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Keiturn is a large, but little known planet, only ten lightyears from the border of Confederate Space, and only 73 light years from the Universal Wall. Despite it's remote location shielding it from the majority of the horrors of the Great Wars, they were not spared a Insurrectionist invasion, now in it's 110th year. Due to ongoing conflicts elsewhere, the Confederacy Of occupied Space can spare no military power to assist. The people and armed forces of Keiturn remain on their own.

390 Miles from Old Eiron City, 300 miles from Old Eirron County Border

Empty Housing Division, Former Town Of Holley

Standard Time: June 25th, ASGW 2021

A ray of dust, illuminated by the sun reaching in unimpeded through a broken old window, fell on on the old carpet that had long since been washed of it's color. The chirps and calls of the birds that were nesting in the high branches of the white oaks many decades older than myself echoed clearly through the eaves of the empty house, accompanied by the rather light breeze that was currently making the tops of the trees sway. At times you might spy a few deer, wild pigs, or some other wildlife other than the birds, but...it was mostly birds these days. The wind would occasionally blow the odd piece of trash, a light plastic bottle, or a piece of news paper, across the old washed out street, but the trees, because of the way that they had grown, kept it mostly away. The road was stressed, with cracks and potholes that were caused both by heat, as well as the roots of all the oaks that had been planted when this place was built. Kept the direct sunlight off your neck, and by extension, it kept the heat somewhat in check. You see, my home has two seasons, summer and winter. Summers are broiling, dry and could wash out a freshly lain asphalt road within three weeks of opening, which would likely have been the case on this road had so many trees not been planted. The days were long and bright, polarized sunglasses required, with fantastic evenings. For a couple of reasons, I've always liked evenings more than I did any other time of day. Why? Well for one, sunsets where I'm from are a mix of a blue sky fading into a brilliant inferno of bright orange and dark red with swirling pink clouds. The sun would seemingly reach across the entire continent with long, wide rays of golden yellow and whenever it hit the leaves of a big oak and scattered it resulted in a show worthy of admission. It was the kind of weather, especially in the beginning of winter, that was perfect to sit on your back porch with your family, burgers on the grill and 100.0 Radio Eiron going in the back ground. If you were the kind that didn't prefer sitting around, you could hop in your truck, roll the windows down and just hit the road with whatever playlist you fancy going loud over the wind. Get on a long straight with nothing but country for miles around and what you had was the best stress relief you could imagine, all for the price of however much fuel you were willing to use. The trade off to the fantastic summer evenings are hot, muggy mornings and afternoons that are so unbearably hot that even the REC have trouble with them. Sunburn is a common affliction for all but a select few here on Keiturn, and currently, I had managed to regulate it to just my arms, and a small section of the left side of my face. Thankfully, I'm a right handed shooter.

Happening to glance at my watch, I caught sight of the time, 11:40AM. It was then that I realized I was the only one awake in the house.

"Almost noon?", I thought to myself, "hmmm."

Turning from the window, I started up the stairs to the second story. At the top of the stairs was a small hallway that lead into four different rooms, a bathroom and three bedrooms. Directly to the left was the smallest of them, of which the door was shut and no light could be seen from underneath the door. I quietly pushed it open, immediately, I could hear low breathing. Shining my flashlight down into the corner, the light caught a dark blue, humanoid creature, speckled all over with bluish, white dots, easily over six feet long, bunched up in the corner. It had it's head on it's assault pack and it's back to the door. It was clutching it's oversized bolt gun like a teddy bear. He paid no mind to the light shining on him, probably didn't even know it was on him.

"Artemis to Eosnurin", I didn't speak at normal volume, not yet, "attention to the speckled blue thing curled up in the corner, this is your wake up call. Please move your ass."

Still, Eosnurin didn't move. Yeah, I know he probably didn't hear me, was being kinda quiet and we had a rough night last night, as the Gräuelhad been everywhere.

I leaned against the wall and kicked his boot, "Eosnurin, wake up!"

Eos kicked forward against the wall, rolling over so now he was facing me, initially pointing his M24/30 directly at me, but lowering it when he realized I wasn't an Insurrectionist. He hissed at me, his jaw splitting apart in four places to expose rows of short, incredibly strong fangs that could tear sheet metal off the side of a trailer. It freaked the hell out of a good many people that had never met a Militastricorne Carrier before, not me.

"I've got teeth too Eos", I bared my own fangs, I didn't have nearly as many, but mine where just as sharp.

He looked at me for a moment, then set his M24/30 aside, "Artemis, one of these days, one of us is going to get his head blown off doing this kinda shit."

"Rise and shine bro, it's almost noon and we got shit to do."

"Yeah yeah, whatever", Eos grunted in disapproval in reaching for his commando sweater. He hated it when I woke him up. Couldn't say I blamed him, "what all is on the list?"

"The primary objective today is to check this neighborhood as thoroughly as possible before sundown, see how much loot we can get and to make as much money as possible. We're good on just about everything except water and fuel, water we're good on until for at least two more days. Fuel is a bit more pressing. Unless you've got a fuel card in your deck, we've got 70 to empty."

"See, now you're speaking my language", Eos stretched, holding his arms up behind his head, the long, jagged scar that traced from nearly the top of his neck down to almost his stomach looked like it might reopen. It had been months since he'd taken that hit, 12 gauge slug at damn near point blank range. Despite his complete mastery of the Life Elemental Art, the scar just...wasn't going away.

"You doing okay brother? That scar doesn't look like it's gonna go away."

"Yeah, its probably not going to", Eos cracked his neck, "it would have by now. Not too worried about it."

"It looks real bad dude."

"Nah, only when I breathe. Long as I don't have anything heavy dropped on me I'm not too worried about tearing it. It'll be okay before too long, I'll go through my deck here in a minute. I picked up a few cards over the past few days, but haven't had time to look them over yet."

"Kay then, I'mma let you do your thing up here while I get my shit together. You want something to eat before we get a start on the day?"

"Uhhh....nah, I caught that snake the other day. I'll be fine for the time being. By the way, since you brought it up, water should be the very last thing that we do. 'Cause if I go down to the river, I'm puttin' my sunscreen on and getting in said river. It's been just too damn hot lately."

"You ain't lyin. I'll wait for you down by the truck."

I left Eos to get dressed and headed back down stairs and into the backyard, where we had my truck stashed. Now, this truck, a post Second Great War Toyota Tundra Crew Max, was roughly 15 years old. It had been well taken care of for the most part, if I neglected the oil in it once or twice. Not much to look at, a bed cap, some basic all terrain tires on Fuel Eight Spoke twenty inch wheels, a deer guard and some extra white lights. I had some Class 3 Div 6 UV lights mounted around the truck, three in front, two in back and three bars on the headache rack, but the only thing to set them apart from the white lights was their black lenses. Under the hood? An I-Force 5.7 liter V8 with a supercharger package on it. Eos and I had it done right before we struck out on our own. Was it as fancy as some of the other Rigs out here in No Man's Land? Nope. Not by a long shot. Most of the other Rigs out here had been built by guys far cooler than Eos and myself, but you know, we had all the space, horsepower and all terrain capabilities we'd ever needed. And I supposed if we really needed to beef up the truck for a specific task, we could always just switch out the cards in the Mod Base. I sort of wished it had a manual transmission, but most of those had been bought up for higher end projects, again, but dudes far more highspeed than we'd ever be.

I hit the fob twice to unlock the truck, the lights flashed, and it beeped four times. Twice in rapid succession, unlocking the front doors and then twice more to unlock the rear. I popped open the driver side door and stuck the key in the ignition. Twisting the key, the starter spun the motor three or four times before it turned over. The brand new belt shrieked a worn belt screech for a moment before the cooling fan kicked on and the squawking went quiet. To be truthful, I had no real idea what was causing the issue. We had blown the starter up a month or two ago, gotten it fixed and during the process we had discovered a worn idler pulley. We got that replaced, but put a cheap belt on it that would squeal unlike anything I had ever heard before. We had gotten that replaced with a more quality belt, but the squealing hadn't subsided. I'm positive that the squeaking belt has something to do with what could be an underlying electrical issue. Why? Well, erratic voltage on start up, and as soon as we get normal voltage, it stops. The truck normally runs at 13 volts, and the squeaking will subside as soon as the volt meter hits said 13 volts. So, I suspected we either had a bad battery, which, since it was 15 years old as far as we knew, or, the cheap belt had perhaps damaged the alternator in some way. Money was hard to come by since we freelanced in No Man's Land, and since we'd lost plenty of it getting the starter replaced and having a 10mm socket that we'd lost in the bell housing of our transmission dug out, I would prefer to find the actual problem before just throwing new parts at it until the issue stopped. When the squeaking eventually subsided, I turned up the radio so I'd have something to listen to while I got ready, since it was almost noon, the weather would be on soon. Despite the state of the world, there were more than a few stations still Live out there. 23.4 The Fish, 30.1 Epsilon News, 64.4 Rhythm Nation, but most notably was 100.0, Radio New Eiron. The host, Rico, came off like he was a REC Android, mechanical sounds I'd hear in the background from time to time seemed like good evidence, but since everyone I knew thought he was something different, I guessed there wasn't any way to know for sure. Rico and a couple of others ran the station pretty well, offering a mix of radio shows, music, news, etcetera. Sat phone holders had called into the show to report successful raids, offer advice to others or even looking to do some trading. Rico had a pretty decent weather forecast as well, which had us tuning in everyday anyhow, because during the summer, knowing what was ahead was damn critical. It wouldn't surprise me if even the Insurrectionists listened to New Eiron. A song was just fading out and Rico was cutting in.

"Early this morning when I first got to the studio, I heard a really disturbing gurgling sound coming from the sink in the lunch room, and being the idiot I am I went to check it. I realized that someone from the night crew had tried to throw away a bad hamburger in the disposal. The gurgling sound I was hearing was three, massive rats fighting over it. Hope everyone is having a safe day, where ever you are in the ruins of our once beautiful home. Before we get to the weather today, I want to remind everyone to keep their UV Lights and or Flares handy because we all know when temperature rises, Gräuelactivity rises as well. If you don't have good UV Emission equipment, try and avoid nocturnal activity like the plague, but if you gotta work at night, a good semi-auto shotgun loaded with buckshot is enough to put a hole in even the largest, meanest Gräuelout there. Now, with that out of the way, how's it looking out there the rest of the week there Steyer?"

"Hot, very hot", Steyer, the weatherman replied, "We'll stay at right around 110-lower hundred teens all day today and right around 3PM it should drop down to about 105 and then again to about 97. It'll hold that temperature 'till about midnight tonight and then slink even lower into the upper eighties till about noon tomorrow, when it'll be taking a sharp climb into the lower 110's. Tomorrow, sorry guys but we'll be seeing some of those days Keiturn is known for, it's going to get closer to 115 with a projected humidity of close to 91%. On the bright side, the highs for the remainder of the week, and the ten day forecast as well, don't look like they're going to exceed that, so for the next couple of days we should experience slightly cooler weather. It's still hot enough that if you happen to be a Keiturn native, you just might have that upper hand over the Insurrectionists until night fall. The good news is that in about 11 days, that massive arctic rain system will hit us and temperatures should be down in the lower 70's. Stay safe out there folks, make sure you're hydrated and wearing light equipment if you can help it, and keep an eye on each other. Also, if your a Militastricorne Carrier and you happen to hear this, please, do your best to keep an eye on your non Cordyceps friends, they don't handle the heat like we do."

"Words to the wise Steyer", Kirk spoke up from the background. It was a pleasant surprise to hear his voice again. Kirk was a new guy out there at New Eiron, but everyone seemed to love him. He was just a kid, couldn't be older than 8 and anyone with ears knew he was an Entombed, you could hear it in his voice. There was something about them, the kids especially, they just come off like they're hiding pure anguish from you. Like underneath all that body armor and ballistic fiber was a tortured creature that just wanted to lie on something soft and close it's eyes forever, even though for every Entombed I'd met that'd never been the case. Kurt seemed to be different. Everyone who listened to Eiron knew that Kurt wasn't well. Personally, I suspected that he perhaps had some kind of lung disease, or cancer perhaps, given the way he always seemed to be fighting to breathe. I'd heard other rumors as to why he had such a hard time, but found most of them to be rather far fetched.

"Hi Kirk", Rico laughed.

"Hey Kirk is here", Steyer joked, "where you be hiding out little brother?"

"Any place the Insurrectionists can't find me", Kirk said, "dumpsters, behind curtains, basements, under the bed. I even hid behind a generator. The noise masked my breathing."

"You're the only one I know who can hide in the dumpster outback and not be disgusted at some of the refuse found within the pits of that hell.", Rico stated, rather matter of factly, "what did you think of the weather forecast buddy?"

"110 degrees with 91% humidity sounds disrespectful", Kirk said.

"Never heard it put that way before", Styer commented.

"Me either", Rico added, "Now, I wanna move along to another story, because folks, I think you'll find this makes your morning a bit brighter. I've had this come in from about five or six different sources now so I think it's safe to report on. Word has it that the Exclusion Zone Fortress was ransacked and nearly 5,000 Insurrectionist fighters were killed by a team of twenty five Dinosaurs earlier this week. The team was lead by an adult Rex, backed up by the group of 20 other Dinosaurs ranging from Velociraptors to Triceratops and Ankylosaurus. They reportedly took the base after two hours of fighting and suffered no casualties."

"That's how it's done!", Kirk clapped.

"Ha! What I wouldn't give to have been on that hit squad!", Steyer sounded like a little boy on Christmas might, "if any of the Dino's that raided that place are listening. I will hand you three thousand credits in cash if you can fork over a complete recording of that mission."

"So the Exclusion Zone Fortress is gone", a female in the background spoke up, "shit. Imagine how hard those animals must have fought when they realized they were going to win that fight?"

"I'm happy you asked that actually", Rico said. The way he said it caused me to put my plate carrier down and pay closer attention, "I happen to have a member of the assault team on the line. Rellian right?"

"Yeap, better than I've heard most pronounce it", a gruff sounding male answered from the other end.

"Thanks for taking the time to call into the show."

"Not an issue", the reptile answered.

"So, for those of you listening terrestrially, Rellian was one of the ones out front on the assault team that raided the Exclusion Zone Fortress. I talked with him for a little bit before we came on air this morning, and I've decided he's far braver than I'll ever be."

"I thought the REC didn't feel fear?", Rellian asked.

"Well, not like biological creatures do", Rico said, "self preservation is different from fear I think. But anyway, tell us Rellian, I'm going to guess that you grew up in Dino Territory right? Close to the Old Eirron Exclusion Zone?"

"Yep", Rellian said, "born and raised, trenches and old buildings were staples of my childhood."

"So, I'm sure that you had plenty of encounters with the Insurrectionists growing up?"

"Plenty", Rellian said, "I think I must have been....six years old when I killed my first one. Still remember just...clamping down on the damn things torso hard as I could and ripping my head back and fourth hard as I could. Still can't taste much because of how much of his blood got in my mouth."

"Yeah, I remember my first encounter with the Insurrectionists", Styer said, "Great Star be praised, I happened to have my M24/30 with me, one in the skull. Works every time."

"Amen to that", Rico said, "So, Rellian, having the history with the Insurrectionists that your race has, how do you feel about the Exclusion Zone Fortress finally being out of the picture?"

Rellian began explaining his thoughts during and after the mission, during which Eos made his appearance. From head to toe, he was covered. His normal gear consisted of his dark blue commando sweater, handmade leather gloves with metal knuckle guards and dark grey canvas battle pants. His boots, steel toed, were constructed primarily out of heavy cotton canvas with a natural rubber sole that was all held together with some kind of resin made out of some of the most water resistant stuff I'd seen. His combat gear consisted, again, of a heavy canvas plate carrier with hand made steel plates coated in a natural rubber that could be expected to withstand several direct hits from 11.6x65mmR, one of the most powerful cartridges in Occupied Space. He had allocations for all the same kinds of gear that I did, ammunition, medical, explosives, gadgets such as binoculars, admin, and even though he wasn't supposed to have one, he had a radio strapped to the very back of his carrier with the antenna tied up on his left shoulder. His helmet was unique to him. He had purchased a crate of shredded steel armor plates for cheap from a Depot Warehouse, chopped them up with a blow torch and then welded them into a rather crude looking helmet that fully encased his head. It had eight eye holes cut into it, each with a polarized lens in it to help protect his eyes from sunlight. He had taken his time with the paint on it as well, hunting down all of the ingredients he needed to make his own oil based paints, he had painted it with a rather creepy looking smile. He had chosen to bolt on the standard MLOK for coms, ear pro and other helmet electronics, which he wasn't supposed to use but did anyway.

I can hear the questions in the background, "it's 115 degrees outside, why is this guy wearing a sweater, gloves and a steel helmet that fully covers his head and face? Also, why did I say he wasn't supposed to be using flash lights and radios?"

Well, first thing's first. You might have realized by now that neither Eos or myself are Human. In Eos' case, he's a Cordyceps Militastricorne Carrier. A very old and scientifically complicated species that could be considered it's own kingdom in some ways. One of the things you need to know about a Militastricorne Carrier is that they're a fungi based species that spent most of their existence in caves deep under the surface, to the point that Ultra Violet Light in any dosage is incredibly dangerous. In some cases, exposure can be a fate worse than death. The UV flashlight you might use to check for leaks on a condenser coil is could give Eos second degree burns, and if he happened to catch a direct look, he'd have spots in his vision for days. The UV pistol I carried on the back of my belt in case ofGräuel?A good flashlight against me, might make me cover my eyes. Eos? He'd be on the ground crying for mercy as the light peeled the soft tissues off his bones. Anything from a UV long arm, or you know, the sun, would aggressively strip off skin and muscle, cause some of the worst blisters you'd ever see on a living creature and, if it was kept on them long enough, could crack their bones, igniting the marrow inside in the most extreme cases. If you think you get wicked sun burns, try being a Militastricorne Carrier afflicted with Sun Sickness. I'd seen some hard medical guys lose their lunch over that shit. If you're a Militastricorne, Sun Sickness is a horrible, gruesome way to die, and we'd seen some of the bloated, blistered corpses of Carriers that had died from it. Ergo, during the early years of the Second Great War, they developed the fatigue set Eos was wearing right now. Very tightly woven fibers, combined with whatever chemical magic they treated it with, meat that only visible light could pass through the fabric, like sunscreen on steroids. The York Equipment Group had somehow gotten a hold of it and made it in a water proof gel that a Carrier could apply directly to their skin. That had been a godsend to not only the Cordyceps species, but to a lot of others on this planet, because the sun on Keiturn could be a menace at times.

As far as the radio thing went, that has to do with the religion that the Militastricorne species follows. According to their Prophets, the Sun was the manifestation of a deity who is a warrior for God, and had apparently decided that the Militastricorne was wholly unworthy to be in his presence. Thus, he afflicted any who dared to be in his presence with Sun Sickness, that's where the whole Great Star thing came from. Eos was a strange one in terms of following what his religion said. He still held the belief that the sun was a warrior of God quite firmly, however, he also had a firm grasp on the concept of what stars were, how light worked, and why his body hated the deep purple light so much. He was also of the somewhat new school of thought that he should be aloud to use everything available to him to fight the heretics, IE, the Insurrectionists. For context, I'll quote directly from their scripture "you carriers may not make your possessions out of that which may not be taken from the ground or your crops in a natural state, and you must not alter at a basic level the elements that the lord has given you to master". Perhaps a fancy way of saying "no plastic, no synthetic fibers, no alloys".

There's another passage that reads the following in the same book,Dentelaire's Letter to Prophet "Brothers and sisters. Did the Lord not give us all the elements to master? Did he not command of us to take his word to all the reaches of creation? Why, therefore, would he command us not to master the elements, and make them to our liking? For the lord has given us the knowledge to create, surely then, it would be blasphemous against both the lord and the Great Star to not do so." Eos is of the school of thought that Dentelaire's first letter pretty much gives him permission to use whatever he likes. He had a good radio on his back and a decent flashlight on his rifle, but that was about as far as he went, given that was a pretty touchy subject among his race. It had been hotly debated in recent years by what I would say is their equivalent of bishops, but they still hadn't come to a final decision on weather modern combat arms and tech was allowed or not. Some Carriers that had earned Elite Stripes, IE, a large, red tattoo across their chests, faces and backs, had always used Volume issue gear and weapons, but truth be told, most Cordyceps didn't want to modernize. I couldn't say I blamed them, I'd stayed nights over in Eos' Colony when I was little, I felt safer in those caves than I did anywhere else.

"Hey Eos, come listen to this", I waved him over.

"Whats up?"

"Some dinosaurs ransacked the Exclusion Zone Fortress", I said, "they got one of the dinos who was on the team on the radio now."

"They finally trashed that place?", Eos asked.

"Seems like."

"I dunno if I'm lighter because of all the pieces they shot off me, or heavier because of all the lead I'm holding onto now", Rellian concluded, "once the carnage had concluded, we tallied something like 4,791 insurrectionists dead. Lot of us might have some swollen ankles for a while, but that fortress is gone."

"I mean they say no plan survives contact with the enemy, sounds like this one pretty much did", Styer said.

"It pretty much did", Rellian agreed, "at the end of the day, the Insurrectionists can hold their own against anyone. They certainly made us work for it, but the uphill battle made the victory so much sweeter than it had any right to be. I'll be a first time father in a couple of months, and it fills me with joy to say that my kids will have a much more relaxed childhood than I did."

"Rellian, thanks very much for coming on the show", Rico thanked, "feel free to drop by the studio any time you happen to be in New Eirron, would love to meet you in person. Good luck to you and the mate with the new ones."

"Might hold you to that", Rellian said, "thanks for having me on."

"Styer do the weather report yet?", Eos asked.

"Yep."

"What's it looking like?"

"Disrespectful", I shrugged, throwing my plate carrier on, "supposed to stay in the lower hundred teens until about three PM, drop off to 105 at roughly eight, then sink even lower. Gonna be 115 tomorrow though."

"In other words, just another summer in Eirron Country", Eos seemed okay with what he'd heard, "he say anything about that arctic rain that was supposed to hit three weeks ago?"

"We're supposed to finally be getting it sometime next week, could dip as low as 70 degrees."

"Means the Insurrectionists will be on the move", Eos said, "we should score some good loot if they do."

"I guess we'll see", I mused, checking the magazine on my Sig M17 before stuffing it back into it's holster. Pulling my duffle bag from the back of the truck, a bunch of the rifles knocked together inside.

Eos chuckled a bit as he jumped onto the tailgate, "and what toy are you bringing out today?"

"Mmmm...I dunno", I said beginning to undo the bag's chain closure, "I'm thinking AR-47 Mutant today. Wanting to burn some of that Eastern Bloc ammo."

"You say Eastern Bloc like it's a bad thing", Eos made sure to be as snarky as possible as he shoved more magazines of 11.6x65mmR into his pack. He pulled back the bolt on his M24/30, stuck a magazine into the side of his rifle and then shoved the bolt closed, backing off on it just a bit to make sure a round had seated properly. The sun reflected sharply when it caught the polished steel case, casting a sharp oval of light on the top of the cab. Perhaps Occupied Space's most coveted bolt gun, the Cordyceps M24/30 was known by many names, Service Rifle 24/30 Revision, the Trekking Staff, and more rarely, the Thunder Stick. The M24/30 was the primary fighting rifle of his species, fed through a side loaded, staggered column single feed magazine containing anywhere from 5-30 rounds, it was chambered in their own cartridge, the 11.6x65mmRimmed. A particularity hot cartridge, the 11.6x65mmR is a thick walled, boxer primed steel cartridge that housed a 410-475 grain round nosed, bronze jacketed projectile. Depending on the loading's, of which there were many, you could be looking at velocities exceeding 4500 feet a second out of the standard 26 inch barrel. Out of shorter barrels, it effectively defanged the 11.6mm armor piercing variants, but unlocked truly explosive anti-personal capabilities with the cast lead variants.

Anyone who freelanced in the Exclusion Zones of Keiturn can tell a lot about someone else from the way they chose to set up their firearms, that holds especially true for Militastricorne Carriers. Hell, for them, building your rifle is a coming of age ritual. To that rule, Eos was no exception. When he turned 14 years old, he was simply given a block of stainless steel in the rough shape of the M24/30's receiver and had to mill everything out to his own liking. That's the main reason why parts between true M24/30s aren't interchangeable. Once he had everything milled out and finished the way he wanted, he had to turn down and rifle his own barrel, which ended up being a complete beast that worked wonders for stabilizing the 450 grain 11.6x65mmR/98/06 that he typically used. I didn't know much about the alloy they used, but I did know that the profile Eos used had been rated for a 158K working pressure, nearing a 200K burst. It also kept the rifle immensely stable during prolonged gun fights. He had spent weeks in the forests looking for just the right pieces of wood to turn a stock and fore end from, and three or four days hunting down the metal he wanted to use for a heat shield. He had opted to machine out a hybrid rail, enabling him to use either the traditional R4100 Ultrazoom 2-20x that typically adorned Militastricorne rifles, or something more modern. The fore end included accommodations for pic rails on either side, though only the left one was ever used, holding a York Equipment Optimized Combat Light, which held both, white light and Ultra Violet. Tightly woven cotton straps coated with some natural rubber around the fore end and rifle grip kept the weapon tight in his hand and offered protection from the heat that could build up during sustained gunfights, which we got into more often that I care to admit. Though ten round magazines were easier to carry, he opted for the 15 rounders. He used a two stage trigger with about a millimeter of take up on the first stage, hit the wall, and then the next thing to touch that trigger was setting that rifle off. Maybe a quarter of a pound at the most, but that gun was not going off unless that trigger was pulled. The action was fitted so well to the receiver, that the play between the two had almost been eliminated. If you could see the equipment that Eos had been made to build this rifle on, it becomes even more impressive. It was set up to fire both, cast lead and FMJ ball ammunition, and with cast lead, he could pop even the meanest Gräuel like a water balloon. I considered myself a decent gunsmith, but the M24/30 was an entirely different animal than what I normally played with.

"How much ammo you bringing with you?", I asked, throwing my Mutant over my shoulder.

"120 11.6 and 140 7.85 for my side arm", Eos said, checking the cylinder of his revolver, slapping it closed and shoving it back into it's holster, "would like to have 165 but those 15 round mags get a bit cumbersome after a while."

"Can't carry but 270 for the mutant", I mused loading up my IOTV, "I don't see us getting into a running gunfight, but I have an ammunition card if we do."

"Oh, speaking of cards, I did happen to find a fuel card in my deck. I found a Mobile Armor card too, not too sure where I picked it up at."

"Persistent?", I asked.

"I wish", Eos shrugged, "Protects unarmored vehicles against all forms of Ballistic damage Level V and Energy damage Level IV and below for one hour after played."

"Don't lose that. An hour's worth of Mobile Armor could get us out of some tight spots."

"How come we don't have any energy weapons, but other people do?", Eos asked.

"Cuz we ain't found none?", I said closing up the truck and shutting it off.

"I'd like to add a Correxx Ampree to the arsenal myself", he mused, "it would have been nice have something chambered for those UV alloy rounds last night too."

"Yeah, would have been nice for me. Not so much for you, that UV ammo is really not safe for you to be anywhere near", I explained as we walked towards the gate leading to the front driveway, "I used a UMP-45 that was re chambered for that UV stuff the last time we were in Old Eirron, remember that?"

"I'll never forget that night", Eos answered, pulling his rifle tight into his shoulder as we neared the gate, " Gräuel everywhere, no coms, no light, no cover."

"Even the muzzle flash from that stuff is Ultra Violet. I was seeing little black spots for weeks after words and I had polarized sunglasses on. That shit would blind you after two shots and it was a .45 ACP."

"You see, I knew the bullet emitted UV, I didn't know that the powder flashed in UV as well."

"On full auto it was one hell of a light show, like being at a rave. The way the Gräuel flashed and caught fire after getting hit with one or two of those was an entirely different experience. But trust me, if I had been using that shit last night, you'd have been no help. More than likely, you'd have Stage 1 Sun Sickness at least, and you'd be totally blind for sure."

"Well, thanks for not melting the skin off my bones then bro", Eos said as we hit the gate. He put his rifle in his shoulder, steadying it with one hand, placing the other on the gate handle. I nodded to him. He paused for a second before he pulled back on the handle and pushed the gate open. I was out first, rifle up, but finger off the trigger. The neighborhood, clearly, had been abandoned for quite a while, given that every single line in sight was completely over ground, to the point I'm sure it would take Eirron Road and Bridge to come out and cut the grass with those huge four deck tow behind blades they used to mow public lands. The street was rather long, perhaps a half mile total from one end to another. The block we were on was lined with houses, and given the fact that trees had been planted in every front lawn when this place was built, the old oaks were reaching far over the road, shading it almost entirely. Of course, the proximity of the trees to the road, also meant that the roots had torn it up. The road was cracked like someone had driven over it in one of those vibrating steamrollers with the teeth on the wheels, at least a few times. It was filled with old bits and pieces of trash that had been blown in from who knows where in the years since life on Keiturn had been mostly regulated to the huge cities, and the stragglers freelancing in No Man's Land. Eirron Road and Bridge likely wouldn't be too keen on hauling their equipment out to fix a road in a middle of nowhere town that no one lived in any more.

"Dude...look at how badly this road is shredded, looks someone drove up and down it with one of those steamrollers with the agitating drums on it."

"Yeah...no kidding", Eos agreed, "I mean it was rough ride in last night, but I didn't think the road was in this bad a shape. What's that gonna do to the tires?"

"They're all terrain tires, so it shouldn't bother them too much as long as we don't try and race up and down the road.", I mused.

"None of these building's look much better than the roads", Eos noted, scanning around the block, "I see lots of broken windows and doors."

"There's a couple of houses at the end of the street that have been boarded up", I said peering through the ACOG on my rifle at the houses at the end of the street, there was a two story that had been boarded up on both the first and second stories, and the one next to it was boarded on the first, but not the second, "Doesn't look like anyone's tended to them here recently. Could have something worth taking I suppose, could also be full of Gräuel or perhaps just empty."

"There's a couple down this end too", Eos said looking through his own optic, "personally I'm not too concerned about Gräuel, not like we'll have a difficult time dispatching them. But on the same note, what if we're not the only hunters out here?"

"My thoughts too. Long as we don't go 'round blowin' shit up and drawing attention to ourselves we should be okay. Which end looks more promising?"

"Uhhh. I've got three on my end and some on the side that are boarded, but I suppose that might not mean anything. Yours look closer, so let's start there. You wanna check these other houses first? Or start with the boarded ones and just work our way back?"

"Let's start at my end and just work our way back. We can just try it one street at a time and see where we stand in about two hours, and change tactics as needed."

"Seems legit", Eos agreed, "how we splitting the loot today?"

"Depends on what we turn up. I know you've been lusting after an M4 lately, so if I find one I'll chuck it your way. Just think of me if you run across any 7.92x57."

"I will", Eos assured. The house we were approaching first was an old, two story colonial style white house, the last time the lawn had been mowed was maybe about the time the Insurrectionists first appeared. Much of the paint was peeling off the outside paneling and more than a few shingles were missing from the porch cover as well as the main roof itself. Though the building itself seemed structurally sound, I was half tempted to call the integrity of the overhanging roof covering the porch into question. It was beginning to bow inward, flexing the pillars supporting it ever so slightly. Appeared as though it had wracked someone's nerves enough that they had shored it up with two by fours, but even those looked like they were starting to give in just a bit. God only knew when the last time it had power on it, as the only thing to indicate that the house had ever been occupied was the fact that a Concord packaged unit on the side of the house that had the coils and compressor ripped out of it, likely sold for scrap afterwords. A tire swing hung from a thick rope in the front yard, didn't seem like anyone had been home for a good while now.

"Mmhmm, looks like no one's home", Eos noted as we approached the front porch, there were a couple of angles from which any fool with a rifle could easily shot us both in the face, ergo, we approached with weapons up, safeties off. Once we hit the porch, coming up on the front door, the only potential entrance that wasn't secured off with wooden planks, it was hanging loosely by one hinge. Eos' weapon clicked as he took it off safe and put it in his shoulder. I kept my Mk47 at low ready as I put my hand on the door, Eos nodded to me and I pushed the door hard as I could, taking it off the hinges. Eos darted inside, off to my left as I pursued, bringing my Mk47 up to my eye as I entered. The stairs to the second story were right in the front entry way, with the living room off to the right and a smaller hallway to the left which lead to four different rooms. The living room was furnished with a flat screen that hung on the wall directly to my left, a large stand with two drawers that was covered with old clothes and electronic equipment, a small coffee table and a large, L shaped couch that would more than work to conceal a single shooter or Gräuel. I pushed off into the living room, back against the wall, checking behind the couch first.

"Clear living room!", I announced, "moving!"

"Master bedroom clear", Eos said, "moving!"

I pushed into the kitchen, which had a much more modern styling than the living room, or the rest of the house form what I'd seen. Lots of black and white, with stainless steel appliances. Something that may or may not have been food at one point was still in a pot on the stove.

"Kitchen clear", I announced, "on your six."

"Rodger. Hallway bathroom clear, but got a locked door", Eos said, "sounds like there may be a Gräuel behind it."

I approached Eos from behind, putting my ear to the door and taking a listen. I could hear a faint, shallow breathing behind it, like something was trying to get a deep breath in with water filled lungs.

"Yup", I stepped back from the door, "you got one back there at least."

"Entry?"

"You breach, I'll enter first, UV Lights on just in case."

I stepped back, Eos stood off to the side of the door. I put the Mk47 into my shoulder with my thumb hovering over the switch on the pressure pad for my UV light. I nodded to Eos, and with a single kick, he nearly took the door off the hinges. A twitch of my thumb coated the entire room in a deep purple light, instantly illuminating the two tall, pale skinned, roughly humanoid creatures. Their skin and blood vessels began to glow a sickly yellow as soon as the UV hit them. Much like Eos' would, their skin started to blister and peel as though they were on fire the second that the light hit them. The screams the creatures uttered, still to this day made by blood run cold, mostly just out of wonder how anything alive could make that kind of noise. I brought the AOCG on my Mk47 to my eye, keeping them both open to super impose the reticle in the space in front of me. One, two, change targets, one, two. The screaming stopped, though I kept my light on them for several seconds. Eos came in behind me, pointing his M24 at both of the corpses with UV light on.

"Dead, dead. They're dead", I told him, clicking my light off.

"Good kills", Eos congratulated, "two less Gräuel to worry about after sundown. I heard some more scurrying upstairs, sounds like one more at least. I'll take point up the staircase."

I nodded in agreement. We moved to the staircase, Eos on point, backing up the stairs with his rifle pointed in the direction that the Gräuel's growling was coming from. I went up behind, focusing on the room that Eos had his back to. As Eos reached the top of the stairs, I heard the Gräuel start screaming.

"Mmm. This guy's not happy we came into his house", Eos commented, "firing."

Eos fired his weapon through the door. Outside of a house, the M24/30 was rather obnoxious to be close to unless it was fitted with a suppressor. Even though Eos' rifle was suppressed, inside, the concussion that exited the front of said suppressor was still rather unpleasant to be around. Even through my Vektors and ACH strapped with four extra pounds of crap, the shockwave still managed to turn my brain around inside my skull. Eos cycled the round out of his rifle, sending the hot piece of steel clanging down the stair case and pushed towards the door, firing another shot as I managed to get my bearings and get up the stairs to the room he had his back against, from which I was now hearing more growling. How many of them were in this damn house? I got up the stairs and only had the mutant half way into my shoulder when one of the Gräuel started tearing through the door. Eos fired a third round at his target, and as soon as I saw my target's torso, I fired five shots. Two of them I saw impact when blood came spurting through the door. The Gräuel had left a sizable hole in the door, so I reached into my left leg rig.

"Class E three div three through the door", I announced to Eos as I hit the button and tossed it into the room through the hole in the door.

"Acknowledged", Eos said.

The purple glow came through door within seconds of the device leaving my hand. I heard the Gräuel start to scream and hiss. Eos kicked in the door to his room and rushed inside, I heard his M24 go off once...twice. With him out of the influence of the UV grenade on the other side of my door, I kicked it in, finding the Gräuel hiding on his stomach with his hands over his eyes behind the bunk bed where the UV light wasn't reaching as much. I clicked on my rifle's UV light and shined it right on him as I came around the side of the bed, ceasing his tossing and turning against the broiling purple glow with three shots.

"This one's dead! Second story back bedroom clear!", I shouted, picking up my now dimly lit UV grenade and stuffing it back it my leg rig.

I heard Eos' rifle go off one more time.

"Dead! Second story front bedroom clear!", he said.

"You get a tough one back there?", I called before joining him in the hallway.

"Damn thing was tanking that ball ammo", Eos said, "that R9806 I run has a bad habit of just sliding through anything not wearing a plate at close range. I wish I had some R9906, or better yet some 5014."

"Isn't R5014 the pinnacle of the cast lead ammo though?", I inquired as we met at the last upstairs door.

Eos nodded, "yes. Fuckin...five credits a shot. I'll have to see about getting some from the next colony we run across. You clear this room yet?"

"Not yet", I took my second UV grenade from my leg rig and held the button in, it wouldn't start to glow until I let it off, "glow and clear."

"Gonna get some grenade kills in huh?", Eos put his hand on the knob and gave it a quick turn, pushing the door open only slightly, giving me just enough room to throw the UV emitter inside. I heard it clank around off several objects before falling still and then turning on. The glow under the door subsided after about 20 seconds, during which we heard no sounds of agony. Eos threw the door open and I rushed inside, scanning around the room, which turned out to be a bathroom, it was empty. Trashed, perhaps, but empty.

"Clear", I announced picking up my UV grenade.

"Cool", Eos said, "now we have the house to ourselves. I'll take upstairs if you take down."

"Sure", I agreed, "call me if you find something interesting."

"Only if you return the favor."

"Man, you must not trust me that much", I said heading back down the stairs.

"I only trust a Keteran as far as I can throw them", Eos made sure to answer with as sarcastic a tone as possible.

"Ouch", I replied heading back towards the master bedroom. The master bed was sat in the middle of the room, looking as if it's normal occupants had torn out of it in a hurry. Clothes were strewn all over the floor, left as though someone was trying to load them into the suitcases that sat open on the bed, and been forced to leave before they had a chance to do so. The bed tables at both sides of the bed had a good layer of dust on them, along with the home office desk that sat in the corner underneath a window that had accumulated a thick layer of greenish brown moss and dirt. I set my MOLLE II Equipment pack down in the corner, unclasping the fastex front buckles and opening the top flap, setting the bedroll down beside it. Unless I knew I was heading into a fight with the Insurrectionists, I always kept my big ruck with me, for the specific reason that it could hold the most loot. It was a big, bulky, honestly too damn heavy thing that I had spent many a night living out of. The sheer number of sore shoulders, backs achy feet and overworked heat pump organs this multicam monster strapped with a thousand pouches had caused me, you'd think I'd wise up and switch to something lighter. Nope. Only way I'd give it up was if someone killed me for it. Before I started looting the room, I made it a point to swap the batteries in my UV grenades. I didn't think I'd be seeing too many more Gräuel before sundown, but there had been four of them in this house. It was as simple as clicking one cell out and the new one into place. I packed the dead batteries away with the rest of my electronics, and now it was time to start searching.

I gave attention to the suitcases first, checking the contents methodically, they contained mostly old clothes, nothing my style, but in the bottom of the larger one, I happened to find a wad of almost 4,000 credits and somebodies passport, seemed like they were going to try to head to Union Space. The Passport belonged to a Human, but was in a language I couldn't understand.

"EOS!", I shouted.

"WHAT!?", he asked from upstairs.

"I JUST FOUND FOUR GRAND IN ONE OF THESE SUITCASES!"

"COOL! LET'S BUY FOOD THAT'S BAD FOR US WITH IT!"

With the thought in my head that maybe we could finally figure out what exactly was wrong with our truck, I stuffed the bundle of credits into the lower pocket on my leg rig and went back to searching the bedroom. I heard that some people keep valuable things under the bed, so this guy must have really treasured his dust bunnies. The home office desk yielded only unwrapped office supplies, so I moved to the closet, where I found more old clothes, some pieces of assorted sports equipment, as well as a wooden box and a metal cabinet that looked suspiciously like a gun safe. I tried the handle of the cabinet first, it wasn't going to budge. I then tried the box, which I found was not locked. Inside the wooden box, I found what looked like a wedding dress, the deed to this house, and some other important looking documents, but nothing of use to me. I let the lid of the wooden box fall and then turned back to the cabinet.

I thought to myself for a moment, then pulled out my Deck. The cards, 55 in all, floated in my hand once I got them out of their case. The size of common playing cards, Spell Cards contained effects of a specific element that any Practitioner of any element could use. Typically, these were rather mundane effects, such as refilling magazines, a fuel tank, or repairing body armor. There were more advanced cards out there, such as Force Mitigation cards, which could lessen or even negate certain types of forces, ie, impacts from projectiles, thrown objects or perhaps a shock wave from an explosion or incoming elemental effects. Others included enabling mechanical objects to function faster or at a higher efficiency, or preventing things from breaking or wearing out. That was only scratching the surface of what was out there, but here I was looking for a very specific card, Locked-Unlock, a single use card which could unlock mechanical lock. I kept three of them in my deck for just this kind of occasion, though they always tended to get sorted around. Finding the card in the middle or so of my deck, I plucked it out and put my cards back in their case, sticking it back in my IOTV. With the card between two fingers, I grabbed hold of the cabinet handle and gave it a stiff turn. The handle turned as though I had unlocked it with the key, freeing the door, the card flaking away into a fine white powder in my hand. Swinging open the heavy door of the cabinet, I learned that it was in fact, being used as a gun safe. There was an assortment of firearms inside, wasn't anything particularity interesting, or really valuable, couple of 7.62 bolt guns, a revlover and what looked like a suppressor for a Correxx Ampree.

I thought for a moment, "now...why would someone leave a suppressor for an Ampree, presumably take the Ampree with them, and then leave their cash and their passport?"

I grabbed the suppressor out of the cabinet, the markings on the side read "blast mitigation device, energy weapon, Correxx Ampree. Sub 6100 amps only."

"Okay", I thought aloud, "well, least if we add an Ampree to the arsenal, we have a suppressor already."

I threw the suppressor on the bed, then checked the rest of the weapons in the safe. Turned out to be the man's collection of old black powder stuff, wouldn't necessarily be useful...or even valuable. Leaving the safe open, I threw the suppressor in one of the pouches that I had strapped to the outside of my pack. I had just zipped it up and was stowing the cash when Eos came over the radio.

"Artemis", his tone was grim, serious, not his normally airy headed attitude, "a group of Heretics have arrived. Get up here."

"Rodger, gimme 30 seconds."

I closed up my ruck and threw it to my shoulders, tightening the straps to secure it to my body as I hauled myself up the stairs as fast as I could.

"Second story front bedroom", Eos said over the radio.

Joining him in the room, he was just finishing repacking a magazine, stuffing it back into his plate carrier, while keeping his eyes firmly on the window.

"On your six", I announced as I approached him. Going to his side, being careful not to skyline myself in the window, I took my Simmons binos out of my vest to take a gander of what was going on down in the street.

I counted no fewer than ten Insurrectionist foot mobiles, eight infantry, one marksman and a Control Unit. This was odd. Not for them to be out this far, they always patrolled out in places like this, rounding up scavengers, drifters, and even mercs like Eos and myself. They didn't take prisoners, typically they just lined them up against the nearest wall and executed them. They'd invaded before I'd even been born, and growing up, I'd watched them chew through the old Keiturn military, one body at a time until eventually they took Old Eirron. New Eirron, and some other huge cities around the planet had managed to avoid the same fate, for now at least. They'd sometimes lose 1000 soldiers for every one of us they killed, but they came with numbers and gear as if the war had just kicked off yesterday, year after year after year. Heretic was Cordyceps slang for your typical Insurrectionist foot mobile. The oddity was not that they were carrying special armaments, the group was mostly armed with M4A1s and SIG M19s as side arms, or their numbers. The oddity was that they had a control unit. It was rare, exceedingly so, to see them outside of the radiation soaked, trench covered warzones of Dino Territory, close to Old Eirron's city limits. Control units were slow moving, tanks of units that wore some of the heaviest armor you'd see someone who wasn't a Dinosaur wearing. They carried powerful energy beam cannons that could completely disintegrate biological targets, total all but about two models of power armor and kill any vehicle short of Keiturn's main battle tank. These black suits were only sent out to kill Dinosuars, as they had only ever been reported on any planet in areas where Dinos lived and operated. Why there was one out here was beyond me, there wasn't any place around here I'd think I dino could stash itself.

"Least ten of them down there", I observed, "eight infantry with a marksman and a Control in support."

"Wonder what a Control Unit is doing here?", Eos asked, "no way there are any Dinosuars around. We'd have run into them by now."

"Good question", I mused, "either way, looks like we're fixing to make some income."

"Now we're talking", Eos said, "the Control unit's weapon alone would make the entire day worth it. I'll get an M4 out of it too."

"You want the Control Unit?", I asked, "I don't see my steel cased 7.62x39 123 grain FMJ doing much against him. I can get the sniper though, after that, it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel."

"Yeah, you get the Sniper on sync and then the rest of 'em will be too shocked to shoot back, least for a few seconds."

"Gimme a second to get a clean shot."

I shoved my binos back into my vest and headed back down stairs. The only place that I'd have a clean shot at the Marksman would be from the wide open front door. I would have all of about five seconds to make a single bullet count before I would be sprayed down with full auto. Close to the bottom of the stair case, I hopped over the railing and hit the ground with a dull thud. Bringing the ACOG of my MK47 to my eye, I peeked around the door, only enough so I could view my target while keeping my body covered. Thankfully, the Marksman was close to the front of his squad, and the fool didn't even have his weapon up, slung around his midsection, he was more focused on the granola he was munching on than anything else.

"Have the target. I'll fire on you, this dumb fuck's munching on a pack of granola."

"Hope he enjoyed the last meal", Eos said.

Eos landed a perfect hit on the Control Unit. I only saw a red mist fly out of the back of his head as he fell backwards like a sack of wet concrete. I followed up on my target as soon as I realized he'd landed a kill shot, I fired twice, the first round struck my target in the left upper side of his forehead, taking off a good part of his skull and sending it flying. The second part struck lower and to the right, blowing a good, four inch hole in the front of his face. His body jerked as the second shot took him off his feet, landing him face first on the scorching asphalt. It only took the amount of time required for me to shift from the Marksman to the Infantry unit right next to him for them to absolutely light us up. All eight of them sprayed this house with full auto fire as they took off into the weeds and the suburbs, some of them beginning to search for us while others continued to spray.

"Okay those guys scattered quick!"

I was only able to keep track of one, who bolted towards the red house directly across the street from us. He slammed through the front door and disappeared into the house. The only window I could see was boarded up.

"One hostile at least! Red house on the left hand side directly across the street from us!", I called into the radio, "saw him duck in the front door!"

"I saw three of them bolt to the one on our right!", Eos replied, "one's down there by the silver sedan with the flat front tires! Can you see him!?"

I shifted positions to the other side of the door, that way the guy who'd bolted to the red house wouldn't have a shot at me. Bringing my ACOG up again, I caught sight of the Infantry behind the car, could just make out his boots. I laid on my side, using the bulk of my ruck to brace myself against the recoil of my rifle, I put the reticle on the guy's ankles and fired four rounds. Didn't see where the first one went, but the second shot struck the Insurrectionist right in the ankle joint. He fell over, I fired six more rounds, all of which hit their target. Now his friends, none of which I could see, started sending more accurate shots, one of which struck the front of my ACH, right on the SLAAP plate, jerking my head back rather painfully and really encouraging me to get the hell away from that door.

"Well I got the one by the car!", I said over the radio.

"You get hit!?", Eos asked.

"Right in the forehead", I grunted, "SLAAP plate saved me."

Eos fired one, two, three rounds.

"Got two!", I heard something up stairs click, "Frag on white right house!"

Standing back up, I peeked back through the door and saw Eos' stick grenade land by the front door. One of the Insurrectionists passed by a window in an attempt to get away, and in the short frame of time I had, I managed to squeeze off four shots, though I wasn't sure if any of them hit.

"I saw at least one get away from that frag", I noted. Keeping my eyes on that one window, I saw the one I'd taken shots at peek out and put his M4 in the window. I fired three more rounds, he dropped out of the window. So...we'd killed the control unit, the Marksman, I killed the one by the car and in the window, and Eos had said he'd killed two more, so that was six out of ten, we had four more targets left. The gun fire had quieted substantially, deciding it was probably a good idea to reload, I reached into my vest

"Four more targets left!", I called, pulling a fresh magazine from my kit, I pushed my trigger finger forward to hit the release paddle, pulled the spent mag out, rocked the fresh one into place and put the spent one back in the pouch, "you see that one come out of the red house yet?"

Almost on que, I heard the back door of the house burst open.

"Flank! Hard flank!", I called to Eos. I now had two options. They were coming through the back door in the kitchen, and would likely push around and come at me from both directions, I could push them from the living room, the long way with a higher risk of getting shot in the back before Eos could get around, or, rush into kitchen with the Mk47 on full auto, and see what I could kill.

In a split second, I flipped the switch to full auto and went around towards the kitchen, meeting two of the Insurrectionists with guns not quite up, but not down either. I managed to get mine up faster, of course given that I had an RMR on top of my ACOG, didn't have a lot of travel. With a dot on a torso I ran my MK47 conversion gun for everything it was worth. Much as I hated full auto, it came in handy for an occasion like this, to kill both of them, I fired all thirty rounds of 7.62x39 I had on tap, shredded through both of them and dropped them on the kitchen floor. Behind me, I heard Eos rifle go off again, one, two, insurrectionist spraying on full auto as I tried to come back around, Eos then fired twice more

"There! Got the last two", Eos said.

I started laughing as I changed the magazines in my MK-47 again, "well there's one way to make some income!"

Eos came down the stairs, "No shit! Now, where'd you take that shot?"

"He had to have directly hit the SLAAP plate", I said unclasping my ACH.

Eos stepped forward and took a close look where the bullet had hit.

"Yeah, looks like it'll bruise, didn't do any serious damage."

"Thankfully."

"You know SLAAP Mk2 plus ACH technically only rates you for 7.62x39 BT, not 5.56x45 SS1110."

"God must be looking out for me", I shrugged putting my helmet back on.

"Somebody is", Eos clicked his tongue, changing the magazines in his rifle, "there's gonna be a lot of stuff here."

"Hey", I thought aloud, "what the fuck were these guys hunting? We killed a control unit, they never operate outside of Dino territory."

Eos paused for a moment, "no...you're not wrong. Gotta be a dinosaur close by."

"Wanna try and make contact?", I asked, "we gotta cross Infamy bridge to get out of the county at some point. Having a Dino on the team would be a major asset when it comes time to do just that."

"Couldn't hurt to try, I imagine they just saw us slaughter those Heretics and might try anyway", Eos mused, "but before we do anything else, let's see how much money we just made huh?"

"See, now your speaking my language."