Shadows of JiangXi

[Pacific]

Petko saw the jeep as it was moving away from his position. He had a different mission from the rest. He had to evaluate the threat level on JiangXi while tormenting the recruits. But, a shadow stalked Petko; he knew he was being watched, so he decided to make a trap and kill his stalker. Petko saw on the map a old military that was 20 k away that some of the recruits just might pass.

After some time Petko saw an old bridge which was used by cars and pedestrians, but the only thing that he saw was bodies. He didn't walk to the open, prefering the cover of darknes. Once he was near the bridge he saw what looked like a dog eating a man.

He told to him self, "this pooch doesn't seem to be friendly."

When Petko had the dog in his sights through the scope he saw the dog had two tails and three eyes, not to mention a big jaw. Petko thought it to be intresting but he took a shot at the dog, blowing its head off its body.

Petko's Dragunov had its silencer on so the shot wasn't heard. He walked to the dog and spit on it, discusted. The base was only 15 k away and there was a village nearby. So he started to walk back on his path but due to unfortunate luck Petkos cover ran out. He was faced with an open field between him and the small village. So, he started to crawl.

Petko crawled like a worm, but what he didn't know is that he was moving away from safty to the hot zone of Jiang Xi. the crawled half way when his eyes saw a large creature.

It looked like a pig, but it looked like a dog as well. It was worth it to have a closer look out of curiosity but Petko didn't want to take unnecessary risks. Like the dog, he shot it with the Dragunov. The creature was still standing after the first shot so he switch his ammo to the 50 mm caliber and Petko blew the creature on two parts sending its front and back part in two different directions.

Petko told to himself, "that was not supposed to happen."

He managed to find the front part of the creature he lookd at it and sighed in his mask.

After some time he finally managed to reach the village to get some rest or take a nice observation position. When he enterd the village he noticed there were car wrecks every were and skeletons. He entered a House were there was no people, at least Petko didn't know that in the bedroom there was a woman. He put a flexible chair at a Window and he waited for a recruit or something to come at his sight so he can shoot it.

The whether was the same, it hasn't stopped raining since petko arrived. The Woman in question sensed that Petko was in her territory. She came out of the bedroom attacking Petko in the back. Her jaw was brutally crushed by Petko's fist. Her body didn't manage to take the hit and she broke down to peaces. Petko looked and he felt sorry for the great tragedy that happed here. He sighed again and he returned to his position. He was going to stay at the house for another hour then, depart for the Military base.

---

<3 Omicron <3

<3 Chuba<3

[Tabris]

The Warner Estate stood proudly on the other side of the canyon, it sat on one of the few pockets in the zone that had Radiation Levels low enough to be habitable, the Estate was built in the Bretonian style oddly enough since Warner himself was Libertonian, it's large brown wood doors seemed impenetrable, the door knobs were made of brass and slightly rusted due to lack of use, the pillars on both sides of the doors had some vegetation growing on them, a moss-like substance with a vine here and there, otherwise the Estate itself was in amazing shape considering the other buildings close by were in various states of decay.

A dirt path lead from the door deep into the forest, it's trees twisted mockeries of what they once were due to them being outside the pocket and in the radiation, the path's destination was unknown except to those who traveled down it.

To most the Estate would seem inviting, a refuge from the devastation around them, power could be seen in the home due to several lights being visible in the windows. Yet other than the lights in several of the windows it seemed deserted, except for the bootprints embedded in the soil in-front of the house, signs that somebody had been there recently, the prints led down the path into the woods.

[ChillerMiller]

Night has come and Jovanovic proceeded on his way over the large terrain. He pulled on his nightvision goggles to have a better view in the darkness.

'€œUrgh, night and this place is definately not a good combination'€

He sighed and continued his way. After some time he spotted an little house and went to it to check out if there is something interested inside. Maybe there are some goods which he can use on his trip.

'€œLet'€™s see, I hope there are not some of these ugly mutants or whatever they are'€

He had his finger on the trigger of his ak AK-74 and entered the house carefully. Only 2 rooms with some boxes and cupboards. Jovanovic started to look for useful things inside them.

'€œAh, what do we have here?'€

He grabbed a little package and checked what was inside.

'€œBatteries! Nice, that could be useful'€

After some time he found some ammunition for a shotgun. He took both batteries and the ammunation for the shotgun. Unfortunately there was no shotgun in that house so the ammunation was useless.

'€œHmmm no shotgun in sight, I think I have to try my luck somewhere else in this hell.
But know it'€™s time for a little break'€

He set the alarm from his watch to 2 hours, prepared a place inside the house and laid down to rest.

[Jansen]

Vargas turned the night vision googles on, it was getting even darker now, most likely going to be night soon. It was darker then before and it had already been very dark. She could hear the sound of a jeep, somewhere far away. There was no way to know an exact distance because of the resound in the forest. Besides the jeeps lots of strange sounds, cries, gunshots, were all around her, but she wasnt able to see anything that could have caused them, nor was she able to determine an more or less exact distance to the sounds source.

She kept walking and walking until she caught herself nearly falling asleep. At this moment she realized that she wasnt able to get some sleep in the last 2 days. While still lost in her thoughts she saw a pig-like animal crossing her way in some distance, it just was about to change its course straight towards her, she aimed and pulled the trigger. The animal collapsed after 2 bullets and she moved closer to see what she killed.
It was a creature with a pigs body, a dogs head with rather huge teeth and something that could remotely be described as tiger claws. One bullet seemed to have missed the target, the other one went straight into the right eye. "I was lucky... should get some sleep..." She looked at her radiation meter, the radiation level had raised slightly, but it wasnt deadly yet.

"Best if I find something to sleep here" She looked around to find something that would have offered a hideout, but there was nothing, so she continued walking. One and a half kilometer later she found an overturned tree, its root ball forming a small hole, big enough for her. She picked up some pieces of wood and placed them above and around the hole to use it as some kind of camouflage for the hole as well as a warning if something would come close. She checked the radiation meter again, but there were nearly no changes. "Finally some sleep..." She closed her eyes, but kept the AK ready, just in case some wood would crack around her.

---

[arvg]

It was getting too dark to follow them at low altitude, the cross winds and the storm were picking up ferocity. And Vance had obliged by pulling the Social Credit up to a comfortable 30,000 feet. Keeping a slow circular pattern over the area, they were following using infrared, where they could. Despite the fact that the underlying radiation made even that method of observation tricky.

Enrico was curled up in his bunk, back behind the cockpit and the radio room, opposite the small wooden table where he did his reports. The sounds of the Social Credit creaking in the wind as it flew, gently rocking him close to sleep.

Pasha was at the helm, Vance was already asleep, curled up into a ball over on one of the table's benches, snoring like there was no tomorrow.

It was going to be a long day tomorrow, and Enrico yawned loudly as he fluffed his pillow, glad it was the nuggets and not him down on that god forsaken rock.

---

[Akura]

The Hunter crouched under the wooden fence, treading lightly, he rounded a small, broken tractor. He stepped out into the mud, searching for a point of direction, his eyes fell on a faint set of tracks. These were pretty standard Coaliton bootprints, barely visable due to the rain, probably a couple of hours old.

He glanced around the farmstead, his mind finally picking out the farm house ahead of him, it's roof collapsed in slightly.

"Oh good... prey" a small smile crept across his face,

The Hunter slowly pushed the door open, hearing a small 'snap' behind him. He swiftly turned on the spot, a young Junior Lieutenant holding a geiger counter in one hand, and a pistol in the other.

Upon seeing the Hunter, he yelped quietly, squeezing the trigger. The gun clicked unsatisfyingly, letting the Lieutenant know that the gun was jammed.

"No..." the Lieutenant cursed, fumbling around with the slider in an attempt to fix the gun,

The Hunter lunged forward, swiftly and silently grabbing the Lieutenant with one hand and slashing at his gasmask with the other. He heard a second muffled yelp as the knife cut into the Lieutenant's throat, his body falling to the mud with a splash.

He turned his attention back to the farm house, and whoever was residing within.

[mtjsmith]

Ling heard a beep, he must have dozed somewhat as his hour was up. There was no loud explosion, and when he checked the skinned bear - There was no explosion crater. He carefully removed the grenade from the bear and put the pin back in. It was his only one. Again, his superiors saw fit to limit the amount of weaponry he actually had.

"Time to run again. But which way...."

He looked at the path which seemed to come to an end. He quickly looked at the night sky, and saw Lightening streak across it. There was a heavy wind, and the rain kept falling. He checked his radiation meter, minimal. The bear fur seemed to be going an excellent job. He looked for clues to which way was south. The wind was blowing against his right side, and the lightening streaking to his left. When he dropped from the Social Credit, the weather had the same pattern. As such, forwards seemed the most logical.

"Forwards then, I have no plan in dying this night."

He ran about 2 kilometers before a huge river stood in his way. The river flowed rapidly, and it looked very deep. Ling shook his head. He could not swim.

"Great."

He tapped his TAC-COM, all he was greeted with was static. Of course it didn't work - Radiation. Ling shook his head again, the exhaustion beginning to take its toll. He had underestimated his old home, and overestimated himself.

"The tree's are high enough, the river.. well.. It might be too wide. I'd guess.. 300 meters.. Wait.. No.. Be more pessimistic, 350 meters. Trees, 200 meters tall.. Rope needed.. Hmm..

He tried to do the maths taught to him so long ago, but in the end it came down to guess work. He thought he could make it by tying the rope he had in his backpack to the top branches - then swinging across. If he had enough horizontal momentum - He might make it. If the rope was long enough, if the river wasn't as wide as he feared.

"Surely there's another way.. There must be..."

He felt more and more afraid and nervous, nothing could come to mind.

"Dammit!" - He screamed to the jungle.

He began his ascent up the tree closest to the river. The branches were prickly, and little Ling had difficultly getting through them. He reached near the top, the branches were still relatively strong here.

"Here goes nothing I guess."

Lightening struck across the sky again, Ling tied the rope to the branch, and descended as far as the rope would allow. He was on his tip-toes. He ran back as far as he could and swung!

"C'mon Chun, you gotta let go now.. Now?"

He swung back towards the tree he was tied to. And hit the branches. He was too afraid to let go. It seemed though, he could make it - If he could only, let go.
He tried again, and ran as fast as he could.. He jumped, swung, then let go. Gravity took over. He plunged downwards, and hit... mud... He was safe on the other side of the river. For now.

He checked his gear, and moved on - a lot less quickly and vigorously than before. He was much less confident than before.

---

[Klatz]

Record decryption...
Done.
Press any key to play the record.

Playback started.

Footsteps led me to an abandoned farm. No signs of life here, but I have noticed signs of a struggle in one house during the inspection. I did not find any corpse. Two hours of sleep I had shortly before don't help me much. But I have to go. Dosimeter slightly crackles, but all within normal limits. Pieck's out.

I had another encounter. Something looked like... Well, it didn't look like human, but I'm sure it was once. Mutant, yes. It is difficult to describe its appearance, but I know that that thing has a lot of fresh holes now. *chuckles*
Well, that mutant managed to escape and I didn't pursue it, have no time for that. Pieck's out.

I just heard sounds of the engine somewhere on the east. Need to check that out there, but I will deviate from the course to the left. I hope that's a right choise. Pieck's out.

End of file. Play again? (Y/N)

---

[arvg]

Up the embankment Elias ran, crossing the tracks, hopping the wire fence and tumbling down the much steeper south side in mere seconds. He'd forgotten what it was like to run without the weight of all one's essentials on board. Scrambling back onto his feet, he ducked past another gravity trap and took shelter in the shadow of the locomotive which sat there. Here was one of those wonders of the Zone: a boxy green diesel sitting perfectly upright as if some great force had carefully lifted it from the tracks, though its frame was warped and dented by a year of exposure to violent anomalous energies.

The battered loner quickly assessed his ersatz hardware. The AKMS was an old model, a 7.62 with the standard banana magazine. He had two full magazines and one empty, giving him a total ammunition supply of sixty cartridges. They were plain full metal jacket rounds, so he'd have to make each one count. Elias reloaded, wincing when he inadvertently pinched a finger, and resumed his run towards the farmhouse.

The Coalitioner kept bearing south-southeast, passing over low hills sparsely dotted with trees, bushes and weak anomalies. Coming onto the dirt road from the tunnel which led to the Darkscape and Dark Valley, he followed it down the last slope and into the abandoned garage through which it ran. The garage was a dismal place: a few derelict cars and trucks left to rust among buildings with brick walls partially demolished by the ravages of time. It belonged to no faction, though loners and bandits alike were known to take shelter there.

---

[Tomtomrawr]

Miller's wrist computer had begun beeping ten minutes ago, alerting him to the presence of another of the soldiers undergoing the trial. It'd woken him up immediately, and he'd monitored the little dot's progress until it was only metres away. He'd heard a snap, a quiet word that he hadn't managed to hear, and then silence. The dot had stopped moving after that.

It was still dark, much to his dismay. He'd hoped for more time before being discovered, but no doubt whatever had killed whoever the dot had been was going to check the house for more prey. It may have even been tracking him, the other person being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Miller knew that that soldier's mistake had saved his life.

He checked his watch. He'd only had two hours of sleep. He pushed himself out of his sea bag, stuffing it into his backpack. Then he stood up quickly, and looked over the edge of the floor at the entrance door. There was something there. Adrenalin surged through his veins now. He quickly moved away from the edge, and to the other side of the room.

He'd hoped to be able to disarm his traps and use the equipment again, but now he knew there would be no time for that. The tripwire and grenade would have to remain at the house, hopefully being set off by whatever was near the entrance now.

He stood up against the wall, staring at the edge of the floor, preparing himself for his next move. He'd need to break the glass of the window and jump out. But first he'd need to deter the creature from following immediately.

He removed another grenade from his backpack. Only two left if he used it, but he'd need to if he was to survive. He pulled the pin of the grenade, then broke the glass of the window using his AK-74. He moved closer to the edge to have a running start toward the structurally weakened window, threw the grenade behind him, then charged. He crashed through the glass, falling to the ground and covering his ears.

The grenade exploded as intended, Miller feeling the shock wave in the ground, cringing as his ears took the brunt of the sound. He hoped the second grenade, the one attached to the tripwire, had also exploded but doubted it.

In the tree line, he saw a shadow. The figure was human-shaped, and the shape of equipment and a rifle was visible. Its arms waved slightly in his direction, then pointed toward the ravine. The way to escape, Miller knew. The only way to escape. He began his furious sprinting toward the ravine, a hundred metres away, whilst rushing preparations to cross it.

---

[17:45:39] Wolfs Ghost (Murphy): Tom, you have problems. Go kill yourself.
[19:25:12] Johnny (Jam): Tomtom, I will beat you with a spoon.
[14:22:56] Prarabdh Thakur: KILL HIM WITH A SHEEP.
[17:40:48] Eagle (Junes): Tom should be slapped with a spoon.
[11:32:18] Warspite: Thank you for being so awesome Tom. &lt;3
[18:17:36] Metano: I love you tomtom
[20:06:24] Warspite: I will seriously give you epic head.

Edit: also, Tomtomrawr, fappin' like a boss.