La vita è bella

"Admirer? Oh god no. We just-" The gun shots cut her off. Dropping to the ground, she could hear her kneecap pop. Grabbing some of the bedding, she bit down on it to mute to the groans of agony. Ignoring her injury, she drug herself over to Mekani. "Are you okay? Do you need me to check your stitches?" Shots fired again in the distance, people started to scream.
"I guess I should go check what's going on. It better not be that shady assassin wrecking things just because I asked him to chat later..." Sadie muttered under her breath. "I say I don't trust him at this very moment and now the hospital is getting attacked." Pulling herself to stand up and walk towards the door, she looked out the door window to see what was going on. "No one's on this floor yet... I'll try to get it on lock down." She put a slight weight on her leg that took the most damage and pain shot up her leg.

"Mekani... stay silent and don't move." With that said, Sadie was limping out the door and on her way to attempt at making a barricade.

 

The people here didn't put up any kind of resistance. One by one the people here fell. There was a shocking number of men here compared to women, but that didn't matter to me, the women would wish they were dead once they got back to camp. My men split off down all the corridors, killing anyone on site and capturing the women. I ordered Kyle and Douglas to follow me up the flight of stairs to investigate when I noticed someone up here making a make shift barricade. "I wouldn't do that." I told them as I got closer, pointing my gun at them. When I got closer to them I realized that it was a woman. "I see your not hiding like everyone else here. Got quite a bit of guts. Now then, why don't you turn around and get up against the wall?"

 

"I see your not hiding like everyone else here. Got quite a bit of guts. Now then, why don't you turn around and get up against the wall?"
----------
She laughed, "You want me against that wall, you're going to have to carry me over there." Trying to buy some time, she leaned against the barricade in an attempt to alleviate the pain from standing on her injured leg for as long as she was. Nothing was coming to mind on what to say until she just didn't think so hard on it now. "Do you really think you should be shooting this place up and turning it upside down? I mean some of your people are in here as well. I do hope you know that. In fact, I was just taking care of one of your mechanics before your carelessness caused me to get injured" Sadie gave no hint of backing down. If all went as planned, Voldemars would appear from somewhere and break up the situation claiming this was already under his command. Smirking, she limped towards the soldier, "Now, what was it that you wanted me to do? Turn around and get up against the wall? In your dreams, tough guy. This shattered kneecap won't let me move."

 

Mekani got to her feet and moved silently to the door. Opening it a slit she looked through the crack and saw the officer talking to Sadie with gun drawn. The Resistance is attacking the hospital? Those idiots! Crouching down she drew the small .45 from her ankle holster then brought the compact pistol up, took two breaths and pulled the trigger. The bullet blew a hole in the wall.
"Hey, Resistance Jackass. You want to get every Etris citizen in this district killed? Attacking a hospital you dumb shit!" She stayed in cover behind the door. Bullets could still penetrate but with luck the shot down the hallway would make it difficult.

 

I took in a deep sigh. "I know about the citizens of my country being here, but these are my orders. If it was up to me, I wouldn't even be here right now." I heard the sound of a bullet hitting the wall near me. Aiming my gun I shot at the door I assumed the bullet came from. I pulled up my radio. "This is Vyse broadcasting to all frequency's. I order everyone to stop firing and bring all the remaining people out to the front and back to camp. For every gun shot I hear and for every person left I will personally kill one of you for each one. Am I clear?" As soon as they heard my order the gun fire stopped, with the stray shot heard here and there. I sighed. "Some of them just don't listen. Kyle, breach that room and pull out the woman who shot at me. Douglas, grab and bind this one." They both nodded they're heads. "Look, I'm not the bad guy here- well once we get back to camp I'm gonna look an awful lot like the bad guy, but it's not like I wanted to do this. If these weren't my orders I'd have left this place alone. If you want to curse someone, curse that do nothing president of ours."

 

Name: Jaren "Winter" Raynor
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Citizenship: Urseos
Occupation: Mercenary
Was in Etris when the war started
Notes: A fairly well-known mercenary throughout both Urseos and Etris, he earned the nickname "Winter" because of his unusual white hair. His work for the Urseosian military during the war made him something of a national hero in that country, while he was hated and feared in Etris. This fame and infamy became the source of a common phrase associated with him, "Winter claims another victim," which means that he has eliminated his target. He carries his trademark single-action revolver with him at all times.

Spoiler: Character Picture

OOT: That's all for now, I have some ideas for him but I'm going to wait a little bit to post an introduction.

 

"Ah shit." Mekani grumbled and jumped back from the door as it was kicked in. The soldier before her was dressed in full kit in the dull greys and blacks of the Urseos military. The auto-rifle was aimed for business. Firing a couple of rounds, she dove behind the bed as a line of bullets stitched themselves across the far wall. One hit the window, cracking the pane. Mekani fired three times over the bed without looking. Her free hand went to her side and came away damp. "That's just great. You busted my stitches you asshole!"

Dropping down to look under the bed, she lined up the shot and put a bullet into the soldier's shin. The man fell as his leg was forced out from under him. Spinning around, Mekani emptied the rest of the magazine into the already damaged window and charged it. Throwing herself through the glass a thought came into her head, What floor am I on? "OH SHIT!" She cried at the same time and closed her eyes. Jagged edged gravel bit into her skin as she landed on the roof of the wing next to hers. It was a story shorter. She rolled as best she could to lessen the impact then forced herself to her feet. Gunfire came from behind her, the bullets kicking up clouds of rock dust. Hiding behind an AC unit, she lifted her shirt up to check on her wound. Dark blood had already soaked through the bandage and she was covered in a hundred small lacerations from the gravel. Her left leg, the one she had landed on first, was beginning to ache painfully.

The sound of breaking glass drew her to stick her head around the bulky rooftop unit for the split second before bullets began to spark off of the metal. A small group of soldiers were moving out onto the roof, weapons up. This is going to suck... She thought with a grimace then stepped out from behind the machine with her hands up. The bullet hit her full on in the stomach causing her to double over. The soldiers grabbed her and dragged her roughly back into the building. Instead of taking her down to the basement or van, they took her up the flight of steps where Sadie was bound with the commander of the force.

 

"Right... bind the woman who can't already run away. I gave you guys too much credit for being smarter than what you are." She laughed. "You're taking us to the camps, right? Now how am I going to be of use to you idiots if I can't move my damn leg?" Her words started to become more and more vitriolic in tone. Sadie knew that her attitude was going to get her in more trouble than she already was in, but she didn't care at the moment. She moved the wrong way and bumped her injured knee against the wall. She let out a cry of agony, "I'd really like it if you were a bit more gentle with me. I am a lady after all."

In fear of causing herself anymore pain, she decided to give in for a bit and let the soldiers just deal with her. They couldn't be any more rough than they already were.

 

I rubbed my forehead as I heard more gunfire from outside. Pulling out my radio I yelled into it. "I ordered you to hold your fucking fire!" I put my radio away and turned my attention to the woman Douglas bound. I grabbed her by her hair and yanked her off the wall. "I don't give a rats ass about your gender or your leg. Now you're gonna shut up or I'm gonna make you do so, okay? Douglas!"

"Yes sir!" Douglas replied. "Grab Kyle and get us out of here. We spent too much time here." Douglas nodded his head and pulled out Kyle from the room. His leg had been shot up pretty badly. I groaned and pulled my radio back out. "Everyone get out of the hospital now with whoever else may be alive in here! You have five minutes before I kill each and every one of you! You got that!?" Not waiting for a reply, I threw my radio at the wall. I was beyond angry right now and I forcefully grabbed the woman. "Stop dragging your feet." I ordered her as I lead her out of the building and threw her at the van.

"Everyone assemble!" I ordered as my men lined up. Everyone was accounted for at least. I pulled out my pistol and shot six of my soldiers in the face. "I thought I told you NOT to fire your weapons!" I shouted firing three more rounds into my men, killing a total of nine. I reloaded my pistol and put it away. "Load everyone up and lets get moving NOW!"

 

It was dark and the faint smell of gunpowder lingered in the air. Unsure of where they were going, she did a head count of people in the back of the van. Only nine out of the fifteen staff had survived and it seemed the patient count was even lower. Hearing some groaning, she looked around to see Mekani in a crumpled up mess of blood and glass. "What happened?" Seeing the amount of blood on the girl's side, she figured the stitches had broke. Looking over the girl even more, she saw that she kept her hands over her stomach. Worried about what might have happened, she carefully moved Mekani's hands. "This may hurt, but bear with me... I want to make sure you're intact." Everything seemed fine, but to be safe, Sadie tried not to move Mekani around more than she had to. She didn't want to risk internal bleeding or anything else.

The van hit a huge pothole in the road, possibly from an earlier attack, and sent most of the passengers in the back into the air before landing down on the floor of the vehicle again. Almost immediately hitting the pothole, a large bang came from the outside. Scared that it may have been an airstrike, everyone went for cover. As they were all huddled together, they heard voices of some of the soldiers as they got out of the front of the van and headed towards the back. Anticipating that they were going to open the back, Sadie took off one of her shoes preparing to throw it if she had to.

 

Mekani simply slumped against Sadie as the young nurse did what she could in their circumstance. "That morphine would be really nice right now." She said weakly with a small grin. When the van came to a stop, Mekani found herself crumpled next to the door. There was a brief second of calm rationality, then her entire body erupted in burning agony. Darkness drowned out the start of her cry and blissful unconsciousness saved her from the worst of the pain.

Name: Anessa Valtione
Sex: Female
Age: 15
Citizenship: Estium
Occupation: None. She is a minor living with her father. She enjoys painting.
Country in during attack: Estium
Random Stuff: Her father was a major political figure

Spoiler

Anessa let out a bored sigh and laid out on her bed again. Her father had a meeting with some of his clients, meaning she couldn't leave her room. She looked to her well worn eisle with the drying painting on it. It was of a majestic creature, the alicorn. It had the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn. With no new ideas at the moment, she retreated to her desk and took a book from the nearby shelf. It was a philosophical analyses of art, from a rather controversial artist that she happened to adore. Opening the first page she soon became bored with the familiar words. Looking out the window she saw the roof of the nearby manufactorum plant that assembled her father's product. Military autonomous suits and other arms sold to the PMCs for help with the organized crime problem.
Stupid war. Stupid weapons. Why did Dad have to get into this business. It's terrible.

 

Voldemars laughed as he snuck out of the back of the building and followed slowly behind the van. Was it just him or did this entire thing feel off. Why would a group of savages come and attack a hospital that was run by his country. Was it another group of those militia? If so why would they attack people of their own country. Wondering if this was the grand gesture he should make or not he continued to follow after the van but now gained speed following almost on top of the van now.

When he watched the van hit the pothole he picked up his speed once more now standing practically on the van he tossed a rock to distract the soldiers that approached the back as he laid his head against the side of the van and listened closely. Once he had found out the information he had wanted he broke the lock to the doors and opened them before quickly ducking his head as to avoid the counter attack that awaited. "Well my fair maiden is this gesture good enough? Or would you like me to actually kill your captors first?"

 

Caught off guard by the voice, she threw the shoe. "Oh... hello to you, too." She stammered and looked around. "I don't know... but you might want to watch out..." Like she needed to tell him, Voldemars probably already knew about the soldier running up behind him. And without any hesitation the assassin turned around and took care of the assailant. "... nevermind."
Sadie stayed silent for a couple minutes before coming back to reality. "Well... I need your help. Actually, another person needs help, too." She moved slightly to reveal an unconscious Mekani. "Take her first... I'm starting to believe she's in the beginning stages of shock. Be careful with her, she has ruptured stitches in her right side and a gunshot wound to the stomach. Don't worry about me, I'll find some place to hide. You do this for me, and I'll know you meant what you said to me back in the hospital."
She moved more, making room for Voldemars to grab Mekani. Before he left she grabbed his arm, pulling him down to her so he could hear her request. "If it's possible, can you go back to the hospital and grab stuff so I can make a splint for my leg and a pair of crutches? I don't want to be entirely immobile if I can help it."

 

"You can stop right there." I said them, gun pointed at the new person in the back of the van. "What? You didn't think I heard what happened?" A few more of my men appeared behind me and pointed there guns inside of the van. "Now I don't mind you taking these people out of here. I just can't let you take away that bleeding girl. Truth be told, my orders were to kill everyone in the hospital except for her. Now I don't know why I was ordered to destroy a hospital with the people from my country running it, but I just do what I'm told. Now then. If I see you even touch her, I will start shooting hostages, starting with her." I lowered my gun at the woman with the injured leg.

 

Voldemars laughed as the man who had destroyed the hospital appeared with weapon in hand ready to fight. "I can't imagine they told you to kill everyone in that hospital except for that girl considering they know that three of my contacts work at that hospital. I also can't imagine they would attack a hospital in which I have under my sphere of influence. As for you pointing a gun in my general direction I suggest you lower the fire arm immediately or I will not hesitate to kill you and your men and chalk it up as a casualty of war. Your name is Vyse correct? You are a soldier of the Urseos army and while you may have had orders to capture that girl, once she entered my domain your orders were null and void." Reaching in his pocket he pulled out a swatch of cloth that bore a crest which many wouldn't know what signified. "I assume you know what this crest means? I outrank you in every sense of the word. As for threatening to kill that woman I suggest you stop pointing your weapon at her as well or I will be forced to draw mine. However remember that while all my weapons aside from a few predate modern technology all of them still have the power to kill you." Standing as calmly as could be he reached his hand back into his pocket to put the swatch of cloth away and awaited the mans response.

 

I kept my gun pointed and scoffed. "Now you listen here, my orders come from the president himself you little upstart. I don't care if you out rank me, I at least know how to follow my bosses orders. Oh you probably want proof." I reached into my jacket and pulled out the document and handed it to this man. "And kid, I wouldn't get so cocky if I were you. If you know my name, you must know who I am and what I am capable of doing. Now if you would, please take these people and get out of my van. If you truly care for them, you will listen to me and leave that girl, Mekani, here. Understand?" I was looking at him with a face full of seriousness. "I didn't want to attack the hospital, I was ordered to do so, and when you get to be as old as I am, you learn to obey those in command."

 

Voldemars laughed as the man told him that his orders had come from the president himself. "Ol' Man Red gave you those orders? I haven't gotten the chance to talk to him a long time. Does he still have that old tick hound or did she finally pass? Poor girl had more problems than she shoulda. As for knowing your name of course I know it. I also know the weapon you wield and that face of yours. As for leaving the wounded girl I cannot. I see that these orders are clear cut however I am utilizing my rank to say that your orders are now void and I will deal with Red myself." When it came to Ol' Man Red not many people had known the president. He was a man of many mysteries and Voldemars had the luck of saving his life one day and thus given a seat of great power. "As for you saying as old as you are? You aren't much older than myself and the only reason you follow orders is because you know they'll send someone like me after you if you don't. Besides soldiers aren't ever given the task of destroying a hospital just for one person. That is more my jurisdiction. Now I'll say this once more. Set down your weapon and allow me to escort all of these people out of here. If you don't I will draw mine and you won't like the results." His hand remained in his pocket as he readied it on the handle of his knife awaiting the outcome.

 

Watching the exchange between the two men, Sadie started to slowly inch herself and Mekani towards Voldemars. She stopped often, making sure to not bring the attention of Vyse on her. Worried about Mekani, she decided to speak up. "Don't mean to interrupt your debate here, but perhaps you don't know what happens when someone's body goes into shock from blood loss." Her voice got increasingly louder with each word.
Turning to Vyse, she glared at him and delivered an ultimatum. "You... I think you want to re-evaluate what you're doing here. So, I'm going to make a deal with you." Before starting to sound off her deal, she looked at Voldemars to see if he was listening to it as well. "Anyways," She looked back at Vyse. "You're going to let Voldemars take Mekani so he can help her get proper medical attention. How is this a deal you ask? Wait. Once Voldemars as Mekani, you will let these other women go. I will stay in their place." She nodded. "Now, if you decide to ignore my request or if I hear any of your damn trigger happy soldiers hurting any of these women, I will not help you nor your soldiers if you get hurt. Consequently, if you decide to by any off chance to shoot me right here and now in an act of defiance to my simple request, I am positive Voldemars would not hesitate to do the same to you."
She looked at Voldemars who nodded in agreement to her last statement.
"Now, Vyse... I have other requests to ask of you. But those will remain unsaid until after the exchange has been made." With all that said, she sat back and waited for something to happen.

 

Anessa sighed. Her life had become so dull since Patience had become trapped in Etris. Pulling the card sized device from her desk by her computer, she touched the button on the side and waited for the machine to whirr to life.
"Flick." Anessa said and a small fairy type creature winked into existence hovering above her palm. "Are there any messages from Patience? Is she online right now?" The computer creature made a series of clicks and chirps. "Could you try to establish a link with her?" The fairy nodded and sent the request.

Mekani groaned back to consciousness. Drunk from agony and the fluffiness of her thoughts, she muttered some nonsense and tried to shrug Sadie off but was too weak to actually accomplish anything.

 

Name: Ussemate
Gender: Male
Age: 34
Citizen/Role: Estian
Country at Time of Attack: Etris

Two Weeks Ago

The room was dark, not much to indicate that lights had even ever been installed. The air tasted foul like rancid cabbage. Dust lay inches thick across the floor. Hanging from the ceiling was a cube, about a foot wide and tall. A button was inserted into the top.
His footsteps were brisk, no time for needless caution or grandstanding. There was much he still needed to do. Crossing the room to it, he unhooked the cube from the chains supporting its bulk and slipped it into his pocket. Above him, the sound of explosions and gunfire could be heard. Acting quickly, he took to his heels and sprinted, heart thumping against his chest as painfully as the cube jutting into his side, straight to the emergency fire escape, praying that no Urseosian soldiers had discovered the hatch. He wrenched open the rusted door, only to come face to muzzle with a rifle.
The soldier was stunned, not expecting to find someone still here. The first barrage had scattered the rest like rats. Cowardly, weak rats. He opened his mouth to order the man to place his hands above his head and to get down on his knees, but he managed to get as far as "Get-" before the man withdrew what looked like a jagged shard of glass and placed the sharp end squarely in his voicebox, reducing all further noise to frightened and confused bloody gurgles as he fell to his knees, dropping the rifle to claw at the intruder in his neck.
He closed his eyes and brought the butt of the rifle down onto the man's head, caving the skull into the top of the brain. Death was blissfully quick. Leaving the bloodied body behind, he scrambled up the ladder, breaking out into a field filled with corpses. The smell made him retch. He ran as far from that field as he could, through tree and brush and suburb, until through some miracle he made it to the collection point. Heaving for breath, tears in his eyes, he collapsed onto the park bench and broke down, his sobs echoing through the park.
"If you could perhaps refrain from awakening the entire street with your caterwauling?"
He looked up, wiping his face as clean as he could. The man who sat down next to him had a kindly face, but eyes unforgiving as stone. Feeling his spine prickle, he sat up.
"D-Did you?"
"I am a man of my word," the man said evenly. "In approximately fourteen minutes, the transport will depart. Your baby daughter is already secured on that transport. I have contacted her mother to arrive at the pickup and take care of the child. You yourself will take the following transport one week from today out of Etris. All I ask is that you tell people of what has happened to this country and what is needed from our government." He almost collapsed on the bench, barely able to stammer out "Thank you... oh gods thank you thank you..."
"To business." The man's voice rose. "The cube. Did you acquire it?" Still hardly able to compose himself, he withdrew it from his pocket and handed it over. The man took the cube, pressing the button atop it lightly. The cube hummed a little and glowed bright orange. Satisfied, he whispered something into the bottom of it, removing the orange glow. He stood up, said "Good day," and walked off into the night.

Present Day

Ussemate hummed, tinkering with the cameras one last time. He had a whisky to steel his nerve. Then he turned on the camera.
"Greetings, my dear government of Estium, the besieged government of Etris, and the attacking government of Urseos," he said pleasantly. As he spoke, the elaborate pirate rig he had constructed sent an overriding signal to all receivers across the countries, radio, television, even managing to disrupt most military communicators. Trying to not let the scale of what he was pulling affect him too much, he continued speaking knowing he had perhaps minutes before they started tracking him.
"On the day this war started, three years ago, I was celebrating my son's fifth birthday party. We took a trip to Estris to see the fabled Mankind Falls, the lovely waterfalls that Southern Estris are so renowned for back in Estium, where waterfalls have instead all been converted into gravi-hydroelectric generators. I took my wife Beatrice, my two daughters Angela and Daphne, several of my trusted friends from work and a few other family members who wanted my little Leo to see a real waterfall for the first time."
His voice grew choked and hard. "My wife drowned after the first bombing run destroyed our boat. What was left of my two daughters wouldn't fill a matchbox. Many of my other guests were burnt to a crisp, and those that weren't died of their wounds. Only my little Leo survived, and he has been in a coma for three years with next to no sign of improvement."
He held up the cube, glowing a faint orange, to the camera, a tearful vindictive smile crossing his face. “I am aware that Urseos was not targeting my family, and they were merely casualties in this terrible war. No, I am truly angry with Estium. They who could have ended this war between Etris and Urseos with merely a brave thought. But sadly it appears that my government were built by pioneers and has fallen to the care of chickens. Headless ones, at that. But to those who do not know what this contraption I hold is, I will enlighten you.”
He placed a finger on the button at the top. “This is something we were collaborating with Etris on during the peacetime so long ago now. It is an experimental terraformer, capable of transforming entire countries into lush, fertile plains ready to start construction and farming. I have spent the last few weeks completing this device, and the orange glow means that at this point it is, in fact, armed. Should I push this button, Etris would, in its current form, cease to exist. All traces of civilisation gone in an instant. Everyone in Etris currently listening to this transmission, I hold all of your lives in the palm of my hand.”
He paused, to let that sink in, before continuing his statement. “Those more cunning and quick-witted among those in Urseos have probably already yelled into phones, demanding my location tracked and squads mobilized to track me down, apprehend me and requisition the terraformer for immediate deployment elsewhere, which is of course where YOU come in, my faithful Estium.”
The smile faded. “Should Urseos get this terraformer, they will not need to worry about intervention from you. Why, all they have to do is prime this thing, drop it from a great height into the middle of Estium and – voila! An entire superpower, erased at a stroke. Of course, the same could be said for Urseos and Etris…”
He let it hang in the air before something occurred to him.
“Oh, and for those of you tracking my location electronically, kindly do not mobilize your troops to that location immediately. Unless, of course, you like breaded fish sticks, which the restaurant that, according to your equipment, I am transmitting from, do most deliciously and at cheap affordable prices given the current climate. The terms for my surrender and subsequent acquiring of the terraformer, should you ever call for it, are simple, basic, and so clear I will give each word its own sentence.”
He leaned into the camera so that his fierce gaze filled the screen.
“END. THIS. WAR. I’ll be in touch.”
Then he turned the camera off and normality resumed as though nothing had happened at all.