0-Hour (IC)

[Sunder]

0-Hour

***

The gang of bandits had them surrounded. Those poor civilians had no hope. Their eyes were shimmering with trembling tears. Then he showed up.

With nothing but a grunt, Tobias swung his hatchet around, the sharpened blade colliding with one of the bandit's necks, creating a tremendous cracking sound. Gasping could be heard from one of the hostages.

Upon seeing Tobias, the four other bandits drew their weapons: an assortment of battered blades, mauls and guns. No chance. Several shots were fired, but the majority ricocheted away from the armour, leaving little more than a scratch and a metallic 'tink'. One of the marauders ran for him, waving a machete, which he blocked with his hatchet. With a swift movement and the crack of a gunshot, the bandit fell down. Tobias held out his pistol and shot another of the group in the shoulder, then again in the chest.

He was doing well: his vitals were high, there was hardly any dust on his visor, he'd already killed two bandits and-
"Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap!"
The bandit at the back of the group cackled like a drunkard as he held up his rocket launcher, braced and fired. A bloom of smoke emerged from the back of the launcher and the rocket flew from the front; accompanied by the thunderous roar that could only be described as soul-crushing. His vitals dropped like the bassline in a dubstep concert until the screen grew black and the red 'game over' sign flashed on screen.

Groggily, Tobias removed the 5-D headgear and sighed in annoyance.
"I'm gonna get looted so hard," he growled to himself under his breath.

***

"I'm gonna loot this noob so hard," Leike giggled in delight as she sat croushed on the edge of a dusty slope. At the bottom of the valley below, a group of bandits had just finished off some Keeper kid who was attempting to save some civilians. From her angle behind the bandit group, she had attempted to make some sort of warning of the RPG wielder, but clearly he hadn't seen her. Oh well.

Her heightened position on the rocks gave her the obvious advantage and, considering they hadn't even seen her yet, this was going to be the easiest bandit kill yet. Leike drew her rivet gun and aimed it at the RPG man, before forcing her finger down on the trigger and beginning to furiously turn the crank. The 5-D effects allowed her to feel the gun shake as rivet after rivet were propelled forwards, cutting through the bandits like a hot knife through butter. Easy.

[FireAce8]

Ragnarök was walking past a small settlement when he an explosion that sounded like something from a rocket launcher. His red eyes gleamed through his exosuit as he began to run to cover, finding shelter in an abandoned building.

Opening a panel on his arm he inputted a code, opening up a hatch in his shoulder guard on his left side, and out flew a drone the size of a dragonfly.

"Cameras on," he said, before he took control of the drone and flew it out of a broken window in the abandoned building that he was using as shelter. Flying the drone up into the air he saw a group of bandits in the area, one with what looked like an rocket launcher, standing over a body that was presumably a player. He was about to return the drone until he saw another person stand up and shoot the remaining bandits.

After witnessing that he returned the drone before questioning himself. 'Do I really want to go out there and risk my life against another player?' After a while he decided the answer was no, and jumped out the window, pleading with fate that he hadn't been noticed by the player or any NPCs that might alert the other player to his presence.

[Rha'az]

Prometheus was in the city, wandering around finding some food for himself. Everything seems to be in order, no chaos. Crimes in the city were decreasing since the last few 0-Hour weeks. He went into a restaurant and immediately ordered a burger and a cup of hot coffee. His stomach growled with hunger since last night because he haven't eat during the last night's assassination mission. He sat down on a chair and everyone looked at him, the people around him said softly, "I thought 0-Ops guys are not suppose to be with the public," "Yeah, I thought so,"

The waitress went to Prometheus with his orders, "Here 'ye go sire, your cup 'o coffee and your burger,"

"Thanks, here's a few cash for 'ya I looted some mercs last night," Prometheus took a few cash from his inventory and handed it over to the waitress. "Use it well madam,"

"Thank you sire, thank you very much indeed!"

[DukeWolfRein]

Ivan stood by the brush, his cover the shadows, and the very stillness of his figure. A Keeper had passed by a few minutes ago, answering a call for a hostage situation, one he had set up to lure one of the Underclass out. She had a hit on her, one that he was ready to cash in on. The hostages were never meant to be hurt after all, that would be against his principle to hurt the innocent, even in-game. The real problem was the rocket launcher, he hadn't expect it. The blast had almost given his positon away, and also left his ears ringing, making it harder to hear the rivet gun go off as the Underclass woman began to shoot.

Ivan crawled forward and aimed carefully through the bush, he could see the woman moving towards the body of the Keeper. He checked his HUD and noticed that his compass/radar detected another life signature not too far from where they were. He wondered who else was around, but thought to drive it out of his mind for now. Seconds passed as the woman began to examine the body and finally Ivan sent the grenade flying from his position. It landed directly next to the body, blowing it up and making the loot fly in different directions. Ivan stood up and aimed at the woman, shooting off three bursts, hoping to have hit her through the smoke that the grenade had created.

~~~

The elevator stopped, the door opening and revealing an open floor with doors that lead into different rooms, each room held a person inside. Each person was already in the game, their minds taken away from reality by the 5 dimensional engine built into the head pieces each of them wore. Victoria moved through the doors and looked around the floor, her room number was 403, and it seemed to her that she had gotten the one with a view. She entered the room, a white room with a single bed in the middle that could be turned into a seat if preferred. A window, rather a cut into the wall really, revealed the city outside.

'Please, take a seat and relax while we scan your biometric proportions'

The voice had come from the room, wherether the speakers happened to be. Victoria shrugged and thought it was as good a time as any and laid down on the bed right after placing the head gear on. She felt herself fall into a half asleep state and then a voice broke the silence. A blue and black background appeared before her eyes "Welcome to 0-hour, the post-apocalyptic mmorpg! First we will start by scanninc your biometric proportions.....It appears you are a young female! Would you like for your character to also be female?" Victoria thought for a second, the idea of being a man appealed slightly to her, but she shrugged "Yes."

"Very well! Now we will move on to character creation. Remember, your character is yours to do as you please, but keep in mind the survival aspects of the game as well as the possibility of other players being able to identify you in real life." Victoria went through all the options she had, and there were indeed many of them. She decided to make her character taller, and definitely give her sleek armor and weapons. She wanted to be athletic and light. For her choice of gas mask, she chose something called a "retractable mask", it seemed to be made from a gel that allowed the wearer to retract and expand the mask from just the mouthpiece. She was finally done and moved on.

"Now, time to choose your Faction! You can be a mechanic prodigy, working with the technology of both the old and new world and join the Underclass! Perhaps you are a seeker of justice and are out to stop the injustice of the world by joining the Keepers! More of an opportunist with a twisted mind and an even more twisted set of skills? The Creepers are waiting for you! The world can also be yours, one order, one rule, all 0-Ops." The factions appeared in front of her, and she could feel her hand stretch out to choose one, but then saw a door appear next to the last of them "You don't have to choose now! You can experience the world as an independent agent, though your experience might be slightly harder as someone on their own. Remember that player-made "factions" do not count as actual factions and will be excluded from in-game story events as well as regular tournaments." She nodded, that would do. She ran towards the door and opened it, the light blinded her as it covered her entirely "Welcome to 0-hour! Now...Survive!"

She opened her eyes and all at once she could feel the air waving her hair around. There was a road in front of her and it seemed to lead directly into a city. Victoria started walking and noticed all the little displays in her HUD and the tutorials as she got closer and closer to the city. Everything felt so real, so in the moment. She knew of course that it wasn't. All she had to do was remove the mask and she'd be back on the bed in reality. She entered the city was greeted with a free gift of a medkit that she placed in her inventory. The next tutorial quest aimed her towards a restaurant. As she entered, she could feel some sort of tension inside. Everyone was looking at a man that was eating a hamburger. Victoria sat down at a booth and looked at the man. The HUD identified him as part of the 0-Ops group. She wondered if that's why everyone else was looking at him. Mostly they were Underclass players. She smiled as the word "Independent" showed up under her own username.

[Sunder]

Leike was thrown back by the explosion and landed on the rocks behind her. She grunted from the impact and clambered back up to her feet, only to be shot three times in the chest. The armour was not penetrated, but the all-immersive suit she was wearing to feel the full experience of the game suddenly felt like a bad idea, as three minor electric shocks hit her body in the same places as the bullets did. It would be near impossible to shoot her attacker through the smoke without killing one of the civilians, so there was only one option: lose her cover and attack from a different angle.

Switching out her rivet gun for her SMG, Leike ran to the left of the smoke, getting a better view of the battlefield. Her HUD showed two players in the area, both of which were Independents, likely working with the bandits. Clearly they had no quarrels with killing other players, such as that Keeper kid, so she would have to teach them a lesson...

Leike sprayed into the bush with her SMG, knowing that not many bullets would hid due to the inaccuracy and the distance, but hoping that it would draw out the mercenary.
"Now would be a really good moment to have some grenades," she growled.

***

Almost as soon as he had died, Tobias was loading up the game once again. He spawned in the middle of a city, near a restaurant. It seemed to be loaded with players, mostly Underclass, one Independent and one 0-Ops; the sworn enemies of the Keepers. Staying calm, Tobias pushed the door open to get a better look at the occupants of the restaurant. He looked the Operative up and down, recognising him as one of the notorious assassins that almost killed one of the Keeper generals. Upon seeing the screenname 'Prometheus', Tobias remembered one of his wanted posters in the Keeper base.

Unaware that this city majorly held 0-Ops sympathies, Tobias drew one of his revolvers and shot the burger out of his hands.
"You're wanted by the Keepers. Come quietly or come dead," he warned, walking slowly towards his table.

[Rha'az]

Prometheus gripped the player's hand, twisted it a bit. "Listen kid, this world is dead. You don't wanna be dead too right?" He pushed the one named Tobias away and took his gun. He unloaded the gun and threw it away, "Don't come to me like this Keeper, I don't want things to be disordered just because of your bloody faction. Acting like you guys are the most righteous in this world," Prometheus walked towards the door, and looked at Tobias again, "The 0-Ops is just my place for carrying out duties to keep this city in order, and so do you,"

[FireAce8]

Ragnarök heard an explosion behind him, coming from the general of the brawl he'd seen earlier. He started slowing, about to turn around and help whoever was in the area, thoughts rushing through his mind. 'What am I doing? This isn't my fight!'

And that was when he heard bullets fly past him.

He grimaced. This was his fight now. Running at a speed far faster than what the human body should have allowed, he jumped through the branches of one of the trees in the area, taking cover behind the trunk of the tree,, he flipped open the panel on his arm before typing in a command. Once again the dragonfly drone came out of his arm, hovering in front of its creator.

"Thermal cameras on!" He said to it, before piloting it high into the sky, rapidly inputting commands into the panel on his arm. The camera drone gave him two readings. 'Players' he thought, 'they must've killed the civilians with that explosion.' He inputted more commands, and the dragonfly drone marked them as targets, before flying back and returning to its position in his arm.

'Alright...I don't want them dead...Just captured,' he thought to himself. He typed more commands into the panel, and a panel on his shoulder popped up, and out flew six drones that looked very similar to wasps, but grey in color with yellow stripes on their stingers. 'Capture drones should do the trick' And the drones split into two groups of three, each group off to inject one of their targets with a tranquilizing agent.

[Sunder]

Tobias kicked his gun upwards, back into his grip, quickly loading in several more bullets.
"Order? Sure, there's order here, but this is order out of fear. These people are scared of you. This is a dictatorship," he spat, tightly gripping his gun. He raised the muzzle and pointed it at the operative once more.
"I assume you won't be coming alive, then?"

***

Upon hearing a slight buzzing sound, Leike made a mental note to watch out for any drones. Then again, it could always be some helicopter... No, not likely. She ignored the noise and concentrated on the treelined outskirts of the valley. That's where the other player's nametag was. Were they working together? Leike didn't care too much.

[Versace69]

Slade had just walked inside an ancient tomb. He pulled out his map studying it. This tomb was a maze Slade has gotten lost in there three times now. Each time he went in he'd end up in there for hours at a time, the tunnels lead different paths and the deeper he seems to go the harder it seems to get. Thanks to his 3D map he's been able to at least cancel out a few places. He managed to find one path he hadn't taken yet and I appears to lead even deeper into the tomb. Slade wondered where it would lead him, more tunnels or maybe the end. Slade knew there knew there was something valuable at the end of this tomb.

After entering the tomb he began the long walk through the tunnels. He turned on his night vision in his mask allowing him to see further down the cave. Thanks to the map he was able to make a path straight to the unknown area. He was still hoping that it would lead to some kind of treasure at the bottom of this tomb if not well shit he'll just move on to the next one. Or most likely he'll rage quit for a while.
Finally he reached to the to the unknown tunnel. There were ruins on the side of the wall. Slade was amazed in his entire time in there he hadn't seen any type of writing on the walls until now. He couldn't translated at the moment but he added a design of the markings in his 3D map. He wondered what they meant: A warning, explaining who was buried here, or just some random bullshit the designers added to make it cool. Slade continued to walk into the unknown ignoring thoughts and fears.

[Versace69]

Slade had just walked inside an ancient tomb. He pulled out his map studying it. This tomb was a maze Slade has gotten lost in there three times now. Each time he went in he'd end up in there for hours at a time, the tunnels lead different paths and the deeper he seems to go the harder it seems to get. Thanks to his 3D map he's been able to at least cancel out a few places. He managed to find one path he hadn't taken yet and I appears to lead even deeper into the tomb. Slade wondered where it would lead him, more tunnels or maybe the end. Slade knew there knew there was something valuable at the end of this tomb.

After entering the tomb he began the long walk through the tunnels. He turned on his night vision in his mask allowing him to see further down the cave. Thanks to the map he was able to make a path straight to the unknown area. He was still hoping that it would lead to some kind of treasure at the bottom of this tomb if not well shit he'll just move on to the next one. Or most likely he'll rage quit for a while.
Finally he reached to the to the unknown tunnel. There were ruins on the side of the wall. Slade was amazed in his entire time in there he hadn't seen any type of writing on the walls until now. He couldn't translated at the moment but he added a design of the markings in his 3D map. He wondered what they meant: A warning, explaining who was buried here, or just some random bullshit the designers added to make it cool. Slade continued to walk into the unknown ignoring thoughts and fears.

- - - Updated - - -

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