Nuke Tech

"Flare! Flare Wake up! We've got a call!" Marcos yelled.

Before even clearing the sleep from his eyes, Flare found himself up and running to the QT the moment he heard those words, QT being short for Quick Tank. "Where's the call for Captain?" Flare asked.

"About 3 miles East over at the local farms, someone seems to have suffered a major heart attack in the gathering fields and people are already panicked, seems someone has been skipping their regular checkups." Marcos responded with an aggravated expression. If there was one thing Marcos hated more than anything, it was someone who would lazily put others at risk. "Well Cap, as long as it stays down to just 1, we shouldn't have any major problems." this comment came from one of the 4 other current squad members, Maria Cruz, resident genius and squad doctor. All squads are required to keep at least one combo healer/fighter on the teams for potential intervention. Saving someone is always more preferable than a beast transformation if they could avoid it.

"Chyea if only our luck would run that high huh Claire?" Caim pointed that statement towards his twin sister who only looked at him with a look of disdain and responded, "You don't always have to be such a ray of sunshine you know?" being obviously sarcastic. Caim simply playfully sniggered at Claire and gave a light jab to her shoulder.

"Cut the playful banter you two, we're here... it's game time." Marek said as he stepped from the Quick Tank with his bow already in hand in case of a confrontation.

For being mid-September in the upper Midwest it was unusually warm, but the landscape around them was enjoyable nonetheless. Miles and miles of cornstalks for as far as you could see Eastward with a clear blue sky, lightly dotted with fluffy white clouds. It was certainly not a scene one would think about encountering a beast in. Claire walked up to one of the cornstalks and commented "Looks like it's about time for harvest, the corn is absolutely fit to burst. I'm so ready, sweet corn is my favorite!". Then she noticed the rest of the squad watching her and felt her face flush bright red, leaving the cornstalk she hurried over to the rest of the group to continue on.

Marcos gave the orders to follow him to the farm workers safe site to collect the location info of the heart attack victim, hoping they could maybe save him before it was too late. Upon arrival a foreman was speaking to them through a monitor from the safe room. "We're glad you made it so quick, but I'm sorry to say that it wasn't fast enough, Clyde had a massive heart attack and died just right after we made the call, there was nothing you could have done. He became some kind of bi-ped. It looks very bear like. Be careful guys." The entire team simply nodded and headed off.

As the team made their way out of the compound towards the direction the foreman indicated, Caim chirped up "Aww hell yeah man it's about time we get a big one, I'll really be able to push myself against this one." Captain Marcos looked at Flare and could see the mild annoyance on his face from that comment. "You know these were people right? Just like you and I?" Flare only thought these words but didn't speak up. "I know he acts like it's no big deal but it IS important to him on the inside... it's the same for any of us. We have all lost people and those we love to this damn light." Thinking these things, Flares expression softened but was quickly snapped out of his thoughts as Marek spoke urgently, but quietly "Everyone! The beast is about 100 feet out in front of us in the corn, I saw its back ridge over the top just a moment ago, prepare!"

Upon Mareks warning, the team all reached for their weapons. Nano-tech mixed with nuclear-tech and old school weaponry at the same time. The pinnacle of modern weapons design.

Captain Marcos Jane

Age: 40

Biological Gene-tech Enhancement Type: All Rounder

Nuke-tech Weapon Type: Electrified Twin Swords

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Vice Captain Flare Nacht

Age: 30

Biological Gene-tech Enhancement Type: All Rounder

Nuke-tech Weapon Type: Combination electrified/ignition Hand and a half sword, Forearm buckler shield with oscillating edge

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Squad Member Claire Jane

Age: 20

Biological Gene-tech Enhancement Type: Speed, Durability and Thought Processing Enhancement

Nuke-tech Weapon Type: Hyper Corrosive Sabre Claws

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Squad Member Caim (Ky-Em) Jane

Age: 20

Biological Gene-tech Enhancement Type: Strength and Durability Enhancement

Nuke-tech Weapon Type: Ignition Great Sword

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Squad Member Marek Smith

Age: 22

Biological Gene-tech Enhancement Type: Speed, Durability and Visual Acuity Enhancement

Nuke-tech Weapon Type: Tactical Bow using Explosive, Electrified, Corrosive or Smokescreen Heads

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Squad Member Maria Cruz

Age: 20

Biological Gene-tech Enhancement Type: Speed and Durability Type

Nuke-tech Weapon Type: Electrified Chained Kusarigama, or Chained Sickle

After drawing out their weapons and readying an intercept formation. Marek ran back to gain a vantage point upon a watering shed. Caim stepped slightly forward and verified that everyone was ready. After receiving everyone's nod of approval Caim let out a throat tearing roar to get the beasts attention. "Come on you Ashen beast, we're waiting" Flare thought.

Claire crouched down in anticipation, ready to bolt toward the beast at a moments notice, her pose making her look more feral and feline than human with a sinister grin on her face. "It's like she's got two different personalities inside of her... one psychopathic fighter, and one cute and bubbly girly girl when she's not focused on a mission." Flare noticed. The rest of the squad were quite poised. Especially Captain Marcos, he was always the most stoic of the crew.

It took only a moment to hear a roar in response to Caim's and only a couple seconds more for the beast to come barreling through the corn to their location. True to the Foreman's words, it was absolutely bear-like but with no fur on its abdomen, elongated front arms and immensely enhanced teeth. The body was heavily emaciated with dense and sinewy muscle visible though the skin. Coming in on all fours it was hard to get a sense of it full size, but its back was almost as tall as Caim at 6' 4".

As it broke through the final layer of cornstalks Caim took a large lunge forward and sidestepped the beast, bringing his ignition great sword around for a full swing into the bear beasts chest as he let a howl and yelled "BLAZE!" to signal the activation of the blades ignition function. With the ignition function triggered by his finger and not the yell, Caim just enjoyed the dramatic effect.

A resounding explosion was both heard and felt by the group, but not nearly as much as was felt by the beast. Cutting deep into the chest and bone, the explosive attribute was able to penetrate deeply and not only send the bear flying back several yards but injure it enough to make it bleed and hesitate. True to any Ashen encounter, as its blood poured out of its body it turned to ash before it could even touch the ground. Standing up to its full height the beast was indeed impressive, being easily 10' tall and it's claws scratching the ground. The beast let loose a thunderous roar toward Caim, full of rage for the injury inflicted upon it. At that moment, with a flash of long golden hair and a fierce scream Claire rushed into the fight as well, having edged around to the beasts flank, she took advantage of the creatures hesitation. All of its focus was entirely on Caim.

"Perfect execution as always." Marcos noted as Claire used her Sabreclaw blades to slash at the beasts rear legs, aiming for and accurately cutting through its tendons, effectively crippling its rear end.

Under normal circumstances a beast would be able to regenerate from a wound like that in less than a minute but Claires Sabreclaws are coated in a highly corrosive acid engineered to be an absolute nightmare for biological material, effectively halting its regenerative properties by destroying cells faster than they can replicate. The best part about the acid is that it is perpetually synthesized and excreted by the nano and nuclear hybrid technology their weapons are made from.

Turning around in a fit of rage and leading with its head, the beast swung its massive clawed paw at where Claire was, but it was too slow because she had seen the signs and anticipated its obvious reaction, flipping back and away from the bear with movements as nimble and lithe as the elves one would read about in books, the claws missed her by several inches, but to her it may as well have been miles. Caim saw an opening the moment the beast swung and seized on the opportunity, he lunged in and swung again from behind its neck, attempting to take the creatures head in one slash but the beast was quick, swinging all the way around from its swipe at Claire, its clawed paw came full circle and as Caim saw the claws to his side, for just an instant he felt fear, knowing a swipe from that claw in the right place could be the end of him. Regardless of his beast coated armor and enhanced body.

For the sake of his range of motion while using such a large weapon, he kept some areas open and covered them only with his fireproof suit to protect himself from his own attacks.

Before the clawed paw could make contact it went spinning through the air, severed from the beasts body. "Come on tanky! It's not like you to make a mistake like that! That one could've actually hurt you." Caim heard those words from Flare and looked at him, he had this stupid smile on face as he spoke. No matter how much it upset him, no matter how much Flare hated the concept of what they did, Caim had never seen Flare hesitate even once and he never saw someone enjoy the fight or challenge more. "Flare you're such a hypocrite when it comes to fighting these things!" Caim yelled as he back stepped away from the beast.

Everyone knew this was only joking banter between the two and nothing ill was meant. Flare then proceeded to leap through the air and soared over the top of the beasts next swing with its only good arm it had left, swinging not his sword but the buckler on his left arm. The outer edge of the buckler oscillates at such an immense speed it can cut through even hardened steel. Being one of the few beast bone augmented weapons the team has ever seen, it was apparent what a difference it could make. The edge slices cleanly through the elbow joint of the beasts arm, dropping it to the ground and making the beast face plant as well. Laying there and looking already beaten Caim stepped forward again, but this time much more carefully, and for good reason because this beast wasn't dead yet. Using a burst of strength and speed the beast hurls it's body toward Caim with it's mouth wide, ready to latch on to Caim's head and crush it in a single bite, but the chain sickle of Maria shoots through the air and wraps tightly around the beasts muzzle, clamping its mouth shut and dropping it to the ground again while it is electrified. Caim then angrily takes this clean opportunity to slam the point of his blade down through the beasts skull, it submerges all the way down until the hilt is pressed to the outside of the skull and Caim yells again "BLAZE! YOU BASTARD!" Ending the fight, the beasts head erupts in flames from the ability of Caim's weapon, and the body sags as the muscle, organs and blood fade into ash, leaving only its skin and dry bone behind.

Coming back together everyone gave congratulations on the win to the 4 who were involved. Claire didn't miss an opportunity to squeal and rag on her brother. "What the hell was that all about? Big bad berzerker got a case of the willies from the bear?" Caim responds by quipping "Yeah that doesn't make a lot of sense considering you're the one who has a total bipolar battle rage every time you fight." With an intentionally over reactive cry she whines to Marcos "Daaaaaaaaad he called me crazy again!" Marcos scolds Caim slightly, telling him that his sister is sensitive to stuff like that. Maria steps in and jokes "Okay Edgelord, let's let the siblings figure it out shall we? We have a report to make and remains to deliver to central." Central being the main hub of operations for all squads in their territory. Marcos then delivers the command to Marek to collect the remains of the beast.

Marek obliges and Flare steps over to help him fold up skin and box the bones. Marek also can't help but ask in a whisper, "Hey Vice Captain Flare... you know I'm new to the squad still, I've gotta know, what the heck was up with Maria calling our Captain Edgelord? I know tons of captains who would have freaked over getting called something like that." "Hahahaha!" Flare throws his head back and laughs, he takes a moment to compose himself and says "First of all, when we're talking like this, you don't have to address me by my title. We may work with the military, but we aren't military ourselves, so don't be so uptight. Second... The captain completely believes his Edgelord title is because of his prowess with his twin blades. He's completely oblivious to the fact that we use it sarcastically though. As you come to know the captain better you'll learn that he's about as straight laced of a boyscout as it gets. Hence the title of edgelord." This visibly relaxed Marek. Letting him know that he didn't have to act so uptight all the time unless they had to be around high ranking individuals of society was quite a relief. "This could be a really good team I think" Wondered Marek.

After waiting a few minutes at the QT, Captain Marcos comes back from delivering his initial report to the farm workers. They all were very grateful, but many were somber, as even though the fight had been won with no injuries on the side of the squad, the workers lost a good friend and even family member for a couple of them. "Such is the sad state of our pitiable world." Thought Marcos as he told his team to load up and head out back to base.