EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

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SNT1
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EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

--Mojave--

It was Year 30, The Era of the Empire.

The Imperial Army, after having brought the entire world down to its knees in the name of the King, has since brought the world into an era of stability. Former countries and allied supernations were able to retain their sense of identity, but can only do so as a province of The World Empire. Gone were the fanatical and religious zealotry that plagued the world shortly after The Empire's declaration. Gone were the demands from every citizen of the world to bow down to the King.

Because, who needs some cheap bows and false worships, when the only thing that matters in the end is money. Yes, the Empire, these recent years, have instead opted for an equally appalling stranglehold on the people: Massive, massive taxes. The World Empire has started a worldwide campaign to suck the citizens dry off their money. They were preparing for yet another war, one that will put the last Great War to shame. Space Colony Liberty has begun patrolling more ships, and it won't be long until they started their offensive on an increasingly lax empire...


...And that only increased the traffic in California's gigantic arid wasteland. After centuries, citizens of Los Angeles still travel, either by road or by foot, to Las Vegas for some thrills. Lancaster has found Barstow to be a nice little rest area before testing their top secret new weapons just outside.

With today's thinning of the Imperial army, the place has gotten a bit of a scare to cross, especially at night, where criminals come out and steal, kill and destroy. Murderers chasing innocents are uncommon, with mercenaries chasing down said murderers, the place has gotten dangerous.

But for Jim Frost, it's just one of the dangers of the job. An independent scavenger and part-time mercenary, this 25-year old has gotten rich by circling the area, and returning to Vegas for some quick buck after scavenging. The last failed rebellion netted him to dig out three perfectly working ultracompact fusion reactors, that fetched him a massive bunch of money.

This "Firebrand Revolution" is getting some major steam as of late, where it may plan to attack any base in the West. Rumor has it that the Empire hasn't got a damn clue where they're based at. For Jim, that just means the area for parts is large---maybe from the California-Mexico border all the way to the Sierra Nevada, as that's the estimate of where Firebrand may originate.

That large an area may just offset the larger turnouts of mercenaries, robbers and other scumbags and spread out a little bit.

"Heh, this place seemed quieter just now," Jim notes to himself. In the cockpit of his GM only has one small picture of his sister Allison, who's sick and is residing in Bakersfield, far from the line of fire. While she's safe from harm, Jim has to make money for them two, and to do that safely he has a GM equipped to deal with adversaries. Having trained in all ranges of combat, his GM's main feature involves safe retreat, stealth as some may call it. That way he can leave the battle if he fears he's losing. Perfect for scavenging and treasure-hunting, as Jim has won battles AND retreated several times now, only incurring minor damage. He's such a frequent visitor of Las Vegas that Bloomfield has met him a few times already in person.

"There..." Jim mutters again quietly. He's only a few miles to Barstow, where he would rest and stay the night, but he found a head of a GM. It's worth something, so it's worth getting.

His GM parks close to the dismembered head as he opened his hatch to visually examine the part...
Last edited by SNT1 on Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Adrikan
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Re: EP.1: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

"I really hope that GM isn't hostile," Magnus said as he lowered his telescope and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. He had been piloting his GuAIZ through the desert north of Las Vegas for the past few days, with the sensors and air conditioning systems of the GuAIZ deactivated to save power.

"Maybe I should have invested in a map before I decided to go on vacation to the lovely ass end of nowhere. This whole venture is beginning to look very ill-advised." Magnus' thoughts were interrupted by a loud beeping coming from the GuAIZ' status console. "Oh, lovely. One of my batteries is just about dry."

Magnus powered down the GuAIZ, stood up from his command chair and walked out onto the open door of his cockpit to get a better look at the environment. "That's strange, I can't see the city. Must have gone much farther than I thought i did." Magnus sat back down and drank a bottled pint of water. A look of disgust passed over his face as he forced the gritty mess down, as Magnus again cursed his dependence on Imperial technology.
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Re: EP.1: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

"these amatuers are just far too predictable" Amy mused as she looked down at the headless GM from her open cockpit, focusing on the neat hole that had been punched through the cockpit hatch, where did that head land anyhow? it's not like i used THAT much force with the pile bunker.. shrugging her shoulders Amy hopped down onto the GM's torso, carefully making her way into the cockpit and began her search for any hidden compartments, having adandoned the idea of searching the pilot as there wasn't exactly much of him left.

after a couple of minutes she found what she was looking for, and pulled a small box out of a hatch concealed next to the bloodsoaked seat and gave it a once over "heh, doesn't even have lock on it" opening said box she grabbed from it a large wad of cash, a tightly folded up map with markings written onto it, and a buisness card for a roadhouse located in Barstow. "The Desert Oasis grill and bar.." she read out loud "well, i am pretty hungry" shrugging her shoulders she clambered out of the GM and tossed the box away.

After she booted her Flag's systems up and was preparing to take off the sensors picked up something nearby, two pop up windows appeared showing an enhanced close up of a GM spartan and a modified GuAIZ respectively, thankfully from her position their backs were turned, at first Amy considered destroying them but a quick look at her linear rifle's ammo reserves said otherwise, but that didn't mean she couldn't have a bit of fun by giving them a scare

"now who should i pick?" she thought out loud, unable to make up her mind initially, before her gaze settled on the GuAIZ. grasping the controls, he fired up the MPD thrusters on the Flag's flightpack, bringing the lithe suit to a stable hover, without missing a beat she opened the thrusters to their max setting and charged at the crouching suit. bringing the left arm back, she took a wild swipe at it with the pile bunker as she sailed past, kicking up huge plumes of dust and sand in the process.

not bothering to check if she hit it or not, Amy pulled the Flag into a climb and rolled it onto its back, before transforming the suit into its plane form and speeding off into the horizon.
Flag Fighter for life!
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Adrikan
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Re: EP.1: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

"I'd best get moving before any more sandstorms hit. That last one was positively feeble, but there's no sense in trying to play chicken with a force of nature. The next one won't be so easy to ignore."

Magnus powered up the GuAIZ, and for the first time noticed the GM Spartan nearby. As he saw this, Magnus hailed the GM, while his GuAIZ stood, reaching just over 25 meters into the sky. As Magnus spoke, sand fell from the GuAIZ' back like an avalanche, and he moved the GuAIZ' right leg to see how deep the sand his unit had sunk into was.

"Are you with the Empire, or are you a freelancer?"
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Re: EP.1: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

--Jim--

It did not take long for Jim to quickly abandon what he's currently doing, close his cockpit and stay on alert. He could see the GuAIZ beeping in his sensor. His survival instincts leads him to put a mechanical hand close to his minigun with grenade launchers, his newest shiny that he bought just several days ago.

Jim could only observe however as a Flag came in from the other direction and seemingly did a booming low-speed pass on the GuAIZ that was just closing. It kicked off some sand, so Jim probably thought it was some teenage jackass trying to make some noise.

The GuAIZ managed to then open contact to his Spartan and asked if he's from the Empire or otherwise. "What does it matter," Jim replies back as his left arm gripped the beheaded GM, who probably still has working visor units. He still held his minigun, and was ready to fire at the unnamed GuAIZ, should it do something... funny.
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Adrikan
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Re: EP.1: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

"I've been out here for three days now, and I'm really not looking to get into a firefight. I can only assume you don't want one either, or you would have opened fire already."

Magnus began running diagnostics on his suit to determine how much energy he could afford to use to get himself out of the sand he was stuck in. Reaching a sudden decision, Magnus fired his shoulder and back thrusters, and cleared much of the sand from around his GuAIZ.

"i'm sorry, I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Magnus Warren."

As Magnus spoke, he looked over at his battery readings, and let out a deep sigh of relief that his thrusters hadn't taken up an unreasonable amount of power. He maneuvered the GuAIZ' head, testing it for flexibility, and began using its sensors to determine where exactly he was.
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SNT1
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Re: EP.1: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

-Jim-

"The name is Jim," the GM Spartan pilot replied, and lowers his guard. And then, a stern warning. "You must be new here, you better not stay too long in this area, you didn't see that Flag damn near bulldoze you just thirty seconds ago," Jim says pointing out the trail of sand in the air, "And Barstow's only a few miles west of here."

With that Jim carries off his little robot head and headed in another direction.
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Adrikan
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Re: EP.1: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

"Thanks, Jim!" Magnus prodded the ground around him with his beam rifle, and began heading toward Barstow once he established that it was relatively stable. As he passed the headless GM, Magnus stopped to strip the GM of any useful supplies, picked up the GM's beam saber, and continued west toward Barstow.
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

-Jim-

The lone scavenger's feeling good these days. Jim has gotten a leg, a used beam rifle, a GM head, and now an Overflag shield/arm combo. He has taken a bit of shelter in Barstow, claiming a run-down warehouse where his GM barely fits inside. Yes, he's heard about the crazy talk today... Lancaster done got blowed up! It sounds farfetched, but remember; he was ther, at least in the beginning stages. They had more and more mobile suits killing off the Imperials until one of them even targeted him and shoo'd him off.

There's also talk of a massive increase in criminal activity between this area and Vegas, but it's safer to get to a neutral ground in Vegas than stay in Barstow and get lynched by Firebrand.

It was mid-morning, and with his supplies replenished he takes his GM and leaves for Vegas. He has already shipped his price to Bloomfield, who will no doubt give him a hefty sum. Young adults adore Flags.

~~~~

It was then when he crosses paths with a convoy, about 30 minutes close to the Las Vegas area: Two trucks, a couple of military-looking Jeeps, and two Leos. Jim's naturally one to avoid trouble, so he diverges from the normal path. But it did not end there...

"That's the GM that stole Samantha's Flag!"

"He doesn't want trouble..."

"We need to maximize profits!"

"but--"

At that point one Leo decides to chase Jim's GM (lol, Jim's Jim) and fires with a standard-spec machine gun. Jim, ever aware, notices the Firebrand's own diverging path and converging with his... firing! The other Leo hopelessly tried to stop the other pilot but still stayed with him for support.

The convoy is now unguarded.

Jim looks at the Leos.... They're just Leos...


GM shoots of a grenade launcher shot from his minigun and absolutely destroys the firing Leo! Now, Firebrand's in a state of panic, because the scavenger has now eyed their precious Cargo! The other Leo, who didn't want to fight to begin with, is now forced to defend their stash...

What's more is that Jim once again scatters absurd amounts of Minovsky particles, rendering communication difficult and nearly disabled.

"It must be my birthday today..." Jim mutters with a smirk and beaming with confidence as he tries to take on the last Leo.


Jim (1)

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Leo
Leo
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Kite_Ishma
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

A heavily modified OverFlag soared over head, passing the convoy and the lone Leo. He spotted the hostile and the smoking heap which was once a Leo. "They got started without me." A light sigh escaped the young mans lips as his Flag transformed and nosed back around.

The mobile suit gripped its linier rifle and came in low flying at high speeds back toward the convoy. "Hm, wonder if I get extra if the Leo survive?" Soren smiled as he squeezed the trigger, firing off two blue rounds at the advancing GM.

((short but meh))
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SNT1
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

--Jim--

This would be the third Flag he would have seen within four days. And they were considered 'rare' in the California-Nevada area just a week ago. The modified Flag is, once again, a hostile, charging towards him and firing shots. To make matters worse, the other Leo was still alive, though it wasn't looking to attack the GM and held ready its defensive stance with a rifle.

The dark-colored GM strafes to the right to avoid the incoming linear rifle shots, and then returns fire with a couple of solid bursts from his minigun.


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Soren

Leo
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

Soren smirked working the defense rod to deflect the beams. Without wasting a second he leveled the rifle gain and laid out suppressive fire with the 60mm machine gun. As he did that the left had gripped to one of its sabers. “Well, let’s see what you got.” The thrusters on the back positioned close to the fuselage and under the wings flared loudly creating a boom in the air as the machine shot foreword. Soren was pressed back into the seat, quickly flying by the GM and swinging across its torso.
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

In the middle of the desert highway, a trailer with two large covered palettes was trucking towards Barstow. In the trailer's driver seat was a young man, just old enough to drink, by the name of Klug Bailey.

Putting down his bottle of root beer, Klug stared vengefully at the phone balanced on his jean leg. He was having issues with phone service, meaning that the call Raz has asked him to make to one 'Aquean' was being severely delayed.

"Western Link, my tuckus..." Klug growled as he watched for a bar of service to come up. It was crazy how bad his reception could be sometimes. While he was at the base, he would get perfectly clear signal, but in the wasteland things were less than ideal. He might as well be dead to the world.

Luckily, however, Klug had his paycheck-source on the other side of a radio to contend with.

"This is the Siberian."

"What's up, Rasputin?" Klug answered as he rounded a turn with the trailer. "You finally started thinking about that plan?"

"Tch, yeah. Give Aquean a call. Tell them that we're joining up with the Firebrand characters and that, for the right price, we'll put them where he needs them."

Klug's eyebrow perched at this. That was a big decision for a big proposition. They were going to join the Firebrand Revolution and then sell them out to the Empire, thus netting them riches and new repair parts. As usual, Raz was thinking about danger and money.

"Sounds like a plan you would think up..." Klug yawned before taking another swig of his root beer.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. I'll get it done when I get phone signal back. See ya!"

Before Raz could respond properly, Klug tossed the radio into the glove compartment and shut it away so that he could focus on the phone. Alas! It had two bars of service! Wanting to maximize upon his luck, Klug dialed up the name Raz had given him, one Sharaf Aquean, and hit the call button.
*insert witty eyecatch here*
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SNT1
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

-Jim-

The GM Spartan assumes a defensive position as the Flag retaliated with 60mm fire. Jim moved backwards and left, causing him to avoid about half of the bullets and some tore bullet holes into his unit's body.

His opponent charges low to the ground, something that favors Jim's grounded unit by a bit. The Overflag was fast, and Jim knows he can't quite match that speed. So he stays his ground and pulls out a beam saber with its left hand. The way the GM held its beam saber in reverse grip seems telling of Jim's prowess with the blade, holding it to defend.

Once the Flag made its move he times and blocks the blow, but the sheer speed (and therefore momentum) of the Flag causes Jim's unit to be pushed aside and off-balance, though something Jim expected. As his GM seemed to lose its standing it turns around to face the low-flying Flag and quickly fires a shot from his grenade launcher. With the Flag's speed Jim aimed it with a lead, detonating quickly in the path of the Flag.

By this time Jim has lost focus on the Firebrand caravan.
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

Soren glared glancing back as his warning went off. The Flag quickly strafed to the left forcing Soren to slam into the right side of the cockpit. He groaned from the pressure as the Flag landed in a heap of smoke on one knee.

Having just barely escaped the explosion the young man took his time to catch his breath. “Don’t need a kill, just need to keep the convoy safe. And seeing that I have his attention, well that should be easy.”

The Flag stood up sizing the GM a bit from downrange. The beam from the sword was cut quickly and the rifle leveled. “Shall I take your head? May not be worth it…just junk after all.”
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SNT1
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

-Jim-

The lone scavenger smirks as he sends the Overflag off-course.

Jim's prepared for any type of trouble the Flag might bring him, but then he snaps his senses back at the convoy... It's gone. As in, too far away to give chase. It seems the Flag has taken the convoy's side, seemingly protecting it instead of taking it from himself. The Leo who refused to fire at the GM Spartan, backed away, dutifully guarding the cargo of loot. Regardless of intents, the convoy is reaching the Las Vegas boundaries now, making it near-impossible to take thanks to its territory neutrality.

And for Jim, if it ain't gonna make money, then it doesn't make sense. He wouldn't try to kill a live Overflag. He could win, but then he would not make as much money because he'll likely sustain more damage to his own unit and would have to kill the Flag to win, so he'll have to have both repaired. And if he lost, well, that's just worse for obvious reasons.

"It's only a GM head... so yeah, junk..." Jim silently murmurs as he lowers his weapon and flees out of range. You win some you lose some, I guess.
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Re: EP.3: The Arid Battlefield [open world]

Soren smirked watching the GM bolt for it. Not wanting to waste energy on going after him the pilot switched the Custom Flag to it’s MA form and took off, it’s wings sweeping back along its body and the hands clasping to help stave off wind resistance. Within a few seconds he was over the convoy and the Leo. The wings spread out as the Flag controlled its forward air speed and moved in a more gliding, supportive position.

“Well that was a successful job. The cargo is intact and at least one of the Leo’s survived. Sure that dead one’s going to come out of my pay im sure. But who cares…”
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