HtH113 – Crashout On Erata Prime
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Bugs. Also, Recoiless Rifle.
Erata Prime, Umlaut Sector.
A single four-wheeler is speeding down the uneven dunes of the planet, wheels kicking up dust in the wind. When it drives right past a snarling patrol of alien bugs, a small girl peeks out of the passenger seat window, firing a single rocket launcher shot into the vile horde chasing after them! Needless to say, the vermin is sent flying in the explosion, bug parts and goo flying in all directions!
The little girl leans back into the passenger seat once more, and only has but a single word to say,
"Bugs!"
Inside the cramped FRV, Rover, the flying drone is displaying the most recent chat messages on a floating screen,
>nice shot, P2!
>recoiless rifle with near-infinite reloads...
>mfw P2 was still firing light pen into tanks two weeks ago
>You get a supply FRV, you get a supply FRV, everyone gets a supply FRV!
"Yeah, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, the supply FRV is cracked!"
The speaker from the driver's seat is of course, Minara Incognito, with a single hand on the wheel, she swipes dangerously on the floating chatbox, attention more on the chat than on the road. Even as she speaks that last sentence, the FRV launches off a sandy dune, becoming airborne for a moment before dangerously landing on the sand with a loud thud!
"... so as I was saying, recently things have been looking up. I don't know why, because nothing's really changed,"
The FRV rams into a small pile of rocks, the passengers giving off a collective 'urgh'!
Taking her finger off the 'W' key for just half a second, she backs the vehicle up, the roof-mounted automatic rifle still firing into a mass of many-legged monsters nearby. The engine roars once more, the driver correcting course while a used rocket shell is tossed out the passenger seat!
"See, what I mean, chat? Usually, THAT would tick me off to no end. The crashing, I mean." Minara says so nonchalantly, more to herself than to chat, "Someone is going to DIE for that, but recently, it's just... I don't know, happening less?"
That was true. Although the character that Minara plays as a vtuber has not changed in the slightest, something else had changed.
The weather had changed.
It was not visible from the viewer's end, but a lot of things have happened! Most of them could even inconceivably be called 'good'! [HtH102]
Had she advanced very far in subscriber count? Not by much, by her own very high standards. Not really, that's why she is on Erata Prime to begin with. But that hardly mattered, to be honest.
For the first time in a long time...
"You know, chat, at the risk of sounding sappy, I'm going to really cautiously say that I might even be happy."
Rover lit up with chat messages again, but this time a little more mixed,
>happy? you?
>that's great news!
> That seems very unlikely.
>did something good happen recently?While the positive messages still outweighed the more speculative ones in the end, the girl's dull auric eyes still zoomed in on the rare, dismissive remark. It had gone by so fast, she had to scroll back up to see it again, fixated on that one guy in chat souring the mood.
"I thought as much. It's super out of character for me." The girl's eyes start to twitch in spirally motions again, looking out at the passing desert scenery. The sky is suddenly covered in a layer of stormy blue, a sign that an ion storm was approaching on the horizon. "That's why I can't really feel happy for long, whenever I start feeling hopeful, it always feels like someone, or something snatches that hope away from me."
That was a lie, of course.
Reality was, the road the girl walked proved otherwise.
However, the ion storm tonight might be scrambling minds in addition to stratagem inputs.
That feeling isn't one that goes away easily.
"... still, I'm going to try, even if it is hard."
The girl mouths a grimace,
then bites the underside of her lip once more.
Amongst the flood of messages, that one-guy was still sending messages that irked her. The latest one that stood out like a gigantic pincer falling from the sky,
>Maybe you're not doing what you are supposed to be doing down there.
(PEW!)
A single shot of an energy pistol strikes the intangible chat box, burning a hole through the back seat!
"MODS! Ban that guy! Listen, I'm not going to take [] like that anymore! Do you think I am not already doing my best? Maybe he's not even down here! Have you ever considered that?! What do you expect me to do??? [], he could even be on Sangis joyriding an Incinerator FRV for all YOU know!"
Perhaps there are indeed people in chat who enjoy this bit; the part where they rile the girl up in predictable ways.
In that momentarily lapse of concentration, she had left her hands off the wheel to gesticulate wildly...
"Bug! Fifty meters!"
A spike of sharpened carapace DID fall from the sky, nearly piercing the FRV in half! A pair of gigantic bugs, the towering Bxle Txtans have appeared from the side of the cliff, the FRV narrowly driving under the first one...!
However, the second one further up ahead was already winding up its acid spit attack, and before P2 could lean out with the launcher...
The front of the FRV is hit by the attack, doing a full frontal flip into the air!
The entire vehicle spins a full rotation in the air, set to land on the wrong side coming down!
[].
This always happens.
Something good happens, but something bad ALWAYS happens afterwards.
It is at this moment...
Inexplicably, P2 decides NOT to aim at the underside of the giant bug they were flying under...
... but instead, she aims at the ground!
The rocket hits the ground just before the FRV hits sand, the force of the backblast shunting the ride to the side...
... the resulting barrel roll righting the vehicle with a precarious wheelie on its left side!
A safe landing!
The angry Bxle Txtans a speeding blip in the rear view mirror, the gas is stepped on, and the blue beam from the extraction site comes further into view. The recent crashout is forgotten, for chat is swamped with messages alternating between "CLIP THAT" and "THIS SHALL MAKE A FINE ADDITION TO MY >FLIP >FLIP COLLECTION"!
The vehicle comes to a screeching halt at the extraction zone, where an orange-clad diver is waving a pair of pyrotechnic grenades in the air with both hands. A pair of car doors slam shut, Minara looking at P2 with disbelieving eyes!
"What the hell, Piaccta, where did you learn that?!"
Piaccta smiles, not forgetting to grab a refill from behind the car,
"Backblast... is a form of nitro too!"
We are trying something different! This is a simul-posting at the same time as the Scribblehub release! Go check out the entire series at this link!
