[center][color=8dc73f][b]The Jaded Empire - The U (Ann Arbor U of M hospital) [/b][/color][/center] Walter poured a little water over his head; relishing the relief it brought as it trickled down his face. He and his workers had spent half the day breaking down the last remaining wall of a derelict building surrounding the old University of Michigan Hospital. It had been a daunting task as the former three story wall sat in several piles, reusable bricks and windows had been neatly stacked, items that could be used for other projects in rejuvenating the area to resemble its former glory sat in a pile a few hundred feet away. The scrap had been loaded onto wagons to be taken elsewhere. Walter and his small crew looked up to the sky to see two black dots approaching with a thumping sound. [I]Meh... [/i] he shrugged them off after a small pause. Air traffic had been consistently increasing over the past few years; it was nothing uncommon so they continued to enjoy their rest. Walter stretched out his leg, rubbing his knee, the root of the reason he was moved to the inland territories at his age... He had fallen off the wall of his borderland settlement during an invasion from a rival raider tribe; tearing the meniscus in his knee. Unable to perform at the expected speed during initial attack training, but having proved a loyal servant and protector of The Jaded Empire he was placed in The U to oversee the reclaiming of the once prosperous hospital. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Melissa and Sherry were gathering water from the river just east of the old hospital for their crops when they looked up, just as the rest of the settlement did as the two black dots cut through the sunny sky approaching from the north. They carried their buckets to the small crop area that had begun to spring up and went on about their business. It had been months of hard work to get the settlement able to produce for itself...somewhat. But harder was the transition from the borderlands to the inland life for Melissa, though she welcomed the peace and also that she was once again reunited with her older sister, she missed the excitement the borderlands provided. Both women had put in their time protecting the southwest corner on the territory and shared stories of their experiences while they worked the ground, watering the plants. The ramshackle settlement was the beginning of the next chapter in their lives as servants to The Jaded Empress. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The two black dots morphed into vertibirds, garnishing no real attention other than flying relatively low. The busy little settlement of one hundred twenty three inhabitants went about their daily activities. The engines howled like angry Deathclaws as they banked hard descending quickly onto the old worn streets by the hospital. The sudden landing caught the people off guard; their nerves quickly rose wondering if Calypso had sprung a surprise visit as they watched nervously. When the doors of the mighty birds broke open, hissing as they lowered down. Neon green blasts erupted as black metal clad soldiers spewed outside onto the street. Walter jumped to his feet, his eyes the size of plates as he motioned to his crew, “[b]Run!!![/b]” He winced as he sprinted as fast as he could to a nearby building, he turned to look back and his colleague was gone, reduced to ashes dancing on the ground in the breeze. Screams of sheer horror filled the air as the metal men ran through the settlers like they were nothing. Walter took cover, he could hear rifles returning fire, and the bullets just gave off a high pitched hum as they ricocheted off the attacker's armor. [I]Wh...what the fu… [/i] his brain raced when a green charged put a smoldering hole in the wall above his head. He saw one of the workers fire axes leaning in the corner, crawling over he grasped it and hid in a corner behind the door. Another worker scurried around the corner, in a split second he was just a pile of ashes. “[b]CLEAR[/b],” one soldier called out to his partner, the metallic sounds of their armor quieted as they exited the building. Walter exhaled while he peered out ever so slightly to see one soldier standing just a few feet from the doorway taking aim to extinguish more settlers. He gripped the axe tightly with both hands, sneaking up behind the invader and swung the axe with all of his might. “[b]WATCH OUT[/b],” a second soldier yelled, making Walter’s target turn around quickly as the axe just missed his helmet tearing into his shoulder. The blow broke off a large chunk of the metal soldier's shoulder pauldron, it landed with a clunk. The second soldier blasted Walter in the knee sending him crashing to the ground. The soldier that had been struck tore the axe from Walter's hands, “Disgusting mutant, may you all be cleansed from our earth,” the soldier raised the axe and sunk it deeply into Walter's lower back hitting his spine. The mirrored lense of his helmet watched as Walter screamed out in agony unable to move his legs, the axe burning inside his back brought an evil laugh from the soldier, “suffer mutant.” The soldier stepped down on the axe as Walter struggled with the excruciating pain before taking a deep breath allowing his head to rest on the warm asphalt. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Their buckets of water crashed to the ground as Melissa and Sherry ran towards their makeshift metal shack. A wall of ten soldiers cut through their fellow settlers with the ease of a hot knife thru butter. “[b]TAKE UP ARMS, TAKE UP ARMS, TA…[/B]” yelled Greg from the watch tower before being silenced by several red strings of lasers. Scattered gunfire tried to answer the attacker’s energy weapons but were met with dismal results. The two women sprang through the door to their shack, collapsing to the floor as they caught their breath. “Rifles,” gasped Sherry pointing to a chest at the foot of her bed. Melissa yanked out two SKS rifles; tossing one over to Sherry enabling her to pull out the ammo can. Feverishly the women loaded cartridges into the ten round magazines and rocked back the bolts readying the rifles. Several other settlers stormed into the shack’s floppy door, one a man called Pops. He was The Elder of the settlement, having seen his fair share of battles. Pops slammed his back against the door, “Grenades? Do you have any grenades?” “NO,” Melissa yelled back over the sobbing settlers. A woman and her middle school aged child had been ushered in by Pops. Melissa looked back at Sherry and the others, she fixed her bayonet, “I got you Sis.” Before Sherry could object, Melissa ripped open the door and fired up towards the hospital emptying her magazine. She went to dip back into the shack to reload; looking at Sherry as she too was struck and melted into a pile of ashes; only her rifle lay where she had been just a moment ago. Sherry screamed out while Pops reached for the rifle. Pops went to stand upright when a metal elbow cracked him in the mouth landing him flat on his back. The metal arm tossed several grenades inside the shack as casual as could be, silencing the cries, blowing one of Pops legs off and filling him with shrapnel. His hands shaking with intense pain, Pops managed to aim the rifle at a metal soldier as chaos ensued. The soldier kicked the rifle from Pops hands; raising his boot he smashed Pops head twice, wiping his boot off of Pops shirt. [center][color=8dc73f][b]The Jaded Empire - Supply Envoy [/b][/color][/center] The trek along old Interstate 94 from Jacktown to The U wasn’t bad on horseback or by vehicle, but the Brahmin convoy made the trek downright miserable for Heart, Richie and Debbie. It was his job to see that supplies moved smoothly from settlement to settlement and the trip to The U would take hours walking the Brahmin. In the distance Heart saw smoke lapping at the blue sky, [i]Great, now I’m gonna have to smell all that old shit they’re burning when I get there.[/i] Several hours later, the smoke had grown larger but was now dissipating; Heart paraded the Brahmin through downtown Ann Arbor past the main campus towards the hospital. When they breached the top of the hill on Observatory Street he halted at the sound of engines rising in RPM. Heart waved Richie and Debbie aside, holding his AR15 firm in his hands he cautiously tried to get a closer look. “[B]down[/b],” he ordered as two vertibirds rose up close to the towering twelve floor hospital and disappeared heading north. “The hell was that about?” Debbie gestured at the dots as the vanished in the northern sky. “I...uh...I have no fucking clue, but this shit ain’t adding up. Tie up the Brahmin and let’s go,” Heart tightened his Kevlar vest and tapped his three extra mags. It quickly became clear, this was no friendly visit. Smoldering piles of rubble, woods and ash piles lay strewn all over the place, Heart stopped, “A fucking massacre.” His eyes burned as ashes dusted his surroundings. “Rich go hit the siren,” Heart looked on sorrowfully. The tornado siren, now used as a way to alert nearby settlements of invasion wailed relentlessly into the skies. Moments later more could heard from other settlements as the message was passed on. Going from shack to shack they looked for survivors, “OH MY GOD,” Debbie shrieked as she stepped on the remains of Pops head and vomited upon the crunch. “Nobody, they’re all gone,” Richie spun around. Heart bent down scooping up a handful of ashes from next to a rifle, letting them fall through his fingers, “I’ve seen this before, but it can’t be.” He walked up towards the research center where he could see Walter laying there, a red fireman's axe standing from his back, "[i]DAMN[/i]," he quietly spoke as he nudged Walter with his toe. He jumped back when Walter coughed; a small pool of blood fell from his mouth, "Walter?" Walter painfully turned his to see Heart's foot, "Na...North, black," his words hardly audible, Heart kneeled down to listen, "Bla...metal," Walter stretched a finger towards the shoulder pauldron. Heart reached over and picked it up to examine it the piece of armor. “Black metal?” asked Heart. Walter coughed again and swallowed a lump in his throat, “Yeah, black metal armo…” he winced, “armor. Two birds came from the north, killed everyone.” struggling for air he continued, “Green energy turned us to ashes.” [i]There is no fucking way, The Enclave were taken out in Grayditch[/i], Heart’s thoughts broke when Walter’s bloody hand touched his boot. “Please?” Asked Walter, “Pa put me down, please,” his eyes filled with tears. Heart nodded, pulling out his 1911 from his hip holster, held took Walter’s chin in his left hand; putting the pistol on his temple, “Goodbye my friend, see you on the other side.” His friend’s head weighed down in his hand as he holstered his gun, gently laying his head to rest.