U.S.S.A HellField

Chapter 4 Lay of the barren land

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of seasoning on the meat, even the vegetables at the bottom of the bowl were bland. The grey rat just shoveled its food into its mouth and ran off, had it even paid for that? "I see you liked it, I hope you have the money to pay for it if you're going to be scaring off my customers like that?"  I looked blankly at him.- "How much is food?"  He just huffed.- "For that one, 6 Helva."  I just sat there in silent ignorance of how much that even was, he eyed me with all 4 eyes expectantly. I opened the coin pouch filled with bronze dollar-sized coins, I picked up and counted 6 coins. I placed them in his...appendage, hopefully, this was enough. "New around here? I don't think I've seen your kind around here, you're certainly not an Alsha, not enough arms, nor do you have the smug attitude. A Bi'lan perhaps? I don't know how one of them could get their hands on gear like yours."  He mused. So that was two aliens he named, I only knew one of the two he referred to though.- "I am not either, I am new to this world. Lost on it you could say. Speaking of which, what is the name of this planet?"  He looked at me confused like I was stupid for not knowing. 

"Huh, you are new here then, I don't know how you even got here without knowing. This world is called  Motan'und  as the Alsha call it, or..."  The name didn't translate except for the last part of the word meaning world.- "As I said, I got lost here. Also, what's the name of this city?"- "You're currently in one of the best restaurants in all of Blood Rust, in all of the HellField If I do say so myself."  That was a lot of names at once, I'd have to ask about those.- "Really? Blood Rust? And HellField?"  He made a sound similar to clearing one's throat.- "Legend says that during the great collapse many centuries ago, there was a massive battle here that turned all the sand in the HellField red with crimson blood. There ain't many folks that bleed red around here, 'cept for the local wildlife."  Well, that was weird, they are aliens so it would make sense that their blood would be a different color than mine.- "What other races have red blood?" -  he seemed to think on that for a moment."The Bi'lan I think are the only ones, makes sense though, they're all a bunch of red-blooded cowards. I'd imagine millions of 'em died during the collapse, I'm sure that's why the sands are red."  Well, this place certainly had an interesting albeit bloody history.

-"So one last question, what are you?"  He let out a hefty chortle.- "My kind call ourselves the Jonoteashi. You'd be wise to steer clear of most of my kind, you'll find that most of us don't quite have my '"friendly demeanor."  If he wasn't a sapient being wearing alien cook's clothing, I might've assumed he was a dangerous animal.- "Thanks for the food and the information. Oh, and you haven't seen a woman that looks kind of like me, no armor but with blue clothing and golden hair?"  I asked, not mincing my words. His posture tensed slightly, even though it was difficult to tell, it seemed like what I told him disturbed him somewhat.-"You are definitely not a Bi'lan, I've only heard of one being around here that has blond hair."  He hunched closer and whispered. "The blood witch. Would you happen to be a bounty hunter? many have tried and failed to capture her; dead or alive. There's nothing about her having blue clothing, but she has been described as having long hair as golden as a gilded Helva."  That wasn't a lot to go on, but that was the closest description of a blond woman that I'd heard.- "Sure, is there any way I could find her?"  He then stood up straight.- "You can try the bounty board, it's in the big metal building just up by the bar to your left."  I nodded approvingly and went my way.-"Wow! That was amazing, I learned and translated over a hundred words just from that conversation alone. You should now be able to speak at a tenth-grade level now, as opposed to sounding like you have a disability." - "How did I sound before?"  The pause it made was concerning.- "Trust me, you'd rather not know."  

I went up the rusted steps towards the bar he mentioned, then I took a left, I probably should have asked for his name. It would probably be a bad idea to drink while lost in an alien world, and drinking extraterrestrial alcohol might even kill me. I walked past the grungy worn bar and into the building he told me to enter, it was a two-story slab of concrete with metal sheets welded together on the outside. While it was in better condition than most of the other structures in this town, it was unappealing looking even to me. "Well, this place certainly has an...apocalyptic vibe to it."  - "Well at least it's not another navy blue neo-futurist eyesore."  I gripped the handle on the strange alien door and pushed, but it didn't budge. "What the hell? It must be a pull door."  I pulled the door but it only pulled out slightly; was it locked? - "It's a sliding door, Damien, slide it open."  I moved it to the right and it slid open. All I could do was grumble at my mistake, even the doors were alien to me.

Inside was an open foyer filled with an intimidating variety of hired guns, there were packs of little ones no bigger than a child and ones that towered over me. There was just enough room for me to squeeze through only to be met with a lineup of bounty hunters, great, it was just gonna be like waiting at the DMV. To pass the time I looked around at all the aliens here, scouting out all their physical attributes. I may have to kill some or even most of these different aliens, but I figured it would be prudent to figure out ways of dispatching each one.- "Damien, your cortisol and testosterone levels are increasing, Is something angering you?"- "No, I'm fine."- "Your serotonin is also decreasing; are you sure?"  I hated how it could measure my mood, it was difficult to think with the aching pain in my bones, and with it constantly notifying me of my chemical balance.- "Yes Metis, I'm fine."  When I said that, we had already moved up to the front of the line. A pale green face tilted curiously at me, short, black, straight hair swayed as her head tilted back to normal, at least I think they were a she.- "Hello, welcome to the BloodRust bounty guild. I haven't seen you around, are you new to this profession?"  She said very formally, she was so human-like. 

-"Uh yes, I was hoping to find a bounty for the 'Blood Witch' If that's available?"  Her white pupilled eyes had the unmistakable look of shock in them. Her iris were a pretty albeit unsettling onyx. -"Are you certain about that sir? That would be a death sentence for someone inexperienced in this line of work, perhaps a simple tax evader or bandit bounty would be more suitable for you."  I dropped my right arm on the desk, and the loud thump from my arm-mounted weapon startled her. "Uh, well I think I can find a bounty group you can work with."  She said nervously shuffling papers. -"Damien, your heart rate has increased. Is something wrong?"  I decided to ignore the question. The receptionist handed me a form to fill out. I looked at the paper sheet in front of me, it was written in a foreign alien script.-"I haven't exactly deciphered their written language yet, we've barely seen any writing at all."  I looked up at her in confusion and pointed at the paper.- "Cannot read."  Now she was the confused one, she let out a deep breath as if preparing herself to deal with a difficult customer.

-"So you can't read at all?"  I shook my head. - "I cannot read these words, I can read and write in my language."  The perplexed look on her face increased as I spoke. -"Can you read out to me what this says?"  After a few minutes of her helping me to sign each box, which thankfully wasn't a lot, we finally got to the one I was trying to hold off on the longest. 'Race'.  "Is something wrong? Here I'll just put Bi'lan for you."  I shook my head strongly. She yet again looked at me in confusion.- "Are you not a Bi'lan? Your accent is a bit strange but you look and sound like one." - "Human."  Her face contorted yet into another look of disbelief. "How do you write Human?"   If I had to take a shot for each time she made that face, I'd be more shitfaced than a boot on shore leave.- "Hue'man?"  That didn't seem to have translated for her. - "Yes, I am not from here. Now, are we done here?"  She gave the form a quick scribble then took it and stamped it with a black seal. -"Excellent! Now you're ready to go, do you have any armaments or do you require a rental?"  I pulled out my shotgun from the armor's storage compartment, I have no idea how much can fit in there. However, how it did was physically impossible from the looks of it. I noticed it was empty, so I pulled out 6, 10-gauge shells then opened the automatic break action, and loaded the shells into the loading port.