>> Bridge To A Fallen Land

Something small, green, and moist impacts my face at blurring speed. "Spook! Spook! Spook! Are you okay!??" Tufty wails as tears stream down the one, visible, side of his face. Huge, feline, eye blinking, furiously - until I yelp and shove him off. Panting hard.

"Hey! No!"

"Ah! B-But you're hurt! You're hurt!" He hops back upright, bounding over the dusty carpet on all fours. "You're all... all b-bloody! Do you wanna go home?? Should-"

I raise a hand to bomp him down, but clench and pull away. "I'm, fine ya lil idiot! Just gimmie a sec-" I rip open my medical satchel and frown, eyes snapping up at the cat. "Huh. Have ya gotten heavier?"

He blinks at me. Furiously.

"Nevermind."

"MATE! MATE!" Zipper yells, slamming into the doorframe and tumbling into the room. Caked in goopy monster bits, head to toes. "Like, damn! That was crazy! And-"

Demon twists him aside, and drops to glare at me. Gremlin superglued to his shoulder, like a tight scaly loaf with huge blinking eyes. "Zpook, you-"

"I'm fine!" I repeat, as Kami stumbles in after. Trailing a series of grossed-out noises and glaring at her boots.

"YOU! THERE YOU ARE, YOU BLOODY IDIOT!" She makes like she's gonna slap me. But then drops her arm, and yanks something outta the shoulder-joint of my armour. The pain there dropping considerably as the plates rearrange. Providing pressure, and closing the wound. "Grrraah! How many times have I told you that phobia is gonna get us all killed?"

"Once or twice." I mutter, ears limp and sheepish. Demon and Tufty sniffing my cuts as she unpacks the swabs from my kit. Ripping them from my hands.

"If you'd just come up when we asked. Just fired grapples, or..... whatever. It would have taken a second to get up there. And we'd have never even met that damn thing. Or it would have busted out way behind you, and we'd have torn it to bits."

"I know." My ears droop lower. Though it's hard not to chuckle with the relief, and the adrenaline, and Tufty making wibbly faces at me.

"Good. Now, get that armour off. I'm going to patch this up."

I shy back, into the wall. "Hold up! I’m the bloody medic!"

Zip frowns. "Aren't you, like, some weird fancy Leader Prestige Class or somethin'?"

"An [Argent]." I flick a wry smirk. "[Argent Subcommander]."

LMG Operative - Argent Subcommander

Battlegroup Leader

Specialties: [Leader - Airforce], [Pilot], [Field Medic], [Striker], [Infiltrator], [Classified], [Classified]

Rank: [Classified]

Role: [Classified]

Other Information: [Classified]

"Mate." Zip winces. "Y'know.... that's kinda not a reassuring thing to show people?"

"Right! But, see?" I insist. "Says right here. I'm a bloody medic!"

"In theory." Kami allows with all the grace of someone forced, at gunpoint, to dunk their head in cold baked beans. "In practice, our real medic is dead. And you're a bloody jittering mess, hyped up and ready to kill a guy." A metal finger jabs my nose. "You can't reach round your back. And it's bloody hard to treat yourself one-handed."

“Eh. I’ll be alright!” I shiver, coming down off the adrenalin. “Just gotta walk it off.”

“Lacerations. Puncture wounds. Monster Species: Unknown.” Her hand-scanner interjects, flooding my skin with its weird light. “Possibility of infection or poison. Please seek medical attention.”

"Spook." She smiles, sweetly. Raising an eyebrow at me. "You can be afraid me treating your wounds gently, and carefully, or-" her metal fist slams out to impact the wall by my face. Denting the plaster. "-you can just be afraid. Very, very, afraid." The grin gets wider. "Because, either way, this is happening. I won't let your phobias get to get us killed."

My eyes flick to Demon, beside me. His entire body, suddenly, very still. Staring at my knee as he shivers, for a second, then walks out. I blink at that - then up at Zip, who winces and raises hands. Backing off, and turning to follow. The two of them moving out to secure the flat, and make a perimeter. But, the truth is, this makes it easier. Because it's the caring touch I'm afraid of. The touch that Tufty threw at me.

Not the cold, clinical, swab of a metal hand.

"Okaaay....." I wheeze. "Fiinne."

"Good." She sniffs, as she hustles me into the ruined bathroom. And we both pretend the violence wasn't a show. A cheatcode. A ruse to avoid my terror of intimacy.

We clear it, quickly, and I kneel down. Letting her pull the rest of the spikes from the joints in my armour, while Tufty melts into a sad puddle of weeb in the corner.

image [https://images2.imgbox.com/bf/2a/0LXkI8XH_o.png]

Kami grumpily, but quickly, swabs out the little holes in my hands. Pinning them back together with plastic strips that dig prickly nano-wire hooks into my skin. Shrinking together to seal the wounds shut. Then she straps them with long, hard-wearing, waterproof bandaids designed for GMOs.

Sealing in all that fresh, woundy, goodness.

Then we get my armour off, and strip my underlay down off my back. Kami wincing in the dusty old mirror. "Shit. Looks like you slept on nails...." She stares at the mass of superficial scratches covering my armour, and then at the pockmarks. "It was looking for the gaps. Found them. Wormed its way in."

"That.... is bloody scary."

"And it went after blinding light....." She shakes her head. "What kind of bloody thing would it hunt?"

"Dunno. Giant glowing turtle-fungus?" I hesitate. "Pirate junkers."

"It was a bioweapon?" Her hands stutter. "Shit, Spook. Are we sure we should be doing this? Maybe we could hit something easier. Like a gang."

"I do owe Wayman a good bloody kickin'." I growl, claws flexing with animal intent. "But no. Not yet. We gotta do this. We need it."

Her hands stop. "We could still take The Night Tyrant."

"Can't." I shiver. "Not unless we wanna risk it, landing on that bridge."

"Bloody tempting, mate." Zip calls over comms. "If you like Suicide Spiders."

"Nobody likes Suicide Spiders." I growl. "Least of all, the bloody Suicide Spiders."

She frowns. "Remind me. What do they do again?"

"Y'don't wanna know, mate." Zip chuckles.

"Nothin' that makes me feel safe parkin' my baby down there." I grumble as her pale dreads flick my face. "Best case scenario? We get back and it's covered in drippy poetry."

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"Best, best, case. Mate." Zip snorts.

Kami finishes my back, and she moves to my legs. Then my foot, which is too leather-tough to be much of a graze. Then she looks me over. "Alright. I've seen worse. You'll do."

"Gee. Thanks." I twist against the prickly, stiff, bindings. But I suit myself, anyway. Snapping a spare mag onto the one in my gun to top it off, as Tufty bops about nervously. "What? You need the loo?"

LMG ‘Red Glory’ SMG :: 356/440

"Um. Um, I hear..... hear things in the walls...." He whispers, ears trembling and flat. "I...."

I swallow. "Shit. I thought I was imaginin' that...." I trade eyes with Kami. "Yeah. Screw this place." I swallow. "C'mon. I got monsters to explode...."

We traipse out of the ruined flat, and make a wide detour around the gooy and glorious horror-show in the hallway. Jumping through blasted-open walls, and crossing blasted-through bathrooms. Trailed by a sheepish, and very filthy, Zipper. Who may or may not be the cause of the vaguely Zipper-shaped splat right in the middle of the monster.

We slip back out the door with overt caution. Eyeing the blasted-inward barricade, and the collapse behind it. Silence, and distant rain, shimmering against my ears. Gremlin making soft noises from under Demon's cloak.

"Ready to do this?" Kami remarks. Casually.

"Rrggh."

"Think of it like this." She smiles. "Can't be worse than the monster."

I stare at her. "Yeah. Yeah it can." I shudder. "But.... I'm gonna do it."

And, it ain't easy. It ain't quick. It ain't dignified.

But I do.

I tumble over the parapet, and sprawl on a patchwork metal hallway. Cool rust dribbling between my fingers and crackling between toes. I let myself have a little moment, admiring how horribly the whole thing creaks. My crew working quickly to clutter our new hidden entrance with camouflage. The mingled odours of oil, and iron, and age pouring in around us as I push myself up.

"Yeah!! Well done, mate!" Zip cheers, itching to slap my back. Demon, off to one side, giving me the ole stiff-nod-and grunt-of-respect as Tufty peeps round his tail. Leaving me feel abashed, and heated. At least until Kami nudges in, and I tip it all on her with a lil smirk.

"Y'gonna give me a lollypop, ain't ya?"

"What." She jerks.

"For climbin' that thing all on my own?" I grin.

"No. Definitely not." She stutters. "This is not a thing that's happening. It would be very childish."

"I can totally smell it, y'know. Gimmie."

"Rrrghh." She slaps it into my chest, and I grin.

Red Flavour. I love it.

I rattle it around in my mouth as we creep along the narrow walkway. Taking in the mess of shanty houses welded to the sides and stacked above us, twenty tall. Once, it might have been cared for and loved - or as fetid a place as you could hope for. But any trace of that is an aeon rotted and gone. Washed away, to oblivion, by soft rain and passage of time.

Now? It's almost a wonderland of decay. The kind of place you really want to poke about in - but really, really shouldn't. Preserved more by its mangled layers than any kind of design. Though, I realise, someone clearly had a plan here - once. The layers ordered, and measured, with gantries and supports.

But chaos must have come, before the end.

The newer buildings a mangled mockery of angles and edges - welded together from mismatched parts. The sky above laced, and layered, with endless cables that rattle and shift in the wind. Wire taps on wire taps. Internet stolen from boxes stealing internet.

We creep on between gaunt poles. Bent windows. Jutting walls. With bitty rust beneath reddening toes, all knobbly with rusted-in bars and random bolts. Our breath low, and quiet, as the cables clatter in the wind. Tufty jerking and jumping at shadows. Clutching our tails as we pass darkened holes. Twisted ladder-ways. Fallen doors. Fallen gantries.

Fallen worlds.

Scanning the above with eyes that shift with subtle static. With jerking lines, almost too faint to see. Colours inverting, and shifting, in subtle little ways. Phantom sounds cracking my mind as shoddy chips malfunction. Churning my tail with quiet, restless, energy.

Whatever happens next, we can't stop. We gotta come back with money.

A lot of it.

And we gotta come back tonight. Before my implant fails. Before the world shrinks to smell and touch. And darkness.

Before Wayman, The School, the things in the dark, catch us all undefended.

Out of ammo. Out of chances. Disabled, and blind.

Claws bite bandaids as my fingers curl. But I force myself to quieten my mind, and listen the static in the rain above. Beating on layers upon layers of metal, like a great iron drum. Zipper's mouse-bots flickering through the ruins, under full mental control.

Scouting routes. Flagging monsters. Cutting any power that’s left.

And tagging fat bounties of copper-cable to strip and harvest later.

"Polybius, you still got us?" I say, tapping the side of my helmet as two stubby aerials unfold from the top. Waggling like little antenna. "Polybius?"

Nothing. Too much metal blocking the signal.

Uplinks dead on the walls around us.

“Entrance is near. I think. Zip says it's hidden.” Kami reports, as Zipper sprays a 'gang-tag' on the corner to mark our way home. Gremlin peering down at it, curiously, from the wall above. Itching to pat at the paint with lil paws.

Knowing him, it's some a faction logo from a game too old to remember.

"Just hang a right, mate." He says, and we peer down a narrow avenue. Its little, lost, houses strangely homely.

"Gosh, I hope we don't have to come back." Tufty breathes. Quietly shivering fallen droplets from his lurid green ears. Gremlin tilting her shining red eyes as she reaches out a mischievous paw to snag one. Missing, only, because Demon steps hurriedly back.

“Whaat?? Ah! C'mon, lil mate!" Zip knocks him, practically bouncing in excitement.. "Secret passages! Treasure! Old stuff! Delving into mysteries, and stuff! Like, it's got 'cool fun adventure' written all over it!”

"Um..... I don't think so." Tufty wibbles, hugging Gremlin tight to his chest. (A risky manoeuvre, if ever there was one.)

“Eh. C'mon ya nerds.” I snort. Testing the path with my toes before applying full weight. "Seems safe enou-"

The whole structure groans like some vast, demented, leviathan. Shivers rattling up my spine from tail-tip to nose.

Zipper grins, slapping the iron wall. "Don't worry bout it mate. Like, it's all deck plates ripped from old ships. Like, totally hard as rock. And-"

"Zip." I say, very calmly. "Shhhh."

"Right, mate. On it, mate."

We creep deeper into the winding maze of mangled doorways tumbling down, and down. Into looted shacks, caved and broken. We go slow and careful as we reach the exit. Scanning. Poking things with extendible poles. Hiding the last, dwindling, few of our tiny cameras in whatever rusty holes we can.

Right up until we find the tripwire.

It's old. Broken. Trailing in through a door to meet the good ole ‘shotgun-on-a-string’ aimed right at the window. Useless, now. Rusted in place. But we deal with it quickly, and leave with even more caution.

Soon after, I feel a light shift beneath the pad of my foot - and leap back.

"Pressure plate?" I murmur. "No..... It felt wrong. More like a sea-saw...."

We let Kami scan it - no explosives, no wires. So I reach out, again, with my toes and push sloowly down until my weight shifts the floor. “Trapdoor." We all say, at once, and I shiver deeply as the maw grinds opens. Revealing some nasty-ass rusty spikes - decorated by the mandatory skeleton.

"Shit. Weld it?" Kami hisses. Sending a shudder through the whole group. Images of the monster....

"Nah mate. It's all defence, right?" Zip grins with mischief. "Put, like, a safety on it. Use it."

"Either way, leave it for now." I nudge my head, and we mark it off with the standard trap symbol. Jagged lines across a box.

image [https://images2.imgbox.com/8c/ce/vx2QOaL3_o.png]

Tufty shivers and skitters on all fours as we slip away through houses. His small heart hammering, so loud. His eyes increasingly on edge. Sensitive hearing plus sensitive kid equalling tiny hisses of "Eep! Did you hear that!?!” every few minutes. Plus plenty of spinning about and clinging to tails.

"Remember what I said." I mutter, extracting mine. And he shivers a little.

"I'm sorry...." He whispers, tugging his own. "I'm.... just......"

Not brave.

My hand twitches again, but I shake it off. "Buck up. We need ya to keep eyes out." I look over to Kami and Zip, as they peel open a narrow hole in the outer walls of the slumTower. Revealing the struts of a skyBridge built back when The City was young. A road tented in gleaming superGlass panels that once gleamed in the light of an artificial sun....

....at least, if the oldest myths are true.

A swarm of Zipper's bees slip through the secret hatch, soon followed by us. The vast bridge spanning scraper to scraper, to stand beneath great sheets of crystal that no dirt can ever stick to. Tall and proud as sails on a grand, and endless, ship that curves from tower to tower. Splitting and re-joining. Its dark tar-like surface dimly lit by a procession of ancient everLights, so old and worn they barely give flickering shape to the murk of this great bridge.

And the devastation that looms from every angle upon it.

Crumpled hoverCars, etched out in shadows of blue and green and red. Mangled jetBikes of no make I've ever seen. The spokes of their wheels ripped apart, and.... melted together by darkness and decay. As if the very metal were alive, or tried to be. Melding with broken lorries and torn-up vans, on impact.

Or maybe not.

I step onto the gritty, papery, surface of the forgotten skyBridge - and shiver. The others creeping in behind, with weapons ready. Ready for anything.

And, slowly, I lean forward.

Reaching down to nudge the endless carpet of distorted bones.

Mangled, twisted, and mutilated into a vast mayhem of shapes. Built into heaping, fallen, things too Wrong to have ever lived. So wrong you can't possibly look away. All glimmering dim colours, in the neon filtering down from Karrak - high above. Shifting beneath the vast, red, holographic banners that loom vast above the road. Streaming with yellow and black hazard tape.

⚠ WARNING! ⚠

QUEBEC ISOLATION ZONE AHEAD!

CONTAINMENT LEVEL: MAXIMUM

ALL LIVES FORFEIT UPON ENTRY

"Welcome." I whisper. "To Ground Zero."

The heart of a fallen land.

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