All of you are so creative, this is amazing! The collaboration, the essays…it’s beautiful.
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Team Slow
Chapter 2, Part 3, We’ve gotten absolutely f*king dusted!
As the hours went past, the very humid weather, the car being able to cope with it (perhaps seething)
We never broke down once, however have gotten sprayed with gravel by an rally car, We have tried to speed up to it, but have never been able to beat it. Then we get sprayed by a Dione that is 120mm off the ground, we try to speed up in our land yacht going at 56MPH on average.
In-spite of it being a yacht, it was more efficent than an average yacht, and more reliable than a certain Italian car, as the car never skips a beat once during Stage 2, as the Dione starts blazing past like a rally car driver is behind the wheel and never breaking a sweat once.
Meanwhile as the hackjob 4WD Of the XL53 reaps its benefits yet disadvantages, And then the car itself gets dents and dings from getting sprayed by several cars going at absurd speeds on the bridges. The 6 hours of driving must be purely tiring, but weight reduction paid off, just by a mere 25 kilos, the lesser electronics, the mroe reliable your car is.
(No dialogue for the time being)
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fair enough
maybe they could meet up at camp afterwards
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Team Spy Kids: Stage One
(Yes, this is a week late)
Team Spy Kids knew that the terrain for the rally would be difficult, but they didn’t expect it to be so… otherworldly. Nor did they expect their competitors to have fur, or two heads. At least they wouldn’t have to deal with carburetors, unlike the snow leopard holding a “Carburetors for Dummies” book next to a lifted 70s crew cab that, like several of the vehicles in fact, seems to have already been camped in overnight.
Of course, first they had to enter the other world, known by Aetherii. More specifically, they would be going to a land known as Crugandr, which according to Malavera the giant two headed werewolf was a tropical land that hadn’t yet advanced beyond the steam age. Which meant they probably wouldn’t be able to fix their air conditioning if it broke. At least Lazar had the sense to bring a window unit for camping to accompany the air con already in the car. Anyway, after a few hours of driver briefings, lunch, and general waiting around, the portal opened with the setting sun behind it. Unlike the circular portals of fiction, this one resembled barn doors opening into the dark night of Crugandr.
The road onto which they rolled was a dark, dusty cobblestone affair. There was enough grip for Jessica to drive with ease, but the solid rear axle did no favours for comfort, with only the softness of the suspension allowing the passengers respite from the cobbles’ constant vibrations. Shay opened her window for a bit to feel just how humid the Crugandran atmosphere was, and then promptly closed it upon being assaulted by the saturated tropical air. Being near the back of the convoy, the team was also able to see several vehicles ahead of them get assaulted by something more solid, in the form of six legged big cats. Lazar first opined that the fifth leg he saw was a massive, shall we say, organ, but then Alexis pointed out the sixth leg on the other side.
Other than the cats, and Machinas Con Passione’s fuel economy woes (seriously, they had two fuel stops for a 180 mile journey), they made it to their campsite near the city of Jaduvira without trouble.
It was soon after sunrise, yet the heat was already bearing down on the competitors, helped only by the wind. Alexis and Lazar, the latter woken up by his complete inability to sleep in the morning heat, packed up the tents while Shay and Jessica cooked breakfast. They weren’t given long to eat, however, before Rukari shot his starting gun to signal the true beginning of the Shitbox Rally. While most of the field sprinted off to their vehicles Le Mans style, Jess and Shay spent a minute or so finishing their breakfast in the Elbrus’s boot before sauntering to their seats. Jessica then made up the time by pinning the throttle for practically the entire 355 mile stage.
Other than a single refuelling stop, the Elbrus spent nearly the entire stage at around 5,000 rpm in top gear and around 110 mph, only Jessica’s driving precision and Alexis’ navigation between them and a fiery death at the stump of a tree. Somehow, the sheer speed along the cobblestone roads wasn’t the scariest thing on the stage. That honour would go to the sudden dip near the Viravalli campsite, the Elbrus hanging in the air for just over a second before crashing down to Aetherii. Somehow, the KGB machine and its occupants survived their short flight, and when they eventually arrived at their camp they even still had all of their belongings present and mostly secured.
Over the next three and a half hours (or two and a quarter Aetherian hours) the rest of the teams rolled in, some worse for wear than others. With the sun essentially straight up in the sky, Jessica stripped down into a bikini and walked into the river for a swim, and Alexis soon followed her. As they floated along the bank of the river they spotted the girls of Team Blazers skinny dipping in the distance, and Jess in particular homed in her sights onto a blonde woman with some rather significant endowment. Of course, they kept a low profile and a long distance, Jess wishing she had her binoculars on hand. Sadly, their sightseeing was cut short as the black panther swimming with them shot a spell at a brown furred competitor and the Blazer girls left the water.
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Addagarda, Garda Province, Crugandr.
Local time: Somewhere between 6 Sun and 8 Sun
Weather: Still hot as hell.
Marie's Antics
There was a commotion that came from behind the team as they ate, with most of them turning around to see that a large… organ had been painted on their car, and the culprit was climbing up the front bumper only to be stopped by Andreas.
“Hey! Stop holding me back!” Marie shouted, struggling to keep her balance while fighting Andres’s grip.
“You weigh 135 Kilos, you will probably go straight through the hood of this rusty mess!”
Team Oil Crisis watched in amusement, forgetting about the certain reproductive organ drawn on their car. Andreas kept trying to hold Marie back as she tried to climb up the bumper. Marie finally managed to break free until her right foot slipped out from under her causing her to fall off the bumper dropping the oil all over herself.
The entirety of the Oil Crisis group burst into laughter and chuckling as karma had caught up with Marie.
“Don’t you even think about getting in the van like that now that we’ve gotten it cleaned!” Andreas scolded, grabbing Marie and cutting off many of the oil saturated parts of her hair off with his knife, leaving what could only be described as an abomination.
The Members of team Oil Crisis continued chortling, until Marie raised her voice.
“That’s it! I’m going to kill them!” she shouted, to which Aedan responded by placing a hand on his holster where his Desert Eagle lived.
“Seriously! Anyone please help, I need to keep her calm before she does something stupid!”
Kaylie then walked over her chrome hand shining in the sunlight. “Hey! Do we need to fight here?”
Whatever she said next was ignored as Aedan turned to Orlan. “Go get the degreaser and erase that phallic object from the rear door please. Make sure you don’t make a mess, use the cardboard or something.”
The day went on and it was peaceful for the most part until someone started blasting music. But that was quickly stopped and the peace returned. Hopefully it remained that way…
To Be Continued (Like Always)
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Team Shift Happens
Previous Chapters:
Over the Hill and Through the Woods - Stage 1
May the Moons have Mercy on Them - Stage 1 Campsite
Helpful Friends are Helpful - Stage 1 Campsite
Tune-ups and Tech Talks - Stage 1 Campsite
Having Mercy on a Missing Teammate - Stage 1 Campsite / The Missing Teammate - Written by TheYugo45GV and Madrias
Sleep? What is that? - Stage 1 Campsite
A Rude Awakening - Stage 1 Campsite
Another One Bites The Dust - Stage 2 Run / Stage 2 Campsite
Repairs / A Good Meal - Stage 2 Campsite / The Green Crystal (Written by TheYugo45GV and Madrias)
Addagarda Campsite, 2 Moon
Kayden groaned as he laid there on the bench seat of the Bricksley. The heat was bad, sure, but he hadn’t realized how much worse it was in the truck than it was in the damn tent. Even with the windows open, it seemed like no wind was getting into the truck.
Worse was the damnable fog that drifted in, making it humid as hell, too. How Kaylie had slept in here, he’d never know, but he knew for a fact that someone else was going to be car camping later. Eventually, he found a spot that was almost comfortable and ended up falling asleep.
Kaylie, meanwhile, was deep asleep in her brother’s old tent. For the first time since the Rally had started, she was actually getting some much-needed rest.
Malavera was sleeping deeply, courtesy of being up too damn late the night before, and having called it an early night when the nicotine withdrawal headaches started. As much as it had helped him relax, he had regretted it afterward.
Jayde sighed. He was getting some sleep, but was spending a lot of time laying there awake, getting the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. He rolled onto his left side and tried to relax, eventually drifting back off to sleep.
Rukari was barely asleep at this point. Given the number of shenanigans that had happened already, he was sleeping lightly in case he had to personally deal with someone causing trouble. He startled awake as something sounded awful close to someone aggressively ripping fabric, before hearing Kivenaal in the next tent over complaining, “Really? Which one of you assholes farts louder than a damn train horn?”
Kivenaal had been getting some rest before the deafening blast-from-the-past had blared out from Jayde’s tent. Sure enough, a few minutes later, he heard a sharp whoosh from Jayde’s tent as Jayde had woken himself up, smelled what he’d done to the air in his own tent, and cleared it with a basic wind spell. He hoped that would be the last of it, but then again, he knew there was a chance that one of the teams still had pranks to play or revenge to be had. He just hoped he could sleep through it.
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Addagarda, Garda Province, Crugandr.
Local time: 1:75 Moon
Weather: Still hot as hell.
Night Patrol
Orlan sighed, why did he have to be the one who slept first. It didn’t look like this night would be like the others, a dense fog was rolling in and the heat wasn’t giving in. But, at least it was peaceful. Something could be out there, but hopefully it didn’t come near the camp. Though if something did, he’d be the one to wake everyone up. Reluctantly, Orlan stood up from his seat on the rifle crate and walked over to his backpack from which he retrieved his flashlight. Then he returned to the rifle crate, removed the M16, put the sling over his shoulder, retrieved a spare magazine and a 40mm grenade which he put in his pockets. His shift was up in three hours, might as well make the most of it. Taking a deep breath, Orlan entered into the forest, hoping nothing would try to kill and eat him.
To Be Continued (Like Always)
2 Likes
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team info: 2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Stage 2) - #30 by MrdjaNikolen
This is reply to last part
Doing switcharoos in bed
“This was a bad idea.” someone shared their wisdom related to removing long wide object from its previous position, ofc never having proper opportunity to use this long wide object.
It was lower part of some rear bench of sorts, likely from something big, now finding its use as kind of bed.
Two boxes with some things in them were moved to leave more space for this bed.
And yes, yet another member of team decided they dont want climbing every time they wish for some shut-eye.
VerBanka was observing this activity from safe distance, big enough distance to not be included in doings of job - ironically, this whole thing WAS her idea.
It soon came to attention that attaching this bed directly to fuel tanks below it would not be a smart idea.
Enter the forest then go through it, and at some point you will encounter some lumberjacks.
One of them had thought of confronting this lovely duos of relatively big dogs with equally lovely axe he was using as both tool and intimidation device, until he realised he already confronted them earlier.
They were asking him of a favour of finding something they could use for their bed and he kinda had idea of finding some weirdly chopped wood piece that can do it.
After searching through stuff and encoutering many different shapes and patterns, there was one that really seemed fitting.
There was some negotiation as to how dogs would pay for this, until two things became clear
- We have 3 packs of some sticks filled with nicotine
- This particular lumberjack tends to use his smoke pipe a fair bit.
Ofc this resulted in interesting scene where lumberjack took some smoke from his pipe, now fueled by mix of some of cut-up sticks and his usual thing.
He was kinda satisfied, so we went and installed wood piece in car and bed on top of it.
Space taken up by said bed earlier was now occupied by two boxes of things we removed to make space for another bed…in bed which already has one bed in its center and one bed to its side.
With some more wire there was correction of thing or two and this job was done.
Happily, this might turn out to be only modification that our team does on car in Crugandr (surely would be only one that wasnt really done out of sheer necessity) but journey is long and possibilities exist.
Humans and Chicota went for a swim, Pi went around the camp getting updates on rest of teams and dogs were doing check-ups of stuff.
This lasted for several hours, then our group had garnered around our car, did some dinner and assumed their positions for sleep.
So far so good, everyone thought as dreams took hold on place of reality…
2 Likes
RK Series Racing; Stage 2 Camp
The team arrives at the campsite after having passed several other cars in the process.
To their amazement, only four other teams have been present before the Tangerine Tank rolled up.
It is agreed that they shall stop on the road facing the forest and set up camp there.
The process of setting up their communal ring of camping chairs and such is completed without an issue and a conversation is started regarding the broken-down Hakaru.
“Wonder if they have gotten it fixed yet…”, Valentin questions to himself.
“They’ll surely find a way… somehow…”, Tim replies, not totally sure either.
“Worst case being them getting a tow from someone who actually didn’t buy an underpowered brick. They’ll make do.”, Constantin reasons. Or… attempts to, anyway.
The discussion is soon discarded and the three spend most of the afternoon playing various card games, before heading to bed.
just a short blurb this time around.
@interior mind moving our dialogue to the next camp or something? i don’t want to take control of your characters and portray them incorrectly.
3 Likes
Sure.
2 Likes
Team Shift Happens
Previous Chapters:
Over the Hill and Through the Woods - Stage 1
May the Moons have Mercy on Them - Stage 1 Campsite
Helpful Friends are Helpful - Stage 1 Campsite
Tune-ups and Tech Talks - Stage 1 Campsite
Having Mercy on a Missing Teammate - Stage 1 Campsite / The Missing Teammate - Written by TheYugo45GV and Madrias
Sleep? What is that? - Stage 1 Campsite
A Rude Awakening - Stage 1 Campsite
Another One Bites The Dust - Stage 2 Run / Stage 2 Campsite
Repairs / A Good Meal - Stage 2 Campsite / The Green Crystal (Written by TheYugo45GV and Madrias)
A Good Night’s Sleep? - Stage 2 Campsite
OOC: So, funny thing about the post: It’s 32k, just about exactly. It will be immediately following this one. This is just so I can still have previous chapters over it. Sometimes this happens when three people get together on writing an idea.
Also, as a fair warning: This post will contain a battle. Reader discretion is advised, but we tried to keep from being graphic. However, there are mentions of blood and gunfire and a lot of very angry creatures.
If you want to be involved in the fight, there are enough enemies to do so, but just keep in mind, not a lot of people would want to get tangled up with what we’re fighting.
This goes live today because Stage 3 goes live tomorrow on schedule, and if I put this up early on Monday, it’d be lost under Stage 3, and people would be wondering what battle they missed when some characters reference it in the future.
So, thank you for your patience, good readers.
2 Likes
Team Shift Happens
Written with help from @Elizipeazie and @TheYugo45GV. Thank you both for your help in making this better than I could have done alone.
Addagarda Camp, 4:75 Moon
The shrubbery crunched under foot as Orlan trudged through the undergrowth. Sleep had refused to come to him. It was better to embrace the insomnia than to resist it, and besides, if trudging through the undergrowth with an assault rifle strapped to his chest didn’t tire him, what else would? He shone the flashlight into the trees as he continued walking. It was extremely eerie and almost felt as though someone or something was watching him. That woman in the town had said something about leaving and not angering the ‘wolves’, perhaps she was crazy, perhaps she was not, but in any case the darkness of the forest and the thick fog that rolled in was not reassuring in any way, and there was that sense of dread that something might be watching. The crunches of leaves and branches continued to resonate throughout the forest as Orlan walked. No threat, maybe that old lady was crazy. Now would be a good time as any to exact revenge for that rude awakening on day one. Yes, revenge⸺. A snap of a branch somewhere behind him ended the thought.
He turned, sweeping the flashlight’s beam across the forest behind him. Who in their right mind was playing tricks on him again? It’d better not be another spell to the face. The rustling of bushes drew the light’s beam over a log where some dark shape disappeared behind it. The sound of the river behind him filled Orlan’s ears, which twitched uneasily. Subconsciously his tail curled inward expecting combat. Another rustle.
“Hello? Who’s there?” Something was lurking in the bushes near the log. “I am armed.” He said, bringing the M16 rifle on his back to his arms. The rifle’s sling swung from side to side as he inserted a 40mm grenade into the launcher. “I’ll say it again, I am armed, but I don’t want to hurt you, so could whoever’s there please show yourself.” Orlan ordered, making sure to be firm with his tone. A pair of glowing eyes and a dark shape became visible from behind the log.
Orlan felt his blood pressure skyrocket. “What the fuck are you?” The question was muttered to himself. “Go on, get lost. Shoo!” But instead of running the creature stood up and began to approach him. Fumbling for the assault rifle, he prepared himself to run. “Stay the fuck away from me!” His words fell on deaf ears. “I said get back!” The being approached him further but it didn’t get very far. The lombax froze, until the M16’s muzzle flash lit up the entire surrounding area as it spat 20 rounds of 5.56 ammo towards the creature. The tall wolf-like thing roared as a round lodged in its shoulder, taking it down. Orlan meanwhile took this opportunity to run for it.
“Oh shit, Oh shit! All hell has fucking broken loose now.” Another distant roar sounded through the forest. “Take this you abomination.” There was a satisfying pop as the launcher hurled a grenade, 30 or so feet into the trees. Orlan then plastered himself behind a tree, a mere second before the bang of the explosion rang out, echoing through the forest. Opening his eyes and peeking around the tree, revealed that something had happened but probably not enough to kill whatever was coming. Upon looking ahead away from the forest, Orlan saw the familiar rusty bumper and giant spare tire holder of the Union Magistrate. That was probably the fastest 100 yard dash one could make but, he had to warn the camp.
When automatic gunfire rang out across the camp, Kivenaal and Rukari were both awake in an instant, with Malavera taking only a few seconds longer. Then a loud explosion rattled the Bricksley’s windows, shook the tents, and woke up Kaylie, Kayden, and Jayde.
“What the fuck!?” Kaylie snapped, now wide awake in one of the tents, shaken out of the first bit of decent sleep she’d gotten in a few days. She got up and grabbed her wrench in her left hand. “Oh, that’s it, someone’s getting a wrench in the crotch tonight,” Kaylie snarled.
Kayden jolted awake in the back seat of the Bricksley, got out of the truck, threw his armor on and pressed the button on his katana as he drew it, the edge starting to sizzle, smoke, and crackle before a dim red glow spread through it. As that edge brightened, he held his blade in a defensive position that also worked as a decent source of light, especially once it reached the full glow of a harsh yellowish-white.
Between the gunfire and the explosion, Jayde was awake, but it was the roaring and the howls that really snapped him the rest of the way out of bed. “Which one of you idiots pissed off an entire den of Dyre!?” Jayde yelled, getting out of his tent and grabbing his staff from the truck bed. “The town even fucking warned us not to anger the wolves!”
Kivenaal sighed and checked his weapons. He had his revolvers with him, and after flipping up the lid on the toolbox, he grabbed the old western-style double-barrel shotgun with the stock-mounted ammo pouch, slung it over his back just in case, and prepared himself for battle.
Rukari loaded his murdaira with a double charge of powder and a lead bullet, knowing full well that he was going to need everything he had to take down any Dyre at this point. He looked over at Orlan, shook his head, and yelled at him in Valraad, “Zaruki!”
Malavera grabbed his railgun from the toolbox as well, flipped the switch on for the thermal sight, dialed up the power just a little, and took a peek down range. “Oh, shit, that’s a lot of angry werewolves,” Malavera said.
The team in the Dione was asleep relatively soundly, mostly due to tiredness of the past few nights catching up to most of RK Series Racing. This well-earned sleep was harshly interrupted via firing of an assault rifle, immediately forcing Connor out of his night-time idle-state and Constantin awake. He immediately donks his head on the soft plastic of the Tangerine-Tank’s™ rear bumper, instinctively rubbing the impact site despite it not having hurt at all.
Not soon after, his light blue eyes dart around from under his crude rain protection others call a “tent”. Before he is able to spot anything, he is near-deafened by a grenade blast off in the forest, waking both Valentin and Tim up in the process.
“The Fuuck?”, a very groggy Valentin moans, vaguely looking into the forest through the nearside rear window. “Huuh?”, Tim follows up, equally tired and confused as to what is going on.
Constantin has since gotten out of bed, not covered in camo waist-up to make his sleeping accommodation more effective at retaining heat. He turns to Connor, still stood next to the b-pillar of the Dione, looking into the forest vegetation. “What’s going on here?”, Constantin demands sternly and wide awake, fully knowing some sort of gun having been fired.
Connor’s reply was stale, but accurate: “20 pieces of ammunition and a 40mm launched grenade have been discharged in the forest in front of us. One of the host team members mentioned hostile relations with a group or pack of Dyre. I do not know who or what they are.”
It takes a moment of mental processing, before Constantin realizes that the entire camp is now effectively at war because of some fucktard going too far into the forest. He takes a sprint to the offside rear door, flinging it open. Both Tim and Valentin stare back at him, before being shoved over to gain access to the middle rear seat.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?”, Tim said, still half-awake but alert enough to vaguely grasp what is happening.
“For real… What’s going on!?”, Valentin chimed in, being in a worse state than Tim, as getting up in the middle of the night wasn’t exactly common for him.
“Gimme my bow, shut up and stay here.”, Constantin blares back, snatching his military backpack with the as-of-now-unstringed bow attached to it. Connor, meanwhile, also took note and pops his head into the car, sounding much more serious and stern than usual: “In order to ensure safety, i order you to leave the vehicle and follow me!”
In a state between tiredness, confusion and fear for life, the two occupants oblige, despite having not a lukewarm clue about what is happening. They are brought to a relatively safe location closer to the river, alerting the other teams to the situation.
“Please stay here and wait for further instructions.”, Connor orders, more sincerely than before in an attempt to calm then down.
Valentin and Tim, now wide-awake, are curled up behind the AST Elbrus, scared shitless and fearing for life.
Upon entering the camp, people were already stirring, his teammates included. Thankfully the gunfire and the explosion had managed to be a very effective alarm clock. Worryingly, only K’mino and Malcolm were walking around. The others probably didn’t hear anything and were still asleep. Soon it turned out they weren’t asleep but around the side of the car, readying their weapons.
"Which one of you idiots pissed off an entire den of Dyre!?” Jayde yelled from across the camp getting out of his tent and retrieving his staff from the truck bed. “The town even fucking warned us not to anger the wolves!”
Orlan looked in the direction of him hoping he wouldn’t be seen. A shout from Rukari in some foreign language meant that he had been spotted.
This was not a good position to be in. The whole camp was stirring but then something howled in the distance. All five Lombaxes tensed, their ears stiffening, tails coiling and fur standing on end.
Aedan reached for his holster, removed the chrome plated Desert Eagle and racked the slide, before returning it to its spot.
“What in the fuck have you done?” He said, turning to face his brother.
“Something attacked me, it ran at me and I opened fire. I heard more behind me as I ran and I sent a grenade their way.”
Orlan saw the anger befall his brother’s eyes.
“You did what!? You’ve put us all in danger, you fucking idiot! Did you not listen to what I told you when I arrived here?” Aedan hissed.
“I did! You’d have done the same in my situation.”
The tension dissipated when K’mino ran round the corner.
“I sense a disturbance in the force, something is coming.”
“No Shit!”
“Good, that means you are aware. But there is something very important you need to know, Malcolm! Pavel! Get over here!”
As if on queue, Pavel walked round the corner, Whiskers and Makarov in hand and Malcolm with the Walther rifle case. Gunther also crawled out from sleeping under the rear bumper. But the dog sensed something and retreated back underneath.
“As I was saying, this is very important to keep in mind. We are only defending ourselves, you must not bring pain and suffering to our enemy, whatever you do, you must kill the enemy as painlessly as possible. All five of us could very well join the dark side, even if the rest of us aren’t Jedi. Understand?”
The whole team nodded in acknowledgment.
I’ll say it again, there must not be any unnecessary suffering inflicted on the enemy. Am I clear?"
“Yes. crystal.”
“Good, keep that in mind, be on the defensive and watch your backs. May the force be with us all.”
When Connor crossed by the Highwayman with no weapon in sight, Kivenaal asked him, “Hey, Connor, you can use a double-barrel shotgun, right?”
Connor stopped, simply said, “Yes,” to Kivenaal, and shortly after found himself holding a traditional, double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun.
“Not sure if you’re aware, but some zaruki woke up a whole pack of Dyre,” Rukari added. Before Connor could ask for what one of those was, however, the question answered itself when a huge, 11-foot-tall gray-furred werewolf leaped out of the trees.
Kaylie snarled as the beast landed right in front of her on all four limbs. Acting completely on instinct, she swung her wrench at it, connecting with a brutal meaty crunch straight onto the top of the Dyre’s head. As the Dyre dropped to the ground, Kaylie stepped back, horrified at what she’d just done, and dropped her blood-splattered wrench.
Unfortunately for the group, the number of luminous amber eyes in the forest looking back out at them was all the confirmation needed that they were in for one brutal fight. Another wolf leaped out toward Connor this time, though it was clear that this one was leading the charge, as several more swarmed out of the trees.
Just then a wolf that was bigger than any canid they ever seen before, leaped from the bushes and landed in front of the Bricksley, right in front Kaylie who swung the wrench in her left hand as hard as she could and hit the Dyre right in the head followed by the crunch of its skull being shattered into a million pieces. The gray furred wolf slumped on the ground, as its life was swiftly ended. Meanwhile, Kaylie recoiled in horror at what she had done, dropping her bloodied wrench to the ground.
The surprise of Team Oil Crisis was cut short when another Dyre leaped from the woods taking Aedan with it. Orlan looked on in horror as his brother went careening across the camp but he could not help as another Dyre had come out from the woods and had begun trying to eat Gunther who was barking angrily at the beast from under the rear bumper.
Aedan tumbled across the ground, the giant Dyre knocking the wind out of him as it sent him tumbling through the camp. He’d have to kill this thing, there was no other way to survive it, but it couldn’t be merciless. The thoughts were cut short as the Dyre threw itself at him again, and it nearly trampled him before it jumped over him. Aedan fumbled for the Desert Eagle, wrestling it free from its holster right as the Dyre charged him, knocking him to the ground. It opened its mouth to deliver the killing bite but before the wolf could go any further, Aedan opened fire, putting all seven rounds of .50 AE through the beast’s head and mouth, the deafening kaboom like gunshots of the Desert Eagle ringing out in the night.
As soon as Connor got handed the shotgun, he breaks it open to load two rounds into it, just to discover that it is already fully chambered, at which point he aborts the process. Not long after, another Dyre takes a leap at a member of team Shift Happens, but appears to have misjudged the jump as it is directly heading for Connor instead.
In response, he takes some aim and hip-fires the borrowed firearm at the enemy creature, emptying one of the two barrels and obliterating the Dyre’s face in the process. He then manages to mostly dodge the now-dead, but still in mid-flight animal, only being lightly brushed by its fur as it passes by.
Constantin, meanwhile, got the equipment he needs and is rushing away from the forest to take cover behind the Bricksley.
“I need some time to prepare my bow!”, he shouts, with Connor remaining in defense of the Van that the Bricksley engineers turned into a crew-cab truck. He then goes about readying the only weapon he can field right now. As such, he puts a load onto it’s limbs to have enough room to place the string on either end.
The third enemy kill, accomplished by Aedan by means of a Desert Eagle led to Constantin taking a quick peek around the rear of his cover vehicle, which confirms that Aedan was still alive.
Meanwhile, somewhere further back in the camp, both Valentin and Tim were curled up, practically in tears over the thought of passively being engaged in a massive human-to-Dyre conflict.
At this point, Constantin is ready to fire and nocks his first broadhead arrow onto the string. In this moment, he thinks that it may be a good idea to secure some semblance of quietness by calling out his progress within his shooting cycle. As a result, he pops out of cover, standing behind the bed of the Bricksley and raises his bow to take aim.
“DRAAAWWW!!!”, he is heard shouting as he draws the bow to full length, storing roughly 100 pounds of force in it’s limbs, string and, by extension, Constantin’s left arm.
It takes a good 20 seconds before the target is properly in sight, at which point he announces his shot by yelling “FIREE!!”, across half the camp. Immediately afterwards, the arrow is released and travels quite the way into the forest, eventually impacting a Dyre’s chest much further back in the enemy lines. He watches the arrow and it’s flight the entire way, over the Bricksley’s bed, past the Dione and some trees, maintaining proper form all the way until the kill is confirmed, as the wolf-like creature takes a few more steps before sliding across the dirt, not moving anymore.
“REELOAAAD!!”, is the next state called out by Constantin as he ducks back behind cover to take the next arrow out of his quiver, which is resting by his right thigh and suspended via a sling across his left shoulder.
With Constantin reloading, Tim and Valentin away from battle fearing for life, Connor now is the only member of RK Series Racing actively engaged in the defence.
Jayde sighed. This was what he had feared the other day, that he would be forced to fight. Another Dyre charged out of the forest and immediately darted toward Team Oil Crisis, only for Jayde to throw his staff, striking it on the head and knocking the beast out. Another leaping wolf simply stopped mid-air as Jayde raised his right hand. As Jayde dropped his hand, the beast was violently slammed into the ground, knocking the wind out of it before Jayde’s thrown staff came back around like the world’s worst-balanced boomerang, hit the second Dyre on the forehead and knocked it out as well. Jayde caught his staff, relieved that the two Dyre he’d taken out so far were still alive, but definitely out of the fight.
Kivenaal found himself a little out of his depth when it came to actually fighting, emptying 24 rounds downrange and only managing to connect about half despite the size of the gigantic black wolf that was his target. Luckily for him, 12 rounds of .357 Magnum to the chest were effective enough to stop the beast before it could get closer, but he found himself retreating toward the Bricksley where Constantin also was, stuffing his empty pistols into his holsters as he moved. “Sorry about this, but I need a box,” Kivenaal said, dodging past Constantin mid-reload as he flipped open the toolbox lid, pulled out the cardboard box proudly labeled “Kiva’s Dirty Magazines,” and swung open the Bricksley’s driver’s door, plunking the box down on the seat. He pulled out 4 MP5-K submachine guns, slapped magazines into each of them, racked the charging handles, and unloaded wildly into the treeline, hitting absolutely nothing, but the sound of full-auto gunfire at least made him feel like he was doing something.
Malavera rested his elbow on the roof of the Union Magistrate, taking aim into the forest and breathing out slow and calm. He waited for the right moment, then curled a clawed finger around the trigger switch, a sharp crack splitting the night followed by a hard thump as a Dyre stumbled into a tree, having taken a thumb-sized steel rod in the chest.
Jayde cursed roughly under his breath as he realized two wolves had flanked them. Making a snap decision, he cracked off a bolt of lightning and killed the Dyre that was sneaking up on Constantin while he was reloading, leaving Kaylie to defend herself again.
Kaylie turned around as she heard what could only be best described as an explosion behind her, just in time to see a huge black wolf jump out of the shadows. Acting on instinct as the wolf landed in front of her and lunged at her to take her down, Kaylie grabbed its throat with her left hand and squeezed with everything she had. The startled wolf clawed at Kaylie’s arm, scratching the chrome in its last moments before blood ran down the slick chrome plating. Kaylie let go, staring at her left hand in shock.
Rukari blasted two wolves cleanly with his murdaira, and some shot winged a third, leaving it wounded on the battlefield. Kayden, having been close enough to overhear what K’mino had said to his own team, rushed over and ended the beast’s suffering with his blade.
“How long will those two stay down, Jayde?” Kayden asked, yelling to the huge lion over the gunfire.
“Until the sun rises,” Jayde yelled back. “Leave them be, they are no longer a threat.” Then as he saw Kaylie’s arm covered in Dyre blood, he groaned. “Everyone, listen up!” he yelled. “Watch out for blood splatter. If you’re wounded by a Dyre, or you get Dyre blood in your eyes, you’re going to have a real bad week. Trust me, I’ve learned that the hard way.” As another couple of wolves charged out of the forest, Jayde moved both of his hands, and the two very-surprised Dyre suddenly slammed into each other mid-leap, knocked heads with each other, were both knocked out, and landed on top of one of the previous Dyre Jayde had dealt with.
Kayden was having a real bad night already. Yes, he was trained for this, but he’d never faced a real battle before. His blade burned white hot, still sizzling faintly from the Dyre he had mercy-killed, while he moved to guard Kaylie and Constantin. They’d already had one flanking attempt, and it was almost painfully obvious that Kaylie was in no shape to keep fighting.
Jayde held his right hand out and summoned Kaylie’s dropped wrench to him, using a bit of magic to clean it before he dropped it into a pocket to give it back to her. Then he bared his teeth as Shadow, his six-legged cat, leaped out of the Bricksley, attempted to take down one of the Dyre on his own, and got thrown heavily into a tree. Jayde closed his eyes for a brief moment, feeling the life-force fading from his cat, and in that brief moment, gave in to his anger. The Dyre suddenly dropped to the ground after the first bright flash of lightning from Jayde’s left hand. Jayde leaped over the Bricksley, landing next to the beast as he struck a second time, the deadly arc striking the beast in the face. He turned his fierce green eyes toward the forest, sparks flying between his fingertips as he raised his hand to fry every living creature in the trees, only to stop as he remembered the conversation he and K’mino had shared the other day. He let his anger fade, the sparks between his fingers vanishing as well. “Too close,” he said to himself, “That was too close.”
Meanwhile, further back in the camp, Tim was losing it big time.
“WHAAAAAAHAHAHA!!! THERE’S WOLVES EVERYWHEREEEE!!”, Tim shouts as he gets up, sprinting towards the “brightly”-colored bit of cover that is the Anhultz Dione. This leaves Valentin behind, sat there, crying in tears as he curls up into a fetal position on the floor.
Tim hops into the car, and turns the key in a hurry. The car, being dependable as always, doesn’t fail him this time either as it springs to life without a hitch. “Fuck this, I’m not being ripped to pieces here!”, he exclaims, as he welds his foot to the floor, revving the absolute tits off of the 2.0 litre I4 before slamming it into first and dumping the clutch. Said clutch was saved by the loose surface, sending a wave of pebbles and small rocks across the battlefield as the car speeds off, away from camp. Constantin missed this entirely, as he was reloading from having missed his fourth shot, of which three hit, scoring two kills in the process. Connor only notices once it’s too late and the car is already on it’s way to god-knows-where. He decides to not tell Constantin to avoid disturbing him in his archery firing cycle. The concentration needed for quality archery also is the reason why Constantin doesn’t notice the Dione being gone in the first place.
Having nocked his fifth broadhead arrow, Constantin pokes out of cover again: "DRAAAAAWWWW!!"
Once again, the bow is drawn with top-notch form and absolute precision and smoothness in every single movement. The massive draw weight being pulled as if he was playing with a kids toy. His aim still is accurate, but slow, until he locks onto the target: “FIIRREEE!!” Another arrow whips across the battlefield as Constantin watches it, bow still held up and the left hand somewhere off to the side of his head. It impacts another Dyre further back, entering through it’s left eye and partially exiting through the back of it’s head, dropping it instantly.
Tim was barreling away from camp, right towards a totally unrelated pair of Dyre, resulting in him stomping the brakes, locking all four wheels. The animals just look at him with a deer-in-headlight gaze, prompting another panic-ridden scream from Tim. “FuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuck!”, he repeats like a broken record, engaging reverse and flooring it once more, sending another wave of pebbles at the two organic roadblocks. Although Tim doesn’t notice any of this, he unintentionally scares them away with the rock-shower, as he is barreling back towards the camp.
Just like any other car, the straight-cut reverse gear aggressively whines while the Dione picks up speed, it’s pitch growing higher and higher together with the engine noises. Not long after, the Dione reaches it’s reverse top speed of 54KPH (34MPH), aggressively bouncing off the rev-limiter of the engine. This, coupled with the less-than-silky-smooth surface unsettles the car, which ends in Tim executing a very unintentional, but still impressive J-Turn. The slide sends a third pebble-wave of much greater magnitude away from the car, this time again into the battlefield, peppering Malavera and Connor with small rocks. Constantin also takes the beating, which causes him to lose his focus, aborting the shot in the process. “ABOOORTT,” he exclaims, less powerfully than the other commands as he is somewhat irritated by the sudden shower.
The gunfire continued to ring out through the night, and several more of the Dyre fell as they were hit with more bullets. One of the team members that were in the Anhultz had jumped in and taken off, returning not more than a minute later.
Orlan lit up another Dyre with a full magazine of 5.56 before moving to reload.
“Guys? I’m not sure we’ve got enough ammo to continue this fight.”
Pavel ran round the corner and took two shots at another Dyre with his makarov, wounding it.
Another kaboom came from the Desert Eagle. “We’ll have to stay behind so that everyone else can get going. We’ve got the most stuff to pack. Pavel, get Malcolm to help you load up the car.”
The giant nodded.“Understood. Malcolm! Help me get everything in the car, don’t bother with packing it up properly, just throw it in.”
Malcolm obeyed with no hesitation, and began tossing their gear haphazardly into the back of the car, with Pavel joining in by dismantling the tent and putting the whole thing in the trunk.
The three remaining teammates gathered round the back of their car to buy as much time as possible.
Malavera took aim through the thermal sight on his railgun, lining up a Dyre’s head in the crosshairs. The optic’s screen told him all he needed to confirm this would be a kill, as the weapon was fully charged, power was set to 25%, the target was well within range, and he had ammunition left.
As he prepared himself to get another kill, a roaring four cylinder engine shattered the silence of the night, followed by the sound of gravel flying. Looking to see what happened moved his aim just enough that he had to take aim again. Fate, however, had other ideas as the Dione barreled back into camp, spraying his back with rocks just as he pressed the trigger. A sharp crack echoed into the night as the steel slug left the weapon, striking a tree branch with a heavy thud. A few moments later, the branch fell and landed on the Dyre’s head, knocking it out. Malavera glared at Tim, though refrained from calling him out on it, understanding that fear could make people do stupid things, switching off his weapon as he realized that things were starting to calm down.
The Dyre didn’t take too kindly to the pebble-artillery barrage, and when combined with the high pitch noise caused by the reverse gear, it caused them to scatter, running off in all directions.
Tim is sat in the car, forehead resting on the steering wheel, accepting defeat. As he looks up, he’s ashamed of himself even more as he realizes that he had left most of his team behind.
With the battle now over for the moment, it was Rukari who took the leadership role that everyone needed right then. He climbed up into the bed of the Bricksley, stood on the sturdy steel toolbox, then yelled out for the whole camp to hear, “We need to move, and quickly! Pack up your supplies, get into your cars, be ready to go. We will regroup at Duskriver Village!”
Jayde looked around the battlefield and sighed. This had been a disaster. The town had warned everyone about the wolves, and someone had to go too far, too close to the forest, and start a fight. He hoped that no one in Addagarda had crystal balls and friends in other cities, or they might just be known as “those idiots who attacked a whole den of Dyre.” Worse still would be if the wolves attacked the town. When Rukari gave the order to pack up and get ready to leave, Jayde waved his hands and started gathering up the remains of the battle. Shell casings, shotgun shells, and arrows swirled around and landed in the Bricksley’s bed as Rukari jumped down. The tents soon joined the bed-trash as they folded themselves up, then crashed chaotically into the bed.
Kivenaal grabbed his shotgun from where Connor had dropped it into the dirt and dropped it into the toolbox along with his now-empty MP5-K submachine guns. Malavera, likewise, put his railgun into its carrying case, then put it in the toolbox as well.
Kayden had switched off his blade and was waiting for it to cool so he could put the weapon away, watching as Jayde, Malavera, and Kivenaal cleared up Team Shift Happens’ camp area. “The bed’s going to be a disaster,” Kayden said.
“We’ll fix it later,” Malavera said. “Right now, we need to get ready to go.”
Kayden looked over at Kivenaal and Rukari, both of them still breathing heavy and looking around as if they might be attacked at any moment. “Mal, I hope like hell you can drive stick, because those two aren’t getting behind the wheel in this condition.”
Malavera nodded. “Might be some of the roughest gear-shifts this side of the galaxy, but I can drive.” He got into the driver’s seat and cranked over the engine while Kayden slid himself into the middle of the front bench and Rukari took the last seat up front. Kivenaal and Jayde got into the rear bench, only for Jayde to get right back out, pick up Kaylie, and put her in her usual spot.
Kayden reached for the CB handle and clicked it on, then said, “We’re going to go first. If these beasts have blocked the road, we’ll break the road-block.” He reached back to hang the microphone back up just as Malavera jammed the truck into first and floored it.
Aedan saw the Bricksley disappearing into the fog followed by most of the teams. "Looks like almost everybody is gone. Just us and the orange car.”
Pavel meanwhile glanced at the Dione parked next to them. “We must wait for the Dione to leave before us. We’ve got better firepower, they can’t be the last ones to leave.” The sound of an engine starting and the slam of a door attracted their attention, which prompted looks in the direction of the orange liftback which was already speeding away.
A Dyre leaped from the woods, almost taking Aedan’s head off, but was swiftly put down by several rounds from the M16.
“We have to go now! I’m not sure how much longer we can hold out.”
It was now their turn to evacuate. Orlan, Aedan, Pavel and Malcolm threw themselves into the rear hatch, taking Gunther with them. They landed among the tent and other gear just as another Dyre tried to get into the car. It didn’t get very far as Orlan slammed its head between the Magistrate’s rear hatch and the C pillar.
“Get us the blazes out of here!” he shouted, slamming the door shut as K’mino stomped his foot on the throttle.
2 Likes
Given that Crugandr is supposed to be in the steam age, would they have developed 5.56 ammunition, or did Shift Happens bring their own? I assume .30-06 would be widely available?
1 Like
TEAM HILLBILLY ROLLERS
Earlier parts
PART 0.1 - A prologue to the prologue
PART 0.2 - Another piece of the prologue puzzle
PART 0.3 - Viva la IP 4Z!
PART 0.4 - Robotman
PART 0.5 - Interference problems
PART 0.6 - Can I play Tetris?
PART 0.7 - Tangerine and familiar
PART 1.0 - Now things got serious!
PART 1.1 - Hello, Thibault and friends!
PART 1.2 - Poor kitty
PART 1.3 - Curse you, Team Oil Crisis!
PART 1.4 - Interlude
PART 2.0 - Bird bird bird, bird is the word!
PART 2.1 - D. Head
PART 2.2 - Good night!
PART 3.0 - Freeway Rockstar
PART 3.1 - DISCO TJO DISCO HEJ
PART 3.2 - Van-Werewolf 1-0
After looking for Marie for hours, Janne and Andreas gave up and decided that they would have to go to sleep, and see if they could find her early tomorrow morning. Yet they were a bit worried about the situation.
ANDREAS: Fuck… If we don’t find Marie tomorrow, what are we going to do then?
JANNE: Well, don’t think so much about that then. She probably will come back when she is hungry. Or needs alcohol. That can’t bee too far away.
ANDREAS: What if the wolves eat her then? (laughing)
JANNE: Well… Suitable if they are on a LCHF diet maybe… If not, I don’t know.
Yet Janne and Andreas could not sleep very well since it was actually a bit worrying that Marie was gone. Finding her in Övertorneå municipality was rarely a struggle but this was not really the same thing. That lead to the two of them sleeping very light. Meanwhile, Marie woke up and saw that something really scary was happening. Since she was more or less running on the reptile brain at the moment after some gallons too much of Karjala, fight or flight mode was engaged, and for some reason she decided that fight was the solution. She ran to the van, and decided to start it to run down to where the werewolves were running. When the buzzy four banger woke up, Janne and Andreas did it too.
ANDREAS: FUCK, SOMEONE IS STEALING THE VAN!
JANNE: LET’S CATCH THAT LITTLE BASTARD
Janne and Andreas was running towards the van and managed to open the only working sliding door to jump into the cargo area. Looking through the lexan window in the divider wall, however, they could spot Marie’s hideous new haircut in front of the drivers head rest. Andreas started banging the wall so she should hear him.
ANDREAS: MARIE! Stop the van! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
MARIE: SHUT UP! I’ll explain later.
Bouncing around with tools, food, spare parts and jerry cans, with more or less nothing to hold to, and with the sliding door open, Janne and Andreas were praying for their lives. But when their saw the pack of werewolves they nearly shit themselves, Janne grabbed the sledgehammer while Andreas took the axe, in case some werewolf should jump in through the sliding door. However, there was almost no time for thinking anything more before the van slowed down at an alarmingly fast rate after a loud crunch, causing both of them to headbutt the centre divider wall. The fact that their noses now were bleeding like crazy was nothing they even had the time to think about now.
ANDREAS: OUCH! What the… SHIT! She hit a werewolf!, he screamed as he saw one bounce up on the windshield to fall to the ground again.
JANNE: Yeah but don’t worry about that one, it is already dead, concentrate on… OH FUCK!
What they saw now was Marie being knocked dizzy by the airbag, with her foot still pinned to the accelerator, while the van was coming close to a huge rock at an alarming speed.
ANDREAS: FUCK, WE ARE GOING TO DIE!
JANNE: I CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE FUCK SHE IS DOING.
Meanwhile in the cab, Marie was regaining consciousness, with her face still planted in the empty airbag.
MARIE: OH FUCK, I CAN’T SEE SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!
When she had put herself in a more comfortable position again, she saw the rock coming closer at about mach 2 and had to swerve, somehow managing to get her hands tangled in the remains of the airbag, causing the van to get up on two wheels, landing on all four again. Andreas managed to grab the handle on the non-working sliding door while Janne was thrown out of the open sliding door, landing on the grass. Unfortunately, the van stopped with a corner hit on another werewolf, causing only cosmetical damage this time, which also meant that the werewolf was wounded and very angry, rushing to attack Andreas inside the cargo compartment. However, Janne somehow managed (during a hefty adrenaline rush) to hit it in the neck with the sledgehammer, if it was dead or just unconscious was unclear, Andreas at least got some time to hit it with the axe so there was no doubt that it definitely was dead. Andreas rushed through the drivers door, with all the adrenaline running he somehow got some strength to push Marie to the centre position on the bench seat, while Janne jumped in through the passenger door, quickly shutting them closed and locking them. They were just quiet, staring on each other, but at least the van was fully driveable. Soon afterwards, they heard Rukari yelling that they all had to leave the camp.
ANDREAS: Well….that was a nice suggestion, how about not choosing campsites like this to start with?
The pink, and now very battered van, took first place after the Bricksley in the convoy, probably because of Andreas driving like Fittipaldi in the adrenaline rush just to get away from the werewolves. Now they could really hope for no more incidents like this in the future.
TO BE CONTINUED
3 Likes
Team Oil Crisis is the one who brought most of the guns, and their own ammunition.
Same with the few gunslingers in Team Shift Happens, with the exception of Rukari, who can use Crugandr’s ammunition types.
Commonly available ammunition in Crugandr is… Different.
All rounds are black-powder, btw, except for one.
There is .58 Short (bullet is based on a musket Minie ball, and this is made for heavy pistols, like revolvers), .58 Standard (the rifle round, think .45-70 but meaner), .58 Pointed (.58 Standard with a semi-modern pointed bullet. It can, and will, break the sound barrier with a suitable powder charge), .75 Valraad (very heavy hitting cartridge used by the Valraadi military, meant for taking out armored troops or vehicles), and .60-NK Valraad (.60 caliber smokeless (Nekan - No Smoke) with a pointed bullet, used as an anti-materiel round. Also, for smaller pistols, there is the .45 Long (a closer cousin to the .45-70, but about half the case length), and the .33 caliber (Small, close to .357 Magnum in ballistic profile, except it’s black powder.)
If you’re using a shotgun, however, you’re in luck. There are 10 gauge and 12 gauge brass-cased shot-shells.
You can also get plenty of black powder, lead bullets, and percussion caps, if you prefer.
1 Like
stream reflect or something idk...? i can't write anything today I don't even have any song lyrics to fit into this filler section. i'm not okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay i'm not okay, i'm not okay i'm not oh-fucking-kay you wear me ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut but if you wanted honesty that's all you had to say That's all you had to say I never want to let you down Or have you go, it's better off this way For all the dirty looks The photographs your boyfriend took Remember when you broke your foot From jumping out the second floor?
TEAM BLAZERS
Romulo let out a sigh of relief as he scanned the red Yamada all around once the morning light had finally shone throughout the campsite. A disturbingly loud crunching of metal in the midst of the night had managed to awaken most people in the camp, and it seemed that Romulo’s hunch was right, as the large station wagon that once sat atop the hill had rolled all the way down and slammed right into the other vehicles in the campsite.
“Anything to say for yourself, detective?” Romulo glanced over at Watson, who seemed to have his eyes set on the bickering between the teams involved in the incident. “I never said that it wouldn’t succumb to a failure, only that our vehicle would be in a perfectly safe position hadst it actually happened.” Watson looked at him smugly. Romulo let out a small laugh and scoffed at him. “Bullshit!”
Whilst that was in effect, Emily and Charlotte finished up writing their notes for the next stage, and despite Charlotte claiming that the pacenotes from earlier would be difficult to do again, this time it seemed as though it were just as detailed. Eventually the two navigators had sat up from the table, and approached their drivers to brief them on the stage plan.
“Right, so this next stage is mostly gravel now, it’s going to be way more slippery than the cobblestone roads that we went through earlier, but with the tyres we have right now, I think we should be safe.” The feline flipped through the pages. “It seems as though Charlotte is quite tired today. Nevertheless, I shalt be taking over for her on this stage. She hadst briefed me on what exactly I’ll be doing, so you can place your faith in me, whoever might be driving.” The blonde smiled proudly. “Speaking of, who will be driving today? Are you feeling better today, Ray? Or will Watson be taking over again?”
“I think I should be good today.” Romulo affirmed. With their roles set in place, and the morning passed with them having ate breakfast, the only thing left for them to do was to repack their belongings back into the Yamada’s rear compartment and prepare to set off. Watson got around to waking Ga’araiya up, who was still in a comfortable slumber as she lay strewn on the warm floor of the tent. Gently, he tapped her feet, but this was just met with an annoyed grunt from her. He eventually decided to shake her awake, but this only managed to loosen the zipper on the back of her loose dress, and as she attempted to shake Watson off, her dress only got looser and looser. Noticing the precarious situation he was in, he attempted to roll her over to zip her dress back up, but it seemed as though Ga’araiya had already woken up, and noticing Watson right there next to her with her dress half-off, she delivered a swift kick to Watson’s face and ran out of the tent towards Emily.
Watson simply sighed as he began clearing the inside of the tent for anything that shouldn’t be folded up, before climbing out and confusedly meeting eyes with the rest of the crew who looked at him with begrudging looks whilst Ga’araiya clung onto Emily. “What?” He said as everyone went back to what they were doing, still occasionally glancing back at him disturbingly. Eventually, it clicked in his mind, and for the first time to everyone, Watson’s face flushed a very slight red as he attempted to clear the matter up. “Hold on a minute, it wasn’t like that!”
“Uh, huh. I thought so too until now.” Emily glared at him. “So you were going after her for a completely different reason this whole time…”
“Oh, in the name of God…”
A few awkward moments later, and the team had finally packed up their belongings and hopped into the car, with Emily in the front passenger seat, and Romulo in the pilot’s. In the back, Watson sat opposite of Ga’araiya, with Charlotte there in between them as what she called a ‘protective barrier’. And from there on out, Watson simply sat sulking.
The bell in the tower at the town of Viravalli rang out, and Romulo went full throttle out of the campsite, the unmuffled four-cylinder roaring out amidst the seventeen other vehicles in the area. The gravel trail up ahead caked in the cloud of dust as released by the other vehicles, and Romulo heavily relied on Emily’s somewhat confusing instructions. This stage was beginning to show itself as rather shaky from the very start. As per Emily’s notes, the vehicle took a slight detour off the main road to an alternative path where there wouldn’t be as much other cars blocking the path with their clouds of dust. This path was a bit slower than the other, but eventually linked up to the main pathway later. Charlotte thought that this alternative route would provide them with an advantage with their drivers behind the wheel, but right now only time would speak of their tale.
Traveling down this path proved a bit more difficult than the main path, as the road was bumpier and the tropical foliage more dense making it harder to sense the road coming ahead. Even with the notes where their timing was perfectly in sync, maneuvering the fairly sizable Yamada through here was a task that was beginning to show it’s fangs, as every small minor error was showing through, and one small error would eventually lead to the vehicle hitting a small bump wrong.
For a while, Romulo felt in sync with the vehicle’s cadence, and Emily too was riding along perfectly okay, but after a while his movements began to feel inadequate, and that driving along this path was a bit more tiresome than usual.
“Something’s wrong with the steering!” He exclaimed through the Yamada’s loud engine slowing down as he eased on his throttle inputs. Emily rolled the window down to inspect the vehicle, pulling the upper half of her body out of the window to look at the right side of the car. Romulo’s inputs seemed to match right with the steering of the front wheels. Eventually the car came to a halt to the side of the road, and now it became apparent to her that the front-right tyre was sagging more than the rear-right, and she pulled herself back in to find a Romulo whose face was tinted a slight red, and a snickering Charlotte in the backseat.
“Looks like the front tyre has lost air. Is there something wrong?” She said as she glanced at the two of them.
“N-nothing… I-I… well…” Romulo seemed unable to maintain eye contact with her, and Charlotte’s laughter couldn’t be held in much more. “Oh my god! Your bottom half was-!” The girl could barely make a distinguishable sentence through her laughter, and Emily simply stared at her confused, before putting two and two together and realizing what had just happened, and her face had flushed a very deep red.
“No way!” She covered her face in embarrasment. “S-stop lying you stupid feline! There’s no way that… m-my…”
With Charlotte’s laughter drowning out the ambient noise all around them, and the two in the front seat now feeling way too awkward with one another, it seemed Team Blazers was wasting too much time. Eventually, Watson had sat up from his sulking after he’d realized the vehicle was no longer in motion, and he looked to the rest of the team who seemed to not be doing anything.
“What the hell? What are you all doing? Why is the vehicle stopped? Aren’t we in a race?”
Everyone paused for a moment as he spoke, and they all stared at him before eventually realizing the situation they were in.
“Ah, right! The tyre’s lost air.” Romulo unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the car towards the rear, and after a bit of digging through the piles of stuff in the back, he found the portable heavy-duty air compressor and quickly set things up. “P-plug this into the… h-hole… in front of the gear selector. Please.” He said to Emily as he handed over the plug, which she took and followed his instruction. The compressor fired up and with a long whirr, the tyre was now back up to pressure. Quickly, Romulo put the compressor back in its compartment and rushed to the driver’s seat, putting his seatbelt back on before continuing yet again on the journey.
The leak continued to persist, and the steering wheel only continued to heave on one side as the tyre lost pressure, but like the leak, they continued onwards at a reduced pace, rejoining the main route before the tyre once again had lost pressure and the unbalanced steering was too much for Romulo to handle. The vehicle stopped yet again off the side of the road and Romulo filled the tyre back up.
“How far are we until the next campsite?” Romulo asked as he buckled his seatbelt back in. Emily took a look at the notes and the map. “We should be close, I recon. I believe we may be less than fourty kilometres away. I’d say about half an hour at most.”
“We just reinflated that tyre about two hours ago. I guess it’ll last even if I go full speed.” He shut the door and once again they settled off, with Romulo finally giving his all into controlling the 1.2-tonne crossover with its slowly leaking tyre. He hit the throttle and sent the vehicle into first gear, a cloud of gravel rising from beneath the vehicle’s four tyres as the vehicle lept from the roadside. Romulo wrestled the vehicle straight towards the road, and Emily once again continued to dictate the pacenotes as they ventured forth. The heft on the vehicle’s right side cursed Romulo for the next hour as he wrestled the vehicle into compliance, through sharp left handers he had to wrangle the steering over and carefully balance his footwork to prevent the vehicle from understeering too much, and in right-handers he had to delicately make sure not to overcorrect by turning too far right. This special tango of driver and non-compliant vehicle continued until they finally arrived at the campsite, and to their surprise they had made it not last as they counted four vehicles.
“What an exercise that was…” Romulo sighed as he placed the vehicle to a stop. “Watson…!” He said, looking behind him. “I’ll need your assistance here.” The two left the vehicle and went towards the back, pulling out his heavy duty tyre patching kit and other tools needed to mend the vehicle. The girls meanwhile set up their tent as the boys went ahead and jacked the car up. They took the tyre off, inspecting it carefully and noticing a small gash in the all-terrain compound.
“That’s… smaller than I thought.” Romulo said as he prepared the kit. With his instructions, and Charlotte later joining in to help them, the tyre was fitted onto the vehicle almost as good as new.
“Right, that’s now out of the way. I’m beat, I’ll go for a nap I guess.” Romulo stretched his arms with a groan. “What are y’all doing?” He asked them. Charlotte looked around the campsite, the tent was already settled down and Ga’araiya was once again sleeping inside. Emily was standing nearby, with a rather thwarted look on her face, something presumably bugging her. “Not much other than the usual duties, I guess. Bathing in the river is a bit too risky, considering what happened last time.” She looked at Emily. “Guess the writer’s got nothing stirring in his mind right now.”
“Guess so, huh?”
With that rather eventful stage over, they settled off into doing what Blazers did.
4 Likes
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team info: 2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Results Out!) - #30 by MrdjaNikolen
Reply to last part, as always
Dyre Battle
-Do we want to go or stay here fighting?
-There are lot of other teams without much weapons or experience. Case in point are those two (points in direction).
Hmmm…where are Connor and…argh, how cant recall his name…ah, Constantin.
-Not sure how Connor might help, but he is machine like me and not exactly afraid of doing battle.
(As you prob guessed already, “two” are Tim and Valentin from RK Racing, understandably shaken by this)
-So what do we do and, if fighting, how could we know weaknesses of our opponents?
-Where tf is Pi?
Answer had revealed itself in few opponents running after our teammate, rather understandably bcos she used everything throwable she could found and started throwing stuff at them.
-I SAW OTHERS SHOOT AT THEM
(Sigh) Dogs shot their beams at werewolves, dealing with them and stepped outside along with Chicota, Pi deciding herself at course of action team should take
-Return to car.
-No, i dont wanna be useless. Could attract attention, see how others are fighting against them…
-…get hurt or killed is dark possibility.
Being eaten is also possible.
Not to mention they could decide to break away from running after you and decide to attack someone else - likely unable to fight back, rocks or otherwise
After observing their colleagues from Oil Crisis and Shift Happens, they also found their way of fighting.
Klimentol and Aydar can actually run rather fast, which was used to their advantage: ofc, Aydar is much faster of the two.
Klimentol was more dependant on this speed, knowing he could be hurt by Dyre and that they seem stronger (they are).
As for Aydar, he is likely much more durable and, unlike his older cousin, can (probably) actually rival Dyre in strength.
(Aydar can reliably lift and carry object weighing 1800 kg)
Chicota had proven to be more durable and versatile fighter than Dyre, tactically compensating for lack of outright size, mass or strength advantage.
He is equipped with two jet engines that can be used for flying. Since exhaust gases of said engines happen to be in range of 600 to 1500 degrees Celsius, they can be used as sort of weapon too, blasting very hot gases to their faces.
I would digress from what i know as member of team and would reference the part in which two Hillbilly Rollers had dealt with one of these.
There were two different attacks dealt by Janne and Andreas that had hurt and ultimately finished their Dyre and exactly neither would be effective on Chicota, implying he is tougher than these werewolfes.
Pi continued to distract werewolfes either to allow rest of team to deliver incapacitating attack or, perhaps more importantly, distract them from rest of teams.
As for this:
Then as he saw Kaylie’s arm covered in Dyre blood, he groaned. “Everyone, listen up!” he yelled. “Watch out for blood splatter. If you’re wounded by a Dyre, or you get Dyre blood in your eyes, you’re going to have a real bad week. Trust me, I’ve learned that the hard way.”
Well…dogs and Pi seem to do hard route too, considering that dogs had encountered this liquid being present and Pi was usual Pi, gathering some injuries in process.
Dyre blood getting in eyes was mostly kinda dealt with via taking a huge run and jump towards or, more precisely, into river
(Madrias might decide to note that water wouldnt fully solve the issue, but i assume this is good temporary measure)
Pi in particular was just throwing some punches with some particularly easy-going Dyre at the moment when this Jayde guy made anouncement, throwing Pi’s attention off-guard and allowing her opponent to smack her very nicely all the way to road.
After finishing her forced movement and directing some “No shit Sherlock”-type phrases at war-hardened Leone , Pi refreshed reserves of rocks and sticks to throw at and continued fight more injured than few moments before.
This fight in particular was ended via draw since, few moments after Pi regained composure and took likely her last stand in this unfair match, Anhultz had anounced its return by mix of engine noise, gearbox whine and road crunching under its tires.
Still, this was very risky thing to do, further proven by Rukari suggesting to pack up after Dione kicked some dust on its return to camp, temporarily scaring Dyres.
With this breather period arriving, we had packed ourselves in Kontir and went away.
There were glances at ones staying after us, but we knew this must be done.
They made the decision and its just left to hope that everyone will be seen at next campsite.
Oh and ye, Tangerine Tank that is Dione was one of those being behind.
We cant possibly imagine how weaker half of that team would respond to this simple fact.
-Lets just hope next campsite has some kind of water around, for ones needing to extract 50 shades of brown from their underwear.
-Chicota, shut up and drive.
-Yes Daddy. (Was hit by Klimentol) Hit me harder, Daddy (Was hit by Klimentol, rest laughed).
-Pi…
-Yes?
-You are fking idiot.
-Will take it as compliment.
-We shall see extent of your injuries when we get to next campsite.
-It seems i was very badly beaten, doesnt seem im dying tho.
(Tries to see if she can guesstimate whats hurt)
CIIXSDVNMCVVBN BNYC NMV
(Decides to abandon checking if pain receptors work, they do)
Yes, badly beaten indeed.
And indeed noone has gravely injuries, not even her.
Car is heading towards Duskriver Village.
Most of us are very tired due to lack of sleep, besides obvious effects this battle had on fighters.
With that, this part is considered finished.
Remains to see if journey to Duskwater would atleast be smooth and without troubles.
3 Likes
Team Slow
Chapter 2, Part 4: Oh no, the undead! THEY’RE REAL!, oh wait its werewolves not zombies!
Meanwhile at the Addagarda Camp
We finally arrive with the XL53, and then John’s dumbass runs over one of the wolves. WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE NOW, as the horde of wolves start coming towards us, and we try to find one of the earth weapons we brought, which to our suprise was a shovel, and a rake. And a tomahawk, How did he get a tomahawk, who knows. But they start howling aggressively.
As Matt gets out of the car and goes on the roof to try fight off the hordes of wolves going after us with a shovel, They start aggressively going after us “FUCK THE WOLVES”, Matt aggressively replies, and shoves the XL53 into gear and tries to drive, but the hordes have bitten the tires. The spare tire is the only good tire… “Damnit” John exclaims, as he goes out of his way to throw a bone the other way to the wolves, Shut up and drive. NOW! Matt says to John and he floors it with the bursted tires.
John: So uh, now we’re screwed, Matt, find something and knock them out
Matt: OK
They go find the shovel to whack the wild wolves, but the head of the shovel breaks
John: God damni- as his shovel head breaks off the shovel, leaving them with a STICK. A STICK.
Matt: Where’s the uh, the tomahawk
John: WAKE UP YOU IDIOT, THERE IS NO TOMAHAWK, YOU GOT AN AXE BUT NO TOMAHAWK!
Matt: Oh.
John: i thought so.
We start to leg it with the car driving away from the mad werewolves chasing us with with bad handling after the tires popped from them biting it, Matt’s brick of a phone breaks into bits after throwing it at the werewolf, the phone did not harm the werewolves, it’s a phone
John: Why did you throw your phone? It’d do NOTHING
Matt: I have two phones, remember?
John: Other than that! THEY ARE GO- THE TIRES DISINTEGRATED!!!
Matt: Shit.
John: Also buy a gun, you’d need it. There’s a shop near this camp with one, but they’re black powder rounds. This feels like the wild west after all.
The car struggles with getting traction and speed after the tires came off the car from them being disintegrated and dry rotted
Matt: Oh no, we’re losing the car’s speed, we arent even on tires no more, we’re on bare metal
John: We can source another set of rims
Matt: So yeah, in translation. We’re fucked.
TO BE CONTINUED.
(OOC: if anyone has tires, hit me up. Preferably all-terrains.)
2 Likes
(OOC: Jayde has magic. He can fix your destroyed tires, you just have to ask him.)
Nice, Right now our team does not know that, btu they will eventually
1 Like