Brotherhood of the Machine (IC Thread) [PG/14] {03}

[Azlan]

With no direction or order issued from Exo, Morgan did not feel comfortable about taking charge of the situation.  However, as the worst possible individuals were getting involved in the situation, there was no choice.  He donned his armor and secured his weapons.

He ignored any input from the anachronistic savage.  The creature was a poorly conceived jumble of conflicting nuances.  Strange cultural thoughts that conflicted strongly with the common argot he let slip into his thoughts and words.  His concepts of the civilized world stretching only to the practical and martial, with contrived ignorance pasted in to cause annoyance to those around him.  If he hadn't met him in the flesh, he'd swear the thing was a comic book character or a poorly designed roleplaying character from some bizarre game.

Exiting his van he spoke into the comms, alright, I need someone on that gun.  Get it fixed up yesterday and man it, with another to keep lookout with him.  Everyone else, we need to secure these vehicles and setup our defensive strategy while we plan the evacuation with the expedition leader.

speaking out loud, Morgan addressed the two at the sentry post, "you two, our people will take over at this post for now.  We need you to guide our vehicles to a location we can secure them and disembark.  Then we need to meet your expedition leader and plan our defensive strategy as we plan evacuation... so, uh, take me to your leader..."

[Tapewolf]

"I'm a technician," Dorcan said over the comms.  "I can probably fix the gun or at least assist someone who's qualified, but I'm not sure about manning it afterwards.  I might be more use helping to plan the evacuation.
"Consider: If the Brotherhood are determined to attack this dig site it likely means that these guys are onto something, as surmised at the briefing.  That means we may need to evacuate some artifacts as well as people."

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance didn't like what she heard from Fet... mostly because it got her suspicion gears turning. Even though war has advanced it is quite possible the same tricky tactics are still used. She shook her head to try to take the idea of them walking into a trap out of her mind.

She brought her head back in from the window just in time to see Darkshine stroll by in all of his war-zone glory, she couldn't help but whistle low from being impressed. Of course not by him was she impressed but by the gun that he carried. It almost made her drool.

She was brought back to the present when she overheard the guy over the comm and Dorcan. "Hell, if you can fix it right quick I can man it. I'd try my hand at fixing it myself since I used to tinker with those things, but I don't want to be making any guesses at a time like this." She shrugged. "I can watch your back until it's done then I'll take over and you can help them plan. I'm sure one of the doofuses out there could help with lookout."

[Tapewolf]

"I haven't specifically worked with one of those either," Dorcan admitted.  "I guess a lot depends on whether we have anyone who has."  He paused.  "For the lookout I'm wondering if that might be up Jexx' street."  If there's someone else to ensure he maintains focus, it should keep him from causing trouble, at least.

[Sprocketsdance]

"Well, I'll go see what I can do with it, I'm sure I'll be able to fix it... heaven knows we'll probably need the damn thing pretty soon." She spoke into a comm. "Jexx, I need your butt over by the machine gun."
Chance gave Dorcan a little half-salute. "Well, good luck." Then she exited and made her way to the machine gun.

[Ryudo Lee]

The man with the binoculars went into the site and after a moment came out with a young woman with black hair and dark brown eyes, who's clothing were covered in dirt, and carrying a map of the surrounding area.
"I'm Dr. Woodworth's assistant, Ms. Clay.  It's about time you people showed up.  We've got a crisis on our hands here.  The doctor has found a promising set of chambers down in the ruins, and we cannot stop digging.  If another of the crystals is down there, we cannot let it fall into the hands of those machine maniacs.  Goodness knows what they would do with it.  The doctor will not leave without it, or until he's satisfied that one is not here." She says.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan nodded as Chance took over the machine-gun project.  By this point he was kitted up and approached Morgan just as the assistant was finishing.

"I'd be inclined to agree.  If whatever's in there stands any chance of making the Brotherhood stronger, we'd be fools to let them have it.  At the same time, we don't have force of arms to keep them away indefinitely and I'm well aware that you may find the chamber leads to another one... 'just over that next hill' as it were."

He frowned and glanced at Morgan.  Then a faint smile crossed his face.

"Of course, one option is for us to 'evacuate', let the Brothers complete the excavation and then come back and take whatever goodies they find," he said.  "Don't ask me how practical that is, but if it's feasible it would save a lot of bother."

[Ryudo Lee]

Ms. Clay gave Dorcan a sour look.
"There is absolutely no way we're going to let those maniacs in here, even to dig.  The crystal's not the only thing of importance.  There are writings and drawings and all kinds of other things in there that we have to preserve.  They would just in there and start blasting and destroy everything of value." She says indignantly.

[Tapewolf]

Fine.  You stay here and die, Dorcan wanted to say, but he managed to hold his tongue.
"It's a simple matter of logistics," he pointed out reasonably.  "We're three days away from base.  What you see is what we have to hand.  If we had arrived earlier we could have assisted with the dig, but now it's only a matter of time before the Brotherhood arrives in force."

"Now we might get lucky.  Having sent a scout they might send only enough troops to overwhelm you lot, and we might be able to take them down, but even that would only buy us time."
He glanced back at Morgan.

[Ryudo Lee]

She spreads out the map.  The known sections of the ruins were drawn over the geographical markings on the map.
"So far, we've only found one entrance, that's this one.  All others appear to be caved in.  The rock in this mountain is very hard.  We'd hear them if they started drilling or blasting to get to us.  The most logical way to come at is to assault the entrance, so this is where you guys need to set up.  We need to give the doctor as much time as possible to find out if a crystal is in here or not.  It's very very important." She says.

[techmaster-glitch]

   The agonizingly uneventful three-day ride almost drove Jexx crazy. He couldn't remember ever going so long without killing something. He almost drove several of the Rebellion soldiers crazy too, with his increasing irritablility (more so than normal) and fidgety antics. As they (finally) neared the site, one of the soldiers sourly gave him some microcomms, and the very simple act of disturbance almost caused Jexx to flip out, but by some miracle he instead slotted them into his ear and tooth.
  Shortly after, an unfamiliar voice called him by name, asking him to head for a machine gun. Jexx wasted no time in busting the van's back doors open and running off towards the first machine gun he saw. Coming up next to Chance, he started talking rapidly. "Me? Need me? Got something to kill? Huh, huh? Something to kill? Heard something about a Brotherhood scout, lemme at 'em! I'll hunt him down and fry 'em to a crisp!"

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance was promptly meeted by Jexx just as she reached the machine gun... though her eyes grew a bit wide and she had to take a step back from his.... excitement. Just after a second she straightened back up and narrowed her eyes. "For godssake calm the F*** down!" She prodded his chest with her finger after about every third word. "You need to stay here and be a lookout. Make sure no one shoots me in the back while I fix this damn thing." After giving him a long, hard look she turned to the gun and its men.

"Ok, out of my way.. if you can't take care of this machine you have no reason to be here." She reached into her pouch for her arm repair kit.. granted it wasn't ideal but the basic principles of cleanliness should be about the same. She unfolded some fabric she took out of the kit and placed it onto the ground to keep the dirt off of her handy work... at least as much as possible. Then she took the machine gun off of the turret and started taking it apart. She had to really man-handle the poor thing to get it to fully disassemble but eventually she did and started cleaning each piece. All the while muttering about dumbasses and how it was a wonder they hadn't kill themselves with how dirty it was.

[Lisky]

Darkshine had remained rather impassive during the meeting.  When Chance took over the roll of sentry, and Jexx as her lookout, he made his way over to the Doctor, Dorcan and Morgan.  He stood in the back, not quite ready to give his own input, but looked intently over the shoulders of his two colleagues.  He looked at the maps which were being shown.  He gave a slight pause, a thoughtful quirk of the eyebrow was hidden by his mask, then he said,  "We could setup a nasty killzone right here, and i agree, it's a decent spot... but really, we need to expand out a bit, and use this for the fallback point.  We need to keep the vehicles safe as well as the personnel if we're getting out of here."

Meanwhile, Ranger chipped into Chance's earpiece, "You're currently standing behind a Mk228V Medium Machine Gun. if you wish, i could walk you through the procedure of cleaning it?  If you'd like help, just come back inside for a moment and retrieve a wireless video headset so i can see what you're doing."

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Fetrethar snarled. Obviosuly, he was too new in the clan for his warning to be taken seriously, or even answered.

This was foolish, possibly suicidal. Telling a stranger how far their base was? If this woman was taken, she'd caugh it up, and then it wouldn't be that hard for them to piece together the base location. He had been keeping an eye out on these "rebels" and knew that they didn't have nearly enough men and arms to stand toe to toe with the enemy. That meant relying on evasion, hiding from a strike, and that meant more caution. And that meant.......


He knew nothing of how to repair the machine gun. In fact, all he knew of such devices where what he had heard about it from others, most of those whom had only heard of the devices secondhand. But still, the ambush, that he knew.

Skulking over to Chance, he looked around, making sure that nobody was there that shouldn't be. All seemed to be in order. Leaning over the working woman, who seemed busy disassembling the weapon, he croaked out. "Is it possible to repair the weapon while still making it look damaged, or dysfunctional?  You see how few of us there are. To stand for a protracted period in the open will invite death, from something that we do not have the arms to overcome. An artillery strike, aircraft. Gas." The last word was hissed out. "We need to prepare, but we must do so....... subtly. If they see a makeshift defensive position where by rights one shouldn't be, they might just blast us all with a Thumper."  Fetrethar idly wondered what the lowlanders called them.

While waiting for a reply, he thought furiously. The woman digging said the mountain was hard,too hard for their tools to get trhough. That meant trenches with their little hand equipment would be equally impossible. He looked around at any sort of low native vegetation, brush or the like. Perhaps they could conceal their presence. He recalled an aged voice proclaiming "Cover from sight is often more important than cover from fire."

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance grinned when she heard Ranger over her earpiece. If it was anyone.. especially a male offering machine cleaning advice she might have taken offense, but since it was Ranger - and she liked ..'him'.. she was greatful. "Sure, just walk me through the standard procedures, I should be able to keep up."

Then she heard someone approach and looked back to find Fetrethar. She looked sideways at him and smirked. "You know what.. I like the way you think." She knew all too well how it could be an advantage if the enemy underestimated their target. Chance turned back to her work. "Ranger, once the cleaning is done do you think you could tell me the best way to make this thing look like it's barely functioning besides putting extra scratches on it." She hated to beat up a weapon.. but desperate times call for desperate measures.. or something.

[Azlan]

Morgan gave Dorcan a sideways glance as Ms. Clay pronounced her obstinate stance on the dig.  Clearing his throat, mustering up as much emotional vibes he could channel into his perceived presence thanks to empathy, he issued an authoritative intimidation tactic, "Ms. Clay, I understand the importance of your find and the value you place on it.  I spent quite a few semesters in the wiles of anthropology and archaeology during my undergraduate days at university.  However, if we deem it impossible to hold this site against Brotherhood incursion, we will pull out and this site will be neutralized.  That is a last resort, but your lives are more important than any artifacts this site may contain.  This is not negotiable.  Now fetch the good doctor and make him aware of our presence and prepare for a withdrawal, there is no way we can hold this position for any length of time against dedicated Brotherhood forces.  Oh, I will take that map, thank you." 

Morgan signaled to the idle sods that were hovering about Dorcan and himself, "you lot bring those vehicles over there, behind cover and see about moving camouflage in proper position around this area.  I need more intelligence on the enemy forces and their likely approach routes, what I would not give for a Predator right now.  Here now, let us see the lay of the land."

Opening up the map and gesturing for Dorcan and even Darkshine to follow, but excluding Fetrethar, he moved to the location where the vans were being deployed and concealed, "the Brotherhood tends to be direct and methodical, so we need to watch the possible approaches with scouts, to gauge the incoming forces for number and strength.  Let us get some recommendations here gentlemen on strategies."   

[Lisky]

Darkshine followed in silent thought as he pondered different solutions.  As the 'war council' formed, to come up with various ideas... he figured he'd start with the obvious. Saying, "the most tried and true way to handle them would be forward scouts who harass, lure, lead and nudge the brotherhood forces to a pre-determined killzone, then butcher them with absolute local fire superiority.  Ideally, they'll deploy along well populated routes, as they know we can't afford to mine said routes for fear of civilian casualties.  If they deploy on foot and try a sweeping pattern, they'll be much easier to snipe, and they'll be moving slower..."

The feline collected his thoughts for a moment with a slow breath, then continued,  "Really, the only thing we truly have to worry about is an airborne or heli-assault... we don't have very good capabilities against VTOLs or aircraft in general... so i'd suggest setting up a position inside the tunnels as an fallback post... but besides that, i'm as open to suggestion as anyone... Though if you're looking for a volunteer for scouting, you can count me in."

He focused on Morgan, as he knew Fox's reputation as a sniper, probably better than most... chance are, he'd be running as the other scout, or so Darkshine hoped... he'd always wanted to see how well the man had stacked up to the other soldiers of fortune he'd worked with.


*****

Ranger replied to Chance's question by giving her a very in depth verbal explanation of what Chance should see once she opened the case, and removed the ammo belt.  His monotone came through, "You're going to see an elongated metal plate, under it you will see a long, thin metal rod, going into a soup can, the rod will have a spring around it.  Twist the soup can, and lift it out carefully, place it on a clean surface, and remove it's various components, then lift out the rod, then you'll find a large, oblong box near the grip of the weapon... pull that out as well, completely disassemble it, and run oil over every working part... next, the inner chamber should also be given a quick rubdown with a rag as well.  Once you're finished there, you should remove the coffee-grinder looking piece, and do a full field-stripping as well. Once you are done, reassemble the piece as they were originally, and the weapon should work with a much higher reliability... I'll be watching in case you need a hand"

There was an awkward pause as a few clicks and pops came over the radio... Suddenly Ranger's monotone came back... " As for making it look in poor condition... take some soft, fine soil, mix it with a little water to make a muddy paste, use a rag to apply the mixture aesthetically, making sure to avoid blocking the action, the inside of the cooling jacket, the ejection port, and most importantly the sights... dab it on, don't smear it... and let it cake on in non-vital areas... that is the best i can come up with for aesthetically aging the weapon without impeding on it's performance."

[Tapewolf]

"Strategy isn't really my forte," Dorcan confessed.  "However, two things spring to mind.  Firstly, do we know where the Brotherhood are based in this area?  Whether the scout came from and where he went, for example?  If so, would it be possible to lay some kind of trap for them?"

He turned to glance at Ms. Clay.  "Secondly, in terms of the evacuation, how many people are on staff, and how many are essential to the dig now in progress?  Is there any way the dig can be speeded up if it really is as important as is claimed?"

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Off in the distance in the mountainside, Fetrethar noted Morgan and a few of the others talking to each other. Doubting that he'd be invited to whatever confrence it was, and it must be hoiw they plan to defend this rock, he quickly doffed a gauntlet and licked his thumb, holding it up to discern the wind.

Redonning the weapon, he scuttled over to a site downwind of their conference, where the sound would carry, looking, as he went, for any sort of shrub or brush that could be at least plausibly moved to provide some sort of ambush spot.

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance worked quickly as Ranger explained the process. She found the descriptions sometimes comical but kept her mind on what she was doing. She gave every part a good rub-down with the rag and oiled the parts she needed to. Once she was satisfied with how everything looked she put the gun back together with ease and placed it on the turret.

"Thanks Ranger." She didn't know why she was thanking an electronic form, but somehow she figured it was due.

After taking a step back to look at her handy-work she let out a little sigh and headed back to the vehicle where Ranger resided. She wasn't too happy about putting dirt on a gun, but any little advantage they could get they were going to need.

Chance opened her locker and dug into her standard issue kit for a canteen. Upon finding it she locked up and went outside to return to the machine gun. She dribbled a bit of water on the ground and mixed it together with her finger. The gun looked pretty smooth in some places so she unclipped her knife and scored the surface to help the mud stick better. She replaced her knife and started dabbing bits of mud over the non-vital areas of the gun.

While she worked she couldn't help but wonder if the others were hatching some grand plan. Heavens knows they were going to need one to survive this. She stopped for a second and looked up, noticing that Fetrethar left she cursed at herself for not being more mindful. If she didn't notice that he left a while ago who knows what else would get past her. Entering a big mental note to herself she went back to work.

[techmaster-glitch]

   After Jexx reached the machine gun, Chance simply gave him the job of being a lookout. Jexx was still for a moment, and then started grumbling quietly as he turned around and started surveying the landscape, looking for any movement that might be Brotherhood.

[Arcalane]

Exo casts a sideways glance to the fixed up machinegun. "Try tipping the gun itself forward as well, should make it look like it's been abandoned, perhaps scatter a few more casings around and throw an empty ammo canister on it's side," it adds as it maintains a watch of the approach, the warbot's myriad optical and audio sensors providing a far more detailed image than any mortal eyes.

[No sign of anything yet,] It adds over the squad network as it scans a little more, [wouldn't bank on that lasting much longer though.]

The 'bot returns to scanning the horizon, arms folded as it watches intently for any sign or sound of movement and activity.

[Sprocketsdance]

"Cool, thanks." Chance replied to Exo. Once she was finished trying to make the machine gun look as shabby as possible she got to working on the bot's advice. After she was finished with that the area surrounding the turret looked much like the after affects of some high school bonfire beer bash.. only instead of beer cans there were empty ammo canisters and castings. She finished off by tipping the gun forward and then laying down behind it as to hide as much as possible.

She looked up at Jexx.. feeling a bit bad about how she addressed him earlier. "Hey, take a load off.. there will be plenty of things to kill soon enough."

[Ryudo Lee]

Ms. Clay was slightly taken aback at Morgan's bluntness, but her tone didn't waver.
"It's not me that's keeping us here.  It's Dr. Woodworth.  He doesn't want people leaving until he's found what he's looking for.  Surely you of all people should know that these artifacts are the find of a lifetime and the doctor won't leave it behind.  He'd be digging while people are shooting at him." She says.
She turns and heads back into the site.  A short while later, she returns to Morgan.
"The doctor extends his thanks for being here to protect the site.  He's getting everyone motivated to work faster.  All he wants is the artifact that we believe is in there." She says.

[Tapewolf]

Jesus these people are stubborn, Dorcan thought.  Maybe that's why we didn't assist them earlier.
He couldn't think of anything to add strategy-wise, and after checking his weapons again, made his way up to the gun emplacement.

"How's it's going with the gun?" he asked Chance.

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance looked up to Dorcan from her lazy spot on the ground, one hand proping her head up. "It's all cleaned up and disguised. Now we just wait to shoot at something I guess." She shrugged. "How are the plans going? Are we getting these people out of here or what?"

[Tapewolf]

"They don't want to go," Dorcan said.  "Too involved with the dig.  In the worst case we might have to stun the good doctor and drag him out of there."

"I don't know what we're going to do," he confessed.  "We can't defend the site indefinitely, but on the other hand those artifacts may make the Brotherhood significantly more powerful.  Perhaps more powerful than we can cope with.  But if we destroy the site the doctor and all his associates are going to go apeshit.  They could stir up the entire scientific community against us and we'd have handed the Brothers a fantastic piece of propaganda on a stick."

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Fetrethar, watching the encampment, saw Dorcan break off from the group and head towards Chance, and the gun emplacement. The one who brought him out of the prison truck seemed at least amenable to listening to him, which many of the other members of this Rebellion did not seem to be.

Stalking his way back, and softly chuckling at the irony. He stayed close enough to hear Dorcan's little speech to Chance, and announced his approach by clearing his throat and dropping to a crouch. "I don't really understand this propaganda issue. I'll admit, I didn't see too much of our base, but what attempts are we making to tell people what we're about? I somehow doubt that they are keeping silent about us, and I also doubt that they restrict themselves to the truth. If they're going to be talking people into thinking us monsters.......... It wouldn't cost us all that much to rap these scientists on the head, if you're worried about killing them, and carrying them off with us. Nobody would have to know. They're likely to sweep the area, we can claim they did it."

[Tapewolf]

"Strategically there are advantages to doing that, but... it would be wrong," Dorcan said.  "We came here to help these people, not kidnap them."

[Sprocketsdance]

Chance frowned. "Well this sure is a dilly of a pickle... sheesh." She scratched the back of her head some, fluffing up her hair in the back out of irritation of the situation. "Dragging the Doc out kicking is screaming sounds like a good idea to me, but those damn artifacts... " She thought for a second. "Too bad there isn't some way to really ambush the Brotherhood when they get here... like hide in crevices around the dig site... make it look abandoned... and then when they get deep inside we surround them and take them out.. but I don't know.."