Futuristic VANA [ Atticus ]

[cl0ud]

"I'll pass, but thanks for the offer," Matthew says. After cleaning the rest of the barrel of the pistol with a microfiber rag, he moved on to the next weapon- Atticus' PDW. He was very detail-oriented. He ran through multiple checks before he disassembled the firearm and began to clean each and individual piece, occasionally wrinkling his nose when a spot of grease wouldn't come off with ease.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

Atticus shrugs, smiles ,and continues to eat his MRE. Atticus had grown an appreciation for these small meals, despite the fact that he had been eating them so often - kind of the opposite of what you would expect, he figured. Atticus rubbed his chin as he watched the way that Matthew meticulously cared for the gun, finding it interesting that he was so invested in the cleansing of them. And the way that he expertly moved his nimble fingers around the weapon to perfectly disassemble it was nearly hypnotizing. “Clean a lot of guns?” Atticus asked casually, looking over his shoulder out the window to see who’s out and about at the moment.

 

[cl0ud]

Ellen can be seen tending to her garden while Ethel sharpens the alloy machete. Elliot is nowhere to be seen, but it's safe to guess that he's keeping watch on the hill. "It was a hobby I picked up between smuggle runs. I sorta became a gun nut. Read every book you could think of and I always loved to tamper with my own firearm. With your gun literally being the thing preventing you from walking into the afterlife in a fight, I thought it'd be best to be very familiar with the apparatus," Matthew says as he continued to clean the pistol, once satisfied, screwing it all back together.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

Atticus nods at the wisdom that Matthew had shared. “That’s very true,” Atticus said, grinning at the way that Matthew had spoke. He was definitely his favorite out of the group of newcomers - well, save for Ethel, of course. Matthew and Atticus’ views seemed very alike, and he was glad to have found someone with common ideals that seemed to also have common interests.


Atticus sat beside Matthew and would have some plain, common small talk with him until Matthew had cleaned up his PDW, after which he would head out of the ship, into the woods, and begin scouting for suitable clearings where there could be a spike trap set up.

 

[cl0ud]

After finishing your idle chatter with Matthew, you begin to survey the land surrounding your kingdom. After several minutes of debate, you determine a spot on the way to the stream would be suitable. The land was open and there was plenty of foliage on the ground already, making a disguise seem more natural.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

After surveying the land to find a suitable location for a spike trap, Atticus returns to the ship and enlists anybody who is idling and doing nothing overly important back at the ship, crafting shovels with them, and then heading back out to the area that Atticus had scouted and beginning to dig a hole for such a purpose of putting spikes in it to impale people or animals.

Atticus had seen spike traps in use before, unfortunately enough. They were brutal things - gravity being your worst enemy. One second you were just walking through a forest, jungle, or whatever terrain, the next you've got a sharpened stick through your stomach and your limbs and, if you're unlucky, through your head. At least then, you wouldn't be able to feel the pain.

But fuck it. The ruthlessness that had been demonstrated against Atticus' group by the unknown assailant in the forest, and by the mechanical creature that had put down said assailant, would not be unanswered.

 

[cl0ud]

You don't have enough materials to craft shovels.

Once you and Matthew reach the site you've chosen to install the spike traps, you use your Universal Wand as a shovel to excavate the hole. Matthew rips off a piece of bark from a nearby tree and begins to shovel. After multiple hours, your spike trap is about 183cm (6ft) deep and you begin to install the spikes. After several minutes of tedious placing the spikes into your pit, you're satisfied with your trap. You and Matthew return to the surface and then cover it up with vegetation.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

After the development of the spike trap which took a good while with Matthew, who intuitively managed to shovel with some tree bark, Atticus grins and pats Matthew on the back as they walk back toward the ship. “Good shit, Matt. We should check this regularly; if we’re lucky, maybe something big and meaty will jump in there and either die or we can finish it off,” Atticus notes.


Upon returning to the ship, Atticus will ask whoever is on the hill if he/she needs the lookout position to be taken over. If so, Atticus will do so; if not, he will head out and begin collecting wood and also keeping an eye out for any source of scrap. Unfortunately, what he had collected from the remnants of his ship was starting to dwindle.

 

[cl0ud]

Matthew sniffs and then wipes his nose with his dirty hand, getting mud under his nose. "Wouldn't that be a welcome sight," Matthew says, hope in his voice for a huge animal to come through so he could have some good steak.

When you and Matthew reach the ship, Elliot says he could use with some shuteye, and hands you the rifle. You dutifully take up position in the foxhole and start to peer into the treeline, daring something to come attack your home.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

Atticus' lying posture is a bit straighter this time around. His attitude is more defensive and warrior-like than the previous one of being scared. He held the rifle with a more sturdy grip, and his face was that or concentration. He scrutinized the surroundings of the ship carefully, almost like Matthew with his PDW. Atticus felt much more proud of his home now, and much safer; and it was only going to get better. Atticus, maybe overly so, was confident in him and his comrades' abilities to protect themselves.

 

[cl0ud]

Most of the crew takes the time to rest up while you're on watch. After a few hours, Matthew comes in and checks on you, asking if you want to relieve yourself for the rest of the night while he takes watch.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

Atticus tells Matthew to wait an hour or two, still feeling like he had the energy to continue watch. He was feeling optimistic with every passing moment that was filled with boredom; because it meant that they were safe and there was nothing threatening their home. Because of this, Atticus wanted to continue to soak in the good vibes that he was getting from this shift of watch, and he wanted to make sure thths the recently recovered Matthew wasn't overworking himself and got a good amount of rest, so that the same issues that had him bedridden for a period of time don't come back to complicate things - kinda like with Adam.

 

[cl0ud]

Matthew nodded and returned to sleep, presumably.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

Atticus remained vigilant atop the hill and started thinking about how useful binoculars would be up here. He wasn't sure his 3D printer could manage something like that; if only there were another community nearby that he and his compatriots could trade with. Atticus sighed at the fact that they were all alone with the exception of the occasional Republican hunter in this neck of the extraterrestrial woods, but there was nothing he was going to do about it. Better to be isolated and fortified than to move to somewhere where there might be more trouble. He scratched his neck and kept looking around; he considered using the rifle to try and target one of the Barbs he spots in the treeline, but decides against it, not wanting to alert his camp to an unwarranted gunshot, especially from up on the hill where the lookout for assailants always was. So, he just kept an eye out.

 

[cl0ud]

It was late now, probably midnight on this planet, when you spot movement on the bushes. They rustle for several minutes, but nothing materializes out of the wilderness.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

Atticus keeps his eyes trained on where the movement had happened, his sights as well. He looks carefully at the area, looking for anything that could have caused the rustling. He whistles to the ship, hoping to summon someone who could go take a look with him; he wasn't going to do it alone.

 

[cl0ud]

No one comes out to meet you. They're all sound asleep within the ship parts. As you continue to intently study the treeline, still nothing materializes itself.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

Atticus takes a deep breath in through his nose, trying to make a split decision. On one hand, leaving the hill and confronting whatever was over there might be a bad idea, but on the other hand his curiosity was intense, and it was important to know what was moving by his home. So, in the end, he hopped down from the hill with the assault rifle in hand, and pressed forward.


As he moved toward the bush, he began to crouch dash as silently and low but also efficiently as possible. Atticus flanked wide to the left of the bushes that had been moving, attempting to get to the side of whatever creature was causing the bushes to move around. As he got real close, he slowed down and focused on stealth, keeping an eye all around him and his force multiplier raised - he wasn’t gonna get caught off guard.


He needed to know what was out here.

 

[cl0ud]

As you move through the cut field into the bushes, you begin to sneak towards your prey. You look over the brush to see a lizard moving around. It's huge, at least a meter long. It looks up at you, whipping it's tail and hitting your leg. It feels like a sledgehammer at full force running into your tibia. You crippled onto the floor and the lizard makes a hasty escape.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

"Agh, you fucking prick!" Atticus screams, instinctively letting loose several shots in the direction of where the lizard had run off to. "Fuck you!" Atticus shouts again, before trying to get up. He uses the buttstock of the rifle to pull himself to his feet and uses it as a crutch, trying to quickly limp his way back toward the ship.

 

[cl0ud]

You let loose a few bullets that rip through the leaves and branches. You hear a few startled Barbs flutter away in the distance. None of the bullets manage to hit the lizard as it speeds away. As you walk back towards the ship, you see the rest of the crew rush out.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

"Ugh, fuck," Atticus says as he limps back toward the ship, toward his allies.

"Some big fucking lizard thing was moving around in the bushes. I went to investigate, and it smashed my leg with it's tail! Shut fucking hurt," Atticus explained as he limped over, before handing the rifle to Matthew. "Take over, will ya?" He breathed out, pain in his voice.

With that, he began to limp toward the ship, with the support of someone to lean on (hopefully Ethel) if he is incapable of walking on his own. Once inside, he will analyze the wound using Calliste, and then deploy the ship's nanobots to it.

 

[cl0ud]

You stumble back to the ship and lay on your cot to the aid of Matthew, then looking to Calliste for a diagnosis. "You suffer from an oblique fracture in your tibia. You will be unable to lay pressure on this leg for several weeks until you've made a recovery along with surgery. Although, deploying the nanobots will lead to a recovery in five days, and a full recovery in a week. Deploying nanobots and issuing anesthetic. Please do not use this leg for the foreseeable future," Calliste reports in its usual heartless, but factual tone.

 

[Lord Bradorian]

"Ugh, fuck!" Atticus cursed loudly as Caliste explained what had happened. He immediately deploys the bots to himself and just sits there, cringing as the pain gets worse and worse with every passing second as the adrenaline wears off from when it actually happen.

At this moment, Atticus pledges that he will kill that lizard fuck when he gets better.

 

[cl0ud]

The anesthetic surges through your body after a few moments of excruciating pain.