608th's crew

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OOC: Ambience

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"Damn if I know, it's just a light." The light looked almost surreal, it was making weird shadows with the tombstones. 'Just a light' was Mark's way of saying 'the light doesn't seem to have a source and makes absolutely no sense to me' "I have an idea, James, come with me."

James took his M-16, dismounted and followed Mark towards the figure. Mark just needed to find out what this was, he needed to know it was probably two people one sitting on the shoulders of the other, covered in black robes trying to scare them. It was probably some scared civilians doing something desperate to scare them away. But they wereren't taking any chances, both James and Mark aiming their weapons at the figure.

Mark started to get even closer, James following close behind. The figure was huge, towering over Mark as he got closer, a feeling of uneasynes, something deep inside him telling him to get the hell out of there right now as fast as he could, but he looked straight into the figure, challenging it, to show it's true self. Contrary to what he expected, the figure made less sense as he got closer, now he knew it wasnt someone dessed up in black robes, whatever 'it' was it wasn't human, but no turning back now.

Finally the firgure just vanishes in front of his nose, like it wasn't even there in the first place, the blue light is gone too, only Mark and James remain, illuminated by the tank's seachlight. Mark turns around a looks at James, tring to see in his face if he saw the same he did. In that moment a wooden white burial cross comes flying trough with such force that stabs James trough the ribs, James falls to the ground, and lays there with the absent open eyes of the dead, with a cross sticking out of his chest. Mark's face deforms into an expression of pure horror, but no time to try to make sense out of it, as random objects start hitting the tank with force, bouncing off it's armor. Mark starts running towards the tank, and as he starts mounting it he realizes that either because of the dark or because they were well hidden among the houses, there is no one to be seen around who could be throwing the objects. Mark gets to the 50. and starts shooting blindly in the dark, if anything maybe to scare away whatever it was attacking them.

The blue light was now back and started to slowly move, or rather 'float' towards the tank, making weird moving shadows as it moved among the tombstones.
 
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Mark and James dismounted to get a closer look at the figure shrouded in darkness, while Ralph and Lance watched from the tank. Before Lance could grasp what was happening, the figure in the road vanished, and one of the crosses from a tombstone nearby flew out of nowhere and Killed James. After watching James get killed everyone started freaking out. Mark ran towards the tank as fast as he could. Mark made it to the tank and hopped on the machine gun. Let's see if they can take a 50. fully loaded and ready to rock.


Objects of various size and shape began to hit the tank, coming from the direction of the cemetery, as Mark began firing indiscriminately.


Ralph, began loading all of the supplies back onto the tank, while Mark continued to fire at the cemetery, the unearthly light creeping towards them out of the dark, like an ethereal force of nature...almost like it was alive. First the dark figure...now this light. This wasn't the world they lived in before. Something terrible had happened. There was no going back.


Lance lowered the drivers hatch and put on his headset. "Mark I don't think bullets are going to work."


Lance didn't know if Mark could hear him with the 50. going off, so he fired up the tank, while Ralph came inside, out of breath from moving so much gear, strapping it down, and climbing up and off the tank.


Finally Mark came through on the comms.


"We can take 85 and head north towards Phoenix."


"Roger that."


Lance put it in gear, flying out of that damned graveyard like a bat out of hell. He pushed the tank as hard as he could, reaching near 30mph before he started to slow down, now far away from the strange town.


"Hell of a night." Lance said as they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.


The road was silent as they continued their journey to Phoenix.
 
Ralph was tired, he loaded up all their supplies in one run while the supernatural was busy throwing things at them, he never thought that junk could hurt so much but that piece of metal that hit his shoulder while he was loading up made him think otherwise, he will survive nonetheless.

The group quickly made their way out of the city and was settled that they will go to Phoenix, Ralph leaned his back, in relief and said to his friends "So...*pant*...who wants to be the...*pant*...first to guess what the hell was that thing?"
 
Finally they leave Ajo behind, it's a long night drive along the 85th, heading north, the crew was silent, but no one could stop thinking about what happened that night. Mark thought the objects could be launched by people hidden among the houses in the dark, but how could someone launch a burial cross with such force as to impale James? Maybe they were using a deice of some sort? A makeshift weapon or launcher? And how did the figure disappeared in front of his eyes? And the light, it didn't had a clear source. Nothing made sense.

With the first lights of the morning they reach the Gila river. There's only a small bridge crossing it, a continuation of the highway built over the river more like, and beyond it the town of Gila Bend, they needed to pass trough it to get to Phoenix. As the tank crosses the river Mark notices ther water is completely black.

Before reaching the town the road sinks to go under two bridges, the first one a railroad bridge. Between these two bridges Mark can see a makeshift checkpoint of some sort, with improvised sandbag covers. "Driver, stop."

Mark takes a look at the ckeckpoint with his binoculars, it is obvious that whoever was at the checkpoint is aware of the tank's presence. Mark can make out about 8 men and women, some carrying rifles, dressed in varied ways, some with fatigues of different cammo patterns and some even in civilian clothes, taking cover behind the sandbags both under and over the bridges. It could be population from Gila Bend or just raiders waiting to ambush them, but the place looked more like a fortification than an ambush site. And if they were just people defending themselves, were they hostile, or could they be reasoned with?

Should they approach the checkpoint? And if they did, how? Should they instead just try to find a way around it and bypass the checkpoint and the town altogether?
 
Ralph looked to the outpost and said to Mark.

"Look, we have a tank, a fucking tank, we can blow them to the smithereens and be on our way, but let's not do that. Tell them to choose someone so we can talk but I recommend that we stay in the tank, we don't know them and I guess they don't know us but they may know our bullets if things go sour and... we have tank Mark.''
 
"Suppose one of them has an RPG, and it hits us from the side, or there is a mine or explosive hidden ahead, then we will have a coffin. I suggest that if we are going to get close we flank them, and approach them from the side instead of walking right into a funneled kill zone."
 
"We don't even know if these are friendlies or not. They might be able to help. A little more recon might give us the info we need. Maybe we should double back a bit, dismount, and move closer with the cover of night, so we can better understand who we are dealing with..."

Lance wasn't sure what the best option would be.

These people might be just like us, or they might be like Boyd.

"That being said we might not have that option. They see us already. If we attack we need to do it now."
 
"Alright, combat positions evryone. Ralph, close that hatch, you are staying in. We are not taking any chances."

Mark closes his hatch and looks trough the vision blocks. To the right he sees an elevation they can positio the tank in for 360° visivility looking down at the checkpoint. "Alright... driver, half right, forward slow"

The tank begins slowly moving forward, wich provokes some conmotion at the checkpoint. Mark takes control of the turret from the controls at the commander's position, guiding it and correcting it with the help of the stabilizers to keep it aiming at the checkpoint at all times.

"Driver, stop, full left." The tank stops about 100 meters away from the checkpoint, looking down on it. Shortly after a couple of men rise their hands and start walking towards the tank. "Ralph, man the 60" Mark opens the commander's cupola and aims the 50. cal at the approaching figures. "That's far enough!" The scene started to look unpleasently fammiliar.

"Please, don't shoot, these people are civillians. I'm Sheriff Erickson. I'm sorry about this welcome, but we have been attacked by looters and marauders for weeks now, we are just deffending ourselves. Are you with the military? We could really use some help."

Mark talkns to the crew. "It looks like the sheriff thinks we are the rescue." Mark ponders his answer. "We were, not sure there is any military left anymore... Sorry, we are not here to rescue you, in fact, we are not in pretty good shape ourselves."

The sheriff looks disappointed. "Well... where do we go from here then?"

Mark conults with the crew. "Well, it looks like we finally found other survivors. You think we can trust the sheriff? I mean, sure, it's everyone for himself now, the jungle, and it could be a town filled with crazed cannibals, but unless we plan to move around in this tank wondering the desert indefinetely we will have to start trusting others eventually."
 
Ralph thought about the situation a little, they needed supplies and possible some other things, maybe even a extra person to help maneuver the tank but they can't blindly trust everybody that they meet in the road. They need a safeguard, a guarantee that they won't get the short stick and they had a tank. Ralph approached Mark to tell him his idea.

"Mark, I know we need supplies and that we need to trust...outsiders I guess, to keep the tank running but we can't blindly oblige to their orders or conditions and since they hadn't propose none I suggest that we do the conditions this time and hopefully the next time too. Tell them that we will trade supplies under the condition that it must happen in front of the tank with the cannon pointed to the civilians, and that any trader must be unarmed while we bargain. This sound radical but we can't take any chances, we saw what the dead or the unknown can do back in Ajo, imagine what an alive and known being can do, this is not the world that we used to know Mark."
 
"I'm not sure we can trust these people. What do they want specifically? We are down to three men now. What can we possibly do to help them? How can they help us? If we are going to negotiate I suggest we tread lightly. They could be fucking cannibals for all we know. We need to speak to this Sheriff in private, away from this large crowd, and do as Ralph says and man the gun in case they attack. If they try anything we blast their ass and get the hell out of here. What do you think?
 
Mark could see the others were not too kin on trusting these people, better to be cautious, after all they have been trough who could blame them, so he decides to play safe. "Ok, let me interrogate the guy, I'll do the talking."

"Alright, Sheriff, you come here alone, I want to talk to you in person, the rest of you stay back"

The Sheriff talks to the others, reasuring them it's alright, and tells them to go back. Then he walks towards the tank, showing his hands are empty as he does. Mark dismounts, .45 in his holster, and stands next to the tank, signaling the Sheriff to approach. The Sheriff gets next to the tank, he seems impressed by the steeel beast. The others return to the checkpoint, and look from a distance.

"It's alright, I'm not going to try anything, what do you want to know?"

"Alright, first of all, who are you guys, and why did you welcomed us with rifles?"

"I'm really sory about that, but there is a group of marauders who have been looting and attacking us in the last few weeks, and we have to deffend ourselves. The last few times we've put up a good fight, they didn't managed to loot anything and only got acauslties.

Now you'd think that would be enough to keep them away, but it's leader sworn that he would come here to 'avenge the death of his comrades', and that we had no idea what we sparked, that they were a much greater thrat than we tought. Now, he could have been just bullshitting us, but just in case we reinforced our defenses. Now you see, they like to come in in vehicles, driving fast along the roads, we put barricades in all road acceses to our town, that way we prevent they get trough in their vehicles, force them to rougher ground where they are easier to stop.

When we saw your tank we tought maybe that was the marauder's revenge, that it was all over."

"Wow, they sound surprisingly well organized."

"Nowdays you have to adapt fast, otherwise you die. They decided to adap into an efficient band of criminals."

"And what about your group? What have you adapted into?"

"We are mostly survivors from from Gila Bend and Ajo, there are also a few folks who came from the direction of Phoenix, things are really bad up there, with the firestorms and everything."

"Wait, you say you have people from Ajo? We just came from there, the place was deserted."

"Well, ever since the anomalies appeared, residents fled, took only what they could carry and left town."

"Anomalies? What anomalies? What are you talking about?"

"Well, how to explain it. Some, the more rational folk, say they are anomalies, with the radiation and the bombs messing with the atmosphere, you know. They are things that shouldn't exist, but they do. People say there should be a natural explanation for them, but there are not that many scientists left to find a real answer.

Others, the more spiritual folk, say that they are the spirit of the dead, with so many people dying all at once, something like that was bound to happen. Others even say they are deamons who have always been there, but the death and destruction, all that fear and pain has gave them strenght beyond what they could ever had before.

Either way the place is cursed, a forbidden place. People has left plenty of supplies when they left, but hardly anyone dares to go get them. Not even the marauders go near that place, they rather take their chances stealing from us."

"What is that you said about phoenix? Firestorms?"

"Yeah, people who come from there say the entire city has been engulfed by a giant firestorm, started by the heat of atomic fire that ignited everything at once. Some even report seeing fire tornadoes in the middle of the city. There is also black radioactive rain on the city surroundings, all the smoke and irradiated dust ging into the asmosphere falls as rain after a while, and contaminates everything it touches. The city is surrounded by desert, so I'm not worried about the firestorm, but by the time the entire city is consumed by flames I'm worried the rain is going to reach here. See the haze in the air? Gets thicker as you look farther away, it's the nuclear haze, some say it's the start of the nuclear winter, and that the fallout now localized only around the cities is going to contaminate the entire atmosphere and go global, by then you'd better be prepared and find some shelter and enough supplies, or you won't survive long."

"Hmm, looks like all those people who built fallout shelters were right, if only the government would had built some sort of huge vaults to protect people in the event of something like this...
You have been very forthcoming with the information, why?"

"Well, because for once I wouldn't want to piss off people with a tank, you could probably take the whole town by yourselves. I'm really hoping you don't. Aditionally, it occurs to me that with a firepower like yours you guys could help us attack the marauder's camp, and get help us get rid of them once and for all."

"Whoa, hold on there, we have more than enough problems of our own, now you want to get us involved in this too?"

"The way I see it that kind of people is a treath for anyone out there trying to survive, even yourselves. I can't offer you much, but if you help us, you are not only helping our town, but all settelments of survivors in the area that are currently under attack from them, and you would be making a lot of friends. Also if you help us we would be more than happy to share our resources with you, we don't have a lot, but you would always have a home here in Gila Bend. If us good folk don't stay together, people like the marauders are going to tear us apart."

"And how do you know we are good people?"

"Well, you haven't shot us un sight, that's better than the marauders. Besides I have been talking to you long enough to realize you are rational folk, not crazies, I hope you can see that about us as well."

"Alright, I want to discuss this with my firends."

Mark then orders the Sheriff to go back and remounts into the tank.

"Well, you herd what he had to say, what now?"
 
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''Help them?" Ralph said to his companions. "For what? Just to be friends with them or other people? We got problems to deal with our own and maybe these marauders are more than they seem to be, I mean, they are able to plague this region for some time,right? I don't know if they will be scared just to see the tank, they probably have means to deal with us.Also, these folk here doesn't see weak, the guy said that they managed to fight back didn't he? They can be more than what we see now" Ralph sighted.

"I say no, just do some trade and let's go on our way, dealing with these bandits can bite our ass later" Ralph scratched his head and fell silent for a moment "My final vote is still no but if we are going to do this, ask for a large bounty at least, taking these risks should not be free. Also, some new clothes would be nice too, for me specially. I'm still wearing my underwear from Day One." Ralph fell silent again, he was thinking about the situation, some minutes had passed when he talked again "Heck, these guys might even be the marauders themselves and what's coming for them is really the law"
 
"At this point, with the info they have provided, we don't have many alternatives. They could be lying, but something about this Sheriff seems...genuine. If we are careful enough we should be fine. At any rate, I'll be keeping a close eye on the tank. Never can be too careful."

Lance dazed off, staring blankly into space for a moment before speaking again.

"Maybe with their numbers we can actually survive out here, assuming they are decent people. We are down to three men. If what they say is true, we would stand little chance against these bandits they are so damn afraid of. Besides, this tank won't run forever. We might have trouble replacing parts and fuel might be an issue."


 
"Let's not forget I took a chance when taking both of you in, a psycho looking knife wielding cook and a mechanic who was working with a guy who tired to kill us. If I were as paranoid as to refuse to work with these people I should kick you both out of the tank and drive on by myself. It's time we take a chance with people who might help us or die on our own.

I'll see if we can help them with minimal risk for ourselves. Wait for me here and look after the tank, I'll go talk to them. If I don't come back in thirty minutes, well... you'll know something is wrong, I don't suppose I can ask you to go rescue me, but at least fire a few shells into the outpost as revenge before leaving, uh."

Mark walks toward the checkpoint, 45. holstered, talks to the sheriff and disappears into the checkpoint, neither Ralph or Lance can see what happens. Twenty five minutes go by and still nothing. Finally, after almost twenty eight minutes Mark returns to the tank.

"Ok, here is the plan, we position ouselves in defilade over a ridge overlooking the marauder's camp at dawn, to avoid detection. Then, at first light, we open up on their vehicles, removing their mobility and mounted weapons from them. As soon as we open fire that will be the signal for team Gila, that's how we are going to call the villager's team, to start the assault. The ridge is about a mile away from the camp, with a clear field of fire, and with us being in defilade and exposing only our turret I think is safe to assume we are virtually impervious to anything the marauders can throw at us, even if they have heavy equipment, but if too many villagers die at the assault the sheriff will pull the rest of them back, and the assault will fail, and then the marauders will just take the remainder of their vehicles and regroup somewhere else, so we better hurry taking out those vehicles, we need to make sure we get rid of these guys for good. The marauders are known to have at least six heavily modified SUV's, most if not all will be expected to be at their camp.

Now, that's my plan, but the sheriff asked for us to go with the assault team and provide them with cover fire from up close, this way they can use the tank as shield, being closer also means the targets will be easier to hit and we can use the .50 and the 60. Also the tank will intimidate the marauders and help the morale of the villagers, and the villagers will be safer from getting hit, but at the cost of the marauders firing at us. We don't need to worry about small arms, but we don't know what else these guys might be packing, if they have anything heavier we miht be at risk. So it's less casulties for them but more risk for us.

I convinced the sheriff we should go with my plan instead of his, but you let me know what you think. As soon as you are ready we are moving up to the ridge."
 
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"Well, I hope you know what are you doing, I mean, both of you. I'm just the psycho looking cooking guy remember? I skilled at cutting meat and running away from anomalies, this will be my first real battle so be patient with me" He made a silly smile and started to organize his things "What are we going to receive for our help? Did you asked for some kind of reward? Did you asked at least new clothes for us and by us I mean me? I'm tired of wearing the same shitted underwear." He gave a small pause ''Thinking better I would like some cigarettes for me and some supplies for dinner, some spices would be nice and maybe even some booze for us. Of course I still would like new clothes." He felt silently till he finished organizing his stuff, which was pretty quickly since he owned only three knifes and whatever gun Mark would give him.

"Ready when you are, I hope" He sighed and looked to the sky, he thought about the upcoming battle and was preparing himself. He kept looking to the sky till his eyes started to water themselves. "Do I really look like a psycho?" He asked.
 
"Now that you mention it, I didn't get that vive from you at first, but after Ajo you look... different, like something happened to you there. But I guess that town was crazy enough to shake our very beliefs in how the entire universe works to be honest, I watched my gunner get impaled with a wooden cross by a supernatural being... or anomaly, or whatever they call it.

And don't worry, I'm sure they can spare a few clothes. It's not as simple as a mercenary agreement, they'll give us whatever we need, provided they can spare it, and we can come back to re-supply whenever we want, we could sure use a port in the middle of this storm. They also told me they would put in a good word for us with some of the nearby towns they are in contact with, it might not sound like much, but if we ever need help it is probably a good idea to have a good rep with people around here. Not to mention that if these people are decent enough, I might consider settling."

Mark turns to Lance. "And what about you, should we play it safe or try to save a few of the villagers lives? We are all in this together, so I don't want to take risks unless we all agree."
 
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"I don't think we have much of a choice man. What's our next step from here? I could use a nap at this point. That drivers seat made my ass go numb from driving so long."

Lance said with a wry smile on his face.
 
It's early in the morning, from the east you can begin to see the first clarity, the sun won't be up for at least several more minutes, and it will do it from behind the tank. The tank is positioned in defilade over the ridge overlooking the camp, a HEAT round is loaded into the main gun's breach. The driver's seat is now empty as Lance takes the gunner's position, Ralph is servicing the main gun, and is responsible for reloading it. Mark centers on one of the marauder's trucks and presses the button to allign the main gun with the target. "Gunner, truck, direct front."Then sets sights on the netx vehicle, ready to do the same procedure as soon as the first round is fired. The sun begins to rise over the horizon, and the trucks are much more visible now with the natural light, the villagers without night vision equipment should be able to operate, it's magic hour. "Fire."

The first truck explodes violently, this is the signal for the villagers, the assault beings. Soon the marauders, stunned at first, start to mount their trucks, most have machineguns of different calibers, one has even a recoiless rifle, wich would have been very dangerouns against the tank. All of it's firepower it's being directed at the villagers. If the rest of the trucks are not taken out quickly the villagers are going to have heavy casualties.
 
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