Child Of Darkness

The bartender brought Tyra the drink she had requested, looking for a moment at the pile of Bits before pushing them back to her. "Don't bother paying. Your fee is already being covered. You wanna thank anyone, thank the weirdo in the robes with the bandages. I don't know his name." "You don't need to know it, but you do need to know I hear everything." "Sorry." "I know I may be asking the impossible of you Tyra, especially with the promise of free drinks available. But try to not drink too much. We're only going to be here for an hour or so and we will have some walking to do. I rather you walk than have me carry you all the way."

Why does everyone need sleep? Its like 8am

@@Mentis Soliloquy, Ryo was cautious about taking steps into the water, putting one foot in to test the temperature before putting himself in was most likely a good idea, the water wasn't freezing by any means, but it surely wasn't the warmest either. He was slow but he eventually got all the way in up to the point in which he was now swimming. Yet another reason why he was grateful to not have fur, it wasn't going to weigh him down when he got out. He took a breath and dived under the water for a moment before resurfacing with a satisfied smile on his face. "Urgh, that was stupid. I think I swallowed some water. Not pleasant. Refreshing but not pleasant. What a great first impression of my swimming ability."

Wade had already found his way to the restaurant area, which came complete with a bar. It was easy getting here since he was familiar with the layout of these ships. Unlike the others. He had been informed that the tip would only take at most an hour, so he would only order a light drink as to not destroy his brain cells for the trip. Noticing that a few of the others had found their way here also, Wade turned his head to the Bartender. "Hey listen. That particular group of ponies over yonder, are travelling with me. I'd consider it a personal favour if you wouldn't mind wavering the fees for them." "Not like we have much of a choice with what you types say. Alright, we'll wave fees but we expect compensation back at a later date for this. We need to keep afloat too ya know. Pun intended." "Fun pun."

Further up in the mountain range. Far out of the possible sight line of the Bunker, White had made his was back Sting's Base. Passing through the final security gate, overlooking the Base from atop the natural crater formed by the mountains and what had originally just been an old Pre war base and was now a full small town, complete with everything one might expect and more. Training facilities and agriculture took a large relative percentage of the limited space they had and pens containing the creatures they controlled located not that far away. The living area of the town was located closet to the base itself, protected by turrets and the most well equipped and dangerous of what Sting had to offer. "Ahh, no one knows what we're doing behind closed walls. No one would ever understand what we can do, what we have accomplished. Forever hated for the methods we take to defend ourselves. Tsk, why am I complaining? I enjoy the killing." Passing through the town quickly, greeting a few familiar faces and old friends before arriving at the entrance to the base, going inside and riding the elevator to the top. That is where the Queen was. "Honeeeeey, I'm hooooome." White said in an extremely over the top manner, attracting odd looks from the guards in the room. They at least knew who he was and took this obvious que to leave the floor via several stairwells. Not long after, the pony who White had came to see arrived in the room, a very displeased look across her face. "So you just show up out of the blue without even the slightest amount of heads up? Even though you said we wouldn't be able to see each other for a while? Rude. But a nice surprise non the less." "Well I'm sorry for wanting to surprise you." "Fix your damn voice, you sound like an old lady. You being 10 years older than me is one thing, but that's another level." "Aww, this voice has kind of grown on me, I might actually run a second business in which I trade in information. I jest of course. It feels nice to be home again though. You know how much I hate staying away for too long. Enough light banter, I have some status updates we need to distribute to all of our officers in the field. As I promised, I gave them weapons. Thermal imaging scopes for .308 rifles. Two in fact." White went into the Saddle bag and took out one of the Sniper Scopes in question. "I swiped a third one I made sure to keep hidden. Have that sent to one of the professional teams. They're pegasi, so we can abuse the natural crater to have them dive below the ridge line, fly to another spot and take shots. We only have 1 team that can do this, so pray they don't die first. Visibility will be naturally limited due to the attack possibly coming in the evening or nightfall. Expect them to be slightly disorganised, they can't seem to agree on the best tactic. Assault or snipe. If they do choose the former, well easy win for us. Not even power armour can tank a barrage from out bullets for very long. Plus the limited range of projectile based weapons puts him at a disadvantage. And anyway, I haven't informed them of the surprise." "I think I know what you're talking about." "The two suits of Zebra stealth armour we have. We could give them to the snipers and have them easily win the fight. But they are strong, I think they could make better allies. I want them to get to the town. I want them to see what we have here. I know this is a risk, never everyone we have hear knows how to even shoot a gun. Let alone defend against a team of mercs, That's about 30% of our population and all of our farmers and a portion of out best animal tamers. So we can give the suits to our best assassins. Have them follow from behind. Not even the EFS can target those guys in the suits. If they don't listen to us and still try to kill us after we explain ourselves to them, the assassins can shoot those who are the biggest threat and rest can get shot to death by the best of us." "A lot of blood on both sides is going to be on you. You're going to have to live with that. Hmpf, you don't feel much guilt though. So that's everything for now. I'll relay this to everyone and get this scope sent out. That can all come later though, we still have time. And I miss you." Blooddrop moved over to White's side, wrapping her hooves around him and nibbled on his ear. "I get the message." End Scene

@@Mentis Soliloquy, "Swimming it is then." Ryo stood up from his spot and started stretching his legs and arms a little. He hadn't been swimming in a few months now, so its another welcome change. Was walked over to Shizuko who was progressing well with her project. "Shi, we're going down to the water to go swimming. Behave yourself and don't go causing too much trouble. Just come get me if you need something." ""Yes captain." Shizuko saluted to Ryo before turning back to the sand castle project. "Alright, let's go Bass."

White left the armoury shortly after getting his answers from Scarlett and Crackshot and was heading back up stairs, EDEN following close behind. Back on the top floor, at the far end of the corridor right of the entrance was the room White technically called his bedroom, he had a key and lock for it for added security. Inside his room, he removed the armour he had used since the start of the previous day and replaced with the a reinforced set of Raider armour, complete an assault grade gas mask which had lost most of its original green colour and became a more sand like colour. "EDEN, record a message for me. You are to give this to people if they ask about where I am: I have gone out for most of the day under another disguise to do some surveillance at Stings base. Make not of any changes and report back with anything new. EDEN will control the bunker, Crackshot is in charge of everything else. You all better be here for when I get back." With the message recorded, EDEN started to patrol once again, White left his room and locked the door behind him. A short trip down the corridor and he arrived at the entrance room with Lupus and Kronos. Figuring he would give them another warning. @,@, "Here's a little update for you. I won't be here for the next few hours so Crackshot is in charge of giving orders. EDEN is still in full control of the bunker so don't even try anything funny or the place goes on lock down and I will kill you. Both of you. Behave kids." Taking a bottle of water and some food out of the small kitchen area and placing them in his Saddle bags, White started his climb out of the bunker and back into the Wasteland.

@@Mentis Soliloquy, "Oh, who knows what the girl is thinking about? But I suppose you're most likely correct. It's just strange not having to worry about her so much. It's a good weight off of my mind. Speaking of digging, If she keeps going down I won't help get out if she ends up stuck, at least for a little bit. Thinking about it, getting her away from it when we're going home is going to be a problem. Cross that bridge when I get to it. With all being said, I'm really sure what to do now. It's a rare occasion for us to be at the beach. Anything you want to do while we're here?"

After close to an hour of lying about doing nothing but try and wake up, White finally had the determination to hull his ass up from the pile of boxes he had called a bad that night. Not he most comfortable place, but any bed is better than dead. Making sure is outfit was still intact, White noticed he was in a slight predicament, He had misplaced his Gas mask while using a welding mask last night, and he doesn't want to wear a welding mask. That thing is heavy. He settled for a makeshift bandanna, covering his mouth, jaw and neck. Leaving his two cybernetic eyes exposed for the first time in over a day. "World looks so much better without that damned lens in my face. So much clearer. Now then, plans. People will be doing things, Stuff will happen. Best description 22-whateverthefuck this year is." White stepped out from the robotics maintenance room and looked down the corridor to the armoury. Commotion first thing in the morning. Not what he needed. Curiosity winning over though in the end. @@Ethan Sawyer, @@Unicorncob, "So what's going on down here so early? You're not going to rob me are you?"

Waiting patiently on the boat for everyone else.

@@Mentis Soliloquy, "Well having a second opinion is always nice. And who knows, maybe having someone else around will make it more my work a lot more fun. In fact I don't really doubt it." Ryo sat back and stretched out on his towel, resting his head on his hands and looking up at the sky. "Now that that Bikini event is over, the crowds are certainly thinning a little bit, much to no ones surprise, and that does just leave me thinking what else have these organisers lined up for the day? I hope it's interesting." Shizuko had been spending her time digging a hole, with more space opening up, she could be less considerate of her surroundings and more carefree. She had managed to dig a deep enough hole that when she sat in it, it went up to her neck. It was perfect. "Phase one: Complete, initiating phase 2. Build a wall." Using the sand she displaced while digging, she set about constructing a small mound of sand around herself. "Honestly, I swear my sister gets up to some strange things when I'm not paying full attention to her. I'm surprised she hasn't been pestering me for attention since we got here."

@@Mentis Soliloquy, "Ahh, trust me. My 'Painting' isn't all that interesting. Mostly consisting of Shizuko and I sitting in front of monitors, finding appropriate colour pallets, sketching and mostly monotony. If you want to watch, well I'm not going to turn you away. I just don't think its very interesting." Turing his head away from the scene back to Bass, the way the sunlight unnaturally reflected off of her was in its own special way a beautify sight. It was a little strange, but nice. "Umm, as for painting people... Hmm. I have done Sketches of people before. That's what I was doing when we bumped into each other yesterday. As for a full resolution image with the person being the centre of focus and not in the background, I may have done it ones or twice for some special occasions. But I'm not the best at it. It is fun though."

@@Mentis Soliloquy, "Well I don't really see us as big characters. But I'll take the compliment non the less. And am I enjoying myself? I'll will say yes I am. It's a nice day out, Shizuko is enjoying herself and I've got some fantastic company to spend the day with. So yeah, why wouldn't I be enjoying myself?" Ryo looked out towards the water and got a good view of one of the reasons he came here. The sun right now was in a perfect position over the water that it reflected off of it in a nice pattern, combined with the general appearance of the location, this all made for a very nice scene. Ryo put his hands up to make a picture frame shape, looking through it over to the water. "That's what I was looking for. Beautiful, just what I needed for my next project. Bass, look over at the water. Doesn't that just look amazing to you? I think I found what I'm going to base my next project off. This is just another small bonus on this otherwise great day."

@@Unicorncob, "Solar Dust. I'll remember it. I look forward to getting to know you better." Wade said with a polite tone and a slight nod of his head before turning to the new voice addressing him. @@1Bit, "It's nice to meet you to Amber Hearthstone. I hope we can get along. As for your question, I met Scarlett roughly 5 years ago. Or 50 years ago for her. Having the wonderful social skills she did, our first interaction was me receiving a solid punch to the face from her. Calling me all manners of names. I suppose we could call that the story of how I met our Scarlett." At least the walk to the docks was not far and the ship they would be sailing on was quick to come into his slight. Though the time they would be spending on it would not be very long, Wade planned to make the most of this time.

Well aside from Buzz, My OC was kind of talking to you. I've been waiting for a response, don't know if you read it or not.

With the radiation storm on the surface not seeming to settle down, night time drawing in and sleep on everyone's mind. It was universally decided that they would be staying in over night. Exactly what White had initially hoped for. Now Sting would be fully prepared and ready for this attack some morning. Of course, no one even seemed to have a solid plan yet with all the arguing the seemed to do about what was the best course of action. Little did they know White had left out a few specific little details, a nice surprise for them when they attacked, and it's logical that this persona would not know about it. Over all fair could happily say that these ponies still clearly underestimate the threat. They'd pay for the mistakes soon enough. *Time skip. Roughly 7am, The following day* Having slept on some boxes down in the maintenance area where he was fixing EDEN, White was not feeling the best physically. A mix of uncomfortable sleeping and age. His Pipbuck told him the time. 7am. Today is going to be one hell of an experience indeed. The red storm should have let up and everyone should be waking up soon. Once they're up and have eaten. 'I can finally get everyone killed.'

Yeah, I really do need to do something. I'll get to it

Specter had spent a large part of the night being questioned and monitored by Mel. An unholy amount of questions all concerning the state of Specter's files and the extent to which the corruption had on his more sensitive settings. Rationality, Morality, Ethics, Judgement, cognitive processing ability and his ability to react to scenarios. While he passed all questions perfectly, Mel's worries had not been lifted. The next morning, after hearing the call to go to the gateroom from Scarlett, the little bot made his way up from Engineering are arrived before the others. Seeing the gate just shortly after is had finished its opening sequence. As usual, he would just keep an eye on the gate for now. Making sure that nothing goes wrong.

Wade was a little bit suspect of what Scarlett had been doing and what she said. Either she can communicate instantly over long distances with a strong telepathic link or she's crazy. Both are equally viable. "Alright then, let's finally make a move." Wade picked up the rather small bag he had brought with him that contained his essentials and was following the group. @Unicorncob Wade walked up a little closer to the mare who was only known to him as Scarlett's daughter, thinking this may be a good time to introduce himself. "You know, if you wanted to take me up on the offer, all you had to do was ask. You seem like someone I could trust. Ah, where are my manners? My name is Wade, I'll skip the rest of the formalities. May I know your name?"

'Ugh, trying to explain how things work in an organised society to a pirate is like trying to teach an Earth Pony to cast magic. Not going to happen.' "Hey, this isn't me trying to bribe anyone. I was simply making an offer to allow you to have a slightly improved time since it was already a well established fact that we would be going on this ship. Can you blame a guy for trying to be kind? If you don't want to take me up on it then fine. Less paper work for me to fill out when I get home."

'Oh, we're going by an actual ship. I'm going to feel right at home then. And let me abuse my job.' @@Unicorncob, "Tyra, don't look so down. If we're going by one of the fancy ships, I can do something that will improve the journey a bit." Wade gave a quick brush of his hoof, gesturing to his clothing. "While we're on that ship, I can slightly abuse my position as an Agent to let us have the best we can get. Meaning specially for you Tyra, I can make sure that you don't have to pay a penny for any drink you want, or anything else that may tickle your fancy. How many people do you know that can make an offer like that?"

@@Harmony.exe, To say Specter was at a slight loss for words would be rather accurate. Flabbergasted being a more appropriate choice term. Health and Safety risks involved with sleeping in here are numerous. Having to do something about this, Specter hovered close to the Land Fish, as he had taken to describing her in his head, ear and spoke stern but softly. "Excuse me. I don't really think you should be sleeping down here. It's a little bit dangerous. For a number of reasons. If you wouldn't mind moving to a bedroom or the somewhere more acceptable for sleeping, I'd appreciate it."

"Someone tell me you heard the same thing I did. I need to know if I've finally gone crazy. Is Scarlett actually not being secretive and cryptic? I'm a little disappointed if I'm honest. I would have liked the surprise. Never the less, a camping trip up to the Griffon kingdom will be a nice treat. So let me extend my gratitude for allowing me to come along. So a unspecified time away in the Griffon kingdom, with Scarlett and all my other friends and some new faces, I wonder if normal is even in the question." Saying that last part slightly under his breath as he flicked his ears around, taking final note of everything. 'No matter how this time turns out, I am definitely writing some of this down. Someone needs to keep a log after all.'