//------------------------------// // First Contact // Story: A Just Cause // by Tisbutascratch //------------------------------// When Rico awoke he found himself lying face down on the ceiling of the upside Titus. He could hardly see, everything was blurry, his head was pounding it felt like he had just been in a plane crash… oh wait he had been in a plane crash. It was pitch black outside. “Uh… how long was I out for?” Rico moaned as he glanced down at his PDA it was 2 am. He had been out for close to 10 hours, at worst he could have a minor case of serious brain damage. “How hadn’t the Panauan troops found him?” He wondered, “Maybe they are waiting outside?” He sat up on the roof and looked down at his hands and they were… … still hands but his right hand had been cut to pieces by the flying glass in the crash, some of the glass was still protruding from his arm. The blood had started to congeal but in some places the thick red liquid continued to pour out his arm like faucet. He could feel something warm dripping down his forehead, he wiped it with his left hand saw the familiar red liquid on his hand. Aside from that he was fine, concussed but still alive. He stabbed his grappling hook into the car’s drivers seat and proceeded to rip a large piece of fabric from the seat, he then continued to tie the piece of fabric around his arm turning it into crude bandage. “It’ll hold for know.” Rico sighed, “But if I don’t get it treated I could get infected or something.” He then turned his attention to escaping the Titus wreck. He turned to face the shattered windscreen, most of it was now inside the car but around the edge it remained in place. Using his feet he proceeded to kick the glass from the bottom of the windscreen. Afterwards he crawled out of the car, an especially gruelling task with one hand. Once he was out the car Rico looked around his environment… he was in the middle of a forest. Even though it was the middle of the night the forest was alive with the sounds of animals. “Where the hell am I?” he thought. Panau had no forests except it’s tropical rainforests that covered most of the Island, sure up on the mountains there were forests but there was also lots of snow. No snow here though… Rico grabbed his PDA and opened the map function what he saw horrified him, according to the map he was no longer in Panau it just had on the screen “location unknown please try again later.” Most people would have started to panic but then again Rico isn’t most people. Rico felt his right foot kick something he looked down and saw his assault rifle he scoped the rifle up in his left hand then proceeded to stick it across his back. He glanced down at his sides and saw his pistol and SMG were still in place. He proceeded to search around and inside the car for anything useful. After his search he had found 340 rounds for his assault rifle including the loaded magazine, 90 rounds and 40 30mm grenades for his signature pistol, 280 rounds for his SMG, half a dozen grenades and 8 sticks of C4 and a detonator. Rico decided against using his assault rifle and his SMG as he would burn through their ammunition very quickly. He also didn’t plan on using pistol unless it was a life or death situation. Rico the began to explore the clearing. At the edge of the clearing he spotted a path. Rico pulled his pistol from it’s holster and held it in his left hand and proceeded to follow the path. The night was completely still. Not a single whisper of wind. The path was bathed in moonlight, creating eerily serene scene in front of Rico. In comparison to the path, the foliage was as black as the sky above it. Rico continued to follow the path until it came to a fork in the road, if Rico hadn’t been paying attention he would have probably walked past the second path as if didn’t even exist. As he was about to step on to the path he felt a sound gust of wind it was as if there was something wrong with that particular path. “Damn… this place has some bad mojo.” Rico cracked, “Oh well I’ll go down the other path then.” as soon as he had finished saying that an unearthly growl emitted from the overgrown path. Rico continued to follow the clear path for about 2 kilometres fully aware that since he didn’t go down the other path he was being watched, well it must be hard to avoid being spotted with glowing, red eyes. After walking down the path for about 2 hours, Rico began to see the sun rising through the treetops. Rico looked down at his right arm and saw a small crimson patch forming. “At this rate I’m going to bleed out with in the next few hours.” Rico groaned. After about another hour of following the path, Rico started felling light-headed but the tree line had started getting thinner, he could start to see outside the forest. He grabbed his crude bandage and pulled it tighter in an attempt to cut off the blood flow. By the time he reached the edge of the forest he could barely stand, he was practically crawling along the floor, dragging himself with his left hand, he was passing in and out of consciousness, fighting to keep his eyelids open. His bandage was now practically soaked in his blood. At the edge of the forest Rico spotted a cottage. Normally Rico would have mocked the cottage’s appearance as it resembled something out of a Disney cartoon but in his current state he could care less about his only chance at survival’s exterior. “Civilization!” Rico coughed as he scrambled towards his only hope. Blood was dripping from his arm leaving a scarlet slick across the grass. He scrambled across the bridge outside the small cottage. He lurched up towards the door. He thumped his hand against the door and then collapsed to the floor outside the house. He might have been hallucinating but Rico swore he saw a yellow Pegasus with a Pink mane answer the door.