CHAPTER 32
Slampa did a quick and dirty breakdown of our squad, and how he would like us to operate. He had a great intuition for this kind of thing. I would be our squads recon soldier, scouting ahead when possible to pick out enemies, and report back. Middleton would be the core of our squad, taking up with Miller in our center. Because Millers skills sort of worked with Middletons, they could partner up and operate as a unit. Adams would be our floater, being between myself and Miller/Middleton, responding to wherever the action was coming from. Slampa would take up the rear, his skills were much more defensive, and he can tie up enemies until myself and Adams could get there.
With a rough idea of what we were doing, we set to practicing as we approached the first cache. I activated my STEALTH skill, noting that I now had a yellow bar, which I could only assume was Stamina. As the seconds crept by, it slowly depleted. I really need to figure out if there's a way to see how much health and stamina I had, as just a bar wasn’t very informative.
The group paused about 150 yards out, and I began my progress toward the cluster of trees. As I approached, I could make out some sounds from inside, what sounded like talking. Unsure if this was a recon team, or our lost allies, I made a slow circle, ducking behind rocks and sparse bushes on my approach.
After about 10 minutes of creeping, I could finally see one of the people. Luckily they were well within my Recon skill range, so I went ahead and inspected them;
NAME: JOHNATHAN STOVALL (NO ALIAS ASSIGNED)
CURRENT SQUAD: THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC - RED TEAM
TITLE: NONE ASSIGNED
BIOGRAPHY: NONE ASSIGNED
TAYS TIDBITS
Congratulations! Your Reconnaissance Skill is now level 2!
JAMES TO PARTY CHAT: They’re allies, ya’ll are good to come up.
I went ahead and deactivated STEALTH, shouldering my weapon, standing and putting my hands in the air like I was surrendering. “Hey Trainee Stovall!”
He about jumped out of his skin, a pistol appearing as if my magic in his hands. Was he already holding it?
Stovall was a short fellow, dark hair cropped close to his scalp. He had a round face, with dark, piercing eyes, and a wide nose. Even inside Babylon he wore glasses, which was interesting as he didn’t… need them to see. So this must just be a cosmetic thing.
He was still wearing Air Force fatigues. Suddenly he was surrounded by five other Trainees, all wearing the same fatigues. One spoke out before the rest, “Stovall, put your gun down! Its Watson, hes on our team.”
I could see beads of sweat on his face, and the tension flooded from him suddenly. He lowered the pistol and I could tell he physically deflated. It was obvious he was relieved he wouldn’t have to shoot me.
I lowered my hands, and could suddenly hear some pops and cracks coming from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Adams walking towards us.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Those are my party members,” I called out, returning my attention to the crew in front of me. It was then I noticed that above Stovall’s head his name was hovering there - JOHNATHAN STOVALL. To the left of his name was a box that was empty, while to the right there was a red flag.
This was interesting… so maybe this happened every time I inspected someone? I don’t remember this happening with the NPC’s, but I wasn’t paying much attention. To test my theory, I quickly inspected the rest of Stovalls team, and sure enough - Billie Stone, Clayton Stratton, Cory Riggs, Mary Maher, Erik Walsh, and Jacob Prescott, all with red flags to the right of the names. This must be your team or squad affiliation.
WATSON TO PARTY CHAT: If you guys haven’t, make sure to inspect all player characters. It makes their name and team affiliations visible above their heads. Wonder if it does the same for enemies?
MIDDLETON: It does. For NPC enemies, it just shows a name and level. For normal NPC’s, just a name. I didn’t think to tell you guys, I figured you inspected each other when you met and saw it.
SLAMPA: Really didn’t notice, but thanks for the heads up.
I approached our newly found allies, presenting my hand. “I know a few of you, but I’m Trainee Watson. Coming up behind me are Adams, Miller, Middleton, and Slampa.”
A girl who stood 5’ 5”, with broad shoulders, shoulderlength brown hair, and a bright smile stepped forward. “Hey there, I’m Trainee Stone. You can call me Billie though, I ain’t much for formal titles.”
I took her small hand, damn she had a grip. “Nice to meet you guys… in here… because you know, we sort of know each other out there.”
Billie laughed, a loud boisterous tone to it, “Well, we are a team after all! So better get to know each other.”
I nodded, Adams finally making his way up. Everyone spent a few minutes making acquaintance, and I assume inspecting one another, as the others joined us. After a while, Slampa spoke up above the crowd, obviously trying to get everyone's attention.
“So what’s your teams stories, and why are you still in fatigues? It makes it hard to separate you from the enemy if we stay dressed as them.”
Billie spoke up, obviously the lead of their bunch. “Well, we are technically two parties. Its me, Stovall, and Riggs. Maher and Prescott met up with us last night, right before logout. We were dropped really close to base, and have been just running and hidin’ best we can. We have bumped into a bunch of those Recon Teams, and even some of the… other… side. They’re armed to the teeth, and all we got is that pea shooter there.” She pointed at Stovalls pistol, still in his hand. It was a Baretta, a lot like Slampas.
Slampa scoffed at that, “We have been in here over a day, and all you guys managed to find was a Pistol and run?”
Billie frowned deeply, “Well… when all your doin’ is running for your life, what else can you fuckin’ do? Riggs got killed, if you remember.”
Prescott spoke up, “Yeah, me, Walsh, and Mary… I mean, Maher, we damn near got taken out by the other team! We just got lucky they ran into the mile barrier when chasing us, though Maher wasn’t so lucky. She got hit right before that and bled out.”
Mahers face went pale at the mention of that, “I… don’t recommend it.”
I grunted, “So they physically hit a barrier a mile from the base?”
Prescott nodded, “Yeah. They were chasing us and shooting. Thank god we are all newbies… there were four of them. We ran toward the hills on the side, trying to make the trees. Suddenly the shooting stopped, and I took a look behind us and every one of them was on the ground. Its like they ran smack dab into it.”
“Prolly did, idiots”, Middleton murmured.
I nodded, and Slampa continued. “Sorry if that sounded… harsh. So you guys recently found this spot then?”
Billie nodded, “Yeah we did. Kinda just… stumbled upon it. We haven’t ran into any enemies today, and we knew we needed to find some stuff to protect ourselves. Honestly, you guys just found us maybe ten minutes after we got here.”
I chuckled, “Guess thats lucky then. Well, how about we post a guard while you guys scour this place for anything of use, and we can figure out a plan after that? We are attempting to get the entire Red Team together so we can figure out how to go about attacking that base.”
“Sounds good, lets get to it and regroup in twenty?”