Endgame Earth

[NovaAurora]

    Nova couldn't help but chuckle. "Heh, you must be referring to Himawari. Yeah, she's with us." He eyed the ocelot for a moment and said, "Anyway, you look fine, so if you say you're up for it then we should get moving." Just then he noticed Luke coming over to talk to him. When he had finished, Nova had a somewhat concerned look on his face. "Luke... you still look really beat up. I appreciate the offer, but you shouldn't be straining yourself with anything right now." He noticed the weakness in Luke's legs and got out of the humvee. Closing the door behind him, he took Luke by the arm to steady him and turned towards the entrance to the large building. "Come with me and Ip, we'll get you out of the cold and see what we can find inside." He started to walk slowly towards the building.

[Luke White-Heart]

Luke mumured his thanks to Nova, letting him support him as they entered the building.
"I don't...understand why I'm...still so...weak," panted Luke. He shook his head, trying to abate his thoughts. He looked down to make sure he still had his pack, gripping the strap tightly as they walked.

[Takamei Edevane]

Ip nodded his aching head in acknowledgement, looking at the large building and wondering what could be inside. He walked in ahead of Nova and Luke, his weapon lazily following where ever his eyes looked. The building was slightly warmer than outside. "Its slightly warm. Not much, don't know if this means anything... maybe there were people here... or still are." He stopped and turned to Nova and Luke. "Nova what if this place is occupied... what shall we do? Take it?" He asked Nova, looking at him with his dead serious face. "There may not even be anything here." He said.

[Byracka]

As Jave stepped out of the vehicle his feet was met with the cold reality of newly fallen snow. He grimaced, and realized he had absolutely nothing to cover his aching feet with. He fell backwards and landed on the seat. Ever since he was burned he has had sore skin and many patches on his body without any fur. Luckily it didn’t feel as excruciating painful as it had felt a couple of days back, but he feared that it would come back in full strength once the sedative components of the sleeping gas completely ended. He pinched the side of the seat and stepped out again. It really felt like if someone was jabbing nails into his paw pads, it was a moment of relief when the cold snow dampened all sensory signals.


He felt reluctant to avoid Novas orders, at least before he had gained any trust from the group. Most of the furs still stayed in their cars, the younger and more weaker ones that would last long in a fight took shelter in the steel confinements on four wheels. He looked around until he spotted the black haired human, Himawari. She sat by herself “odd” Jave thought out loud.


He went up to her car, thinking that a slight detour from Nova wouldn’t be of any impor
tance, and knocked quietly on Himawaris window. “Hey, how are you?”

[Ventus Fall]

She startled when she heard a knocking sound on her window. She saw the ocelot walking towards he,r but somehow she didn't realise he was on his way to her.
Now he was knocking on her window.


"Uhm, I guess I'm fine?" She said with uncertainty after she lowered the window.
"It's kind of cold out there. Looking at your injuries you might not feel all to well out there either. Why don't you come in? Sit in the passenger seat."
She chuckled a bit. "Besides, leaving this window open will let the cold in too."

[NovaAurora]

    Nova led Luke into the building behind Ip and looked around the space. It was in remarkably good condition compared to most of the other buildings he had been in, though whether it had to do with the fact that it was an isolated military base or some other mysterious reason instead, he didn't know. There were desks and tables and chairs scattered around, some still with computers, monitors and various other items strewn about them. A slightly tattered American flag hung from a balcony above this lobby area, a haunting reminder of the days when arbitrary country lines actually meant anything. "Here, sit down in one of these." Nova said to Luke as he guided him into one of the padded swivel chairs lying around. "I'm gonna go with Ip and scout around." He went over to Ip and together they walked towards the back of the lobby. Leaning in close so only Ip could hear, Nova said, "If this place is occupied by someone, we should try to work with them first before just taking it over. But I'd be willing to bet we have superior firepower if we do have to..." He stopped and looked at the ground before looking up at Ip again. "I admit, something doesn't feel right about this place. It's too perfect. There's an air of false security about it. But right now it's all we've got, and as you said, this worrying could all just be for nothing." 

[Byracka]

Jave appreciated Himawari’s offer and strolled over to the other side of the Humvee. He wiped his snowy feet on the rim and then sat down on the cushion and closed the door. When they breathed warm moisture formed a visible cloud, it had gotten that cold inside for the few moments the window and door stood open. Jave cleared his throat; it hadn’t been that long ago since he was in contact with humans, still he was unsure of what to say. The only positive experience he has had with humans since the consumption broke out, would have be that lovely old couple he met out on the sea. They traded fish for some drinking water, good memories.


Jave’s  voice was naturally hoarse and gravelly, he did his best to smooth both his accent and tone. “Thanks for letting me in the warmth… Himawari is it? Nova told me a little about you” He extended his paw towards her, not thinking of how unhygienic and dirty his hands really were. “I’m Jave. It’s a peculiar group you’re with. Any names I should know of?”

[Ventus Fall]

Himawari shook hands with Jave. "Yes, I am Himawari Hyde. Pleased to meet you."
She looked away for a moment.
"If you have any questions, you may ask them. I'm not sure what you would like to know. As for the names, all I can recall is Nova, Katelyn, Ip... There are some others, but I havne't had much time to talk with all of them, let alone get their names properly. I sometimes have bad memory when it comes to names. Faces I can recall very well, but the names..."


She looked back at Jave and thought to herself what kind of abuse happened to his furcoat. It seemed as if he was burned, but she couldn't say for sure. She figured it was impolite to stare and ask, so she left it in the middle.

"So, what happened to you? I mean, how did you get caught by those people?"

[Luke White-Heart]

Luke sat down in the swivel chair, letting himself sink into the seat as he sighed deeply. Some of his strength had returned, and he was curious to see what this place had to offer. He moved the chair over to a desk, and began to rifle through the sparse papers and files on it. As his mind drifted, he began to think about Daniel's file. He reached into his pack and pulled it out. Luke looked through it, then came upon a picture of a fur, who Luke assumed was Daniel. He was a white tiger, with eyes as blue as ice. He was dressed...in black armor, a sword on his back, and a rifle in his hands. He was sitting on a desk...very similar to the one Luke was facing...Suddenly, an image of Daniel flashed through his mind. Daniel was giving Luke the sword, but Luke was tied up and struggling. Tears were in his eyes, and he was pleading with Daniel. But, Daniel was beginning to inject Luke with a needle...and the world went dark.

[FurryJunky]

Warren watched Katelyn get out of the humvee.
"I'll go too"
And he followed out into the snow and took a good moment to inhale the crisp air and stretch after sitting down for so long. He'd never actually been inside the compound and his memory wasn't serving him too well.
He was really hoping that there was no from of super consumer. The area was too clean, but then even the snow can hide things.

Looking towards Warren as he spoke up to join her she nodded in his direction before rolling her shoulders, loosening up her sore mussels from the long ride. Taking a few experimental steps forward she was greeted by the crunch of snow under her boots, sending a thrill up her spine. If there was anything she loved more, it would be the snow. With the snow it covered everything. The charred outlines of buildings, craters, even corpses would be covered by a thick sheet of it, hiding all of the pain from view, though it did more then just that. Looking about there where small four legged tracks, sign of game nearby. But other then that she could see no other sign of tracks through the fresh snow, everything a blanket of white.

Sighing a deep breath her breath came out as a white mist before she continued straight ahead towards the garage. It was a large square building with three garage doors, each set equal distances apart. Two on each end and one in the middle. Along the left side of the building was a solid steel door. Slowly making her way towards it she saw no tracks leading to or from it, so she attempted the door knob. Meet with resistance she sighed and looked around. Taking her handgun out she wrapped the muzzle around her cloths before firing three rounds into the lock. What she heard was muffled clanks of steel, just hearable from the humvee. Trying the door knob once more it swung open, the lock obliterated. Huffing a bit from the sucess she slowly walked in, meet by darkness.

Slowly the room came into focus as her eyes adjusted. Where they entered seemed to be an office of sorts with solid panes of glass viewing the workshop. The desk had spare parts of cars laid all about. Old papers clung to each other and writing long faded. Some of the table even had mold growing, destroying all notes and books that where in its range. Ahead of the entrance was another door leading into the workshop. Opening it it was not locked and swung open, giving a loud squeak of protest from lack of use. The screeching echoed through the empty room, leaving behind an ominous silence. Looking over at Warren she blinked a few times before looking straight again, leveling her handgun as she scoped out the place. With her rifle on her back it would be no use at such a close range, so now her handgun was her weapon of choice. After ten minutes of pointless searching she holstered her firearm, finding no threat. In the room to the right of the office door where three hydraulic lifts, the middle bore an armored humvee with the engine missing but battle ready, all it missed was the LMG on the gunner. Towards the back where tool boxes of various red's, each having a vast number of racks with tools of every type and size. Work benches where also plenty, though none bore any kind towards weapons, only vehicles. Around the entire room greese stains lined the floor, tipped over tables, rusting metal, and boxes falling apart, spilling there insides, and piles upon piles of raw materials stacked about in various places. Sheet metal, fiber glass, even a small lumber pile.

Sighing at the sigh of it all she stood at the old humvee missing its engine, thinking on what would of caused the base to be abandon so before looking towards Warren. "Find anything?" She said, breaking the vast silence that pounded down on them.

 

[MrRazot]

The empty clutter of the inside of the garage had warren in awe, looking across all the walls and ceiling as they moved across. When Katelyn drew her pistol, Warren held his paw over his sword. He sort of hoped he would find some sort of gun soon as generally they were better unless you liked throwing relic swords.


The silence was indeed uneasy and you could just hear the echo of a leak falling from icicles hanging on the ceiling, letting little light through the gaps in the corrugated iron roof. This didn't help the temperature and moisture at the end of his nose was starting to freeze. Regardless of this inconvenience, Warren tried to fond out as much as possible as to what happened here that caused a fully operational military base, into a rust bucket.


A gun cabinet proved to be empty other than a human gas mask with a cracked visor. A tool drawer contained nothing more than a few nuts and bolts. A filing cabinet held nothing more recent than 2 months old. No skeletons laying around or anything organic other than the mould that plagued the majority of books ledgers and anything that could have been proven useful.


At the crack of the question directed at Warren "Found anything?", It was surprisingly to say "No" or "Not really" as though they had found nothing of importance, there was quite a lot of it.


"Nothing important" he replied as he tried to make sense of a spoiled book. "Though the records show that the military haven't been here for 2 months and for obvious reasons, this place has been raided at some stage since."
Warren looked around some more.


"But why did the military leave, and then why would bandits leave such a formidable base?"

[Takamei Edevane]

Ip lowered his weapon and listened carefully to Nova's words,"Alright." he said as he gave a slight nod. He looked back over to the doorway and raised his weapon. "Lets go through here first, the other fur can keep a look out to make sure that we won't crept up on from behind." he said before he walked through the doorway. The room smelt of rotting wood from old desks and there were rusty cabinets scattered across the room among other abandoned things. The floor had patches of frozen molded paper, which when trodden on made the sound that reminded Ip of crisps he would have for lunch before the world was plunged into its own self destruction. To the right there were stairs that led to the second floor. "Think we should go up?"

[FurryJunky]

Turning back straight ahead she sighed and made one more complete circuit of the room. At the far end of the room there where two generators, most likely for the machinery in the room. Bending over to uncap the lid for the fuel she ran her fingers along the edge, seeing it bone dry. Replacing the cap she stood it crossing her arms over her chest. Along the wall opposite of the office was the piles of materials. It was all relatively well kept in a wood rack. It had three levels and three columns. The wood was beginning to sag in places but so far it looked like it was holding. Inside each of the long rectangular slots was materials, the most common being sheet metal and plywood.
Taking quick stock of it she began walking along the garage doors, stopping at the middle before kneeling at it. It was electric driving but there was a handle at the bottom incase the power went out. Wrapping her fingers around it she pushed up with her legs with no luck. Panting softly she put her left hand with her right and braced herself before giving it one more yank. With a loud screech of protest the door slid up wit the sound of rusted steel on steel. Instantly light flooded through the room. Closing her eyes she opened them slowly as not to blind herself, then pushed up the rest of the way opening the door to over her head.
The entire room was no moderately lit, the middle hydraulic lift with the humvee showing from the outside. With the light now she took one glance around before noticing a few extra things she missed. To the left under the office window where a few cans, maybe gass or oil cans, and tucked under the benches where boxes, allot of boxes. From the dark it only looked like part of the shelf but now the light shown it as a thick layer of dust. Walking up to one she slid her fingers about the box and pulled it out, letting the insides spill to the floor. Inside to much her surprise was various tools. Pad sanders and buffers for the cars. And in the rest she assumed to be much the same, but with no power or a means to gass up the engine, all useless.
Looking over at Warren once more she smiled lightly saying, "I found some tools! Under the benches... I think there are allot more, but im going to check the next building, Are you coming or going to poke about a bit more?"

[NovaAurora]

    Nova nodded. "Yeah, I wanna see what's up there. Something still feels off about all this..." He turned to climb the stairs, leading Ip along behind. Just as he reached the halfway point in the gloomy stairwell, he heard something that made him stop dead in his tracks. Brief rhythmic thudding from above- unmistakably footsteps, he thought. He growled softly and turned to Ip. "I don't know if you just heard that, but now I'm convinced, there's no way we're alone. Watch behind us and keep your weapon drawn." He drew his own weapon from its sheath and continued up the creaky steps. A door separated them from the hallway on the second floor, and Nova scowled intently as he approached it. Holding his gunblade in one hand he gripped the doorknob with his other and turned it, pushing the door open and stepping onto the landing.
    Immediately he was hit by a now all too familiar smell- that of humans. He gritted his teeth and breathed to Ip, "Damn, can you smell that? People... there are people up here, I know it. All the more reason to stay on alert, who knows what they're doing or what they'll think of us." He gripped his weapon tighter and slowly but smoothly peered to the right, around the corner of the stairway entrance down the length of the dusty hall. Instantly he reeled back as the fwish fwish of silenced gunshots rang out, and the plaster wall to his left was suddenly inflicted with two perfectly round bullet holes, barely missing where his head had been a moment ago. "Shit! Ip, get ready, this could get messier than I thought!" He then heard the sound of a door at the far end of the hall closing and being locked, and in an adrenaline fueled frenzy he bolted around the corner and sprinted down the hallway as fast as he could. He pulled up right in front of the door he was sure the perpetrators were behind, as he could now smell three distinct beings, all human, waiting in the room beyond.
    Standing to the side, Nova bellowed in a commanding, but not threatening, voice, "I know you're in there, you bastards! Open up so we can meet peacefully, otherwise I can bring my friends in here and we'll force you out!" A momentary tense silence ensued. Then, to Nova's great surprise, an old man's voice greeted him through the door:
    "That voice belongs to no human..." it said almost contemplatively.
    Nova let out two loud, wolfish barks and continued, "You're damn right I'm not human! But I have no desire to harm you, as long as you promise not to try and kill me again." There was another short silence. Soon Nova heard indistinct mumbling from the other side of the door, and then to his shock, the locks being opened. The door itself creaked open a crack, and the face of a human man, who looked to be about 65 years old with long graying hair, emerged from the dusky interior. He met eyes with Nova, who stood there wide-eyed with his blade lowered at his side. "May I... come in?" He said apprehensively. The man looked him up and down for a second, and then stood back, deliberately swinging the door open all the way. Holding a suppressed pistol at his side, he remained nearly expressionless the whole time as Nova stepped into the dimly lit room. Behind him, looking significantly more concerned, were two younger men who seemed to be about 30 years old each, one taller one with black hair and a shorter, stockier one with brown hair. The elderly man stood in the center, regarding Nova and Ip with an inquisitive look. Nova was simply stunned. He did not know what to say.

[Luke White-Heart]

Luke awoke to the sound of muttering and mumuring. Groggily, he lifted his head and opened his eyes. Looking aroung, he found that he didn't recognize his surroundings. Stupid, Luke thought to himself. I should've been paying better attention. But he had been passed out. He shook his head. I have to get back to Nova. But first, where the hell am I? He rose steadily, glad to find his weapons on a nearby table. Then he heard, what sounded like Nova's voice, screaming from another room.