KillamriX88

Terra Infirma

"You are the strangest person..." he muttered under his breath, barely audible, but then cleared his throat to speak clearly. "Uhh, well..." Training? "They can shoot guns real good? I don't really know. They're just... mercenaries. Brigands might be a better word. They have lots of weapons and there's over a dozen of them, but that's about it. Rifles and explosives mostly. Maybe a few vehicles, trucks, but nothing heavy."

He groaned, it seemed it would be horses for them. Of course some geniuses had realized "hey, desert planet, bring camels," but that also meant the few camels were at a premium, even more so than horses.

"OK, here's a simple plan," he slowly slid back to a sitting position and began explaining. Honestly, he was coming up with most of it on the fly. First she'd have to find food and water and then head to the edge of the settlement. There were horse stables there. She'd either have to find money to rent them, or steal them. She'd load whatever supplies she'd gathered onto the horses and then head out. He gave her directions to a salvage camp, on the outskirts of the town, but within sight of the walls where she'd head next.

She'd meet him nearby where she could tie up the horses and together they'd find a way to steal the equipment they'd need. Meanwhile, he'd be finding a gun and anything else useful he could managed before slowly making his way there. He had less tasks so that hopefully at his hobbling pace he'd be able to meet her at the salvage camp in a somewhat timely manner.

"That last parts gonna be the hardest. The salvagers aren't an easy bunch. They know how to handle themselves out in the wastes. IF we aren't caught, they probably won't know the difference for some time and it won't be a problem. IF we are caught... I'm not sure your sword is gonna be much use." One woman with a sword, no matter how good, didn't seem like a good match for an armed group of salvagers.

Terra Infirma

She mentioned a war of sorts with the military. He could guess how well that had gone. Back then, the mechs had worked a lot better. Taking their things? "Yeah, they did a lot of that after the... event." Finally though, his almost trance-like state began to lift, whatever thoughts that had taken over him being pushed to the back of his mind once more.

He snapped out of it completely when he had the chip back in his hands.

"Yeah, well, I suppose I didn't plan on getting you killed. No accounting for stay bullets, though." If they didn't get shot at at least once, he'd be astonished. "I'm Maedoc. And I was shot by my ex-partner's psychotic girlfriend, err, wife? Let's just go with insufferable bitch who I plan to pay back at some point. I teamed up with their crew to acquire-" Well, why lie at this point. "Ahem, steal the chip. I was able to trick them, but I still got shot. My armor had a duel with her bullet and lost after a valiant fight." Valiant enough to at least keep him alive at least. "They're the people we're racing against, to be clear.

"Now, none of what you want is going to much matter if we don't beat them there. So we really need to work on that shopping list I told you about." Shopping list, stealing list, same difference. He pushed himself to his feet, but nearly collapsed immediately, legs wobbling and knees knocking. The pain had almost been gone too... until he'd stood. "Survey says that's gonna be mostly your job..." he whimpered, eyes watering. "Transport would probably be a good start." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "Makes getting everything else easier. Especially if we need to run afterward..."

She'd said she wanted horses. Horses existed, but they were at a premium. They weren't native, and it was hard to breed them with so little native vegetation. They were also usually very skittish and trained to run home at the first opportunity. Kept losses to a minimum...

He'd have preferred some sort of ATV, like a truck... but those were loud, required fuel, and could break down. And in the desert, they weren't necessarily faster what with the sand and rough terrain. But at least they couldn't argue with you. Of course, his ability to argue with her hadn't improved in the last five minutes, so his opinion didn't have much weight he was guessing.

Terra Infirma

:D

Men vs. Women Race to 1000

-760

Terra Infirma

Maedoc grumbled under his breath. Maybe the gunk would help eventually, but at the moment it just stung. Although, by the time he finally was able to finish bandaging it, it wasn't so bad. Another thing that was darkening his mood was her insistence on details. He felt a certain level of secrecy was his only safety net, but she seemed to want to know everything.

He stared her hard in the eye. If he gave away details, there'd be scarce little left to work with. He'd have to trust those last threads of safety to hold him up.

He'd reveal a little more. "It's a military research facility, to be specific. That case holds a microchip that will run one of their last projects. Once we do that, I'm almost positive we'll also be able to get into the computers. Those computers will contain a number of files, including blueprints. They should have been shielded, so the engine going off shouldn't have fried them. Those blueprints will probably include ships -- the fast ones. I'm talking half the time to get to another planet compared to the one that went nuclear." He sighed. "But I've obviously never been there, so I obviously don't know exactly what is in there."

That left why. He could tell her half of that, at least.

"As for why? Well, I'm hoping that once I have access... I can wage war on the military and tear everything down. But since you hate this place, that shouldn't matter to you, right? If you have your way, you won't even have to be here for most of it." His expression almost went blank, his eyes gaining a sort of soullessness -- a coldness. Ice covering up something much more violent deep down.

Killa's 1x1 Search (M looking for F)

ker-bump

Terra Infirma

Don't worry about it. I'm patient.

No need to stress more on my account.

Terra Infirma

Azurian? Maedoc... had no idea what that meant. He'd been on the pathetic dust-bowl of a planet his entire life He knew there were other planets with people on them, but he couldn't name them or describe them. He supposed he'd been right to suggest leaving the planet to get her interested, but he had no idea how well he could follow through with that. "Ambitious" really had been the key word there.

Sure, she was pretty much on board now, but she'd taken on a sudden intensity that honestly had him a little scared. Should he be totally honest with her? But too much honesty might cause her to lose interest. Or was she desperate enough that any shred of hope would suffice.

He grit his teeth. If he wasn't so banged up, he'd have just risked dealing with her anger later, but... he had a feeling she'd just kill him at this rate.

"Look, I'm not in it for leaving the planet, personally. I don't particularly have any attachment to this place, but it's just... kind of a pipe dream. Keep that in mind before you do any ruining, OK?" He took a deep breath. "It's really a very simple job, but we have to be fast. The people who did this to me," he pointed to his wound, "are probably on their way as well. The only tricky part is beating them there. After that, we just have to get into an old science facility. There's no power left for the locks and the explosion should have punched enough holes in it for us to climb through."

There was only one such facility in the old settlement. He hadn't given his ex-comrades its location, but it wouldn't be hard to find. That's probably why they'd been OK with shooting him. It had already been a few days, he hoped they could still manage to beat them there.

Terra Infirma

Hello? o.o

Terra Infirma

Exotic had been right. So exotic she didn't even have the native language down right. Putting that aside, she didn't seem keen on helping him. But she also wasn't totally opposed. No, as long as he didn't say anything incredibly stupid, he had her. He smirked, "Oh, it's crazy. But I think you can handle it. I'm used to this kind of danger, and I'm sure you'll catch on." Oh, she looked used to danger, but not his kind. His kind was organized and with purpose. He had a feeling her kind was mostly for survival.

Well, that'd be important too.

"Step one will be acquiring some hazard suits. There's a few high-class scavenger, err, 'salvage' crews that have bought them from the military." They really didn't like being called scavengers. "The red zone is so dangerous these days, they won't even know their suits are missing -- and yes we'll most likely have to steal them. If that goes against your sensibilities we can always give them back later... when they're not looking." He doubted they'd be thanked for their safe return, no matter how politely they went about it.

"Aside from the suits, motorized transport would be a much appreciated luxury, especially in my condition. Animals could suffice too if that's impossible. Besides that, just the usual provisions for a trip into the desert," he explained. Honestly, the suits would be the hardest part. The scavengers had long since learned that being able to defend themselves from raiders was necessary. Even if they usually just sat on their asses lately, it wasn't like they'd thrown away their guns and become pacifists.

But he still needed to give her a reason to take the risk. "As for the payoff... well... Food and money are almost a given if all goes well. And, if you're really ambitious, how about leaving the planet?"