• This section is for roleplays only.
    ALL interest checks/recruiting threads must go in the Recruit Here section.

    Please remember to credit artists when using works not your own.

STATE ZERO | Hired Guns

Other
Here
Will nods and then heads out to the surface. You quickly rip off Billy's shirt and wrap it around Billy's elbow while also stuffing Billy's revolver into your back pocket. As the blood begins to soak the shirt, you continue to look through Billy's pockets. You find $35, a cell-phone, and car keys. When checking the boy's pulse, you can tell that his heart is beating rapidly.

Yu pulls out a zip-tie from his pocket, binding Billy's hands behind his back.
 
A rapid heart beat was better than none at all. Bento inspects the car keys before putting them in his pocket, trying to decipher a brand logo or anything that would hint at what kind of car it is; that would be a good thing to steal. Maybe break it down for parts?

After the inspection of the keys and Yu binding Billy's hands together, Bento tells Yu to smack the teen a few times to try and get him to wake up.

If Yu is successful, Bento will say these words. "This is only going to get as ugly as it needs to be. I'm going to ask you questions, you're going to answer them; if you answer untruthfully, or refuse, I'm going to beat the shit out of you with these brass knuckles. If you scream or yell or holler or anything, I'm gonna cut your ear off. Got it?"
 
You manage to get Billy's eyes open for a few minutes, but he keeps bouncing in and out of consciousness, and when he is conscious, his words are slurred and unintelligible.
 
Bento rolls his eyes, before taking out his radio to speak to William. "What's it look like up there? Anyone sniffing around?" Jacob questions.

Then, he turns to Yu. "You got any water on you? Might help to douse this guy, might wake him up," He asks, wanting to get Billy to a level of consciousness where he could stop being so retarded and actually answer some questions.
 
"No one's up here, captain," William reports.

Yu nods, bringing out a flask of water. He pours it on Billy's face, who's unresponsive. Yu uses his index finger and his thumb to peel back Billy's eyelids, revealing dilated pupils. "He's suffering from something, boss. His head did hit the ground pretty hard," Yu reports.
 
"Alright, but keep an eye out still. Wanna make sure we don't get caught off guard," Bento replied to William. Someone coming into the cellar and seeing the two bodies and third guy all fucked up might not bode well, especially if the three of them had many friends in town.

Before responding to Yu, Bento walks over to Remmy's corpse and removes his ballistic vest from his torso, putting it onto himself.

"Damn. Think it's worth waiting it out, or should we just move on? Do you reckon he'll recover, or should we put him out of his misery? We lifted a good amount of money off of these three assholes, and got two handguns out of it," Bento said. But he did want more; selling those Chopsticks would mean more money, which would mean more wages for the troops, guns, armor, and whatever else they wanted. But then again, money wasn't hard to make when you were offering to kill for it, especially in an apocalypse.

"Here, look through the phones and see if you can find a location as to where they were based, or info on anyone who might know where it is. Or, well, anything else of value." Bento said, handing Yu the phones from Redd and Billy, Matthew already having Remmy's on him. Afterward, he just keeps an eye on Billy, shaking his head.
 
Last edited:
Yu decides that it'd be reasonable that Billy's suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage, or a ruptured artery in the brain, internal bleeding, and that he'd die fairly soon. He decides to cut Billy's major arteries on his neck and arms, then plops himself on the ground, leaning against a wall and begins to look through the phones.

After several minutes, Yu reports that he couldn't find anything on the phones.
 
Jacob, disappointed that the kid just had to keep aiming a gun at him and force his hand, angrily kicks Billy in the mouth before holstering his service pistol and putting away his brass knuckles, scratching his head and deciding that, if they leave relatively soon, it would be fine to leave the bodies down here.

Three kids dead. That didn't have to happen. But at least they were all drug addicts and dealers who Bento didn't really feel bad about killing.

"So, what did you buy for us with that $800?" Jacob asks Yu as the two of them walk up the stairs and head outside, leaving the three bodies to rot in the cellar.
 
Yu visibly recoils when you kick Billy in the mouth but doesn't say anything. He puts the cellphones in a pocket of his backpack and moves up the stairs with you, "Well, sir, I did what you ordered me to. I bought twenty-two units of medicine that have already been loaded up into the vehicles. That should plenty to last us in the short term, but we should definitely look forward to increasing how much medicine we have. I feel like in our line of work, if our client isn't able to produce medicine and more than a handful of our guys our injured, it could be disastrous. Oh, and here's the extra $30 that I had left over," Yu says, handing you 20 and 10 Atlani bills.
 
Jacob nods in appreciation of Yu. "Good work, brother. That was a big help, thank you," He praised, wanting to reinforce how vital Yu felt he was to the company. Without Yu, the company's ability to obtain contacts would be severely weakened. Jacob had to make sure that the former auxiliary lawman wouldn't be shaken by any immoral decisions made during his stay with the group.

With that, Jacob, Matthew, and Will would head back to the convoy, round everyone up after Jacob inspects the medicine briefly to look for telltale signs of poisoning or being tampered with, and then drive off to Sarcoxie, to begin planning their capture of the harassing teenagers.

Jacob, during the drive to Sarcoxie, will brief over the radio all of the convoy vehicles on the rules of engagement for the upcoming contract. "Depending upon initial intel that we receive once we get there from Mr. Morse or any of the other Sarcoxie settlers, this plan may change and you need to be ready for quick adaptations. As of now, our goal is to bring in alive as many of our targets as possible; we must use the three levels of aggresion. When a subject is armed, we must use the three levels of force; shout, warning shot, limb shot. If all three don't work to disarm the target, or they fire upon you or your brothers at all during this process, you shoot to kill."

"Once we arrive, we will hide and camouflage ourselves and our vehicles around the settlement. Several forward scouts will be deployed to inform those at the settlement when the targets are coming. We will stealthily encircle them, and then materialize out of the fields and order their surrender. Pick your targets, keep your focus on them. Any questions?"

If not, the militant group ccontinues quickly toward Sarcoxie, their sidearms being used to pick off any wandering infected they pass by that are too close to the road.
 
The radio bears Understoods from several of your commanders on your way to Sarcoxie. The trip their is quiet. When you arrive at the settlement, you're greeted by a man on horseback, wearing riot gear. "Welcome to Sarcoxie. What is your business here?" the man says. He's not heavily armed. He has a pistol in his holster on the side and he's wielding a spear, albeit an entirely metal spear with a rubber grip.
 
(Actual name of company, Yu & Bento Hired Guns. Because Yu and Bento are the diplomatic and contracting faces of the group.)

The convoy pulls to the side of the road and the troops are told to wait to dismount. Squad 1 only is to disembark, and walk forward toward the civilian. "Hello, I'm Captain Jacob Bento of YU&B Hired Guns. I've been offered contract here, by a Mr. John Morse, to solve a problem involving damage to your livestock by some Boonton hooligans. May I see him, please?"
 
The man steers his horse off to the side, allowing you into the town.

Sarcoxie is small. It houses probably only 100 people. The houses are connected to a small market and to a town hall via dirt roads, with people constantly moving to get their work done. As you and your motorcade drive through the town you see women carrying plastic jugs full of milk, baskets of eggs, men carrying freshly killed pigs tied onto sticks, and several crops. You also see children playing tag, hop-skoch, jacks, and other games.

Finally, you arrive at Mr. Morse's house. It's a cabin, larger than the rest, but not ostentatious. As you walk up to the door and knock on it, you're greeted by a man with a plump stomach and a gray mustache, as well as blue eyes. He's wearing jeans, a striped button-down shirt, and a straw hat, which covers his hair. "Hi. My name's Mr. Morse. May I ask who you are?"
 
"Jacob Bento. This hear is Matthew Yu. Heads of YU&B Hired Guns. You contacted us recently about a job you had for us, involving affiliates of the Crimm and their transgressions against your farms," Bento states professionally, his rifle having been slung over his shoulder as he stepped up to Morse's house.

"Your payment for this contract was 110 5.56 rounds, and $40 Atlani dollars." Jacob said. He knew that Morse had offered $37. But he wanted $40 - just to keep numbers even. It made accounting a lot easier.
 
Last edited:
"Ah yes. Well, thank you for coming," Morse says, offering a slight bow. He waves his hand, beckoning you to follow him.
 
Jacob does as suggested, and follows Morse. He waves Tusing and Hansen off, telling them to go get the others and have them set up defensive positions around the settlement. Other movements would be made after Morse and Bento finished talking, Yu would come but be silent unless Jacob asked him about something, instead it being necessary for him to allow Bento to speak with Morse about the contract.

Bento allows Morse to sit down before he starts speaking. "A forward payment of fifty 5.56mm rounds is requested by my party. After the contract is done, the additional sixty rounds will be paid, along with the forty dollars." Bento said, before producing two empty thirty-round 5.55 magazines onto Morse's table, expecting them to be filled as soon as possible.

"My men are setting up defensive positions around the settlement as we speak. Soon, I will deploy scouts to locate the targets. If you have any more information about weapons, number, personal identifiers like tattoos or standing out physical traits like overweightness or exceptional height, anything like that, it would be smart if you shared that with me before we come against these assholes."
 
"Sorry mister, no-can-do," Morse says, swinging his finger back and forth like a pendulum. "There's nothing that tells me you aren't just another group of cutthroats that will run away with my goods at the first sight of trouble. No. You get paid after the job," Morse says, crossing his arms.
 
"Run away with your goods at the first sight of trouble? You misunderstand who I, and my employees, are. But I understand your caution; which is why I'll lower your forward pay to twenty 5.56 rounds," Bento says, taking one 5.56 magazine off of the desk and putting it back into his pocket.

"Fill this one magazine two-thirds of the way full, and my men will make sure you never see these assholes around your farms again. Mark my words; and trust me, if you had heard the reputation of my company, you would trust that."
 
Morse taps his index and middle finger on the table in unison. After a few moments, he raps his knuckles and grabs the magazine, "I don't want them killed. They're just kids," he says as he pulls out a burlap bag full of 5.56 rounds, and then proceeding to load the magazine.
 
"Me neither, John. And we're going to avoid killing as many of them as we can," Jacob promises Morse, his tone lighter and nicer due to Morse obeying the forward pay system. That was going to make everything a lot smoother from here on out.

"So, do you have information on these teens? And, any that are captured, are you looking for them to be imprisoned here or will we be taking them?" Jacob questioned. If it was the latter, they'd be sold into slavery by Bento and his mercs.
 
Continuing to stuff the rounds into the magazine, "I don't know much about them, no. I've only caught them a few times when I was doing late night rounds checking on my cows. The only reason I know they're teenagers is because when they shouted expletives at me, their voices sounded as if their balls hadn't dropped yet. As to what I want you to do with them, it's not really up to me. Ask our sheriff or a deputy and ask them if they want the boys imprisoned. If not, I'd suggest you just let 'em go. They're just kids, after all."

The Sheriff of Sarcoxie is the man who greeted you at the front gate. His deputies patrol on horseback and on foot throughout the town. They're identified by a purple triangle on a shoulder patch, sewn into their shirts.
 
Jacob doesn't say anything more, picking up the magazine and putting it into his pocket - it felt heavier following the tribute.

As they walk out of the house, Morse orders Tusing and Yu to locate the town sheriff and ask the question Bento had for John about the imprisonment of any captured teenagers.

After they leave, Bento will command for Squads two and three to hide the convoy vehicles in town before occupying defensive positions just outside the town limits.

Bento will have Squads four and one scatter themselves in the fields of Sarcoxie, concealing themselves in the foliage, Yu and Tusing joining them after questioning the Sheriff.

Exceptions to these positions will be Tony Bierman and Walter Grant, who will, with the mobility of their dirtbikes, survey the roads leading to Sarcoxie, searching for the targets. They are not to engage if they see them, simply report their positions back to Jacob.

After all orders are given, they wait for the teens to arrive.
 
Last edited:
The sheriff reports that he wants the boys in custody once you've apprehended them.

Your men quickly dissipate to fall into the positions you've ordered. The fields will provide them plenty of cover. Luckily, or unluckily depending on the point of view, there's only one "established" road to Sarcoxie, a dirt road leading from the highway. This means that the delinquents could be coming from anywhere, and it's especially unlikely that they're coming in from the main road.

After several hours and it's become nighttime, your men report rustling in the cornfield. "Boss, I spot a moving target, moving southeast," Frank Cooper reports over his walkie. Just a few moments later, Ira Tusing confirms the sighting, and reports an additional target moving right next to the first one spotted.

Sarcoxie_Farm.png
 
Last edited:
"Tusing, William, flank wide around and identify the targets. Wait for my order to engage, stay out of sight; do your best to be undetected."

"The rest of Squad 1, move up toward the targets and be ready to engage if need be. Mauro, get your sights on them - if they need to be quickly dispatched, me and you will take them down with our silencers."

"Squad 4 with the exception of William, hang back in your positions and keep looking around for further targets."

After delivering his orders, Jacob quickly and as quietly as possible moves down the center of the cornfield, beelining toward a position where he could have eyes on the reported hostiles, and observe the rest of the movements made by his comrades according to his commands.
 
Last edited:
"One more bogey just entered between me and Clark," Flacko reports next.
"Bogies 1 and 2 are armed. One has a pump shotgun and the the other has a combat rifle," Ira reports over comms.

Sarcoxie_Farm.png
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top