Lost Rain

Outrun - Chapter 180

I carefully pulled myself through the hole, dodging a mound of bones just before me. I had ways of taking care of visual detection, but any sound I made could set off the security lurking in the shadows of the theatre. Good thing I had ole reliable Fox's Paw to take care of noises.

Once I w...

Outrun - Chapter 179

"Zuku, it's here.” Lia brought down the rather lightweight plasma torch. 

“Set it down over there… think you could get it hooked up to the Prowler?” I asked as I fiddled with the jammer. It was the first time I’d actually gotten around to using it since I got the thing, so I ...

Outrun - Chapter 178

I got a day of rest after returning from New Tress Radio. The doc gave me a quick check-over just before I went to sleep. The stim Yonrow administered had already stopped the internal bleeding of my muscles and stabilized my ankle by then, so he just ordered some sleep. Not that I was complaining...

Outrun - Chapter 177

”How’s it look?” A call came from above, causing me to lose focus as I glanced over my shoulder. Renold and Hampton stood at the uppermost balcony, the latter of which waved down to us.

I checked the diagnostic report one last time. I’d already run it several times. The old wiring w...

Outrun - Chapter 176

The other three would probably be fine, but Lia and I were squishy compared to them. I grabbed the recovering woman’s arm, pulling her with me as I used Burst Step to get out of the area. My legs throbbed as the movement’s strain doubled, nearly tripping me as I felt my muscles turn to jelly....

Outrun - Chapter 175

Everything was going fine as the squad carefully scouted the place, leaving no corner unchecked. We ascended Floor by floor, carefully watching for any signs of trouble. We couldn’t just leave floors unchecked either considering we were looking specifically for the spare part storage. Unfortuna...

Outrun - Chapter 174

I looked over my scrappy handiwork with a vague sense of satisfaction. Course, that sense of satisfaction was nearly smothered by my worries that the modified chrome would even hold together, but at the very least it should be a quick reversion back to how it was. Renold had been very adamant dur...

Outrun - Chapter 173

I don’t know what I was expecting from the area around New Tress Radio, but it certainly wasn’t this. A thick junk barricade made from scraps of cars and broken blocks of cement blocked in the entirety of Karaoke Plaza. It didn’t necessarily look handmade as much as it appeared some massive...

Outrun - Chapter 172

We met up with the rest of the Crimson Company near the middle of the city, near a massive sinkhole that swallowed the entire city center. It was a cataclysmic sinkhole, looking as though a titanic cavern had collapsed, leading to the earth swallowing several dozen skyscrapers. Sand coated the si...

Outrun - Chapter 171

The APC continued to get hit with potshots for several blocks till we lost our pursuers. The bastards just didn’t give up, or at least that's the feeling I got from them as they continued to hammer us just inside the safety of the surrounding buildings. Thankfully, there wasn’t another one of...

Restless - Chapter 5

Clyde took the lead as soon as we started coming across patrols of guards. Not city guards though. They were more… militaristic. With what Moll said earlier about a defensive line… were we near a warzone? Hmm… how do I ask without getting caught… 

“Uh- crazy about all that fi...

Outrun - Chapter 170

The repair was going smoothly. Too smoothly, almost. With Melas making the exact parts I needed from bits of scrap metal, I could easily replace the parts of the drivetrain that were messed up. Sure, the new parts weren’t high quality and would need to be replaced at the first opportunity, but ...

Outrun - Chapter 169

I stared out the window at shattered buildings and vine-entwined architecture. We were pretty far into what would’ve used to be the city’s downtown area. Even back when everything was built forty years ago, skyscrapers were the way to go. They hid the surrounding desert entirely, though unlik...

Outrun - Chapter 168

I checked the fitting one last time, ensuring the line wouldn’t detach if it was jostled too much. The first time I ‘fixed’ a Prowler’s fuel line, I hadn’t secured it enough. They barely got out of the camp before the AE3 ‘eroded’ the fitting once more and I had to fix it. At least,...

Outrun - Chapter 167

“Zuku! Got another one for ya’!” A woman’s voice called out to me, a hint of nerves evident through the shake in her voice, yet the shake was so suppressed it could easily be missed. Triss, one of the other Squad leaders. Red-Two, I think.

My eyes slowly eased open as I stared up at...

Outrun - Chapter 166

A man stepped out of the truck, waving his hand to the Prowler as it approached. We watched as Captain Roger himself got out of the prowler. Unfortunately, the magic screen Lia made couldn’t send audio back, just the wolf’s visuals. We couldn't hear the exchange between the two. Knowing how v...

Outrun - Chapter 165

The smooth rumble of an engine chugging along woke me up. Instantly, my drowsiness vanished as my brain kicked into high alert. It took a few moments to settle back down. 

I rubbed at my eyes, feeling quite happy all things considered. The soreness in my limbs had faded entirely. My he...

Outrun - Chapter 164

The central point of the approaching wall was just in front of us. They’d gotten close enough that their forms were distinguishable through the sands. And oh man did I wish they weren’t.

Dune Walkers. It was my first time seeing them in the flesh- err, the rotting flesh. The once-human ...

Name-a-Squire

Been a long time since I did one of these. Probably will be a while before the Squires actually pop up, but I figured I'd get the names sorted out now.

If you're interested, it's on a first come first serve basis. Simply reply with an adjective. I'll then take that adjective and your prof...

Outrun - Chapter 163

The silence lasted for several minutes, only covered by the hum of engines and a subtle tension that held the entire camp active. Something had to give. And eventually, it did. Engines from afar slowly echoed from the edges of the sandstorm, the hums seeming to be a reassurance as if everything w...

Outrun - Chapter 162

The night, as it turns out, was anything but uneventful. Where did it start going wrong? Somewhere after I laid down for the night, and then paranoia kept me from falling asleep amongst a bunch of strangers. Sure, Athena had been very clear she wanted me back in one piece, but logic didn’t alwa...

Outrun - Chapter 161

To be honest, I don’t know quite what they were expecting to happen when they decided to ram what they suspected to be an ambush. Mine laying is pretty basic when it comes to vehicular ambushes. Hell, they were fairly common in general as long as the one laying them didn’t care about blowing ...

Outrun - Chapter 160

I wiped a streak of sweat from my brow as I pumped up the cooling from my poncho. It was still cold out, but the intense heat radiating from the Mouse was something else. I rolled out from under the truck, bringing along my tools. “Try it now!”

The driver hit the ignition. It churned fo...

Outrun - Chapter 159

It’d been four days since my meeting with Athena and Captain Roger of the Crimson Company, and things hadn’t been going all that well. At first, I thought I’d get done with the whole Blackout thing in barely a day, but the truth hadn’t been all that kind. It’d been four days, and not on...

Restless - Chapter 4

I slammed my shovel down into the dirt, forcing myself to slowly breathe. What would Vayne do? …probably make a shit pun and help dig out this Moll person anyway. He was always like that; ever the helpful hero. Not sure if digging up a grave was considered heroic though.

As we dug up the ...

Outrun - Chapter 158

Rain tapped against a far window of the Jagged Clover, drawing my attention away momentarily as a yawn stretched my jaw. My phone buzzed as a city-ordained warning about mass shootings in Bricktown came, shortly followed by a strict order to stay indoors. Good thing I was on the other side of the...

Outrun - Chapter 157

I sat at the bar of the speakeasy, drinking from my canteen as I idly toyed with my ectrobola. I already got everything moved over, most of which was in the back. Unfortunately for me though, my choice of tables was rather lacking. The bar was the best thing in the speakeasy to work on, at least ...

Outrun - Chapter 156

A guard with a Constellation patch on his arm passed me the same black card I’d gotten the last couple times I’d been through the initial checkpoint. “Don’t lose this. We don’t offer seconds, and it's your pass to the next market. Just scan it with your phone.”

”Yeah yeah.” ...

Outrun - Chapter 155

I idly stroked the top of Corvid’s head as he chowed on a burger. It’d already been a day since I infiltrated Cold Moon Solutions, and yet I still found myself stuck watching the news clips over and over again. Of course, the rest of the city had long gone on. It was just another explosion in...

Outrun - Chapter 154

I downloaded all the files from the various projects I could access while I waited for the AI’s response. I took a particular interest in the ones missing Cold Moon Solution’s label.

Definitely a Savant Lab. Couldn’t tell which corp was behind it, but that wasn’t a surprise. Hard to...