<span style="color: DarkOrchid">“Hold on to your lunch-rols, boys and girls, rough air ahead”</span>Darion heard Jeanette say over the radio, and cutting off most of everyone’s words when the rollercoaster began.  Darion reacted by reaching to one of the rails of the chopper, and grabbed the seat next to him.  It was a good thing he had secured himself as the ride would have thrown the heavy man around, and the helmet was also a good decision as he felt his head connect with the back of the seat.  By the time it was over, Darion was laughing like he had just had the time of his life with the whole ride.<br/><br/><span style="color: DarkRed">“Oh yeah, that was awesome, definitely got to request you as our pilot for future rides.  Haha!”</span>Darion laughed into the radio before the sound of reacting interrupted the channel and John was struggling to get his helmet off before his stomach caught up with him.  The metal protector came off just in time for him to hit the floor with his lunch.<span style="color: DarkRed">“Oh, real smooth Casanova.   Guess you ruined your chances.”</span>Darion teased towards the other man he knew well.  Getting the glare he was expecting from him.  With the helmet off, it became obvious why he found it easy to seduce more women; he was handsome, almost perfect face that looked chiseled from a statue.  He had clear sapphire blue eyes and golden blonde hair.<span style="color: SandyBrown">“Screw you Sarge.”</span><br/><br/>Darion laughed again before he heard the statement from Jeanette.<span style="color: DarkRed">“The base itself is in the northern section of the city… Ah, Shit…”</span>he was about to answer before he saw the mountain that Jeanette was heading toward, and braced himself again.  John didn’t have the chance this time, still secured, but not yet recovered from the previous antics, the sudden climb sent his stomach hurling again as soon as she leveled the raven out.<span style="color: DarkRed">“As I was saying, the base is in the northern half of the city, along the cliffs on the coast.  It should be obvious as you get close.  It will probably be greyer than any of the buildings around it.”</span>Darion said, though you could hear the grin in his voice, he had loved the crazy ride.<br/><br/>Instead of staying in his seat, Darion removed all but the safety line that held him to the seat before moving over and opening the left side door of the Raven and looking out at the pastel colored city about a mile from where their vehicle was flying over the rolling hills and wooded areas between Ilanir and the mountains.<span style="color: DarkRed">“wow, looks so green compared to the areas around Jacinto and Ephyra.  I vote we visit the Red light districts.  We need some stress relief after Jacinto.”</span>Darion said over the radio as they moved over the green land towards the old town mixed with new city.  He was fairly certain that by now whatever stranded were in that city were already moving into hiding.  They always seemed to do that when gears were around.<br/><br/>……………………………………..<br/><br/>The boy stood frozen there at the door staring at the half naked teen girl that opened the door, unable to take his eyes off the visible parts of her body.  He was acting like a typical young teenage boy in her presence until the door closed in his face and the radio he had carried was gone.  With a bright red face, the boy quickly ran to go into the hiding place he and his mother commonly used when either the locust or the COG were anywhere nearby.<br/><br/>The boy disappeared into hiding while the old man Kleiner, in hiding at his old home on the coast overlooking the ocean heard the question from the young teen who was one of the best shots of the survivors in this city.  She must be in the tower by this time, and he had been trying to think of a reason why the COG would come here.<span style="color: DimGray">“there shouldn’t be, we already looked everything we could find from the base when it was abandoned.  They took the Ravens back then.  There were some doors that we couldn’t open, but I can’t imagine there is anything behind them all that important.  We haven’t seen any Locust in a month at least.  Keep watching them, see where they go… and especially keep your ears on that bell next to you, listen for any locust burrowing.  Where there are COG, the locust seem to follow.”</span>He said to the radio in his old, gruff, and obviously tired voice while watching the sunrise over the water.<br/><br/>…………………………………….<br/><br/>Under the city, the earth rumbled lightly at first, as if there was just a slight natural tremor for a few minutes before it suddenly when still as if it hadn’t been there.  Everything in the city got quiet unless it was speaking over a radio.  A flock of crows took air from the far end of the city away from the bell tower, and the rock wall.  It would feel like the calm before a storm.<br/><br/>The King raven neared the city and passed over the outer city limits, the crows having flown around them and avoided getting near to the machine.  They were running from the city.  Nothing happened though when the Raven passed over the town, heading over the center towards the upper half of the city and the COG Base.  Something only happened when the base itself came into sight f the people in the raven.<br/><br/>Under the city, The earth shook, much stronger than the previous shudder.  The bell behind Vyk would begin shaking and causing a low hum as the vibrations ran through the stone church and into the copper.  It was the Locust, they were coming up into the city.  And the timing of it all, when the shaking had started it seemed like a trap with how well it coordinated with the Gear Arrival.  At the base of the Rock hills inside the city, under an old marketplace, and from an old resort’s empty pool, each location the stone and concrete cracked before bursting upward in a shower of stone.  At each location the long legs of a Corpser burst out, opening up a tunnel through the earth and then falling back into the utter black of the same tunnels.<br/><br/>…………………………………..<br/><br/>While looking out the left side bay door, studying what there was of the city and town, Darion couldn’t help the thought that the older town buildings that existed there seemed to have been beautiful from the height and air.  He would have loved to live here.  As he listened to the banter and the complaints to Jeanette’s piloting skills, he grinned, ready to give his two cents.<span style="color: DarkRed">“Oh, common, we fight monsters from hell and you can’t han…”</span>he stopped speaking though when some movement caught his eye from the sight below, along the walls.<br/><br/>At first he just though he saw a stranded moving around until he focused on that spot and saw the earth burst at the base of the cliffside under the road that led up, across from a residential, and about 500 meters to the right from being under an old church that was built next to the road on a higher level.<span style="color: DarkRed">“Shit!  We got Grubs below, I see one hole and a Corpser.  There may be more.  Everyone keep your eyes open!”</span>Darion ordered as he moved over to the door gun of the raven and cocked it to be ready.  He had a bad feeling he was only seeing on from his position.<span style="color: DarkRed">“Someone open the other door and mount the other gun.”</span><br/><br/>The Corpsers disappeared from the holes, diving back into the ground and they just seemed to be dark holes in the ground.  That never lasted long, especially on his luck.  Almost as if on cue, something emerged from the holes again, this time much more of a threat.<span style="color: DarkRed">“Seeders!  Jeanette, bug out!  Get us out of here!”</span>He ordered and began opening fire on the First Nemacysts that were launched.  John had not had the chance to replace his helmet after his hurling and was now standing at the opposite door gun without the headgear, calling out the sighting of the second corpse and emergence hole in the marketplace.<br/><br/>The third hole and seeder from the resort pool was not in anyone else’s view but Jeannette’s from the pilot seat, the hotel being below and right in front of the Raven.  There would soon be air full of Nemacysts, they had to get out of there now, or the Raven would be lost.  Even landing would do no good with those Seeders in the area.<span style="color: DarkRed">“Switch off open channel, only use the comms if you need to.  Add fire out the does where you can, keep them off us!”</span><br/><br/>No matter how good her flying though, they would not make it out of the city Alive, the first one to go was John.  He was firing as fast as he could with the machine gun into the creatures being used as living missiles.  He was doing a decent job of keeping them off his side of the Raven for a time, they would be half way out of the city by the time a Cyst from the third seeder got too close.  A single round from the machine gun caught the cyst as it approached.  The explosion from that one only rocked the raven a bit, but the Ink from it blasted Carmine full force and covered the man in the poison while the force of the explosion sent him to his ass.   The others he had acted as a shield for if they didn’t get back behind cover fast enough.<br/><br/>John convulsed and coughed violently on the deck of the raven as the noxious gas from the ink invaded his lungs without his helmet, he wasn’t even able to stop coughing long enough to yell out in pain.  Darion didn’t do more than cast a single glance back at his friend before yelling.<span style="color: DarkRed">“Man down, someone else get on that gun!  Doc, You have a patient!”</span><br/><br/>It was too late though as by the time one of the others got to the gun, and started firing, a Nemacyst came up from under them and buffeted the raven into a violent shake, keeping them from being able to fire accurately.  A single nemacyst was able to get through their fire again, this time getting a clean strike on the tail of the King Raven.  Jeanette would lose all control of the chopper at the hit, sending them all spinning.  Their only Destination was the ground.<br/><br/>The descent was rough to say the least, the safety line attached to Darion’s armor the only thing probably keeping him in the Raven itself as his hands were gripping as hard as they could to the sides, and his foot braced against the metal beside the opening.<span style="color: DarkRed">“Fuck!”</span>he was cursing as the ground slowly crept toward them.  He barely was able to hear the cursing that was guaranteed to be going on around him.<br/><br/>Not long later the raven hit the ground, or more like the building deep in the city itself.  All the metal crashed through the top corner of the old town hall, crushing and twisting as the rock tore the blade’s to shreds.  That was when Darion was thrown from the vehicle into the newly formed rubble of that corner of the town hall building, and it all went black for him. The fallen bird finally settled after piercing the top to floors and the side wall and the tail through the roof of the building.<br/><br/>…………………………………<br/><br/>The old man’s voice came over the Radio immediately upon the violent shaking, and then the sight of the trouble in the air beginning.<span style="color: DimGray"> “Vyk, girl, the Grubs are here.  Get yourself into hiding now if you are not safe in that tower.  Everyone else is out of sight.  The Rachello’s home at the bottom of the hill should have room for you. They just got the last of their usual people in.”</span>Kleiner suggested.  Yes, the girl was a good shot, but she was an 18 year old woman. With the Grubs in the city, they couldn’t risk losing her. She needed to get to safety and hiding.<br/><br/>Though, when she would take that suggestion, she would find the house empty upon entering no one would actually appear to be hiding, or even there at all. It was like there was no one there at all.  But then Stranded who survived where good at being quiet when hiding.  Just because no one was in sight didn’t mean they weren’t there.<br/><br/>It was only past the front all, and towards the basement that she would finally find someone, the boy from earlier who had woken Vyk up struggling in the grip of a drone who was choking him at the top of the basement doorway where he had been caught running.  In the basement there was a flash of what would seem to be a pale woman at the edge of the darkness before a Boomer would get in the way.  Out of the basement wavered muffled screams before the sound of a hammerburst had gone off silencing the screams.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>