More Futurisitic Fun Than You Really Wanted, part I of V

[Eater of Clowns]

"You're at the pub and there's this girl," he started.  Lesson one of the class.  The briefing room his school.  A single Templar his student.  Onlookers readying for their excursion subtly strain to hear over the bustle of their routine.  "There are plenty of others around, and maybe on another day they'd be the ones on your mind.  But today it's this one girl, all the thoughts going through you shared by just about every man in there.  That's how the Nessies work."

The lone templar says nothing.  He listens to this, his new teacher.  In the corner, a chaplain watches the exchange.  Hearing the introduction, a few Templars scoff and shake their heads.  A few others glare at the ones who do.  It is not their lesson, and the instructor pays them no mind.

"It's a pheromone.  You don't notice it's there, but you feel its effect.  That girl in the bar is putting them off and the Nessie in the tunnel is doing the same.  Only instead of going for your prick, it gives you the fear enough to make you stupid.  One of the effects of the juice is to stop you noticing it."  He's not a big man, like some of them.  He's not a warrior like The Old Man, or even just a skilled nut like Tom.  He isn't a giant, or a mercenary.  He watches.

The ones who scoffed are listening again, but they're skeptical.  Pheromone or not, you felt the fear.

"That's one of the many little things that the juice kills.  With all of those dead, you can focus on the big things, which is necessary to stay alive when you're first coming down here," the teacher went on.  Out of the tunnels, the men talk.  There are some that they don't speak about, some whose stories were tragic ones.  Then there are some they speak about in awe and reverence.  Men like Samson.  Then there is this man, the teacher now, asked about from templar to templar in curiosity, sometimes in rumor and sometimes in fact.  He wears a watch set eight hours behind, they say.  It's because he's living on borrowed time, they say, cheating death not by a step ahead but by a corner behind.

"But you and I need the little things.  Giving the little things their due respect is what brings us here, and in time will bring others here as well," he says.  Then there are the rumors that he isn't cheating death, but chasing it.  That he's been swung upon by Nessies and lived without a scratch.  That he even stands and waits for their strike, hoping this will be the one that does it.

"Nessie is not as strong as is rumored.  They are fast, and they can destroy us even through the metal, but that isn't from sheer strength.  A Nessie strikes like a spring.  Before its appendages swing, it winds itself up.  In a matter of seconds, of course.  Every muscle in its body tenses, lends itself to the blow.  Like an expert fighter that uses his whole body to throw a punch."

The templars have stopped readying.  To the last, they sit and listen.  The classroom of one has become a tutorial to the lot.  Seeing this, the chaplain standing by moves the group out.  He knows what the man known a The Hessian is about to say.  To the average templar, it's dangerous knowledge.  It takes a special sort to use it effectively.  It takes the sort sitting before him now.

"You can see this in the templars who have survived.  The ones whose armor was merely cut, rather than their entire bodies.  The strike wasn't wound up, maybe done outside the creature's instinct, maybe interrupted by a blow, a jab to a boxer rather than a right hook.  Look at the page in front of you," he gestures to a single sheet given to his student.

"On that Nessie is a red dot, a sizable enough area to hit under normal circumstances, but it might as well be a pinhole when you're fighting.  That spot is where the spring coils up, where all the energy that will kill you is stored.  I don't know what rests there, maybe some kind of heart.  But that's the little thing that you need to know better than your girlfriend's clitoris," he says.  He leans in close to the student for the next part, near a whisper.

"And it's dead useless unless the spring is coiled.  So you stand before a Nessie and you wait.  You hold.  You watch.  You hold.  Just when the fucker is about to unite your skull with the servo suit, you hit that spot.  Only that spot," The Hessian stands back again, adopting his casual tone.

"All that stored up energy will release.  The pressure of the thing's blood will push your weapon back if you've still got it in there.  If not, it'll spray out not unlike a fire hose.  That's what I've taken to calling The Burst.  You don't need to be a genius to do it, nor a brute.  You need to be able to read the things on some level.  Now get yourself ready, you and I are heading out.  You'll watch me for a few kills and then we come back here to train your striking."

[Salty]

From the notebook of Frank Schloss, Interim Council Director, found near ruins of The Wall.


3/13/15
We've begun adding a chemical compound that seem to have an adverse effect on the damned creatures. Finally! They've resisted nearly everything we've thrown at them. But this one is special. I made it in accordance with the journals of a chemist those recon gorrilas found on a scouting mission. That was a most curious incident which has been documented elsewhere. There was no trace of any person having been there beyond the notes themselves, which are quite thorough and contain viable testing data.

4/7/15
There has been no sightings of the creatures within any city fascilities. Watch Teams have been moved from the sewer lines and other known entry points to the edge of those lines where the creatures have stationed themselves. At first they disappeared altogether, we thought them gone for good, scared off by our sudden ability to defend in earnest. But when scouting parties failed to return, or returned in conditions that left me wondering if it had been better that they had not survived at all...we began mapping. They somehow found a way to cut us off from supply lines. At least they can't get in.

6/12/15
Feeling weak. Food supplies have shortened drastically. A Gathering Party just returned with enough food to last us some time. And with one-third of their members. I haven't yet had time to eat anything myself and a surly corporal in charge of rationing turned me right around when I politely inquired as to some scotch. I miss scotch, more than food currently.

They must be above ground now. Several sectors within the safe zones have been compromised, many more people have died, and these sleeping, eating, playing. They all thought they were safe. There's no way they could WALK. But the lines are safe, the compound. I don't get it.

9/2/15

We've begun work on our only viable defense strategy. A wall. More of a shield, really. I'm not sure how it works. But it's supposed to be impenetrable. A young man unknown to any of us from came to the council and before we could press him to answer any of our questions he began to outline his plan for the shield. He knew all of our strategic weak spots, our supply numbers. Some of us wormed a few questions in but we all toed the line desperate to protect ourselves.

11/1/15
Testing reveals the shield works! The creatures can not break through. We are saved. The full installation will be complete within 3 months!

5/3/16
Oh god. Oh dear god. The compound. It never affected them. It was ruse. A ploy! Don't you get it? THEY SET US UP! They gave us the means to trap ourselves. Six weeks after The Wall went up they burst in numbers through most of the main sewer and water lines. Everybody is dead. I'm alone in my office and I can hear the building around me being ripped apart. Oh god! Can they do that? None of this NONE OF THIS makes any sense. I've been saving something special for this possibility. I just hope it hurts less than they would. Guess I'll find out.

[Salty]

The first time I met Fracture she was kicking some poor bastard's face in. There was a group, of which I was one, watching and being very careful to not help anyone or seem like they COULD help anyone anywhere ever.

There were lot of broken bottles oozing some nasty gunk all over the ground and as she kept kicking this man he rolled around, desperate to get away, crushing the glass into his body. A broken sign that had been around his neck said "Ness-A-Way! Only 3 food rations per bottle!" After a while he started screaming and she seemed satisfied.

She walked passed me without a word and I followed. She no doubt knew who I was but said nothing to me in the hour it took to walk to the barracks until,

"There's a lot of ways people go about killing Nessies, protecting their loved one's from them, defending themselves." She was looking right at me and I began to wither. "Selling that shit isn't one of them. And I won't let people think that it is."

I don't know how other strike units were trained, there's all kinds of rumors you pick up. But I was trained by the best. Fracture only trained a single recruit at a time. When I asked her about it she just grunted and sprang at me with the business end of a spear. She always did that when I least expected it. Later I found this was the correct answer.

From what I understand she took down more of those fuckers than any of the other units combined, many times single-handed.

I'll also never forget the last time I saw her. That bright light. That oddly silent boom. All those Nessies.

Listen, get me another drink, ok?

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

My glee knows no bounds.

[Adios]

Looks like things are winding down. I will wrap up the mirror thing in the next day or so.

[Luna]

Looks like things are winding down. I will wrap up the mirror thing in the next day or so.

Seems to come in waves, don't count it out, yet.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Looks like things are winding down. I will wrap up the mirror thing in the next day or so.

Seems to come in waves, don't count it out, yet.

I know I'm not done.  It's just been a bear, these last two weeks.

[Luna]

Looks like things are winding down. I will wrap up the mirror thing in the next day or so.

Seems to come in waves, don't count it out, yet.

I know I'm not done.  It's just been a bear, these last two weeks.

I may have another bit or two to come, if I can find time to sit down and get it puked out onto paper.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

I hope this isn't done.  I'm still enjoying reading everything!!!

[LMNO]

.......THIS IS A SPECIAL REPORT: GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS HAVE ANNOUNCED THE PRESENCE OF A METHANE LEAK IN THE DOWNTOWN AREA.  ALL CIVILIANS HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO EVACUATE.  THE ANNOUNCEMENT COMES AFTER WEEKS OF COMPLAINTS TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES REGARDING AN 'UNUSUAL SMELL' IN AND AROUND THE AREA.  POLICE HAVE SPECULATED THAT THE LEAK MAY HAVE BEEN A DELIBERATE MOVE ON THE PART OF LOCAL CRIME GANG, DUBBED "THE NESSIES" BY CITIZENS AND CONSTABULATORY ALIKE.  OFFICERS IN PROTECTIVE CLOTHING HAVE BEEN SPOTTED COMBING THROUG H THE AREA, WHILE MILITARY FORCES HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED AROUND THE PERIMETER TO ENFORCE THE EVACUATION.  MORE NEWS AT 11:00.......

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

I'm in awe of this thread and all the kick-ass contributors. I still need to wind up my story arc. Meant to a few days ago. Trying to work out . . . actually, I think I just figured it out. Sweet.


Love the ticker, LMNO. It's a great idea.

[LMNO]

I'm not sure how my bits are fitting into the general arc here, but I figured they'd add a bit of civilian confusion and governmental misdirection.

[Eater of Clowns]

I'm sure I could keep going.  I'm not certain what to do with The Hessian, but then I wasn't certain what to do with Hayes and Sams either and those turned out okay.  For some reason in this project, I'm actually way less confident in prose than I am in dialogue.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

I'm sure I could keep going.  I'm not certain what to do with The Hessian, but then I wasn't certain what to do with Hayes and Sams either and those turned out okay.  For some reason in this project, I'm actually way less confident in prose than I am in dialogue.

Re: the part I bolded - Ditto. Horror is not my native genre. Also, I hope I'm not fucking up Sams too much. :S

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

I'm not sure how my bits are fitting into the general arc here, but I figured they'd add a bit of civilian confusion and governmental misdirection.

This is my problem, my tangent/arc, while I could continue to current time, just wasn't catching on.