Death stalks the city

[runmakitarun]

Sometimes Bahamut doesn't look like a city at war. Today, for instance, the snow is fresh and clean, yet to be churned up by the tread of running boots and the tracks of krawls.

It's one of the many calms between storms, when the city seems at peace because everyone is taking a deep breath in preparation for returning to war. Even n these deceitfully quiet times, though, Bahamut is still a warzone. Soldiers from both sids tread lightly and carefully through the bombed out buildings and burnt bodies, looking for chances to kill one another.

Today is no different.

Comments

[joiningyousoon.livejournal.com]

Maya's shield protocols sit at 87% (those were a couple of lucky shots (http://runmakitarun.livejournal.com/10261.html?thread=149269#t149269) that the scavengers got in). The wind comes down from the north; all of her exposed skin is numb, and has been that way for some time.

Her face is set and white. Her boots crunch through the snow with every steady step.

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

Up on the hulk of a burned-out building, Dushka jumps at the sight of Makita pounding towards him. "Makita!"

"I heard about the Red counterattack after the ambush! I thought you were wounded!"

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Normally seeing the boy would bring some sort of long-suffering grin, but given recent events she shakes her head coldly.

"You heard wrong, Dushka." Her eyes sweep the gun emplacement, "There's a Red witch in our zone. A mean one. Where's the rest of your gun crew?"

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"They're on patrol!" Dushka says, eyes still wide with the suddenness of her approach. "No one's here but me and Olga. We could fire her; it just takes longer."

The huge anti-krawl gun looms behind the boy, taller than him and Makita put together.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"No time," Makita snaps, voice as chill as the air around them. "By the time we got the angle, we wouldn't have a shot."

Her hand snaps out, "Give me your field glasses."

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

Dushka hands them over automatically. His small hand tightens on the blocky case as he notices something. "Makita, where's Proto?"

There are plenty of simple, logical answers. Except she doesn't give any of them.

"...Makita?"

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Her voice drops a few degrees. "Give me your field glasses, I said," she enunciates with careful control.

He's quick to offer them, even if his face shows confusion at her tone. She doesn't usually talk to him like that.

"See her?" Makita asks, focusing the field glasses down from her perch. "She's a strange one. But powerful. Really powerful. Watched her take out some of those black market scavengers back in the ambush zone."

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"Is she lost?"

Dushka squints down his telescope. It doesn't work as well as the field glasses, but he can see okay.

"Maybe she's gone bye-bye," he suggests. "Snapped. One too many protocols or something."

It happens, every now and again.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"No," Makita's voice is full of conviction. "You haven't seen her up close. That one's got something burning inside. She's looking for something. Distracted. Best to take her out now, while we've got a chance."

She pulls down the field glasses, "Give me your comline. I'm gonna call Yarka."

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

Dushka hands that over, too.

Makita has him well-trained. Well, that and life as a Nokgorkan soldier.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

She starts to lift it to her ear, then looks over at Dushka critically. "Is this thing secure? How long since you checked it?"

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"Oh, Makita!"

Dushka rolls his eyes, flinging his free hand in the air with exasperation. "It's fine! You always make everything so complicated!"

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

The fact that she doesn't kick off into a lecture on proper comm security is a sign of just how distracted Makita is. She shrugs, "Fine, idiot. Don't cry to me when the Reds track your position and incinerate you."

She lifts the comline to her ear, "Yarka, come in. It's Makita. There's a witch in our zone, you should have a visual."

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"Ya." Yarka's perched up in a shelled-out niche that used to be a room with a nice big window. Window's long gone, but there are still some decayed and shredded curtains dangling out over the ten-story drop. The wide stone sill is currently home to an overflowing ashtray and the fancy sniper's rifle that's Yarka's pride and joy. It's a good spot -- nice and secure, and there's even some protection against the frigid wind most of the time.

"There she is. What is she, crazy? What the hell is she doing down there?"

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"Don't know, don't care." Makita sounds almost like her father for a moment, "But she's got auto-shields. You got any protocol piercing rounds left up there?"

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"Not that I'm willing to waste on one sorceress! Got to save them for krawl-busting."

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

"I didn't ask for your damn opinion," Makita snaps angrily. "Get a shot and take it."

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"Hey, hey, little Makinoshka."

He likes her, but come on. Ammo like that's too important to waste on a little girl's say-so.

"I took orders from your papa, God rest his soul, not from--"

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

It's precisely the wrong thing to say. "To hell with you then, Yarka!" she snaps. "You're a damn lousy shot anyway. I'll just call Belomor. I'm sure he wouldn't mind adding a witch to his kill list.

"... what made me think you'd want to actually do something in this war anyway?"

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"Why, you little--!"

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Her voice snaps from burning anger to cold command in the blink of an eye, "Curse me on your own damn time, Yarka. Now take that shot!"

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

Oh, for--

"All right, already!" Yarka slaps his forehead. God save him from little girls.

"Anything to shut you up!"

She'll turn out a good commander, if any of them live that long. But any krawls he doesn't have a P.P.R. for go on little Makinoshka's head.

He loads up and pulls his red enhancer-sight down over his eye, grumbling under his breath as he lines up the shot. "I'll show that scrawny little cockroach some shooting." The circles in his vision tick and rotate, lining up, closer, closer --

"Breathe..." he exhales to himself, letting his body go still. "Slowly..."

[joiningyousoon.livejournal.com]

The sorceress stops.

Her arms swing down by her sides.

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"Come now..."

There we go. Much easier.

"Pretty sorceress..." The dials click, the target sharpens, and he's almost got a perfect lock. "Stand... still... for a moment--"

"Yes."

His trigger finger tightens.

[nearzero.livejournal.com]

The problem with being a sniper, in Kyuzo's opinion, was that they didn't teach snipers any peekaboo protocols. It was a damned shame how both sides lost more good snipers that way.

Let the 'kasters kill from far away; on the ground, he needed to feel death in his hands, hard and bucking in your wrists as the breath choked out and the lungs caved in from the careful, sharp jabs his knife left, slick between each rib, precise like gears on a bike.

In the end he impaled the man on an overhanging loose steel beam and bent it back to keep him there awhile. He left the gun where it fell; he had no use for it.

That would teach a few 'Gorkas the price of pointing their toy guns at a Major.

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

Makita's not really a sniper, but she's had some training. Watching the witch through her borrowed field glasses she knows Yarka has a perfect shot. And he's not taking it. Still messing with her?

"Now," she yells into the comline, "Now! Yarka, take the damn shot!"

Nothing happens. "Yarka! Come in, Yarka, damn you!"

Silence. No gunshot, no response...

Who is this witch, and what the hell does she have keeping her alive out here? Mouth twisting in disgust Makita hands Dushka his field glasses back and turns to stalk out of the gun emplacement.

[theredstars.livejournal.com]

"Makita?"

Dushka frowns at her as she turns away.

"Where are you going?"

[runmakitarun.livejournal.com]

He can't see it, but her eyes are flat and dangerous. She doesn't stop moving.

"I'm finished trying to rely on anyone." It means so much more than the obvious, and there's a heavy, final quality to the words.

"I'll kill her myself."

She stalks out of the emplacement. Dushka calls after her, worry and fear in his voice. For her, for himself, she doesn't care. She ignores him.

She's got a witch to kill.

[joiningyousoon.livejournal.com]

Up above, blood drips down a pair of battered gray boots, hitting the floor with soft patters.

Down below, the lone sorceress stands still (http://joiningyousoon.livejournal.com/5449.html) in the wreckage, her coat whipping about her legs.