Post by defiancemark on May 28, 2015 13:45:53 GMT
“Time to earn some script the hard way,” Mark mumbled as he woke from a deep sleep. His left hand pulled the release level on the driver’s seat of his Dodge Challenger to allowed the seat back to return upright so he could sit up. The roller had functioned as his mobile home since his arrival in the Paradise Territories. He had parked it the night before in the relative security of the lot at The Crater after finishing a day of Ark hunting.
One of his copilots, Mojo, greeted him with an affectionate lick of his right hand. The Tibetan Spaniel’s creamy white coloring contrasted with the other “tibby” next to him that had a black face and black and gray markings on her back. The other “tibby”, Geo, was busy scratching her ear with the paw of her hind leg.
“Lets go have some fun!” declared Mark’s EGO. His EGO was the original implanted by VBI. Whether it had developed idiosyncrasies on its own or just inherited those from the persona of the Idogene researcher that created it was a mystery to Mark. He found it annoyingly perky.
“Any messages? Dorothy Gale,” he queried.
“Nothing at the moment… except a request for assistance from Varus Soleptor,” replied the EGO.
“I’m not taking another other job to bail out his Echelon Mercs just to be paid fairly okay. We’ll head over to Coop’s and see if there is anything on the message board,” Mark stated as he hurriedly dressed. “Plus, I can drop off Mojo and Geo with Iris.” The two dogs whined in protest at his suggestion.
Iris always seems happy to have them. Iris was one of the workers at the Lawkeeper Cooper’s Iron Demons Ranch. Mark was clueless to the fact she agreed to the dog sitting arrangement partly because she interested in him.
With the detu ara pistol securely holstered to his side, Mark fed his canine companions some pow jerky. He then filled the roller’s tank with petrohol from the service pumps conveniently found at the Crater and proceeded to drive towards the Iron Demon Ranch.
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The sun had just climbed to its midpoint position over the horizon as Eve had finished running a routine diagnostic check on one of Top-Notch ToolWork’s windmill generator atop one of the ridges in Marin. With a circle of fog surrounding her, she felt as if she was standing on a tiny isolated island. Isolation was her familiar companion. Isolated from her family in the highlands of Scotland since the start of the Arkfall event. Self-induced isolation by fully immersing herself in her work as an engineer.
“Multiple hostiles approaching from the southwest!” Her EGO sounded an alarm.
“Damn 99ers!”
“Tay mony tae handle. Lets gie th' heel it ay haur!” She cried out as she activated her cloak. Rounds from automatic weapon fire kicked up the dirt around her and rebounded off her personal shield. She replied back with a couple bursts from her VOT blast rifle while sprinting downhill through the fog and vegetation on her way back to her roller. She had become accustomed to these interruptions by 99ers, Raiders, and hellbugs when out on the job and knew to be armed and armored.
“Next time I'll need tae ask Rosa fur mair security.” Eve voiced as she franticly jumped into the Dodge Durango driver’s seat, started the engine and floored the gas pedal.