The Instigator's hand rested on a trigger and his piercing gaze through a scope. He had the scope lined up perfectly for a cultist's head. He lowered the rifle and looked back at Charlotte, who was looking up at him in anticipation.
"Well? Is it safe?" She said in a near silent whisper.
The Instigator nodded and waved her forward. They walked into a building just outside of the main airport and discussed a plan.
"So, my idea is that you should get up on a radio tower and find everyone you can, you can memorize their positions better, I'll go around and see if I can find that Nick Rye guy. If I find the guy, I'll radio you and you come right over to me." Said Charlotte.
The Instigator nodded and as usual, proceeded to the task, already heading out of the door and throwing his grappling hook to a platform on a radio tower. Charlotte exited the small building and walked ducked away into the nearby woods to find an entry point.
As the Instigator pulled himself to the top of the tower and took a moment of his time to look around and admire the scenery. The mountains to the Northwest were gleaming in the sunlight from all of the snow. There was nothing like seeing the Afternoon sun glimmer on the tips of mountains, there was truly nothing like it. But he drew his attention back to the task at hand and pulled his binoculars to his eyes. He looked down on the airport and immediately saw tens of people around the place, there weren't only peggies there, but civilians being forced to work on the planes for them. The Instigator marked all of their locations in his head and awaited instructions from Charlotte.
Charlotte looked around for an entry point, wanting to get out of the woods. She finally found a way into the compound, there was a door that lead into a hangar, she smiled to herself and moved forwards. Before she reached the door, someone walked through and startled Charlotte and just out of instinct, she pulled a knife from her pocket and threw it precisely on target. Before even really realizing what she did, she ran to the corpse and pulled the knife. She was slightly shocked at herself for what she just did, but she had to keep moving, so she kicked the body behind some boxes and moved on.
Upon entering the door, she saw a man working on an engine to a plane. The man didn't even glance over because he was so fearful of what would happen. Charlotte walked quietly over and whispered into the man's ear.
"Hey, i'm not with them, I'm gettin' you out of here, you run and get to Fall's End as soon as possible, they'll keep you safe there." She said as she moved him to the door.
The man nodded silently and turned around and ran. Charlotte turned back around and walked to a door on the other side of the Hangar and opened it. She was greeted to the sound of engines starting up and saw from her small view that a plane was starting to take off. She panicked and ducked back inside the hangar and pulled her radio.
The Instigator was still as can be, inspecting all movement patterns of the cultists below when he heard his radio crackle and begin spewing noise.
"Hey! You have to get down from that tower now, there is a plane about to take off and if it sees you it'll kill you without issue." Said Charlotte.
The Instigator cursed in his head and jumped from the tower, throwing his grappling hook up to the platform and repelled. After landing, he pulled the hook off of the platform and ducked into the building.
Charlotte assumed that the Instigator was safe and sighed in relief, she peeked back outside and looked at where the plane was going. It was going East, she thought it would be going south to the city until she realized what the plane was after. She pulled her radio and called the Instigator again.
"That plane! It's heading toward Fall's End, you have shoot it down before it gets there!" She cried through the radio.
The Instigator reached into his seemingly endless gun bag and retrieved a RAT4. He looked up at the sky and saw the plane flying his direction, he pulled the scope of the massive rocket launcher to his face and waited for the gun to lock onto the target. As soon as he heard the beep, he pulled the trigger and released the payload. A flaming ball soared at insane speeds towards the plane, tracking it. The projectile hit the plane, engulfing it into flames instantly.
Charlotte heard sounds of awe, which quickly evolved into furious yelling. She heard footsteps dashing around her. She knew that he had gotten rid of the plane and that their cover was blown.
"Ok, I haven't found the guy yet... but get over here, we're about to have a proper gun battle." She radioed the Instigator.
The Instigator packed the launcher into his bag and followed the same route Charlotte used to infiltrate the base. He reached the hangar and found Charlotte against the wall, wielding a shotgun. The Instigator slid onto the wall next her. Before heading outside, the two looked at each other and nodded. Charlotte kicked the door open and let out a battle cry, drawing the attention of the entire air strip. The Instigator followed, but instead of a battle cry, he released a hail of bullets out towards the line of cultists.
"Well that's one way of doing it I guess." Charlotte shrugged as she aimed her rifle.
The Instigator ran across the air strip and into another hangar. He reloaded his machine gun and pulled a rifle from his bag. He peeked around the corner and released several bullets, hitting at least 10 cultists. He ran into the center of the air strip and fired a few bullets into the crowds of cultists, however, he was shot multiple times in the process.
As the Instigator ran to cover, the civilians fled from the situation. The Instigator lit a cigar, first putting it into his mouth as he reloaded his rifle, then taking it to his wounds to cauterize them. Although it should've hurt more, the Instigator was in a mode of pure violence, so much so that he ran back into battle with an MG42, releasing an uncanny amount of ammo into the air, every drop of blood that he saw, he was more and more determined in his battle, but with that determination, came pure insanity.
Charlotte watched as the Instigator ran across the air strip and gave him cover. After his first pass, she reloaded her rifle, and when she emerged from her cover, she saw the Instigator standing in the middle of the field, firing onto anything he saw. She was terrified of it, she saw him take more bullets to the chest than she thought humanly possible. Somehow the Instigator was being shot by over 20 people and still keeping pace and taking anything that hit him. She was worried that he was going to bleed out from the amount of blood she saw leaking from him, so she ran towards him and tackled him to the side. When she looked down to see his face, his eyes were empty of feelings and searing in rage.
"What is wrong with you? You can't just walk into a wall of lead and survive normally! Let me patch you up!" Charlotte screamed into his face.
The Instigator's eyes blinked multiple times. After this, his eyes were back to normal, and then suddenly flushed with worry. He sat up and pulled bandages from his bag, allowing himself to heal. Charlotte ducked around the corner to only find that there were no more standing cultists, and that there were only a handful of cultists still alive bleeding out on the ground, begging for mercy.
The Instigator also walked out from behind the corner, still bleeding mortally. A figure emerged from a distant hangar and yelled out to them.
"Hey! Don't shoot please! I'm Nick Rye, I own this place, come over here, I can help you out!" Said the figure.
The Instigator limped in Charlotte's arms over to Nick Rye.
"Holy shit man, that was some of the craziest fuckin' things I've ever seen in my life. I'm Nick Rye, I train these bastards, but it looks like you just freed me from my servitude. The only reason I work for those assholes is so I can see my wife and daughter." Said Nick Rye.
"Thank god Instigator didn't shoot you out of the sky back there. Hi, I'm Charlotte, I'm with the resistance over at Fall's End. It's a pleasure to meet you sir." Said Charlotte.
"Oh the pleasure is all mine, I've heard about the Instigator over the peggie radio, i'll be damned, I'm glad you two showed up here. Also, that's quite a wound you got there buddy, let's go find my wife and daughter, they can patch you up." Said Nick Rye.
Nick walked over to a house, opening the door and yelling out.
"Kim! Carmina! We're finally out of this bullshit! We've got some guests that you should meet!" Nick Rye exclaimed.
Two figures cautiously emerged from upstairs. At first, the two women were walking slowly at first, carefully scanning for any signs of a trap. After only a few seconds, the two women practically fell down the stairs into Nick's arms, all of them sobbing.
"Sorry guys, it's just... we've... been having a lot of trouble with these peggies, and you gave us a little piece of our lives back." Nick Rye said, hugging his wife and daughter tightly.
"We're glad to be of help, can you help us out with a few things? I don't mean to take away from your family time but there are some important things to take care of right now." Said Charlotte.
"I owe you my life, I'd be more than happy to help you with anything you need. First let's get your friend there healed up." Said Nick Rye.
Nick called Carmina over to tend to Instigator's wounds. He was escorted to a medical room and lied down on a table. After about 20 minutes and multiple stitches later, the Instigator was back to normal.
"I gotta say, I saw you walk into battle like that and take all of those bullets and I was shocked, but at least you made it." Nick Rye said in a surprised tone.
"I was worried there for a moment as well too, but right now I have a request. I hardly know this county and Instigator probably wants to know how much it's changed, so can we request a flyover of the county?" Charlotte interjected.
"My pleasure, I'll get the plane warmed up. You two wait in here, i'll radio you to come out once the plane's ready. Make yourselves at home!" Nick said as he put his hat on and ran outside to a hangar.
The Instigator sat down on the couch, Charlotte followed. Kim and Carmina Rye were in the other room talking quietly, occasionally glancing over at the two guests. Suddenly, Carmina looked over at the Instigator and Charlotte and looked back at Kim, shrugged and walked to the couch that the Instigator and Charlotte were sitting.
"Hey, sorry I didn't introduce myself, i'm Carmina. My mom over there doesn't want me talking to you, but she apparently doesn't realize how much good you've done, not just to us, but to everyone. John's gonna hate you two for what you did here, but it means so much to everyone." Carmina introduced herself.
Nick came back into the house, and followed up on what Carmina said.
"John is busy with other things right now and doesn't have the time to deal with you or this Instigator guy, so we have to do as much as we can before he notices that we've been tearing up his toys. Also, does the 'Instigator' talk?" Nick interjected
"No, he doesn't talk, I believe he's mute. I don't even know his name." Charlotte replied
"Huh, weird guy, but he's doing good. Anyways, I have the plane ready and fueled up, so we can do that flyover now. We should do it quickly, sun is fading, won't be able to get as good a view at night." Nick said, gesturing to the door.
"Alright, come on, let's do this." Charlotte said standing up from the couch.
Nick kissed Carmina and Kim goodbye and led Charlotte and the Instigator to his plane. Nick pulled the Instigator into the passenger seat, which was clearly modified to fit Carmina onto the plane. Once Charlotte got into the back seat of the plane, Nick started the engine and pulled onto the runway.
"One last thing, check your guns, airspace is gettin' real dangerous out there with the cult expanding and such, have your rifles ready cause if the cult starts shootin' at us, we'd best be ready to shoot back." Nick said, stopping the plane briefly.
"The Instigator has a RAT-4, which i'm sure is plenty enough to wipe out any unwanted visitors." Charlotte reassured Nick.
"Alrighty then, let's take to the skies!" Nick said enthusiastically.
The plane was lined up with the runway, and Nick increased the speed of the plane, faster and faster until it was finally beginning to lift off the ground. Nick then lifted the plane above the trees, the sparse ones that remained.
The valley revealed itself almost instantly, farms seemed to have consumed the everything in the valley. Not everything in the county was visible though, Black Horse Peak covered up the entirety of the Whitetail mountains.
"So obviously, we are still in the Holland Valley, but there's a lot more the cult has done to it. In fact, there's a larger town than Fall's End now, and that's not including everything outside of the valley!" Nick said, keeping close track of the sky around them, watching for planes.
"Wait, so you're saying there are larger settlements than Fall's End outside of the Holland Valley?" Charlotte said with a shocked tone.
"Oh yes, and the cult has so much more than the county now, it's got it's hands on some remote parts of several other states, which is why they're less busy with the county now. They've been constructing airports everywhere, John has most of them to himself though." Nick explained.
Nick dipped his right wing and turned the plane around to face the border of the county, which is where the changes really started to show. Before, there used to be a fairly thick forest situated on some rolling hills, however, now it was replaced with mostly farms and some small settlements and facilities.
"Since those government guys came, the cult has actually gotten so much more powerful. Their following increased 10 fold like that. With all the extra people they got from all those years of indoctrination, they developed more of the land, and with John's help, they did it all, 'legally'" Nick said.
"How did they pull that off? I would think mass brutality would be unforgivable no matter how much you can back it up." Charlotte said, pissed off about what she just heard.
"You'd be surprised on how easy it was for him, John got this guy to run for Governor of Montana, and had all of his little minions vote for him. When people asked about the cult takeover, he dismissed it and showed photos of resistance members holding rifles to prove that there was something being done, so not only does Montana now have ties in the Government, now the threat of the cult is being dismissed and forgotten." Nick Rye ranted.
Nick turned the plane to the left to face the Henbane River.
"Now the Henbane is even worse, now, if you cross that river on foot, there's very few places to go anymore where you don't have to wear a gas mask, they've soaked it in bliss, clean air is no common commodity anymore. The Jail is... so bad last I heard..." Nick said.
"Actually, Instigator over here actually tore that place up and freed it up." Charlotte said proudly patting Instigator on the shoulder.
"Incredible, I heard about Pin-Ko and Fall's End, but not the Jail. Though that's probably because the Jail has fallen in terms of importance in the Henbane, the water treatment center is practically a military base at this point. Guns everywhere, it's been converted into the main base of the region. The Jail is there mostly as an extra tough roadblock now, it didn't have much a use after the wall was breached, and Eden's gate already had many other jails, all of them much more effective and brutal. Like that one there." Nick pointed at a small yet fortified island off the coast of a rusted oil rig at the foot of a mountain.
"I think I saw that oil rig before I moved to my bunker, I saw some word like 'Pilgrimage' or 'Blasphemy' or something like that written on it." Said Charlotte.
"Yeah, that place is another major base, though the island is what it's defending mainly." Nick said.
With the plane having passed the mountains around Black Horse Peak, Nick finally turned towards the Whitetail Mountains.
"Jacob has gotten so much worse over the past few years, he's drifting more and more into his military instincts, he'll trap resistance members on the other side of the mountains you see here and he'll personally hunt them with a rifle with some of his other minions."
The Instigator winced in shock from what he just heard. He realized that Nick just described almost exactly what happened to him just a few days ago in the Whitetail Mountains, where he had been drugged and had woken up in an unfamiliar place.
"Something wrong?" Asked Nick Rye, concern in his voice.
The Instigator pulled a notepad from his pocket and wrote what he just realized and gave it to Charlotte to read.
After Charlotte read the note she visibly shook in fear and worry, putting her hand to her mouth.
"That's terrifying, you were being hunted by Jacob and you didn't even know it. To be stranded in a new environment with nothing unknowingly being hunted by an insane military veteran. I don't know how you got out of there, but you did, which is what matters." Said Charlotte, fear shaking her voice.
Their tour was cut short by a plane speeding past theirs, clearly aware that Nick was not teaching cultists, as the plane looped back around to fire.
Nick went completely silent and his eyes narrowed, his face was of utmost seriousness as he spun the plane in circles, avoiding enemy fire, then turning around to return the unfriendly greeting, firing several bursts from the machine gun on the plane. Charlotte, in panic, attempted to contain herself, and time seemed to slow down as she reached down for her .50 Cal rifle, and raised the scope to her eye. Masterfully, she aimed, almost in a meditative way, and lined up the sights. She clutched the trigger. The shot recoiled violently, but the shot hit the target, the pilot sunk into his seat and the plane sunk in the air.
But, cutting everything short, 2 more planes showed up in the skies. This time the Instigator took his turn and drew his RAT-4 and fired the first rocket, which flew directly into the first plane, shattering it into several large pieces. But when the Instigator moved to reload the launcher, he realized he was out of ammo. He saw the other plane was moving in quite close to Nick's.
In the heat of the moment, the Instigator swayed to his evil instinct and grinned at Charlotte, who returned a look of confusion and worry. The Instigator reached for his grappling hook, but before Charlotte could stop him, the Instigator had thrown himself out of the plane's door, the grappling hook on the wing of the enemy's plane. The Instigator hung off in a cartoonish way, climbing his way up to the front of the plane, where he opened the door of the cockpit, gripping the pilot with one hand, but with the strength of iron, throwing him out of the plane, the Instigator then unhooked his grappling hook from the wing of the plane, dropping off of the plane, skydiving towards the ground.
"He's a goddamn psychopath ain't he?" Nick Rye exclaimed as the whole event unfolded.
"I didn't even know that was possible. But he's done it, and now he's falling hundreds of feet to the ground." Charlotte said, not sure what to do.
"He'll be ok, he's got a wingsuit, he'll probably go to the hangar from here." Charlotte reassured herself.
However, to Charlotte's complete surprise, the Instigator deployed his wingsuit, but was heading towards Jacob's region.
Before Charlotte said anything, Nick Rye spoke.
"I'm turning us to my hangar, can't risk any more planes showing up and shooting us down, he'll be safe i'm sure, he might be dumb and crazy, but he's tough as nails." Nick said, turning the plane swiftly over to the Holland Valley once again.