[centre][h1][b][color=#E391A0]|| Junia Menarini ||[/color][/b][/h1][/centre] [centre][h2][b][color=#E391A0]|| The Zombie on the Ridge ||[/color][/b][/h2][/centre] [centre][h3][b][color=#E391A0]|| ACT I ||[/color][/b][/h3][/centre] [b]“Fuck me…”[/b] muttered a balding man as the wind picked up, whipping the pages of his magazine into a frenzy. He twisted his body, trying to shield his “reading material” from the wind, but the wind was undeterred. It caught the book and gave it lift. The man desperately tried to hold onto it, but the tug-of-war proved to be too much for the magazine’s abused binding. RIPPPP! In a flash, the small campsite had a change of weather. A flurry of pages - the flickering campfire revealing women posing in the nude alongside “advice columns” - had descended upon them. The balding man stood up and threw his torn rag on the ground and began stomping at it out of rage. One of the men sitting around the fire, a younger blonde boy, barely of fighting age, began laughing as he loudly chewed his bologna sandwich. The balding man turned to him, his head as red as a ripe tomato, and screamed at him. [b]“The FUCK you laughin’ at, bologna boy?”[/b] The boy’s laughter intensified, morphing into a full blown coughing fit as bits of bread, meat, and mayonnaise spewed out with each cough. One of the other men - short and stocky with dark hair - piped up, [b]“Looks like he’s laughin’ at your dumb ass, Marchetti.”[/b] [b]“Oh yeah? You laughin’ at my dumb ass, boy?”[/b] the man called Marchetti fired toward the coughing boy, which only made the coughing boy laugh and cough even more. His face also began to turn red, as tears welled up in his eyes, and he managed a choked approximation of [b]“Shut the fuck up, Marchetti.”[/b] A fourth man, a taller lad with a bright shock of red hair, chimed in, [b]“Yeah, shut the fuck up, Marchetti. Let Monti choke in peace.”[/b] Marchetti shot a look over towards the ginger and started nodding. [b]“Oh yeah?”[/b] he turned towards the coughing boy. [b]“I got a lil’ somethin’ Monti can choke on. Come here, ya little bitch!”[/b] he shouted as he rushed toward the choking Monti and started pelvic thrusting toward the boy's head. The boy’s laughter and coughing grew even louder as he pushed the thrusting Marchetti away, earning a roar of laughter from the other men. [b]“HEY!”[/b] barked the older blonde man seated the the far side of camp, a can of opened beans in his hands. The other men jumped to attention, with the exception of Monti who was now doubled over coughing up his dinner. [b]“Marchetti, shut the fuck up and go check on Menarini.”[/b] Marchetti stood still for a moment, just gazing at the older man. He appeared to consider saying something before the man piped up again. “[b]You got a problem with that order?”[/b] [b]“No.”[/b] Marchetti answered. [b]“No [i]sir.[/i]”[/b] the man corrected, his eyes narrowing at the balding soldier. [b]“No sir!”[/b] Marchetti answered. [b]“Then what the FUCK are you waiting on? Get!”[/b] he barked at the soldier, who turned and began hurrying out of camp towards the ridgeline to the east. The senior soldier looked down at his beans and shook his head before looking back over towards the boy vomiting. He sighed. [b]“For fuck’s sake, one of you go either help Monti up or put ‘em down.”[/b] The men all turned to look at one another before the exasperated officer called out, [b]“Russi - go. The rest of you pick up Marchetti’s porn. [i]Go[/i]”[/b] which caused them to scatter like ants. Another bald man next to the officer chuckled. [b]“Belisio’s best and brightest.”[/b] The officer grunted as his spoon clanked against the metal can. He watched as the tall redhead Russi managed to get Monti back on his feet - just in time for the kid to spew again. The officer shook his head and stared into the can. [b]“Yeah. Best and brightest. God help us.”[/b] [hr] [centre][h3][b][color=#E391A0]|| ACT II ||[/color][/b][/h3][/centre] In the cold darkness, a figure stood atop the rocky outcrop overlooking the field engulfed by countless Vaimese slave soldiers and a truly pitiful Belisian force. She stood in silence, binoculars practically attached to her face. If it wasn’t for her occasionally lowering them to get a better view, one could be forgiven for thinking she was a statue. She heard the bald man long before he reached her, his muttering and cursing cutting through the howling wind. As she scanned the opposite ridgeline, his voice cut in. [b]“Spot anything?”[/b] She hadn’t. Nothing worth mentioning anyway. She had been tracking the movements of a particularly shifty looking group - possible mages by her count - but she was finding it rather…difficult to concentrate at the moment. [b]“Ayy, you fuckin’ deaf or something? I asked ‘you spot anything?’ Cap wants to know.”[/b] the man had called out to her again. But the watcher on the ridge was trying her best to not lose her mark. Could be nothing, but it was worth looking into. [b]“God fuckin’ damn it - why are you such a fuckin’ freak, Menarini?! Just say something already.”[/b] A moment passed. Then another. The balding soldier stooped down and picked up a rock. He tossed in the air, checking its weight, before chucking it towards the woman on the rock. It collided squarely with the back of her head, but it didn’t earn a reaction. Juno’s head shifted forward, then she returned to her previous position. [b]“What the fuck…?“[/b] he chuckled to himself in disbelief before picking up another one. Again he threw a rock at the silent woman, and again he struck true. No reaction. Marchetti stood mouth agape as he shook his head. She was bleeding. Even in the darkness, he could see that. [b][color=#E391A0]“Contact spotted.”[/color][/b] The soldier had just picked up another rock when he processed what he had just heard. He turned to look at her, shocked. [b]“Wait, what?”[/b] The woman pulled a radio from her side and brought it to her mouth. [b][color=#E391A0]“Steed One, Steed One…This is Zombie, over.”[/color][/b] she barked. The radio buzzed for a few moments before the static was cut. [b]“RECEIVED ZOMBIE. GO FOR STEED ONE.”[/b] [color=#E391A0][b]”Got a stork in the sky, over.”[/b][/color] A moment passed before the next reply. [b]”COPY THAT, ZOMBIE. STORK IN THE SKY. YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO ENGAGE, OVER.”[/b] [b][color=#E391A0]“WILCO, Steed One. Zombie out.”[/color][/b] With that, the woman returned the radio to her side and leaped off the rock. As she passed the soldier, she gave him a glance, tossing the binoculars at him. Marchetti juggled them before he finally secured his grip and brought the lens to his eyes. He scanned the ridgeline… And nothing. He turned to look over at Menarini as she approached the large, kneeling suit of hers. She approached from the rear and climbed up into its exposed back. Once she was in, Marchetti watched as the metal shimmered and bristled like an angry cat’s fur before it reached out with metal tendrils and began to spread out across the woman’s back. And just like that, the back was solid, no seam in sight. It was unnerving to watch. But he couldn’t help it. As the metal figure began to stir, Marchetti found himself mesmerized by the flickering metal on its arms. Like scales on a dragon. A metal dragon. The Hepius roared to life. As it rose to its feet, it swung the cannon from where it had been resting beside it to front and center. The tendrils on the back of its head snaked forward, finding their places in the base of the cannon. And then the humming began. [sub][sub][b]hmmmmmmmmmm[/b][/sub][/sub] A dull light began to flicker from within the cannon. [sub][b]hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm[/b][/sub] After a few moments, the humming grew louder and light brighter. Marchetti managed to tear his eyes away from the strange machine back towards the ridgeline. [b]hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm[/b] He didn’t see shit. He brought the binoculars to his eyes and… Still nothing. [b]HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM[/b] The humming grew even more intense. When the soldier looked over, he would notice small wisps of pinkish-purple appearing around the edge of the cannon, from the end of which a purplish arc lashed about violently. [b][h3]HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM[/h3][/b] Suddenly, a voice crackled out from the machine, sounding warped and tinny.. [color=#E391A0]“You’re going to want to stand back.”[/color] [b]“What d’you mea-”[/b] he started to protest - [h2][b]HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM[/b][/h2] - but the humming evolved into a ferocious roar, joined by a creepy scream - a woman’s scream? - as a large column of purplish light poured out of the cannon. The soldier instinctively dove to the ground, searching for cover. From his place on the rocky ground, Marchetti traced the beam as it cut through the sky towards…nothing. Absolutely nothing. The bitch had fired at nothing. [h1][b][sub]B O O O O M[/sub][/b][/h1] And then the explosion started. He watched as from a seemingly empty night sky, the imposing figure of a Vaimese dropship had suddenly appeared - materialized out of nowhere. And there was now a massive chunk missing. Explosions were going off. It was breaking apart in the sky and falling to the ground in two halves. Marchetti watched as at least two dozen bodies came tumbling out of the wreckage, plummeting towards sure death. After a moment, he got to his feet and looked down at the battle below. The wreckage of the dropship was now illuminating the melee going on around it. Absolute carnage. The strange voice cut through the man’s thoughts. [color=#E391A0][b]"Drop’s coming. Tell Captain Bruno to take the ridge.”[/b][/color] He looked over towards the machine woman, but it wasn’t moving. [b]“What?”[/b] His answer was silence. Marchetti was about to reply when he noticed another shuttle light up off to their southeast. A friendly one this time. Mage must have took a page out of the Zombie’s playbook. At the same time, the machine roared to life once more, launching immediately southeast. [b]“Fuckin’ freak…”[/b] he muttered to himself as he hurried back towards camp. [hr] [centre][h3][b][color=#E391A0]|| ACT III ||[/color][/b][/h3][/centre] As the Hepius roared down the hillside, Juno trained her eyes on the falling dropship. Steed One had just broadcasted that reinforcements were coming…but that wasn’t where they were supposed to land. She frowned. She was to join up with the landing force and support their push into the opposition flank. [i]From the west.[/i] [b][u]THAT[/u][/b] was her objective. [b][u]THIS[/u][/b] was improvisation. And Juno so very much hated being forced to improvise. She gave the battlefield a wide berth as she repositioned, gliding over the landscape like a figure skater on the ice. Still, the occasional small arms fire caught her, some bouncing off the Hepius’ armor, some piercing through. None doing any significant damage that couldn’t be repaired though. The woman pressed onward. Even from her considerable distance, she could tell that the survivors of the shuttle’s crash were making a stand. She began to take aim with the cannon. The shuttle took some significant damage on its way down, but it somehow hadn’t detonated. She could correct that, maybe take a few Vaimese out while she was at it. The cannon began to hum again. Something detonated in the area of the crashed shuttle. … The light in the cannon fizzled as the Hepius took a hard turn. Directly into enemy lines. The Hepius readied the AAPT and began swinging at anything that got within reach. Cracking skulls with one arm and using the cannon as a lance with the other, the Hepius began to cut a path towards the next shuttle. The downed shuttle was lost. That was a shame, but she still had her orders. She needed to link up with the main force. As she glided through the lines, an enemy mage landed a nasty hit on the Hepius. The explosion ate away at the front armour and burned much of the woman’s face. Ever calm, however, the Hepius approached the mage, quickly regenerating as the mage hastily prepared their next attack. In vain, it would seem, as the mage soon found himself getting to know the AAPT rather personally. Juno screamed across the battlefield, figuratively and literally, until eventually arriving at what seemed to be a Knight-held line. Drenched in the viscera of numerous Vaimese slave soldiers and one particularly unfortunate mage, the Hepius looked every bit a monster. Juno had maintained her composure…but for how long, she couldn’t say. The skin on her face stretched and tore, constantly jabbing her brain with shocks of horrible, intense pain. She could feel the little tingle in the back of her head, a surefire sign that it was time to…let loose. She just needed to get her orders first. …which she had neglected to tell the Knights she had approached, opting instead to just stand there. Menacingly.