The ground whipped by quickly as the tractor sped towards the chaos.
It had reached maximum velocity and was cruising at a relatively good pace. Its main display showed that they had topped out their speed, which fluctuated between 24 to 26 meters per second. Although it wasn’t fast compared to space superiority fighters, it was definitely rather quick for any land-based vehicle.
Especially for something that weighed as much as the tractor did.
As they neared, the sounds of gunfire became clearer and more recognizable.
“Should we continue flying over there, or walk?” asked Amal.
Dareon shook his head.
“Walking will take way too long,” he replied. “By then… everyone would… I
Please be advised - the following episode contains difficult content.
Amal woke up with a start and quickly looked around to get her bearings, but her sight was hazy at best. She saw that she was in a dark room, and could tell that there were a number of other people there. But before she could take a better look, or even ask what was going on, pain suddenly flashed through her head. She felt the pounding sensation of a migraine take root at her temples, which then slowly spread everywhere. Amal groaned as her hands went up to her head to massage it, but found part of it wrapped in some sort of cloth. It felt a little damp under her fingers, so she brought them in front of her so she could take a better look. Her eyes had trouble focusing, so it took her a few moments to realize that she had blood on her hands. It seemed her head
Eva, Miko, and Amal immediately met up after the meeting. They were joined by a handful of others who wanted to help take down Nightmare. Although many of the people in the room certainly wanted to help, Eva had to turn them away from front-line work. It wasn’t that they weren’t willing to take their help, but what they were going to do was incredibly dangerous. After all, hunting down a violent, abusive, and dangerous individual such as Nightmare no doubt would lead to various conflicts, including firefights. Many of these people wouldn’t survive such a skirmish. Not against Nightmare’s brutes. Eva didn’t want to endanger them unnecessarily. Instead, she convinced them to help out privately and in the background, while the team did the legwork. Those she
The Seven spent the next few hours building their dossiers. As Locke mentioned, going after Nightmare meant finding all his associates as well. It wasn’t enough to just go after him - his entire outfit needed to be removed. To do that, they pulled together all kinds of information gathered from all sorts of sources, and sifted through the things they needed - names, associates, places they frequented, and so on. By the end, they had built a rather long list of names. Nightmare, of course, along with 21 of his associates. All of them were refugee players, and were stronger, tougher, and smarter. Well, supposedly smarter, anyway. Eva surmised that they had played Bellum Aeterna for years, and were incredibly familiar with each other. They no doubt worked very well toge
After they turned in the thugs for their bounties, the Seven took the very next shuttle to Venus. They were determined to do right by Amal. When she admitted that she and Jionna hadn’t returned, they realized that they needed to go back. Eva reasoned that they needed to collect evidence of Nightmare’s wrongdoing. Throughout this whole process, Eva and Miko had their EyeCasts following and recording them. It unnerved the others, but they insisted that it was necessary for their line of work. That they were necessary for their evidence. It was certainly true, but not the whole truth. More importantly however, they needed to come to the farm to help patch things up - mostly Amal’s wounded heart. Plus Eva had a hunch.
Amal sat on the roof of one of the silos on the farm. She peered through an optical monoscope at the land around her. As she scanned the horizon, she caught sight of a frigate in the distance. It was accompanied by a handful of fighters. They were all descending carefully. The readings on her monoscope showed that the ships were roughly ten thousand meters away. It was further than even simple sensors could pick up. And certainly further than what the naked eye could see. Amal immediately told the rest of her team through her DI. --- Amal: You were right. Nightmare and his gang really showed up.
Nightmare found himself visibly shaking and sweating after hearing Eva’s voice. He had only run into her twice before, and she had shook him to his core. He always won, except against her. His goons - the ones who were still alive anyway - looked at him for direction. They were in a serious mess and needed real leadership to get out of it. But they all knew deep down that Nightmare wasn’t a real leader. He was the kind of person who gave in to his base temptations, and there was a certain magnetism in that. They followed him so they too could indulge in those base feelings. They spent years harassing gamers for fun.
After everything was said and done, the Seven went back to their rented office. It was their intent to clean up, split the bounty, then hang up their hats. At least for the time being. Each had gotten nearly 45k out of all the bounties they turned in. It certainly wasn’t a bad sum at all. Especially for less than a week’s worth of work. They spent far less than that on their expenses. On top of that, they had taken Nightmare’s guns, armor, and ships away as well. Technically, they weren’t supposed to be able to do that. Technically, that was theft. Technically, they didn’t care. So somehow those ships ended up getting fenced through grey markets until they vanished completely. Though the paid sum was much les
Eva sat down on the grass and leaned up on a stout tree. She decided to relax at one of the parks on Helios, as it seemed nice out. Plus she needed the freshest air possible, and that could only be found near plants. The digital sky was a bright blue, with hardly any clouds to be seen. The digital version of Sol shone brightly. It was unchained and unrestricted by the trappings of humanity. For a moment, she felt as though she was back on Earth. But that moment passed by quickly. Eva’s EyeCast hovered in front of her, its dark lens reflected her pale face back to her. She was still getting used to it. Well, as best she could, anyway. She had never been much of a fan of cameras, unless she was behind one. When