Pandemonium Options

[__CrUsHeR]

I bring to you a truly grotesque and macabre history about the worst place on earth in the ROTR's universe. Enjoy...

Pandemonium

"Now that I left the MI6's dirty games and took back my life I feel free to tell this story... to begin you have to call me just 'Mr. Peter', after this consideration, so let's straight to the point..."

"I was the best agent that the secret service could infiltrate in the Zone's underworld - my native skin made me a blood brother of terrorists and also would be my entry ticket, I was familiar with English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and other regional languages which facilitated learning the new dialect spoken in the Zone that mixes African and Arab elements; get on that damn place is not the hardest part of the mission - you have to keep in mind that GLA's guys are inhuman and irrational motivated by an infectious fanaticism that endures for centuries - therefore, the biggest problem if you're not careful is to stay alive for long enough. My mission was very specific and I should be able to achieve it within a week at most - the goal was to find the exact location and obtain intelligence about a ECAN News French reporter named Alice Cossette and her German assistant Sebastian Krauss kidnapped two months ago while covering another massacre in a tribal village within the Zone. As always my opinion was not consulted... but if they had asked me something I would say: - they were tortured, shot and their bodies were burned - as a professional I must follow orders to the letter, was what I did."

"I had followed the traces left behind by a group of 'Machete Maniacs' - are known as the Sulaymaan's recruited mercenaries - along with my guide, the young Hafidh aka 'Vulture' - he received this nickname because had a bad habit of indicating the worst way for your clients - but I knew that Hafidh could tell me exactly where it was planted every mine or where was buried every body, that was what I needed. After four days on the skin of a typical insurgent we finally arrived in the ruined province of Western Kasai - the last place where my guide felt the scent of 'outsiders'. I paid the Vulture with three blood diamonds and had to walk with my own legs, In Luebo I rented a place which they called 'room' - under the bed were my toys - a notebook with online connection and a cell phone - after inserting new information into the system I received updated London's coordinates, a three-dimensional map showed me a tangle of caverns below the surface that looked like an anthill, I thought: - local legends of an underground city are indeed true, this would be the supposed 'Pandemonium' that they refer? I knew I soon would discover the truth..."

"On the morning of the following day I went up to the town's square where a mercenary recruited new Machete Maniacs, after a simple interview I was one of those chosen to be part of his gang, so I got the infamous blade from all mercenary and a Vektor R4 assault rifle, went into a damaged battle bus and headed for the unknown GLA's underworld."

"The bus forced its engine and creaked like a tin can being crushed when ran through the bumpy and steep subterranean. For more than two hours I did not see the sunshine and my sight was already adapted to the environment of eternal shadows, I spied through the slits in the steel plates, ragged semi-men walking by innumerable narrow paths that cut the main access, some had guns, others carried supplies chained as slaves, I saw in their face the expression of pain and suffering but my focus was in the mission.I was fighting against the sleep when the bus stopped at our final destination, a giant of over two meters high came and said: - welcome to the Citadel, or if prefer to Pandemonium - the heart of the African hell!"

"The mercenary leader introduced himself as 'Choronzon' - years later I discovered the unholy meaning of this name - Choronzon told us that soon we would participate of an 'blood baptism' to come out at nightfall to spread terror in a nearby enemy village. I confess that this shocking news gave me some discomfort, however after all this shit of 'baptism of blood' I would have reached my goal - discover the location/conditions of the prisioners - and later would be easy to desert without a trace... on the way to the ritual I asked for the giant: - the Master Sulaymann usually come down here? Choronzon answered: - I myself only saw the Master here once; they said that he did not like to come into the temple... I made one more question: - this is where most prisoners come? Choronzon replied gruffly: - soon you will know... now shut up! - And I remained silent..."

"Me and the Maniacs Machetes aspirants we were led up to a luxurious room, Choronzon told us to have fun before the big moment, and is what we did: a dozen of beautiful scantily clad concubines of different nationalities entered in the room offering the flesh's pleasures, there was a strong smell of incense in the air and an appetizing banquet was served with a stiff drink - naturally I avoided drinking too much - I quickly turned on my cell phone camera and started to recording discreetly the surreal ritual. Most of the maniacs were drunk when Choronzon returned along with a group of old African men using demonic masks of their tribes, to my surprise Alice and Sebastian were also brought into the interior of room, they seemed to be in a trance under the influence of some drug; the concubines left the man to join the elders who now danced in frenzy in the middle of the room swinging their rattles and singing a terrifying mantra; you know, I was feeling a chill in the spine and something told me that things would not end very well..."

"The big guy Choronzon was also wearing a ritualistic mask, I thought that he would start a disgusting sex ritual with the girl, though what he was about to do was far worse... he pulled out his machete and struck a violent blow to jugular vein that immediately doused her body with arterial blood. Alice had a quick death; the bastard Choronzon bothered to collect her blood with a U.S. helmet. I was feeling nauseous and I closed my eyes to not having to watch the same horrific scene with the Sebastian's death. By God... I just wish that this was over and I could get out of there... I opened my eyes and saw something even more disgusting - Choronzon was chewing a heart - I could not stand anymore, I turned to the side and vomited. The demon made his final speech: - to prove that you are Maniacs Machetes and to seal our eternal covenant you guys should to drinking the blood of the sacrifice! So, the helmet went hand in hand and the blood was drunk as a nectar for all us, even by me, because I wanted to come back alive from there... the new mercenaries raised their machetes proud to now be really Maniacs..."

"I got out of that evil room praying quietly for my God, thinking of all that I had witnessed and done, my life would never be the same... Choronzon told us to go up the other side room where we should equip ourselves with heavy weapons to destroy our enemies. I armed myself for war and embarked upon the same bus that brought me, on the way back I remembered my mistake - having forgotten to pick up the damn phone - the vehicle took more three hours until finally bring me back to this world. Now we were near Sokombe and other groups of mercenaries have joined for the attack; as part of my plan I stayed behind, when I not saw no more mercenary in front of me I disappeared in the jungle running as fast as I could, but it was not enough to avoid hearing the screams of children."

"When I left the Zone and put my feet in Gabon I felt relieved, but I do not have time to rest because my fellow MI6's countrymen started interrogating me about the mission, I explained in detail everything I saw, however without evidences they do believe in nothing that I said. I was alway from work, they sent me back to Europe and recommend me a psychiatric treatment - motherfuckers! This was my reward for service rendered to 'The King!' Since then I can no longer sleep at night, already tried to commit suicide several times... even today I feel like I left a piece of my soul in Pandemonium..."

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Thanks MARS.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 14 Dec 2013, 16:46

[Svea Rike]

Eww, how horrid! I thought this was Rise of the Reds, not a work by H.P. Lovercraft! Still, fantastic story. I am starting to doubt the GLA as the choice for my favorite faction...

[__CrUsHeR]

Eww, how horrid! I thought this was Rise of the Reds, not a work by H.P. Lovercraft! Still, fantastic story. I am starting to doubt the GLA as the choice for my favorite faction...

Hmmm, within the Zone you can find everything... the Machete Maniacs are not the only GLA's translation, but are a group of psychopaths mercenaries who found a home to spread their carnage. Think of the Zone, and especially the Pandemonium as a DeepWeb - if you look bad things you will find - The 'Mr. Peter' just found your worst nightmare down there...

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 14 Dec 2013, 17:35

[Kalga]

Hate to ruin the fun but... this kind of stuff isn't sustainable in the long term right?

I mean, they will have to run out of defenseless villages to sack and civilians to kill at some point... and of course, slaves to oppress (when they run out of new sources and the current batches die out).

The villainball is fun and all but holding it for too long is not good for stability or economy.

Still, wonderful* story.

(of course, it's most likely that most of the zone isn't that bad all the time)

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*as in, well written, well thought out, and very interesting to read.

This post has been edited by Kalga: 14 Dec 2013, 17:46

[__CrUsHeR]

Surely it is not so bad, MARS explained to me that in fact there are several groups infiltrated in the Zone acting under the GLA banner - this is just one of them - if you notice the details you will realize that they are a modern version of Hassassins - although not have any connection with them - ie, go into ecstasy for kill and worship to African-Western 'entities'.

The purpose of this story was indeed shocking, with a small dose of melancholy and romanticism showing a very dark side of life in Pandemonium, I think I could do it.

[MARS]

Personally, I operate under the assumption that the Zone is a very non-homogenous entity, with countless tribal, religious, criminal and political factions operating in it, with and against each other, and that this anecdote would represent the absolute extreme of insanity that some of these groups have chosen for themselves, which is to say that this is merely one among many possible facets of what it's like in the Zone. Personally, I rather liked the part where the agent asks whether Sulaymaan attends these ceremonies regularly, only to find out that his contact remembers just a single occasion. It's a small detail, but I like the implication that even Sulaymaan himself was like 'ooookay guys, you...do that thing and I'll just walk away and pretend like I have no clue what's going on here; whatever floats your boat!' when he set eyes on what was essentially the temple of doom. It suggests that the Zone was a social experiment that mutated out of control to the point where even its spiritual creator is irritated by the dark spirits that he summoned and it raises the interesting question as to how much de facto control he and the GLA actually have over this twisted entity.

PS: And yes, I'll totally dedicate some official story coverage on the natural frictions that would arise between Sulaymaan and Yusuuf over these occurences.

[__CrUsHeR]

My idea is something very close to what you expos, but moreover is a analogy to corruption that perpetuates itself as a curse among the people, the agent was probably a 'tough guy' who accepted to be a sociopath on behalf of the government, for it was chosen, but when he went up to the pandemonium was 'doubled' by a guy who was much worse than him and even called himself a kind of demon.

To write this I was inspired in the Syrian rebel who ate the heart of an enemy in war and filmed - an example of spiritual corruption that spreads like a disease in a society that is not healthy.

[Svea Rike]

PS: And yes, I'll totally dedicate some official story coverage on the natural frictions that would arise between Sulaymaan and Yusuuf over these occurences.

So, Ibrahiim is like the Huffelpuff House of the GLA generals? That awkward third guy that sits in the corner with eyes wide open as the two bigger dudes argue?

[GeneralCamo]

Perhaps a "caste" system of sorts exists in the Zone, similar to how a lot of older empires had. Perhaps the slaves represent the lowest caste system. The leaders the second highest caste system, and the scientists the highest caste system, as they develop lots of weapons that even the leaders submit to their will just to get these weapons.

Obviously the Mercenaries and the "normal" civilians go in between these highs and low.

This post has been edited by Generalcamo: 15 Dec 2013, 1:31

[Kalga]

Perhaps a "caste" system of sorts exists in the Zone, similar to how a lot of older empires had. Perhaps the slaves represent the lowest caste system. The leaders the second highest caste system, and the scientists the highest caste system, as they develop lots of weapons that even the leaders submit to their will just to get these weapons.

Obviously the Mercenaries and the "normal" civilians go in between these highs and low.

I would think that the scientists were also part of the enslaved populations, given the callous nature of the people who runs those "states"

[GeneralCamo]

I would think that it would actually be a case of the different "factions" trying to get the weapons first, so they appease the scientists so that they can. I would also think that they may have a number of factions loyal to them, especially since the scientists can easily bribe with a better weapon.

Of course, only the most brilliant and those that develop better ways to effectively kill a human would get this treatment.