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originally posted in:The New Dojo
11/7/2016 1:28:02 AM
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[i]She felt the needle enter her skin, and reached for her neck, instead slumping over sideways, hitting the ground, completely out. Her blade slid from her hand, and the terrified child stood still, turning around and noticing the woman in the ground, and beginning to cry.[/i]
English
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Lucien immediately draws his pistol as he runs towards the girl, aiming his firearm at the unconscious mercenary. "Shhh, shhh, its okay now. She can't hurt you anymore," Lucien says to the girl calmingly. After a few moments, he saw that the woman was not gonna get up anytime soon. He turns to the direction of the sniper and gives a mutual nod of respect before continuing to comfort the girl. One question still weighed on his mind, however. [i]Who is Atlas?[/i]
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[i]The girl stood silently, shaking a bit. The woman on the ground was still breathing, but she was out cold. On her shoulder pauldron, the same cobra emblem as on the man he had killed earlier. These people no doubt had connections, but what were they? Would Ronin perhaps know? He bore the same emblem on his armor. Could he potentially be a part of this? Even with tragedy averted, there were no answers, not yet.[/i]
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Two people now. Two murderers with the same emblem Ronin had. As Lucien embraced the young girl with one arm comfortingly, his other held the scrap taken from the other soldier - a shoulder pauldron with a coiled red cobra emblazoned upon it. It partially buckled under the man's anger-empowered strength. Funnily enough, never before was there such an accurate representation of the False Prophet: human values protecting innocence despite the burning world it inhabits and a nihilistic beast who wished to devour all other monsters. [i]Wolf. Courier. Ronin. Atlas.[/i]
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[i]A world full of false names, corpses, and violence. Had Lucien been in the world these individuals were from, he would have seen the same violence and deceit on a much grander scale. For the time being, however, he was in need of information about the here and now, and he had managed to capture one of the perpetrators. Perhaps consulting Ronin was in order...[/i]
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Lucien ushered the child a way to a few guards and bystanders, telling them to leave. Seeing as he and some mysterious sniper just took down the hostage-taker, they were in no position to argue. A flash of sliver and blue flame burst from the man's waist as he drove his sword into the earth in front of him. He allowed his virus stem from his corrupted blade; to grow through the ground and speak in forbidden tongues - tongues which would find their way to Ronin, drawn to the blood they have tasted before. [i]Lance May... I call...[/i] Each mouth hidden by the earth cooed in almost an eerie way, each echo sounding like Lucien. But under such eeriness was a sense of dread and urgency, similar to the same tone Lucien carried as he asked for Alister.
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[i] The unnatural encroaching darkness signaled Ronin's arrival. The way the shadows stretched and pulled in abnormal ways, like something was beckoning them forth and disrupting their peace. From the earth only a few feet in front of Lucien, those same encroaching shadows pooled and coalesced into a humanoid figure, where Lance was left standing. He wore the same swords and armor Lucien had seen when they'd first met: the glossy black armor and Oni mask, his three katanas at his waist bound by a silk ribbon, and the yin-yang, plus the coiled red cobra on his shoulder..[/i] "You called?" [i] Lance questions, his voice droll and almost bored. In reality, he was curious as to what Lucien wanted.[/i]
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Lucien's hand trembled with quiet rage as he gripped his sword and sheathed if, every fleshy branch of his virus strain burning beneath the ground as the sword was retrieved. In a flash he held up the battered pauldron to Lucien - a shoulder guard with a prominent red cobra emblazoned on it. Then he pointed down to the tranquilized soldier passed out to the side of him; horrible gun safety, but such a formality was not taught on the desolate surface of Post-Scorch Mars. "Explain. [i]Now.[/i]" Those two words held all of his abhorrence of what the two soldiers had done. Pointless murder of men, women and children. Taking a kid as a hostage. Seeing monsters that reminded him of his past self repulsed him, reflected in two simple words. If anything, he was even more angry at Ronin's nonchalant demeanour. He was only a few tempered moments away from shooting him if he didn't explain his connection to the soldiers. His lax attitude was not helping.
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[i] Lance eyes the woman on the ground, the sniper round in her neck, and the red cobra on the shoulder pauldron. Lance felt a certain itch in the back of his mind, which caused him to look east several hundred yards away. On the rooftop, a dark figure and a glinting sniper scope. Desmond Galloway..sly bastard.[/i] "If you assume I have anything to do with these people that have caused havoc, you're mistaken." [i] Lance crosses his arms, gesturing to the red cobra on his shoulder.[/i] "The insignia of a PMC named Venom Incorporated. I was employed by them years ago, but now they are gone, they're leaders dead. I haven't seen someone else with that insignia in well over ten years, neither of these operators I recognize, or the name they speak that they're employed by. "Atlas."
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"That's what she said to me too," Lucien said slowly as his anger faded. "But what's to say you're telling the truth?" His question was of an inquisitive tone. Not an accusation, but a legitimate question of objection. He couldn't risk any more danger to a place the boy he was looking for might be in - so that meant leaving no stone unturned.
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[i] Lance pauses for a moment, thinking on the question.[/i] "In reality, nothing, only my word. Hopefully you trust that I wouldn't be responsible for murdering men, women, and children like a heathen, like these soldiers." [i]While Lance may have not been the most innocent guy in the world, he wasn't evil. Not by a long shot. [/i]
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A sigh escaped his weathered lips as he considered Ronin's words. He then slowly lowered his gun and reset the hammer while doing so. "Alright then. Venom Incorporated? Sounds a lot like the Iconoclast mercs back in my world. Hired guns funded by the upper class that rules over most of Olympus Island. But if you said they were out of commission, then why are their emblems still being seen on these folks? Rogues like you, perhaps?"
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"Yeah. A private military full of mercenaries who worked for the people with the most money. In the end, they're leader ended up starting a war." [i] Lance said.[/i] "No, I don't they're rogues. I think someone is trying to pick up where Schrader left off, and is outfitting new people with Venom gear. These suits are standard issue for their soldiers."
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"Damn. Do you have any other info sources on these guys then? Surely the trail can't end there. We have to find whoever's in charge of these guys and stop them. I won't be the witness to another massacre." The faraway look in Lucien's eyes told Lance that he was referring to much more than the two recent mass murders in the Dojo. Something much before that.
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[i] Lance paused for a moment, and began tapping on a screen that lit up on his gauntlet. He entered a frequency that he hadn't called into for a long time, he just hoped he'd picked up. He held up a finger to Lucien telling him to wait a moment while he called.[/i] "Is my favorite British black bird around?" [i] Lance said into his comms, contacting Nicholas Clarkson, known as Crow.[/i]
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[i]A sigh at the end of the line, followed by a chuckle.[/i] Aye. Any special reason for the call, or did you just feel like saying hello? [i]He sounded as if he was busy, shuffling papers and taking care of the other side of counter-terror and black operations.[/i]
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"As much as I love British accents, no, not a social call. I'm on a planet called Tatakai, where we've got soldiers running around that have red cobras on the shoulder pauldron. I hope that rings a bell." [i] Lance said.[/i]
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[i]The shuffling stopped.[/i] What did you say? The red cobra? [i]It didn't sound like shock, rather, it sounded like a mental "oh sh*t" moment.[/i]
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"Yes. Red cobra. As in two soldiers have killed a hundred odd civilians, both dressed in standard issue Venom exo's with their insignia." [i] Lance said, even while he was talking his mind was dissecting the problem in an attempt to come up with some reasoning or solution.[/i]
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Well... Can't say I'm surprised. [i]He sighed, and more shuffling of papers could be heard in the background.[/i] Give me ten minutes. [i]The call disconnected.[/i]
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Edited by Will: 11/8/2016 2:16:12 AM[i]Lance simply stood there, arms crossed and waited ten minutes. Damn Crow.[/i]
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[i]Beside Lance, out of thin air, he appeared in his full combat exo, completely loaded with his combat gear. Both M45A1s were at his hips in their holsters, his bow on his back, next to his collapsed bo staff and quiver. A knife was situated on the inside of his left leg, another on his chest at the top of his bandolier. His gauntlet spikes were folded down, his quiver full of arrows. On the familiar exosuit, Lance could see that the SAS insignia had replaced that of Venom Incorporated, and on the other shoulder, he bore the Union Jack. Looking to the ground at the knocked-out woman, he spoke.[/i] She alive? [i]His voice was flat, clearly the violence didn't seem to faze him.[/i]
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"Yeah. A Good Samaritan shot her..she'll be out for the next few hours if that drug is what I think it is." [i] Lance plucked the syringe round from her neck, examining the trace red liquid in there. Eon Rose extract. [/i]
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[i]Clarkson flipped her over with his foot, looking the armor over.[/i] Infiltrator pattern, Stalker, by the looks of it. [i]He walked around her to the other side, continuing to look her over.[/i] The blade she has... Schrader hadn't been weaponizing tytritium that way on a large scale. Unless that's a salvaged piece, that's new gear. Well I suppose this confirms my initial suspicions, then. [i]He said, kneeling and placing a set of powerful-looking cuffs on her wrists.[/i]
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"That someone wants to pick up where Schrader left off?" [i] Lance says, picking the blade up and flipping it this way and that, examining it. [/i]
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It certainly appears that way, mate. We've gotten word of cartels in Mexico running around with Venom tech, and the CIA's missing a field operator and a mercenary in the same place. Both reported dead in Mexico City, killed by a cartel. Americans recovered the mercenary's body, someone told me his call sign was Sidewinder, apparently he'd been contracted to keep an eye on some stuff down there. We've got reason to believe that there are some hold-outs in Mexico running with the cartels. [i]He said, not sounding happy to have said it. This was something he had hoped that he'd never have to deal with.[/i] We don't know who's calling the shots or what they want. Been a dead trail for the most part, and Parliament's not letting me chase this, neither is the Castle.
