Some of the older members may or may not remember me talking about an old sci-fi game called Vangers. It's very dated by now, but still kicks ass, and has a large and promising but very under-used universe. After playing it again for a while yesterday, I decided to write a story set in that universe. There's been some changes due to the neccessity of making it more accessable to those who've never played the game, and some pretty major assumptions (for example, I'm pretty certain that the Vangers aren't human, but it's never actualy stated and we never see one, so I'm assuming they are) to smooth things along.
Anyway, here's the prologue - chapter one. Read on and let me know what you think. I'll have the second chapter, which explains the backstory, up tomorrow.
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Vangers - Chapter 1 - A Sour Deal
"Shit, shit, shit!" Caim yelled as he ran down the side of the hill, desperately trying not to get his feet tangled in the ankle-deep carpet of weeds that seemed to cover the whole surface of the planet Fostral.
Leonard was dead. That was certain. He'd seen the old man's head burst apart when the bastards had opened fire. Seela and Jethraine had run down the eastern slope of the hill towards some old ruins, and he had no idea what had happened to them. Though the fact that no more gunshots were coming from that direction was an ominous sign.
Halfway down the hill he tripped, sending himself tumbling down the slope. He hit the bottom hard, his rifle flying from his hands and ending up in a bush. Caim lay low and crawled over to retrieve it, waiting for any sign of movement along the ridge of the hill. He stayed still for a few moments, his rifle propped up against a conveniently placed rock to steady his aim. After a minute or so, satisfied that he'd lost his attackers, he snatched the radio out of his pocket.
"Vener, this is Caim! Do you hear me?" He whispered urgently into the radio. For a few long moments nothing happened, then the radio crackled into life.
"This is Vener. What's going on? Alecto thought he heard gunshots."
"He did. The fuckers set us up. Leonard's dead, and Seela and Jethraine probably are too." There was a pause before Vener replied.
"Damn. You still have our money?"
"No. Jet handed it over just before they ambushed us. One of them ran off with it and the products as soon as the shooting started." Another long pause. Caim could imagine all too vividly just how Vener was taking the news. Sure enough, when he finally replied there was a definite tone of barely restrained anger in his voice.
"Right. Get back here now. I'll have Alecto and Erna man the mechos' guns. If you're not back in five minutes, we're leaving without you. What're we up against?"
"About a dozen." Caim replied as he turned and began hurrying back to where the mechos had been left. "Shitty rifles and SMGs mostly. And the guys themselves are even worse than their guns. Typical Rafa shit. One damn good sniper, though. He got Leonard right in the head."
"Any mechos?"
"I saw a couple of Dochods tearing off after Seela and Jet. There's probably more around somewhere, though. Where you can see one Rafa ."
"There's another four hiding just out of sight." Vener completed the old - and often true - proverb. Caim was about to reply when something whizzed past his head and slammed into the ground ahead of him.
Caim dropped to the ground as more bullets hit the dirt around him, one round pulping a weed just a couple of inches from his head, and raised his rifle. Through the sight he could see four men in padded jackets rushing down the hill towards him, firing as they came. Luckily, this ensured that any rounds that came even remotely near him were more due to spectacular luck than any sort of accuracy.
Crouching low and staying stationary combined with his well maintained gun mean that Caim had no such difficulties to overcome, and he began returning careful fire towards his attackers. To his surprise, his third shot nailed one of the Rafa, a big bearded man, right in the head - the fellow had stumbled at just the wrong moment and intercepted the bullet with his skull. That one's for you, Leo.
The death of their comrade put paid to the foolish bravery of his attackers, who immediately dove to the ground behind whatever concealment or cover they could find. Capitalising on their hesitation, Caim fired a few more rounds to keep their heads down, and then turned and began sprinting towards the ravine. If he could just get there he'd have a couple of machine guns backing him up - more than enough to make the amateurs following him give up. By a miracle - or, more accurately, his opponents' cowardice - he managed to hit the mouth of the ravine before the Rafa mercenaries had even looked up again. Hurrying through the ravine, he hopped and ducked under pieces of twisted and rusted metal, the remnants of an ancient bridge that had once spanned the chasm he was now fleeing through.
Finally, he reached the other side, running out into a flat but densely vegetated area in which four mechos and twice as many armed personnel were hunkered down.
"Caim? You made it!" Vener called out from behind one of the large trucks with clear relief, shouldering his shotgun and beckoning him to approach.
"Barely. I think there's three following me." Caim gestured vaguely towards the ravine, breathing heavily. The long run had taken its toll on him.
"Right." Vener nodded. "Screw 'em. Let's just load up the mechos and get the fu-"
"Rafa!" Someone - probably Treer - yelled out. "To the north!" He added, though giving the direction proved to be mostly superfluous, as a hail of bullets hit their position, driving everyone into whatever cover they could find.
Caim and Vener both dropped down behind one of the mechos - a big truck that had been patched together so many times that its make was impossible to discern - just as the vehicle's turret opened up on the approaching enemy. Sticking his head around the side of the mechos, Caim could see them clearly. Four Dochods - small, egg-shaped four-wheelers with stick-like machine guns mounted on top - hurtling towards them at top speed. Typical Rafa mechos. Although their weapons were far too small to do any damage to the big trucks, they were more than capable of killing anyone caught out of cover.
As if to prove their lethality, two Dochods both caught Treer in their line of fire simultaneously, shredding the man's torso. Somewhere nearby there was a wet tearing sound, followed by the thump of a body hitting the ground and the sound of a man screaming in agony.
Caught in the open, Alecto - the newest of Vener's team, a young rookie barely old enough to shave - fled wildly away from the safety of Vener's mechos, bullets slamming into the ground behind him. Frantically looking for something to hide behind, Alecto made the last mistake of his life as he slid behind a stinker. Before anyone could yell out in warning, a bullet hit the big mushroom-shaped plant. There was a loud whump as the plant burst violently, releasing the stores of gas inside it and turning its hard shell into shrapnel, tearing the unfortunate kid apart.
The exchange wasn't totally one-sided, however. Heavy machine gun fire from the truck Caim was hiding behind tore one of the Dochods apart, sending the small vehicle careening wildly out of control and into a ditch, setting off more stinkers. A rocket from one of Vener's troops hit the side of a second Dochod, blowing a wheel off and setting it on fire.
The third Dochod continued on its course, still raking the defenders' positions with machine gun fire. Crucially, not one of Vener's gang had spotted that the fourth Dochod carried not the standard LMG, but a small rocket launcher.
There was a whoop as the rocket fired, streaking towards the closely-grouped vehicles. It slammed straight into Vener's personal mechos - a sleek Sturgeon model scarred heavily with rust - and blew it apart, shrapnel from the wrecked car killing Erna. The second rocket went wide. The third hit the truck Caim and Vener were hiding behind dead on.
The vehicle's armour held up to the impact, preventing it from suffering the same fate as Vener's Sturgeon. But the rocket's momentum had to go somewhere. The truck lurched sideways, knocking Vener and Caim down. There was a sickly crunch as the wheel of the truck landed on Vener's leg, trapping the screaming man there. Caim fell under the truck, but was fortunate to fall flat enough to avoid being crushed. He began scrambling forwards, trying to get out from under the truck and back into the fight, but another rocket hit the truck. This time the armour didn't hold up, and the sturdy mechos was gutted. The truck lurched again under the impact, the undercarriage slamming into Caim's head, sending him into a deep, blissful unconsciousness.....