Steel Sky (Adelle/Mind Flayer)

[Guan Yu]

"We have our foes, but this does not feel like any of them." the guardsman spoke up in a relatively hushed tone, hoping to keep his ears as sharp as possible to get any possible audio identification if he could on the things outside their immediate vision in the gloom of night.

The soldiers were not apparently too alert yet, and Adelle got to wake Rose up with nothing really happening besides that. The westward machine gunner had taken his hands off of the gun he was manning by that time, and was scanning his sector with some binoculars he had hanging inside the cupola of the tank, probably having seen what was happening between Adelle and his fellow soldier guy and getting alerted by it all. Rose, for her part, was easily woken up, and seemed to catch on immediately as she too turned her head down to get a feel of what was there. Without a word, she pushed herself up in a surprising and kinda creepy manner, using her arms to rise into a crab walk and then just kinda snapping up with her back. Making herself quick, she moved near the west tank, going around to the front to see if she could make anything out. At this time, there was an actual audible sound to be heard, fairly faint but it was there. And it most definately was not a vehicle, the sound was something big that was walking around and had enough mass to actually vibrate the dirt from a good distance away.

Then, Adelle caught a faint sight of what was out there as she looked around to Rose. A massive silhoutte of something was moving out there at a speed that was probably comparable to the tanks they were around. It was hard to believe what it looked like, but the shadow could not be described as anything else besides saurian in shape, remarkably similar to that of the T-Rex that the busty girl had seen in the books. Yet it was somewhat different, being heavily more muscular on the body and tail while it's head was a little more crocodilian than the Rex. It was also sporting a good deal of short stub spikes on it, the most visible ones on the upper and lower parts of it's tail. as they formed the silhoutte. And while it was hidden by the dark of night for the most part, there was some light to be seen as streaks of sickly green illuminated the heavyset frame of this night stalker, looking like they were something it was producing on it's own. It did not seem to be coming at them straight on, the movement was going towards the south and just a bit towards them. While it was not easy to tell how massive it actually was, there was a very real chance that it would outsize every vehicle there, not to mention the people.

"Is it actually coming for us? It doesn't look like it." Rose would say from her spot, visibly tense as if she was going to go into mama bear mode any second now if she saw something threatening.

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[Mind Flayer]

"I didn't expect it was one of your foes or anything to be honest. Else you'd all be awake and ready to fight by now I'd think," Adelle replied to the soldier in a soft tone before she gently shook Rose awake and took the big girl's wrist with her right hand and helped her to raise up some. "Whatever that is, it ain't no vehicle of any kind," she added to Rose as she looked out in the distance.

Scanning the horizon in the direction of the thing in the distance, Adelle saw the huge thing... walking slowly around, and it looked like an old T-Rex she's seen in books when she was little and still in school. "W-Whoa... is that a... d-dinosaur? And no I don't think it's coming straight at us... but it's still coming in our general direction. It'd probably be a good idea to get ready to run just in case," Adelle said, looking to the guard she was near for a moment. "You guys seen anything like that before out here?" Adelle asked curiously.

 

[Guan Yu]

The guard on his turret mount was not looking like he was taking the sight of the massive silhoutte too good, drips of sweat visible on his face in the otherwise cool night air. "No, we have heard story about radiation spawn monster lurking out here, but never have I seen one. If that even is radiation spawn. Could be mad science project set loose." he spoke up, a little broken on the whole language thing but managing it nonetheless. "I think we can stop it coming if we give it some shots, but it doesn't look like it's directly coming at us. It might get attracted if we raise too much noise."

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Aye... don't want to alert it if we can help it now do we. And I've never seen something like that either. Though I'd wager a single tank shell from the main gun on that thing would likely take it down. But you're right we shouldn't attract it if possible," Adelle whispered back, pressing herself against the tank to make herself as small as possible as the huge creature came their way. "W-Wait, is that thing heading towards the city?" Adelle asked softly with a worried look on her face.

 

[Guan Yu]

"Doesn't look like it... it seems to be more on the way to the... east is what you call that direction?" Rose would go on to speculate as they saw the thing move ever closer. It did not seem to register them at all, and passed by the camp some fifty yards away, south from their location. They could actually make out some details then, the thing being a rather large specimen that probably could have taken any of the tanks in a pushing contest. The head was somewhat more crocodile-like than the Rex had, and it had short spikes on it's lower jaw that gave it a kinda-beard. The front feet were kinda silly in their pointless size that was positively miniscule compared to the huge, ultra-muscled rear legs that it moved about on. The beast was a uniform charcoal grey in color, which served as a good camouflage color in the night. Yet this advantage was a little put off by the glow that was coming from the various scars it had, suggesting that this thing had fought other creatures that could put up a fight with it and still coming on top.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Mmm... that's good at least. Let's just... stay quiet and let him pass. Though, he is a magnificent looking creature to say the least. Don't you think?" Adelle replied softly as they hunkered down and watched the thing going past, her eyes inspecting it as much as she could.

Once the thing had gone past, Adelle would let out a sigh of relief and leaned back against the tank she was sitting on. "Whew, that's good, he's gone now," Adelle said softly as she saw the thing get out of range. "Wanna get some more sleep hon?" she'd ask Rose after the creature was out of sight again.

 

[Guan Yu]

The soldier near then had settled down shortly after the dinosaur thingy went by, probably by the sheer virtue of the girls or soldier not doing anything to aggro it towards them. The camp was relatively sleepy still, so getting a tank cannon to fire onto it might have taken a few panicked moments to happen.

"I imagine that... Is the best thing to do."

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Come on then, let's get some more rest. We'll need it for tomorrow I think," Adelle said to Rose as she slipped her boots back off and climbed back into the bedroll with Rose before snuggling up to her once again.

When they woke up the next morning, assuming there were no other interruptions to their sleep, Adelle would raise up and stretch before looking around to see if anything else had happened while she slept.

 

[Guan Yu]

With the dinosaur departed from the area, the camp went back to it's natural relaxed state relatively quick, the men at watch settling down as their tension dissipated. The ladies would soon enough fall asleep again, the sounds of night animals and the occasional cough from the guards at their posts.

The dawn was soon upon them, and Adelle managed to catch the sight of the rising sun in the wasteland with her wake-up. Rose had beaten her to it though, and was standing at full height near the turret of the western tank that they had been hiding behind during the event in the night. She seemed to be looking into the distance, scanning the area with one hand held on her brow to shield her vision from the sun. The man at the turret, now a different one from the man during the night, did not seem to mind her standing there, even offering her the binoculars from the tank to look around with but ending up getting refused, most likely out of the fear that the things would end up breaking in her hands. Despite the mostly friendly and wordless interactions, it looked like the man could not completely ignore the womanly aspects of the amazonian female on his tank, and was occasionally stealing glances at her almost unnaturally proportioned physique. Maybe sheer female charm could let him look past what most would consider monstrous in her.

Other than that, the tank men and the lady officer were all sooner or later out from their vehicles, starting up with some morning duties, washing their faces with some water from their tanks and preparing morning meals to eat at the fire that had been going through the night.

 

[Mind Flayer]

Adelle quickly managed to fall back to sleep, and when she woke the following morning she was surprised that Rose had woken before her, but she didn't really mind much. She rose up and stretched again before getting up, getting a drink of water from her canteen to wet her throat. "Mmm... morning all. Been a long while since I've slept on the ground," Adelle said after she'd gotten up, looking around for a spot that she could do her morning business so nobody else, aside from the girls there may see her, and after that she'd get some food out for herself and Rose as well to eat with the soldiers around them. "Ma'am, I'd like to thank you for letting us stay with you through the night. I truly appreciate it," Adelle told the lady officer after they began eating.

 

[Guan Yu]

"One should do that occasionally, if for no other reason than to keep familiar with the earth we all walk on." the officer of the group spoke up as she heard Adelle's little statement about sleeping on the flat of the ground, which had actually been thankfully flat in the night and not providing any unnecessary rocks to get poked in the back by. For all the thankfulness being shown, she did not seem to be too concerned about it all, stating that it was just common courtesy among humans, and maybe even some thoughtfulness that came from the unique angle they both shared, the fact that they were female among the mostly male denizens of the wastes.

For all the food making going on, Rose was not having too much interest, making a move from the western tank to the northern one. She quite handily climbed the vehicle, using the sloped front and the gun barrel to walk on up to the back deck, where she resumed watch towards the direction they would be heading once the goings got rolling again.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Oh of course. I fully agree with that. We have only one mother Earth after all," Adelle replied with a smile to the officer lady while Rose climbed up on top of one of the tanks to look around while the food was prepared.

When she got hers and Rose's rations readied, Adelle would walk over to the tank and smiled up at Rose. "Hey... ready to eat?" Adelle asked the large girl cheerfully as she smiled up at her after coming over.

 

[Guan Yu]

The call took a few seconds to reach Rose, but she did speak up despite not breaking out from the scanning of the surrounding lands. "I suppose. The land is interesting..." she would be saying as she dropped off to the other side, coming around the tank shortly. Somehow, she could find the mostly barren stretch of wasteland interesting, which told volumes about how limited her experiences of the world still were.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Well, if you'd like, we can explore a bit when we get to where we're heading, at least if it's got a forest like Rizzet mentioned it may potentially have. Gods if it does, that'd be amazing. I've never seen a forest before myself, though I learned all about them in school while growing up," Adelle said with a smile at the larger girl before helping Rose get some food to eat, and getting some for herself as well, and when it came time for them to part ways with the soldiers, Adelle would bow graciously in thanks to the officer lady. "Thank you for letting us rest with you last night. If we'd stayed over there behind those rocks in our own camp like we started to, that big creature from last night might very well have crushed us in our sleep," Adelle told the officer lady.

 

[Guan Yu]

The two of them would eat once Rose got down from her post, and it would go just like any other feeding time with Rose had up to that point. The soldiers were by that time starting to make preparations for their departure, the vehicles starting up as the drivers were testing them for readiness to move on. The lady officer too had hopped into the lead heavy tank, but remained standing in her commander's seat so she could be looking over anything that was happening. Most likely they were simply waiting for the two ladies to move themselves away from the circle so they could assume formation safely and not risk running one of them over with their heavy vehicles. "Yes, not a problem. You didn't create any trouble for me or my men so why wouldn't I let you hang around. I hear some of them were even thankful for seeing and having something as exotic as your friend there with them."

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Hmhm, why thank you ma'am. And your men were perfect gentlemen, so again I apologize for my words last night," Adelle replied with a little giggle to the officer lady as she and Rose prepared to part ways with the military group, getting her bike pulled over and getting ready to crank it up for her and Rose to depart.

 

[Guan Yu]

The two respective groups soon parted ways, the tanks and trucks giving Adelle's smaller vehicle the go ahead to move along before starting to break formation themselves. They would end up reforming to their earlier respective formation and turning towards the city once given free movement by the departing bike.

Going a few hour's drive worth more to the north revealed a green patch in the horizon, nestled near the base of a small mountain that still stood there even after the destruction of the events from humanity's past. It would appear that the rumors were true.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Thank you all again you guys. I appreciate the favor last night," Adelle told the officer lady and any of the soldiers nearby before she and Rose got ready to go on, cranking her bike up and revving it a couple of times while she waited for Rose to hold onto her.

When she had been driving along for a few hours with Rose holding on behind her, Adelle was about to get ready to ease off the gas and stop to rest when she saw patches of green on the horizon at the base of a mountain. "W-Whoa... you see that Rose?!! Rizzet was right! There is some green out here!" Adelle called over her shoulder, a look of joy on her face as she spotted it, while she revved the engine and went a bit faster down the old road to get over there more quickly, and when they arrived at the outskirts of the green area, she'd slow down and come to a halt before she put the kickstand for her bike down to climb off and squat down to run her hands through the grass with a look of awe on her face.

 

[Guan Yu]

"Hmm... I do see it. Certainly more interesting than this... mostly featureless land we go around in."

The closer the two got the more detailed their target became, and it was soon completely apparent that it was indeed a forest out there in the middle of the blasted wastes. The outskirts of this miraculous forest were expectedly sparse, with mostly leafy trees making up the outer ring. Farther inside it would turn into more of an evergreens type with a majority of pine trees and similar, but the leafy trees did not look like they were completely ousted by the pines. What it would be like deeper in was to be answered later, but even at the outer edge there was an almost creepy lack of sounds and sights of life coming out from there.

 

[Mind Flayer]

"Aye it really does look more interesting and beautiful," Adelle said as she looked intothe forest, kneeling down to run her hand through the grass some more before she stepped up to one of the trees and touched it with one hand, looking amazed at it.

After she had checked out the tree, she'd look back to Rose before climbing back on the bike. "Well, let's get to looking for those flowers Rizzet wanted and stuff I guess. And... hell we ought to take a little time and relax while we're out here too. Doesn't look like there's anything out here that would really try and hurt us or anything. Hmm... let's take the bike a little further in if we find a trail, and we'll park near some water if there is any, and I can set up this little portable house of Rizzet's for us to use to rest in once we're done," Adelle told Rose with a smile, climbing back on the bike and preparing to move further in once Rose was back on.