Blood Cult - Part 1

It has been roughly one week after Crow recovered his belongings, he is now heading towards an old abandoned oil rig which was repurposed into a small settlement. The lower part is used as the market and residence, and the top part is used as the settlement's guards headquarter and hub for mercenaries.

As he got close to the gate he was stopped by the guards. "Show your identification" said one of them. Crow opened the window of the car and showed his mercenary license.

"Oh it's you, new suit huh?"

"Yeah can I pass now?"

The guard looked at the device he was holding and signaled to the other guard. The guard then looked at Crows vehicles. He was towing the smaller car with the medium sized cargo car, he also strapped his usual bike beside the medium cargo car. The emblem on both of the car was also scratched off.

"Wait, let me check inside the car."

Crow got out of the car and opened the back door for the guards to see.

"Alright, you're clear."

In a certain store. The clerk is cleaning his ware while whistling. when a car stopped in front of the store.

Ring...

The front door opened and a black figure entered the store.

"It's me Crow." the figure said.

"I know I'm the one who sold you the suit after all, so what do you want?"

"I want to sell the cars in front and get some more supplies."

"Huh? but didn't you buy a month worth two weeks ago?"

"I got raided."

"That explains the car, I can sell you only two weeks worth of food though."

"why?"

"Well...I guess it's alright to tell you." He said while looking around. "Something happened to my supplier up west. in the last transmission he said something about a cult."

"Is that so?" He stood silent for a while. "Alright give me the two weeks worth and I will leave my stuff to you for a while."

"Hey you're not thinking of going are you?"

"you're the only one I can trust for food so if I can't buy it from you it would be a problem." Crow said as he went for the exit.

"Cult of Blood." The clerk said. "the name of the cult I mentioned before."

Crow then took off with his bike.

"He could at least park the cars in my garage... I can't drive, you know."

Inside the mercenary hub is currently quite empty leaving only a couple of people there and Crow who is currently browsing on one of the displays.

"No information about them. so they're quite new or have hidden themselves well." He thought to himself as he looked for Information about the cult. "What about the bounty?" he switched over to the bounty board.

"There is one!" It was for a person called Blood, in the description he was said to be the leader. He had a red robe and used a red skull mask. "The rewards are not that good but whatever." He thought as he took the bounty.

"So they are active in the west part of the desert, two weeks might not be enough." He thought as he looked at the data on his tablet. "Then, I need to buy more supplies from other places, also some fuel and maybe some explosives. Will my ammunition be enough? there is no data on the enemy's numbers... I will just buy more just in case."

Leaving the hub he went to other shops before returning back to get the food. He also helped park the car and move his belongings to the warehouse.

"Phew... that's all, Hey Crow you bought quite a lot, how are you planning to bring everything with you?" The clerk asked.

"I will just strap it on the bike."

"I don't think it could..." The clerk said as he looked at the mountain of items outside.

"Right... then I will take the cargo car and leave the bike here."

"don't you think it's too much? it's just one new cult you know."

"It's good to be cautious out in the wastelands."

"Right right, well just don't die."

"Yeah..."

After fitting all the items in the cargo car he left the settlement and went west.

Almost a week has passed since he left, he has been patrolling the west part of the desert since, nothing eventful has happened other than the occasional bandit sighting and sandstorms.

"No activity one this place to... that leaves this area." he started the car's engine and went on his way. while driving he saw some car parked next to an oasis with a familiar emblem.

"That emblem... Python's Fang. what are they-" Crow quickly hides and uses his rifle's scope to see closer. "With all that cargo are they doing a trade with another group? or are they just transporting items to another base?"

A few moments later a new group arrived with another familiar emblem. "That! I see no wonder they manage to grow faster than others so Python is helping them. As expected of those trash."

"Should I interrupt them?" He thought as he put his finger on the trigger. "No, I will just tail them after the deal."

"But just in case." Crow loaded the tracer bullet from before to his rifle. and shot it at the back of the moving cars. "Hopefully they won't notice." Even though the bullet doesn't make noise on impact it isn't that accurate at long distances.