The quartermaster was sitting on a nearby couch seat, sipping at a drink he had recently poured and staring at Kurt. He grimaced slightly at the outfit and tilted his head. “That is a very cheap holster. I could equip you with a better one if you like.”
Kurt patted the holster in reference. “No thanks, came with the outfit. I don’t expect to survive my next errand, so no point losing good gear.”
Leo shrugged, sparing one last disdainful glance at the holster. “The ammunition you requested.” He waved a hand nonchalantly at the seat beside Kurt, drawing his eyes to a box of rounds. Kurt opened it and inspected the strange looking bullet. “Those are Shredder rounds, among the most effective ammo a man can buy. Also ludicrously expensive, but something tells me you don’t much care about the cost.”
The round was jacketed in a silvery metal, with a series of serrated copper blades rising from the shell, coming together to form a hollow point with jagged edges. Kurt turned it over in his palm, peering to make out the detail on the segmented coppery area. “No sir I do not. Good against armor?”
“Oh indeed.” Leo raised a lip in a slight sneer as he spoke the last word. He reached out and took the shell gently from Kurt. “This hollow point round expands on impact, sending each of these hardened copper blades slicing into the target. The result is massive tissue damage and extreme lethality even on heavily armored targets.” He dropped the shell into Kurt’s palm again, crossing one leg over the other and returning his attention to his drink. “And all for the low cost of forty-seven dollars per round. Special rate for you, of course.”
Kurt’s eyes nearly boggled at that, but a quick scan of the round showed a 75% armor piercing rate, along with a special notification that if the round over penetrated the target, it would perform much the same as a shotgun blast with several projectiles emerging in a spread instead of a single round. That clinched it for him, and he filled his special ammunition with two thousand rounds. “This is perfect, thanks Leo. Oh, I need a box of frag grenades too.”
Once his holsters two magazine pouches had a magazine each, Kurt adjusted his helmet and stepped to the bar, placing his ECM device in its charger.
Leo stood with a small groan as the train rumbled to a stop. “Best of luck out there. I’ll have your armor delivered within an hour.” He moved to the door and paused. “You want a little backup out there?” When Kurt shook his head in reply, Leo nodded slightly, lingering in the doorway. “…well, just wanted you to know…you’re one of us.” He gave Kurt a respectful nod and ducked his head as he left the train.
Kurt looked himself up and down, grimaced at the GoonStorm outfit, and breathed out a sigh. “Damn straight I am.”
A few minutes later, he was walking the streets with nothing but the Messenger strapped to his hip and a pocket full of MK 2 fragmentation grenades. He started jogging as he saw a GoonStorm Humvee turn the corner, raising both hands to flag them down. The Humvee slid to a stop across the street from him, though the gunner did swivel to face him as he approached to speak to the driver.
“Holy crap am I glad to see you guys! My squad and I split up to lose the Heat and they must have ditched me.” He looked nervously around. “There’s Pirates all OVER the place, can I get a ride?”
“Pirates this deep?? Get in, show us where.” The driver slapped at the side of his door, and the door behind him popped open to allow Kurt inside. He happily squeezed in beside another player in GoonStorm colors, moving to avoid the feet of the gunner in the middle of the cabin.
“One of those terrifying flamer bus things chased me around about two blocks over, but I lost em by running into the subway and coming back up over there.” Kurt pointed through the windshield, leaning forward. “Just head towards the freeway, I’m sure you won’t miss em.” His eyes darted between them, gauging their reactions.
The gunner slapped the roof with a cheer as the driver eagerly took off, chirping the Humvees tires. “Hell yeah! That’s a ton of rep, let’s go get em boys!”
Kurt smiled and sat back. He looked between the three men in the cabin, happy to see them ignoring him. “Hey guys, you think you could help me out a little? I just started the other day and I’m working on an unlock.”
The passenger in the rear compartment glanced at him. “Sure, what do you need?”
Kurt hauled the Messenger from its holster, letting it dangle from the trigger guard. “I lucked into a critical early battle last night and got rewarded with this thing. My first Unique.”
Now he had the passenger’s attention, as the man turned in his seat to ogle the gun. “Holy shit, this guy’s got a unique!” Both men in the front seat craned to see, the driver using his rearview mirror as Kurt happily held it up for them to see. Even the gunner crouched to peer between his legs at the weapon. “Those get upgrades with riddles, I hear.”
Kurt ran a hand over the slide, gripping the gun with his finger extended over the trigger guard. “Yeah, exactly what I’m working on. So I got my first riddle and I THINK I got it figured out. I just need to kill players with it while they KNOW I’m going to.” He waved the gun around in the air a bit, watching with a small smile as the passenger beside him followed it. “So now I’m going to kill all of you with it.”
The passenger at his side stopped smiling and got a confused look on his face as Kurt pointed the gun at him with a smile and squeezed the trigger. He turned and pressed the Messenger to the back of the front seat passengers head and fired again, turning to shoot the gunner in the crotch as he scrambled to climb into the cabin and respond. The driver started shouting an obscenity as he struggled to get his own sidearm unholstered, but Kurt just leaned over and shook his head before shooting the man point blank in the ear. He sat back and buckled his seat belt as the Humvee rolled to a stop against a nearby building front.
Once he opened the door, a cloud of black smoke poured out from the vehicle and he stepped down into it, reaching into a pocket. He produced a grenade and pulled the pin, casually tossing it into the open door behind him before walking away. He scanned the Messenger and was pleased to see a boost of four in his tally, bringing it up to seven of twenty-five. The Humvee erupted behind him as he continued walking while pulling up his map. “Awesome. Now to go find some more new friends.” He grinned slightly as another digital blue camo painted Humvee appeared on the road ahead of him.
Kurt’s night passed in a blur as he worked on his upgrades and ground at his skillset, while tormenting the GoonStorm forces in the DownTown Cluster. As the sun began to rise over Illusion, he pulled into the dockside Hub with a GoonStorm Humvee. Drake stepped out from behind Gadot’s new Mustang, wiping his hands on a rag while he scowled. The car was smoking slightly, riddled with bullet holes across the front end. “Why’d you bring that trash in here?”
“Sorry Drake, gonna need it later. Get her patched up for me please? No need to refill the ammo though.” He stepped out, now dressed in his starter outfit of black jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt. The Messenger was tucked safely into his starter holster at the small of his back. When Drake gave him a surly nod, Kurt smiled at him and moved to leave the garage for the Hub proper but stopped at the doorway. “Oh and make the Ferrari ready with the new design please.” Drake waved dismissively at him, already peering at the varying bullet holes and scorch marks on the Humvee.
As Kurt entered the sitting room, he could hear Jimmy and Gadot laughing and talking, seemingly in better spirits. He walked in to see Gadot lounging on the couch, her legs across Jimmy’s lap as she giggled at Jimmy and swiped through her phone.
Jimmy looked up as he entered and smiled widely. “Hey! Where you been all night man?!”
“Oh, you know…out making friends.” Kurt walked to the coffee bar and pressed the button, waiting eagerly for a steaming cup. He walked back to the couches with it, sitting down as his phone chimed a call alert at him. He swiped to it to see a com request from Kitty, noticing the others also pulled up their phones. He answered and watched as Gadot and
Jimmy also joined the com channel.
“Ok good, I have you all. Meeting time, you guys ready?” Kitty sounded cheerful, almost manic, causing Kurt to knit his eyebrows in concern.
“Uh…sure? What meeting? Why are you so happy Kitty?” Kurt was wary, confused and mildly frightened. He knew from intimate experience that it was rarely a good thing when Kitty was so pleased.
“Wouldn’t YOU like to know?!” She practically chirped back at him. “Don’t worry about it Kurtis, I’m not after you. I DO need you guys at the meeting though, it’s in like ten minutes at the waypoint I just texted you all. You guys good with that?”
Gadot shook her head. “Not really, why do WE need to attend? What is this meeting anyway?”
“Ohhh acting like this isn’t your war won’t get you far with me, Getaway.” Kitty’s tone took a turn for the severe for a moment before reverting to cheery. “It’s a war counsel. All the factions have to attend, or there’s no peace talks. No idea why you guys have to be there, honestly. The Goons are insisting. I suspect they intend to offer me one more chance at that buyout.”
“So you want us to go refuse it for you.” Jimmy sounded more confused than anything else in that moment, as he squinted at his phone. “The meet up is DEAD in GoonStorm turf. When we piss them off…”
“Aww, I keep forgetting you’re scared of the Goons JimJam, sorry.” Kitty put on her best condescending voice, causing Jimmy to scoff slightly. “Anyway, no, you’re not there for me. I sent my guys with a little A/V setup so I can participate. I’m just really busy right now, and I would love it if you guys could keep them distracted just a little bit for me.”
“Sure Kitty, we’ll be there.” Kurt ended the call, looking over at Jimmy and Gadot. A text had come through from Jimbo, and he shook his head as he readied it to share with his friends. They hung up with Kitty and turned to look at him as he extended his wrist towards them.
“We go directly from the meeting.” Jimmy read it out loud, scowling. “That’s not really helpful.”
Kurt nodded. “I have no doubt that’s the point. He’s keeping us as uninformed as he can, keep us from being prepared.”
Gadot nodded, looking to Kurt intently. “Ok, so…what do we need to be prepared for?”
Shaking his head slightly, Kurt squinted and thought for a moment. “Everything really.” He pointed at Jimmy. “Back-up. I’ll need you to come running when I call, cause I won’t know when to hit him until the moment is on me. You also likely won’t be able to come with us, so you’ll need to tail us without getting caught.”
“So…ready for a fight?” Jimmy looked at him with an unimpressed stare, kicking his feet up on the coffee table and leaning back in a relaxed posture.
Kurt smiled at him, chuckling briefly. “Yeah, pretty much.” He turned and looked at Gadot for a moment. “We’re going to have the whole city after us if we can pull this off. With that much dirty cash we won’t be in one of your Mustangs for the escape.” He paused and sipped his coffee, trying to think of a role for her.
“I’ll run support then. One of you will drive whatever transport they have it loaded in, that’s always how these deals go down.” Gadot tied her hair back, leaning forward in her seat. “I’ll be in the air above you, dealing with tanks and so on as we go. I bought JUST the toy for this job the other day. Can’t wait to try her out.”
Rubbing his hands together, Kurt stood up. “Right. That’s as good as it gets. We steal the take, drive it to our Stronghold…somehow.”
“We probably have to raid a Hub dude, we’re gonna get smoked before we get to the door.” Jimmy spoke while grinning, fingers laced together behind his head. “Don’t even sweat it.” He grunted and swung his weight forward, standing up in a hop that shook the floor and rained dust from his armor. “We already lost the war anyway, may as well take a last shot at this.”
Kurt scowled for a moment. “Shit, I have to go to my safehouse and get equipped first. No way I’ll make it in time.”
“Oh, that’s easy man, just set your spawn point there and shoot yourself.” Jimmy spoke stretching slightly, arms extended over his head.
Drawing the Messenger, Kurt stared at it for a second before shaking his head. “I don’t think I can.”
“I got you buddy, no worries.” Jimmy smiled, drew his double barreled handgun, and fired it from the hip.
Kurt’s world went black to the sound of a gunshot.
Spawning in to the comforting sound of his train rattling on the rails, Kurt scowled at his friend before getting geared up. He slipped into his suit, adding the newly upgraded armored vest. It was much heavier and sagged at the shoulders until he buttoned his suit jacket. Glancing at the mirrored glass of his weapons cabinet, Kurt was pleased to see that his suit covered up the bulkier armor perfectly, making it look like nothing more than a suit vest.
He holstered the Messenger in his armpit, securing three extra magazines of the Shredder ammunition for it before turning and grabbing his Glock from the rack. That one went under his other arm, with three more extended tower magazines of 9mm+p under it. At each hip, just under the jacket, he placed a drum magazine, one loaded with Ratshot, the other with Incendiary. He automatically reached for the Walther, but his hand hesitated over it. Kurt squinted slightly before reaching past it and grabbing the Silencerco Maxim 9 with a smile. He slid it into his rear waistband and added two magazines of 9mm subsonic hollow points.
That completed, he slipped his ECM device into a pocket alongside a handful of Looper disks. He strapped his smoke sticks and flares to his ankle and strapped the grenade holder to the small of his back with three flashbangs securely in place. Before he left his safehouse, he stopped and shrugged before adding a couple of MK 2 fragmentation grenades to his coat pocket. Kurt swiped up his menus and made sure he had everything as he wanted it before he nodded and waited for the train to stop.
Stepping out of a subway station near the waypoint, Kurt paused to take in the city. The pavement was torn up all around him, tank treads not being particularly gentle on asphalt, nor the shells said tanks fired. The buildings and roads were pockmarked by explosions and bullet strikes, with most of the buildings in a partial state of ruins, windows shattered and left to the open air. There was a disturbing lack of NPCs on the streets, but Kurt couldn’t be surprised with the amount of sheer chaos in the city. The occasional GoonStorm vehicle would approach, usually being chased by the Heat, but Kurt stuck to the walls of buildings as he walked, ducking into shadows and allowing his stealth skill to keep him hidden.
As he reached the meeting point, he noticed a blockade in the road ahead of him. GoonStorm Humvees and Ursa APCs were lined up across the street, with several players all standing around holding weapons and looking mean as they searched the streets for trouble. Kurt stayed to the overhang of the building he had used to approach, shifting to put his back to a pillar as he pulled up his map. The middle of the intersection ahead had a few people milling around, but the heavy action was at each road entrance. Vehicles were lined up to create more roadblocks and each was manned by a dozen players, Kurt assumed heavily armed.
He crouched and peered around his pillar, waiting for the guards to glance away before darting to the next one in the line. Kurt continued this approach, getting nearer and nearer to the roadblock as he avoided the players patrolling. The players standing guard on the sidewalk ahead of him were engaged in a conversation and failed to look his way as he darted from pillar to pillar, until he was leaning on the pillar directly behind them. Shaking his head at their inane conversation about which rifle was superior, Kurt slipped around the pillar and squeezed between it and an APC. He glanced over his shoulder at the roadblock, but merely rolled his eyes as none of the guards noticed his entrance.
Kurt stepped lightly, moving around the next roadblock to a closed down Café behind it, ignoring the cluster of vehicles and people in the middle of the intersection. Once he had picked his way through the rubble of the Café and found the coffe
e machine he hoped was still intact, he made his way back out front and sat in a chair shrouded in shadow from the shelled out building front. He lightly swept some rubble off his table and leaned back to sip at his beverage while watching the group of players in the street.
The Pirates officer core was present and appeared to be building something in the middle of the intersection, moving around and raising a small white screen on an oversized easel. GoonStorm and Ursa players were on the other side of the intersection, backs to Kurt as they watched and commented, clearly confused as to what was happening. Jerome was clearly visible directing the other officers as they struggled to get the screen to stay upright. Finally he stepped in and shoved BoneCrusher aside, raising a part of the easel and clicking it into place before stepping away and shaking his head. None of the players seemed to be pointing weapons at each other, and Kurt shrugged as he assumed some sort of truce had to be in effect for the peace talks. Made sense, but he raised a lip as he patted the Messenger lightly and looked among the lines of other players in the intersection.
His table was wedged between a collapsed doorway, and an overturned umbrella still attached to its small circular table. He glanced around occasionally, half expecting to be discovered while he happily watched his stealth skill bar crawl ever upward. The roar of an engine and the squeal of tires interrupted his reverie and Kurt looked up as Gadot drove Eleanor into the intersection from the sidewalk, bypassing the roadblock and stopping the car in a cloud of tire smoke. She and Jimmy stepped out, leaving the doors open as angry shouts from the roadblock behind them were ignored.
Gadot stepped with purpose over to the Pirates officer core, glaring at one of them as she approached. She drew her sidearm and casually shot Godless in the face, turning and holstering it as the GoonStorm and Ursa players all began to shout and point weapons at her. She stopped and looked around, seemingly confused. “What?”
The Life- Illusion Page 41