The Conduction: Ravager

“You got a cig?”

“If you haven't noticed I don't smoke”

He proceeds to take out a pack of gum before quickly popping one into his mouth. “Well can I at least have one of those haven't taste one in years”

“No” His reply is calm, and quick, without slowing his stride turning or even turning to acknowledge his companion.

“Damn Cyrus, why the hell not?”

“Simple, it's because you chew like this.” He proceeds to make the most exaggerated chewing motion he could think of. He repeatedly opens his jaw as far as it would allow, before suddenly clamping clearly trying to make as much noise as possible.

“Oh come on, I know my chewing isn't that bad.”

“You're right it's empirically worse, and I would rather not suffer it for the duration of this job”

“Shit… what is the job anyway?”

Cyrus releases an exasperated sigh. “I've already told you,Phoenix we're here-”

“To look for some pre-war tech”

“... So what's the confusion?”

“Oh I don't know maybe it something to do with the fact that you never bothered to tell me what it is, or where we're fucking going!” His words started calm, but quicked amped in ferocity as he spoke, it is clear to cyrus that he should have gotten the full explanation out of the way, before leaving the citadel. Arguments always left him so winded.

“Didn't think that you needed to know.”

“Oh, I need to know”

“Strange you weren't nearly this curious when I went to get you.”

“That's because you just barged in like ‘get your quarantine suit we're going to the isteland’, and here I thought it is something important, you know because you were in such a hurry, but nope! Instead you got me walking through this God forsaken isteland in the middle of noon for the past hour-”

“it's been fifteen minutes.”

“Just answer my question.”

“We're going about 10 more minutes east. We should see some ruins.”

“Should?”

“I'm working on someone else's information.”

“Wonderful”Phoenix knew from experience that is a bad sign, you can never know what you’re going into unless you know what you’re going into. All it took is the short moment for him to have that though, before he chose to speak again.”

”so how much are we getting paid anyway”

“Two billion credits”

Phoenix makes a sudden whistle. “Well then that makes it all worthwhile” He is smiling broadly, but one wouldn’t have been able to see it under his helmet, not that anyone is looking.

“It’s a bit funny how fast you can change your tune”

“Shit, anyone would when that kind of money is involved” Cyrus lifts his finger to rebut, but he soon lowers it as he slowly nods his head.

“So what are we getting? Weapons, recordings maybe?”

“A toaster”

“... See I can’t tell if your fuckin with me.”

“Rest assured, I am not”

“This man does realize that he can buy like a 1000 with that kind kind of money, brand new ones too”

“Actually at current market value … assuming that he planned on buying a typical high powered toaster, with 2 million credits he could buy 19,957 and a half toasters.”

“Yeah, yeah question.” Cyrus raised an eyebrow he thought his statement is straight forward and left no room for question.

“Yes, what is it?”

“Why do you know this?”

“Ah, well you see when I is coming to get you I stopped by a hardware store. To be h

onest I is also curious on how many toasters he could buy with such an absurd amount of funds.”

“So what your found a toaster and divided the price from 2 million?”

“Nothing so mundane I looked at all the toaster they had on market, then I asked their competitor’s price, ect. Through that I found that the cost for a good powerful toaster is little over 100 credits.” Phoenix chuckles softly to himself, to him this is a testament to the fact that even intelligent men could act the fool.

“You had the time to do all that but not the time to tell me what the hell we were going to do?”

“Like I said I assumed you didn’t feel the need to know”Phoenix nods his head, in acceptance.

“So then you went to go get me?”

“No then I bought a toaster”Phoenix didn’t even bother to question this, it is the least absurd thing Cyrus had done that morning.

“Yeah, of course you did. I mean why not?”

“I felt it would have been rude to have isted the employee's good time.”

Phoenix chuckles once again this time it is clearly audible. “Trust me man I used to work in retail there's nothing good about that time.”

“All the better I didn't make it worse then, I-” He stops just as quickly as the crunching if sand behind ceased.

“What's wrong?”

“There's something there, 3 o'clock” he lifts hand to point, only to realize that such a gesture is unnecessary as his partner had already lifted his rifle into the general direction.

“I'm not seeing anything.” Cyrus scans the area, adjusting the scope as he went. He nearly gave up, when he spots something about 500 yards out.

“Contact.” he said it quietly as if the creature out there could hear him.

“Well what is it?“

As Cyrus focus his scope more features of the creature could be made out, it is clearly humanoid but far from human. It's green skin had a shine to it Cyrus figures that it must be protective mucus. It's face reminds him of the crocodile he saw in a zoo the one time he went, he began to reminisce about how much he liked that trip and wondered why he never went back when he had the chance. He then forcibly snaps himself back to reality.

“Well?” Phoenix is getting anxious now, prolonged silence after making a contact is never a good sign.

“ It’s an Ravager class mutant”

“Ravager? You mean those big lizard guys?”

“Exactly” Cyrus kept his eye on the Ravager it is traveling north east, for what reason he could not tell. It looks much like the illustrations he saw when he is younger, but those drawings made them look much more human than this life example. It had a disproportionately large set of arms, and a massive tail to balance out it’s massive upper body. The things claws had to be no less than 6 inches long with razor like teeth to boot.

“Well, why haven’t you shot it yet?”

“Can’t be sure if it is feral.” While most mutants are what are called ferals, there are a good amount that are referred to as being ‘ascended’, these mutants have through various means gained intelligence comparable or even surpassing a typical human.

“Man I don't care if it is feral, shot the bastard”

“I don't know about you Phoenix, but I would much rather not murder a possibly sapient individual” Phoenix digressed waiting for them man with the rifle to make the next move.

“Looks like it would be a iste of a bullet anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“It's moving northeast at approximately 30 miles per hour, it poses no threat to us or our mission” Phoenix looks into the distance and gave a quick squint

“You better look again” Cyrus quickly went back to the scope to be greeted to the sight of the Ravager charging their location.

”Possible hostile incoming”

“Possible?”

“It’s never good to assume hostile intent, even if they are charging at you at full speed.”

“So what are you gonna do, stay here and wait for him to show up so we can speak?”

“No” As soon as the words left his lips the sound of gun fire rings through the air, Phoenix instinctively ducked down through it is clear the the bullet came from Cyrus’s rifle.

“What the fuck is that!”

“A warning shot.”, But it did little if anything to deter the beast, in fact it seemed to move faster than it did before. It dawned on Cyrus that all he did is confirm to it that there is someone here.

“That might have been a mistake”

“What do you mean?”

“Now it is certain that something is here.Cyrus scratches his head it looked like there is no good way out of this one, at least not I've that won't be achieved with a loaded gun.

“Get you helmet up.” He finally turns to face Phoenix, only to be greeted to a black visor staring back at him. Phoenix had long since equipped his helmet it is a muted orange with gray to accompany the rest of his suit. It occurs to Cyrus that he is the only one who isn't fully prepared for combat. He quickly slaps his onto his head and it's hud came alive.

“300 yards out and in coming” his suit IS-1091 or as it is more frequently called Vigilant specialized in long ranged scans, not only is it giving him a clear image if the Ravager it is also giving him information of its internal workings, Cyrus thought that he would have to look at the scan later for research but now he had more pressing concerns.

“I'm going to try and take out his legs” while he felt inclined to keep his partner informed he didn't wait for a response. Once again the sound of gunfire sang through the air, and the Ravager suddenly hit the ground keeping much of it's forward momentum as it skids across the barren sand.

“Oh shit you actually got him.”

“No”

The ravager proceeds to climb to it's feet before resuming it's charge with a slight limp.

“Oh I see that didn't do shit”

“Aside from some minor bruising no” Cyrus fires a few more bullets all aimed for the monster's chest, but it powers through each impact and marches on.

“Shit looks like I'm up.” Phoenix pulls out his own guns. Matching Michael-80s, handguns capable of selective fire both semi and full auto.

“Not quite yet” Cyrus reaches into a satchel on his side. Without keeping his eyes off his target pulls out a red bullet.

“The hell is that?” Phoenix observes the round it is coated in red, and from what he could figure it had a badly drawn skull in its side.

“This, Phoenix is a Doomsday round” Phoenix took one good long look at the round, he’d heard of these thing before not much of it is good.

“Aren’t those really illegal?” Cyrus put a finger around his chin as he thought.

“... Illegal to buy, illegal to use, but not illegal to own”

“Yeah, the how did you get one?”

“What armaments are allowed is completely to the discretion of the citadels, however a citadel’s jurisdiction on extends so far from it’s walls.Do you understand where I’m going with this?”

“I get it, you abused some loopholes to get a special bullet”

“Simply put yes.”

“What does it do anyway?”

“Well… it delivers an explosive payload much larger than its size would normally allow. However by what method it does this is beyond me.” Cyrus slowly loads the bullet, as if he is afraid it would go off in his hands. Phoenix decides to back away a bit not wanting to die.

“Stand back, oh I see you have already taken the initiative.” Cyrus turns back to the monster, it is now less than a 100 yards away. He took aim if there is one bullet he didn't want to iste it is this one. He aims for its chest and pulls the trigger. There us a bright flash and everything seems to shift red, time itself seems to come to a crawl. The men watch and both of them could swear they could see the bullet flying through the air. The effect ends as soon as it began as the bullet launches itself towards their enemy.

“Wha-” He stops as a loud crack with accompanied by another bright flash grabs their attention. They look to see the raveneger has stopped grasping at a large hole in it’s chest, it takes a few steps forward before finally falling over.

“To answer the question I assume you were going to ask, I have no idea what that is”

“Well seems like it did the tri-” once again his words are stopped by what he saw, the Ravager starts to climb to its feet slowly but surely gaping hole and all.

“Huh, would you look at that”

“What?”

“It would appear to have multiple redundant organs, the bullet did a lot of damage but all of it is still not fatal”

“Oh that’s just great then.” Phoenix flicked a switch near his head and a sound could be heard, it resembles a very small engine reving up.

“I’m not sure that’s a good ide-”

“You did your job now let me do mine.” Phoenix's vision starts to warp and sparks and a blue hew overtook what he could see, then darkness. When his vision came back he is behind the beast several feet closer than he originally intended, he praised good fortune that the creature somehow failed the notice the distinct crackling sound of a successful warp. That is until it turns around with a massive back hand.

“Damn!” Phoenix ducks under the blow and unloads a few rounds into it’s chest, only to be greeted with ricochets. He kicks himself for somehow forgetting that it had armored body, unfortunately he lacks the time to think of a new plan before it swung at him again. He tries to jump back but he’s to slow..The armor hold preventing the claws from pricing into him but the brute force to his ribs is enough to make him fly feet away He slumps up holding his side hoping that that didn’t break a rib. He raises his head just to see his attacker charging at him, then he thinks to himself that charge is a strong word all it seems t be able to manage is a brisk jog.

“Alright armored body let’s see if your eyes are.” He takes aim for the eyes only to realize that there are six, and that he would probably have to take them all out to blind it. He fires most of his shot bounce of its face, but two find their make hitting it’s eyes. Once again pain did little to deter it, the Ravager raise it’s arm to cover its face. It moves with an increased vigor and soon it grabs him and forces him to the ground. It brings a hand back ready to strike, but something impacts it’s arm. It looks back, but He doesn’t need to he knows his partner has his back, he also knows that he was only brought a few seconds at most he needs to think of something fast. Something then dawns on him something that he wonders why they didn’t try before. He aims the Michael up and unloads a few rounds into its neck. Most of them go through and the Ravager gives a sick gurgling sound, before stopping and slumping down to his side. He sits up as he watches Cyrus slowly make his way towards him, and he thinks to himself that this is probably the most rest he will get on this mission.