Chapter One: Let's Make A Steal

Alan sighed and picked up his belongings. He hated being woken up suddenly, but he would have to deal with it today. One of their teammates was missing, and they couldn't just leave them behind.

"Dammit, Fenix," he said to himself, grumbling. "You just had to get caught after a good find, didn't ya? You couldn't wait a bit, you just had to let your guard down. I'll have to remind myself to put myself on watch next time. Those Slavers could've slit all our throats if they wanted to."

Alan caught up with the others and started to walk their pace, his submachine gun slung over his arm.

"Well, I hope he isn't doing anything stupid," he said to the others. "If anything, he should just lay back and wait until we find him, but knowing Fenix, he'll probably try to break out. I guess we can hope..."

Emmet grabbed a pistol and smiled at Fenix, "Nice, seems like you can take care of yourself. Now I need my weapon.... I think they keep weapons over here." Emmet walked over to a closed door and picked the lock, "Bingo!" Emmet saw his gunblade on a shelf. Picking it up a smiled wider, clicking a button the gun flipped and turned into a small sword. "Now I can fight."

The journey through the desert and city ruins was a typical trek for the team; slowly, the terrain turned from sand to the piles upon heaps upon stacks of scrap metal, gears, and rubble that Salvagers were used to. Their march along the tracks was hastened and their senses were at their sharpest.

Soon, however, the tracks weren't needed. In the distance, a silhouette of a guard was illuminated by a working lamp-post. It was easily the only bandit hideout for miles.

Thales stopped the group. "I can cap the sentry. Let's storm the place, old school style... Alan, you've your grenades ready, I hope?"

Fenix almost fell to his knees in thankfulness. There within that Raider sentry guard station, and on a high shelf, leaned his 30-40 Krag, TAR-21, and on a hook nearby his blackened machete. As though they were things he hadn't seen in the longest time, Fenix ran in and embraced his precious weaponry, earning queer glances from Emmet. Soon, he strapped his weapons to his back and sheathed his Machete to his hip. In a crate at the side of the room was stored his combat helmet and bullet-proof gear. Donning this equipment, he felt whole once again.

With a smile, he exited the room and looked to Emmet. He could tell that his new friend was already thinking he was some kind of psycho. With a short laugh, he clapped the man on the shoulder and started to walk toward the tracks of the subway, now old and dusty.

"As a soldier, it is the worst fate to lose the weapons you carry." Fenix explained with a grin. "C'mon, we might be able to reach the ground above if we traverse these tunnel systems. I am pretty sure that much of this hasn't caved in."

At that, Fenix hoped the ledge and started walked on the tracks toward the long pitch black tunnel before him. Fishing through his gear satchel, he found a military issue flashlight. Flicking a switch, a beam of light perforated through the thick darkness.

Before Fenix and Emmet opened a vast, gloomy tunnel, instantly recognizable as a subway--if not by the rusted-over train, proudly displaying ArkTRAK on the side in navy blue letters, which blocked off the center of the tunnel. On either side were thin passages which had been hollowed out, but one was obstructed by junk--there was one way forward. Peering down this path revealed a light in the far distance, but not much else.

"Always," Alan answered Thales, grinning in spite of the situation. He activated his Inader Gene, instantly turning invisible, and started to run swiftly towards the base, leaving the rest of the team without a word. His mission: infiltration. Making an explosve entr was always his job, as his invisibility Gene allowed him to sneak past guards and hit a critical point before the main assault.

Alan ran past the guard at the lightpost, scaring him a bit with the breeze he made. Don't worry, he thought to himself, grinning. You'll be dead soon enough. Alan snickered at his own dark humor. Alan was soon in the vicinity of the base, right at the wall of the ruined fort. He checked around the walls until he heard voices coming from a tall window. He lifted himself up and looked past the bars to see about four bandits conversing at a table and eating some food.

Alan dropped back down and took out a detonation pack out of his backpack, placing it in the center of the wall underneath the high window. Get ready for a wake up call, Alan though to himself. He set the charge to blow and went a ways away with the detonator. He looked over in the guard that was at the lamppost, waiting for Thales to shoot him. Once the guard fell, he would activate the explosives and begin the assault.

Thales levelled the barrel of his Melior at the bandit's head. He breathed in and held his breath, aiming for a second to be absolutely certain of his strike's deadly accuracy. He checked one final time and squeezed the trigger--the noise of the gunshot erupted deafeningly as the bandit sentry crumpled to the pavement in a pool of blood. It wouldn't go unnoticed, but the next move on the part of Alan would be unmissable.

"Everyone!" Thales whispered to his comrades. "The instant the dust settles, we're going in. Affix bayonets."

The group readied itself for a gallant charge. It reminded Thales of some of his reading, especially a book--a chap with the surname Remarque had wrote it, something about some god-forsaken conflict--All Quiet On The Western Front. An interesting novel, to be sure, but he hoped like hell that his friends didn't wind up like the protagonists of that story.

As soon as the bullet pierced the bandits head, making a bloody mess, Alan pressed the trigger and the explosion was triggered. A resounding sound of fire and destruction ripped through the air, causing Alan to raise his hand up from the shock-wave of heat. The whole wall and a lot of the interior near it, was destroyed from the blast. Sudden screams were heard as the lives of a few bandits suddenly ended.

Alan smiled and looked at the destruction.

"I love my job," he said to himself, chuckling. He swung his sub-machine gun off his shoulder and held it in a firm grip, waiting until the others made it to his position to rendezvous. So far, the plan seemed to be going excellently, but now the bandits were probably on high alert, so the skirmishes ahead would likely be fiercer.

Deep in the tunnel, a shock wave was slightly felt. The ground shook a bit, enough to stop Fenix in his tracks. No sounds however were heard where they were, only the methodical dripping of ground water, and the sound of Emmet's footsteps on the metal track behind him. Fenix looked behind toward his companion and smirked a bit, he had a feeling he knew what was going on.

"Looks like Thane managed to pick up my scent." Fenix commented.

At that, Fenix hitched up his pack and shouldered his weapons, starting to walk down the tunnel further. The light ahead drew near, possibly only a couple hundred feet away.

"Comrades, charge!" Thales thundered. "Let's storm this place!"

A bayonet charge resulted, in true Otavian style as the party reached the rubble of the building. Doubtless there were bandits inside, dazed and confused--but only momentarily. They'd have to batter down the door.

Thales' foot did the job quite nicely. Bayonet out in front of him, he ran in to the first of a few rooms. "Let's clear this place out!" he ordered.

Emmet heard the sounds of a fight up ahead, he guessed this was Fenix's friends.

"Sounds like you got some pretty devoted comrades up there. Storming this place to get ya out." Emmet smiled and flipped his gunblade back to a pistol. He held it at the ready, the noise was getting louder.

The smoke and dust barely settled before Valkyire made her way into the partially collapsed building. It was already looking slightly like Hell, with reddish light setting the dust alight with a myriad of red hues. It was made worse by poor airflow.

:There has got to be bandits around here in this mess. And who in hell uses red lighting?!:

Eventually, Valkyrie came upon a trio of bandits, who were looking for something to shoot. They saw her, but before they could react, their weapons left their already weak grips, landing on the ground, rattling away.

They sought cover behind each other and in the flat wall, finding nowhere to sconce themselves.

"You have a friend of mine." She unsheathed her katana, placing the cold steel at one bandit's neck. "You will tell me where he is."

They merely shuddered, refusing to speak.

"Really...This is annoying." She thought for a second. Then, without turning away from the bandits, made a decision. "Thales! Got some bandits over here! They aren't speaking."

Derrik stood in the jail cell in the raider camp. He had just left underground and he was stuck in this hell. He slams his fist against the wall, and the entire thing shakes. He does it again, creating a larger shockwave. "Whoa! Never did that before!" Derrik exclaims. He pulls back his fist and slams it into the wall, it shakes until it crumbles.Derrik steps over the debris, chose a direction, and went left.

Thales was in the room in moments. He was pissed, frankly, and this was hardly the time for a bandit to get in the way of his rescue mission. The party's leader entered the room and lowered his rifle, bayonet threatening. He said nothing for a moment.

He then tore one from his place next to the wall, his superior strength allowing him to take the man along with ease. Giving his Melior to Valkyrie--giving her a wink, once his head was turned from the bandits--he withdrew his revolver and took the bandit into the next room.

From the standpoint of the bandits held against the wall, there were violent shouts, the sound of a face being smashed into a counter, and then three deafening gunshots, after which a painfully mortal whimper ended unceremoniously. The "executioner", unbeknownst to the next room's inhabitants, ordered the perfectly healthy--save perhaps a broken nose--bandit to remain absolutely silent, noting three bullet holes in the wall behind him.

Thales returned to the room, grinning like a madman. He looked the next bandit in the eye and asked a question in the most terrifying, emotionless voice he could muster.

"The prisoner--where is he held? Are there more of you in this complex?"

The one under Valkyrie's katana cracked first. "They're all in a dungeon! Eight more of us, three prisoners. An old subway tunnel, below us--just outside the back room, a stairwell leads down there!" he said. "Just... just let us all go."

Suddenly, there was the sound of a wall crumbling. Thales turned his head--but the noise was a fair distance away. "Be off," he replied as he took back his rifle from Valkyrie.

Valkyrie grunted non-committally, as if she'd have rathered kill the bandits. She drew away her katana, sheathing it in one motion, following Thales.

"Well, Thales, you seemed to enjoy talking with that bandit. Quite punctual."

She looked around again. This place was only getting worse, dry heat giving way to damp, dank passages that smelled of time and rot.

"Oh great. I think we just from Hell to the dismal caves."

Valkyrie looked even more frustrated, although it also seemed as if part of her frustration was directed elsewhere.

Emmet heard a voice, he looked at Fenix, "Did you hear something? It came from over there..." Emmet looked around and found the place where the voice came from. Emmet ran over and he and Fenix helped the person out.... it was merely a small boy.

"What the hell are you doing here?! What is a child like you doing amongst these bandits?"

Emmet heard more fighting, "No time for chit chat, sounds like your friends are making hell for the bandits, might as well help them out."