Russel

"The name's Russel" I said, under the sound of clanging dishes and loud chatter in the tavern. "Whaddaye say?" the old man who's name I already forgot responded. "I SAID, THE NAME'S RUSSEL" shouting over the ambient sounds of the tavern. "Oh, hello Russel, nice to meet you" the old man said, politely reaching his hand out towards me, I shook it but quickly got on track with the conversation, as to not let him trail off "you said you know what happened to the mayor?" I asked -"well, I can't say I know for sure, my mind's been playing tricks on me these days..." -I cut him off- "tell me what you think you saw then, this is important , even if you don't know if what you saw was true."

"well, it all started when I was at the museum and bumped into the mayor, we're long time friends, you know. Anyways, we exchanged niceties and he invited me over for tea, which I humbly accepted.

During the walk to his home, I could have sworn we were being watched, some pair of red eyes peeking at us from alleys just on the edge of my peripheral.

When we finally got to his home, I made haste in locking his door, just in case. We enjoyed tea and it was pleasant, but I realized that in all my worrying I had forgotten to take my medication! So I excused myself and went to his washroom to get that done. Suddenly I heard a thud coming from the other room, to which I quickly exited to see if the mayor was ok, but he was nowhere to be found, then I could've sworn I saw that same pair of red eyes staring right at me from the vent in the ceiling! I then called the authorities before rushing back to my home, fearing for my own safety!"

He spoke really fast near the end of the story, I replied, "so you think the mayor's been kidnapped? assassinated?" "I would say I KNOW, but I wasn't on my medication at the time and- and-" I cut him off "I believe you, news about that war hasn't been sounding really good and Steel Heart doesn't look like it'll be immune to it's effects. Shit, I think that greyskin wackjob sent an assassin to kill our mayor, our home might be next on the list of places to conquer-" I then noticed someone waving from the other side of the tavern to get my attention, it was Hogarth.

I thanked the worried old man and stood up to hear what my friend was trying to get my attention for. He was easy to spot in a crowd, he was lanky, stood above most others and had bright orange eyes, not to mention his leather armor with the signate of the guard on it. "Rus', hey, Rus' we might have a problem here, there's a single greyskin outside the wall telling us all to surrender, the other guards are treating it like a joke, they think it won't be a problem at all... I really don't think so, those guys don't ever come alone..." Hogarth said, with a serious look on his face, I very rarely see him worried like this, then I heard something coming from outside the tavern... a... buzzing..?

"RUSSEL GET DOWN!!" Hogarth tackled me when suddenly a massive blast tore through the front of the tavern, making a loud cracking sound as the wood splintered. The tinnitus of the blast had me disoriented, my ears were ringing and I was dizzy... "...-KE UP RUS' WAKE UP WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE" Hogarth was shaking me around like a ragdoll, then I finally started hearing the screams, they snapped me out of it. We were still in the tavern, hiding behind a table that Hogarth had flipped, most of it was completely leveled, peering from over the table I could see a Legion Dropship spewing out soldiers right across the street, others flying overhead. I spotted a backdoor to the tavern, I pointed to it and Hogarth and I rushed out.

Walking out, we were in an alley, I had memorized these as shortcuts in the past. "Hogarth, we need to leave, do you know where the the nearest exit to the city is?" "I- I can't just leave, what about the people? I can still fight, I can still save lives-" "This is not a situation where you can fight and still live, Hogarth, we. need. to. go." "Fine, the nearest exit is on the west wall, but I will save as many people as I can on the way there." he said, unholstering his rifle "I will lead the way, stay low." we then began traversing the alleys, trying to stay away from the chaos of the streets. Hogarth suddenly stopped to watch a group of his fellow guardsmen fending off several soldiers from a garrison, we were about to move towards them for protection as they finished off a group of 8, then suddenly they readied their weapons once more in the direction of something out of our vision, they fired at it, but they kept firing. We heard the foe stepping closer due to all the bullets making contact with it, clanging into it's armor. As it approached the group of increasingly terrified guardsmen, it pointed it's fists in their direction, unleashing a torrent of fire from it's wrists, killing half the group, then marching forwards and lifting their cover before readying a punch- I tore Hogarth from the scene, pulling him by the wrist deeper into the alley, we began running once more.

Suddenly, we ran a corner into a duo of Soldiers searching the alleys, they spotted us before we could do anything "I GOT THE TALL ONE!" one of them shouted to the other, before they started firing at us. Hogarth gunned down the first, one of their bolts connected with my shoulder before I could punch the second one in the face, knocking him down, I wrestled with him for his rifle and tore it out of his hands, I then turned the weapon onto him "HEY HEY HEY WAI-" I cut his pleads short, shooting him point blank in the face. The plasma from the bolt I had taken was burning into my skin, it was agony, but I kept pushing forwards with Hogarth, unable to use my left arm.

We finally made it to the exit, there were two soldiers guarding it, but Hogarth and I caught them by surprise. We slipped out of the city and escaped the invasion.

After days of wandering from our home that had just been taken from us, we traded for food and water in a small village to the north, I also got my plasma wound tended to. I noticed the town was housing refugees from Steel Heart as well. In the days following our escape, Hogarth and I discussed starting a rebellion against The Legion, to hurt them in any way possible. I spoke to the refugees, singled out those who had that fire in their eyes, proposed the idea of our rebellion, some agreed to join us. "now we need to find somewhere safe to build our new home" I said, in the large tent with all those who had chosen to join me. "I know of a place" a woman started "it is a forest of mushrooms, it reeks of acid, and I've heard that The Legion has stopped patrolling it due to it being too dangerous."

"perfect."