2022 Shitbox Rally - Out of This World! (Results Out!)

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)

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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…

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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.

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Sure.

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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)
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.



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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

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With consultation and some writing from @Executive

20/7/3251 /// 6 Sun LJT

Dense, thick heat oozed in through a gaping crevasse in the sky, drenching everything that the sunlight touched with a golden afternoon flame. Tanuki was sprawled out over the hood of the Dauer, which sat in the shade beside the river. Her forehead, neck, back, and cleavage all showed telltale signs of perspiration, evidenced by a moist layer that gave her lightly tanned skin a dull sheen. The sweltering humidity drenched her entire body and made her black crop top t-shirt stick to her back, but at the very least the cool breeze wafting over the waterfront helped fight the smothering heat. It was the brief pause in moments of tranquility like this where Tanuki could truly relax, even if it was interspersed between periods of chaos or even if it was almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

She sat up and peeked over. Mel was sitting on a tree stump and gutting two exotic-looking birds on a wooden chopping block. “Haaaaaaah?” she raised an eyebrow and groaned, watching Mel pick out the steel 00 buckshot pellets out of the meat with a knife. “That’s all the meat? We were hunting for almost two hours and that’s all we got?!”

“Well, yeah, it doesn’t exactly look like there’s going to be a farm nearby, isn’t there?” Mel shot a glance at Tanuki and shrugged. “These are all wild birds, the meat’s going to be really damn lean.” She dug the tip of her knife into a clump of bird breast as a pellet landed with a clatter into a tin bowl full of bloodstained buckshot. “Besides, there isn’t going to be much left of wild game this small if you shoot them with a bloody 12 gauge!”

Tanuki fell back on the hood and clenched her teeth as her stomach grumbled loudly. Drops of sweat slithered down the sides of her forehead like rain collecting on a rounded surface. Not too far away, Mel spotted the faint two-box profile of a white hatchback. Its shape was strangely familiar to her, and she struggled to recall where she had seen such a car before. After some moments of traipsing through many years of memories, she finally remembered, and her face lit up with a nostalgic smile.

“Wow, a Carica! I got my provisional license in one of those!” Mel exclaimed and looked at Tanuki, who still remained still on the hood of the Dauer save for her chest that rose and fell with each breath. “This is our chance to collaborate with other teams! I’m gonna go take a gander, you coming?”

“In this condition? Hell no!” Tanuki panted, resting the back of her hands on her forehead. “Can’t you see I’m dying? I’ll catch up later!”

As Tanuki lay on the Dauer’s hood, languidly reaching for the water bottle beside her, Mel casually made her way over to the white hatchback, where three young men were setting up camp for the rest of the day. She heard a familiar accent she hadn’t heard in many months, but upon getting closer and hearing their voices a little more clearly, she realized her original assessment was wrong. Very wrong. These weren’t fellow Australians, no. Before she could say hi, the crunching of dried leaves underfoot alerted them to her presence, and they all looked at her.

“Oh, look, another human being,” one of the men spoke.

“…pardon?” Mel tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, perplexed at the odd greeting.

“You saw them, right? Catgirls? Bipedal Cerberus sans one head? Centaurs? How about Mr. Roboto over there?” He pointed all around him towards the other teams in a frenzy. “Look, I’m just glad to see another… person!”

“Person…” Mel muttered, then smiled. “Pleasure to meet you. My name’s-”

“Oi lassie, where you from?” a second man asked. He wore a black t-shirt with ‘HAKARU GB’ printed on the left breast with a logo behind it. “No, don’t tell me… ok, riddle me this. Man U or Chelsea?”

“Man U…?” Mel crossed her arms, her smile turning into an expression of confusion.

“Haha, I knew it! A true connoisseur of football! It takes one to know one!”

“No, you nitwit! Can’t you tell a Kiwi when you hear one? And have you ever seen another Brit this tan before? Knobhead!”

“A Kiwi???” Mel’s eyes darted back and forth between the two quarreling men, their attention gradually shifting away from her until they were both completely fixated on each other. It was as if she wasn’t even there.

“Absolutely not, you muppets! Is this how you greet someone? Where are your manners?” chastised the third man, angrily pointing at his teammates as they quickly shut up. “My apologies,” he said to Mel who was almost about to leave, his voice remorseful. “They can get a bit… excited at times. The name’s Andy. I’m the team captain of Team Gearknobs. And you are?”

“Melanie, but you can just call me Mel! It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she smiled as she shook Andy’s hand.

“I’m Ed,” said the man in the Hakaru shirt as he walked over to Mel and exchanged a single firm handshake. “Mel, right? So, where are you from?”

“I take it you’ve never met someone from down under before?”

“Ahhhh, an Aussie, eh? Wait. Let me guess… Brisbane!”

“Really!” Mel covered her mouth and giggled, almost laughing. “Do I look like an uptown girl to you? I’m actually from Adelaide!”

“Damn, that was my second guess!”

“Jay,” simply said the first man, shaking Mel’s hand gently. “Delighted to meet you, Mel. I’m our team’s navigator and resident mechanic.”

“So you’re the gearhead team, I presume? And this is your car? A Carica, right?” Mel asked, even though she knew the answer.

“An ‘06 Carica SE 4WD,” Jay nodded, gently slapping the roof of the white hatchback as if it was a tired, old friend. “It may not be the fastest car out there, but you know how Hakarus are. Absolutely bulletproof, and with 4WD it gets the job done!”

“Yeah, bloody oath,” Mel remarked, crossing her arms. “These little shitboxes are like cockroaches. I still see them everywhere in Adelaide where people will abuse the hell out of them, and they’ll still run!” Mel bent down and looked inside, in awe at the pristine cloth upholstery and the spotless plastic furnishings. “Looks super fresh for a nearly 16 year old car… wait, 4WD and right hand drive? Only the Japanese Caricas had 4WD… and doesn’t the US have an import restriction on cars newer than 25 years?”

“Well… er…” Andy chuckled nervously.

“-it’s a long story,” Ed dismissed, waving it off. Something wasn’t quite right, but Mel decided to take their word for it. “What’s your team running anyways?”

“That thing.” Mel pointed behind her with a thumb, and the three men looked over her shoulder at the flamboyantly-colored Dauer 632 S. Andy’s eyes sparkled, Jay put his hands on his hips and simply nodded in admiration. Ed however was nothing short of flabbergasted, staring in awe with his mouth wide open.

“Bloody hell! Dauer, eh? I thought this was a shitbox rally, not Paris to Dakar!” He scoffed. “Is that even legal?”

“Better believe it. Tanuki- er… I checked the regs, and it’s completely legal. Trust me, you have no clue how much work I’ve poured into that shitbox just to get it to go around the block on its own power!”

“They have quite a bit of power, don’t they? Over 230 horsepower when new?” Jay squinted and studied the rally coupe from afar like a hunter stalking big game in the savanna. “And lightweight, too, almost as much as our car. It’s a far cry from the humble Carica.”

“You sure you can handle that much power?” Ed smirked.

“I’ve autocrossed in cars with almost twice as much power, of course!” Mel pouted and put her hands on her hips. How dare he doubt her competency in handling high-power rear-driven cars, especially given the fact she owned another one with twice as much power! “It’s my first time racing the Dauer, but it’s nothing I can’t handle!”

“I’ve done a bit of autocross myself,” Jay said. “And Andy here is a two time winner of the Hakaru Open Cup.” Indeed, no matter how much power the Dauer had over other cars, even if it was twice as much, actual drivers’ skill would not only be the deciding factor but the supreme court, the final judge before which one’s mettle would be pushed to the limits. While Mel certainly did have some racing experience in autocross, it was more oriented towards casual enthusiasts, lacking a certain official capacity that Andy’s experience wasn’t in any shortage of.

“So Mel, what brings you here in the first place?” Andy asked.

“Well, I think you’ll all agree with me that none of our cars are perfect,” Mel said. A hard to swallow fact for some, but a fact nonetheless that they would have to gradually accept. “The Dauer’s just about the fastest thing on the grid here but it’s only two wheel drive. The Hakaru is versatile, reliable, and has four wheel drive, but I’ve driven them before and they’re just mind-numbingly slow, almost dangerously so!”

“I think I see what you’re getting at,” Andy nodded slowly as his mind put two and two together.

“Can’t you see? We’re perfect foils to each other! My team has the speed, your team has the off-road chops; that’s why I think we could make a great team. We need to form an alliance if we want a real shot at winning this… or even just staying alive. Remember those huge cats, not the event organizers, but the absolutely massive ones in the forest from the first stage? Who knows what else we’ll encounter along the way!”

Quite a proposition, to say the least; their cars were almost as far removed from each other as two cars could possibly be. There isn’t much synergy between a high-strung RWD sports car from an upscale German brand with a stunning repertoire in racing and a frugal 4WD hatchback from a humble Japanese automaker with as much international recognition as the latter. However, where one car failed to perform, the other would excel. Together, perhaps their differences could be compensated by each other.

“Okay, so why should we help you? What’s in it for us?” Jay asked.

“I thought you’d never ask!” Tanuki cackled, appearing out of nowhere besides a very surprised Mel. It seemed as if moments ago she was completely immobilized and suffering from heatstroke, yet now here she was, vivacious as ever. She brandished Mel’s L1A1, presenting it to the trio of bewildered Brits. “Give to the Black Rabbit and it’ll give back; our tools and spoils of war can be yours!”

“Hey! That’s mine!” Mel snapped, snatching it out of Tanuki’s hands. She pulled the charging handle back and looked inside the action. Much to her relief, it was clear, but the sudden presence of Tanuki and the rifle itself still put her on edge.

“Who’s this sassy… lost child?” Andy asked, looking down at the much shorter Tanuki.

“Hey! That’s the CEO of Black Rabbit Limited, Nakajima Tanuki you’re speaking to! Captain of Team Black Rabbit Corporation! Meru-chan here is my lovely capti- escort and driver!” Tanuki and Andy stared each other down in silence for a handful of seconds that seemed like long, excruciating hours, a visible tension of daggers being exchanged between their glares.

“So you’re Mel’s teammate. What’s the mask and sunshades for?”

“For privacy, of course!”

“Oh, yeah?” Andy pried deeper, unknowingly making lighthearted small talk with a war criminal. With Tanuki. “If I took that mask off, what would happen?”

“It would be extremely painful… for you,” she answered with a sinister grin, hidden from sight. Previously under the impression that they were just bantering, Andy’s smirk was gone and he was left speechless at her disturbing bluntness.

“Let’s not get our knickers up in a knot, yeah?” Ed stepped in between the two of them, trying to defuse the situation. It worked: Tanuki’s shoulders relaxed and rolled down as the two of them stepped back.

“Alright, alright, let’s not… ugh,” Mel groaned. “Okay, how about this? We’ll support each other! You pull us out if we ever get bogged down in mud or whatever, and we’ll let you borrow our equipment if you need it. Guns, cooking equipment, you name it.”

“Sounds like a fair deal to me,” Andy nodded. “It wouldn’t hurt to help a fellow team out.” Jay and Ed seemed to be in agreement, but the latter was clearly much more enthused about the possibilities this alliance could bring.

“I don’t know about you two, but I’ve been itching to shoot an actual long gun for years! Not an airsoft, but the real deal!”

Team Black Rabbit amiably parted ways with Team Gearknobs for now, just narrowly avoiding hands from being thrown and bullets from flying. Now it was up for both teams to uphold their ends of the deal.

















4 Likes

Shitbox Rally

Stage 3: Addagarda to Duskriver Village

Stage Start: A little after 5 Moon, 20/7/3251, Addagarda Campsite

Weather at Stage Start: Hot, humid, cloudy, a horrifically dark night made worse by fog.
Weather at mid-stage: Hot, humid, and very cloudy, though the fog starts to lighten.
Weather at Stage End (First Car): Hot, humid, and still quite cloudy, though the fog begins to pass.
Weather at Stage End (Last Car): Hot, humid, though the moons can be seen as the clouds begin to lighten.

Stage End (First Car): A little after 7-and-40 Moon, 20/7/3251, Duskriver Village Campsite

Stage End (Last Car): 9-and-40 Moon, 20/7/3251, Duskriver Village Campsite



With hearts still pounding from the Dyre ambush in the camp, a lack of meaningful sleep, and orders to drive as if your lives depended on it, the Addagarda campsite was quickly abandoned. The heavy gravel soon gave way to patches of gravel mixed with dirt, and the road following the river became more of a rough trail. The treeline to your right carries a new level of terror every time you think you see amber eyes in it, and occasional howls remind everyone of the pitched battle in the camp. The night air is heavy with both fog and tension so thick you could carve it with a knife, and it’s very hard to see, even with your high-beams on. It’s not much better with off-road lights, as the fog kicks a lot of that light back into your face, making it harder to see. When everyone arrives, alive and in one piece, in Duskriver Village, everyone is glad that this time, the camp is further from the forest, instead being very close to the village. Several of the guards there show little fear when it’s mentioned that we’ve faced a whole pack of Dyre, and a few even mention that they’ve battled the wolves a time or two.


Notes: Randomization is active. Breakdowns are active. Time is in Earth Time.

New: This camp will still only last one IRL week, but will cover the rest of 20/7/3251, the morning of 21/7/3251, and the night of 21/7/3251. Stage 4 will be 22/7/3251 at 1 Sun.



@Madrias

Team Shift Happens

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:00:59
Average MPH: 44.2
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Slow and steady wins the race, or so the saying goes. Malavera, despite his back still stinging from the spray of gravel and his heart still pounding from the attack, guides the Bricksley safely along the trail.


@Caligari

Team Wayfarers

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:39:23
Average MPH: 38.1
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 1 (Powertrain)
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Not wanting to stop with all of the Dyre around, Jill and Jack Willow-Wright push onward to the camp, despite Chernobog misfiring on occasion and being a little down on power.


@Executive

Team Gearknobs

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 06:35:37
Average MPH: 26.9
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 2 (Chassis)
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Something’s not happy in the Carica. After losing their brakes partway into the stage, the team accepts a tow from the mysterious-and-silent Team Mrezhari, who get them close, but after their tow-rope came loose, Team Gearknobs have to drive their own car into the camp.


@BannedbyAndroid

Team Fallen Angels of the Past

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:51:23
Average MPH: 30.3
Randomizer: 9
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 2 (Chassis)
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

The Claussient was fast until bad luck broke both headlights and forced them to slow way down. The broken bulbs were fixed in the camp, but driving in the dark was not fun.


@interior

Team Slow

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:27:27
Average MPH: 39.8
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Who knew luxury cars could appreciate dirt so much? The Schnell XL53 powers through the gravel-filled dirt with relative ease.


@TheYugo45GV

Team Oil Crisis

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 06:08:50
Average MPH: 28.9
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 4 (Team Caused)
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

It was all going great until someone hit another Dyre. A hasty field-repair of the broken radiator and slamming the hood shut gets the Union Magistrate into the camp, where more extensive repairs can take place.


@Knugcab

Team Hillbilly Rollers

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:06:24
Average MPH: 43.2
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Despite being tired, scared, and/or not quite drunk enough for this shit, team Hillbilly Rollers gets their IP Freeway Star through the gravel and the dirt in one piece.


@Fayeding_Spray

Team Witchlight

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:09:50
Average MPH: 42.7
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Elist decided they are not getting eaten by werewolves tonight, and put their foot down. Ambay is slightly disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to take a trophy. The EAAC Aphrodite is now covered in dirt, of course, but that’s better than many of the possible alternatives.


@MrdjaNikolen

Team Mravolinski-Chitco

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:16:29
Average MPH: 41.5
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

When in doubt, floor it! Clearly that plan worked, because the Kontir Cunningham makes it cleanly this time. Maybe the dirt is better for the truck?


@variationofvariables

Team Blazers

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:49:12
Average MPH: 36.8
Randomizer: 8
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 3 (Tires)
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

The Yamada was very fast in the dirt, and likely would have been even faster if someone hadn’t run over the hand of a dead Dyre in the road. The claws ripped a gouge out of the sidewall, forcing the team to put their spare tire on.


@SurrealCereal

Team Machinas Con Passiones

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:55:37
Average MPH: 36.0
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 2
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Everyone thought they were going fast. That changed after they passed the Yamada while team Blazers were changing a tire, only to then be passed by the Yamada after the tire change.


@AndiD

Team Quick Rally 47

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 04:54:12
Average MPH: 36.2
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 4 (Team Caused)
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Good news: The Quantum Xenoanthropology department will be very happy to have samples from the Dyre wolf you hit. Bad news: The radiator on the Mara Kanyon really didn’t appreciate the impact with 600 pounds of werewolf. At least studying the wildlife of Crugandr is part of the mission.


@BG004130

Team Mrezhari

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 06:30:29
Average MPH: 27.3
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 4 (Team Caused)
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Despite being mysterious, Team Mrezhari weren’t willing to leave another team to the wolves. After crudely tying a rope around the Carica’s tow hook and the other end to the Dunav’s tow hook, they pulled Team Gearknobs to within five minutes of the camp before the knots in the rope gave way.


@NoahC

Team Jockey

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 03:42:03
Average MPH: 48.0
Randomizer: 13
Refueling Stops: 1
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Fear can be a great motivator. Four people in a tiny sardine can of a car, driving hard through the night on little sleep, dodging real live werewolves and hoping like hell they could find a safe place to rest managed to set the fastest time today.


@elizipeazie

Team RK Series Racing

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:16:06
Average MPH: 33.7
Randomizer: 10
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

After the chaos of defending the camp, it’s not a surprise that team RK Series Racing took things a bit easy on the Dione here. After all, they got to see the aftermath of speeding down the roads once they got settled into the new campsite and got to watch three teams repairing radiator damage courtesy of a high-speed impact with a Dyre.


@Tzuyu_main

Team Black Rabbit

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:18:23
Average MPH: 33.5
Randomizer: 11
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 0
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Trying to drive fast while someone else keeps trying to shoot at the Dyre in the nearby forest isn’t easy. Luckily, the Dione of Team RK Series Racing makes following the road easy. “Just follow the Tangerine Tank.”

(Author’s note: I hope that this is in character for Tanuki. If not, feel free to ignore it and run with your own plan.)


@SheikhMansour

Team Spy Kids

Distance Traveled: 177.6
Time (HH:MM:SS): 05:24:11
Average MPH: 32.9
Randomizer: 7
Refueling Stops: 0
Breakdown: 4 (Team Caused)
Total Distance Traveled: 888.0

Like many others having similar bad luck, the AST Elbrus encounters a Dyre at high speed, resulting in a broken radiator. Fortunately, you do have a spare. Unfortunately, no one wants to put it in on the side of the road (which, considering what you hit, isn’t a bad thing), so team Spy Kids limps their Soviet SUV into the camp. There, they join a couple other teams in doing the same thing: replacing a busted radiator.


Stage Finishing Order:

Team Jockey
Team Shift Happens
Team Hillbilly Rollers
Team Witchlight
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
Team Slow
Team Wayfarers
Team Blazers
Team Quick Rally 47
Team Machinas Con Passiones
Team RK Series Racing
Team Black Rabbit
Team Spy Kids
Team Fallen Angels of the Past
Team Oil Crisis
Team Mrezhari
Team Gearknobs



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
“Here Comes the Hound of Death” - Stage 2 Campsite Battle - Written by Elizipeazie, TheYugo45GV, and Madrias.


(Again, a huge thank you to @TheYugo45GV and @Elizipeazie for working with me on the battle, and for keeping it secret until we were ready to release it. Sorry if you wanted to participate but didn’t get a chance. I worked with a couple of people who had picked up on a hint in the Discord and asked me directly what we were going to be attacked by. They wanted in, and together, we worked for the better part of a week to get things right so the three of us could make an exciting moment for the Shitbox Rally. Anyway, now onto the story!)



Addagarda Campsite, immediately after the attack / On the Road


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.

“Where the hell are my offroad lights?” Malavera said. Kayden reached up and slapped the switches, flooding the world ahead of them with the full intensity of their homemade roof-light-bar and the offroad lamps in the ram bar. Malavera cranked over the Bricksley’s engine, the 427ci V8 roaring to life moments before he grabbed the selector for their transfer case, rammed it home into 4-High, stomped the clutch into the floor mat, slammed the gear stick into first, and floored the gas pedal. As the revs rose rapidly, Malavera slipped his foot off of the clutch, two wheels kicking up dirt. With a snarl, he clicked the switches on the dash and the spinning tires stopped as the differentials locked up solid.

Kaylie was crying, her left arm a blood-streaked mess that she held up loosely to not stain her clothes or the truck. Jayde sat next to her, using a spare cloth to wipe away the blood and revealing the shining chrome beneath. Twice, Kaylie tried to pull away from him, and both times, Jayde had pulled her back to him. “I’m a monster,” Kaylie said.

“No, you are not,” Jayde replied.

“I killed those two wolves without-”

“We all killed tonight, Kaylie, but that doesn’t make any of us monsters,” Jayde said, cutting her off. “You fought because the alternative was to die.”

“I didn’t mean to kill either of them. Twin Suns, Jayde, this arm was built for war, and I used it without thinking. What if I were to do that to you, or to Kayden, or worse, if I did that to someone like Valentin?”

“You wouldn’t,” Jayde said. “It’s just not your way. You bluster and threaten, but you aren’t violent. I do not fear you, nor do I fear your arm,” he mentioned, cleaning the last of the blood off of Kaylie. He placed the blood soaked cloth into a plastic bag, then dropped it into his bag of holding before turning back to Kaylie and grasping her arm in his. “This arm is a gift. How many others would have died either time because they didn’t have the strength?”

Malavera swore in his native language as the Bricksley hit some rough rutted dirt, the whole truck shuddering and clattering, the mess in the bed clanking, clattering, tinkling, and rattling as tent poles, shell casings, spare parts, loose arrows, and weapons were shaken around.

Kayden spoke up, “Kaylie, it’s okay. When we gave you that arm, we told you it was strong and you’d have to adapt to it. This is the first time you’ve ever had to fight, and you survived. That is what matters. Project Nemean saved your life.”

Kaylie stared at the long scratch down her chrome forearm, the end result of her second Dyre kill. The only one of the group to literally take one out with nothing but their hands. “I’m scared, Jayde,” she said, looking at him. “I’m worried that one of these days, I’m going to hurt one of my friends because I don’t know what I’m capable of.”

“Then we work on that,” Jayde replied. He, too, noticed the scratch, and he placed his hand over it. When he removed his hand, the scratch was still there, but now highlighted in beautiful, vibrant gold. “Wear that scar with pride, Kaylie,” he said. “You did what no one wants to have to do, you went toe to toe with a Dyre and fought them in their own favored way.”

Kaylie stared at the much-more-visible mark on her arm and sighed. “Do I have to?” she asked.

Jayde looked at her, then said to her, “If you insist, I can repair that without a trace. It’ll get rid of the physical scar, but you’ll still have the mental one from this day.”

Kaylie shook her head. “Then I’ll keep it,” she said.

Malavera gave a grunt as he drove through a nasty rut in the road, everyone getting shaken around a little, mere moments before the Yinzer bolted past.

“We’ve just been passed by a yellow sardine can,” Kivenaal quipped.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Malavera grumbled. “Likely they’re worried that their shoebox could be a Dyre’s lunchbox.”

Kaylie, despite her mood, gave a short laugh.


Duskriver Village Campsite, A little before 2-and-60 Moon

The Bricksley roared into what would become their campsite, a cloud of dirt hanging in the air as the brakes screeched. Soon, the members of Team Shift Happens had their tents out of the bed, staked down, and were then sorting through what they had in the bed to put most of it all back away. That is, all except for two members, who had disappeared into a tent under a mysterious purple sound-blocking bubble.

“So, where’s Kaylie?” Malavera asked.

“In the tent with Jayde,” Kayden replied.

“After a battle,” Rukari said, “sometimes one needs to be reminded that they are still alive.”

Kivenaal sighed. “Well, this shit won’t sort itself,” he grumbled.


A little after 9-and-40 Moon, Duskriver Village Campsite

Sure enough, as Team Gearknobs rolled into the camp and yanked the parking brake to stop, Kaylie staggered her way out of the tent with Jayde not far behind, with Kaylie wearing her tank-top and leather pants, and Jayde wearing a light, thin pair of linen shorts and a light brown shirt. Kaylie wandered over to a tree stump and sat down, a smile on her face, while Jayde simply wandered over to the truck to look at the assortment of random junk they’d collected after the fight. There were arrows of various lengths and compositions, hundreds of shell-casings, shotgun shells, loose bits of unfired ammunition, Kivenaal’s shotgun and MP5-K’s, as well as Malavera’s railgun. Likewise, some of the team’s spare supplies had spilled into the truck bed, including a spare barrel assembly for a plasma pistol, several nuclear batteries, a badly-bent titanium armor panel, a box of overturned electronics bits, a huge chunk of copper, and a bunch of loose bolts. Also, there were springs and shock absorbers for the Bricksley, a carburetor rebuild kit, an empty propane torch bottle and the torch head to go with it, a couple of empty purple glass bottles, a plastic jug of kilju, a spilled tool kit, and several spare light-bulbs.

Deciding that the bed cleanup could wait until after they got some rest, Jayde settled next to Kaylie, pulling her close.

“So, how long are we going to be in this camp?” Kaylie asked.

“The rest of this day, the night, and we leave in the morning as usual,” Rukari replied, having overheard Kaylie.

“Biggest thing is, will we be safe here?” Kayden inquired.

Jayde answered, “We’re still in Dyre territory, but the far edges of it. We were outside a den last time. While there might be some stray wolves out this far, they probably aren’t of the same pack we encountered. Even still, I’ll go on patrol tomorrow night to make sure no one starts another fight.”

“How do you plan to do that? I mean, don’t get me wrong, the magic is impressive,” Kivenaal said, “but those fuckers are tough.”

“This isn’t my only form,” Jayde said.

Kaylie smiled. “He was Dyre-bitten,” she added, placing a hand on Jayde’s right shoulder, making sure not to squeeze or irritate the old scar. “So he has the form if he needs it.”

“Wait, he gets to become an 11 foot tall lion?” Malavera asked.

“He is not the only one with that form,” Rukari said. “I can do it too. Wasn’t Dyre-bitten, but it carries in blood and through birth. My father was Dyre-bitten, so I, too, have the Wyld form. I hate using it, though.”

“Why?” Kivenaal asked.

“Getting into that form is painful,” Jayde replied. “Getting back out of it is also painful. Also, some people get really scared if they see someone in that size because, well, it’s hard to tell a Dyre or a Wyld-form shifter apart until you’re so close to them that the Dyre could rip your throat out.”

“So, we’re safe here, right?” Kaylie asked. “Really safe and not ‘Oh, sure, we’re safe’ and then we have to run again?”

Jayde sighed and closed his eyes, reaching out and feeling where everyone was by seeing their energy, then opened his eyes, pointed into the forest, and said, “I felt three Dyre in there, the closest is maybe 500 of my strides from the edge of the forest. They looked to be hunting as a pack, tracking a deer running away from us. They are not aware of us.”

Kaylie nodded. “I guess that’s about as safe as we can hope for, then.”

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For the teams with broken radiators, hook me up if you want repairs at the campsite.

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RK Series Racing; Stage 3 Drive

Most teams have already set off at this point in time, with only Team Oil Crisis and Rk Series Racing remaining on the battlefield. Somehow, nobody within the team was injured or damaged by the Dyre or other cars wildly speeding off. The Dyre had been scattered, which presented prime opportunity to book it out of this campsite.

Tim was currently sat in the driver’s seat, his head resting on the rim of the steering wheel in defeat. Connor quickly approached the driver door, opening it to take a peek inside.

“You managed to temporarily scare the enemies away from here. Please move over.”, Connor orders, having no difficulty in telling how shaken up Tim was.
After quite the time of mental processing of what actually happened, he obliges, freeing up the Cockpit for Connor to take seat.

Meanwhile, Constantin took the opportunity to “pack up”, which meant collecting what belongs to him and temporarily plonking it down behind the car to load his belongings into the trunk. He opens the hatch and swings it open, but as soon as he lets go and turns around, the trunk lid slams shut due to the failed gas struts. Because of this, the rear glass splinters, but manages to stay within it’s housing.

This doesn’t last long, as Constantin already has grabbed his stuff, launching it through the now-closed rear window, showering most of the cargo area in millions of “Detroit Diamonds”.
Still in the heat of the moment, he ignores the damage done and takes seat in the Brick, which then is driven over to collect Valentin.

Speaking of whom, Valentin was still sat in the middle of the now-empty camo, crying his lungs out in fear. The Tangerine-colored Liftback rolls up directly next to him and Constantin pushes the near-side rear door open, almost smashing it into Valentin by accident.

“GET IN THE CAR!”, Constantin blares from the other end of the bench, netting nothing more than a frightened-to-shit look from Valentin on the dirt floor.

“I said GET IN!!”, he repeats, now reaching over and grabbing the first thing of him that comes within reach. Unsurprisingly, that something ends up being a substantial amount of hair as well as his loosely-fit collar. With absolutely zero regards for potential pain inflicted, he yanks the bundle into the car, prompting Valentin to follow suit immediately after. The pull was strong, resulting in Valentin being stretched across the bench, both legs still dangling out the door, with his head mere inches away from the opposite door.

At this point, Connor gives the engine it’s all, the inertia slamming the rear-right door shut. Well… “shut”, as it wedges Valentin’s shins inbetween the window sill and door frame.

It takes a while of repeated shinning, shouting and being flung about before Valentin sort-of comes back to mind and goes about the process of righting himself, still very much mentally scarred from what took place earlier.

Constantin, meanwhile, managed to put 2 and 2 together:
“Could you have like… NOT DITCHED US ALL!?”, he shouts at Tim, even though he scattered the enemy by accident. “I don’t fucking know what to do when an entire pack of whatever-the-everliving-fuck those were attacks literally everyone!”, Tim counters, flailing his arms manically in the process. “At least i somehow scattered them!”

“By running off and leaving comrades behind… good going, lad!”, Constantin blared back, motioning to the still sobbing Valentin, now upright in the rear-right.
“Staying and doing jackshit doesn’t help, but uncoordinated retreat is a recipe for injury!”, he adds, promting Valentin to look up and at him as he was directly referenced.

“You can’t tell me that the navy is worse than this bullshit here… Half the grid on our end is some form of god-knows-what and the Taliban aren’t a mass of Grizzly-Sized wolfes…”, Valentin scoffs, quietly, while also wiping off some eye-sweat away.

This catches Constantin mildly off-guard and, truth be told, he doesn’t really have a way of countering that.

“Just stop lying about worse shit existing… I’d rather be taken hostage by Al-Quaeda than repeat this.”, Valentin adds, complete with finger quotes to round it off.
“Makes you sound like an ego-centric asshole…”

The car mostly turns silent at this point, lingering resentment between the human team members being palpable.

Valentin wasn’t a fan of being left to be turned into minced meat by Tim and Constantin’s exaggeration breaking the inherent trust that comes with military rank.

Constantin felt under-appreciated, given that he actually scored more kills than Connor. Although Valentin did have a point about the unnecessary lie about what being a soldier was like.

Tim just is trying to swallow the fact that he did run off, even if it was a short-circuit move in the heat of the battle.


The rest of the drive was spent in silence, with the Tangerine Tank passing a few broken-down cars which either already have gotten roadside assistance or obviously didn’t need any. On the other hand, they started to form a sizeable train of cars apparently using it as a beacon of sorts, which was rather ironic, given 70s-era headlights and no added illumination.

to be continued

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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

PART 4.0 - Calm after the storm

After having loaded their tent as quickly as they only could, the pink van was following the Bricksley close to the new campground, where our friends, still a little bit in doubt, put up the tent again. They were all sleeping relatively light, however. None of them was really sure that there would not be more werewolf attacks, but all of them woke up the morning after, so probably not. Although all of them had major headaches, Marie’s was probably somewhat alcohol related while Janne and Andreas only had headbutted the centre divider wall in the van a couple too many times.

MARIE: Oh god… I think I was drinking way too much yesterday. The shit I remember can’t have happened for real…

Janne pointed at the bump on his forehead and the dried blood under his nose.

MARIE: …oh…
ANDREAS: Seriously! What the fuck did happen?
JANNE: Well, it seems like we have upset parts of the local fauna…a lot.
ANDREAS: Who had the fucking idea to set up the camp there?
JANNE: CALM DOWN! It’s enough that we have had Marie involved in fights already, you don’t have to start one too.

The team inspected the van, which was quite a sad sight now. A good thing: the LED lightbars were still intact. But it really didn’t leave the battle without scars. The windshield was cracked, though not so it hampered visibility…yet. The bull bar was bent. The pink paint had numerous scratches and blood stains (not that it really suffered from an aesthetical standpoint, but still). The right corner was missing from the plastic front bumper, exposing the crash beam. Though, after a quick inspection, Janne’s conclusion was that the mechanics were fully intact. After duct taping the steering wheel centre pad together again and ripping out the SRS light, and washing away some of the blood and dirt for better visibility, the van was good to go. With the stereo cranked up with some quality tunes…

…the van sprinted away through the fog.

Actually, it was more than just a sprinter, it was more or less a marathon runner through the third course. The high seating position meant that they had a better visibility through the fog than most of the teams, and as Janne said, “the roads are rough, but on the other hand, look at South east Asia. Freeway Stars are everywhere and despite taking lots of beating they are like cockroaches!”. So Andreas had no second thoughts about flooring it. After a while, both the other team members were asleep.

MARIE: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
JANNE: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
MARIE: ZZZZ…uhhhh where is my beer…ZZZZZZZ
JANNE: ZZZZZ…what the fuck is Constantin Schrant doing here…ZZZZZ
ANDREAS: …who is Constantin Schrant?
JANNE: (briefly waking up) HEY MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, DON’T ASK SO MUCH!

Janne slammed his fist on the button to the dixie horn, waking up Marie as well as probably scaring the crap out of the occupants of the Team Slow Schnell XL53 that they passed at that moment.

(VERY LOUD BLARING)

MARIE: HUH WAS WHAT THAT?
JANNE: WAIT WHAT!?! Uhhh…nevermind. I just had a strange nightmare.
ANDREAS: So, who is…
JANNE: HEY, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

Blazing through the fog, our friends managed to pass Team Mravolinski-Chitco and then also Team Witchlight, both running at a steady pace, but still, they didn’t seem to dare to keep up with the sturdy Ariyan van that had proved its ruggedness the night before. Some minutes after team Racing Stripes, they arrived at the campsite as the third car, with Team Jockey being the winner.

VEHICLE STATUS:
Interior unusually clean.
Airbag cover duct taped together
SRS light removed
Front bumper broken
Rear bumper scratched
Bull bar bent
Windshield cracked
Left side sliding door caved in, door handle broken
Right side sliding door being stiff to open and close, something must have happened during the werewolf fight
Still running like a champ!

TO BE CONTINUED…
@Fayeding_Spray @MrdjaNikolen @interior @Elizipeazie

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i’m not exactly sure as to how, or if, i should react to this, given that my team noticed exactly none of that happening

still a good read :smiley:

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