Hug arms around own knees. Cry softly. Hold onto blanket.

Vodka...

Do you.. have bad dreams here? Often?

>>14379685
>>14379695
>"Vodka... do you have bad dreams here? Often?"
"No, kiddo. To be honest, I never had any bad dreams since I've been posted here."
You swear you saw some of your father's features on the skeleton, but the details are blurring, escaping like the dream it is.
>"I think I saw my dead father."
"Might be homesickness, kiddo."
As you hold your knees, he's coaxing you to come to the overwatch room. Slowly, you walk with him, and there Rummy is already offering you a nice warm cup of coffee. He seem really concerned.
The clock on the wall ticks in a rythmic pattern, neither reinforcing nor calming the dream-induced fear.
You glance toward the cobweb.
The cobweb had been replaced by another cobweb, and no matchstick. The spider seems to be staring at you.
You feel a need to tell Vodka and Rummy about your past, but you don't think this is the right time. Should you tell them?

Enter action:

>>14379930

No. Ask them if they find anything odd with the spiders here.

Specifically Vodka, since he's been here the longest.

bump for readers.

>>14379930

Take my cup of coffee and throw the hot beverage at the spider. Jittery, I look at the others. "What is with the spiders here, they seem... extra creepy."

>>14380055
>"Have you noticed anything weird about spiders here, Vodka?"
"Eh? No, not that I know of. But remember that I'd tell you about the creature that crawled the Wall? The witnesses say it looked like a gigantic shadow of a spider. But it had nine legs."
You dart your eyes back to the spider in the cobweb. One, two, three... eight legs.
It still looks at your direction. Suddenly, though, a fly got caught in the web, and the spider's attention is diverted.
>"Vodka, I saw the skeleton, in my dreams. It was standing near the west crew quarters."
"By Yesu. You're one of them sensitives, aren't you? You might've seen old Scotch's ghost or something."
"Here, Scotch, drink up. Calm down." Rummy puts the mug near your lips. You sip. But tears choked you, and you cough a bit afterwards.
The clock ticks and tocks.
The night is still going.

Enter action:

>>14380146

Collect myself and stare at the wall past the two of them. "Sensitive? I... I don't know what that means. Not really." Sipping the coffee I look at Vodka. "What... what if that spider thing was real? Some kind of weapon of the enemy?"

>>14380176

Also suggesting we throw a shoe or something equally large and deadly to insects at the spider web.

Little bastard.

>>14380176
"Ah. Of course you don't know that. Research's only been done a few years ago, and the public doesn't know it yet."
Vodka sat down on a stool and gets out a pipe, fashioned out of a corn-cob.
"To put it simply, Sensitives are a special kind of people. Some can peek into the future, some can move things without touching them, and yet some could communicate with the dead. In the old days they would be shamans."
He shifted his seat, and lit his pipe. Smoke puffs out.
"And as for the Wall-crawler, I don't think it's something the enemy made. We managed to intercept their communication when the incident happened, and their observation stations were as confused as we are. It was big enough to be seen from a mile or so away."
He blows another puff of smoke.
The clock ticks in the silence of the night.
Tick tock tick tock tick tick.

Enter action:

>>14380363

Hmmm...

Perhaps we should go for a night stroll then?

Make sure to grab the other rookie.

Buddy system, you know?

>>14380385
After a few minutes of getting yourself together, you finally rid yourself of the dream.
>"I think I should take a patrol with Rummy. I need the night air."
"Okay kiddo, I'll hold down the fort. Get well soon."
You take your rifle, and Rummy takes his. You decide to take the east part so you won't have to deal with the skeleton. You don't need another mindfuck after last dream.
"You allright, Scotch?"
>"I'm- I'm fine now. Thanks for your concern."
As you and Rummy go out, the reassuring glow of automatic spotlights lights the plains. The stars are visible up above. You can see all the constellations. The Bear, the Snake, the South Ring, and the Spider.
>"Is it true what Vodka said about Sensitives?"
"I don't know, Scotch. I've only heard it once in my boot camp. Commander said there was a Sensitive in the conscript ranks, and that he's transferred to another unit."
The patrol goes on.
The night is suddenly colder. You can see your breath.
"Weird, it's supposed to be summer."
One of the automatic spotlights flicker a bit.

Enter action:

>>14380491

"Rummy, not to startle you, but I think we should head back. If what Vodka says is right and I'm some kind of Sensitive, I've got a very bad feeling about this place right now."

Make our way back to the bunker and see if they have any specialty weapons in the armory, like flamethrowers.

>>14380527
>"Rummy, not to startle you, but I think we should head back. If what Vodka says is right and I'm some kind of Sensitive, I've got a very bad feeling about this place-"
The automatic spotlights flicker and shuts off, one by one.
>"BACK, RUMMY! RUN!"
"You know what, I think Vodka is right!"
You reach the Armory, and lock the door. The only light to the east is the spotlights near the overwatch, and the stars.
"Vodka! The east spotlights are out!"
"Oh snap, are they attacking?"
"We don't know."
You and Rummy cautiously peek through the spyholes in the armory. You can't make out anything, but Rummy thinks he's seen something.
"There's something on their side, but I can't make out what."
>"What does it look like?"
"I'm not sure, but it seems a kind of vehicle."
Vodka enters the west armory in a hurry.
"What we got, kiddos?"
>"Rummy thinks he's seen a vehicle on the enemy's side."
Without much words, Vodka pushes a section of the armory wall, and grabbed a machinegun. A mount and a wide, short hole appeared, and Vodka puts the machinegun on the mount.
"Rummy, spray fire, I'm gonna check the electronics. Scotch, grab a sniper rifle, use the night vision scope. Quickly!"
The clock is still ticking.

Enter action:

>>14380610

Grab the sniper rifle with the NV scope. Make sure we're zeroed.

Look out over the area; tell our comrades what we see before we start shooting. And maybe warn them that we're gonna shoot before we actually do it.

>>14380610

Breathe in... breathe out. This is what they've trained us for. Take the sniper rifle, turn on the night vision, look for my target, finger off the trigger, breathing exercises. Focus. Focus. Focus.

>>14380632
>>14380630
Instinctively, you grab a sniper rifle, the one with the night vision scope. You've trained for this, right? Relax. Focus.
And then you look into the scope, towards the 'vehicle'.
It's a trucklike thing, black except for its headlights, which shows as glittering circles on your scope. Some kind of emission rises from the back. There's some kind of antenna portruding from the oddly-shaped back of the truck. You try to intensify the night vision.
You see two soldiers on the cockpit. Oddly, they seem to be unmoving. You zoom in.
The driver has a hole on his forehead, and the passenger is missing his jaw.
Fuck your focus and relaxation. You freak out inside.
The clock's ticks become more pronounced, at least, to you.
"What do you see, kiddo?"

Enter action:

>>14380630
>>14380632
Seems legit. Remember training. Call targets before engaging.

>>14380762
Black truck, antenna, oddly shaped payload. Crew are dead, repeat dead. Two dead crew in cab. Mortal wounds. Possible command vehicle, except for the dead crew. No target.

>>14380744

"Vodka... that thing is on autopilot the crew are dead. I'm thinking the antenna. Permission to take the shot sir?" Take slow and careful aim on that antenna.

>>14380744

Blow out the tires. Ticking and dead crew heading this way. It's a bomb.

>>14380847
>>It's a bomb.

Well played Anon. I'm kicking myself for not seeing it.

Shoot the tires.

>>14380870

Thirding blowing out the tires. Either that or the Antennae.

>>14380870
>>14380847
>>14380830
>>14380806
>"Vodka, vehicle crew is dead, and it's gaining speed towards us, parallel to the wall."
"Take out their tires, Scotch!"
>"Confirmed."
Regaining your relaxation again, you begin to focus. A double thunder booms in the silence of the night. The vehicle stops dead in its tracks.
"Don't spray them with bullets yet, Rummy, they may be carrying explosives to breach the wall."
"Acknowledged."
You zoom the scope in on the vehicle crew. The first time you saw them, the driver's head was tilted back, and the passenger is slumped sideways.
Now you see them looking straight at you.
The thing in the back of the truck seems to emit an electronic static sound.
>"What in Yesu's name... The crew's looking this way, Vodka, and the vehicle's emitting a static sound!"
"What the- Shoot the heads! Shoot the heads!"
You notice a small spider, smaller than the one on the cobweb, jumping frantically near the shooting hole. It seemed to indicate something's gonna happen to the spotlights.

Enter action:

>Indonesian Gentleman

You wish, dirty scumbag.

>>14381157
No problem, and thank you for the free bump. Cheerio!

>>14381150
Not much of a decision point here. Engage targets, shout "Sensing! Beware the spotlights!"

Continue fire, blow the spotlight out.

>>14381208
Sorry folks, had an IRL blackout. Scary how real life imitates fiction sometimes.

Taking no pause, you immediately aim for their heads. As the bullets fly towards their targets, you suddenly feel a sudden clarity, and a kind of pressure behind the bullets. The vehicle crew's heads explode in red mist and small bits of gore.
Then you aim for the 'spotlight'- actually, you sense that the antenna was gradually pointing towards the overwatch, and that a static-like arc of light is swiveling your way.
You shoot the antenna clean. You don't know how you can hit a target that small, but the static sound and the static 'light' is gone.
Within a second, the automatic spotlights turn on again.
The truck is gone.
There are only two headless bodies in its place.
>"Holy mackarel. You guys see that?"
"...nice shot, Scotch."
"Whoa there kiddo. Now help me make something up for the report to HQ. They'd want answers."
>"You guys saw the static arc of light?"
"What?"
"We can't see anything, kiddo."
You notice that the little spider is gone.
The clock ticks are faint.

Enter action:

>>14381500

Rub head, make note to self to watch out for anything like that again. Something's off.

Better make that report up.

>>14381562
You make a mental note that you need to watch out for 'quirky' stuff like that again. The enemy may have Sensitives of their own, or perhaps they have used whatever they used in Haarten on their own troops.
>"Allright Vodka, what about we say that the enemy's trying to breach the Wall and we shot them dead?"
"Eh... it works, kiddo. I'll contact HQ."
He goes to the signal machine in the overwatch room, and pushes a few buttons before pulling a crank on its side. A screen lights up after a while. The face of a high-level officer is on the screen. The signal machine crackles as the officer's voice is coming through the line.
"What's the emegency there, garrison?"
"This is section 23, callsign Vodka. We've just been attacked by an unidentified enemy vehicle."
"Describe said vehicle."
"Scotch, come here! You're the one who saw them!"
You hurry towards Vodka.
>"Callsign Scotch present, sir. Vehicle is a trucklike, with six wheels. Um- we shot two of their occupants dead. Vehicle has this weird antenna, um, sir."
"Acknowledged. Thanks for your hard work, section 23 garrison."
"No problem, sir."
The screen goes dark.
"Sometime in the future I have to tell you how this thing works, kiddo."
The cobweb is empty.
You think you should write this down on your diary. You went to the east crew quarters, to your room.

Enter action:

>>14381714

Sit down and think about what we just saw, then right it down, missing no details.

>>14381789
You sit down, summoning your mind the memories of five minutes earlier. You distinctively remember the static noise and 'light', the weird-looking antenna, the misshapen back section, and the seemingly impermeable blackness of the chassis. You write down a new entry in your diary.
'Third day of garrison at section 23. Had another nightmare this morning. Learned something about Sensitives, guess I am one. Encountered enemy vehicle on patrol. Vehicle is a six-wheeled trucklike, with a weird antenna at the back...'
You then went with detail on how the vehicle looked like, and how it disappeared when the spotlights return power.
The morning sun peeks over the horizon.

Enter action:

>>14381899

How long we got 'till we next need to be out?

>>14381909
Judging by the clock, about three or four hours.

You did well with the sniper rifle, hold on to it instead of the rifle you had earlier.

Return to your barracks, clean up the rifle and relax. Examine the cobweb while cleaning.

Hello /tg/

>>14381995

This. A clean weapon is a weapon that won't fail when you need it. And a little relaxation would not be bad after that encounter.

>>14382001
Heyo QuestOrk. How's the Kommando Quest going?

>>14381995
>>14382007
You feel you're more familiar to the sniper rifle, and thus swap it as your weapon of choice. You went to check the cobweb, and it's still there, the spider taking residence on its center. You notice that the crack on the ceiling nearby houses the other, smaller spider you see earlier.
You return to your room to clean your sniper rifle. Disassembling and cleaning meticulously. Some spider silk strands are clinging to the scope. You clean them.
Feeling better, you join Vodka and Rummy, and spend an hour swapping jokes and making small talk, occasionally asking about Vodka's Air Action Weekly magazine.
"Well kiddo, I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid. I signed up for airman's school, but because of my health condition, I can't enter, and I got into the infantry instead."
The more you talk to Vodka, the more you know that he knows a lot.

Enter action:

>>14382089

The truck vanished, but that can't possibly happen. Take Rummy with you and go to investigate the place where it disappeared into thin air.

Perhaps the already-dead bodies have something with them that could give a hint?

>>14382121

Make sure to keep your sidearm with you at all times. The sniper rifle will be less use there and they moved when they should be dead once.

>>14382121
You wait another half hour so the sun is higher in the sky.
>"Vodka, I'll be checking those bodies with Rummy."
"OK kiddo, use binoculars!"
You and Rummy each grab a binocular from the east armory, and went on the east area. You went to the spot where the two bodies are still lying in the plains.
One corpse is lying face up (even though it has no face now), while the other is lying face down. You take note of their uniforms, and it seems they're not frontline fighters. Looking closely, you niticed that these guys are actually supply officers, or something similar. The one lying down have a scar running along its spine.
>"Can we take their remains in?"
"Don't think so, Scotch. Wall doctrine says you don't recover bodies and such on their side of the Wall."
Then you remembered the top of the antenna you shot. You scour the landscape with your binoculars, and there is no sign of any debris or the like.
There are, however, some vultures circling above, and a pack of wild dogs in the distance, coming out of the forest. They seem to be waiting for us to leave the premises so they can feast in peace.

Enter action:

Welp, it's getting real late here, so I think I'll wrap today's quest.
Unless my curse of ninja'd has someone who posted something before this post.

Sleep tight, and have good nightmares.
Goodnight.

I remember the concept for this thread from MONTHS ago.

Good show OP.