>[AVARICE]
You nod. His fate is sealed.
And so is yours. At the end of all this, when you complete this run and deliver the Package to the SCOM Station, you'll finally get your well-deserved bonus from the Captain. You're still not sure who pays *him* but he's well-off to afford your services in the first place - you won't stick your beak into such matters.
"How 'bout this? Follow me, MUNCH."
You clear the broken remains of the window with your doctor's bag and hop on through, making sure that the fallen soldier can see it in a show of goodwill. MUNCH follows in your footsteps in uncharacteristic silence.
The soldier looks up at your approach. No doubt he only sees the robes and the white mask symbolic of the profession. He coughs.
[A PRACTITIONER'S CALLING] From the depths of your bag, you carefully draw out a curved blade with one hand. This is the last blade of the Practice. When the hands of life falter and all other blades fail, the mercy must be carried out.
This is not what this blade will be used for.
You look him dead in the lenses as you kneel down. Still you sense in him that almost childish trust that you're here to help. With the gentle hands of a surgeon, you hold his head up and expose his neck.
Like a lamb to the slaughter.
[???] [RED THOUGHTS] You feel the body go limp as the man's head suddenly blossoms into a butcher's bouquet of gristle and gore. Blood soaks into your gloves, turning them red-wet. The death is instantaneous.
You turn over and see MUNCH lowering his outstretched finger.
"Quit screwing around already," he whispers, almost accusatory. The mad mage plucks out a fold of meat from the remains like some sort of Godawful charcuterie board and you hear some really gross sounds as it disappears under MUNCH's hat.
[???] You don't need to be a doctor to know that eating raw meat is bad for you, but MUNCH can do this anyway.
"Mind your own business LIMEY," MUNCH growls in a much more characteristic fashion. "I'm HUNGRY."
"Philistine..." you mutter. You give MUNCH a light punch on the shoulder before you kneel down and start rifling through this guy's pockets.
>And that's the end of that.
RUINS Search
Acquired:
+1 corpse of a Baronic Conscript
+1 MEAT ration (fresh)
+1 "MATTEL" Pistol (4/14)
+1 HERMES (Baronic Frequency)
You gain Brozouf.
+Ψ30
MUNCH: STARVING -> Hungry
[You click on the button and return to the overmap screen. Looks like the world's gotten a little larger...
Ah, aha! The increased view should be from the binoculars. How handy!]
You and MUNCH drag your meager loot back to the Crawler.
<span class="mu-b">An arbitrary unit of time has passed.</span> The moon hasn't risen yet so the dae is still young.
The Captain's helm turns towards you from behind the steering wheel then towards the corpse. NUMBERS is sleeping in YOUR seat...
[ACERBITY] "That's not food yet idiots," the Captain sneers.
[RED THOUGHTS] "I have to work my OTHER MAGIC on this HUNK OF FLESH when we MAKE CAMP. Don't RUSH me!"
