As I laughed bitterly for a few seconds. I thought about my predicament for a moment, then pushed it from my mind, getting my head back into the game, quelling my sour attitude.
I stimulated my SMB, switching to X-Ray Vision, and scowered the campsite. Hundreds of skeletal frames popped into existence.
A tent to the immediate right with three men strung up by their arms inside. Torture tent? I asked myself, taking note of it. The other tents I saw, had men lying on the ground, nursing wounds.
The atmosphere within the camp was relaxed, as no one was patrolling. On the dark side of things, everyone had assault rifles and pistols strapped to their waist and shoulders as any invading army would, always ready for battle. Unless they get raided at night I thought.
“Now that I see this…I wonder, are you Doasians or are you Ravagers?”
I stapled my hand to a stone below me and continued making my way down the gentle slope. The indiscipline chatter of the men down below, grew louder the further down I went.
The distance between me and the camp was now Fifty meters, based on the measurements from my HUD. However, there were five men nestled down below, twenty meters from me, which meant if I did something stupid, I could be dead in an instant.
I pressed my back up against the wall gently and controlled my breathing not to make any sudden moves. I then rested my right hand against my left, and slowly unclipped my wrist from my arm.
My left eye switched to camera mode for my wrist on my thought, and I slowly turned on the afterburners of my wrist. God knows where Mr Black got this tech, but thankfully it was silent as shit I thought.
My Drone-Wrist flew through the air like an owl in the night sky. The moon finally appeared in the distance, showing Sceleratus at its finest, I assumed and my wrist circled the camp at my command, SMB clutching my brain tightly.
I found the best angle for my wrist and sent it flying through the air, weaving through the floodlights, ensuring It wasn’t seen.
My Drone-Wrist landed on the central tent’s roof with a thud. Not bad Cypher, you might make it as a spy, after all, I joked to myself.
I stimulated my SMB to force the microphone on my arm to the highest volume. The signal didn’t respond till five seconds later. As high-tech as these things were, lag was always possible. The thundering flaps of the tent crumpled into my ear, forcing me to raise my cybernetic wrist off the tent.
The men down below, swayed back and forth to my right, as I kept still as I watched them. My back muscles were throbbing from staying in one place, and my legs pulsed as well.
My SMB clutched my brain, sending a wave of pain, which was as ever-annoying as you’d expect. Despite all the pain, I still watched and allowed my wrist to waft around in the air, hoping to find a decent spot to rest.
In the end, I placed my wrist in the far corner of the tent, and then flicked the finger with a microphone. It tore a small hole into the tent and voices came flooding through the mic.
“It’s been days, why haven’t we heard from Galkin?” Someone asked.
“I don’t know…should we send a hunting party out?”
“No, we need men here.”
“We also need the water they were tasked to get.”
“Stop worrying about the Water Supply, Argek. Moral’s more important than anything right.”
“Moral?” Argek scoffed. “Our Moral is fine. We need to get our kids back. We don’t know what the scavish are doing to them!”
“Those bastards deserve to die!”
“…You know we all agree Argek, but we can’t just charge in. We tried that, and their weapons cut us down like flies!”
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“We destroyed their solar farm. They won’t be able to hold out too long.”
“Neither can we. We’re too far from home. We may have taken up all the water deposits around the area, but we can’t poison the water.”
“SAYS WHO?” A reverberating voice said.
“Neltof. We don’t know where the scavish! are hiding our children. If we poison the water source leading to this Old Fort, we would be killing our Kin, are you a kinslayer? I certainly am not.”
“Death would be best for them Argek. You’re too sentimental.”
A loud slap echoed throughout the tent and silence followed. I might not have been inside the tent, but I could feel the tension coming through the microphone. “How. Dare. You.” A woman said, voice cracking from anger.
“DELIS IS IN THERE!”
“You want to bring our children home after what the scavish have done to her?” Neltof answered.
“We don’t know what's being done!”
“Does it matter Nekli?”
“YES! MY SON’S IN THERE!”
Silence resonated once more. I heard the fire crackle in the background as no one wanted to say anything further, but no one left the room. “Neltof.” The man called Argek said firmly.
“Your council is welcomed, when we ask for it.”
“You’re not part of our Clan, but we appreciate you wandering far South with us.”
“Argek…” Neltof cut in sharply. “My marriage to your cousin isn’t enough?”
“It’s enough, but you propose we poison the water supply, disregarding the lives of the children. MY CHILDREN!”
“…Your children wouldn’t be in this mess hadn’t you done what a father was supposed to do!” He hissed.
Argek bellowed a laugh, filled with disgust. I could tell he wanted to end Neltof. He accused him of not protecting his children, but no slap or echoing punch funnelling into the microphone, just his laugh. I know that laugh, I thought to myself. It’s the same mental laugh I had when Akatani took Shin-Lee and Hannah-Lee.
In essence, Neltof was right, but he was wrong in regards to poisoning the water streams that led into Sceleratus he was dead wrong. “The water streams might be way in.” I whispered, “I just had to find them.”
“Is that all you have to add Neltof?”
“For now…Yes.”
“You can leave.”
The ruffled sound of the tent crumpled and swished as Neltof left. The silence within the tent last a mere seconds before sobs began to fill the room, sobs from the woman Nelki. “Give us some space.”
If discipline was a straight line, these Doasians were damn snakes, slithering across The Waste as if they’d own it.
“I want my son!” Nelki said again. “We’ll get him back, I promise,” Argek said.
“Then put Neltof in his place! Get my son back. You know he’s going to use this campaign as a reason to replace you as War Chief!”
“If he can help me get our son back, I won’t give two shits if he wants to join the scavish, in their walled city!”
Nelki kept quiet, for a second, but then I heard the cracks of her voice continue to rise within the tent. “Nelki…I promise you, by the blood of our ancestors. Our son will return home alive!”
The silence continued for fifteen more minutes, and I finally decided to relieve my wrist from the tent.
My SMB clutched my brain, sending a tingle down my back, neck and knees. It flew through the air like a dove. I watched the skies and terrain on my left, feeling the light from the floodlights tingle my SMB as I came back to me.
I started my wrist on the ground, making sure it landed in the patch of grass right next to me and rolled it over the moment I saw it caught fire from the afterburners.
My feet quenched the fire. I kept my eyes down, checking to see if anyone saw the spark of grass, my hand was on my pistol and I was ready to draw.
Nothing happened, as I stood there for three minutes without moving. Good, I thought and made my way back up the cliff.
It took me thirteen minutes to make my way back up the cliff. As I lay on my stomach, I wiggled my way towards Stryme, who was still staunched behind the same boulder I left him at, eyes red from exhaustion. “You find out anything?”
“Yeah…tons of shit.”
“Good…we’ll relay it to Eltessa, you’re gonna go bat shit crazy when she tells you what she’s done.”
“You reached her?”
“Yeah…great, put her through.”
Stryme tossed me a comm and slipped in my ear. I blew wind from my lips and rest my back up against the boulder closing my eyes, feeling relief wash over my brain. I stimulated my SMG to do a diagnostic check and the data pulsed into existence in my left eye.
Stancer Cybernetic Eye V3.8 Functioning at 89% Capacity
Aldur Cybernetic Arm V9.8 Functioning at 90% Capacity
Slethe Nanite Synchronization Functioning at 78% Capacity
“Good, the feedback has lessened at least,” I whispered. Rook had told me the more I used the Drone aspect of my wrist, the burden would lessen my Slethe.
I wasn’t satisfied with it, but at least this was better than the fucking Cyber-blackout I’ve experienced all those months back. It’d be bad if those returned if I were climbing down the cliff, I thought bitterly.
“I’m patching him in now Tessa” Stryme said. A loud static noise roiled into my ear and a surly female voice broke through. “Cypher, this is Eltessa.”
“Reading you loud and clear Eltessa.”
“We have a problem.” She said.
“Yeah, I see the shit that’s piled up on your doorstep, but I’m intrigued to know how you got into Sceleratus, that makes my job slightly easier.”
“Right…the Doasians is half the problem Cypher, we have problems.”
“Such as ?”
“Lieutenant Ranton’s gone to ground.”
“What the fuck do you mean, gone to ground?” I hissed, Like shit couldn’t get much worst than this! I mused bitterly.