Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Westeria City: Azure Heights - Central Business District

Tiko

Tiko

Draconic Administrator/Mentor
Administrator
Mentor
Nexus GM
The central business district of Azure Heights had largely been abandoned on a commercial level, but it proved one of the more populated pockets of civilization within the western reaches of Azure Heights. This was due to the prevalence of large, and often-times well fortified buildings that had been abandoned in the evacuation of the city. Office buildings had been converted into bunkers, and shops into homes. Skyscrapers made for good vantage points for sentries to watch over the district as people come and go.

Unlike some of the more isolated pocket groups within Westeria City, the central business district - simply known as 'The District' these days - remained open to those who wished to come and go. They rely upon their numbers and reputation for trading resources and services to keep other survivor groups from attempting to prey upon them.
 
Bags full of things they collected from the bazaar, Elisa glances around the street they were walking down. Tugging her brother's sleeve, she pointed toward the alley off to the side. "Hey, you had mentioned to look for a car, right? Is that the kind you're looking for?"
I turn to look at what you saw not convinced it'd be so easy but looking anyway. "go see if you can find the clutch for the battery compartment sis."
Nodding, she sets her bag down next to him before heading to the car. A set of lock picks pulled from her pocket as she tries to see if she could get into the door. It took several minutes for the lock to pop. "Oh ya, there we go."
I stay with our stuff. "well do you see the clutch?" I didn't want to have to carry the heavy stuff over if I didn't have to.
Crawling around inside the car, several latches and switches hit with no results. Finally sticking her head back out, she shakes her head. "I think it's dead. Nothing is working."
"what kind is it? see if you can find the glove box." I start dragging the supplies over to the car.
Fussing around a little bit more, her feet sticking out the driver's side door. Finally, she squirmed her way out again and leaned on the open door of the blue car. "Got it. Sheesh. This got stuck pretty bad. Looks like a back window got cracked enough for the weather to get in." Dusting her hands off, she nods toward the battery case. "I'm pretty sure it's dead but I got it open."
"we got metal right?" I put my stuff down and begin looking through to find metal and some rubber.
"Probably. The doors can be broken apart but the rubber I dunno. Maybe the tires?" Shutting the door, she comes over to check the tires. "Pretty weathered though."
"use your knife on the lining for the window, that's rubber." I pull out a strip of copper and walk over to the battery to wait for you.
"Really? Neat!" Knife pulled from her pocket, she gets to work on the window linings, pulling them free with a groan. "This is kinda slimy. I guess it got a little mildewed."
"it'll still work now wrap it around one prong while I attach this copper to the other." I wait for you to wrap it around one first. I bend the copper a bit at the top.
Following his instruction, she gets the rubber wrapped around where he pointed. "So is this really going to charge back up?"
"it'll see if it has charge." I attach the copper to the other prong and see if it sparks.
"if this sparks then it still has charge just not enough for a car."
Curious, she sits back to watch. "Neat!"
sadly it doesn't spark. "well damn. it've been great if it had power." I take the copper and put it in the bag again. "we should head back to base now."
"Alright. Maybe the next one we find will be good." Struggling back into her pack and connecting the straps across her chest. "It'll be good to drop this off though. Phew."
"yeah, uh.....did we pick up the screen for our tactical bot?" I look at you and help adjust you pack so its a bit easier to carry.
"Screen? Ya, I think it's in my pack." A little shoulder shimmy to settle the pack and she grins. "And we're almost there. Sorry I'm not very strong yet."
i smile at you. "sis your our speed always have been. i was the one that just beat people over the head." i start to unhook the battery to take with us.
"Well you beating people is what has kept us out of trouble so far." A big grin and she points ahead. "But come on. Let's get back so we can finish those defenses."
I lift up the battery after have unhooked it and start to walk with you. "Can't wait to finish that bot."
"It will definitely make things easier! And with some of what we got I'm going to build a few trellises on the roof." All smiles, she eyed the battery. "Maybe I'll get lucky and find us another battery next time we're out?"
"That might be but this one is all we found so far and it needs a recharger." i hurry up to the base and hit the open button on the door.
"Hoooooome." Heaving a massive sigh of relief, she takes the heavy pack off and carefully set it down on one of the chairs. Glancing around, she was thankful again that they managed to find a warehouse that had a break room and furniture.
I walk over to my work station. "We still need to get bedding. Bring that stuff over would ya." i set my pack down and begin to take the things out.
Pouting for just a second, she carried her pack over to him to set down before gathering up her inventory list. "Let's mark down what we have and what we might need next." Pen in hand, she started to write down supplies they had. "Like I know I'm going to need fertilizer soon. Compost will be fine for later though but we don't have enough food waste to get a compost pile started"
"Well we have plenty of metal." i carefully take the screen and circuit boards to work on the bot.
Rolling her eyes as she scribbles the last bit onto her list, she looks over at him. "Metal is not going to compost. It's not going to post at all, really. You play with your machines and leave the garden to me." Smirking as she heads back to the shelves with the things she needed to put away, Elisa stopped and looked back at him. "Except for the spiders. I still need you for those."
"Sure ya do sis." i put the screen on. "Wish me luck." i tap the screen.
 
The low hum of technology from beyond Valore reverberated through the canyon-like streets, long deserted. It came from what resembled a typical motorcycle, though where the wheels would have been were simply nebulous clouds of pulsating light, a soft amber in color, that supplied enough force to keep the vehicle off the ground. The lone rider, a man wearing an extremely tattered cloth over his shoulders and back and a rather high-tech bodysuit everywhere else save for his head, looked around as if trying to figure out where he needed to go next.

After all, someone had finally tracked down his ship, and though he was sure they could tell it was in the city, the farther he was from it, the less likely they were to take it from him.

Tenna rolled his right hand again, opening the throttles while steering to bring the bike into a nearby, if small, square. There had been a fountain, once, but the majority of it was now a sizable crater from whatever caused the people to first abandon the area. Looking around once more at the scarred bunker-like buildings, the mercenary could hardly blame them for leaving. He certainly didn't want to stay here any longer than he needed to in order to slip his tail. Then again, he'd been running from his own kind for so long that he wondered what they would do if they caught him.

"No time to think about that, merc," he said to himself while shaking his head. "Just keep your head down and they'll fly on over. Just like they always do. After all, they sent an admiral, not a soldier. I can get away without a problem, no doubt." As his words echoed softly, just barely audible above the idling hum of the machine's engines, he reflexively brushed his left hand against the pistol attached magnetically to his left thigh. He sighed at feeling it there, relieved, despite the fact that he also had his rifle on his back.
 
Leaving her brother to work on his bots, Elisa made her way up to the roof where she could resume working on the garden there. She already had a few large planters waiting for soil and smaller pots showing green seedlings. Now she just needed a decent supply of fertilizer and if she could build the trellises using posts they had found they could start to see produce a bit sooner.

One hand shielding her eyes from the sun, she sighed and tried to eyeball how many hours were left before sunset. "Should be enough for me to get at least a few of the trellis done." Settling the pack with her seeds and what little plant food they had found in the covered 'shed' she had made out of a few rebuilt crates, she set to work roping the poles together for the future seedlings to climb. It went pretty smooth, the trellis legs buried in the dirt and the guide lines tied to a few cement blocks to hold it steady.

The other trellis she was going to make was set aside, preferring instead to wait until she had more soil and knew which plants she was going to put in there. In the meantime, she went to check on the tarp they had set to collect water. Looking over it to make sure no leaks, she noticed something odd out of the corner of her eye. Edging closer to the edge of the roof, elisa tried to find what had caught her attention.

It didn't take her long to spot the bike and the rider on it. Ducking back around the storage shed, She watched the bike as much as she could before sneaking back down to the rest of the warehouse.
 
Not to long after Eleisa went up to the roof the bot came online. "Yes! it works!" I start running the system checks and work on a wrist terminal to go with it. There's a familar sound from the streets though not from the side of the entrance. "Hmm....sounds like....a motor maybe." I yell up to you not knowing if you heard or saw anything. Anything vehicle related was hard to come by in our area and if it worked then its extremely rare.

"Hey sis I hear a motor!" I quickly start gathering my guns from the racks and gear from the areas you had them in. The bot just finished the systems check and put the wrist terminal in my pack with the bot slipping into the front pocket of the pack. "I really hope this turns out good." I mutter to myself as I hear you start coming down stairs. Grabbing ammo and my grenades from the cabinet thet were in and clipping them to my bandolier as I get ready to head out. "Hurry Eleisa we should go see whats going on."
 
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The mercenary leaned to one side, causing the hoverbike to glide sideways instead of forward or backward. He hadn't noticed whether there were watchers of his actions or not, and didn't really care either way, but his mind was jumbled by those chasing him and was hardly as paranoid as it normally was. As he got the motorbike into position, he quickly danced his fingers over a pair of switches, cutting the engine and letting the bike come to rest on the ground. As the bike came to rest finally, he stood from it and stretched slightly.

"Guess I've got to find some place to hunker down for a bit. Plenty of these places look defensible enough but..." His eyes snapped skyward briefly, but then he came to rest. He'd subconsciously dropped to a crouch and his hands had reached for his weapons, but as he relaxed they dropped to his sides once more. He shook his head, then ran a hand through his hair. "Blasted nerves."
 
Watching Damien grab his weapon, Eleisa cursed as she had to turn all the way back down to her pack in the lounge for hers. Ammo belt slung around her waist again, she grabbed for the compact rifle left on the table. “I got my gear, I’ll go topside and keep watch if you want to go outside.” Snapping her scope into place and extending the barrel like he had shown her, the rifle was ready and so was she. “All else fails, we get the motor you needed, right?”

"Maybe but not assured. Did you see anything up there?"

Nodding, she adjusted the belt as she talked. "Some guy on a bike, one of the good ones too. He looked a little lost." Tilting her head, she thought for a second. "Maybe he's looking for us to hire?"

"A guy? Anything odd in his looks?" i swing my pack up over my shoulders and onto my back. "Might be a good recruit if he was combat experience."

"I guess so? He had a couple guns on him, hand guns they looked like. But you know I'm not good at guessing military stuff." Resting her rifle on her shoulder, she pointed at the hatch to the roof. "Let me go see if I can spot anything else before you go out."

"I'm going in five." i double check that everything is loaded and in its place.

"Got it. I'll report back in three then." Taking the stairs two at a time, she ran up to the roof hatch where she made her way carefully to the ledge again. Mindful of the sun hitting any metal and reflecting, she peeked over to see the bike and it's rider. Coming back down after a few minutes, just far enough that she could shut the hatch behind her, Eleisa hissed at him. "Psssst. Damien. Just the pistols as far as I can see but he's jumpy. Don't sneak up on him."

"Ok then a sniper perch is a bad idea. You better come with me." i hurry out the front.

Adjusting her rifle so it was more suited for close combat, she kept a few paces behind him as they reached the door.

"How far down?" i move as quiet as i can though I'm walking.

"Just another building. I could see pretty good from the back corner where he was." She whispered, her steps making hardly any noise at all as she followed him.

"So he isn't to far away." i turn into the next alley letting our old thief ways take over.

Nodding, she slipped ahead and pulled her knife from an ankle. Angling it to get a reflection of what was around the corner, she held a hand up to pause her brother. A few quick motions told him their quarry was just around the corner.

"I'll go out first." i slowly walk out of the alley letting him notice me first.

Taking up a defensive position, she waited a good count of 30 before following suit.

"Hey pal your kinda jumpy."
 
Tenna shot into motion as Damien spoke, one hand reaching up over his shoulder, under his cloak, and pulling down a rather high-tech rifle with a very short profile. As he pulled the gun free, he moved to the far side of the hoverbike, putting it between himself and the two strangers. As he got a good look at them, he noted that their gear was military, though hodgepoge in some places, and he silently thanked the stars for that. Although it wasn't actually subpar gear by any standard, military gear was hard to grow accustomed to without reasonably long training periods. Even then, specialty gear was always tough, and carrying everything in a sack was taxing, at best. He noted the variety that the male carried, silently accosting him him for carrying more than was needed.

"Train your weapons to the ground or sky, and put away any knives." His voice was steady as he rested the barrel of his rifle on the back of the bike., vaguely in their direction. "Who are you, and what is it you want from me?" He looked them over again, then shook his head and swung his gun down to aim at the ground.

"Dammit. You two are nothin' but a couple'a kids. Two more steps and you'd be half a body by now, your girl over there getting lined up for the second shot. What made you think that being sneaky would help you in any way shape or form against an armed man who, by your information, seemed 'jumpy'? If I weren't sane..." He stopped and shook his head again. he'd raised his voice unintentionally and although he didn't want them hurt, it didn't mean he was happy about the situation.

"Look, just....just what the hell do you two want?" he said, finally.
 
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"You would aim a weapon at people you saw clear as day? We weren't even sneaking." *i shake my head since it seemed like this guy had a few screws loose. "I'm Damian winter and this is my sister Eleisa we run a merc business near here."

A quick nudge to his ribs, Eleisa grins. "We we're kinda quiet." She had her own "found" rifle hanging from its strap behind her. Turning to look at the man, her head tilted a little to one side, she smiles brightly. "You lost? Not to many come out to this area usually."
 
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"I'd aim at anyone who tried to catch me by surprise, intentionally or not." He stood up and lifted the rifle's barrel, holding the whole of it braced with one arm as he looked at the two of them. "Siblings, huh? Not common to find family members still out and about with one another it seems. Then again, I don't chatter at my own family terribly often, so I'm likely biased." He shook his head once more, training his eyes on the sky briefly.

"Lost? Hardly. Running, actually. I've got about a half-dozen drones hunting my location, and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't already know where I was." His voice was calm, though he kept his eyes skyward while he spoke. He knew they were close, but he couldn't check how close without pinpointing himself to them outright.
 
"Drones?" Turning to her brother she asked "weren't you looking for drone parts? Maybe we can take out a few. Cover his tail and get the parts you wanted." Glancing back at the man, she grins wide. "We probably know a few good spots for you to hide in too, if you're interested."
 
One of Tenna's eyebrows raised at the offer. For a moment, he remembered a similar conversation at a bar, which ended in a way that figured this one would end.

"Sorry kid, but you really don't want to get involved. Well, maybe you do, and props to you all the more for putting the good foot forward and being the good person, but if I got you killed, I wouldn't feel right afterwards." He shrugged.

"Plus, considering you're humans and I'm very much not, I don't think you-" He cut himself off and looked up again, where a large craft, perhaps the size of a small jet, hovered overhead.

"Well shit."
 
I look up readying to fight if we're in trouble. "I'm guessing that has been hunting you?" I look back to him. "maybe we can help each other. no other way that i can see to get out of this." "sis get to cover just in case."

I pull out my tactical bot and have it scan the area. seeing several spots to hide.
 
Tenna nodded and hefted his rifle again, eyes locked on the object slowly coming down above them. "It is, and it's got about five friends that it'll likely talk to about this whole place. Unfortunately, getting out without being found out seems a bit unlikely." He smirked slightly. "That being said, if you've got something heavy and explosive, that could help. Or something really, really fast. Also, cover your ears."

He lifted the rifle up, aiming towards the bottom of the craft, and depressed a small button on the side of the grip. Several small lights shined out from beneath the heavy-duty plating along the weapon's length. He placed his face to the back of the scope, the triple-laser system lighting up off the front of it as dust began to kick up around them. With a gentle breath out, he pulled the trigger once, firing a round and releasing a sound wave that would shatter any glass within a few meters of him. The round streaked up vertically, trailed by a rapidly formed streamer of cloud, only to strike the craft's underside with a shower of sparks.
 
I cover my ears seeing the energy build up along the barrel of the gun. After the impact i uncover them asking "What kind of explosive? I've got cryo, sonic and neuro toxin. just give me a weak spot." I show Tenna each one on my bandolier as I point spots out to Eleisa that are defensible and she can easily cover a wide range from.
 
Covering her ears didn't seem to help much, the gun fired into the bottom of the ship. Stunned and envious all at once, it took her a moment to gather her wits and make for the sniper points her brother pointed out. "Right! Got it. I'll cover you guys and let you know if I see any others coming our way."

Climbing up to the nearest spot meant climbing up a rusted fire escape but she made it look easy. Nimble as she hopped over the railing and climbed the stairs quickly, it didn't take long for her to get settled. Rifle balanced on its bipod and scope snapped into place, she hunkered as low as she could behind an old AC unit. As small a target as she could be, her scope was used to keep watch for any approaching vehicles.
 
Tenna watched the craft above him shift somewhat, his round having barely done much to the exterior plating. It wasn't just a scout for terrestrial use, it was a drone from one of the Iarin carriers, though it had obviously been modified for atmospheric flight. He looked at Damian.

"Get your sis to safety, kid. This is too big for you two." A small sound, like a very quiet siren, sounded from somewhere on the mercenary's body, causing him to grimace. "There's more coming. Go, now. I'll lead them off and make sure they don't track you." He reached around to the small of his back, producing a tablet made of some odd-looking plastic.

"Take this, type in an amount of credits, or whatever you use for money, and then go to an interstellar bank with it. I've got more than enough money from investments and merc work that you can take enough to live comfortably. Get off-world. Go someplace nice. Just don't run the account dry and you'll be set." He smirked.

"And if someone asks, say you found it. You saw me fleeing a fight. Anything to keep yourselves from being implicated with me, alright?" He turned without waiting for the boy to reply, shouldering his rifle and getting back on the vehicle he'd arrived on, though the windshield was now gone.

Within a few moments, he was off, tearing through the city streets towards his ship with all six of the drones hot on his tail.
 
"Hey sis i have a plan. Catch." i throw you a few magitek bullets.

Snatching them out of the air, she glances at the projectiles and back at him. "Which ones are these?"

I shrug. "Never know. Just try hitting a drone."

A quiet giggle and she cocks back the first round. Exhaling slowly, she tracks the drone through her scope. One more exhale and she holds her breath as she pulls the trigger.

I wait to hear the sounds of metal on metal and to hear which shot was released.

As she pulled the trigger, the recoil slamming into her shoulder. The round spiraled from her rifle to explode into the drone's underbelly.

"Aim at any engine. I need it down."

Nodding as she queued up the next round and started tracking the drone. "Isn't this going to draw attention to us, is it?"

"Sis i made the ammo remember. Besides if it goes down then they hopefully only get a becon that we can deactivate."

"Think we can use the beacon maybe? Draw them away from the area?" Discharging the empty shell, she loaded in the next one and used her scope to find a third drone. "How many drones are there, do you think?"

"Not sure focus on downing one. Only one. We need the parts and we might be able to launch the beacon if its small." i look to see it one is smoking.

One more shot and that drone should drop. Get ready to track it's fall."

I catch sight of the drone and watch it carefully.

Her last hit struck the engine area of the drone, dropping it like a rock. "Haha, got it. All that target practice really pays off."

"No kidding. Should be near the edge of the warehouses lets hurry." i take off in a rush towards the drone crash. "You got the tools?"

Climbing down off her perch, she grabs the tool bag before running off after him. "Guess it's a good thing I'm faster then him."
 
i race through the streets towards the smoke trial of the drone. "I hope it didn't draw to much attention but it probably landed just outside the safe zone." i try not getting to far ahead as we run. I watch for debris as we run through the streets and yell back to my sister "hey you have our tools right?"
 
"Of course!" Her lithe form caught up to him easily, her steps light though the rifle slung over one shoulder rattled a little. "Do you think he actually has -money- on that?" She spoke of the payment they had received and her voice heavily skeptical. "I mean... if so... think we really could get off world?"

Younger then him by only a few years, her eyes sparkled with adventure and curiosity. "Where would we go?"
 
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