Hell Hounds on my Tail

[_______________Bliqz]

Nine assignments in eight days, and Dyrge was getting ready to draw us a tenth. I dont know where fixers get the enregy, but he set a brutal pace.

I sat down next to the terminal and closed my eyes for a moments rest.

If I strech my mind to its origins, I find myself 4 years old, cold, scared, hungry and wet.

I live in a small shack made of wood and discarded sheet metal, just outside of 20k. Until a week ago, my father had run a stim shop in town. He was a retired Agent, and the chemical profession suited him well. My mother occupied her time with me, teaching me about grass, kites, finger paints, and laughter...It was a deliriously happy time for us, and I had not a care...but that would soon change.

We meant nothing to Scourge, the clan org that leveled our home, and the name "Payle" the leader of that org meant nothing to us. I saw the blood and the bodies, the burning shop front, and ran...Perhaps I was too small to matter, or too small to see, but I ran through the legs of the clanners that were attacking us. I ran...my mind full of confused thoughts...memories of my parents both laughing and burning...sounds of clan laughter as they looted shops and killed people for sport...I will never forget the sound of his laughter, and longed to hear the sound of his crying...crying...sounds of despair and loss...I could imagine them...so real I could hear them in my mind...until I realised that they were coming from me...It would be 20 long years before I saw Payle again.

A flash of light, and the smell of Cordite...High velocity blood spray as a clanners head explodes...violent is the time that passes...

It was in The Longest Road that we almost crossed paths again...I had never forgotten him, but he had surely forgotten me...Again, it was raining and cold.

I had been detailed out to the Foreman's Office, and was fighting my way back to T.I.M to retrieve a piece of informatio. In the years that had passed I had taken the same road that my father had, that of the Agent, and I was reconing for an assault planed by my employer. The guard dogs were no problem to kill, and I was working the stealth angle around the guards in the entry hall when I heard the voice.

All the blood evaporated from my body, and my heart sunk into my belly...It was him. Suddenly I was that 4 year old boy agian, but now I was armed with a high powered rifle. I knew that I had time only for one shot, and that unless it was a good one, it would be in vain...I droped my Cloaking device into my pack, and waited til I could hear his footsteps coming from the deapths of the building towards me at a frantic pace...I entered a state of total concentration, raised the sights of my weapon...saw the face that owned the voice...took a deep breath...sighted the target...half a breath out...squeeze the triger...*clicK*

In my clouded moment of revenge, I allowed my weapon to misfire on an empty clip...Payle ran past me with the entire facility behind him...he made it to the door, and T.I.M. now without a target, turned on me. I ran...I ran as fast as I could...I barely made it to the door, on the wings of a ready stim...Without even knowing it, Payle had nearly taken my life twice...

The sound is that of a brass shell casing hitting a stone floor...the sight is that of a clanners chest blosoming out into a rose of blood...Violence and time are the only constants...

Twelve more years have passed. My missions now are longer, and to the farthest reaches of Rubi-Ka...I have seen many things over the years that would bring joy to most people hearts...but mine is only filled with hate. Hate for Payle...Hate for my own failure...hate for clanners that steal families and childhood...Hate keeps me going...Hate keeps me alive.

It was raining...It was always raining...It was cold...it was always cold...My mission was over and I was hungry and tired. I stoped into a Neutral run pub to grab a bite to eat...and there he was again...older...frailer...but he still had the same voice.

He was very drunk, and giving the bar maid a hard time.

"You cant cut ME off! Bring me annother round NOW! You Neut wench! I have killed more important peole than you before, dont think I won't! I once led men into 20K and raized the whole place! Prettier women than you were killed...killed and worse! Those were the days! No back talking little bar fluzie telling me what to do!"

It was about this time that the Atrox bouncer tossed him out on his ass.

I followed them out, and when the bouncer returned to the comfort of the pub's interior, we were alone...Just me and him...

Had I pity in me, I would have recognised it in the creature in front of me...Hands and knees in the rain and the mud...drunk, and looking for the spilled contents of his coat pockets in the puddles...But I had no pity in me, only hate.

I loaded my rifle...The rain was coming down harder now, and I stood over him and drew the bolt back. I guess he heard me, because he turned around to face me so fast that he fell over onto his back. And there we were...32 years have passed, and I was still that little boy...cold, scared, hungry and wet...My hair was dripping into my eyes and mingling with the rain and tears...I stared down the barel of my rifle at him...The muzzle a hairs breadth from his nose...I had waited all my life for this moment...

And I waited...

I dont know what I waited for...an apology? He didnt even know me...an explaination? how could he explain?...a curse? I dont know...But I looked at him, and he looked at me with his alchohol impaired vision...and his mouth began to move...

"Get up, Agent! You have work to do."

Then It all began to fade...Like a masterpiece on canvas sinking below cloudy water, until you cannot see the picture any longer...

"Bliqz! Get up! C'mon, lots of clanners to kill on this mission, I swear"

It was Dyrge. He had pulled annother assignment for us while I slept.

Even in my dreams, Payle eluded me...Leaving me only Hate...

Hate and a job to do.

Get up, Agent.


~FIN~



((Any similarity between org and player names in this story and ones in AO is coincidental, and unintentional))

[vallikat]

Very good read Bliqz! I almost felt sorry for you.

[UwensBack]

I hope you catch Payle and when you do, I hope he blows your head off again hehe, nice one Bliqzsy

[_______________Bliqz]

((Thanks you two!

I had a great time writing it.))

[vallikat]

Vallikat waits for the episode in which we find out that Payle is really Bliqz's father.

[_______________Bliqz]

Delving deeper into Bliqz past to find what fuels him.

...for it is the hardest heart that will break before it bends...

Long years gone

I dreamt about my love last night
but woke up all alone
her scent was in my nostrils
but she is long years gone

Her hair is tied in ribbons
her face is glowing fair
her smile shines like summer
but she is never there

A lad I was, and she a maid
she told me we would wed
what childish games we playd
but now my love is dead

She whispers sweet and gentle
"I will never leave your heart,
ever we are together.
Death cannot make us part"

I do not feel she left me
I only lag behind
when my bones are cold and dry
my true love I will find.

She stirs my sleep in ripples
like a gentle swiming swan
gliding o'er my dreams at night
but she is long years gone



((I dont know if its the irish music playing in the office, or what but I felt the poet today.))

[UwensBack]

AHHHHHHHH BLIQZSY HAS FEELING AN' EMOTIONS AN' STUFF!!!!

/me looks 'round for MM

/whisper The end is nigh an' stuff!

[_______________Bliqz]

Bah!

At least its about childhood death...gimme SOME credit.

Besides, Bliqz has to have a reason that he is the way he is.

[Aimes]

A really good read Bliqz! I eagerly await the next section!

[_______________Bliqz]

((Thanks, Shul! I am working on ideas on his youth more as well...transition from parentless child, heartsick youth, to bitter adult...

the positive input from everyone has been a real pleasure.))

[_______________Bliqz]

But not all clanners are without heart.

Perhaps it was her beauty. Perhaps it was her pleading. Perhaps it was the look in the eyes of annother mother...Whatever it was that the clan woman who was detailed to my mothers demise took pity on her, and took her to Tir bound and gaged...But I would never know...She died 6 months later in childbirth...

[_______________Bliqz]

The Birth of Blyqz...a story of perception.

Rarely is child birth easy... but fortunately for every creature born of a mother, it is seldom this hard. Complicated by 6 months of forced marches, cruel conditions, near starvation, and a broken heart, Bonni's ordeal was far from normal. She is in a makeshift delivery room, populated with unsterile tools to match the unsavory look on the "Doctor's" face. The only other face in the room is a greedy looking matchstick of a man waiting to take possession of the newborn child.

The clan woman who had taken pity on Bonni was dead at the hand of Payle...punishment for allowing even one Omni to live. He had sold the pregnant Bonni to an underground baby farm catering to the needs of the more well to do clanners looking for child by any means possible.

The story as percieved by Bonni...

It was pain...she knew what that was...it was all she had known for the last six months. Pain of weather beaten skin as she was forced to live outside with the animals...Pain of broken bones from the beatings she had taken in fetal position to protect her unborn child...Pain of a broken heart over the memory of her husband and four year old son she assumed was dead...Pain as the contractions of her uterus sent convulsive waves over her conciousness. But she had endured this pain before, and knew that this pain was worth it...she would soon see the face of her second child...And then the pain was gone.

The greedy man in the corner was mumbling under his breath, and as the doctor laid her crying, black-haired child on her chest, he said something about treating animals, and jammed a needle into Bonni's arm.

She lived her entire life over again in the final moments of her life. Looking at her infant son, she cried not for herself, but for him. He would grow up without knowing her. He would grow up without knowing his father...And he would grow up without knowing his older brother...

She clutched the child in her arms as she lay there dying. Her dying act was to tell the child about his family.

"You will never know your mother and how much I loved you...You will never know your father who worked hard to provide for his family...You will never know Bliqz..."

Her eyes closed, her lungs were empty, and the only sign of life on the delivery table was the infant dhild screaming as he rested in his dead mothers arms.

The story as percieved by the "Doctor"...

"Ugh...why do the Omni always smell like ammonia?" the doctor thought to himself..."One heart transplanted into the wrong patient, and the only medical practice I can get is working on livestock."

"Just deliver the child to me, and dispose of the mother." Said the Adoption Mercantile representative.

It was a simple enough procedure. Wait til the pregnancy was term and the woman went into labor, cut thru to the uterus, and pull out the infant inside. As the mother wouldnt survive the proceedure, there was no need for the normal regimin of sterilization and anesthesia...Just cut, and pull.

The only unpleasent part of the entire process was the noise that the mother was doing. He laid the child on the mothers chest, and prepared the concoction that would shut her up permanently...As he injected it, something she said cought his attention...

"What is she babbling about?" Asked the greedy man.

The doctor pullud the needle from Bonni's dead arm, and said "She said something to the child...I think she called him 'Bliqz'".

The Adoption Mercantile representative took possession of the child, and paid the doctor.

"Blyqz?..." He thought to himself, "What a singularly disgusting name..."

[UwensBack]

((Depressing stuff. Very well written ))

[Aimes]

((Nicely done yet again Bliqz, very enjoyable ))

[_______________Bliqz]

Originally posted by Uwen
((Depressing stuff. ))

Pfft~

Your clan, not mine...buncha blood thirsty heathens,

((Thanks Uwen! I will go a whole week without cooking you even once))

[UwensBack]

Originally posted by Bliqz



((Thanks Uwen! I will go a whole week without cooking you even once))

((Cool! ))

[_______________Bliqz]

From the perspective of Blyqz

I have 4 parents. The 2 I was born to whom I shall never know, and the 2 who I love and call family.

I was adopted shortly after birth by an Atrox couple desperate to pass on the joy of life they shared to annother generation. I have grown up happy with them.

One can not grow up as an adopted child without forming an opinion on diversity. I am a different breed than my parents, but that never became an obstacle for us...I firmly believe that all life can find a common ground to share. I became a Doctor by profession, and a vegetarian by decision (growing up on a steady diet of pie made it an easy one).

I live in the hope that one day all Rubi-Ka will live in peace, with every creature afforded tha ability to chose its own path.

End Blyqz

[_______________Bliqz]

[Blyqz]

Blyqz slumped down in his bed. He had turned in early to let his mind run down the events of the evening.

What a strange evening. 3 times this evening, people had refered to him as "Bliqz"...some of them were close friends...and thar "blood room"...so strange...but it was like walking around all evening in a state of Deja Vu.

First there was the bot at the top of the ramp to the glass dance floor. His friend Emiliy had programed it with a proximity sensor that was keyed to go of at his approach...But she had programed the name as "Bliqz".

Then there was Uwen and ValliKat. Both of whom had called him "Bliqz" while they were dancing.

When the couples at Reets started to move off the floor and into the darker corners of the establishment, Blyqz decided to go down stairs and sit on the couches by the fire to collect his thoughts. Unfortunately, when he got there there was a couple people having what seemed to be a conversation that he assumed was intended to be private...so he left and wandered back up stairs, looking for a quiet place.

He was not even looking where he was going, his feet just making steps while his mind churned.

Suddenly his thoughts stoped. He found himself in "the Blood Room", and he was dumbfounded. His brain was already a bit fuzzy from the Sake, and the panic set in easy. Back pedaling, he tripped on the corner of the table, and fell to the floor. The plush red pading was enough to break his fall, but every thing that had heppened tonight was enough to break his mind. He was not on the floor at Reets, but enlosed in a womb of flesh and bone...Terified, he picked himself up and ran as fast as he could to the exit, and went straight home.

Exausted, and finaly in control if hs wits, he fell into a fitful sleep.

[/Blyqz]


Bliqz walked out to his front door and lifted the flap on his genuine antique replica mail box.

There is nothing quite like the feel of a 100% post consumer recycled celluloid product in your hands when getting the news.

Sorting thru his mail...RuR Spring Catalogue...Bon Appetite Monthly...bill...bill...

"Blyqz"? What the hell is this?

[_______________Bliqz]

((Pasting text from annother post to maintain character continuity))

"Take an assignment...Thats what I need to do."

Bliqz needed to clear his head, and work had always helped. Somehow the back part of his brain always managed to sort out his worries while he worked. When he finished the job he hoped that he could get his thoughts back on track. It was cold, and had just started to rain when he sat down at the mission terminal, and began browsing the available assignments.

And there it was. The name appeared under the assassination column. Bliqz's blood turned as cold as the rain that was running down the mission terminal screen when he read it.

Payle.

He took the assignemnt, stopped at the general to stock up on equipment, hopped into his yalm, and left the city.

The mission was a blur. Dead clanners and neuts left to rot as Bliqz went about his task of making his way to Payle to discharge his duty. And then he was there...30 years he had dreamed about killing this man for what he had done to his family.

Bliqz was a ghost haunted by ghosts. Years of hate and dead faces ran through his mind as he crept silent and invisible up close to Payle...Faces...thousands of them...Faces of dead clanners Bliqz had killed...Faces of Omni employees that had lost their way into self service...Bliqz's whole life was in the face of his target.

His gun was fully loaded but never had it felt so light in his hands...It was as if the hands of his dead parents were helping him raise the weapon...line the sights...take a breath...let half of it out...take the shot.

Payle was dead. But the world strangely was just the same as it was when Bliqz sat down to look for a mission...Omni was losing its grip on Ntum mining…Omni employees were still selling secrets, enhancements, and services to the clans…and the clanners were still there as well…Bliqz was still haunted by demons that whispered conspiricies…Nothing has changed, and somehow he felt that no matter what he did, nothing ever would.

Bliqz looked down at the corpse of Payle, and sighed.

“He doesn’t even look appetizing.”

[Alessa]

Poire takes her arm and slides it across her face. The sleeve absorbing the tears that roll down her cheeks as she hears the horrid death of Blyqz's mother.