Shadows of JiangXi

[Vladimir]

On the third day of his journey after the city, with almost no ammo left, being our of water so forced to purify the cleanest he could find, with the only good thing about all this that the average human could live about 3 months without eating on his internal reserves, he felt a spark of hope.

This hope transformed into solid confidence when he realized that that thing can actually work, and after spending 4 hours on finding a fuel supply and jerrycans to move some fuel to it and store some in in it he tried to move a bit to try the controls, and they actually worked. Good thing all the Coalition tech was continuing the Soviet tradition of being built with nuclear war in mind.

- Now, who is awesome? You are awesome, my sweet BRDM-2!



Shame it's weapons weren't operational, but hey, what can't the good hands with the right tools and a whole planet of spare parts do?

Spending some more time, the rest of the day, in fact, in making a hand-made flamethrower.



Test was successful.



Spending some more time he managed to equip the flamethrower on the BRDM-2's front, keeping the fuel tank inside and using a very simple mechanism to fire from it while still being inside. This was going to be great.

This night he spent inside, blocking the entrance from inside. The next day he brought all the additional fuel he could get and moved on.

Quite a few mutants were crashed under the wheels and burned alive while he was going at the checkpoint's direction.

---

[mtjsmith]

Chun charged down another dune and kept his eyes peeled. There! He saw the turnoff. He swore. Blocked. Two of another differing type of jeep. This tribe of bandits were using something a lot heavier though. The two 4x4's had a cage of some sorts covering the front and back giving it a small amount of heavy armour. Chun's small arms weren't going to do any damage to that. Two explosions in the distance. The first tribe had spotted the 4x4's at the intersection and were blasting at them. A rocket fired from one of the 4x4's and blew one of the jeeps to pieces.

"Holy..."

Chun veered off as the gunner in the second 4x4 fired a rocket - It curled towards Chun, but it's arc was too long and it flew behind him and blasted the side of the dune.

"C'mon you heap of junk.. Faster!"

The highway which Chun wanted to get on led to the next checkpoint and then to the harbour according to his map. If he continued on this straight - It was a longer route and it missed the checkpoint. There was a small town on this road which could contain vital supplies, or more than likely - It was bandit central.

"Straight on it is."

Two dirt bikes were now chasing him as well, they must have appeared from behind the 4x4's Chun thought. The bikes had two men on them, the man at the back hand an assault rifle. They opened up and Chun went evasive. A couple of bullets hit the back of the quad, narrowly missing the fuel tank.

"Too close."

He pulled out his SMG again with his left hand and pointed it behind him under his right arm. He looked behind him and started shooting back. Glancing forward every few seconds, he started firing a few bursts. The veered right off the road to dodge and to get a clear shot on the first bike. He hit the tyre which shredded and catapulted the two bandits off it. He shot the driver of the second bike through the head. The bike careened off to the left and threw the gunner off and the biked skidded along side him. Chun circled around the carnage and put half a dozen bullets into each bandit to ensure they were dead. He came to a stop and surveyed the horizon.

"Thirsty work this."

He checked his SMG and changed the mag. Getting the other one out, he grabbed a couple of holsters off the dead bikers and tied them to the steering rack. That should help with quick drawing and reloading he thought. He would keep his assault rifle, pistols and Jian out as well. He had a feeling heading to the small town was a bad idea, but the 4x4's back at the intersection would eat him for breakfast.

"Hmmm... Half a tank left in the fuel cell. 2 hours ride to the town, it's on the coast excellent. There's bound to be a boat."

He tried to formulate a plan. Sneaking in wouldn't work, they'd see him a mile off. Circling the town was a bad idea as well as eventually he'd need to head to the coast line and get a boat. That left him with one option, riding in as fast and hard as he could through the town and down to the coast. Then nick whatever the biggest boat is and set sail for the islands. He laughed, that had to be the most stupid plan ever.

"This is the most crazy and ridiculous thing I've ever done."

He got back on his quad-bike, and charged down the road.

---

[Vince Piccio]

"I figure, if you saved those nuggets lives just now... I should do something to pay you back..."

Iscariot smiled through his helmet, which wasn't visible to the soldier. Mobius had said enlisting the Coalition's help might be for the best, and likely this man knew a lot about the planet that the Phantom didn't.

"I'm here gathering information. The Coalition and Phantoms are coming to a truce, and one of the terms was that we had to hand the means over to purify JiangXi. To do that, we need to get detailed scans, which is why I'm here. I need to get to the 'ground zero' and get some scans."

---

[Phantom Recruitment] [Phantom Feedback] [Phantom Message Dump]

[Jansen]

After her arrival at the checkpoint she had to go through countless medical tests and checks, most of them, if not even all were rather painful. Swallowing the anti-radiation medicine wasnt a joy either. But once they were done with her tests she was allowed to eat and drink something. Food and water that wasnt dangerous. It felt good to be safe for a while, even the hand stopped to hurt.

Marcia had to move on at the next morning, some of the others already were on their way to the coast, so she had to hurry. Being the last one arriving there was the last thing she would have wanted. Around Midday she found a simple car near something that could have been a farm before, now the house was empty, no traces of life left.

The car stood inside of something that could have been a barn before, so it was still in a very good condition. After 3 tries the engines launched for the first time since the attack. The whole building was filled with smoke, so she left it, while still heavily coughing from the particles in the air. She drove into southern direction again, along a small road that led her through a few empty villages until it completely disappeared. She was driving through the plains, southwards.

There were a lot of animals living in those plains, most of them, where as it seemed some kind of horses that once served the humans, but now lived on as wild beings. Also animals that could be described as a mix of a tiger and a wolf, but the car was too fast for them to become dangerous in any way. The radiation meter showed low levels, they were still a lot higher then before the attacks, but nowhere near the levels in the city or the forest.

---

[mtjsmith]

Chun had reached the small town. It had a couple of defense towers which stood at the entrance to the town which looked pretty modern. Other than that, the town resembled something out of the Sol's wild west. Wooden shacks and tin roofed houses sprawled across the sand.

"Well. This won't be fun."

Chun flexed his right arm, it was getting sorer again. Pain killers were probably wearing off. He decided that taking his mind off the pain would be the best idea. And the easiest way of doing that was blasting through that town and hopefully getting a boat down at the harbour. He checked his map, there was a small port down at the south western corner of the town. Having nothing to lose, Chun kicked in first gear and charged.

"Faster faster faster faster!!"

The two defense towers seemed to come alive as machine guns opened fire and loud klaxon's were sounded. Chun brought his SMG up and veered off the road and to the left, veering past the towers and towards a wooden/metal spiky fence. He drove up along side the wall, putting his SMG down for a second, he grabbed the last of his grenades and threw it against the wall and retreated back from it. He pulled his SMG back up and blasted a few rounds towards the towers - more in hope than anything else. A loud explosion where the grenade was thrown went off and a hole in the wall appeared. Chun threw his little quad into the hole he just made... Straight into some guys house.

"What the.. argh.. Oof..."

He drove through another wall and onto a street. The bandits in the street were all darting here and there trying to grab weapons to defeat the intruder. Chun was a little more prepared. Putting the quad into a straight line down the street, he drew both SMGs out and started blasting. Bandit after bandit fell before he started reaching some taller buildings. These buildings were 3 stories high and the bandits on them had RPGs.

"Uh oh."

He blasted at the roof tops when one SMG ran out of ammo. He threw it to the side and kept firing with the other and steered his way left and right to try and dodge the incoming fire. One went off right in front of him that flipped his quad up in the air and backwards. Holding onto the quad for dear life, Chun leaned back and rolled the quad 360 degrees in mid-air before landing again on all four tyres.

"Ow, that was lucky."

He speeded down the main street towards the dock. SEA! He could see the sea!! It was only about half a mile away, he could reach out and touch it.

"Yes, I see boats."

Several bikes and jeeps were now chasing him, the second SMG ran out of ammo and Chun couldn't use both hands to reload - Not without crashing. It holstered it and took out his Assault Rifle instead. This would be a lot harder to fire on a quad, but it would do more damage. He fired a few short bursts. One struck a biker in hand, blowing it off and causing him to crash. He rapidly approached the dock, when one of the quad tyres blew out after a stray bullet hit it. It spun wildly out of control and Chun bailed. He was only a few hundred meters from the dock, but the bikes and jeeps were now circling. He grabbed his weapons and equipment.

"Don't be an idiot now Ling."

He squatted and did a fighting advance, ducking behind shacks and crates - he tried to fire only when he needed to. Thwack! A perfectly amazing sound of bullet smashing skull and brain before making a lovely exit hole. Another biker was thrown off his machine. Chun ran a few yards before ducking and rolling when a jeep flew past. Chun fired a few shots after it, striking the gunner. He ran into the dock where he saw a white bullet shaped boat. It looked like a speed boat, but did it work? He ran towards it when two bandits emerged from the boat and started shooting. Bullets ricocheted everywhere along the barrel Chun hit behind when the jeep came back. He turned round and blasted at the tires. He got one and it veered off to the side - into another shack. Turning around, he peered over the barrel and shot at the two bandits. One was hit in the neck and was thrown overboard while the other was shot dead in the chest. The boat was his. He jumped onto it, checked the fuel and started it. It roared into life and Chun sped out the harbour aiming on a south easterly course. The islands were a day away, he needed to make it. He just hoped that this last bit on the waves would be as trouble free as possible.

---

[Jansen]

The engine stopped while driving, she had expected it much more early, but now it had happened. She ran out of fuel. Running our of fuel meant walking again, walking towards the sea without any real protection from animals. She grabbed all her things and started to walk, southwards.

A half day had passed, she made 2 breaks of around 5 minutes each. That had to be enough to eat something, the radiation levels werent that dangerous here, so she could have walked without the mask. But she already got used to it, she even forgot to take it away for short while eating. Two animals tried to attack her, both seemed to be fast hunters, attacking from the sides. She killed one with 5 bullets while it was running towards her and the second one with 3 bullets while it was waiting for her in behind some higher grass. The first one made a small hole into her suit, she hadnt been able to kill it fast enough, but it didnt have the time to hurt her. Just a few small holes in the suit.

After everything was silent again, she was able to hear the sea. It still seemed to be far away, but it was reachable, maybe even today. The sound of the sea gave her a reason to walk faster. She didnt need any breaks now, she kept walking and walking until she reached it another 6 hours later. Now she had to find a way to move over the sea, to get to the islands."I need a boat..." But there was nothing then a beach that would have been a great place to spend the holidays at, if the radiation would have been gone.

She checked the small hand drawn map she had, but there were no marking that could have shown a settlement. The only thing there was a rough drawing of the coast line, the map was pretty much useless now. She decided to walk westwards, nothing after one hour and nothing after two hours and again nothing after three hours of walking. She was about to search for a place to sleep as she spotted a few small buildings at the horizon. They would have served well as a place for the night.

While getting closer a few rotten sails were visibile, but they didnt seem to be intact anymore. A half hour later she reached the small village, one that turned out to have been a populated by fishermen. Nets everywhere, most ships were equipped with sails, but two or three seemed to be small trawlers with engines. She tried to launch the one next to her, but nothing happened. The second one started for a few seconds before stopping again. The last one was dead as well. The second ship was the most promissing one, so she removed the fuel from the other two vessels and poured everything into that one. She tried it again and the engine started.

She still had 3 liters of water left, as well as 2 food rations, but she thought it would have been smarter to get everything she could from the village, just in case something would happen. She brought all tools she found, as well as 15 cans of peas, 4 cans of water and 2 bottles of vodka on board and then left the harbor. The ship wasnt the fastest, but it worked. The Gps device was still showing the last path the fisherman had used, so she set the autopilot to follow exactly this course at slow speed and went to sleep.

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