It's All Part Of a Grand Scheme, And Us, Pawns in This Endless Play

Chapter 3: Hunter's No Longer Rotten, Vacuity's Nature Briefly Shines Through

(Nobody's POV)

Hunter woke up surprised that he was...himself for lack of better words. Sure he had a few lumps and bruises from his cancerous rot but unbeknownst to him, he'll be fine, no becoming a hunter long legs. He went into a defensive posture, of course he had no spears but he did find an oddly pointy tree branch that suffice for now. He heard the same noises that Survivor and Monk heard.

Speaking of the two brothers, they were cautiously exiting their hiding place. Their ears pricked up and heads on swivels for that pack of loud and eerie bipeds. They saw Hunter and made their way cautiously to him. Hunter relaxed slightly upon seeing the two unfamiliar slugcats, why should he be cautious about the afterall? Once they got into chatting range, they began chittering in the language of slugcats. Monk was concerned about Hunter's appearance and Survivor was curious about Hunter.

Hunter eased Monk's concerns, and answered Survivor's questions as best he can, this pleasant conversation was cut short by a few of the ghost soldiers from earlier catching sight of the trio and screaming various things in pain, fear, etc. Then said soldiers began doing a shambling sprint for the trio, armed with rusted combat knives and improvised trench raiding weapons.

Hunter being a fighter and a fearless one at that, opted to take a combative stance again. Monk and Survivor urged Hunter to flee, to no avail, neither of them wanted to leave him to danger.

Meanwhile Vacuity woke up with a jolt and looked out of a window and saw off in the distance, the soldiers closing in on the trio. He didn't want to get involved, he's unarmed, having lost his armaments in his previous engagement. There'd be no point in helping them...but it's the right thing to do he reasoned, he paced back and forth as Artificer watched confusedly. Vacuity swore to himself before ripping the barricades off the door and ran out to assist the trio.

Hunter ducked under a wild swing of a trench club and jabbed his improvised spear into the skull of the soldier, its point passing through the glass lens of its gas mask. The soldier stilled and went limp, another went at Monk but was hit by rock thrown at its head by Survivor and finished by Hunter. Monk helped Survivor stun soldiers with whatever they could throw. The trio was doing ok, they were lucky this group had no firearms...but they're getting overwhelmed.

Hunter was tired and another shambling soldier lunged at him, Hunter didn't have time to bring his spear up or dodge. So he closed his eyes, luckily Vacuity made it in time to tackle the soldier mid lunge.

(Vacuity's POV)

I saved the sickly red one, disarming the rusted bayonet from the soldier and jammed the blade inside the side of its head. Before quickly getting up and throwing my arm up to block a trench shovel swing before pulling that soldier behind me to take the blow of something.

I'm scared I can't deny that, but I'm not leaving people to die. I don't know how long the fighting lasted it was all a blur, but by the time its over I've more wounds and my exosuit is in worse condition. I look at the trio of things similar to Artificer. Thinking to myself that I'm getting a whole group together, and that I need to check one of the old cloning facilities for a replacement suit soon.

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The nature of clones: Clones were never made for social or any work that requires 'humanity' yet they've shown time, and time again that under their apathetic demeanor is that 'human touch' forming bonds and such. It's a surprising yet refreshing sight, at times they act more human than us.