where she just moved she snapped to the opposite side, mauling another soldier at his throat. Less than two seconds later everyone else sans me had died in similar methods. The next moment she suddenly appeared barely a few inches from me.
"Impressive. Who do you work for? The EPLF?"
Her mouth was agape, her face showing an extreme emotional detachment to what she just did.
"The Sentinels, why do you ask, Prey?"
"Settle down, girl, you remind me a bit too much of someone rather similar. A, Paige Wollcroft?"
"Where do you know that name from, Prey?"
She tilted her head slightly, bending her fingers in like a hawk's talons.
"Just an acquaintance of mine. Why do you care?"
Her mouth slowly opened up even more like it was watering, her eyes staring directly into mine like she was crazy. They glimmered ever so slightly as she began to sniff at me.
"I really don't care where you know my sister from, you just look like a good chunk of protein right now... That smells so foul!"
She fell back, pointing a gun at me as she waved the air away from her nose.
"When did you last shower? Absolutely pungent!"
I couldn't help myself but laugh as she began to sicken from smelling me, like she was about to puke all over the place.
"Three weeks ago. Not my problem that you use unscented soap. Anyway, now that you look like you don't want to devour my flesh and bone, can I help myself but ask what you're doing here?"
"To demonstrate what happens when people like you get in my way."
"How did I? What did I do, madam?"
I tapped out my cigar on the armrest, laughing to myself again as she began to calm down, her eyes returning to green like they were before as she collapsed to the ground from all the energy she used up killing my men.
"Putting the entire force here on alert when I was trying to sneak in. Thanks to you I nearly missed killing Radec as he tried to flee."
"What a coincidence I was going to do that myself. Chlorine style."
"...And that. Chlorine makes things inedible."
"What is with you? What do you see in cannibalism?"
She forced herself up, staring around again and shaking her head
"It's not exactly cannibalism for me..."
"What are you? A Kh'Voz? You know, Kowalski warned me about someone like you, before someone sniped her. Was it you? You're wearing her uniform."
"You're not exactly convincing me not to kill you, Nash. You know too much. My sisters, the Kh'Voz..."
"Say, you got Hasegawa's appearance right. If you didn't kill the doorman you might have had me fooled until I saw the uniform."
She frowned for a moment, staring down as she leaned against the wall. I got up and approached her as she weakened. I slid the pistol out of her holster, taking it for myself as she stood helpless. Moral of the story, don't stall.
"Say, do you know where Hasegawa is, where I can find here?"
"What's it matter to you, Nash? You've gotten in my way twice now. I should have killed you the first time, back in Okinawa."
"If anything, you got in my way back there. Hasegawa and Kowalski got captured, remember? By you? A few of my men got killed. Perhaps we can work out a deal to rectify this. You hand back Hasegawa, and I-"
"You what?"
She burst back into energy and unleashed her claws, putting them up against my throat, ready to tear it out as she nicked my skin.
"Say, does it signify anything if someone seems to know how to decipher how to open the locks of those Kh' relics? I know someone who's opened two of them this past month."
She perked up in confusion as I finished my sentence, entering an almost catatonic state as she came into shock from what she heard
"A... Kh'Voz... You say?"
She dropped to her knees in awe, practically begging me not the shoot her as she became nauseous from my scent.
"Who? Eternal will want to know? You give me the Kh'Voz you have and I'll get her to give up Hasegawa!"
"Since when were we talking about him being a Kh'Voz? Sure, I'll give him to you if it means getting Hasegawa."
"But who is he?"
"Lieutenant Alex Hoff. But how do you think he's a Kh'Voz suddenly?"
"...Only Kh'Voz can easily open the relics..."
She looked like she was about to drool as I placed my hand against her shoulder. She looked at me, backing up.
"Send him to Club Voss in Oslo. I can arrange an exchange to happen. You hand him there, and I'll have Hasegawa sent to you immediately."
I laughed at her, advancing as she fled backwards from the stink emanating from my uniform which had spent too much time in a warzone these past few weeks.
"Of course. Of course my dear... Who are you anyway? We can arrange this over a UniTool call if you just give me your name before you go."
"I... Yukie Kojira..."
"Good... Good... Now leave before I order the guards lined up behind you to unload their entire magazines into you."
She turned around, five of my soldiers sitting silent with their L-IARs locked and loaded and aiming at her this whole time. I laughed at her, motioning her to leave. She nodded for but a moment and fled the room in distress.
"Good work gentlemen. Everyone prepare to move out tomorrow. We're going to Norway territory to rescue Hasegawa. Now, someone go and retrieve Kowalski's uniform from that woman before she's gone. Also, clean up the bodies she left. Their blood is staining this fabulous carpet our hosts had."
]]>Oslo, EPR
Berg Finansiell Building
Alex Hoff
I nearly tripped walking up the stairs here. Why the hell was the elevator in this place still out of order? The staircase up to the seventh floor felt like it went on forever. What the hell was this, the Tower of Babel or something. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath on the third floor, sitting down on the steps to hold onto my head to stop the splitting headache going on for the past several hours. I couldn't tell if it was voices or an incessant white noise driving me mad. I felt like I might claw out the throat or face of the first person I saw at this point. No, no, no. This was all just in my head. For all I knew I was hallucinating in shock after nearly bleeding out from getting shot just below chest-level.
I looked up the stairs, another four flights of hell to get up there. Fuck my life... I slipped on a pair of HUD sunglasses and applied one of the pen-shaped medigel hyposprays that I jacked from that SSC armory into my neck. Even with that boost this was going to feel just as bad, if not worse than John McClane crawling across the floor after getting his legs shot up. I pulled myself up on the railing here, feeling like I nearly broke it in half as I pushed up on it. I scratched into the railing, pulling myself up the staircase, continuing on to the seventh floor. It all passed by like a blur as I tried to suppress every thought going through my head. If I even thought about anything I might have torn one of the people I passed by into shreds.
As I finally made it to the seventh floor I collapsed to my knees, staring down the almost infinitely long hallway ahead of me. I felt paralyzed as I stared ahead in pain, the cocktail of drugs I hypo-injected beginning to kick in on me as the hall began to appear to grow in length. I pulled up on the railing again, beginning to shuffle down the hall looking for room G. A white-noise filled up my head as I pushed on, noticing a woman towards the seventh room of the floor, room G. I fell limp, over onto the door by my side, nearly breaking through it as she walked towards me. There she was, Sarai Ivanov, walking towards me for the kill. Son of a bitch.
She walked by me, staring ahead before she looked down at me, her dyed red hair swaying as she moved her head around. I regained focus for a moment, pulling myself up from my limp as she smiled at me with her creepy blue eyes, whispering towards my ear, her hand just so slightly behind her back out of my view. Her voice sounded like some feminine equivalent of Agent Smith's monotone, like her's always did when she felt, or knew something was wrong.
"...I was wondering when you'd show up, Lieutenant..."
"Kowalski, what the hell's wrong?"
I held my right hand behind my back, clicking my fingers to double-45 angles like claws, ready to grab her by her throat and cut right through it. I stared into her eyes through my sunglasses with wide-open eyes, sniffing at her distinct scent.
"...I don't know... Why don't you tell me, Hoff?"
She began circle-strafing me, as I did in turn. She suspected something, but why should I be surprised? This was Sarai Ivanov, possibly the greatest assassin to have ever lived, or at least, or rather hopefully, a clone of her. Either way, she was dangerous as hell, and murdered at least a dozen of our kind, according to Eternal. Knowing what I knew about the KGB, it wasn't surprising she would be well trained to deal with someone like Eternal, let alone Stalin's political enemies, or even Stalin himself.
"Hoff, tell me, what's wrong? Holding back something? Thinking about your two sisters back in London? How they hold the same terrible secret as you, and not even know it? Are you asking yourself, did it come from your father or your mother? Both? About how you're doomed to be a victim of exploitation by those who want power?"
"What are you going on about, Kolo?"
She put her hand right on the side of my neck, the warmth contrasting the frostbite-tier freeze in the snowy wonderland outside. With the creepy pallor of her skin you'd expect her hand to be room temperature at best, if not deathly cold. Her eyes seemed to almost pierce through my sunglasses, and her voice slowly began to break from the obviously fake English-accent she always had.
"Don't play that with me, Hoff. I know that monster told you everything about me she could tell you. Don't you feel disturbed knowing that there are hundreds of cheap dime-a-dozen knockoffs of your kind, like Lieutenant Commander Hasegawa, most STARRT agents like Jager, and all but two of the SSC's special operations section?"
"Listen, Kowalski, I don't know what you're talking about..."
I couldn't keep bullshitting her forever. Chances are she was thinking about a hundred ways to kill me as she strafed around, as was I in turn. What the hell did she have behind her back? I got ready to claw her throat out, looking for an opening.
"Hehe... Nice sunglasses, Hoff. There's an acute cut at your jugular, likely from injecting a hypospray there, am I correct? The E1K compound found in most hyposprays used to keep the injector sterile for reusage between multiple users usually results in a boost in abilities, along with an exotic change in eye color in Daodan-symbiotes... And Kh'Voz. I could see why you would want to hide that..."
She pulled her hand from my neck, tearing the sunglasses off my face, staring into my eyes which were a bright crimson shade for the reasons she just explained, giggling to herself for a moment. That was it. I swung my hand around, towards her throat, ready to dig right through it with my talon-like nails, or claws, whatever. She sidestepped it swiftly, bringing me down to my knees. She looked down at me a knelt to my level, quickly injecting the hypospray she was holding behind her back into my neck, whatever it was making me drowsy in seconds. It hit me like shark-tranq, paralyzing me right there as I began to black out on me knees. She began to give a creepy whisper into my ear again, her hand holding me by the collar of my shirt as she stopped me from falling and causing a loud bang on the floor.
"...Don't fight it, Hoff. If I let you get into that apartment, Jager and Hasegawa would have had you killed where you stood, even with it being against Nash's direct orders. Just... Just fall asleep, and everything will be fine... Everything's going to..."
I blacked out before she could even finish her sentence, opening my eyes into the black abyss of what looked to be a lucid dream beginning. Well, that was enough proof she didn't poison and kill me at least. I still felt like killing her though. She knew too much anyway, even if she wasn't intent on killing me like the other dozen or so. Well, guess I might have some fun with this lucid dream while it lasted...
]]>Oslo, EPR
SSC armory
Alex Hoff
What the hell was I doing? No, no, this wasn't me, goddamnit. I didn't even know this bastard, let alone come from the same part of the world as him. For all I knew this bastard was on the path to save the fucking world from these gangsters, and shooting him would doom the world to die in global hellfire. And now I was thinking too hard, and made my massive headache worse. I couldn't obey the damned voice. Not my thoughts. Not my thoughts! Fuck, I could barely stop myself from pouncing on the SOB and tearing his throat out. I wasn't going insane now, was I? The CTE6 pistol slipped from my shaking, wobbly hands, down to the cement floor below my feet as Hoover slipped a gasmask on and continued backing up with Dahl in a headlock.
"Good choice, Hoff! She's just going to backstab you if you work with her!"
The red glow in Kojira's eyes increased in intensity as she looked over at me, pissed as hell. Stahl advanced on Hoover's flank, trying to get an angle on him.
"Have you lost your nerve?!"
She quickly slapped her hand across my face with such speed that I saw the air around her arm get blurred as I got thrown down to the ground from the force of her hand against my face. I could barely stand up to begin with anyway, and that was that. She aimed her pistol down at Hoover, firing off two shots through Dahl's shoulder into Hoover, bringing them both down to the ground.
"And that is how you deal with a hostage situation!"
Hoover reached around for the Black Adder SMG that he dropped, trying to bring it back to kill Dahl, only to be met with Dahl smashing his hand and a swift blow to the face.
"I'm going to fucking kill you!"
Hoover pushed off Dahl, knocking him out in a single bound, spinning back and standing back up with his momentum, aiming the Black Adder towards us and spraying rounds.
"WCG dogs! You're all going to die!"
Stahl quickly fired off two rounds from his M416 into both of Hoover's kneecaps, firing off a third into the Black Adder, breaking it into pieces. Eternal entered the room swiftly, her hand lightly gripping onto a sheath strapped to her pitch black Nazi-esque SSC uniform.
"...Still alive? Good. On second thought I'd rather deal with him myself. But I must admit I am disappointed in your hesitation, Mister Hoff."
"Major Evig, as I said before, we should have given him a day at minimum before we even had him get up to walk around. You shouldn't be surprised that this happened."
"That was not an option when we knew a Syndicate spy like Hoover was among us. Isn't that right?"
"With all due respect Major, we should have dealt with Hoover through the official channels. Have him arrested, not murdered."
"Company policy, in addition to our contract with the EPLF dictates that all known Syndicate agents are to be given summary execution. Nothing more."
"Then why did you not kill Wollcroft?"
"The keyword was known Syndicate agents."
Eternal walked across the cavernous room, holding her hand on the sheath in an almost erotic fashion, walking past me with no bother to offer a hand to help me up, and ignoring Dahl in turn. Stahl quickly shouldered his M416 and saluted her, staying silent as Kojira shook her head in disappointment with the outcome.
"I was serious, Major. It took most of our entire division an entire week of recovery after getting their enhancements before they could even train on the holodeck without collapsing or fainting. The same is true for Mister Hoff."
"Silence, Captain. There will be no more on it."
I pulled myself up against the wall at the side of the room as Eternal advanced towards Hoover, hand on the sheath. She opened her eyes as she closed in, her eyes now having an intense glow of orange that seemed almost like a fire. She quickly leaped up on top of one of the double-crates near Hoover in a feat of superhuman ability, looking towards the others in the room.
"It has come to my attention that some of you have... Doubted my... integrity. If so, then you do not know what a lack of integrity truly is. Such people we know as traitors, those who commit treason. There is one penalty for such sins. Death."
She gracefully descended down to ground level, continuing her advance on Hoover. Her grip on the sheath tightened, her readying herself to pull out the sheathed weapon.
"As we all know, the Syndicate is the greatest threat to us all. Anyone who dares to associate with the Syndicate commits treason against the European Peoples' Republic, and undermines all the liberty we have fought for these past fifty years, against the imperialists of the World Coalition Government, and the terrorists of the Syndicate and their underlings like the Verstosenen. Can we stand to allow either of these fascists to bully us? No. We must strike back and make an example of all who dare pose a threat to our liberty. All true patriots of the Republic know this. And thus, I shall make an example of this traitor we know as Mick Hoover. Observe."
"Fuck off you demon! I'll fucking kill you all once I get out of here! The Kh'vo-"
Eternal hissed at him, instantly pulling a sabre that was just slightly longer than her arm's length out of the sheath, swinging it's fine point up to just above chin-height, and pulling it back down quickly past Hoover's throat, slitting it to the finest cut across his neck before he could finish his sentence, killing him instantly. She turned to all of us again, her eyes still glowing like fire.
"You cross me- You cross the company- You cross the Republic, and I guarantee your death will not be as merciful as his was."
She walked towards Dahl who was just waking up after getting punched out by Hoover, swinging the saber up against his throat, a mere centimeter between him and an instant death. Quite the bi-polar person, wasn't she? I recalled her saying "I'm sorry" or something before she had shot me about... God knows when ago...
"Get up."
Dahl quickly backed from the sword and pulled himself up, saluting in fear.
"You fail like you did there again, and you are worthless to me, and I will kill you where you stand. You were defeated in hand-to-hand combat by a man who lacks such enhancements as you have. There are twenty different candidates for your position who can very easily replace you if you are deemed redundant."
"Yes Mam, understood Mam!"
"Then we have an understanding. Dismissed."
Stahl and Dahl saluted, quickly leaving the room in fear of what Eternal said. Kojira stayed, rolling her eyes at the whole ordeal.
"Eternal, you place too much stock in the power of the Kh'Voz. You're the person Hoover wanted you to be. A monster he could have used against his enemies. And then you turned on him."
She looked down and sighed in disappointment, shaking her head as she listened to Kojira.
"Don't try and guilt trip me, sister. You know I killed him for him stealing any innocence I had in my life, not for being a Syndicate spy."
She sheathed the sabre again, clicking her claws out and scratching into the crate next to her, closing her eyes in remorse.
"Paige was right? Wasn't she?"
"You, of all people, crying about killing someone. You're the one person who followed your Kh'Voz instinct so straight. But you couldn't forever, could you? What's next, you're going to pour gasoline over yourself and light a cigarette?"
Eternal stopped and begin laughing as she finished helping me up to my feet, turning back to Kojira.
"Of course not, my sister. Killing Mick was so... Satisfying... An ecstasy gripping me as I claimed his life from him. Teehee..."
She nearly fainted, pulling herself back up on the crate as she frowned, looking at me for a moment
"...Get out of here, Hoff... Just... Act normal, or you're going to regret even living another day. I'm sorry. Just get out of here. Go to your own people. Promise me that if we ever meet again-"
I quickly placed my hand on her shoulder and shut her up
"Don't even talk to yourself like that, or you're going to be the one regretting to continue breathing. You're the one who isn't being yourself. We will meet again. No promises beyond that."
I stormed out, sparing myself from Eternal's apparent emotional issues with who she was. Cry me a fucking river, it's like she never got past the denial part all these years which I breezed through an hour ago. I still felt awfully wobbly. And worse, I felt like I had left some massive desire left unfulfilled. Hell, I should have killed that Hoover bastard myself. I wouldn't react like Eternal did, I knew it. I had to do it. Hehe. I could already feel an ecstasy coming on just thinking about it. But whatever, time to go.
<Go get drunk at Club Voss> It's what Jager would do anyway. Besides, beer makes everything better. That, and it makes taking a victim that much easier...
<Go back to Jager and comrades> They'd be so unsuspecting anyway. Besides, Sarai was with him. I could have revenge for her injustices against the Kh'Voz.
]]>Oslo, EPR
Just outside nondescript warehouse owned by SSC, in Stahl's van
Alex Hoff
"Stahl and Dahl are already there. Hoover won't be suspecting a thing when we take him down."
I looked at the woman climbing into the front passenger seat of the van. Looked awfully familiar. I snapped to attention and saluted as Eternal loaded a fresh ballistic magazine into her CTE6.
"Commander Hasegaw-"
She slapped me before she even finished sitting down as I realized it was just that creepy woman who followed me around at that one shady bar a few... days... or so... back. Great, I didn't even know what day or time it was. Noone told me, and my UniTool was missing.
"Like I said before, Vechnyy, you should give him a day or two before we remove Levoye from the equation. He's barely sober right now."
"Ekho, you don't have the... Perspective, that I have. I'm surprised when I look at you. Why do you, of all of us, abstain from the true power of the Kh'Voz?"
"Because I have morals, Vechnyy. And if I did indulge in such power, then all my cover would be beyond blown."
"Point taken. But noone said you had to work with a team..."
Eternal pulled the van up on the curb, next to the door to some scummy warehouse that's walls looked like they went through a few decades of rusting, next to several other scummy warehouses that had a few decades of rusting on them just like this one. Fuck my headache, and the wretched scent of this place was making it worse... Scent? Gah, what the hell was I thinking. Stop. Stop. Stop.
"Stal and Dolini have been briefed, Vechnyy. Just give them the signal and they'll be ready to subdue him. You ready?"
"Indeed. Let's go."
I pulled myself out of the van as Eternal slammed the doors closed, pushing herself right up to the warehouse door and forcing it open with here momentum. I followed in suit with the other woman, Captain Kojira, if the tags she wore were correct. We all stopped as she looked at the mooks shuffling around the warehouse, stocking various weapons and ordnance on the shelves here of what looked to be a massive armory. She shrugged for a moment and continued forward until Eternal met one of the side doors, stoping to hand a CTE6 and a ballistic clip to me.
"You ever used a CTE6 before, newblooded one?"
Argh, so goddamned creepy. I was shaky enough right now, didn't need her speaking like that to me. Wasn't helping. Captain Kojira's facial expression, looking at Eternal after that remark described my thoughts perfectly.
"Uh, no I haven't."
"Handles like one of those old B23R pistols. Mind the recoil."
I ripped the pistol out of her hand and loaded the magazine in as she and Kojira entered the room we were waiting outside of. Eternal give a quick hand signal towards Dahl and Stahl who were already on both flanks of Hoover, unsuspecting of what I was about to do. Or so we had hoped.
"I should have known you'd do this one day, Wollcroft! You're no better than my old boss, Griffin!"
Stahl quickly moved in to subdue Hoover, only to be met with a swift kick to the face as Hoover swung around and kneecapped Dahl. Stahl quickly tapped a medigel hypo to his arm along with Kojira doing the same, their eyes flashing into a purple and red glows, respectively as they fired off a few warning shots to try and scare him. Eternal slipped a cigarette out from her sleeve, swinging her head left and back and giggling for a moment.
"I'll be outside enjoying a smoke. He'd better be dead when I return."
She left in a hurry, ready to light up the moment she wasn't at risk of blowing up the entire armory by accident. Meanwhile, Hoover laid out Stahl and Dahl in CQC again as Kojira tried to get a good angle for a shot. A few left hooks, uppercuts, and kicks to Stahl and Dahl's faces later Hoover had successfully grappled Dahl into a human-shield position in front of him, pointing a Black Adder SMG up the side of his head.
"Fuck you all! I didn't survive World War Three, The Rebellion of the Ninety-Nine Percent, and Sturmanderung, just to be fucking killed by you treacherous fucks!"
"Son of a-"
I finally decided to speak after staying silent through all this
"They. They are not the ones who are going to kill you, Hoover. Noone betrayed you here. They're just. I don't know... Not defending you?"
He directed his attention towards me, pointing the Black Adder at me for a moment before pointing it back at Dahl
"So, Eternal, oh so noble, sends some WCG fuckhead to kill me instead of her so that her monstrous hands are the ones that are clean? Yeah, well fuck you, Gringo!"
Stahl and Kojira circled around, trying to get an angle on him and catch him off guard. Hoover gave them the reply of putting pressure on the Black Adder's trigger.
"Don't even try it, you fucking Screaming Cell!"
Dahl tried to squeeze out of Hoover's grip, yelling to all of us
"Just kill this son of a bitch already!"
I knelt down, trying to stabilize my shaky aim. Man, this bastard even had the scent of an asshole. Kojira yelled at me for a moment, waving her hand at me
"Take the shot, you've got the angle!"
I couldn't. My arms were shaking too much. I felt like I woke up after getting my skull smashed with the butt-end of an HRAR. My strides were too short. Seeing double. All of the crap.
"Ask yourself, do you really want to shoot me? You'll kill Sergeant Dahl if you pull that trigger. Look at yourself. You shouldn't be handling a gun, let alone walking around right now."
"I do as I'm told, Hoover. I don't question if something is bullshit or not, I just do it."
"We all try to think like that, Hoff. But is it right?"
"Of course not. But I get paid at the end of the day."
"See? You just said it. Do you really want to work with Eternal? She'll strip everything from you that makes you Human. Do you really want that for yourself? Do you want to be some sort of monster? A killer? She's none more than a Screaming Cell. You hear me goddamnit?!?!"
Stahl turned on his gun's laser-sight as Kojira strafed towards me to whisper at me
"...Don't listen to this crazy bastard. Take the shot. Now."
Dahl continued shaking around, trying to break free from Hoover's iron grip, who was backing up and pulling Dahl with him.
"Fucking shoot him you bastards! Don't let him get away. Kill him!"
"Now now, Hoff, just drop the gun and walk away. I can handle all this, and we can all go home. Dahl doesn't have to die for Eternal's sins. Hoff, you know you don't want to do this. So just put the gun right there on the ground and go back to your fellow Imperialists in WCG territory. Don't you have somebody you love back at home?"
I couldn't stop my hands from shaking. I found my trigger finger jumping around on the trigger, ready to depress it and put a bullet into Hoover without me even thinking it over. Fuck... This... Felt wrong. But I couldn't resist against it. I didn't want to do it. I had to do it. I couldn't resist it. I had to, I didn't want to. I needed to. I couldn't keep resisting the urge forever. I just had to do it. Voices in the back of my head seemed to demand I do it as I tried to aim at Hoover and pull the trigger.
<KILL HOOVER. DO IT. NOW.> Why not? It's got to be done. For the Kh'Voz. You have to do it. You must do it. Can you really resist? No. You can't. Besides. You're going to do it eventually. Get it out of the way now, before you rejoin your comrades.
<What the hell are you doing?> Just drop the gun. You know this isn't you. Go home already. Go join your comrades and stop General Sorin, bring down the WCG, and return home as heroes instead of war criminals. Go and make your own future.
]]>Can you at some point do a review of the organizations and characters in the story. I sometimes forget who is who. Thanks.
]]>Oslo, EPR
Apartment 7G
Aaron Jager
My fingers nearly slipped off the needle, almost dropping it right above a vent on the floor. Too close. Couldn't move around too much or others would see. Damnit. Hasegawa began walking around the counter just as I jabbed the needle into my stomach and injected. Too close too close too close. I couldn't hold back the grunting from it as I slipped the needle into the garbage disposal on this side of the counter.
"What's wrong?"
"Got clipped by the countertop- Any news on Cashlin or Hoff?"
"Cashlin, still AWOL. Hoff, still gone"
"Call me if anything changes. Hoff is to be shot on sight if his behavior appears questionable."
Kowalski gave a stare of shock at the orders again. And now I had to question myself whether she was worth keeping around or not anymore. Mercury poisoning and all. I had no idea whether or not she might pull a gun on me, or poison my food, or some other psychotic thing at random. Speaking of that, the sytropin was starting to kick in as drowsiness flooded my vision and I quickly pushed myself to get over to the nearest bed and collapsed onto it. Jesus christ it had such a kick now after barely taking it the past few weeks. All I could make out before I lost consciousness was Kowalski giving the nearest wall the thousand-yard-stare...
11:25AM
Alex Hoff
I just couldn't stop listening to her despite part of me telling me to run and never turn back as I looked into those eyes of gold... But, I just couldn't resist. Ah, screw it. She slipped the photograph right by me, with that dumb looking redhead on it and instructions on the back. She laughed for a moment as she closed her eyes. Whatever.
"...You know... Your old friend Cashlin has been running around crazy since I threatened to have his family assassinated if he kept working with Jager... Can't believe he fell for that bluff... teehee..."
"Hehehe... Bastard had it coming..."
Can't believe I just said that... Couldn't control it. Every second that went by I just felt more and more empty. I needed to do something, just couldn't figure it out. But for now, just relax myself, listen, and pray I don't drool randomly. Again.
"...Well, He's nothing more than lowly vermin... Like Mick... and Sarai..."
Her fingers clicked down as she swiftly bent them downwards to reveal clawlike nails as she laughed. I... Didn't seem surprised... I just blankly stared ahead, closing my mouth to cut off drool that was about to drip out. She slid over closer for a moment on the couch, staring into my eyes directly, and I couldn't help but listen to her. It was soothing, seductive, and gave me that sense of security.
"Of course. You know what to do with those insignificant specks... I'll be watching..."
She laughed for but a moment before opening her eyes again
"So go forth... Seek out and dispose of Mick Hoover. Hunt him like any other prey... Make him pay for his sins..."
And so I went forth as I had to, taking the photograph and notes on him as I went to rip him out of this world for what he has done. Jesus fuck, what the hell was I doing? This was madness. But...
<Eager> This man was bad news. Exploiting a young woman for his own benefit. He deserved what was coming to him, and he wouldn't expect it. This was going to feel... Right. I couldn't wait to do this. Time to get this done
<Reluctant> This... Felt wrong. But I couldn't resist against it. I didn't want to do it. I had to do it. I couldn't resist it. I had to, I didn't want to. Well, I had to make this simple. Kill him, and go before I off myself in reaction.
]]>Unknown location
Alex Hoff
In an instant I opened my eyes and looked around the room, numb as hell from whatever had gotten me. There was a hell of a Deja Vu feeling to this, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was exactly. My surroundings looked nice and homey, real bourgeois crap, like that one apartment Jager had us staying in. The leather sofa I had been laying on was in prime condition, and sunlight entered through the various windows, reflecting on the immaculate white carpet below my feet, and shimmering on the glass cofeetable in-between the L shape made by the couches next to eachother. A flatscreen TV sat mounted on the wall, with a entertainment stand low below it on the floor, housing a UniDisc player and various UD movies and a remote. I was lucky to ever see these things in my life, with the sheer amount of prejudice and discrimination in the WCG by many against "colony rats" like me and Nash who had little opportunity outside the military. I had an uncanny feeling about this place, but I just couldn't get my finger on it. Like in being here I had been saved or something, but from what? I could barely remember. But I knew one thing, or maybe was it a few things? I couldn't trust any of them. Those bastards had betrayed me. Especially Kowalski! I knew it!
It was uneasy, but I felt safe here. Surprisingly safe. Like everlasting victory, free from subjugation was coming for me. And I was- Ah christ, what the hell was I thinking? I couldn't be thinking clearly anymore, afterall, I just got shot. Just- Just had to check myself. Calm the fuck down. Stop myself from overthinking or hyperventilating. I forced myself over to a room which looked to be the bathroom, either it was to look in the mirror, puke, or maybe both. I don't know. I wasn't feeling myself anymore. Something felt empty in me. I didn't know what the hell what it was, but I had an unbelievable urge, or need, whatever, to fill it as soon as possible. I splashed some water up on my face from the sink, not bothering to check myself first for any injuries, I didn't care anymore. I saw a little trinket next to the sink, looked like a little E1K crystal of sorts, pure, at that, so I touched it, don't know why I did, but I did. Felt like an energetic sting when I held my hand on it for a few moments, and a faint red light coming from it around my hand. Creepy. I touched it again to the same sting and jerked my head up in reaction, to my horror. No, god no, how? My eyes did not look to be themselves at all, a terrible shade of crimson overtaking my eyes instead of blue. I fell back, nearly crying myself to insanity in shock. No, no, that isn't me. I heard footsteps leisurely coming, but I couldn't react, paralyzed by fear of myself. I forced myself out of the room, trying to get back to where I was before, still hearing the footsteps coming to me.
I relaxed myself on the couch, trying to act undisturbed. It didn't work. But a moment later the footsteps stopped at the wide entrance of the room. It was her. The golden eyes, the jet black hair, the above-average size. From that one bar, and from the bridge. No, not the Asian one, the one who left the bar first, and looks strictly European. I couldn't help but think on some thoughts- No, let those thoughts die. I just knew it she was obviously the one who saved me from Kowalski and her attempt to murder me in cold blood at that bridge. She looked over at me, smiling and possible giving a giggle as she sat down upon the couch here, looking to get straight to business with no timidness or doubt. This was someone I could trust. The only person I could trust. She gave one look into my eyes as they suddenly flared into a light glow as she got close to me to say but one thing and lightly laugh for a moment.
"So, you've finally awoken..."
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