Day Two

[Doomguy]

The trek to the mountainside had been nothing that I hadn't done before, a klik was short work for someone who has done forced marched across the deserts of the moon and Mars. There was generally a lot less rain and foliage in your way when you were a space marine, but the terrain was otherwise similar enough that I could make good time with my eyes closed. I kept on the move most of the time, I only stopped when there was a large clearing that I had to scan before I bolted for the other side, and once when I used some of the left over bags to snag the gift of water that feel on my head the whole time. It replenished a great deal of my dwindling drink supplies, which were almost gone already. The human body takes up a lot of water, especially when you're on the move.

By the time I had made my way from the grassy foothills up onto the more rocky and perilous cliff, the wind picked up and rain drove down in buckets. It seemed that after a point the rain just stopped, but that didn't make the hurricane any less of a threat. along the shore line. If I found a nook in the side of the mountain, I could weather it out and then break onto the scene with force while everyone was picking the parts back together.

I watched the rain clouds grow darker and more fierce for a moment, happy that things had gone well so far, when I felt something small hit my back and stick there. I wheeled around quickly and saw my attacker. A familiar face, the one that Karl had advertised since almost the very begining, now bared a crossbow at me. Eighteen, and this close one could tell she was not entirely human from the small details that stood out from the rest of her. She might have been frightening to someone who had never known of mechanical augmentations, but I was more bored than anything and the crossbow was, well...

Cute, I thought, as I brought my Plasma gun up in challenge.

The fight was short. Overwhelming firepower won the day, and she was left with plasma burns while all I had were a few bolts in my armor and a bit of a bruised pride when she tripped me. She escaped off of one of the cliffs around her, and I wasn't about to chase her when she could have possibly ticked me into a trap. If we fought again, I knew she would be on far more dire ropes and I would be left with a new crossbow.

Until then, survival was the important thing. I swept the area around the mountain, And waited for what else had sheltered here.