The Path Avoided – 0.4

The path avoided – 0.4

After watching the small helicopter fly away west through the storm, the man rode his motorcycle slowly up the slight embankment to the highway.  The figure that had crawled out from the wreckage was leaning up against what was left of the car. 

“Definitely not from around here” he thought to himself as he saw the man’s business suit, now soaked with rain and blood.  The blood was coming from a pretty good head wound, as well as deep cuts in his face and arms.  That’s when the rider saw the shredded pants leg and the mangled flesh underneath. 

He put down the stand for his bike, but left the engine running, and slowly approached the injured man.

As soon as the rider stepped in the direction of the wounded man, he began screaming in a panic, desperately trying to scoot away on his three good limbs.  The rider raised both his arms, trying to calm the panicked man.  It wasn’t working, and he was now causing fresh wounds to his hands as he scraped along the shattered glass and splintered metal in a desperate attempt to escape.

The rider finally reached up, and pulled down the deep cowl of his long coat, to reveal his face.  Raising his hands back up, he said, “Inila, niye toka sni iyecetu (1)”

Another round of distant lightning illuminated the rider’s face enough for the driver to see that he was a man, an elf, and wasn’t trying to harm him he said, “Wh…who…. Whe… where did the bear go?!? (2)”

The rider drew a heavy caliber pistol from its holster on his thigh, and ducked behind the car.  “A bear?  Where?”

The driver looked very confused, “I… it was right there!” he said pointing back in the direction the rider had just come from.

The rider looks down at the driver.  His pupils were fully dilated, his skin pale and waxy.  “He’s in shock” he said to himself re-holstering his pistol.  The rider dropped his backpack on the ground, “Caje taku nitawa… cate sice (3)… uh, sorry… What is your name?”

“Wa… wha… what?”

“Your name, what is it?  I am known as magazu (4)… Rain, my friends call me Rain.”  He said as he unpacked the Medkit.  Once it was powered up, he waited for it to synchronize with the weak Matrix signals out here in the Badlands.  When the read outs began to scroll, Rain splayed the fingers of his right hand rapidly, which triggered three augmented reality screens to pop up into the elf’s view.

The driver looked up at his rescuer and started laughing.  “Rain… hahaha, because it’s raining… hahaha.”

Rain looked up at the sky to fight the rising ire within him.  Feeling the large cold drops fall on his face, he refocused his mind. 

“Um… right,” he said with a sigh, looking back down to his patient.  The leg was spurting blood.  The Medkit confirmed his suspicions that wound needed to take priority.  He started to tell the man what he was getting ready to do, but the driver’s head had sagged to his right.  “Unconscious… at least he’s not feeling the pain right now” Rain thought to himself.

Rain set his left hand on the man’s forehead, and raised his right to the heavens, “Atkuku ki Wakan Tanka, awayaye leciya le wicasa. (5,6,7)” He felt the familiar sensation of mana collecting, and flowing through him, and into the man.  When the sensation eased, he re-examined the man’s leg.  The blood had ceased gushing from the severed artery, but just to make sure, he took off the man’s belt, and fashioned a tourniquet just above the shredded flesh.

Now that he had more time, he dressed the rest of the man’s wounds (8).  When he could, he would sit up higher to try and see if the helicopter was going to return, or if anyone else might be driving along the isolated highway.  Once he had dressed the wounds he could see, he sat back on his heels and raised his face and hands to the sky, and began to pray, “Atkuku ki Wakan Tanka, canl waste kage le wicasa zaniya”. (9)(10)(11)

Once he finished his prayer, he remained with his face to the sky so that he could enjoy the sensation of the thunder storm on his face for a while longer.  After several moments he lowered his arms, “Pilamayaye Atkuku ki Wakan Tanka”. (12)

After he finished putting all of the loose kit away, he returned the medkit to his backpack.  Reaching under his long coat, he withdrew a thirty by twenty centimeter tablet.  With practiced ease, he taped the sequence in.

“It’s been a while… I hope they will take my call” he said to himself.

-=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-

Part - 5

-=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-

(1)     (ee-nee-lah), (nee-yea) (toh-kahn shnee) ee-yea-chay-due) (ee-yea-chay-due) // Quiet, you are going to be alright. – in the Lakota language

(2)     English Language test [Intuition (4) + English (1) = DP 5] – [6,6,3,3,5 – 3 hits]

(3)     (chah-zjay)(dah-kue)(nee-dah-wah)… (chahn-day shee-chay) // What is your name?  Sorry…

(4)     (ma-gh-as-zue)

(5)     Casting Stabilize Spell, level 4 – [Spell Casting 4 + Magic 2 = 6 DP] – [4,5,6,2,2,5 – 3 hits]

(6)     Resist Drain, Shaman – [Cha 3 + Will 5 = 8 DP [2]] – [4,6,5,3,2,1,6,2  = 3 hits, no drain (note: drain would have been physical, because the number of hits, exceeded his magic ability)

(7)     (ah-dkue-kue kee) (wah-kahn dahn-kah) (ah-wahn-yahn-yea) (lay-chee-yah) (lay) (wee-chah-shah)  // Father (his/her)  God watch over this man

(8)     First Aid check [Skill Level (1) + Logic (5) + PQ, Quick Healer (2) = 8 DP] – (6,3,1,4,2,6,2,3 = 3 hits)

(9)     Casting Heal Spell, level 4 – [Spell Casting 4 + Magic 2 + PQ, Quick Healer (2) = 8 DP] – [5,4,6,1,2,4,4,1 – 2 hits]

(10) Resist Drain, Shaman – [Cha 3 + Will 5 = 8 DP [2]] – [1,2,6,6,1,5,1,6  = 4 hits, no drain

(11) (ah-dkue-kue kee) (wah-kahn dahn-kah) (chanl wah-shday) (kah-ghay) (lay) (wee-chah-shah) (zah-nee-yah) // Father God, please make this man well (in health)

(12) (pee-lah-mah-yah-yea) (ah-dkue-kue kee) (wah-kahn dahn-kah) // Thank You father God.

-=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-

If You Want Something Done Right – 0.3

If you want something done right – 0.3

Normally, he would have just hired a team of Shadowrunners, the disposable assets of the sixth world.  Mostly SINless, ne'er do wells, with the best qualities… they all wanted Nuyen, and they didn’t care how they earned it.  But this run, this one was special. 

He always understood his role within the organization.  He was only a low level ‘project manager’ with a special focus on ‘additional tasks, not otherwise assigned’, but when the ‘Big Man’ calls you… himself, you best make sure it’s done right.  Besides, it was just the retrieval of a minor corp asset.  If it got too real, he could hire local talent.

For the third time in the past thirty minutes, he pulled up the tracking program, which displayed the RFID, and found it right where it had been for most of the night.

~*CRACK*~

The windshield had instantly polarized when the bolt of lightning landed so close to the speeding Bently, the flash of light and the crack of thunder were united.  It might have even struck the car. 

“Drek that was close!” He said, yelling to himself.

He held both of his hands up in front of him, “look at that!  Steady as a rock!” he said proudly. “Still got it.”

Another flash from a streaking bolt of lightning from further down the road outlined something.  He only caught a flash of an outline.  He placed both of his hands back on the steering wheel now, and began squinting out into the gloom.  At this speed, the thick drops of rain just peeled up and away, but it was so dark.

It was then his world erupted.  Another flash of lightning revealed the single man Wasp helicopter.  Hanging underneath the nose was slung an Ogre Hammer Assault Cannon, already spewing high velocity death.  It chewed up a clean line of cement right at him.  There was no time to think, and he instinctively jerked the wheel to the left, but it was too late.  The 360 gram rounds, impacting at over six hundred and fifty rounds per second it etched a vicious wound from the right fender, through the front tire and engine compartment, shredded the passenger door, and then stitched its path complete through the trunk.

When the front tire disintegrated under the assault, the rim slammed down and dug into the asphalt covered cement, causing the Bentley to vault lazily into the air.  For a few moments, he felt weightless, the tumult of the storm and attack had passed, and he was free.  But when the broken machine returned to earth, it began to tumble violently. Over and over, spewing pieces of metal and plastic over one hundred meters away, until it finally came to a rest on what was left of the roof. Over a half a kilometer from where it first took flight.

For several long moments, he couldn’t tell which way was up.  Not until he saw the small streams of water flowing along the roof above his head, did it click.   Slowly, painfully, he pulled himself out from under the wires and broken glass, and out into the pouring down rain.  The incessant pounding of large drops of cold water, and the oft repeated thunder, frustrated his attempts to find out where his attacker had gone off to. 

It wasn’t until he tried to stand, to try and make a run for it, that he realized that his right leg would not support his weight.  The first time, he went down hard, pushing his face along the debris of the accident, ripping deep lines of fresh cuts into his face and arms.  The second time, he just ended up in a heap.  As he lay there, he heard the angry little bird come screaming in, spitting more death and destruction.  The eruption of asphalt and concrete, and the insanely cacophony of shredding of steel, all around him caused his ears to ring.  He curled up into a fetal position, desperately trying to make himself smaller while waiting for the fatal round to fall.  Somehow, as the sound of the screaming engine and blades faded into the storm, he found himself still alive.  For all the good that did him.

Looking around, there were no city lights on the horizon, not another set of headlights coming or going, just the pouring rain and his destroyed vehicle.  That was when something wore off inside of him.  Intense, searing pain came crashing down on him, especially on his right leg.  Looking down, he saw something that his mind could not immediately grasp.  The lower half of his thigh, to the knee, there was barely anything left.  There were strips of skin and sinew connecting the top and the bottom, but not much else.  His head began to swim.  He unbuckled his belt, and tugged, but all his effort did was to cause him to fall over onto his side.  Sitting up again, he rested against the side of his car.  If it were not for shock settling in, he would have begun to realize the hopelessness of his situation.

That’s when he heard the throaty growl of something approaching.  Wiping the dripping rain out of his eyes he saw what had made such a disturbing sound… in the strobes of the flashes of lightning, he felt fear rise into his throat and as he saw the silhouette of a bear.

-=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-

Part - 4

-=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-   -=-=-=O=-=-=-