The Evolution of Extinction

[Jajangmyun]

The Evolution of Extinction

In a remote corner of Western Elysium, a small, feathered object was seen darting quickly at a large pile of granite-looking rocks and then darting away. Reets, however, were not native creatures to the Shadowlands and neither was this adventurer. Cloaked in the swiftness of her morph, she flew alongside her next target: Heckler of Earth. Grasping the small tagging device in her talons, she angled towards the backside of the heckler, hoping to find a blindspot on a creature that seems to have eyes all around it. As she neared the back of the heckler’s neck, she saw the creature move to get up. She swiftly stuck the small metallic object to the back of the heckler with her claws…

one hundred fifty-seven…

and used the same motion to push off the block of rocks for extra momentum to speed her retreat. By the time the slow-moving creature sensed her presence, felt the small prick of the tagging device, and turned around, she was half way to the water’s edge. The heckler took a few half-hearted swings in her direction and then settled back down to slumber.

She grabbed another tagging device from the small bag attached to her leg and flapped towards the next heckler down the beach. This one, however, must have been sleeping with one eye open. She took a hit and dodged under its arm to place the device on its backside…

one hundred fifty-eight…

and flew as fast as she could for the less than comfortable water’s edge again. The heckler gave chase for about half a mile before giving up.

She glanced at her NCU deck and saw that her Parrot morph was about to run out. Cancelling the program herself, she resumed her own form, a slight solitus figure cloaked in a dark blueish-grey fabric. The area ahead of her was devoid of any hecklers from what she could see. She ran back towards the shoreline and came upon the remains of a Heckler of Metal. She checked the corpse for any remains and found only a large hunk of mob parts. Whoever had killed the heckler must have left the piece of flesh in favor of more valuable loot. She dropped the mob part into a bag; she would give the parts to her sister to convert into blood plasma later on. Just before letting go of the remains she noticed a small metallic object on the back of the heckler’s neck. It was the remains of a tagging device. She picked it up and flipped the device over. Scratched onto the surface was the number 71. Her records indicated it had been a Heckler of Earth.

Seventy-one… I hope you coughed up a nice fat platinum ignot for your opponent. I don’t know how many more of you will spawn during today’s hunting spree.

She ran past a wide open bay north of the Port Seven ramp to Jobe Market. Once teeming with various hecklers and their more voracious horror cousins, it was now mostly empty save for a few discarded remains that would prove to be empty of all ingots and hold only the most worthless pieces of junk that today’s hunters left behind.

She spied a rag-tag team of soldiers and shades circling around a newly spawned Heckler of Metal. No doctor or even an adventurer to heal the damage of the heckler… that is going to hurt… As she paused to consider the situation and whether she should offer to join them, a high-level martial artist raced past the small team and engaged the heckler into battle. Within a few short blows and scuffles, the heckler was soon dead. The team members cried out in frustration and hurdled insults at the MA who was busy looting the corpse.

“Sorry! My org is past-due on rent, guys… I need the ingots or the bank is going to reposess our city!” the MA tossed his apologies over his shoulder as he raced up the coastline looking for his next target. The team trudged on in the opposite direction.

The adventurer went over to check the rotting corpse. Another tagging device. One hundred sixteen… It wouldn’t be long before the hunters caught up to the more recent spawns she had just tagged.

She reflected on the astute business tactics of the hecklers’ archnemesis, the Guardian of Shadows. She felt a bit silly for not having picked up on the more shrewd angles of the rotund bobbing head that was Ergo. Who could have guessed that Ergo would be into land-development and negotiate behind the scenes for such astounding rent prices on the new real estate business that was the rage on Rubi-Ka. She knew Ergo wanted those hecklers killed to extinction, but she didn’t realize until now how determined Ergo was to drive every inhabitant of Rubi-Ka into the Brink to accomplish his goal. In league with the landlords… very smart, my Guardian of Shadows… very smart.