Futuristic An Agent of Maniacles

[EFMingo]

This wasn't a good damn plan. This is a fucking disaster, Brick thought. They should have started with a shoot and scoot back to the company defensive line. And where the hell is the artillery and air support? He fired consistently until his power pack welas burning up, nearly melting. He felt somewhat bad for Vivian and John, packed in a hallway with his gigantic ass, but then again, he really didn't. This shit ain't worth the pay.

With his overdrawn chain of fire, and the other two keeping up somewhat, he was able to see the situation and take advantage of a hole in the mob. Brick fired heavily at the stairwell in rectangle, structurally weakening the section concrete in front of them. The he used his massive foot, combined with the power armor augmentation, to stomp on the section and collapse it. The bugs below exploded in a flood of vile juices, which ran further down. This maybe bought them a bit more time. One could jump down it without injury if need be, but there were so many bugs that this route wasn't even an option anymore.

The pause in the fray let him change packs. He diverted a bit of suit power to recharge an empty one. He spoke up again. "Denton, stairwell is manageable. Plan? One jacked Ford ain't gonna hold my big ass, let alone everyone. Big guns? Air lift?" Then he resumed firing down into the growing mountain of chitin and legs. That guy better have something. Or I'm going to give the bugs a little extra fresh meat.

Kinggunlucky

 

[Exzalia]

Owl keeps over watch on the battle as was her duty, but it wasn't her only duty, in truth she didn't much care for pests or what they did.

Her real goal, was information, and she was going to pillage the mind of everyone person on this roof top starting with Carmille. She was easiest because she left blood everywhere, fresh enough the owls mind magic could still be caste upon her while touching it. Casually while no one was looking she leans against the low wall of the roof ledge and dabs some on her finger. Like that, faster than a wisp, she steals a memory from Carmille.

"What do we have here?" Owl views it.

It makes absolutely no sense. First she is whisked back to a witch burning in the dark ages, then a random cabin in what most have been colonial america, pictures of starving people in concentration camps follow, but is quickly replaced by the moon landing. Whats more the memories felt...detached as if Carmille had no strong emotions to any of them.

Owl focuses her magic trying to calm the random roller coaster of unconnected memories before her spells magic wore off. Was that...static? Yes she was hearing t.v static it wasn't in Carmille's memory more...apart of it?

Owl returns to the present more puzzled that satisfied.

"I'll have to try and steal another one later but what i do know is that Camille most be very old."

She looks around for her next target

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu tosses Carmille two blood packs. "I've seen what you did with that barrier thing. Please, despite how you feel about me, protect these people. Our brothers and sisters in arms with these. As well as yourself." Kotsu looked at Owl, intrigued by what he heard her say, but also not caring enough to know how Owl had gotten to know Carmille was old. Maybe they knew each other. Maybe they didn't. It didn't matter. He lay in wait, until the perfect opportunity arised.
If I lose a limb, at least the captain won't dish out anything too severe until I'm healed. Maybe just 1,000 push ups. Or cleaning the bathrooms while crawling or hobbling.
"Hey Captain?" Kotsu said to Denton. "What're the chances if I lose a limb you guys could reattach it or get me a new one?"

Kinggunlucky Freikugel Exzalia

 

[GamerCarrot]

As they arrived at the building Vivian kept her guard up shooting at any and all pests in their way, as the others ran up the staircase she was ready to follow. Stepping on the staircase with her back towards the people running up she heard Morgan tell her and two others to stay put and keep the pests from getting through. Using her enhanced speed she reloads her gun quickly and takes aim at the pests on the walls and the ceiling knowing that the other two would handle the ones she missed. She could see more of them coming through broken windows and coming through the opened door no matter how many they shot at, getting increasingly more annoyed she continued to shoot making sure not to waste any precious bullets as she defended her post.

Out of the corner of her eye however she noticed a pest climbing up the side of the staircase, glaring at it she turned her gun towards the pest and shot point blank, really not in the mood to deal with any sneak attacks.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I know a mechanic. Bring her a case of vodka and she'll give you a discount." The mass of bugs around the car was thinning, probably because Sam kept scraping other vehicles and telephone poles. Although she couldn't see it through the shell of her tool, the truck was nearly out of gas.

The shots from above punched a hole in the windshield, and the Pests used that hole to come cascading into the vehicle. The sudden influx of bugs caused Sam to flip the truck.

"Goddammit, I'm an engineer, not an exterminator!", she hollered when the truck stopped rolling. The roll seemed to have stunned the Pests as she crawled out through the broken window.

"Morgan, Denton, if we're staying here much longer, I'm building a vehicle that's worth a damn," she said as she began jogging in the direction of the rest of the group, guided by her DEHDs.

 

[Kinggunlucky]

John stared in awe at Brick and Vivian. He'd been barely able to keep up with their carnage. The stairwell was empty. Destroyed and demolished and covered in bug juice, but empty. The Pests weird noises had stopped.

Man, talk about heavy hitters, he thought. He hadn't seen this action since he dueled a Goblin Lord in the gardens of Nippeledom. Good times.

"Jesus fuck," he said. "I wasn't expecting this. Such a heavy push back."

He walked up the stairs, pushing the door open, and telling the others that stairwell controlled.

***

"Denton, stairwell is manageable. Plan? One jacked Ford ain't gonna hold my big ass, let alone everyone. Big guns? Air lift?"

Denton replied. "See? Such a big panic for nothing. You survived. For now anyway. No air support I'm afraid. Not for this job. HQ was kind enough to only offer the bare minimum resources for this problem. I believe they mentioned having more urgent matters to take care. I can deploy two armed trucks to your location. Turrets on top." His mouth settled into a thin line. What a clusterfuck this had turned out to be. I should have gone, he thought, but shook his head free of the idea. A sickly feeling settled in his stomach. Once Annie had told him there were survivors somewhere in the town, he'd made up his mind to stay at base.

Also, survival in a situation like that seemed fairly slim for someone with no combat ability. HQ only had him doing this damn job because of how the Campus Incident turned out. The Maniacles equivalent of being sent to work in Antartica. Managing a few problem types and dealing with Pests. It didn't help his specialty, originally, had never been tactics. These kind of tactics anyway. Not quasi-military operation of this scale. Denton shrugged. Well, at least if they all die they won't comeback pissed off.

He snorted.

No, no he supposed he couldn't leave them dead in the water.

Morgan patched through to Denton. "Damn. Samantha flipped the car."

"Is she dead?" Denton asked.

"Wait...." Morgan's voice trailed off. "She's alive."

"Morgan, Denton, if we're staying here much longer, I'm building a vehicle that's worth a damn," she said as she began jogging in the direction of the rest of the group, guided by her DEHDs.

"We will stay until the job is done Ms. Adams. Morgan, how clear are things?"

Morgan sighed, look around the roof top, eyed Owl who didn't seem to be picking up direct danger. No the Swarm had backed off for now. "We're good for now. They'll be back, though.

Denton replied. "Queen and survivors. Locate them. Survivors are in a church."

 

[Exzalia]

Owl puts a hand on Kota's shoulder both to stop him from jumping and to steal a memory. "I don't know why you insist on trying to commit suicide but-" Owl stops mid sentence.

She had cast mind delve on him, stolen a memory from his subconscious. It was vital for her to build a profile on each mercenary in order to get a better picture of the type of people they were hiring. In truth she didn't care at all about fighting pests, The Maniacles were her real target and to bring them down she had to know everything. So she was going to pillage every mind on this roof top one by one starting with Kota, but she is not prepared for the memory she see's.

Owl is standing by a kneeling Kota who was violently weeping. Pure anguish bursts from his chest, he doubles over revolted and over come by the sight before him. He vomits blood mixes with his bile and tears into an abhorrent mess. She looks were he is looking and before her on the ground, butchery.

Children or what used to be children, now they were little more then a bloody mutilated mess on the living room floor. Their entrails rolled out like a fat ball of yarn blood slick and oozing dribbles from their crimson bodied. She recoils mentally from the sight pulling away from the memory like one pulls away from a hot stove.

"Ahh!" Owl steps back from him going a little pale it wasn't just what she saw but what she felt, for a brief moment she knew what he was feeling in that moment. Sorrow at the death of his siblings and....hunger? He wanted to eat them?

She stares at him like she's seeing a monster, then catching her self refocuses on the task at hand. "What I'm trying to say is, we need you up here. If you die our chances of survival go down, so stay alive, stay here."

She turns away from him and shudders. But she couldn't dwell on him now on to her next target.

 

[Freikugel]

The man offered bloodpacks to the vampire, she felt even more insulted, without thinking it twice she kicked both of them, Carmille was about to confront Kotsu as she felt something, an unnerving feeling within her body, the equivalent of the exhaustion in an athlete after heavy anaerobic exercise. For a moment she decided to ignore the man's insolence

Carmille sat on the floor atop the rooftop.
She spoke to Morgan, though the message was for Denton
"Do you really expect me to go walk into a church human?, that place is infested with more of these pests, why should I be doing your bidding apart when you can perfectly go die in that place? That would be more entertaning that killing the pest or that Queen"

She hated Maniacles's guts, forcing a creature of the night to do their dirty work, as soon as she could get free of them she would rip them apart one by one, maybe could use the filthy undead's bones to skewer Denton to begin with.

Carmille wasn't a mercenary like most of them, instead she was more of a forced soldier. After an unfortunate encounter with the Maniacles, she was caught and forced to their bidding. She didn't expect it... Maniacles having methods to deal with vampires effectively, as the old vampire hunters once did
By the use of a special cocktail of blessings and curses, the creature was enslaved.
Perhaps that made her hate the attitude of the male vampire even more, who willingly offered himself in the serve of humans.

"Human do you really want to be in my food list that badly?"
And then a pair of cold, sharp teeth sank into the neck of Morgan as the dreadful presence of the creature's eyes pierced her from the back, her blood being slowly draining, her soul slowly being devoured.


Except it didn't, just a couple of blood drips carelessly splashed into the mage's neck, giving to her the full sensation of death. A little warning to Denton

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu shrugged, smiling as he stared at Owl. "You gotta worry about the other blood sucker." Nodding his head toward Carmille. "By the way, Carmille. I'll be back. And when I get back, you better calm down. You're weak enough to where even I can knock you out. So don't tempt fate." Kotsu stepped backward without looking behind him, leaping off the building with a wide grin.
As soon as Kotsu landed into his own self made crater, he dashed at his fastest speed available to him, slicing the remaining pests that proceeded to get in his way with his flaming whips. Kotsu made it over to Samantha within a flash and prompted her to get on his back. "Get on my back, bud. We're going for a ride." He said, kneeling down and putting his blood whips away. Noticeable burns on his arms that started to heal fast, but not as fast as they normally would. Kotsu was getting tired. And he only had 2 blood packs left. "Damn..." Kotsu said, shaking his head. "I need a nap and a shower."

Freikugel Exzalia Deadwood Deer

 

[Spacekitsune]

Amatsa would have rushed to the roof nodding as she was on coms looking around.
"On it... don't you worry i'll keep an eye on her." Amatsa would climb quickly looking down the scop of her rifle as she would shoot some of the closer ones next to Ms. Adams.
"... You better all be careful ok fuck sake... we don't have much time they'll probably be getting here sooner or later." She says as she kept taking shots.
"Longer we stay the longer we get swarmed"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Get on my back, bud, we're going for a ride," Kotsu said. Jump on a soulless monstrosities back, sure. Sam was already a third dead, why not go all the way?

"There's no polite way to say this," Sam says, chucking a now-recharged drone at the mini-swarm recovering from the crash. "I know I've probably got enough wiring in me to discourage biting, but there's no way in hell I'm hopping on the back of bat-shit crazy." Blue light leaked out from the mini swarm before it exploded, glowing blue liquid falling to the ground. Battery completely drained, the drone dropped to the ground.

"Besides, you're... how the fuck is your equivalent of half dead?" Sam's tool stretched into a claw on a cord as she whipped it in the direction of the drained drone, yanking it back and plugging it into the holster. Sam's second drone beeped as it scanned the building for a path to the top.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu grunted. "We don't have time to argue! We need to reconvene to figure out which churches we're going to look at, so either get on my back or I'm gonna whip you to that roof top!" Kotsu snapped at Sam. "I'm trying to save you. I can't let anybody else die. Not again..." His voice trailed off, his head slumped, arms spread out, kneeling so that she could get on his back. "Look, I ain't saying it's gonna be a pleasant ride but it's gonna be from here to our allies that's it and I'm the fastest mode of transport you got so that we can come up with a sound game plan. We gotta get off the ground before we become Pest meat! And if you're really concerned about my well being, then I'll drink a blood pack on the roof while we reorganize our ranks." Kotsu said with a sigh.

"Captain!" Kotsu said into his ear piece. "I've got Sam in my sights. I'm trying to give her a lift to the others now."

Deadwood Deer Kinggunlucky

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh, fine, save me the pity party!", Sam barked, "You bite me and we're gonna find out how fast these prothetics can rip a throat out." She clambered onto the vampire's back and called back her drone. And I thought Orlando had gone to shit, she thought.

KotaKotsu

 

[KotaKotsu]

"It ain't a pity party," Kotsu said, shifting her weight to make sure she was on tight. "Hold on, and I ain't gonna bite you but run a diagnostics check. I'd rather make sure you're okay." Kotsu said with a faint smile. It felt good to have someone trust him. He sprinted at full speed toward the building his companions waited on top of and arrived there within only a few moments and used his whips to wrap around the building and launch them upwards, landing perfectly at the edge of the roof where he had stepped off a few minutes ago. "Hey guys. I'm back," Kotsu said stepping off and kneeling again for Sam to be able to ease off of him without much effort.

 

[Exzalia]

Owl walks up to Samantha as she gets down from Kotu's back. "Your alive that's good, but are you infected? Don't answer that you wouldn't know; I'll use my true sight to scan your body, give me your arm, err the not metal one."

Owl touches her arm and casts her magic, Mind delve plucks a bright red twinkle of memory from Sams subconscious, it melds with owls brain as if it were her own, as if she was there experiencing it.

Owl stands by Samantha near a a large reactor core. It's hot as fuck near the reactor core as Samantha works a control panel open and wiggles into the small space. Her squad is urging her to hurry up, and in the heat, her sweaty hand slips. She cuts the wrong wire. She hurries to leave but isn't quick enough. The machine explodes, and there is only pain.
Flash forward, a non verbal Samantha with her legs and right arm missing is pushed around a mental health facility by a greasy old man.
Another flash, and there is pain again, this time as a woman connects wires and sockets into her body, and then again as the entry wounds are stitched shut and false limbs connected.

Owls magic fades and she returns to reality wincing a little from the memory of the pain, her own mind briefly thinking it's self on fire. Asides from that she does not let on to what she had seen.

"You're clear, that's a relief I'm rather glad I don't have to shoot you." Owl says her tone was indifferent before, but now it takes on a slightly friendlier ring.

 

[KotaKotsu]

I stared at Owl. "Ya know, you're kinda sweet when you're worried, Kotsu said as Sam got off of his back, he slammed himself against a wall, his arms finally healed from the fire. Kotsu was panting quietly, not many people other than anybody who was close could hear him. "So what's the plan? Which church are we hitting up first, gang?" A smile across Kotsu's face but with his head down and hair drapped in front of him, nobody could tell. His tone was friendly enough though, turning to Sam and moving his hair out of his face he said the only thing he could think of.
"Thank you. For trusting in me. I told you I wouldn't let you down. I want to keep all of you safe to the best of my ability. I hope you all understand that." Kotsu said. He was genuine enough in his words as he meant them. Pulling out a blood pack from his belt, Kotsu sunk his fangs into it, slowly drinking it to savor it as he only had one left. He'd need that if anything went wrong. But what he really needed was this moment of reprieve to rest his body that felt tired.
Kotsu hadn't been out on the field for much time if any, mostly due to his insatiable bloodlust in combat. It was scary to even himself how out of control he could get, but he never hurt his allies. He had in the past and that had snapped him out of his rage. Sometimes that was a good thing. Other times, it would cost more lives than it would save. Kotsu shook his head after he finished his blood pack.
"Man, I miss drinking an energy drink. Or black coffee. Not... This." Kotsu said 'This' as a child would regard vegetables they ate only because it made them growing stronger like parents would tell them it would. He whipped the empty blood bag across the rooftop where nobody was stationed.

Deadwood Deer Exzalia

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"You're clear, that's a relief I'm rather glad I don't have to shoot you." Owl sounded a little friendlier now.

"Of course," Sam said, confused, "I'm covered in graphene and my skin's artificial, I don't smell like I'm alive, so animals don't usually think I am." That kinda tingled.

Dusting herself off, Sam chucked a DEHD off the roof. The drone flew towards the nearest church, per instructions. No one inside that the drone could detect. On to the next. The drone could find no entry The windows were boarded up, to door barred. Any openings shut fast.

"I think I have something," Sam said to Morgan. "Church called "Holy Grounds", a big coffee cup on the door."

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu chuckled upon hearing that.
"Man, ironic I talk about coffee and we get that as a sign." Kotsu looked toward the sky. "Ask and ye shall receive, huh? Man, you're an asshole." Kotsu said, sighing and stretching. "I suppose stamina recovery is a perk of this curse. I feel like a million bucks already." Kotsu said as he proceeded to do a split and a few handstand pushups.

 

[TheAdept]

In comparison with himself, despite the procedure he went through to enhance the capabilities of his muscles, the amount of Pests he had killed paled in comparison with almost everyone else. There was Morgan with her magic, making the bugs drop by the group while seemingly doing nothing to make it happen, then the vampires, he forgot their names, but one exploded in viscera when covered in the things, and the other was on an all out killing rampage. The guy looked like a video game character on a killing spree.

But this didn't even concern John right now. He had just seen battle, felt the anxiety that he may lose his life at any moment. It was indeed his first experience in a battle, and nothing like anything he had previously experienced. Not even any of the training Maniacles provided him could truly simulate what just happened. It did, however, provide him with enough mental fortitude to ward off insanity.

He looked around now, his rifle dry and only a couple more clips of 45. in his possession. Dead bugs lay all around, blanketing the pavement and painting the walls of buildings with their guts, and there was...more of them?

Morgan nodded to Samantha and patched through to Denton. "We're going to the Holy Grounds Church. Terrible name, but Samantha picked up activity there. We're heading out."

"Right, get off the roof," Denton. said "Assume the formation I instructed you to have. Eyes peeled."

She nodded her head in response, even though Denton was not around to see it.

"Alright, that is our next stop. Nobody stray from the group this time. Point, rear, and flank in positions as we enter. If the survivors aren't in here, there are definitely Pests." Morgan ordered.

"Got a clip or two for me?" John said, knowing he wouldn't last long with so few rifle rounds.

Morgan passed him a clip, and began marching to this church.

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The tattered building once known as a place of salvation was as horrific as the battle, but a different type of horror. In here, there were no Pest corpses, only human ones. This was no movie or TV show either, there was no regulations, and nobody was off limits. The corpses strewn about the entrance area included those of children, the elderly, and even cripples. A young boy's still huddles in the embrace of his mother as the two now lay motionless. Almost like an intentional, sick joke, a small coffee shop was tucked in the corner right beside the entrance, as an unfortunate barista lay partially consumed in a corner.

 

[Exzalia]

The church scene was horrific yes, but owl stays focused on her mission, there were still minds to pillage, secrets to find, and an organization to expose.

Owl's next target was Aria, she seemed sweet enough hopefully owl would get a more useful memory from this person. Owl approaches her and asks nicely.

"Hey Aria was it? I'm checking for signs of infection I need to see your palm do you mind?"

"Um, infection?" Aria had been doing close quarter combat with all those pests, and she already threw away her gloves that time when she was passing the fiery path. It might be good to let Owl check it, though Aria was a bit nervous.

"S-sure. Here." She extended her hand toward Owl.

"I promise you I won't bite... that was a completely unintentional pun I promise."

Aria smiled at Owl's attempt at some humor. She probably sensed Aria's nervousness and try to lighten the mood, that's sweet. Meanwhile, Owl casts mind delve snatching a memory from Aria.

Probably a memory about puppies. Owl thinks to her self as the memory unfolds in her mind.

Blood.... bloood....

Aria entered the barn. The dim candle didn't do much to illuminate the place, but Aria didn't mind. Darkness, good.

"Ah, Aria. You're scaring me. Why are you that pale anyway? Are you sick? Let's ask for medicine to Master Alucard, I'm sure he can spare some." A woman in her early thirties was fixing some of their farming tool. She was thin and malnourished. A slave, someone even lower than an indentured servant like her.

"Reek of tobacco. Bad blood. But, hungry."

"C-calm down. You hungry? T-then take this jerky. A wise man once said you are not yourself when you are hungry. So please stop sniffing my neck it's creepy. Wait, don't twist-" A sickening crunching sound could be heard. When Aria came back to her mind the next day, she was sitting in front of Count Alucard himself.

"Welcome to the family, my child." The man said with open hand.

Owl was pale again, she shakes her head in disgust. "Vampires." She shudders then looks up at Aria.

The girl looked so...sweet, how could it be possible that this innocent looking thing could do such a thing? And what was this organization thinking hiring monsters as mercenaries? If these creatures can't even control them selves how long before they attacked their own allies? Or worse civilians.

"You're fine." Owl sates dismissively.

"Thank you!" Aria was relieved that she was clean from the infection. It would be bad if she got useless on her first mission.

Owl grunts and moves away from the vampire, so far her mind delves had not pulled up the info she needed. She had discovered grizzly secrets, but what she needed was info to bring down this organization, war crimes, conspiracies, tax evasion.

But it wasn't a complete loss, the fact that the Maniacles actively employed blood thirsty monsters with no real means of controlling them was damning enough. The international community would not like that and owl had no doubt this was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

She would bring them down.

She just had to be patient.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Before leaving the roof tops, Kotsu grabbed the 5 cans of hairspray that nobody had used, walking past a hardware store, he found some nails strewn about before reaching a church and had picked them up without saying much of anything. When they made it inside the church, Kotsu upon seeing the grizzly scene, walked over to the child in their mothers arm, swallowing hard, reaching a shaky hand out, and stopping himself. "Why... Why is it always the children...?" He asked out loud. His voice breaking and echoing off the walls. Kotsu didn't realize that this sight was making him break his usual calm demeanor by crying.

Calm down, they're not them. They're not your siblings.

Kotsu let out a shaky sigh to compose himself. "I guess there's no survivors. This mission was for naught. When we see that Queen, I'm going to eviscerate her. That's a promise. No loving mother or child should be harmed again." Kotsu made a hard fist, piercing his own flesh with his sharp finger nails and drawing blood. His eyes flashed with a burning rage but his voice was calm. Kotsu pulled out the cans of hairspray and started to turn them into IEDs using the nails, offering them to his allies. "These will be able to stick to her and you can shoot them to cause an explosion that'll scatter shrapnel inside of those goddamn creatures. It'll conserve your ammunition as well for those of you who use it. Please take caution and use these. I'd rather you guys keep as much ammo as you got. We're gonna kill this bitch." Kotsu was growling as he said 'We're going to kill this bitch.'

Kotsu stared again at the other victims of the Pests, furthering his resolve. "God may have forsaken me, and the Devil refused to embrace me; but that doesn't mean that these people had to suffer too. We'll honor them by wiping out all of these fucking cockroaches."

Deadwood Deer TheAdept Exzalia Spacekitsune Kinggunlucky GamerCarrot
EFMingo

 

[Spacekitsune]

Amatsa would nod getting down to getting back into the formation staying on the right flank quietly nodding.
"I've got as much ammo as I've got got a few clips, don't you worry..." Amatsa would rub her eyes from trying to recover from looking at the scope to get used to it.
"To the church?." She would follow quickly as she would sigh a little bit seeing the bodies. "Poor souls... they didn't deserve this... it's despicable these bugs..."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Sam's tool reconfigured into a crowbar. "Hey, Brick Shit-House! Give me a hand," she said to the giant in power armor. She lined up her crowbar against the lock in the door and worked to break it. The bodies were horrific, yes, but corpses were nothing new to the soldier.

 

[EFMingo]

Finally, a nice formation, thought the Brick. The random running of everyone and the general mess of battle was frustrating to him. If the bug queen had been smart enough, she could've collapsed the building with tunneling. The platoon was lucky. He wasn't looking to drown in a sea of carnage. The brutality of the creatures was unnerving. He tried to think of how such a creature could exist. He remembered them when he was a teenager. Remembered their sudden, inexplicable appearance. Then Maniacles showed up as the savior. Convenient.

From what he had seen of the company, he didn't buy it. During his military stint, the only time people suddenly stood up to be a "hero" was when they knew what was going to happen. Made themselves look like Gods on the face, but a massive mechanism of underhanded objectives and intelligence lay beneath. Brick only joined for the pay, and that nobody else would pay him better. He wasn't about the crazy hero life. He just wanted to survive.

Corpses strew like mangled fodder for a cannon splayed out across the ground and floors of the building. It was a horrific massacre, but they didn't seem completely killed by the bugs. The bodies seemed a bit too "complete." It was concerning. What else would be going on here if the bugs weren't the only creatures attacking. It made sense with the convenience of the last time Maniacles dealt with the hordes. Everything seemed off again. Except now he was caught in the middle, not vicariously fighting through simulations on his mother's couch. He was uncomfortable.

Sam called out to him for a battering ram. Simple enough he thought. He pushed her and the crowbar lightly aside with a crooked bit of a smile.

"Observe."

With one huge push kick, the door, and part of the wall blew out and crashed to the floor. He held out his hand in a motion forward. "After you."

Deadwood Deer

 

[KotaKotsu]

"If we can even find one person. Just one, it'll make this dive into Hell worthwhile." Kotsu said, making his way to Brick and Sam, turning to face the bodies again, visibly disheartened. Noticing how nobody else cared, it felt as if he were more human than those around him. Death still lingered in the back of Kotsu's head, whether it be him or someone else. Someone should mourn them. Kotsu started to talk into his earpiece. "Denton, I want you to take some money out of my pay to make sure that these people can have a proper burial. They have family somewhere. Someone who can visit them and pay their respects." Kotsu said in a drifting tone.
Someone, somewhere. Or at the very least they'll be able to rest. Less blood packs for purchase, but on the bright side, they'll be able to have somewhere to rest.