((More self indulgent, irrelevant NR RP, enjoy if you can bring yourself to read it.)) 

It was a newly mangled pile of steel and ash, the remnants of what had been the old cradle of civilization. The smoke wafting upwards filled the enclosed broken city with a darker tone, and the buzzing of the tentacled beasts in the sky was bone chilling. The sea of debris laid parted and washed out, acres and acres of littered wastes - and there as if insects to a corpse, the sentinels writhed and squirmed, picking and sifting through the wastes, as if in search of something. Perhaps survivors, perhaps .... Something more.

Peering down across the wreckage he marveled at the sight, the chaos draining him of his ability to speak, months ago this had been home. He let out a sigh, noting a bland sort of truth, outside of their well known capacity to create, the machines capacity to destroy was just as evident. Their semblance to humanity painful in regards to the wreckage below, a difference in way of cold efficiency and disillusioned perfection. Then again - emotion blinds us all in different regards.

The ragged clothes clinging to his frame, resembled a sort of rotted away poncho, his head wrapped as well in the black clothes, exposing only his eyes. A gentle hand landed upon his shoulder and a warm voice despite the cold brought him to his senses.

‘Darminian we need to keep moving, were right out in the open, and with the patrols as is, I doubt we'll be able to get too far in.'

He looked back at her and nodded, moving his gaze from her to Staje positioned nearby inspecting a piece of building that had collapsed, the glowing weapon humming slightly in his hands. The clothing they all adorned like a shabby homage to the new latex outfits everyone had become so fond of. His gaze shifted to Jahleel and Hawnt - beckoning the two over he gave them orders to secure the access point and watch for their return.

‘If were being swarmed shut her down, we can't afford to have anything breach, the field would probably still get them, but better safe then sorry.'

‘On it sir.' Hawnt replied as he and Jahleel tore off back towards the broken pipe they'd drug themselves through for what seemed like hours to get here.

Darminian watched them move off awkwardly, one holding the shells, the other holding the launcher. He turned his gaze back to the two still with him. Beckoning them, the three moved deeper into the wreckage dead silence amidst the sounds of fire, and the hovering of drones.

Homes, bridges, security stations - everything was completely mangled, they took up a position just south a few clicks of what used to be a main bridge in Zion, now broken and turned into a sort of ramp to nowhere.

‘What is it were looking for anyway captain?'

‘Depends on what's out here really, right now my curiosity has got the best of me, and I figured you guys could use a little field work. As for what we can find, I want know why the sentinels are still sticking around - if they are going to just keep patrols running here or establish something.' He looked between the two of them, the moment turning from briefing to discussion as Liv changed her view from Staje to Darminian.

‘What about Lock? - I mean if he's here are we going to help him or?' She asked.

Staje spoke up - ‘I say we help him by giving him a lesson about treating EPN with respect. But that's just my vote.'

‘Well I doubt we'll find him - if the machines haven't killed him, he's off in some hidey hole much better then this. He's too slippery to have just been taken out of the picture, and the ego boost he gets from being the ‘commander' isn't something he is just going to want to pass off like this.'

‘Agreed.' Staje spoke out, as Liv nodded. ‘Now in regards to anything specific were looking for - survivors, supplies and purpose.'

‘Purpose?' Liv said aloud - ‘You mean why they destroyed this place?'

‘Probably to send us a message about their power, and what they think is ‘inevitable' Staje scoffed as he replied.

‘Well whatever it is, I want to see if it's so simple or if there is more to it - you two and I know that things happen around here for more then just the reasons on the surface. Now let's scope out some more of this sector and head back, being this far away isn't safe.'

Three shadows skulked along the tortured landscape, strange intervals and awkward movements, lead them through the seemingly twisted labyrinth towards a collection of buildings smoking but still partially intact, a metal door ajar enough for them to slip inside. Inside the rooms were a mess, the contents of the rooms flipped upside down - easy to see they left in a hurry. Darminian motioned to the door they had come through and Staje moved towards it, weapon in hand he kept a lookout.

Liv and Darminian crept forward through the darkened home, trinkets and strange things were scattered across the floor, and a doll on the floor - ragged and rotted seemed to paint a picture in the back of his mind as his eyes moved to a door closer to the back of the room. The two moved towards it quietly, each step agonizingly slow as the humming and crackling of fire outside the buildings set a terrible sort of white noise. He nodded and her fingers gripped the edge of the sliding door and she pulled it open slightly.

The busted broken emergency lights sparked and flickered randomly, at first but yielded enough light to the room, amidst stacked and built up furniture, beyond that was what appeared to be a trembling mass of flesh. He inched closer, the weapon not shaking in his hands, not moving. The light flashed again and he could see them - a woman and two children, a boy and a girl.

He scanned the room frantically - it was just them, there'd been a flash of relief but it had passed immediately.

‘Why the hell are you still here?'

‘We..... Missed our transport to new Zion..... We were waiting for the next one when the machines attacked,  my husband told us to stay here and he'd go and get help and...... and .' The woman sobbed as the children huddled to her tried to comfort her.

‘Well we've got to get you guys out of here.' Darminian beckoned Liv into the room and her expression was the same as his. Almost blanked completely out of the surprise - ‘We need to get these three out of here, and I don't know how well stealth is going to work.'

‘What are you thinking then?' She asked looking up at him.

‘Distraction, extraction.' He replied calmly.

‘You don't mean.....'

‘Get these kids back to the tube, I'm going to stir up the squids - that should be enough trouble to get you guys back.'

‘Darminian - you can't it's too risky you' - She stopped when she saw the look in his eyes, she didn't need to be told that he was giving orders not making suggestions to know he couldn't be persuaded.

‘Go.'

She nodded beckoning the mother and children to follow her into the room where Staje was keeping watch over the door. There was a dead silence that hung in the air as they stood at the broken door. Liv and Staje didn't look  amused, the woman and children seemed just phased out and Darminian fiddled with the weapon in his hands.

‘I'll buy you guys as much time as I can, but I don't know how much I can give you if I still want to make it back in one piece. Just make sure you guys book it.'

Staje could only nod and tighten his grip on his own weapon.

Liv on the other hand looked worried, she stepped towards him, up close - very close. ‘You better make it, or I'll kill you.' She said without even the trace of a smile.

Darminian nodded, as he moved towards the door.

‘Good luck captain.' Staje spit out as Darminian began to clamber across the broken part of the door. Darminian cracked a slight smile and through himself over it, and into the wreckage illuminated by fire yet again.

((more to come....maybe.))

~Darminian

((second half to self-indulgent crap, but i really like the ending.))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Ma4BvMUwU

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It hurt his eyes, the dull light of old Zion still more compared the dark of the building he'd come from. He moved to a nearby peak of ruin to the side and climbed up, the jagged metal and burning remnants of what once was - was like nothing he'd ever seen, he stood atop the ruined building staring across the newly wasteland that not so long ago had been home. Watching the beasts tear through it, destroying what was left, and tossing wreckage around in search of something, perhaps anything.

He was frozen in place amidst the calm chaos before him, there was almost nothing left - nothing worthwhile, nothing left for them. They'd survived and re-fortified but moved closer back to the earth. Their goal, their objective pushed further away then ever before, necessity in the face of adversity. He panned from left to right, scrap metal and flame was about all that was left, it was little more then a fire in a garbage dump now, to anyone who hadn't seen what it once was. People had once covered almost every inch here, now replaced by empty space and squids.

He cracked his knuckles and caught himself, he would have let himself float off into the lost waste before him but couldn't, as usual when it comes to losing ones self, there's always more to be doing. He leapt down from the roof and tensed his hands against the electric weapon. His palms sweaty against the grips of the weapon he readied himself for what would undoubtedly be a bumpy ride. Two clear cut paths were defined before him - to his left, he could book it back to the exit, to his right he wasn't sure of what would lay ahead, but of course that was his path.

He took off at a run, moving along the path to his right across the remains of a destroyed bridge, he could see the beady red eyed heads popping up and hovering towards him. He kept moving, watching them like beasts in the rubble hungry for a new meal. He watched the dead city seem to thrive around him as they started to creep and crawl out of every dark corner, every broken building. There were a lot more then he'd realized, then any of them had realized.

He circled around another block and stopped dead, a cloud of dust amidst the sound of breaking and screeching metal marked the landing of one of the beasts in the road ahead, it turned and blinked, its eyes widening, shrinking in its attempted scan. As it turned to jump at him, the beam ripped through it sending it flying against a nearby wall. He continued forward and b-lined for a nearby alley when the same crashing sound began to echo around him, they moved fast.

He could hear the buzzing rising as a powerful and loud echo around him, the hairs on his neck standing on end. Feel the debris from the walls and metal splitting and being smashed around him as he kept running, sharp turn after sharp turn, just running as fast as he could. The next opening was another sort of street esque walk way.  As he leapt over some debris to get there, he slipped onto his back and slid across the ground, a sentinels head had peered around the corner, its tentacles lashing wildly. His gun revved and unleashed another beam that electrified this one and let the body fall to the floor.      

He ripped across the road and bunkered under some large rubble catching his breath, cradling the weapon hot to the touch. He'd not had time to catch his breath when one of the arms ripped through the wall near him and obliterated the weapon taking some of the skin from his hand with it. He grit his teeth and jumped up - not having time to catch his breath he bolted along the walkway in the direction he'd come. They were more ferocious now, he stayed on the path less then 10 seconds when they started to erupt out of the debris, he moved between piles and over edges, jumping from the rubble like impromptu ramps as their lasers would rip through those same piles seconds later.

Whipping through alleys and pipelines, small spaces and everything he could to get away from them, he clamored up some pipes on a wall and made his way a long a rooftop, moving faster then he was thinking, he didn't realize he was climbing higher and higher, his direction was right on the money, his altitude.... Not so much. He moved to the edge of a rooftop and peered down, he could see the entry way, covered up by wreckage, Jahleel and Hawnt in position. The only problem with his current position was he was a few stories above them.

He looked around for anything he could use to slide down but there was no such luck, it was both a feat of amazing architecture and something horrific in regards to this building still standing at all. His momentary lapse at marveling at such preventing him from realizing how much closer the sentinels were to him, one flew over his head as he dove to another part of the roof, for a moment it hung in the air between the exit and the rooftop, it's eyes on Darminian, until it turned and looked down.

His eyes widen for a moment as he pushed himself up off the ground, he watches the squid lower itself towards the entrance, the strange satellite dish creeping out from it. It inches closer and closer to the entrance, lowering itself towards them. Hawnt preps the weapon looking up at it, waiting to see if it notices them. His eyes move upwards and he sees Darminian on the roof. Their eyes meet and Darminian nods, Hawnt shakes his head, but it's too late. He leapt from the roof; the air rushing past him as he flew forwards, his feet and hands collided with the sentinel which fell about a foot as its tentacles flailed wildly.

He wrenched himself upwards pulling on the arms, and what felt like one of the red eyes and flung himself forward, off of the beast as he plummeted through the air he felt something hard clamp onto his leg, he heard a crunch and grunted in agony. He leaned forwards slightly staring into the eyes of the beast and time stood still for but an instant. The arms floated in the air, the eyes shimmered in the smoldering light of old Zion. Suddenly a beam ripped through this sentinel as well as Darminian fell to the ground, it was a hard drop, and his consciousness lasted long enough for Jahleel to grab his body and pull it into the passageway.

The darkness flooded his head as the words ‘blow it' echoed through the enclosed area.

~Darminian

I happen to think 'requiem for a dream' is a wonderful statement in regards to old zion.

~Darminian