You are reading Part 3 of Brotherhood of the Machine. Part 2 can be found here (http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,4600.0.html), and Part 1 can be found here (http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,2926.0.html).
-TW
Darkshine checked his HUD to confirm what he was almost positive he already knew, then replied "sorry, i've got everything like that in the banshee, so unless you can eat bullets, i can't really help you for now... any chance you could lean on me and make it to the banshee? either that, or do you think your in a good enough condition that i carry you... i've got some stuff that'll work as a patch, but unless you think you can make it to my ride, it going to stay were it is... i'm not going to risk leaving you alone..."
Dorcan stopped and glanced back. "If you need him carried, I can do that," he called.
"It would be nice if I could eat bullets, my nanites will consume any projectile embedded within me, but brass, lead and ceramics make for poor grade materials. I should be able to walk with help to the banshee, I just lost too much blood too fast because I wasn't aware my damage control systems were impaired." He carefully swung his legs over the edge of the van and brought himself to a sitting position, wincing as damaged muscles protested being used in any fashion at the moment.
Then biting off the pain and steeling himself with determination, he dragged himself to his feet rather quickly. Leaning against the van to stave off the wave of dizziness, he stood up alone, but his legs were rather wobbly and he waited to see if Darkshine or Dorcan would assist him.
"I can walk Dorcan with a little help... now let's go, leave the medics to care for those that could not help themselves instead of a fool like myself. I need to get my game back up, I'm out of practice, second mission and I already got shot... what am I going to do when we start taking on the harder stuff?"
Darkshine nodded in agreement, he knew how much pride he felt when people described him as 'like a ghost', and knew that fox had a similar reputation to try and maintain... Darkshine walked up, and offered a shoulder to morgan, while saying "hey, i know how it goes... when you first met me, you caught me when i was off the top of my game... i wouldn't worry about getting shot too much, it's only when it becomes a habit of sorts that you should consider a new line of work"
"A habit of getting shot has a whole lot of other complications." Darkshine's words struck a cord with Morgan and for some reason the last bit was rather funny to him, he chuckled rather vigorously for a moment before groaning and faltering in his step, "bloody hell... okay... no more laughing, hurts too much. I'm tempted to turn on the pain suppressors, no... dun wanna become dependent on gear. Just a small question, my head might be too foggy to remember the details, but why walk all the way to the Banshee? Couldn't you just ask for it to come to you?"
Darkshine had completely forgotten about ranger... he paused, and said into the headset "hey, ranger, back the banshee up, and park it right here, rear ramp facing us, when your 3 meters out, drop the ramp and cut the fans"
a monotone voice replied "acknowledged sir, good to hear from you... i'll take it you've had a rather interesting time since your last check in..."
Darkshine just ignored the smug AI and waited for the vehicle to do it's thing. Once where he wanted it, darkshine led morgan up the ramp, and onto the cot... he then asked morgan "so, if you want food, any preference, high protein, sandwich, ration bars, something to drink, or just anything edible in general?"
"Well, I'm rather thirsty... but I need something solid that is high in iron and protein. If you have military grade emergency ration bars, they will do... generally nasty tasting though."
Morgan relaxed into the cot and leaned the plasma repeater against the side, he had forgotten he was carrying it.
"When I get back to base, I'm going home and getting my tactical gear. Time to stop playing and having fun, time to get serious if I'm going to be helping these rebels for the long haul."
"Okay," Dorcan said, leaving the comms line open, "I guess you're okay, or at least stable. Anything I could be doing to help?"
Morgan spoke over the comms, I think we'll do fine, you may want to go help Exo and the rest with the Brotherhood transport and prisoners... or you can stick around and talk to Darkshine some more, it doesn't really matter, you are second for now.
Turning his head towards Darkshine, he spoke in a low voice, "that ranger program has the comm frequencies we use... the private team chat and encrypted channels might refuse to all you to connect, as you haven't been issued the proper security credentials... I'd work those up for you, but I suddenly feel very tired. I think I'll rest for awhile."
darkshined laughed at the comment about standard issue rations.... he looked at the redhead and said "do you really think i'd buy standard issue rations if i can afford the upkeep on a vehicle like this... when i asked about edible, i meant actually edible, not, in an absolute emergency i might be able to choke it down... i buy ration bars that actually have a flavor besides cardboard..."
reaching up to the shelves, darkshine grabbed a pair of bars, and handed one to Morgan. He then reached into the cooler under the cot, and pulled out a good sized pitcher. looking back at morgan, he raised the gray plastic container, and said"as for the comms, i'll let them deal with any problems for now, i'd rather not see the only person who can verify that i'm not some sort of psychopath go into a coma from blood loss... care for some iced tea?"
taking off his headset and mask, darkshine set them down on the shelves, and retrieved some cups.
"What good is being second if I can't even swing a medic for you?" Dorcan said, half-seriously. "Darkshine, do you need me here? If not, I'm going to help Exo with the box."
Darkshine raised his hand towards Dorcan and made a 'be gone' wave while saying "go have fun with exo and the others, i think i can keep Morgan stable on my own... though i'd reload that pistol first, it's great for close quarters... though that particular model has a rather hefty kick though. just keep your grip tight if you actually need to let off some rounds..."
a massive grin on Darkshine's face, he added "now run along and have fun... but play nice"
"I've never had firearms training," Dorcan admitted. "Not with projectiles, anyway. I've used energy weapons, but at school we were taught crossbows, archery and... other things which I can't do anymore. Still, at close-quarters I doubt one needs too much training."
Reluctantly he reloaded the weapon, flicked the safety on and headed toward the prison vehicle. "What's the situation, Exo?" he asked over the comms. "Anything I should be doing here?"
(OOC: sorry for teh laet post :< )
...Jexx dropped down into the transport, waving his handcannons about, looking but failing to spot anything that looked like a Brotherhood soldier. After a moment of this futility, he finally processed what was in the transport.
There prisoners were in here, all right. But they weren't exactly calm. They instantly were grasping for Jexx through the bars, crying for release. Jexx was, for the moment, overwhelmed, as he hadn't seen anything quite like this before. He tried to say that he was going to free them, but words failed him.
A moment later, Exo dropped in, who immediately took charge of the situation. Jexx, now no longer thinking he could do anything useful, and wanting to get away from these disturbing images, edged out of the van and walked a little bit away from everything else. He shivered a few times unconsciously.
Morgan took the container of offered ice tea and sat up. He almost dropped the ice tea as pain shot straight to his head from his wound. After a moment of gasping he grabbed a lidded cup and poured a healthy portion of the fluid. With great gusto, he consumed the whole bar and cup of ice tea.
Morgan smiled a bit, but did not laugh though what Dorcan had said earlier struck him as funny, "don't swing the poor medic around, whatever did he do to you?"
Settling back in, he contemplated his own mortality for a few moments before passing out from significant blood loss.
Darkshine finished his snack as he watched Morgan slip into unconsciousness, he took a few moments to re-bandage the wound using supplies from the medkit in the banshee. He then put his headset and mask back on. talking to his AI, the leopard said "ranger, keep an eye on our guest for now... if anything about his condition changes, i want to know as soon as it happens... While he's down and out, see if you can hook me up on a listen only channel with their comms..." while talking he unslung the SMG, and stored it in a locker.
Carbine still slung out front, he walked out the rear hatch and swung himself on top of the Banshee. Leaning against one of the sensor housings on top of the vehicle, he let his left leg dangle over the edge, while the rest of his body seemed to crumple into a semi-laying down position. To the untrained eye, it would look as though Darkshine was slacking off, possibly taking a nap... in reality, he'd found a place where he could observe the events going on outside of the brotherhood prison vehicle, while at the same time draw little attention to himself
Exo pauses part way through wrenching a cell door off. [Unless you feel like helping the medical staff by perhaps finding some food and water to help the civilians recover their wits, I doubt there is much to be done.] The 'bot finishes mangling the cell door, and steps aside to allow medical staff to get the occupant some attention before moving to a heavier door at the end of the short corridor, no doubt leading to the larger chamber used to hold several prisoners at once. It takes a short moment to warm up and stretch out the synthetic muscle fiber before glancing back. No room for a run-up... so it tries the next best thing - breaking the door down through sheer brute force, with a little structural scanning for weak points that would speed up the process.
Meanwhile, the four soldiers mill around the Banshee, quite persistant in keeping an eye on their charge.
"Will do, sir," Dorcan said. He made his way into the 'box' and found one of the medics. "They can have my rations," Dorcan told him, and offered the food and water from his pack. "I think they'll need them more than I do."
He paused for a moment to study the locks. Lockpicking was something he'd studied at the Academy, for all the good it would do him now. The techniques they had used there included manipulating the tumblers via telekinesis, or shapeshifting wing tentacles, neither of which were applicable to him.
With a sigh, he searched for the guardroom, or whatever the vehicle had in that way. "Do the Brotherhood guys need to eat?" he asked over the comms.
One of the medics shrugs.
"Not sure. They might have some rations for the prisoners if it was a long drive, just to keep them alive. We've never known the Brotherhood to kill prisoners." He says.
Exo's efforts would pay off, the door would come off it's hinges to reveal a small storage area which leads to the cab of the vehicle. The storage area contained some rations, as well as some ammo for the Brotherhood's weapons, but no weapons, as they'd all been taken for use by the Brotherhood soldiers protecting the vehicle.
Dorcan took what rations he could find and passed them over to the medics, saving just a couple for Morgan's use in case he still needed them.
"What's the plan, sir?" he asked over the comms. "Do we have enough spare room to bring these guys with us, or are we just going to turn them loose as soon as they can walk?"
He paused. "Come to that, are any of these guys going to be tagged or something? Can the Brothers pinpoint them?" he added as an afterthought.
"If anyone needs to be carried, let me know," he added to the nearest medic.
One of the medics looked thoughtful.
"That's something we didn't think of. Hang on a sec..." He says.
He digs through his supplies and pulls out a standard microchip detector.
"We'll need a few minutes to check each person. We don't want to move them to HQ until we know they haven't been microchipped." He says.
Dorcan left the vehicle and began to study it. Exo's method of opening it had damaged it considerably and it was a bit worse for wear after its emergency stop, but it looked like it should still run.
"This may be a silly idea," he began over the comms, "I mean, a truck with the top ripped off is going to look a bit suspicious to any recon satellites the Brothers have. We'd have to avoid built-up areas and for all I know the truck itself has a tracking device, but... that aside, does anyone think it would be worth liberating this fine piece of automotive hardware from its oppressive masters?"
The medic's scanner came up blank on all the prisoners.
"Looks like these guys are clean. They must have been heading to a facility to be tagged." He says.
Fetrethar awoke with a coppery taste of blood in his mouth. After a moment checking with his tongue to confirm that his stinger hadn't been tampered with, he spat out a phlegmy mass of the red fluid. At least off of his teeth seemed to be in the proper place.
Glancing around, he realized that he hadn't been moved from where he fell, but that the combat between his own people and the Mongoose clan had been stopped, and that at least one white coated man was moving between the supine forms, offering some sort of aid. Clutching at the man's coat, he asked in a hoarse whisper. "Who are you guys? Where are we? Have you seen my gloves and belt? My elders will have my hide if I lose them."
The medic knelt down and passed the scanner over Fetrethar.
"Don't try to move until we've had a chance to examine you. We're with the rebellion, don't worry, we're here to help. We'll find your things, if they're still here." He says.
He turns his head to the others.
"We've got a live one here guys." He says aloud.
"Are you saying the others are all dead?" Dorcan barked, his wings fanning out slightly.
The medic sighed.
"This one is more coherent than the others, and he's got questions." He says.
"Ah, my bad," Dorcan said. His brow furrowed. Who was best to talk to them? Exo was a Brotherhood-built killing machine and probably too intimidating for the usual patient's bedside talk. Morgan would have been the best bet but was presently incapacitated. Jexx had a few screws loose and Dorcan himself was a stranger not only to the organisation, but the world as a whole...
"Get Izzie to talk to them if he's around," Dorcan suggested. "If not, one of the demomen. I'd do it myself but I'm still new around here and liable to confuse things more than help."
With a groan Morgan returned to the land of the conscious. He lifted his head a bit and gazed about the area he was in. His surroundings did not look familiar to him and he could not remember how he had gotten here. He noticed the blood on his hands and on his clothes, and slowly the confusion drained from him. Examining the dressing, it was done fairly well and only a bit stained with fresh blood.
His internal systems reported the internal bleeding was under control and condition was stable. Sighing, he looked towards the front and back of the vehicle, debating whether he should try walking. Instead he called out, "Hello? Anyone there? Did everyone leave and forget about me?"
His head was still not clear enough to even think to check the comm channels.
Ranger beeped a rather loud alert in darkshine's ear "it seems our guest has healed enough to wake back up sir, he seems rather confused, i recommend you come back in... "
Planting a hand on the very edge of the banshee, Darkshine gripped the frame, and swung himself down into the cargo area, landing on his feet, he greeted the redhead with a nod and a half wave, he said "ahh, your awake, good to see you weren't out for too long... "
Exo sweeps the storage room, taking in the resources at hand, then advances forward, attempting to gain access to the cab, though much more carefully this time.
[Perhaps. It would make a useful assault transport, although the internals would need significant restructuring. I would hack open this door and the control systems myself, but interfacing with Brotherhood equipment is not something to take lightly, especially not in my case. Still, it would be possible...] the bot pauses. [Hmmm... this can still be worked with. The Brotherhood will be rather angry that we did this on top of smashing the tower.] The comms beep for a moment.
[Tactical Summary: Use van as distraction. Our vehicles can split up and rendezvous back at HQ with the freed prisoners. Meanwhile, I lead them on a wild goose chase with this transport. Thoughts?]
"My only real concern is whether we can fit the prisoners in our existing vehicles," Dorcan said to Exo. "Also that would leave Morgan and myself in charge, should we encounter any resistance or other goals from Jackson on the way home. Aside from that, the plan is a good one."
Morgan forced a smile, "I think I would prefer to be still out. The nanites are working overtime, that is why I was woken up."
Leveraging himself off the cot, he stood with a groan, leaning against the wall for support for a few seconds. With determination and pure will, he stood straight on his own legs and walked carefully to the small lavatory area. His reflection in the mirrot was haggard and he was quite a bit paler then he normally was. He took a few moments to scrub the blood from his hands and other locations before returning to the main cabin.
"So what is going on at the moment? Are we still at the combat zone?"
"We're still trying to decide what to do about the prisoners," Dorcan said, trying to fill Morgan in. "Exo suggested transferring them to our vehicles and using the Brotherhood transport as a decoy."
Darkshine went about unlocking the weapons lockers, figuring that Morgan would probably want some type of weapon at the ready... looking over to the Redhead darkshine asked "you want the rifle, carbine, squad support weapon, or are you just planning on scrounging a weapon from a dead body? either way, i don't think it could hurt to be prepared for trouble while were here... "
Darkshine paused while he went through a mental recap of everything he'd heard and seen in the last few minutes
"on a completely unrelated note, i don't think your team realizes that we're plus one, if not two vehicles, and we'll need drivers... i can drive the banshee if you want, it has seating for 9, though 7 is far more comfortable... other than that, i'm good to go with whatever orders you have... i'm looking forward to meeting the rest of the rebels"
"I have this repeating plasma rifle that I picked up from the first elite we downed. I can recharge these energy clips easier than I can produce bullets, but I will keep it in mind if I need another weapon."
Morgan examined the plasma weapon, checking for anything unusual before linking up to it again.
Link established weapon in good working order.
darkshine said "well, whatever you want, i guess i'll lock everything up and get ready to move out... anyways, if your looking for me, i'm gonna go get see what everyone else is up to at the moment... if you need me, just shout at Ranger, he's tied into my comm set already, so no problems if you need to get my attention."
Heading out, darkshine took a second to find Dorcan. He appeared to be observing the brotherhood vehicle, making sure that Dorcan was paying attention, Darkshine gave the doberman a wave then said "soo, what are we looking at in there, and do we have an evac plan we can start putting into motion... i don't think we should dawdle here for much longer, who knows how close the nearest brotherhood backup actually is..."
Unless Morgan had rigged something, Darkshine wouldn't have been in the comms loop, so Dorcan reiterated.
"Exo suggested that he drives the Brotherhood vehicle to act as a decoy. It still seems to be operational, so that sounds good to me and no-one else has objected so I guess we're going to go with it.
"For that to work we'll need to move their prisoners into our own vehicles, though. Is there any spare room in yours? We'll also have to have someone else with a driving license valid in this world to drive Exo's van. Oh, and one of the prisoners has woken up and wants his stuff. Someone should really go and talk to him but neither you nor I are qualified for that."
Darkshine nodded in agreement "yea, at the very least i would be the worst one to talk to, given that i've been helping the rebellion directly for all of five or so minutes... as for space, depending on what Morgan does, there should be room for at least 7 more in my vehicle. I can drive the banshee, but if your not sure about drivers for the van... maybe you should take a role call now, and work on logistics while Exo is handling the prisoners?"
The doberman nodded.
"Right, guys," he said over the comms, "It looks like Exo is going to be taking the transport which the Brotherhood has very kindly donated to us. I'm not sure Morgan is in a fit state to drive, so I think we're going to need at least one more driver, maybe two. Any volunteers?"
"Medical team: If the prisoners are fit to move or be moved, I think we're going to transfer them to our vehicles. We have room for seven in the Banshee, and I guess we can probably free up some space in the rest if there are any left over. Let me know if anyone needs carrying. Sound good? If so, let's do it."
Including Fetrethar and the captured rebellion soldier, there were only five that could safely be moved. Two others would have to stay in the prison vehicle, or they would risk furthering their injuries.
No-one had raised any objections, so Dorcan stepped into the transport. "Okay," he said to the lead medic, "We need to move some of these guys to Darkshine's vehicle. Who can walk and who needs help?"
The white coated man was speaking to someone, that Fetrethar could easily tell. Whom he was conversing with and what was the subject of debate was trickier, given that he didn't seem to get the other half of the conversation. As they spoke, Fetrethar raised himself off the floor, and dropped into a low crouch, feeling with his tongue for his stinger, and waiting for him to cease speaking so he could ask where his equiptment was.
Hearing the news that his vehicle was going to be used as the transport, darkshine figured he'd better get things ready. Walking back to the banshee, he went and put each weapons locker on lock-down. Only people with access to Ranger could get things in or out of the lockers... once he finished that task, Darkshine went to find Morgan, once he found the redhead, Darkshine said "looks like the ex-prisoners are going to be riding in here, so i'm kinda curious how we want to do this... i figured i can drive, but i have no idea what you plan to do... if you want to mess around with some of the on board systems, you can sit up front... if you want to take a nap, the cot is still wide open, or, if you want to chat with the people we just liberated, there should enough room if you want to sit in the troop compartment... whatever you want to do, feel free to make yourself at home... i figure i'll get a few things ready while Dorcan and Exo get them sorted out"
"Well, this guy looks active enough," Dorcan said, catching the movement and going to take a better look at Fetrethar.
"We've got to be heading out soon," the Doberman told him. "Otherwise the Brotherhood will find us and that's not good. We're going to need to move you to one of our vehicles. Are you fit enough to do that?"
Morgan considered his condition, he was wounded and physically spent mostly because of the injury, but also from the back to back missions. He could likely still drive, as it is not an especially physical task, but he had lost a lot of blood. That made him rather tired and as long drives can be monotonous, he might doze off.
Morgan spoke into the comms, I... I am okay for now, but pretty woozy. My internal computer could probably remote control a van, but I would likely be zonked out after ten minutes. So, unless there is no choice, I don't... uh... do not, think I should be driving. Are we ready to depart yet?
Speaking to Darkshine, he smiled and shrugged, "I'm... I am... not sure what I am going to be doing yet. When we get back to base, I am sure you will be vetted and then authorized for full access to the comms. Has anyone swept the area and collected the weapons and ammo? Armor is useless... damn it, I left my top half of my armor by the Brotherhood transport."
Morgan exited the Banshee and caught the attention of the other soldiers, "two of you collect all the useable weapons from the Brotherhood corpses and check for anything interesting on them. The rest, keep Darkshine company."
Morgan then headed to the prison vehicle, collected his torso armor... which was in need of repair, and sought out Dorcan. He was a tad dizzy by the time he found him, but shrugged it off as he patted the doberman on the shoulder, "we need to get moving. Which rebellion soldiers can drive?"
"I know we do," Dorcan sighed, turning to Morgan. "It's like herding feral cats. I haven't been able to get a roll-call of drivers yet, though there must be some here. Maybe they just don't want to talk to the alien or something. Think you can organise it?"
He glanced back at Fetrethar and the medic.
Fetrethar heard the cold clank of boot on floor, off to his right, a slight distance behind his back. The white coated man was still only half paying attention to hm, the bulk of his focus on the supine figures on the floor, so Fetrethar chanced a look behind him.
Upon doing so, he started, still in his crouch. While walking upright, the..... thing appeared to be some sort of upright dog, with a tail that dragged along the floor. While the storytellers of his clan had mentioned such things, he thought of them in the same category of myths as talking wind spirits, or sheets of fire coming from the ground.
Still, it made no hostile move, so he held his posture, hands low and unthreatening, and called out. "They call me Fetrethar. What name do you wear? Do you know where they took my equiptment? My elders will have my hide if I do not return it."
"I am Dorcan of clan Ja'Fell," the Doberman said solemnly, holding out a hand. "As for your equipment, if it was taken by the Brotherhood, it will probably be in the store-cupboard over there," he gestured to the place he'd found the rations.
Is it wise to let him have it? I'll leave that to Morgan's discretion, he thought.
"Either way, we have to get out of here soon or your rescue will have been in vain. If you can walk, grab your things and follow me to our transport. Unless you prefer to make your own way," he added.
"That goes for the rest of you too," he called to the other prisoners. "Anyone who can walk, grab your things. Anyone who needs to be carried or helped, speak up and we'll help you. But we have to get going soon."
"what? Where?" Turning and darting, Fetrethar rushed over to where the doberman indicated. He flung open the door, quickly pawing through the assorted piles of dried food, shaving equiptment, excess clothing, sanitation equpitment, and the like, leaving tumbled shelves and a small pile of equiptment on the floor. After about thirty seconds of this rough but rapid search, he uncovered them, the belt and gloves, and quickly donned the two pieces of clothing. He then returned the shelves into some semblance of order, picking up the discarded items off the floor, but taking no real pains to re-arrange the items in their original state.
He then returned to the strange figure that seemed to be his rescuer, snapping the belt on for a second, hearing its distinctive low breathy hum, and then returning it to neutral. At the moment, it seemed pretty safe for him to assume that this animal-man was a friend, at least for the nonce. While he harbored no illusions that his equiptment could protect him from another gas attack, it would seem odd to return his weapons, even temporarily.
Speaking of which A quick clenching of his palm muscles was rewarded with the bitter tang of air scorching into ozone. He waved his hands to turn the effect off, glad that his equiptment seemed to be in working order.
Reaching the tall figure, he nodded his thanks. "Let us go" and moved to follow him towards this "transport" that he mentioned.
"I'm too fucking trusting," Dorcan cursed to himself as the wildman's gauntlets suddenly emitted an intense flare in the infrared spectrum, making him blink for a few seconds.
"Aren't you forgetting the others?" he asked. "Everyone who can come comes."
This one looks like he might be a problem. the Doberman thought.
His new companion blinking rapidly, Fetrethar gave an apologetic shrug and went on speaking. "I just needed to test if they still work. Besides, altruists make me nervous. I don't know you, and I doubt you know me, so what exactly is your stake in all this?"
"I'll be blunt," Dorcan said, and his headwings twitched slightly. "I'm a stranger around here. When I arrived, the Brotherhood's welcome consisted of pressing a gun to my head and abducting me. These guys - the rebels - helped me escape and offered me the chance to help them make a difference, so I threw my lot in with them. From what I've seen so far, I think I've made the right decision."
"Now the shoe is on the other foot. The Brothers captured you, I've helped you escape and I'm going to make you the same offer I was given. If you want to run off into the forest, you're free to do so. I won't stop you.
"If you want to help make the bastards pay, come with us. The choice is yours, but don't take too long to decide. And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to help these guys."
He turned and began to organise the evacuation of the able-bodied prisoners.
"Oi, Dorcan! I do not think it is a good idea to just let this person have these... things." Morgan said as he gestured to the gloves, "there is no legitimate use of implements like that, except for murder... tortuous, inhumane murder. I would love to meet the person who would sell such a thing to primitives."
Thinking into the comm, not everyone who is an enemy of the Brotherhood is a friend of the Rebellion, I do not think it is a good idea to just let him wander off with implements like those, but I do not think it would be good for him to come with us either. We should be working toward a better image, and he would just destroy any hope of a favorable image if those are used during missions against living foes.
"I agree," Dorcan whispered into the comms. "It was an error of judgement on my part. And if you can think of a way to get them off him, be my guest. Given how desperate he was to retrieve them, I don't think asking will cut it."
Darkshine took a few moments to make food and water readily accessible, then turned to the rebel soldiers. Since he was driving prisoners, he wasn't about to take any chances. Working out a how he wanted things set up, he said, "now, i don't want this to sound like orders, because i'm not in your chain of command, but right now, i don't really care that these people share your uniform, no one who we've freed from that transport is to have a weapon, if they are armed, i'd like it in a locker."
Collecting his thoughts, Darkshine continued, "Next on the list of things i'm going to suggest, i don't think anyone should be allowed up front, besides having the controls of the vehicle itself, the area up front also has control of the sensor arrays, communications equipment, and furthermore someone could get into the stored data saved throughout the many drives on the vehicle... if someone is some type of brotherhood spy, i'd like to keep all of that out of their hands... "
"so, how i'm picturing the actual working of this, and sorry in advance that i didn't catch your names, but you and you" pointing at two of the soldiers "will be sitting in the seats closest to the partition between the crew compartment and cockpit, depending on who else is riding with us, i might rethink the overall plan, but for now, i'd like to work under the assumption that at least some of these people wish us ill...besides that, just remember to keep on your toes, and be observant... i'll be waiting by the main hatch if you've got any other questions"
As the freed prisoners started their exodus to a smaller, leaner vehicle, Ked mulled over the possibility of killing the remaining Mongoose clan members. He knew that a more deidcated man than himself would do it, as honor's imperitives made small the value of a life, a life of a herdsman no less, but he was afraid of these odd men who burst in out of nowhere and whose motives he did not understand. Just their bearing said that they probably would not approve of what to them, must be random violence.
He stepped into the new transport, and saw a flash of a feline head. What is it with these people? Is this some sort of genetic freak experiment gone wrong? Nodding his head, he said "Greetings to you. I am called Fetrethar Goynavan. What name do you wear?"
Darkshine took a deep breath as the prisoners headed his way. He tasted the filtered air and realized he was still wearing his mask... he removed the mask, but kept the headset on. throwing the mask in an armor locker, darkshine went back out front to greet the prisoners.
Those in rebel uniforms appeared ragged, beaten, and probably tortured. Mixed around them appeared to be a group of savages, he watched Ranger's scans of each person, as they drew closer. He noted that at least one had several power sources... whispering to the rebel soldiers around him "the short one, he appears to have several low yield power sources, keep an eye on him, he might be brotherhood, or a freelance infiltrator."
When the prisoners reached the ramp, Darkshine said into his headset "ranger, do a preliminary system check, i want to get moving as soon as we get the go ahead"
The short man then proceeded to introduce himself, Darkshine figured he'd address his concerns up front, and move from there "I am called Darkshine, freelance mercenary, and the vehicle you are standing in is my personal property. I'm going to have to ask you to remove the weapons you currently posses... They'll be locked safe over here" Darkshine nodded towards the line of lockers, then continued "and only you'll be able to access them... the empty ones have a biometric scanner, all you have to do is run your finger across the green bar, and it'll be set to open only for you... the lockers will be available once we stop, but until then, no one who was in that brotherhood transport is going to be allowed to be armed..."
Exo hums to itself as it stares down the door to the cab. A quick flex of the wrist like so, a retracted panel here, and a cable spools out from the underside.
Isolating Subsectors A-1 through G-19 for doorbreak procedure...
Isolation complete. Doorbreak procedure loaded.
Verified target system in internal database.
Hooking A-1 through G-19 up to right arm cable.
The cable shot out and snapped into an access port beside the lock.
Interface attained. System clear.
Break sequence alpha engaged.
Sequence denied. Engaging sequence beta.
Break sequence accepted. Door opening.
Sweeping A-1 through G-19.
No infection or counterattack detected. Purge?
Purging sectors.
Sectors purged. Relinking to main grid.
Exo steps into the cab of the prison transport and glances around, the cable coiling back into the socket and the panel sliding back into place. [All of our more experienced members should be able to drive... though they may not officially hold licenses. The traffic authorities tend to disagree with how we drive when we need to get somewhere in a hurry. Laws, unfortunately, must be broken... the needs of the many, as they say, outweigh the laws of the few.] The 'bot ends the modified remark with a chuckle. [Two of the prisoners are unable to be moved? Hurm.] The 'bot paused again.
[This complicates things. Brotherhood pursuit could cause further problems and likely antagonize their injuries if a little hazardous driving is required. Input?]
Dorcan paced for a moment and spoke into the comms. "If you need me to drive, I can... try. I can't promise good results. As for the injured..." He looked pained.
"I don't like this, but I think - whatever we do - we'll have to try and move them out of the vehicle. The Brotherhood will surely spot or track it. If it's driven slowly enough to keep them steady, the Brothers will catch up with it and they'll likely die anyway. If it's driven rapidly it might kill them."
"Therefore, the best chance I can see is if we move them out of it to a nondescript vehicle which can then be driven slowly. Gods help me, I don't like it but I think it's the only way."
He paused. "This is a little off-the-wall, but... can we call an ambulance and steal it or something?"
Fetrethar snarled. He was out of one box and now into a smaller one. But he was sure that the inside of this vehicle had some nasty way of executing him should he cause trouble, and even if he could take down the guy up front, he was sure that his friends would come along and finish him.
Besides, I have no feud with him. He's just being cautious, and not as much as I'd be were our situations reversed.
After fumbling with the locker for a minute, he managed to get it open, and carefully put his gloves inside, and then gave the machine a sample from his finger to test against later. He turned back towards the driver, crouched, hands on the floor, and asked "So now what happens?"
Darkshine smiled at the strange, little, wild man. He cocked his head and said "well, for now, we wait for a few minutes, and get everyone settled. If your hungry or thirsty, you can feel free to take a seat. there's food and water in the crew compartment and there's also a small restroom if you need it, but otherwise, go ahead, and make yourself comfortable and we'll be under way shortly."
The feline waited for the rest of the liberated prisoners to get on board, got everyone situated, then waited out by the ramp to see if he was transporting anyone else
"What am I thinking?" Dorcan exclaimed, and went up to the lead medic in the prison transport.
"I don't like this," he began, "But I don't think we can avoid it. We're going to have to move these guys out of the vehicle. What do you have in the way of stretchers?"
The medic looks up, as he remembered his supplies. He pulls off the pack on his back and pulls out a couple of collapsible stretchers.
"I only have a few stretchers. Someone help me with this, be careful moving them." He says.
Dorcan unpacked the stretcher, and with the help of one of the medics, gently, carefully lifted their patient out.
"Darkshine," Dorcan called. "Can you take someone in a stretcher? If not, help us move him into Exo's van."
Darkshine looked up to see the Doberman calling for him. He took a brief moment to double check that the soldiers who had been waiting for the prisoners with him had things under control. When everything seemed in order, he tightened his rifle's sling, then went to go help. He looked over at the figure on the stretcher, and decided he'd be better off under constant medical watch. Darkshine said " i think he'd be better off in one of the vans. judging by his condition, it'd probably be best for a medic to be with him, monitoring his condition the entire time. Whatever you want to do though, it's your call."
"We'll put him in Exo's van, then," Dorcan said. "Help me with the door, please..."
Opening the van door, darkshine stepped out of the to make sure they could load the van. looking back at the brotherhood vehicle he said, " i think we should got moving, and soon, if anyone else is riding with me, great, if not, well... things on my end are pretty much ready to move, i just need to power up, and roll out once you give the word."
"I think we've got one more injury to move," the Doberman said. "After that, we're good. It's Exo's call, though."
He headed back to the transport for the other patient.
Darkshine asked "uhh, quick question, what happened to the angry little fuzz ball?... ya know, with all the metal bits"
Morgan found that he had been staring off into space, and shook his head to try and bring focus back to what he was doing. He exited the Brotherhood transport and met Dorcan halfway on his walk back, "Wish I could be some help mate, but I don... do not think I should be doing heavy lifting. Do you know if we have enough drivers? I would really like to take a nap for the remainder of the drive back."
"I don't know," Dorcan admitted. "Exo suggested... using people who can drive but aren't licensed. I'm not sure I like the idea, but if we have to do it, we have to do it. The only alternative is that we have the spare vehicles on autopilot, each chasing a driven vehicle."
He glanced at Darkshine. "Jexx? He's..." he hesitated and his brow creased. Jexx was doing something around the edge of the treeline that he couldn't quite make out. The Doberman spoke over the comms. "Furrae to Jexx... Furrae to Jexx... come in Jexx..."
Darkshine had been following Dorcan back for the second stretcher, when he mentioned the possibility of autopilot, he figured he should add another option "well, i don't really like the idea of leaving the banshee in the hands of total strangers, but if it sticks to roads, and easy terrain, Ranger is a rather capable driver... and with Ranger in control of the banshee, i could take up the wheel of another vehicle. That, i think, would be preferable to a convoy of unmarked vans. Some of which are driverless... "
Jexx still hadn't gotten a new microcomm reciever, but Dorcan calling out his name was just enough to get his attention. Jexx's head snapped up as he started looking around. When he spotted Dorcan, he headed over.
"We leavin' yet? There's nothin' left ta kill. Again." Surprisingly, Dorcan should notice that Jexx actually has two new burn marks, one oh his neck and one on his left upper leg. They both looked like the time when he was shot by the autoturrent in the tunnels under the city where there the mind-control scheme was going on, and Jexx had cauterized himself with his own handcannon.
"I believe we used the autopilot feature on a previous mission," Dorcan said, having deposited his injured charge carefully in one of the vans. "We have tinted windows and even if we didn't we don't have to leave the driver's seat empty.... Oh yeah, and I'm not suggesting we link the whole lot together... pairs of vehicles shouldn't attract quite so much attention, though."
He turned as Jexx came over. That he was looking a little worse-for-wear wasn't entirely surprising to the Doberman. "Ah, there you are. What happened to your comms link?"
"Anyway... we're going to head out now, so decide which vehicle you're going to ride in. If you're feeling adventurous, Exo is planning to use the Brotherhood's 'box' as a decoy, to distract them from the rest of the convoy."
Jexx scratched his head for a moment. "Uh...I threw it away when I was mad at the big bot back in that half-built Tower, remember? You were there."
At Dorcan explaining what Exo was going to be getting up to, Jexx started grinning, his usual psychotic-happy grin. "Yeah...I think I am feelin' alittle adventurous today..."
Darkshine just ignored jexx and dorcan, he used the few minutes to go check on Morgan. Walking up to the redhead, Darkshine asked "how are you holding up? i'm ready to go whenever i get the word."
"Right, people..." Dorcan said over the comms. He sounded slightly irritable. "Last call for boarding!"
"Now, I'm still down two drivers. If I don't get any volunteers, we're going to have to do something very risky and desperate which will likely jeopardise the mission." And I'll be taking names when/if we get back to base, he added mentally.
"Either way, staying put is not an option. I want us out of here in three minutes. Right, Exo?"
[Right. Heinrich, Holtz, take the wheels of the unmanned trucks.] The two soldiers grudgingly accept, and take up driving positions in the unmanned vehicles. "Keep yer shirt on, princess. we'll be away soon." mutters one of them.
Meanwhile, the 'bot squeezes into the driver's seat of the prison vehicle and revs the engine experimentally. [Am I to be transporting any as-yet unannounced personnel or passengers?] he queries over the comms.
"I believe Jexx was interested in accompanying you," Dorcan said over the comms. "Aside from him, we're all set I think."
He waited for Jexx to get into position. When his internal chronometer hit three minutes from his previous announcement he clapped his hands.
"Right, ladies and gentlemen, let's hit the road!"
Morgan returned to the Banshee, it was the easiest vehicle for him to ride in, as he did not feel like bouncing around in the vans.
He eyed the recently released prisoners with suspicion and headed up to the driver's area. Depositing himself "shotgun", he sat wordlessly waiting to get moving.
Darkshine strolled up and into the banshee, did a quick check as he walked through the crew compartment that everyone was seated, and doing alright. once set, he set the carbine between the chair and then wall, then hopped into the drivers seat and powered up the engines as well as the some of the other systems. The armored skirt filled, and a faint whir could be heard through the light plating. The vehicle lifted slightly
Darkshine had Ranger resume the previous course that Morgan had originally planned before the detour. Once everything was setup, much like Morgan, Darkshine figured taking a bit of a nap wouldn't be too much of an issue. If anyone approached the cockpit, ranger would alert him, and if the external sensors picked up anything mildly hazardous, Ranger would let him know.
Jexx headed over to the brotherhood transport, and swung himself up into the passenger side of the cab. "So, what exactly we be doing, big bot?" Jexx enthusiastically inquired.
"A simple distraction, really. The Brotherhood will no doubt attempt to recover this vehicle, perhaps seeking to get the prisoners back. It's too late for them, but that doesn't prevent us from leading them on a wild goose chase to keep them away from our own vehicles." Exo revs the engine again, waiting for Heinrich to maneuver the 'blockade' van out of the way. "Bonus if we manage to get it back to HQ in as few pieces as possible." The engine revs again, picks up as the transport lurches slightly, then the transport starts rolling down the road at a leisurely pace. "In the mean time, enjoy the ride and keep an eye out for the Brotherhood goons."
The drive back to base would take the better part of a day. The medics busied themselves looking after the injured, and radioed ahead to the medical staff to prepare for incoming patients. The rescued Rebellion solider looked as though he had been sent through the wringer, but he would survive.
Once the vehicles arrived back at the base, the now familiar Lt. Armstrong greeted them with his usual gruff attitude, along with a team of medics who immediately began moving the injured liberated prisoners, including Fet. Some soldiers approached Darkshine, weapons drawn, and proceeded to disarm him and move him to the base to be checked out.
"Good work. I couldn't've done it better myself. Let's get to the debriefing. You should know the drill by now." He says.
Once more, Dorcan felt a little let down by the reception. Part of it was just a contrast to the tension of the mission itself, but there was also a brief moment of regret that Darkshine was being led off at gunpoint yet again. That it closely resembled his own original reception by the Brotherhood was still a sore point with him.
"Sir," the Doberman said, acknowledging his orders. He turned, heading towards the armoury when a thought struck him.
"Sir... as you may be aware, Exo and Jexx were taking a more roundabout route to try and distract the Brothers. Have they returned yet?" he asked.
Armstrong looked around and shook his head.
"No, they're not here yet. I suppose we will wait for them to arrive before the debriefing starts. Drop off your hardware with the quartermaster and report to the debriefing room. When the others arrive, we'll start the debriefing." He says.
"Thank you Sir," Dorcan said and made his way to the armoury. There he surrendered his crossbow, rifle, ammunition and body armour. He hesitated for a moment as he felt a bump in his jacket... the wide-gauge handgun and rounds that Darkshine had given him.
"These were given to me as a gift by a prisoner we released," he told the quartermaster. "What's the procedure for something like that? While I hope I never have to use them, I'd rather not lose them either. Do we have weapons lockers for such things?"
Darkshine smirked at the reception he received, the fact that it was at gunpoint was mildly amusing to the feline. He slightly regretted the promise to co-operate, but he wasn't about to go back on his word. Removing his armor and weapons, he donned civilian clothing and followed his escorts. Keeping himself silent, he observed the rebel compound and started drawing a mental layout.
Boredom soon set in, and Darkshine asked the nearest soldiers "any chance you guys know who your escorting?"
He remained crouched and scuttling in the back of that vehicle for the better part of a day, moving only to relieve cramps that were growing in his legs. Eventually, the vehicle decelerated, and when the hatch poppoed open, Fetrethar went to his locker, opened it, and donned his gloves again.
Perhaps a minute later, more white coats flooded into the vehicle, taking out the more greviously injured. Two, female, approached Fetrethar. He held up his left palm and said "Peace, I require no aid. I am fine, a healer's energies might be better spent on others. Instead, would you be able to say what is to be done to me? I am among strangers here."
Almost on cue, the prison transport rolls up to the gates, looking a little worse for wear but still serviceable. After a brief incident there, it lumbers into the parking zone and does it's best to fit into a parking space, with Exo climbing out of the hole on the roof and hopping down to ground level, making a solid whump. The 'bot strides over to the others, plasma repeater held in one hand carefully.
"We had some... minor problems with a roadblock or two," Exo starts, apparently sporting some fresh dents and slight scarring from small arms fire that gradually and almost imperceptibly seem to be fading and evening out, "..nothing we couldn't handle. I take it everyone else had a safe drive?"
Jexx stumbled out of the van after Exo, cackling slightly to himself. The Superbunny T-shirt-made-bandanna was slightly askew on his head, and it looked like he had a few more small cauterized wounds. "Heeheehee...that was fun!" He giggled.
Morgan had given up being difficult with the medical staff as they carted him off to the infirmary. It was hard to convince them that he would be fine without their help, what with all the blood stains, his general pallor and the bandages wrapped around his lower torso. At least they meant well.
"Do you know your blood type? If not we can do a blood work on you." A nurse asked the red-haired lad.
Morgan turned a shade paler as his mind raced through a dozen responses, "uh... well, no, but I have a nanite support system, so organic plasma transfusions will not work, they will attack it. I also wish to keep this technology proprietary and my own, so I ask that you respect my wishes and do not analyze it. If you must pump me full of plasma, use class C universal synthetics."
"Class C? That cheap stuff? They use it in veterinary and anthro medicine more than humans..."
"Yes, well, it is also readily available and the least likely to cause a nanite uproar. Thanks in advance!" Morgan sounded awfully cheerful for a being in his position.
The nurse shrugged and placed the request in the system, shaking his head, "whatever."
As soon as Exo and Jexx exited their vehicle, the medics came to see if anyone else was in there, and then the mechanics showed up to take it away. One of them whistled when they saw the damage on the vehicle.
"Damn Exo, you couldn't've roughed her up some more?" He asked as they piled into the vehicle.
Everyone who was able, and not being checked out by the psychics, was ushered into a debriefing room. Armstrong had a thick folder, showing that there was a lot to talk about.
The bot makes a slight chuckle. "My apologies. Next time I shall ask the Brotherhood to deploy two assault personnel carriers rather than one. I was forced to quickly disable it's weapons systems, and I fear they shall be picking bits of the turret out of the street for the next few days."
It then strides off for the debrief, making sure to drop the plasma repeater off with the gearheads first.
Dorcan settled in for the debriefing. He had a few questions of his own, but those could wait.
Fetrethar wasn't quite sure how he found himself in the medical wing. The medics, wielding their white coats as an instrument of coercion, managed to speak in a tone that was half pleading, half condescending, and more binding than any command could ever be. The colors were a warm blend of orange and blue and green, and Fetrethar could almost feel a soporific effect oozing from the walls, forcing him to bite back a yawn.
A few minutes after that, Fetrethar was rubbing at the patches they made over 43 injections into his upper arms, he had counted each prodding separately, all the while decrying something about "immunization". He was then sprayed with a fine mist of something or other, and one of the medics told him that after his "psych evaluation" he was to take a thorough shower.
He was directed, not by one of the medics, but by a larger man, garbed in some dark green material that Fetrethar couldn't recognize. They walked for several minutes, probably more than ten, and Fetrethar thought he detected a decrease in elevation. The lights were definitely dimmer in this section he was heading towards, the colors darker.
Eventually, they came to a dull metallic door, fully eight feet tall, four across. The gruff man that Fetrethar guessed was in security rumbled out, "You're to go in alone." Pushing at the door, in moved much more easily than it's exterior would have suggested. There wasn't even a hint of a creak, the loudest sound being that of Fetrehtar's own breathing.
Stepping in revealed a dull room, featureless save for a chair in the center with an odd half dome over the head of a seated man. Translucent glass framed the other three walls. The room was so featureless that it was hard to gauge distances. A pleasant, almost featureless voice said "Please sit in the chair." Fetrethar loped closer to the center of the room, glancing around, searching for some visual purchase to make. The voice became more agitated, forceful. "Please sit in the chair!"
Lacking any real alternative, Fetrethar gingerly let himself into the seat. Almost immediately afterwards, to no real surprise, the dome capped itself on the top of his scalp. It was warmer than Fetrethar would have surmised, slightly higher than his own blood's temperature.
An odd feeling perforated Fetrethar's skull, like the sensation of motion, even though he knew he was sessile, didn't even have the illusion of movement from a shifting perspective. It took a few moments to realize that he was being probed somehow, his thoughts being read. His mind seized upon a particular memory, of a neighboring clan's warrior taken prisoner. Part of the softening up for questioning involved a projection into his cell, plastered over all the walls, of a bright, constantly shifting patternless color splatter, bright oranges and yellows and greens and snow whites being flecked about at random, shifting faster than the eye could see. Looking at the thing for more than a few seconds induced a headache. Embracing the pain, Fetrethar thrust the image into the fore of his consciousness, trying to choke whatever machine they were using to probe him.
Some indeterminate time later, whether a punishment, byproduct, strain, or self effort, Fetrethar blacked out.
The four man escort traveled in a box, completely surrounding Darkshine while he was guided down a series of halls into what could possibly be the most plain room in existence. A basic table stood in the middle of the room with 2 metal folding chairs on either side. A short man, with scruffy, dark brown hair, and glasses sat in one of the chairs already. The feline could feel that the man was already getting adjusted to his mind.
Taking a few moments to get comfortable himself, Darkshine leaned back in the chair and opened his mind. asking politely "uhh, any idea how long this is going to take?"
There was no reply to Darkshine's question. Only a soft static noise coming over the speakers. After a few (awkward) moments, the door opens and Darkshine is ushered to a different room than the others.
"Looks like you're clean. Jackson will want to talk to you." One of the soldiers says.
Fet would wake up very soon, and would find that he had been moved back to the medical wing... and had already been given a spongebath. One of the nurses came in to check on him, and finding that he was awake, offered him something to eat.
"It's alright. Half of the people who get screened pass out from it." She says. "If you're feeling better, Jackson will want to meet with you."
As all the others filed into the briefing room, Armstrong looked over some papers that had been prepared for the debrief.
"Ahem, as like last time, you'll find that your bank accounts have gotten fatter. Plus a bonus for taking out that prison transport and rescuing one of our guys. And if those two other guys you brought in decide to stay, you'll see a little recruitment bonus as well. We take care of our people here." He says.
He crosses his arms and looks over everyone in the briefing room.
"Now, let's start with the construction site itself. We got reports that there were some fireworks over there. And our boys in the garage found that you brought back some Brotherhood tech. I want to hear about what you did, and what it was that you brought back." He says.
Dorcan had been left in command of the stealth side of the mission and he wasn't sure that Exo had been briefed about this, the robot having been mostly involved with the attack side of things. He took it upon himself to reply.
"I'm probably one of the best qualified to answer that," he said. "Basically, the stealth team breached the tower by using grapples while the attack team distracted the guards. Morgan penetrated the computer systems - you'll want to ask him for more details and a summary of whatever data he's acquired.
"Most of the tower was unfurnished and the defence mechanisms were not installed, however there was an electronically-locked door armoured with the same material that the tower structure was built from.
"When Morgan defeated the locks we discovered that it contained a large piece of machinery which we took to be some kind of field generator. Ideally I wanted to bring it back for study - in whole or in part - but it was too massive and too firmly fixed to the structure of the building. Izzie himself would be the man to talk to for more details, but my understanding is that he managed to dismantle part of the generator core, and bring it in for study. He also stripped the control systems of all their storage media, so with the control software and parts of the generator itself, we may be able to divine its function through reverse-engineering."
"We also captured a mercenary - codenamed Darkshine - who had themselves been taken prisoner by the Brothers. He was a little fractious to begin with but later proved a valuable ally when we attacked the prison wagon. We then proceeded to do one final sweep of the tower before demolishing it. That, I think, is an accurate summary of the tower mission itself."
He glanced at the others. "Have I missed anything?"
Armstrong listened and nodded occasionally through Dorcan's story.
"Ah yes, the data from their computers, your primary objective. Where is that data? We need to get it to the computer guys to decode it." He says. "As for the generator parts, they've already been moved so the engineering guys can get a look at it."
A short while after Darkshine was put in the waiting room, the door opened and Jackson, holding a file folder, stepped through.
"Ah, you must be..." He says as he opens the file and reads for a moment. "...Darkshine. I hear that some of my men found you in the tower. Tell me, what is your opinion of the Brotherhood?"
Awakening was surprisingly easy, not like the usual flotsam drifting towards shore experience that Fetrethar had usually gone through if put to sleep involuntarily. He was not aware of how much time had passed between his evaluation and his awakening to find a tall, attractive dark haired nurse standing over him. Smiling at her, and her funny accent, he proceeded to devour the small meal, except for some sort of tuber that he didn't like the look of.
After making some concession to courtesy and wiping his fingers and mouth after eating with them, he turned up and asked the nurse "Who is this Jackson, and why does he wish to speak to me?" Feeling a bit of strength returning to his legs, he tried to get up out of the bed.
Darkshine eyed the man quizically, either he was testing Darkshine, or he didn't take the stories from other mercenaries as seriously as many of the soldiers themselves do... thinking for a moment, he considered the easiest response, " I find the brotherhood a despicable organization, built on corruption and murder... the only reason they're still in power is that they've got the local populations too terrified to do anything about them... On a more personal level, they've taken someone very dear from me, and half the reason i was caught was because the brotherhood overseer i killed in the tower was involved in her death."
He kept his response flat, and his emotions level.
The nurse smiles to Fet.
"He's the boss around here. Since we rescued you, he'll want to talk to you." She says
Jackson nodded as he listens to Darkshine's answer.
"We have all lost much to the Brotherhood. Homes, family, lovers... friends." He says, putting a sad emphasis on 'friends'. "I truly understand your loss. And I hope that you can come to understand the work that we have been doing. I am Jackson Phoenix, leader of the rebellion. Many of the people here have serious grudges against the Brotherhood. Many are in similar positions as yourself. I'm here now to offer you a chance to fight back and make a real difference. You've seen my people in action out there, how hard they fight against the Brotherhood. I would like for you to join them in the fight. We have more than enough money to pay you for the missions you complete, but there's also the added sense of accomplishment of taking the Brotherhood down another notch, as well as satiating that urge for vengeance against them."
He turns and opens the door.
"If you feel like this is the place for you, then you are welcomed with open arms, and you can go rejoin the group that found you in the briefing room down the hall. If not, your gear and vehicle await you. We will not stop you, but we will not render aid unless our missions overlap. I hope that you'll make the right decision. I will leave you to make your decision, as I have another meeting to attend to." He says, and then walks out.
With his decision made before the question was asked, Darkshine waited just long enough for Jackson to leave the room before he stood up and and cracked the stiffening muscles in his back and shoulders. Waiting a few seconds longer, he muled over the possibilities this line of work would open up. With his thoughts in order, and both mind and body relaxed, Darkshine headed off into the briefing room. Opening the door rather sheepishly, he paused when the door was opened barely a crack, making sure no one was talking when he entered... he silently took a seat and hoped he hadn't drawn too much attention away from the formal meeting that was still in progress.
"Ah, good," Dorcan said. "As for the data, you want to ask Morgan about that. I wasn't privy to it at the time." He glanced around to see Darkshine enter. Good, not too worse for wear, he thought.
Exo, in the meantime, busies itself offloading various video logs, audio logs and images into the main system. "Several pieces of equipment were also recovered, namely a pair of plasma repeater weapons, one of which has been dropped off with our technical staff. I am sure they would appreciate an opportunity to examine the second as well."
Shortly after agreeing, Fetrethar found himself hustled through several hundred yards of corridor, to a dull brown oaken portal, unadorned except for some hinges made of a metal that Fetrethar couldn't recognize.
Two knocks garnered him a muffled command of "enter". Fetrethar opened the door, which was heavier than it looked, although it swung easily, and without noise. Fetrethar stepped into the office, which a quick scan revealed little furnishing, simply a desk, some sort of electronic box, and a handful of papers scattered about the work area.
A man, with only a tinge of grey in his hair, but eyes that shouted old regarded Fetrethar. He dropped into a crouch, displaying his empty palms up on the floor, in a gesture of nonviolence. In a voice that was less tremulous than he actually felt, Fetrethar declared. "I wear the name of Fetrethar Goynavan, a proud man of the mountains. What has been done with my relatives?"
Jackson had made his way back to his office and was just starting on the paperwork for Darkshine. That's the problem with being a leader. A mountain of paperwork. A knock came from the door, and by reflex, Jackson responded with "enter". The door opened and Fetrethar entered and took a seat on the couch. Jackson was going to offer the seat anyway. He grabbed a folder and flipped through it.
"Ah yes, Fetrethar. I was just about to call for you. Your relatives... well, the ones that survived long enough to be brought here are under the care of our doctors. Let me assure you that they will receive the best care possible. My name is Jackson Phoenix, and I lead the rebellion against the Brotherhood of the Machine. Already, you've seen what the Brotherhood is capable of, since my men found you in one of their prison convoys. Tell me Fetrethar, what happened that caused you to end up in the Brotherhood's captivity?" He asks.
Armstrong collected the data that Morgan had acquired from the tower's computer. He opens the door and hands it over to a soldier and in a low voice gives an order to have it delivered immediately to the computer lab. As the soldier hustles off, Armstrong turns back to the group.
"Excellent work. That, as well as all the equipment that you all brought back will start producing some results very soon. Now, if you're ready for another outting, we have another mission prepared for you." He says.
He pauses for a moment as he produces another folder and opens it.
"Jackson thought that you all have been doing such an extraordinary job that he's decided to give you a few assignments at the same time. Not all of them are all that difficult, and not all require heavy firepower."
He turns and pulls down the projector screen. A larger map appears on the screen, with three areas circled in red, one to the north, one to the east, one to the southwest. He points to the circle to the north, in a forested area.
"Each objective is three days of travel away from here. The first is here, to the north. The Brotherhood have long had a hidden outpost here which they've been using as their primary fuel stockpile. It's more than likely to be heavily guarded, so you should be on your toes... and heavily armed. The objective here, destroy the stockpile. The bigger the explosion, the worse it hurts them." He says.
He points to the circle to the east, in the foothills near a mountain range.
"The second is here, to the east. An archeological team excavating what they believe to be some pre-apocalypse ruins in this area have been repeatedly trying to contract our services. While we normally wouldn't go play guard duty for people looking for the end of the world, we have heard some whispers coming down the line from our spies in the Brotherhood that they've started taking an interest in pre-apocalypse ruins too. That changes things. So the objective here is to go to the dig site and provide whatever the archeological team needs in order to help them find whatever it is that they're looking for." He says.
He then points to the circle to the southwest, which is on the fringe of a desert.
"There has been some unusual seismic activity down here on the outer edge of the desert. We don't have much intel on this, but we need someone to go investigate it and see if it's being caused by the Brotherhood." He says.
He turns back to the group.
"Any questions?" He asks.
"Sir," Dorcan asked, putting his hand up. No-one else seemed about to speak, so he continued.
"Just to be clear, are these assignments to be done in sequence by the whole team, or in parallel smaller teams? If the former, do they have to be done in the exact order you've described?
"It seems to me - without knowing more - that the archaeological dig would be the highest priority, from a humanitarian viewpoint at least. If we get there too late - unless we've already sent them a token guard - the Brothers may decide they want the dig site for themselves, and that doesn't sound like it would be a very good thing for the guys already there."
Exo whirrs a bit to itself, crunching numbers at a nearly incomprehensible pace. "Perhaps it would be best to dispatch a small strike force to eliminate the fuel deposit, and the remainder of the group to oversee the archaelogical site, which will no doubt recieve Brotherhood guests sooner or later."
It pauses for a few more moments, idly running over numbers and simulations. "A large fuel stockpile rarely needs a vast amount of encouragement in order to cause mass ignition in a pseudo-thermobaric fashion - long-range missiles could easily deal significant damage if one or two of the main tanks were to be vented into the air as gas, and eliminate a considerable portion of the fuel supply whilst running into minimal hostiles. From there, the group could proceed to investigate the disturbances to the southwest."
Fetrethar bored a stare into this Jackson, trying to discern what exactly he was getting at. They had probed his head, he recalled blacking out from the experience. It was safe to assume that he knew everything down to why his people would not eat tubers. Why would he need to ask him to expose his ignorance?
Resisting the urge to pace, he slowly let out. "I know that you know that I do not know why we were attacked. Besides, what does motive matter? To your question, I ask what do you wish from me and my people, that you would feed and cure us?"
Jackson nodded, understanding the hard stare and cautious nature Fet was displaying.
"Actually, we don't know why you were attacked. I was asking your opinion." He says. "The Brotherhood has motive, or had motive, or even made up motive, to attack you. Perhaps they perceived you as a threat, or even perhaps magical in nature. They only make real moves against peoples they believe are magical, or at the very least, in between them and those they seek."
He sits back in his chair.
"As to what we want from you, absolutely nothing. We make no demands. You and your people are free to leave at any time. One of our people was on that convoy, but ethics and morals dictate that, given the situation, we had to rescue you as well. I will, however, propose an offer, one of employment. You've already had a taste of what the Brotherhood is capable of. They will stop at nothing to get at the people who they perceive as threats, even going so far as to attack innocents. Me and my people, the ones who rescued you from that convoy, are fighting back. Understand though, even though we do go into combat with the Brotherhood, we will not allow innocent bystanders to be harmed, and will do what we can to help those who have been caught up in the fight. We are not like them. They would cut down anyone in their path, as you have already witnessed. I offer you, and any of your people who also wish it, a place here among the rebellion, to rid the world of the Brotherhood and bring peace back to the people of this world." He says, and then leans forward on his desk. "Otherwise, you and your people are free to leave at any time. We have offered our aid and hospitality without demand for recompense. You may join us if you wish, but no one will make you remain here."
Armstrong shook his head.
"You are to approach your work as you see fit, but no other assignments will be given to you until these are completed. At this moment, none of these targets are classified as urgent. You can handle each one at your discretion. And you will be paid as each one is completed." He says.
Darkshine looked around the table, figuring he'd see what the others were thinking by stating his idea on how the operations should be conducted, "well, from the way i'm hearing things, we'll want a stealthy team to move to the north, take out the fuel depo, then head for the southwest. In the east, we're going to want our heaviest weapons, as the people there are going to be more or less stationary, and on the defensive."
Thinking things through more throughly he continued "I'm curious, what kind of weapons are we going to be issued, shoulder fired anti-tank rockets would be useful for both teams, and if we've got the equipment perhaps some tripod mounted heavy weapons for the team at the archaeological site.
My personal gear is much more stealth oriented, and seeing as i've spent most of my life breaching defenses rather than establishing them, i feel i'm much more suited to head out with the team going north"
"A lot depends what the Brothers use for fuel," Dorcan pointed out. "If it's something volatile, then yes, it could conceivably be done from afar using rockets, assuming they haven't put the bulk of the fuel into a mountain bunker or somesuch. However, if it's something relatively inert like depleted boron - which may be the case if they use fusion - it's simply not going to explode unless it's given a lot of help."
"Either way, my initial feeling was that we should look at planting explosives for remote or timed detonation." He glanced up at Armstrong. "Do we have much intelligence about the depot? If not, we're going to need to have several very different plans, and pick the one most appropriate for what we find when we get there."
He paused, digesting what Darkshine suggested.
"East? Isn't that the dig site?" he said, slightly surprised. "We want to protect the guys there, not kill them. We'll only need to do that kind of stuff if the Brothers get there first, and even then there's a big risk that we'd kill the archaeologists too."
Quirking an eyebrow at Dorcan, Darkshine looked slightly confused, "uh, it seems you misunderstood me, the East is going to be a defensive operation, i understand that... being on the defensive has some advantages, but the team that goes to the east should be our most heavily armed and armored members, they don't get to choose the time, and direction of the attack, they need to withstand whatever the brotherhood throws at them in order for the site to remain safe. The assault team can always back out and try a different strategy if it needs to, the defensive team doesn't have that option. I propose giving them the most powerful tools at their disposal since they're going to be the ones who have the most limited logistical options"
"Oh right," Dorcan said. "The people we send there will be on the defensive. I thought you meant the people we'd find there."
The display of the map zooms in on the northern area.
"There is no aboveground structure here. From what we've been able to gather, the section here is simply an access point, literally just a manhole. The main entrance has yet to be found. We figure that it's part of a network of underground tunnels which may lead back to a tower, some miles away from the site. And since it's underground, and used for storing fuel, you can bet it's a hardened bunker. Missiles won't do the job here. And as far as we can tell, they're using liquid gasoline* as fuel, so one good explosion is all you should need. The problem is getting inside. This area has seen a lot of activity as of late. They've obviously got an outpost of some kind there to protect the entrance." He says.
He looks to Darkshine.
"I don't think we're going to have any rocket launchers available for you. But we've always got some heavier guns on the side to outfit Exo here. You'll have to talk to the Quartermaster about the details." He says. "And of course, you can request a team of other soldiers to help you out. Remember that we have dedicated demolitionists and engineers and the like at your disposal."
*Being this world's equivalent to gasoline.
Fetrethar had no response to this Jackson's analysis other than to make a low hiss. Mind racing furiously, he arrived at a decision, one that hopefully would garner him some respect amongst his peers, and miht even keep him alive.
"I will clear our debt to you. I will adopt your clan, as long as this fight lasts. My blood mingles with yours."
He bent his head low, almost touching his forehead to the ground, "How may I serve elder?"
Dorcan's eyes unfocussed slightly as he pondered the problem of the fuel dump. "I'm no expert in volatile organic compounds, but generally with hydrocarbon fuels like that you need to have a good fuel-air mix for it to really go out with a bang. I'm not honestly sure how that could easily be arranged. An underground bunker with a small door like that is trivial to seal off and therefore starve the place of oxygen. They probably have automation to do that too.
"The way I see it, if we want to take the site out permanently, we'd have to blow the top off the bunker, puncture the tanks so there's lots of lovely fuel vapour, and then ignite it. Not impossible, but not simply a matter of sneaking in and walking away.
"Firstly, the Brothers may disapprove of our attempts to modify the complex in this fashion. I don't like killing people, but I can't really see much alternative here. However, we also have the problem that there may be contractors on-site and I do not want to be responsible for the deaths of neutrals into the bargain."
"I do have a small amount of experience in demolitions, but I am not a chemical engineer. However, from what I know, Dorcan is correct. There will not be enough oxygen present to utilize the energy content of the petrol to great effect. Therefore we will require substances with high brisance, power and stability with a low sensitivity so it can be transported easily." He paused for a second and shifted uncomfortably in his seat, he had rushed the doctors along to reach this meeting and perhaps it was unwise.
"Or we could use a few heavy charges of thermite on the roof of the bunker. We would need to know the thickness of the material. It would burn through, and the natural volatility of the petrol and the heat of the thermite would do the rest. I suppose you are not concerned with the environmental impact of this part of the operation has on the local area?"
He paused for a bit and considered a few other things, "the defensive operation is actually rather pointless, unless we are holding for a short time period, withdrawing with the scientists and artifacts, and scorching the site of all that remains to make it unusable. The Brotherhood can send endless waves of hostiles until they overwhelm the area, unless we can somehow remove the hostile action posture and try and con them into believing there is nothing there in a diplomatic fashion. The investigation option requires a measure of discretion and stealth. So, Armstrong, how do you propose our assets be utilized in these operations? No commander lays out the objectives without also issuing at least a strategic opinion on how to carry out the operation."
Jackson tilted his head just a little bit, finding Fet's response a little strange. But he reminded himself that different cultures respond differently to any given situation.
"Well I'm glad to hear that. Though you need not call me 'elder'. Makes me sound old. In any case, I think that you would make an excellent addition to the group that rescued you. They're the ones that any debt should be repaid to. After all, they're the ones who stuck out their necks to rescue you. You'll find them in briefing room, down the hall." He says.
Armstrong nodded.
"Don't think that we won't give you strategic advice. But keep in mind that these are your assignments, and so your input on them is a priority." He says as he turns back to the map. "In my opinion, the archeologists should be dealt with first, as the other two can wait longer. In fact, the fuel depot can be dealt with last. The Brotherhood seems to be unaware that we've even discovered it. Thermite may work with that, but keep in mind that we do have ample supply of things like C4, and other high explosives, as well as men with the expertise to use them, all at your disposal. As for the environmental impact... well no one likes bad press. But if you can't spare the trees, then we'll just have to tough it out. And as for the investigation at the desert, there's been no obvious Brotherhood activity there, at least none that our satellites have picked up. Really, you can focus on one at a time, instead of splitting up your forces. Or if you think you can manage splitting up, then it's your choice."
The image zooms in on the dig site, and a picture of an aging human male appears next to the site map.
"Going back to the dig site... Dr. Richard Woodworth, a noted archeologist, has been taking interest in these pre-apocalypse ruins for some time now. He believes that there might be a connection between the ruins and the resurgence of magic in the world. There aren't many of these ruins in the world, but his last couple of digs yielded oddities." He says.
A small video appears on the screen of a crystal, about the size of a human head. It's deep blue, and seems to have a small pulsating light emanating from the center of it.
"This crystal was found to be as old as the entire world. Scientists are figuring that they may have been formed at the same time as the world. The strange part is that they've never been seen anywhere else, and so Dr. Woodworth assumes that these crystals were found by our ancestors and collected in these ruins. We think that another of these crystals is what Dr. Woodworth is looking for. The crystals don't give off any kind of useful or harmful energy waves, at least none that we can detect. Even the best psychics in the world aren't getting a reading off of these things. The idea that they're linked to magic is just a theory, at best. But that's what's gotten the Brotherhood's attention." He says. "So the objective there is to defend the dig site until Dr. Woodworth finds another crystal, and get him out of there safely."
Darkshine nodded, "if no one else has any complaints, it sounds like we should have the entire team for the dig site. If these crystals are as intriguing and powerful as they sound, the brotherhood has probably already been informed, and are probably sending their own crews to search for the them. Once the Dr. and his discoveries are safe, we could split the team in half, and accomplish the other 2 objectives simultaneously. Investigating these disturbances makes it sound like we're doing a recon in force, while the fuel depo is a full on assault. Making that decision can wait... it sounds like this archaeological site is a time sensitive mission, and we should get on it as soon as possible."
The feline then started running through a mental checklist. Asking Armstong, "What types of mines do we have available, are we going to have to rig up some remote activated C4, or do we have some claymores, and shaped charge explosives available. Do you have any crew served or tripod mounted weapons, something like a .50 cal heavy machine gun, or a 20mm autocannon? Lastly, what type of transport do we have available? specifically, will we be using my vehicle, or are you planning on effectively confiscating it?"
"I concur," Dorcan said. "If the Brothers are interested, the possibility that they may have learned how to use these crystals cannot be discounted. If so, I don't feel it would be in our interests for them to acquire any more such artifacts than they may already have. Of course it is equally possible that they may be targeting the good doctor himself for his knowledge of them."
He looked at the map.
"I was going to suggest leaving a token force at the dig site to alert us if anything bad looks like it's about to happen. However, if each of the sites are three days from here in different directions, it will obviously take us more than that to travel between them and by then it would likely be too late. No, I think that we should probably make the dig our priority, with a view towards protecting the site and assisting the dig until we have as much from it as is practical. Normally I'd suggest raising a magical barrier or warding the place, but I doubt that's a viable option here."
He paused for a moment. "I can't see any reason we shouldn't do that mission and then return here to plan the others. Nothing says they all have to be done in a single go."
Fetrethar nodded and left the room. At the point of a silent guardsman, he skulked down the hallway into the briefing room, and quickly slipping in. A quick glance around revealed a few, if not friendly faces, at least nominally familiar ones.
Not having the stature to address any of the others, Fetrethar sidled over to the back of the room and crouched on the floor, waiting for orders or a prompt by one of the others.
Armstrong listened to Darkshine's questions, and nodded.
"Talk to the demo boys about explosive ordnance. I'm sure they can hook you up. In fact, you might want to take a couple of them with you. Those guys love their job. We might be able to scrounge up a minigun or two for the vehicles. We have a whole motorpool of armored vehicles and smaller recon vehicles. Your vehicle, however, is still yours and it's up to you if you want to let us commandeer it, Darkshine." He says. "Any other questions?"
"Not to do with the mission as it stands," Dorcan said. "I do have a couple of more general questions but they can wait."
Giving a curt nod Darkshine and said, "I think i'll be talking with the quartermaster and the demolitions guys once we're done here." He noticed the strange little wild man sitting off in the back of the room, but didn't really feel it was his place to do or say anything about him, so he didn't.
Izzie, having waited silently, spoke up "I agree with everything said so far. While I'm no strategist, I would like to go back to the method of disposing of the fuel, and suggest an alternative to destroying it. I'm not sure if it would be useful to us, but having it and not needing it could be a lot less of a hurt than needing it and not having it. If we are to destroy it, I'm not sure the explosive matters, as I'm guessing the fuel itself is going to provide sufficient 'bang.' That can actually be used to our advantage, as a small ghost team could slip in, place the charge, leave, then detonate. The whole team could then slip in and pick off any survivors. As for the dig site, I don't have any suggestions at this point. I don't have enough data to suggest anything more than to bring enough firepower to level a city block and then some." Izzie then sat back and added "At any rate, splitting the team between locations that could be as much as six days from each other doesn't sound like a good plan. While we don't expect much resistance from the last two locations, that doesn't mean there won't be a significant amount." he then waited for further input on the subject.
Exo remains quiet for a few more moments, then nods. "With time considerations, the dig site should be top priority. A simple but effective defensive perimeter should not be too hard to establish with prefabricated barricades and emplaced guns."
"That sounds good to me," Dorcan said. "We can plan for the other tasks later. Our first priority should be choosing the correct equipment for the dig mission. Bearing in mind that unless you people have teleportation, we'll be three days behind. The last few missions have had something important left behind on both occasions - this time, I'd be happier if we can dot every 'i' and cross every 't'. In all likelihood, overequipping is a better strategy than going unprepared."
"From what I can see," Izzie started, "I'm going to want to equip with general purpose tools, and either a good rifle or something we picked up from the brotherhood." Izzie frowned. "On that subject, what exactly have we gotten from them at this point? I'm sure any of their tools would be much better than what we've come up with, not to mention the weapons which no doubt pack a big punch."
"In order for us to, um... dot every 'i' and cross every 't'... as Dorcan put it, we will need to have a good estimate on what might be sent against us and the terrain we have to work with. If we expect ground forces, consisting of what we have seen so far, zealots and elites, then we will likely want to position snipers on the approaches, send out reconnaissance, etc." The "fox" paused for a moment and tapped his cheek with his right index finger.
"We need a wide variety of weaponry, at least two support weapons and two sniper weapons. Our other weapons need to put out a high volume of firepower with high penetration. We will need night optics, equipment to obscure vision, light construction tools, demolitions equipment, at least two communications methods with everyone synched in, portable sensor equipment, Melee combat weapons, Environmental specific camo, and optical camouflage..." Morgan continued on and on, naming off important equipment.
"We also need a lot of tea..."
The image on the screen zoomed out a little to show the surrounding area.
"The dig site itself is nestled in some foothills near a mountain range that goes north-south. From what we can see here, the entrance to the site is facing away from the mountains, which means that the ruins must have been carved into the mountains themselves. Beyond the foothills is some grasslands, dotted with trees. You'll certainly be able to see anything coming." Armstrong says. "As for the tea... well, I'm sure you understand that tea isn't standard issue around here."
"We'll also want medical backup," Dorcan said. "If there is fighting, we may need it - not just for ourselves, but possibly for the dig team as well."
He gazed at the display screen for a few moments.
"I don't like that," he confessed. "What works for us will also work for the Brothers if we do arrive too late. They'd be able to pick us off one by one."
Although none had taken overt notice of him, Fetrethar watched the planning, and considered defending these diggers. What they could be hauling up out of the earth that could be so valueable must have been covered in the part of the briefing before he got there, but he understood the practicalities of defense well enough........ But that led him to raise a raspy voice and object.
"How exactly are we going to defend these people from the outsiders? Sure, they might send in soldiers that we can shoot or stab and kill, but what shall we do if they simply launch a long distance projectile, or perhaps a gas attack, something that we cannot see nor shoot?"
Darkshine took a moment to include his own thoughts, "well, from my perspective, i have a full filtration system built into my armor's headpiece. As for firing a long range weapon, chances are, it would not leave the site intact, which makes it a loosing proposition for the brotherhood. If they want this location, they'll send a strike team. If they don't think it's dangerous they'll ignore it, or, if they knew about it and wanted it destroyed, i doubt they'd set up such an elaborate trap to take out a handful of resistance fighters."
Going back to the planning stage, "I myself am a sharpshooter and scout, my weapon of choice has an effective range of 1000 yards on single shot, and 750 in burst fire. I'm capable of shooting further, if you have a weapon with longer reach and were willing to loan me said weapon. Depending on the situation i could serve the role of one of the sniper, and with the light weight nature of my own carbine i could carry both a sniper and the carbine effectively allowing me to engage closer targets if need be."
He paused thinking of other useful bits and pieces he could contribute, "Besides my own skills, if we bring the Banshee along, Ranger, the on board AI, is quite capable at running the plethora of on board passive and active scanners my vehicle has." he thought things through a bit more, "so, with what we think we need somewhat established, any chance we could do a rough breakdown of the overall job each of us will be doing while at this dig site?"
"My only long weapons training was with a gause rifle, a type of energy weapon that utilizes a linear acceleration motor to propel magnetic slugs at super high speeds. Unless we still have the one I believe I brought with me, I'll probably want to be support with something you don't have to have much skill with, maybe something wiht a large spread. Speaking of equipment I brought with me, would my craft help with taking men and supplies? It might provide a good artificial sniping position at full altitude." Izzie asked
(to save time on searching for char description with horrible spelling, vehicle was basically hovercraft from matrix, but more compact and less OP. Fast, light, forward gun covers forward of ship and rotates 45 degrees either direction. Altitude limit of .5 miles above surface.)
"My guess is that the Brotherhood want the professor," Dorcan pointed out. "At the very least they'll no doubt want the artifacts. Unless they decide that it's better to destroy them than let them fall into other hands, a cruise-missile strike seems unlikely. However, a nonlethal gas attack is a viable strategy. I think my augmentations will protect me from that, and it wouldn't do much to Exo either, or anyone else with suitable filtration. However it would leave very few of us to evacuate the others. Enough gas masks to cover our team and the dig team might be an idea."
"On the subject of weapons training, that's something that I could do with myself if your organisation can do that," Dorcan said. "If we can arrange something like that when things are less pressing it would be helpful."
"With regard to the mission, I'm not exactly a weakling. If the dig team needs any heavy lifting that would seem like a good role for me, though I'm open to other ideas."
Morgan's breathed an exaggerated sigh complimented with an equally over-done frown, "then I shan't be of much use to you without tea. Bloody barbarians, probably partake of that most foul ichor brewed from crushed seeds of a bitter fruit." It was quite obvious that he was being factious, but to accentuate the point he gave Armstrong the best akanbe* he could muster. Rather strange for Morgan.
Shaking off this momentary bout of whimsy, Morgan struggled to pull himself back into the serious discussion, "uh... well, just work on securing more tea, that... is a good lad. So, gas, yes that could be a problem. Does not seem like their typical MO though, but we should be prepared. If we are unsure of the Brotherhood presence, we will have to send in scouts, preferably those with optical camouflage. I have a very heavy sniper weapon with an effective range of 2016 meters, uh... something around 2204 yards, on a single shot. It is semi-automatic and with an extended magazine, I can maintain around 1200 rounds a minute with the highest accuracy. That is mostly due to the recoil because I employ a 15.2mm round. I can use pretty much anything you might need fielded, I can even hand carry and fire a small 20mm support weapon if necessary."
Morgan perks up at Izzie's mention of the gauss rifle, "oh, I would like one of those if we got them. Otherwise I will keep this plasma repeater."
*A juvenile taunt performed by pulling down the bottom of one eye while you stick out your tongue.
Exo hrrms momentarily, watching Morgan. "15.2mm, 2km range and 1,200 rounds a second with high accuracy? As I believe the saying goes, 'pull the other one, it's got bells on'. As for gauss weapons... coil or rail, finding one in infantry-portable form would be highly unlikely. It's a leap up even from power generation for plasma and laser weaponry."
"Well, sir," Dorcan said, turning to Armstrong, "If we have no further questions or comments about the upcoming mission, I do have a few questions which are unrelated to it.
"Firstly, did the technicians manage to make any sense of the data Morgan brought back from the transmission tower in our last mission?
Secondly, I believe Izzie left a set of augmentation schematics with the technical team. I'd be interested to know if they managed to decode it.
Finally, I understand that our newer recruits" - he gestured towards Darkshine and Fet - "have been psionically scanned. I'd be rather interested to know if that was also done to us covertly when we were recruited."
Morgan shifted a seat and moved next to Dorcan. He swung his gaze solely to Armstrong and became very stern, "Dorcan brings up a good point. Have you psychically scanned us without our consent? I would be interested how you penetrated my mind shield."
He then looked to the others, "your answer could greatly affect my continued support of your operations. At the very least, it will double my fee... at most, I could leave and sever all ties." He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts.
"Besides that, I do wish to know what is in this data. I am running my decryption, but you have a lot more resources to throw at it. I appreciate sharing."
Fetrethar barked out a laugh at the strange dog-man's question, the one about covert psionic scans. "If they picked your bone box apart, you'd know, unless you're forgetting the chair, and the lights, and the disembodied voice, and their claim that half of their subjects faint from the procedure."
"I was taught how do to it without the subject even being aware," Dorcan replied mildly.
Izzie decided to play along with Fetrethar. "you're forgetting the sudden urge to sing that "I'm so pretty" song, and wanting to burn things. And Dorcan," Izzie said suddenly turning serious, "I'm curious to know what thoughts of mine you've read."
Darkshine quirked an eyebrow at Dorcan, "from my understanding of things, as long as you haven't actually slept in close proximity to a psychic they wouldn't be able to get through a mind shield unnoticed. Now, maybe that's something that some are more sensitive to than others, but given what i know from first hand experience, i'd highly doubt it."
He was basically done, but, given his status as 'the new guy' Darkshine felt it proper to wait until others had left before making his own exit to take care of other things.
"The allusion is lost on me," Dorcan told Izzie. "Besides, I'm sure you know that I've lost that particular faculty. Either way, the fact remains that I have been taught how to do it. And maybe, with the gods' grace, I will be able to do it again someday..."
Armstrong let them talk for a short while, until the questions came up.
"Morgan, we believed it to be an acceptable risk to waive screening you due to your reputation and former... affiliations. So far, you've proved us right. Dorcan, due to the unusual circumstances revolving around your entry into our world, you too were not scanned, as an acceptable risk. Again, we're being proven right." He says. "As for what you gave the tech heads, Dorcan, they're having a time decoding it. Last time we asked about it, they gave us a lecture full of jargon and alphabet soup that I didn't fully understand. The gist of it is, they're still working on it. As for the data that you recovered from the tower, the cryto boys are just starting work on that. As soon as we get some hard data, you will be informed."
"That sounds good to me, Sir," Dorcan said. "What's the next step? The way I see it our plan is basically to try and plan for every sensible contingency as we don't know quite what we'll be facing when we get there.
"However, I suppose we'd better also include some digging equipment in our list if we're going to be helping the dig out - they may only have brought as much as they need for their existing team."
Darkshine felt it time to add his own thoughts to the equation. "I think we should start getting gear packed then, much of the planning can be done en-route, but for now, we know where were going, and what's going on there, the longer we plan here, the less time we have to implement the strategy there. If anyone else has been keeping notes, either metal or physical, of what we need.
I'll fire off a list... starting with supplies, 1) food and water for the entire team for at least 2 weeks, 2) extra ammunition to last through at least 3 extended engagements, 3) heavy support weapons which can be stationed around the dig site, 4) Portable barricades, 5) As much high explosives as we are allowed, 6) deployable sensor packages which can be placed throughout the area, acoustic, seismic and thermal would be idea, but we'll take whatever we can get, 7) either hand excavation tools, or light equipment to assist in digging and lastly, enough medical supplies that we can treat and stabilize multiple gunshot victims simultaneously.
Personnel, well need at least 4 additional soldiers, a pair of medics, a pair of demo experts, and an extra sniper team if we've got them.
Transport, 2 Heavy Vans, 2 Scouts cars preferably with mounted support weapons, and I can take the banshee as well, as it can provide a sensor hub and the AI is capable of monitoring far more channels than any operator."
rubbing his fingers on his temples lightly, he perked up for a second, and looked around the table with a slightly crooked smile, "anyone else have anything they wish to add?"
Fetrethar considered the dog-man's comments and felt the need to pipe up at his hefty equipment list.
"Chances are, they can throw a virtually unlimited supply of clowns at us. This means that we might have to bug out in a hurry. Can we really afford to take all this stuff with us, that we have a high probability of needing to abandon?"
"When we investigated the other tower, we set up a concealed base camp away from the theatre of operation," Dorcan said. "I feel a similar strategy may also be viable here. I know that the best laid plans oft go awry, but as long as we don't take too much gear into the dig site itself, the amount of kit in the transports shouldn't make much difference if we have to scarper."
"Taking extra dig equipment may not bet as necessary, I should be able to fix or maintain the existing equipment." Izzie offered. "Other than that I'm not sure my usefulness would extend much farther than putting more lead into the air and being a meat shield in the event of an 'accident.' I'd certainly love to help examine the crystal if it's still there though."
Armstrong piped up.
"You won't need to take extra dig equipment. You're there to provide a defense against a possible Brotherhood invasion. They do the digging. And for the new people in the group, make yourself a list of equipment and personnel that you need and take it to the Quartermaster. If he's got it, you can have it." He says.
"Ah," Dorcan said. "I thought you said that we were to provide whatever assistance the dig team needed to finish up quickly." Inwardly he was slightly disappointed - a mission which had less emphasis on killing people was something he could have done with.
Morgan sighed, "it is too bad we are not assisting the dig team, I always had fun in archaeology at university and though I am a computer science major, I had a minor in archaeology. Dr. Woodworth was even a guest lecturer during our pre-apocalypse portion of the class."
He scratched the back of his head and gave a slight nervous laugh, "though I do not suppose you hired me for my casual interests, but for my militant, computer, and intelligence skillsets. I will stick to my job."
Morgan considered the equipment he intended to bring with him.
Such an openhanded offer..... Probably a courtesy trap. Fetrethar dropped to his hands and feet and pondered. It was uncertain how long they'd be at this dig, so a bit of food and water would be necessary. Furthermore, if they were wiling to loan him a weapon, something that would attack from long range, a rifle like one of the elders would have would be very, very useful. But he was just an outsider, how to phrase this question so that it did not draw wrath upon him? He rocked on his heels, like he usually did when uncertain.
Dorcan scritched his ear, trying to think what equipment would be needed. At the end of the day he couldn't think of much different from the last mission. Let's see... autocaster, probably won't need the grapples this time - no, wait, they're digging holes. Might still need that if we have to get out of it ASAP or something. Laser rifle, knife and some kind of close-range gun. The stunner and that handgun Darkshine lent me. That should do.
He glanced round to the feline. "How are you doing?" he asked casually. "Looked like they were treating you a little rough earlier, though you're here so I guess you checked out okay."
Morgan thought out loud, "I suggest everyone be sure to pack a weapon for use in melee, as well as a minimum of one backup. Also, I recommend some type of armor."
He then gestured to Armstrong and Exo, "a side bar for a moment if you would be so kind both of you." He walked to the corner of the room and activated a small white noise toner built into his military grade mobile.
When the others joined him, he was careful to keep his back to everyone else, "I do not mean to be a bother and secretive, but we do have a few that are hesitant to take necessary action at times, as well as a at least one questionable liability. My purpose is to flatly ask the important question, if there is no possible way to escape with the artifact, the doctor and/or his team... what actions do you wish to be taken? Is it acceptable for the doctor or a member of his team to be taken hostage? If we have to choose the artifact or the doctor, what choice do you want made? I need to know how you want this to be handled, I do not want there to be any mistakes if the unthinkable happens."
Armstrong pondered Morgan's questions.
"The first priority is to eliminate any Brotherhood attackers. Stopping hostile actions taken by the Brotherhood against innocents is what we're here for. So the doctor must be protected. His life and the lives of the other people in those ruins are more important than some rock. If you have to choose, choose to save lives." He says.
Darkshine smiled thoughtfully at Dorcan and replied, "i'm doing quite well, thank you. The soldiers that escorted me weren't rough at all, and i wouldn't blame them if they had been. I've earned myself a bit of a reputation, and until they were sure i held no ill will towards the rebellion i would have taken the same precautions... if not more."
he paused for a moment, slight concern in his eyes as he asked, "how are you doing? do you think your ready to go out again so soon?"
"Well, I didn't think we'd be going out quite so soon, I'll admit," Dorcan said. "But I can manage. Don't need to sleep. I'm a little more concerned about the others from that point of view."
"As for your escort, well... people being led off at gunpoint is something of a sore point with me. That was the reception I got from the Brotherhood. When I see the rebellion doing it too, I start to think uncomfortable thoughts."
Giving the doberman a nod, darkshine figured he'd do his best to put his new friends worry at ease. He said, "The rebellion does what is necessary for it's survival and continued attempts at bringing down the Brotherhood. he Brotherhood seems to revel in it's brutality. They enjoy the slaughter. Although they appear similar, the mindset is so far apart it's startling."
"The very fact that I'm here should put your mind at ease about the rebellion, for the brotherhood would have either shot me on the spot, or they would have hauled me off to become one of their grotesque experimental weapons."
Shuddering slightly he kept his voice level, "If i hadn't shown up, you would have had every right to question the character of the people you find yourself in the company of. As is, you should be glad to have found yourself in the company of such a quality organization."
"Yeah," Dorcan said. "I do honestly think I backed the right horse here, but all the same, it's something that does make me very nervous. Still, never mind me. Let's see about getting our equipment sorted."
There was a sudden snort from somewhere in the briefing room.
If anyone cared to look for the source, they would see Jexx slumped in his chair, metal arms hanging from his sides. The cyborg was apparently asleep, as his chest gently rose and fell with quiet breaths.
Morgan nodded at Armstrong's reply, "I thought so, nice to see my faith in your people is well placed. I just had to be sure, but I would have placed the lives of the people at the front no matter what you would have said."
He scratched at his side, it was now starting to itch, a rather unpleasant sensation, "I have grown to expect the worst in people, it is nice to be proven wrong on occasion."
Armstrong nodded to Morgan's comment.
"We may be soldiers, but we're not heartless." He says. "Anything else?"
Morgan nodded, "I do have a request, do you have a machine shop with gunsmithing... or armorer equipment and tools?"
Darkshine nodded and gave Dorcan a crooked smile, "Well, if you're good to go, just lead the way to the quartermaster. Seeing as this is my first time here, i'm going to need to follow someone around until i know the layout."
"We have basic facilities at the Quartermaster's disposal. Go and talk to him." Armstrong says.
He raises his voice to get everyone's attention.
"Alright then, if there's nothing else, then I'll leave you to it. You know where the Quartermaster is, he'll hook you up with everything you need, if he has it in stock. Go to him for vehicles, weapons, personnel, whatever you need." He says.
"Yes sir," Dorcan replied. He gestured to Darkshine and made his way to the armoury.
"Looks like we're heading out again already," he said.
"I'll assume we're getting a stock package like body armour, knife, rations, medikits and so forth. For the armour, I guess I'll need the one that was modified to accommodate my wings.
"Anyway, specifically I'd also like to have an autocaster with a couple of grapples, preferably a selection of other bolts as well. The laser rifle I had before would also be handy if it's good to go. I'll need some kind of close-range weapon as well.
"Is that doable?" he asked politely.
Darkshine nodded politely, eased out of his chair, and followed Dorcan to the armory. He waited for Dorcan to finish his order then approached the counter. "i'll take my own personal gear which is in the banshee for most of the equipment, but if you've got any in stock, i'd like a long range tactical sniper. PPreferably in fifty cal if you've got one." Pausing, he thought of a few other things that might be useful, "also, do you happen to have some empty sandbags, some camo netting, and some heavy duty dowel rods... also, i'm curious how much high explosives one might be able to find themselves issued for this particular mission..."
The Quartermaster had to grab a notebook and jot down notes like a waiter taking an order when Dorcan and Darkshine started making their requests, and answering them at the same time.
"We can prepare supply packs for everyone, which is actually a good idea. We've already been working on armor made for you and your wings, and a helmet too if you're interested. Autocaster, we might have one in stock with a grapple and some normal bolts. Should be good for the laser rifle, and you'll get a standard issue side-arm." He says.
He turns to face Darkshine when he starts talking, though his attention was on his notepad.
"Sniper rifle, check. Sand bags, camo netting, and dowel rods, planning a base camp eh? We might have some in the back. And you don't get high explosives until the demo team certifies that you're smart enough to not blow yourself to kingdom come. That goes for artillery too. You can have frag grenades, flashbangs, smoke bombs, and tear gas." He says without missing a beat.
Morgan arrived behind Dorcan and Darkshine, the dynamic duo it appears, "yes supply packs for everyone, good idea, I am not in the mood to micromanage my gear at the moment. Make it so."
Gesturing to his damaged armor, Morgan indicated the hole, "this is a wonderful light, concealable tactical armor, but I seem to have gotten it damaged. For this next mission, I think I will need a heavier armor. Preferably something highly protective, articulated, and power assisted. I was originally going to work on this myself, but as I do not need it for this mission, I would like to give it over to you for repair. I also require as much 15.2mm ammunition as you can spare."
Fetrethar noted how the others asked for gear from the man who doled it out. He thought he had the form down for asking, begging really, since it came out of the clan store and there were no guarantees of protecting it, or oaths on how to use it. Of course, it seemed that all of these odd people, many not even human, were much higher in the clan councils than he was. Perhaps they were even superior to this "quartermaster" although he had a high sounding title. And if they were greater than he, why did they not keep their gear themselves, where it had less chance of being pilfered?
Fetrethar gave himself a mental kick in the shins for woolgathering, and idly rubbed the back of his legs, which started to ache. Probably all that crouching in the briefing room.
Walking diffidently up to the counter, he nodded at the man behind it, and spent a brief moment staring at the ledger. Then he spoke. "I would wish for a rifle of some sort, and ammunition for it, in addition to one of those standard packs the others spoke of, food, and the like."
He gave a short bow to the man and withdrew.
Darkshine nodded and replied, "well, if it's grenades, i'll take 2 smokes, 2 flashes, and as many frags as you'll allow..." he smirked and added "almost any problem can be solved with the proper application of high explosives."
Dorcan glanced at the Quartermaster as Morgan made his order.
"I take it you will be able to restock on that ammo he uses? By the looks we're going to have three more missions in quick succession."
The Quartermaster continued jotting down notes, and noted the damaged armor.
"Geez, what'd you do, jump in front of all their guns?" He asks as he grabs the damaged armor.
He produces a similar armor.
"This is the best we got. All our powered armor is out." He says.
He looks down at Fet.
"A rifle? You'll have to be more specific than that. Long range, rapid fire... give me some specifics." He says.
He looks back to Dorcan.
"Ammo's not a problem. Never has been. It's the specialty rounds that you kids these days like to use that are the problem." He says.
Fetrethar flinched, somewhat aghast at the taller man's stare. Speaking more to the floor than to this supply hoarder, he said "Whatever you deign to give me, I will make suffice."
Morgan smiled nervously, "yes, I did kind of do that... it deflected all of it except this one which managed to go through and lodge itself in my side. Sadly this suit does not seem much different then this other one. Do you have anything heavier? Any areas with significant bone formation, like my chest, is titanium laced and the whole of my skin has a subdermal, orthosynthetic ballistic mesh so light armor is reinforced by my cybernetics... but that does not help soft areas very much."
The lad poked around the quartermaster's stock area as he spoke, hoping for a possible overlooked gem.
"The ammo is fine though. I have a lot of specialty rounds already, I just need standard 15.2 mm APFSDS. However, if you can find me a Nerem ATW-20 that chambers the massive 20 x 83.5 mm round, then I will be your friend for life! If you have one of those, I will give you my Plasma repeater and let you reverse engineer my ion pistols."
The Quartermaster shoo'd Morgan out of his stock area.
"You want something heavier, crawl inside Exo. If you live, come back and tell me about it. Otherwise, you'll have to make do with what I give you. As for the Nerem... that will take time to acquire. In the meantime, how many of the standard rounds do you want? We've got those like they've gone out of style." He says.
He turns to Fet.
"Standard plasma rifle it is. Are you trained in firearms, son?" He asks.
Back in the briefing room, Armstrong slaps Jexx on his shoulder.
"Jexx, wake up and go join the rest of your group at the armory." He says.
Jexx almost jumped out of his chair with a "GEH?!?" as he was abruptly woken up. His handcannons were raised, but as his eyes darted around, he remembered where he was, and lowered them.
He turned to Armstrong. "Oh, uh...I don't really need anything from the armory, got all I need here." Jexx said, holding up his handcanons. "Although, I could probably use some food...where do you keep your freeze-dried again?" Jexx was actually more talking to himself at this point, as he had turned away and strated to wander off.
A medic from the base's sickbay came up alongside Armstrong. "I don't think the armory is the best place for him right now, sir." The guy said as he continued forward and headed for Jexx. He was holding something behind his back.
"Hello...Jexx, is it?" The man said from behind Jexx.
Jexx slowly turned. "Yeah, whad'ya want?"
"Those looks like some nasty burns you have there...would you mind coming with me to the medical ward so I can take a look at them?" The medic said in a calm, persuasive voice.
"Nah, they'll heal themselves, they always do. Go away." Jexx turned to leave.
"Ohh, but I insist..." The medic said, gently (but firmly) placing an arm around Jexx and pulling him closer, being careful not to touch any of Jexx's existing burns. As he did so, he pressed the thing he was holding against Jexx's neck with the arm he had around him.
Jexx wasn't very amused. "Hey, what'r ya doin'? Get off me! ...what's that?"
"Oh, just an injector. Now listen here, Jexx, you have two choices. One, you can come with me now so I can at least put some salve on those burns, maybe even give you a vaccination or two, you could probably use some. Or, I can inject you with this sedative, which is some powerful stuff and will knock you out for the next few days, and I work on you anyway. And, you'll miss the mission everyone else is going on. Which means no fighting Brotherhood for you. So, what will it be?"
Jexx considered. Breifly. This man was with the rebellion, so Jexx figured everyone would be mad with him if he fried this guy. And he didn't want to miss whatever mission everyone was going on.
Slowly, Jexx expression turned to a very ugly glare as his shoulders drooped and he stopped resisting.
"I knew you'd see it my way!" The medic said jovially as he steered Jexx out of the room while still holding the injector to him. The medic was really bluffing; there wasn't any sedative, but he guessed that Jexx wouldn't call it and jeapordize his chances to go after the Brotherhood. As they passed Armstrong, the medic mouthed his way, "I read his profile."
Morgan fished around in his pocket and produced a cred chit, "if it will help your searches and acquiring, I can provide 500,000 credits. It is all the petty cash I have on hand at the moment."
The "fox" twirled out of the way of the QM as he was shoo'd out of the stock area, he abruptly stopped twirling and grasped his side, "ouch, lousy injuries preventing me from being twirly. Hmmm, okay ammo... I guess as much as you think you can spare. I would venture a guess of about four field cases for a crew served support weapon. Oh and a few extended clips for the same caliber light machine gun. I will need to modify them slightly to work."
Dorcan looked away as Morgan apparently tried to bribe the quartermaster. Holy shit. Did he just do what I think he did?
"How much is a credit worth, anyway?" he asked Darkshine furtively.
This time Fetrethar turned up and glanced at the quartermaster, his grey eyes seeming dead. He chanted out, recalling his first field operation. "I will suffice."
Darkshine posted up against a wall in the background, he just wanted to get his new toys and get going. He felt completely exposed without his armor, and despite the seemingly friendly demeanor of everyone around him, the feline just didn't trust everyone yet.
He was just starting to zone out when Dorcan posed his question, "um, it really depends on what your buying... 500,000 is not an inconsequential sum, The banshee for example would cost several million new. 500,000 could buy a rather decent suit of armor, not unlike my own, or of a completely different design... That brotherhood officer i took out, it was a 1 night job, and i was payed 20,000 for it... but, the actual value of a credit changes from place to place in terms of buying power. In many places a credit will buy you a loaf of bred or several ration bars... so it's rather difficult to place an exact value on a credit because of it's flexible buying power"
The Quartermaster looked at the credit chit.
"Jackson handles all money issues. I ain't no cashier. Go see the man if you wanna make a donation." He says.
Once satisfied that he had taken everyone's orders, the Quartermaster turned to go through his stock.
"Are you all still here? It's gonna take time to get all this together. I'll have it sent to your trucks. Shouldn't take more than an hour or so. Get outta here, unless you want something else." He says.
"Fair enough," Dorcan said, as much to the Quartermaster as to Darkshine. I'll have to get some kind of economics 101 book as well at some point...
He drifted out of the room and waited for the others to follow suit.
Darkshine started to follow Dorcan, then thought it better to go take care of a few things before they left. He walked up to the Quartermaster, asked for directions, then headed out for the vehicle bay. Once there he started running diagnostics on both the Banshee itself and his armor.
Once the programs were running tests, the feline opened a locker, pulled the carbine out, and began cleaning the weapon.
"Er, well... Jackson... aye. It is less of a donation and more of a way to get something for myself. I was hoping to skip going through my contacts. Thanks for the effort though."
Morgan followed after the others, ready to move on, though he really would much rather grab a bite to eat, a shower, and a nap.
The crew in the motor pool had received most of the supplies from the Quartermaster, but it seemed that there was a delay in getting some of the rest of it. While they waited on the equipment, they started looking at the mangled mess of the Brotherhood prison vehicle.
"You think Exo could've made a bigger mess with this thing?" One asked.
"Well, at least we won't be low on scrap any time soon." Another remarked.
Dorcan watched as the others went off to amuse themselves while the vehicles were prepared. It was going to be a long trip, so he went to look for an nearby libraries or bookshops. Primers on history, economics and technologies such as computing and electronics would be useful to read en route if he could find any in time.
Chance's boots clapped against the sidewalk as she briskly strode in front of the shops and through the people going about their various missions in life. Her mission was a bit more personal and most likely a lot more deadly; to bring down The Brotherhood and hopefully find her parents, or at least avenge them. To do that she needed to join the rebels, she was given some information to look around this area and a description of some who might be members. Everything was pretty hush for obvious reasons, and nothing in concreate, but she had to go with what info she had.
She passed a book store as she accidentally bumped into a a dark figure. She quickly turned and shot out "Hey! Watch it." But she swore she caught the quickest of glimpses of a muzzle when the hood opened slightly. Could this be one of the members?
"Oh, I.. er... I'm sorry sir.." She tried to decide the best way of going about this touchy subject. She would have to be careful; she couldn't trust him too much without knowing for sure who he was.. and she was sure that he wouldn't trust her worth anything. Granted some luck was on her side given that most likely members of the Brotherhood were male.. but that could always just be a figure of speech. "Could I ask you something somewhere more.. private?" Chance hoisted her lazer riffle a bit higher on her back, re-adjusting the holding strap more comfortably, hoping to hint to her purpose.
Armed with a bag containing most of the books he was after, Dorcan walked through the street, his mind on other things. Not paying full attention, he bumped into someone, bringing a sharp cry from them. "Sorry," he said and glanced around.
The person was a young female human. She seemed to be staring hard at him or something behind him. Dorcan glanced back briefly but no, it was obviously him. Damn.
Her next remark took him by surprise. Is she propositioning me? he wondered.
Some centuries ago there had been a brief fad at SAIA for weres and the human form and a number of students had formed some kind of fan club where they would shapeshift into an approximation of it. Dorcan had never really been part of that fandom and wasn't entirely sure what others saw in it.
He pulled back the hood of his robe, revealing his features and headwings and looked at the woman critically. Dammit, I haven't needed to read minds for decades and now I need to I can't.
"I'm kind of busy," he said. "Have to get back home. But if you have something to ask, feel free to ask me on the way. Unless anyone's directly following either of us, no-one should hear too much. Is that good enough for you?"
Her eyes widened when she saw the headwings. Gal damn.. what the hell is he? Chance quicky regained her normal, hard, facial expression and shrugged to his suggestion. "Fine by me." She guessed his dog ears weren't just for show either, and could probably pick up sound better than any normal human so she decided to talk quietly as they walked.
"I'll just get to the point. Someone with your description is with a resistance group against those intolerant bastards and I want in. I'm sure you guys can use all the help you can get and I have a personal bone to pick with the Brotherhood." She stopped, hoping she didn't offend the guy by her off comment about a 'bone'. She shook her head and continued, figuring it didn't matter anyways. "I'm not just some kid off the street either, I have skills and can back them up. So where can I go to help with the movement?"
She really was throwing herself out on a limb here. If he just blew her off she would have to do more searching which meant more time... time that she wasn't willing to waste.
Dorcan sighed as he listened to the girl's story. "Well," he said, glancing back as he walked, "Wandering lunatic aside, I guess you're either what you say or some kind of spy. I can't tell which. So this is what we can do. Right now I'm heading back to base, so if you're serious about joining you can tag along and we'll see what happens."
He glanced back at her and stopped walking for a moment. "But it's probably best if I carry the rifle when we approach them."
She automatically went stiff when he asked for her rifle. That was not only her best weapon but her baby as well. She didn't like the idea one bit but regardless she unhitched it from the backstrap and handed it to him. "Fine, but I swear if anything happens to it there will be hell to pay."
Man.. I shouldn't be so gruff, especially since I'm on eggshells here. But I can't help it, I love that thing.
Chance Cleared her throat and scratched the back of her head as she made to start walking again. "So.. how far is it? Know any good jokes?"
"Thanks," Dorcan said as he took the rifle. From her expression and body language he could tell it was a big gesture of trust even before she spoke, and he smiled slightly.
"It's not far to the compound, another ten minutes or so. As for the weapon, you'll certain get it back if you're kosher," he told her.
"Now," he said. "An angel, a demon and a succubus walk into a bar-"... he paused. "Actually you probably won't get that one."
Chance blinked and looked at him, very much confused. She shook her head and looked back forward. "Yeah, you're probably right.. but I have one that you may get." She eyed him again, not so sure but didn't know what else to do at the moment.
"Ok, so why does Peter Pan always fly?" She paused for effect "Because he never never lands."
All the while they walked she did keep a good eye on her rifle. No one has ever touched it besides her and she was feeling quite protective of it still. It made her uncomfortable to see it in the grasp of another. How she pined for it so.
"I've read that," Dorcan said vacantly as the book came back to him. "Or a story like it. Tales seem to repeat themselves in different continua, though the details are often different. Reading it from an incubus perspective it didn't really make much sense at first, but of course... in a world like this, everyone would age and die fairly quickly and eternal childhood might be worth the price of breaking the cycle."
They were already inside the industrial estate and turning a corner he beckoned her to halt.
"Gods know the Brothers are probably all-too aware of where the base is, but I don't want to take chances. Wait here, please. I'll be back shortly." In case there was some kind of tracker in the gun itself, he hid the rifle some way between her and the warehouse and then headed on to tell the rebels they had a new hopeful.
Chance nodded as he left, thinking about all he talked about. He's from a different world.. and an incubus! Why they heck would he be here. She figured it wasn't any of her business so she wouldn't think about it too much.
She folded her arms across her chest and waited, slightly impatiently, feeling even more uncomfortable not seeing her rifle.
Darkshine had finished his preperations, and locked everything up. He grabbed an under-arm holster and slid one of his pistols into it. Then, added a light-weight long-sleeved shirt to his civilian outfit, covering up all but the most subtle of signs of the small sidearm. He slid a small folding knife into one of his pockets, then headed out of the motor-pool figuring he'd take a walk around the small town, possibly find a place off base to stay, and perhaps find something more practical than a light assault vehicle for his mode of transportation.
As he cleared the gate, he noticed Dorcan heading his way. The feline gave the incubus a wave and a friendly smile. "find anything interesting?" the leopard asked, while gesturing towards the satchel full of books.
"Indeed," Dorcan said. "Someone bumped into me asking how to go about joining the rebels. I've left them down the road a bit in case they're being tracked as a decoy or something. We need to find one of the recruitment guys and someone who can tell if they're transmitting at all."
Darkshine nodded, "perhaps one of the techs then? either that or i could have ranger check her out, only downside is that she has to get fairly close to the vehicle to ensure she isn't using some ultra-low frequency... i dunno, maybe we should get one of the tech boys?"
"Well, I don't know how this stuff is usually handled," Dorcan said. "The way I see it, all we need to do is find someone higher up and inform them. No point in making things more complicated if we can just dump it in their lap."
Darkshine nodded, "probably a good idea, not really sure who would be the best to go to for something like that... But, yea, probably the safest thing to do under current circumstance."
Around that time, Lt. Armstrong walked past them, on his way to inspect the new vehicle that the team had brought in.
"Sir," Dorcan said, collaring the lieutenant as he walked past, "I found a potential recruit for the rebellion. I wasn't sure what the procedure was so I asked her to wait a little way off. In case she was bugged or something, I guess."
"What should... what is the procedure for something like this?"
Lt. Armstrong patiently listens to Dorcan as he explains the situation.
"Disarm her and bring her in. If anyone's following her, we'll handle the situation. She'll need to be screened too." He says.
"Her main weapon is an energy rifle of some kind," Dorcan said. "I left that somewhere separate, just in case that had some kind of tracking. I can retrieve it if that's not a concern, though."
"...Sir." he added belatedly.
Lt. Armstrong nods to Dorcan's explanation.
"It does seem a little out of the ordinary, I'll give you that. But if we suspected everyone of being a spy or being followed, we wouldn't have anyone to begin with. Bring her in and we'll screen her. If she is being tracked, we'll deal with it." He says.
"Right away, Sir," Dorcan said. He retrieved the rifle first, and then Chance.
"Looks like you're in luck," he told her. "Follow me, please..."
He led her back to the car-park, assuming that the Lieutenant would still be there.
Chance followed, relieved to see her rifle again. She paid attention to the route they took, trying not to look around too much to make her seem suspicious.
"Oh yeah, thanks" She quickly threw out to her guide.
As soon as Dorcan and Chance got to the facility, some rebellion soldiers came around and led Chance away to be screened. Another relieved Dorcan of Chance's weapon so that it could be examined.
Sometime later, Chance was moved to a small holding room, where Jackson would meet her face to face.
"Excuse the screening, but you can never be too careful nowadays. I'll get right to the point. You sought us out, which shows that we have a common view on the Brotherhood. I won't ask you about your past, but I will offer you a future with us. If you're still interested, there's a group assembling at the motor pool to begin a series of missions. I'd like you to tag along with them. They could use an extra gun." He says.
A soldier approaches and hands Jackson Chance's rifle. Jackson then hands it over to Chance.
"If you need anything else, the Quartermaster's office is near the motor pool. Check in with him for any extra supplies or ammunition. Otherwise you're free to leave, no one will stop you. Any questions?" He asks.
"No, Thanks.. uh.. sir" Chance returned her rifle to her back, and not sure what the proper protocol was she just nodded to him and left the room. She had to look around a bit but she slowly made her way back to the motor pool. Luckily she was already pretty stocked on her ammo so she didn't have to go to the Quartermaster.
She crossed her arms over her chest and looked over the people inhabiting the area since she lacked to do so earlier. Her face looked a bit hard and impassive. She noticed the canine from before and walked over to him."Well, I'm assigned to help you guys out."
"That was quick," Dorcan said. "Have you been to the Quartermaster yet? If not, I can show you where. For that matter, have you even been briefed on what we're planning to do?"
"I have everything I need.. and all the guy said was you were going to do some missions and they could use an extra gun." Chance shrugged. "If anything I guess you could tell me the details along the way. Firing a rifle isn't all that difficult, you just have to make sure you get the right targets."
She didn't feel at ease quite yet, granted with this sort of thing she probably shouldn't. Too many new faces were around, but she'd make do.
She coughed once and asked, "So, when do we go? I'm tired of dinking around." She was never one to stay still very long.
"I'm not sure," Dorcan said. "Within the next hour or two, I think. I'll go find out. But first, are you sure you have everything you need? Body armour, for instance? I believe we were also getting some kind of standard-issue pack with knives, medikits and so forth. Assuming your kind needs conventional medical support, of course," he added. "It can sometimes be hard to tell."
Chance grumbled a bit, if only her skin was as hard as her ego she'd survive anything. "Well, if it's standard-issue then... I guess I should get some armor too for the hell of it.. since they're offering..." She looked around some. "Yeah.. if you could take me to the Quartermaster that would be nice, somehow I didn't catch sight of it on my way in."
Turning to walk she looked back at the canine. "Oh yeah, you can call me Chance." She said simply.
"Dorcan," the doberman said. "Dorcan Ja'Fell." He led Chance to the Quartermaster's office. "We have a last-minute addition to the team here," he said, gesturing at his companion. "Any idea when we'll be heading off, by the way?"
Chance added in "I guess I'll need a standard-issue pack and some body armor too." She looked herself over. "Whatever fits." Then she half-glanced to Dorcan "Heh, thanks again." She hated to be helped, but she couldn't forget manners.
The Quartermaster had just come out from the back, when Dorcan and Chance came in.
"Another one? You guys will have your own militia if this keeps up." He says.
He pulls out his trusty notepad and takes some notes, and quickly eyeballs Chance's size for the armor.
"Alright, we're getting everything together. You all should be ready to go in half an hour, if those goof-offs in the back would GET THEIR TAILS IN GEAR!" He shouts that last part over his shoulder to the back.
As Dorcan had left to go fetch the girl, Darkshine had walked back to his vehicle. The spotted feline placed all his civilian gear, along with the concealed weapons into a locker, while bringing out his own combat suit. The matte black material of the Reaper Semi-Powered Infiltration suit slid on as if it were a second skin. As he finished planting the locking pins, and sealing the suit he also began some basic calisthenics to adjust to the strength enhancing features.
After taking a few moments to re-adjust, Darkshine slid a pair of pistols into the hidden holsters in the boot-plates, then connected the back-up power cell to the Banshee's port to make sure the unit was at maximum charge. With every conceivable pre-battle preparation complete, he headed out to see if he couldn't help out with the loading somewhere.
He reached the quartermaster's office shortly after Dorcan, and what looked to be a female in civilian clothing. He smirked as he walked in silently, enjoying the lightness he felt now that he was back in his armor again. He leaned against the far wall, opposite the Quartermaster's desk, and said, "hey Dorcan, who's the girl?"
Hearing what she could only assume was a comrade of Dorcan's behind her she turned and looked at the feline with a slight scowl on her face. She had her arms crossed over her chest in the usual fashion and she shifted her weight to be held mostly on her right leg, tilting her hip some.
"Chance" She said, not waiting for Dorcan to answer his question, especially since Dorcan was not her keeper, however helpful that he was.
Cocking his head to the side in a quizzical gesture, the feline also quirked an eyebrow at the almost indignant look the girl was giving him. Taking a few steps forward, the lithe and thin Darkshine towered over the girl. (he standing at about 6' 6") He extended an armor clad hand (think like a solid wetsuit glove, meshy, and somewhat soft) and said in a kinder tone, "Darkshine, freelance mercenary, though currently under the employment of the rebellion. Pleasure to meet you ma'am."
Chance kept her eyes on his face as he approached, even given his height she didn't feel the least bit intimidated. Granted that could also be because he wasn't trying to be intimidating. When he gave his introduction and outstretched his hand her expression softened just in the slightest, it just looked a tad less indignant. She looked at his hand for a moment before grasping it with her own, giving it quick shake before releasing it. The feel of the armor bothered her some.
"Charmed." She said, in a 'not-so-charmed' tone, looking back up at him. At least it sounded less angry than when she said her name. "And for petessake don't call me 'ma'am'.."
She looked around some, getting antsy again. "So do they just deliver the stuff or do we wait and pick it up here?"
"If you're impatient for some action, we may have a problem," Dorcan said.
"We're heading to a dig site about three days away, and our mission is to watch over an archaeological team who we think are liable to be targeted by the Brothers. Now, we don't know that they're going to be attacked at all, so this could, in a sense, be a waste of time. But by my reckoning it's better to be safe than sorry.
"What I'm trying to say is that unless the Brothers have some kind of lead on our activities, they won't know that we'll be doing this. So unless there's a high risk of running into them randomly, riding around in our armour for three days solid sounds unlikely," he said, glancing at Darkshine. Not to mention it might not smell too good. Then again, I can't smell...
"In all likelihood, we're going to be putting all the stuff in the boot and only donning it when we're less than a day from our destination. At least, that's how I'd do it. Riding around in civvies would look far less suspicious too. If we're stopped at a roadblock or something, we - well, some of us - could pretend to be telecom consultants attending a conference or something. That's not going to fly if we're dressed in combat gear and toting rifles, plus it'd look pretty weird when we have to stop for a bathroom break."
"So it might be best if you packed something to read," the doberman concluded.
Darkshine smirked at the girl's response. He was feeling rather coy at the moment, but didn't get a chance to play, as Dorcan went and began talking about the mission.
"eh, i could probably slide something baggy over this suit... but really, i was going to see if there's anything i can do to help, work out the suit's pseudo-muscles a bit. Once we get moving i'll be back in civilian garb... As for reading, i'll probably be use one of the banshee's terminals... depending on what you're looking for, i'm sure Ranger could collect some data if it's not already on one of the drives."
looking back at Chance, Darkshine said, "Right, I wasn't trying to be rude a moment ago, and i'm sorry if you were offended. If you'd have preferred me shouting 'girl who i don't know over there by the quartermaster and Dorcan'. I could have done that, but really, it would have offended you either way. I'd say you were looking for an excuse to vent some frustration, and the way you're carrying on this whole passive-aggressive thing is just going to end up with both of us irritated, so you can drop the act, and we can start fresh... or, we can go on like we are now, getting more and more upset with eachother... which means we'll inevitably get into a fight, and we'll see what happens then... your call" The feline had a wicked grin as he shrugged while saying, 'your call'.
Chance nodded at Dorcan's explanation and advice. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not itching to kill anything. I'll just feel better once I'm doing something useful.. even if it is just sitting around waiting for an unlikely attack. I'm glad to know what I'll be doing though.."
She looked back up to Darkshine when he started addressing her. She almost felt bad for her sharp replies to the feline until he finished his speech. It seemed more to her like he was challenging her, which she did not take very well.
"Huh.. well for one don't think for a minute you know what would and would not offend me - if you're quick you'll pick it up on the way. Two, I would have to agree with you that we should start fresh since being at eachother's throats is very counter-productive. And three, if you think this is all just one big act just keep pushing your luck. So, since it's my call... " She stuck out her hand and softened her expression with a bit of a smile. ".. Hi, my name is Chance, I hope our business together will be painless and that maybe someday we could even call eachother comrades."
Darkshine's expression formed a softer and friendlier grin when Chance shifted into a far more welcoming tone, "Darkshine, and i'd like that..." he replied, when taking her hand in a firm handshake.
The Feline then look over at Dorcan and asked, "think we should start heading towards the vehicles? If we're going to be packed in 30 minutes, i would think it a good idea to be leaving ASAP, although 3 days is quite the trip, i'd rather we be at that site as quickly as possible..."
"Yeah, I think I'm ready," Dorcan said. "Either way we probably shouldn't be loitering in the Quartermaster's office like this." He glanced around to see if the others were going to follow and headed towards the vehicle bays.
Darkshine smiled and followed Dorcan out, rotating his head back over his shoulder to make sure Chance was following them. He said, "If you're not going to order anything else, perhaps we should get everyone introduced... seems they were mostly assembled in the motor-pool already."
"Okay." Chance followed the two only a few steps behind.. trying to figure out this Darkshine fellow. Then again three days on the road should be enough time to get a hold on what the heck he was about. Regardless there were more people to meet and a mission to start.
As the others were getting to the motor poll, a small black-furred person accompanied by a medic entered the area. The black-furred person wore only ripped shorts, and his whole arms and lower legs were replaced with cybernetic limbs. The arms ended in small cannon barrels. To those who already knew him, he was visibly changed as he now had pure-white bandages on all the places where he had burns, even a little mummy-wrap in a few places, making it look worse than it was. Around some areas of the bandages, his red markings could still be seen peeking out. Jexx had a bad scowling glare on his face.
The medic, on the other hand, looked very pleased with himself. Once he had gotten Jexx into a hostpital bed, Jexx was the perfect (limp) little patient; though he had a horrible scowl on his face the whole time, he did not resist as the medic inspected his burns, applied salve, and even let him put bandages on and give him a few vaccinations.
The medic released Jexx into the area where everyone was congregating, and Jexx started aimlessly wandering off, paying no attention to Dorcan, Darkshine, and some new girl as he started wandering around. The Medic depated back into the base, leaving with a comment of, "Don't scratch those bandages, now!"
Jexx trudged around, every now and then, one of his cannons-for-hands would somehow transform into an actual hand and scratch his bandages, before turning back into a cannon and being lowered. With a bad expression on his face, he constantly muttered, "Stupid medic...stupid bandages...stupid needles...stupid rebellion..." and other things, puntuating his muttering every now and then with a random kick to the ground. Once, he said aloud, "When're we gonna get outta here!" to no one in particular, as he was still trudging around away from any other people, and resumed his muttering afterwards, throwing in things like, "Wanna kill something already...wanna get those Brotherhood...wanna get 'em..."
Chance's gaze couldn't help but move to the grumpy person kicking the ground as they entered the motor pool. His attitude felt quite welcoming to her - it was something she could understand. She caught sight of one of his hand cannons transforming into a hand and then back again. Her usual hard gaze imediately softened as if she just found the best chocolates in the world.
"Hey.." She began but caught herself. They didn't have time for her to be asking a million questions on the 'how', 'why', and 'where can I get me one of those?' If it was one thing she could hardly resist tinkering with it was guns and mechanical wonders. If anything it would have to wait, and hopefully he was part of the team she was assigned to.
She spoke to Darkshine and Dorcan's back. "So, how many are on the team? And which vehicle is ours?"
"I believe we're running a convoy," Dorcan said. "As for who;s going, Darkshine and myself you've met, and the guy over there is called Jexx. We also have Morgan Kell, and possibly Izzie, though I'm not sure if he's coming with us this time. After that it gets a bit weird. We have Exo, a captured Brotherhood warbot who has defected and Fet, who seems to be some kind of primitive," he added, hastily looking around to make sure he wasn't around.
"We usually have a few additional troops and medics to round the team off, but I believe that covers most of us."
He lowered his voice. "If you're wondering about the arms, Jexx seems to have been victim to the Brotherhood's experiments."
Fetrethar stalked around, keeping an eye for what cover there was in this vehicular storage area, making sure he was making as little sound as possible. He continually cast his tongue over his stinger, careful not to trigger it in the presence of allies. Stalking skills must be continually practiced or they would be lost. He could still almost hear the raspy leather that was old Cralto's voice demanding that of him as a child. Hard to imagine that the attack would have claimed the seemingly indestructible old man, but it was a pretty safe assumption that aside from the one's that made it with these people, his clan was probably dead, or enslaved.
He wondered when they'd let him have his gloves back, and shook his head that they'd offer him other gear besides. Such wealth, to so carelessly distribute gear among anyone who walked up and asked. He wondered if such innocents really could fight a war and win. Still, brute force, and wealth, the warm oil that was wealth, could make itself felt. Although most of his efforts had been spent on running, the fire these around him were spouting was very accurate.
Fetrethar shrugged. It was of little moment, and if they were as naive as they sounded, then he would be able to jimmy in some sort of social standing, something he truly did lack back home.
Home.
Fetrethar bit the inside of his cheek, the pain reminding him of his station and his obligations. He heard his name, and it startled him out of his reverie. Drifting over to where it was said, he saw the dog-man, Dorcan. He was talking to a woman, of a height with himself, perhaps a fingersbreadth taller, solidly built, especially for a woman. She might even be as heavy as himself, certainly something odd.
But, odd appearance or not, there were formalities to be made. He placed his hands on his forehead and bowed slightly, casting his arms out to the side, slowly, as he did so. When he straightened, he said "I am that primitive. They call me Fetrethar. What name do you wear?" If she was being introduced to others, than that implied she was new, like he was, and that opened doors of impropriety he wouldn't consciously consider with the others. "How did you come to be with these ones?" he asked, indicating with his palm at the motor pool.
With the situation seemingly in the capable hands of the others, Darkshine slunk off to the long, large, vehicle sitting towards the front side of the motor pool. The Banshee was resting on it's large, armored skirt, it's rear hatch wide open, and various rebels moving about it, and other vehicles which he assumed were making up the convoy.
With everything seemingly being taken care of, and running as smoothly as expected, the spotted feline figured he'd just stay out of the way. Darkshine grabbed a hand rail, and flung himself in a graceful arc onto the roof of his transport. He planted himself against the sensor housing in the rear and just observed the others from a distance, while seemingly lost in his own thoughts, sitting in a somewhat pensive position.
"Ah, ok" Chance replied to Dorcan for his explanations. With his spot-on assumption about her curiosity on Jexx she wondered if he could read minds... either that or she was just that easy to read without any abilities. Either way it made her feel slightly uncomfortable and she reminded herself to watch it.
While Dorcan was finishing the list of comrades she did feel a pang of emotional pain. It didn't distract her from listening to him but it did rustle her up a bit. Damn, someone better not be crying; it always made her uncomfortable. When Fetrethar approached she was able to pin point where the emotion came from and despite her initial reaction she felt sorry for him, but didn't make a move to show it.
After his graceful introduction she nodded to him. "I'm Chance.. and.. I guess I came to be with these ones.. uhh, through this guy." With that she tapped Dorcan with her left fist on his bicep, smirking slightly. "And if you're looking after a reason.." She shrugged, not wanting to get too deep. "The Brotherhood tick me off."
Slightly off-cue, Exo pokes it's head out the back of one of the vans, optics scanning over the group before focusing on the new arrival and relaxing again, it's systems surprisingly quiet. It's voice, on the other hand, is deep and metallic, but smooth rather than gratingly synthesized or assembled from prerecorded samples.
"Ah, another recruit? The more the merrier, I suppose... though at this rate we're going to need a transport aircraft."
It pauses as if confused for a moment, then continues;
"Unfortunately acquisition thereof may be troublesome. In any case, I must return to preparing this vehicle."
The bot's head disappears again, almost as quietly as it had appeared.
Upon hearing a voice Chance looked around until she saw a bot. She blinked a few times and quirked her brow from being somewhat confused by.. it. She shook her head and tried to keep her jaw from dropping in a stupid, dazed expression.
"So do I just pick a vehicle to jump into when we go?" She looked to Dorcan.
After a short time, the quartermaster's door opened and the quartermaster and his lackeys filed out, the lackeys all carrying the equipment that the group had ordered. The quartermaster approached Dorcan, since he was the nearest.
"Well, it's all here, except for what isn't here. What's not here is that special gun that Morgan wanted. And I found some suitable body armor for the little lady there." He says, motioning to Chance. "Now, you got your stuff. Ain't you got missions to go on?"
"Just checking, you do have body armour that will fit me?" Dorcan queried, just to make sure they hadn't forgotten about his wings.
"If so, then yes... I guess it's time to get moving."
Fetrethar nodded back to the woman, and Dorcan, and then darted forward to the proffered pack that the quartermaster and his lackeys brought. He glanced over at a suit of body armor, which seemed to fit him all right. Reverently taking the equipment, he sidled over to Darkshine's vehicle. As far as he knew, his gloves were still in there, and he'd want them on the mission.
She turned when she heard the Quartermaster. "Little... lady??" Her indignant look was back but she closed her eyes and clenched her fists for a moment, trying hard to remember what she just went through a few minutes ago. Getting too fired up too quickly was not good. She grumbled a little before she thanked the Quartermaster and gathered her armor and kit.
She looked back to the vehicles and caught sight of Fetrethar entering one. She figured that one was as good as any so she walked over to it.
While the others were busy congregating at the far end of the motor-pool, Darkshine spotted the quartermaster's lackey headed his way with a rather large and imposing weapons case, along with what looked to be a box of ammunition.
The man carrying the weapon looked decently fit, and had a slightly agitated look on his face as he approached the spotted feline, he said, "you the one they call darkshine?"
The leopard replied, "yes"
"here" the man said while shoving the rifle and ammo cases into Darkshine's arms. He left grumbling about something like he had to walk clear across the base... and after that it became inaudible, but the feline was more than willing to bet he could fill in the missing pieces.
With new toy in hand he knew it was about time to leave. He set the rifle case on the cot and the ammo case on the shelves a few feet back, reached behind himself in a cross-armed stance and pulled the locking pins holding his armor together. With the pins removed, he opened the locker with his civilian garb while shedding the plates and mesh.
The armor is form fitting to the point that Darkshine is far more comfortable wearing nothing under it. Normally it is quite the advantage as it prevents binding, and leaves him with the absolute maximum mobility. At this moment however, it left him completely exposed when the savage and new girl approached the open hatch. He heard the approaching footsteps, turned to see who or what it was, and froze in place. While not normally one to be shy about nakedness, these were total strangers, and he had just given them an impromptu striptease.
After the sudden realization passed, he quickly donned a pair of pants, and a black t-shirt. He added the underarm holster as well, then gently placed his armor in it's larger, and specially built locker that also contained a charging port. With everything set up, he sat on the cot and silently opened up the case to observe his new weapon, deciding he'd keep quiet, rather than even try to dignify the results of their sudden intrusion.
Morgan sat comfortably, resting his throbbing side as he munched on a healthy amount of green grapes. He did so love grapes, for some reason, possibly a fox thing.
Pages and pages of code scrolled across the overlay of his visual interface. He debugged his code with lightning speed thanks to the assistance of the Encephalon brain implant and CTC's processing power. Unlike these carefree warriors, Morgan had a day job to maintain, as a viable cover and for health insurance. His doctor was really going to wonder about the scar that he would inevitably end up with after being shot.
He did not notice the approach of a newcomer, missing most of it and discounting the rest because he assumed it was just another assigned Rebellion trooper.
The red haired lad did take notice of when the QM and staff approached with their gear. With half his attention still focused on coding, he exited his van, retrieving the ammo boxes and a pack.
With a brief nod to everyone he returned to his vehicle and recompiled his program for another round of testing. The program, finally, executed without issues and Morgan packaged it up, applied the required encryption algorithm, and emailed it to his boss at Zenithsoft.
The quartermaster motions to a body armor set off on the side.
"Yeah, it's there. We had to modify a standard one to fit you. I don't know how effective it will be. Try not to get shot in the back, okay?" He says.
Chance was given quite the welcome when she looked into the hatch of the vehicle. She froze as he did and her eyes went wide with her cheeks flashing a brilliant shade of red. After he started moving again, apparantly uneffected, she came back to her senses and looked away clearly abashed. She cursed a few times under her breath before climbing in.
She looked around and found a good corner to occupy, taking her rifle off of her back first before sitting down so she could rest her back on a wall. Chance kept her things on her lap, with the rifle on top so that she could fiddle with it - trying to regain her composure from the incident.
"I'll be careful," Dorcan nodded and gathered his allocated equipment. In a nod to his parent race his wings were toughened with kevlar, but there were limits. It wasn't something he was planning to test.
I think I'll travel with Darkshine this time, he thought and headed to the Banshee. He hadn't really had the chance before and he was curious.
He almost ran into Chance who had stopped in the doorway. Looking beyond her he saw the reason and grinned.
"Someone forgot to lock the door first, didn't they?"
Fetrethar entered the open hatch of the vehicle, and quickly made his way to the locker that he deposited his belt and gloves in. He retrieved and donned his equipment, noting in passing that the girl and Dorcan entered into the vehicle as well. The other animal-man was stripping down to don his armor, and Fetrethar examined his own, still tucked under his left arm. His own suit did not seem to be so form fitting. Perhaps it was harder to account for fur and a different body build.
The cat-man was, if his face could be read in any way similar to a human's, in embarrassment. Fetrethar fought to keep his own surprise off of his face. They were of the same clan, the same hold even. Why would a little nakedness embarrass the man? The fur covered almost everything anyway.
Still, Fetrethar reminded himself, these were not mountain men, they had their own customs, own senses of propriety. Fetrethar dropped into a crouch, sitting over his heels, gazing into the mercenary's face.
Darkshine found himself in an even more awkward situation when he heard Dorcan's voice as well... He felt slightly undignified at having been caught so off guard, but instead of getting angry, he played it off with a little snark of his own, replying, "oh? i'll take it you all enjoyed the show then? Though Dorcan, i didn't take you for the type..." A slightly wicked grin grew across his face as he tracked the girl with his peripheral vision, trying to hide in an unobtrusive corner.
He wasn't self-conscious about his body, as the feline knew, for human standards, he was in excellent shape, though he was slightly worried what the newcomers would think finding him in such a position... Then he opened the weapons case and all other thoughts were pushed out of his head as he stared in awe at the weapon he'd been loaned. The large bore weapon looked more like a telescope mounted on a lightweight cannon than some type of infantry portable sniper rifle, at least, for an average sized man. Compared to Darkshine, the weapon seemed just about proportionate.
He slid the weapon from the case, worked the action a few times, then set it in the same locker as the carbine. He took out the spare mags as well, set them with the weapon and locked everything up for the time being. He then sat back on the bunk and waited to see what the plan was. Given that everyone seemed to be coming into his vehicle, it seemed he'd probably transport personnel, and the other vans would carry supplies and equipment, or so the feline assumed.
Jexx noticed that people finally seemed to be packing up. He trotted off and got into the van Exo had entered.
"I've spent 250 years in a university halls of residence," Dorcan said. "I've seen practically everything and tried more than I care to tell you. Actually I came to ask if you had room in this vehicle, but if it's a bad time I can wait until you're presentable."
With clothing on and weapon put away, Darkshine looked slightly worried that he might have offended his new friend. He paused for a moment then said, "No, i'm sorry i snapped back a little. I'm not used to being caught so off guard, and in such an exposed position at that. As to answer you question, plenty of room, i've got no idea which of the rebellion troops are riding with me, and who's in the vans, but i've got room for 7 quite comfortably, we've currently got..."
The large, spotted cat paused to look around and see who was there, "...4, and if we need to, we can get more. just not nearly as safe or with as much room."
Intently trying to keep her attention on her rifle she couldn't help but sneak a glance to Darkshine when she heard the case open. Her eyes went wide when she saw his rifle. The look on her face went from complete amazement to utter pining for the weapon. She couldn't help but pout internally when he put it away and locked it up. Then she realized she was likely staring at him.. again.. so she looked back down in her lap.
Chance was brought out of her forced composure when she heard Dorcan. 250 years?? How old is he?! and once more when he mentioned how it was Darkshine's vehicle. Oh great, now I'll feel indebted to him besides for all the embarrassment.. Which brought her mind back again to what she saw. She cringed a little, noting the size, and wondering if the female kind of his race were as well equpied to... Chance shook her head and cursed to herself, wanting really hard to just attack something, or at least punch it. This was not a good start for the trip.
"I've taken the regular convoy vehicles so far," Dorcan said, making a gesture that they may as well forget the whole incident. "This time I'd like to try yours if that's not a problem."
He glanced at Chance, sensing her distress. "This isn't the only vehicle," he said. "There's a couple of others in the convoy. You don't have to go with Darkshine if you're not happy about it."
Chance jerked her head up towards Dorcan and went very still. Freakin a.. I have to calm down.. She breathed out a sigh, tensing and untensing her hands. "No need, I'll get over it.. I'm not going to run away from a little male nudity." She actually giggled after her statement, right before clearing her throat and picking at her rifle again.
"Besides, with being new and all I'd rather get a feel for you guys first before we have to do any fighting."
As Dorcan waved the incident off, Darkshine gave off a friendly grin and replied, "no problem at all, in fact, if you'd like i can set you up to access Ranger in a moment. That will let you play around with various systems, access information on the drives, or even turn the autopilot on, and i can run a sim program in the main seat if you'd like to learn how to drive..." he paused thinking he might be overdoing the hospitality...
"but, whatever you choose, you're more than welcome here."
The feline paused, and noted the wild man sitting on the floor. He quirked an eyebrow and said, "you know, once you stow your gear, you can take a seat... wherever you please outside of the cockpit, really... just make yourself comfortable, it'll be a bit of a drive."
as for Chance, Darkshine Smirked at her reply to Dorcan then added, "Well, i'm glad i didn't scare you off... The lockers are bio-metric, run your finger over the dark green bar, throw your gear in, then close up. When you need to get it out, same drill, just run your finger over the bar."
With things seemingly smoothing out, he leaned forward, opened the small cooler below the bunk and retrieved the pitcher of tea. Pouring himself a cup, he held the pitcher up and asked, "anyone else want some iced tea?"
"Thanks," Dorcan said. "If you can give me a basic rundown on how computers work in this world that would be handy."
He glanced around the vehicle, familiarising himself with. "No thanks, I don't..." he said as tea was offered.
Then the leopard's remark to Chance caught his attention. "Biometrics, eh? If it's genetic or fingerprint-based, that might be a problem." His ears pricked up a moment later. "Do you know if they sell winegums at the canteen...?"
Darkshine nodded."Yea, not a problem... once we get moving, i'll get you setup up front, depending on what you're trying to learn, most of the stuff is self explanatory."
Pausing, darkshine took a sip of tea, and enjoyed the cool, refreshing, and slightly caffeinated liquid. When Dorcan said he'd have a problem with a biometric lock, the feline said, seemingly to no one in particular, "Ranger, over-ride the lock on locker 6, voice lock, for the winged canine if you'd be so kind... if you have a voice sample great... otherwise, take one when he uses the scanner."
Looking back at Dorcan darkshine smiled and pointed to the appropriate locker, which was completely empty at the moment. "there you go... all yours and set for voice lock..."
He paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. Cocking his head at a slight angle he replied, "i'm not really sure about your winegum though... not something i usually look for..." finishing with a shrug.
"Thanks," Dorcan said. "If it'll take a voice-print, that will save me having to make a finger out of jellies." This kind of trickery was usually easier than trying to shapeshift the patterns in someone's finger-pads.
"Is your vehicle sentient?" he added.
Darkshine stifled a snicker as Dorcan talked about crafting a finger from jellies. Then replied to his question of Ranger's sentience. He said, "Oh quite, Ranger happily lives throughout the drives of this vehicle, and as an entity capable of searching the vast networks. It amazes me how fast he can infiltrate a facilities defenses, and how well he's capable of taking the various sensors of a building, along with the ones in my suit, and use them to track and guide me on missions. Above and beyond his abilities, Ranger has a little bit of an attitude... and seems rather sarcastic... though i have no idea where he could have possibly picked that up from..."
The feline tried his best to appear innocent, after a few seconds of failing he let out a chuckle. Then added, "seems he's thinking about something... or perhaps busy with something... normally he's fairly talkative."
As if on cue, the monochromatic, slightly hollow voice came from a speaker built into the area, "Uh, Sir... do you have any idea how boring it is to be stuck in a garage that shields me for sending or receiving any signals except those through our current employer's current network?..." "oh, and welcome aboard new people. once the mission objective are uploaded, you probably won't hear too much from me while i'm compiling additional data for your own usage."
Darkshine looked towards the cockpit area with a bit of a quirked eyebrow, "wait... how did... never mind, i'm not going to ask..."
While Darkshine and Dorcan talked, Chance stood and went to the lockers. She pressed her finger on the dark green bar and opened the door before throwing her armor in. With the rifle in her hands she hesistated a moment, sighed, and set it in the locker as well. She figured it was more safe to keep it in there anyways since she wasn't sure how bumpy the ride was going to be; she didn't want a bad mistake to happen.
She looked around when she heard the voice and found the speaker, then she looked to Darkshine with a bit of a smirk. "Heh, I think I like him."
Once all the equipment was loaded into the vehicles, and everything was ready to go, the convoy set out for the excavation site. The three day trip was rather uneventful, though they passed a handful of settlements and villages which had been overrun by the Brotherhood, and burnt to the ground, leaving no survivors, or any Brotherhood soldiers to fight with. The burnt skeletal remains of the houses of these people were a grim reminder of the lengths that the Brotherhood is willing to go to in order to further their mission.
The convoy eventually approached mountain range where the entrance to the ruins was located. Once they reached the entrance, they would find a couple of nervous looking young human men, one with a pair of binoculars and the other manning a poorly maintained machine gun on a turret. The one with the binoculars flagged the convoy down.
"Thank god you're here! We've been asking for help from the rebellion for ages! We just scared off a Brotherhood scout, but he's sure to return with reinforcements!" He shouts frantically.
Dorcan started, thoughts of protocol and command structure evaporating as the conversation from the front vehicle came through on audio. These people were in trouble and the idea that they may have been overrun by the Brotherhood had been his worst fear. It might still happen unless they moved fast.
The Doberman opened a window and poked his head out. "How long ago was this?" he called. "And who's in charge here? We'll need to organise some kind of evacuation."
Checking that the comms were open to Morgan and Exo, he made a suggestion. "We need to get these guys into the vans as a priority. Whatever happens, whatever we choose to do in terms of defending the site or abandoning it, they'll be safer in here."
Chance cursed under her breath when she heard the news. She shot for her locker, opened it with her finger print and yanked out her things. Before she donned the armor she took off her shoulder strap full of ammo, then replaced it over the armor and hooked her rifle to it.
"Dammit.." She mutter again. Those damn Brotherhood jackhats.. always getting into everyone's business. She saw another window, just down the way from Dorcan's, so she rushed to it, opened 'er up, and poped her head out. "What direction did the scout go?" She added to Dorcan's questions. If it just happened then perhaps there was hope for catching up to him.
The trip was dull, boring. Little room to stretch legs, little course to speak to the others, even if he had the standing to address them. He still could not work out this clan hierarchy, least of all where he fit into it except as the runt. Although this Chance woman had to be as junior as he, if not more so, but she went about brazenly, talking to those who seemed honored veterans without averting her eyes, without even waiting to be spoken to.
When they arrived at the site, he already had his gear on, armored jacket worn, shield belt on, but not activated, the odd rifle they gave him held in power-gauntleted hands. His stinger was nestled firmly in his upper palate.
He was close enough to Dorcan to hear the conversation said to him, but he addressed his clan-mate, not an outsider. "How can you be certain they are people on our side. They claim to be trying to contact us for ages, but I doubt that they would be ignorant of such an activity for so long. If they have a bomb, or a tracer........."
Darkshine had grown used to the newcomers in his vehicle over the 3 day trip... he'd spent most of that familiarizing himself with his new weapon. While the others had conversed, he'd kept himself open to question, but rarely conversed if not addressed first. By the time they were within a half hour of the site, Darkshine had started loading his carbine, and left it by the front door. Once they approached, and Dorcan started taking control, Darkshine had already removed the T-shirt, and was undoing the belt with total disregard for those around him. He opened the locker with his armor and once the last of the civilian garb was removed, he donned the armor, locked is with the pins, then donned a mask, breathing unit, headset and unlocked the heavy rifle.
Rifling through the various harnesses and combat webbing, he found a rifle bag with which to store the sniper, and it's spare ammunition, packed the weapon, then slung the bag. He grabbed several spare mags for the carbine, tossed them in a side pocket on the bag, then slid 4 into his suit's thigh mounted cases. He walked up front, grabbed the carbine, looping the sling around his neck. With full combat gear donned, he opened the side hatch and stepped onto the armored skirt, which, while filled, doubled as a small infantry deck. He watched the 2 soldiers with their crew served weapon rather impassively, then finally replied, "we'll need to get that ammo-burner of yours cleaned up before they come back... you guys got some maps of the area where we can work out a defensive plan?"
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..."
"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."
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."
"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.
"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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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!"
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.
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."
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."
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.
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."
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."
"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?"
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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."
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.
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.
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?"
"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."
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."
"Strategically there are advantages to doing that, but... it would be wrong," Dorcan said. "We came here to help these people, not kidnap them."
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.."
Morgan had been reviewing mission data, Brotherhood information and a tactical analysis. He finally realized that they did not know much.
"Bloody hell, these Rebels are amateurs. Not even one milliliter of tactical data, how do they survive? I suppose we will just have to guess then. Oi, where has everybody gone to..."
During his tactical review, everyone had dispersed. Morgan turned on his heels and headed for Dorcan, "oi, Dorcan. Not a lot of information we have on goings on in the local area. We do not have a location for the Brotherhood presence in the area, HQ does not know where the tower is. We will not have to worry about air deployments or air support from them as the military keeps tight control over the airspace. It is likely they will deploy by vehicle over one or even both of these main highways. We will have to station a scout to watch both of these approaches. Everyone else will have to hold this position, because without knowing where they are coming from, we can not have a forward line that leaves a flank exposed. We need to keep our forces here concealed and attack with surprise. I am pretty sure forces will escalate once we begin fighting back."
Darkshine noted that Morgan was wandering off. He adjusted the strap on his rifle back to help balance the weight of his new toy while keeping his carbine's pistol grip only slightly out of his hand's current resting place by his hip. He moved silently, and kept quiet while the others went about doing their thing.
He eased back against a low, rocky outcropping and said, "I dunno who else is playing scout... but we should coordinate our efforts now, and get into position, the longer warning we have the better." He clicked his headset on, switched to the assigned channel. After a buzz from Ranger, Darkshine waited impassively, showing none of the impatience he was feeling. Thinking to himself 'forming strategy and talking tactics is one thing, but we're wasting time here, valuable time that could be used for setting up positions, protecting the vehicle, or a whole litany of other, more useful tasks... clearly we need to work on the efficiency here '
Without missing a beat, the feline moved into the back of one of the vans, and recovered some rope and camouflage netting. Noting the distinct lack of movement, he then said, "Anyone idly waiting around can help get the vehicles covered, deploy sandbags and get this show on the road, we've got a couple of hours at most. Time is a precious commodity that we can't afford to squander right now... so let's get moving."
Dorcan smiled to himself. Morgan seemed to have assumed a position of leadership, which was probably to the best - not only was he better qualified for it but otherwise there was a risk of Dorcan getting the post instead. While the Doberman was comfortable enough with the idea of leading a stealth strike or reconnaissance team, defending a location was a different kettle of fish and not one he had much experience with.
"I guess that's good news about the air cover," he said. "Just a thought - what have we got in the way of explosives? Could we destroy or cripple their vehicles as they approach?"
He nodded towards Darkshine. "I'm easy. If anyone has a particular role for me, let me know what. I can do sniper duty, setup or hang back inside the complex with the archaeologists." He paused.
"We probably want Exo as our last line of defence, really - if it comes to a point where the Brothers are taking pot-shots at the good Doctor, his armour would be good for shielding them.
"Any comments?"
Fetrethar followed Dorcan along, heard his tactical analysis. When prompted for thoughts, he grated out.
"We don't have a lot of mass, firepower. Our advantages are stealth and precision. If we have a fight here at the dig, there's very little we can do to stop the Brotherhood from calling up more force, enough to bury us whatever defensive preparations we make. Then, there is the problem that they might not go rushing in, howling to be shot by our embankments. What if they just dig in at the escape routes and wait for us to get hungry? We don't know what the Brothers are thinking, but if their scout reported some old men with a half operative machine gun, then they probably won't be sending the whole nine yards to apprehend them, probably just a few redarms, or whatever you call the men set to catch thieves and oathbreakers. if we take them out en route, somewhere far from this mountain, and perhaps cover it up by then striking somewhere nearby, making it seem like those men were in the wrong place at the wrong time, we could buy some time, avoid serious detection a bit longer."
He crouched on his heels, waiting for a response, although from what he gathered from the group dynamics, a response was probably just going to be an indignant snort and ignorage.
"We are going to have to fight using... dynamic tactics. That is to say, rapidly adaptable. Dark and myself will scout at each of the likely approaches for Brotherhood activity, once spotted we will have to determine our course of action in handling it from that point. I want this site fortified as best as you can stat. However, be ready to move and engage or grab everyone and run."
Morgan grabbed his gear and slung his heavy rifle, "Let us go Darkshine. Dorcan, we will be on the comms, I need you to handle things here. Be ready for anything, we may only have a very short time to prepare."
With a nod he dashed off to his position, checking comms. Keep me up to date on the doctor's progress. I hope you have good binocular vision in that thing Darkshine.
Darkshine clicked his own headset, and replied, i can also record and send images and stream video if you'd like...
He made his way along the sparse and rocky terrain, picking out paths that led up, yet had firm purchase under the feline's boots. He wanders his way to spot with a clear view of the major highway, a little ways down, he deploys in a prone position while setting up the "cannon". The bi-pod is deployed, and Darkshine sets a small sandbag up under his elbow to create a perfect stance with the weapon. While his long shooting was usually done at 1000 yards or less, he knew how to take longer shots. He began scanning the terrain, noting the brush, oddly colored stones, and anything else that, were it to move, he could call an alert. Once things were noted, he chambered the weapon with a barely audible *click* and double checked the safety to make sure it was on.
Taking extra time to digitally photograph the terrain, Darkshine then took the camouflaged netting and, using some brush and rocks, made his outcropping look like part of the terrain from a few steps away. Detecting it from a considerable distance would be hard until the rifle roared... in which case... someone would have a fun time tracking the echo.
Clicking his comms again, Darkshine said In position, concealed and both the feed and my weapon are hot, i'll keep you updated as often as possible... but things look clear for the moment.
Fet looked somewhat sullen, and Dorcan took a guess at the reason.
"Never mind," he said, clapping the other on the shoulder. "You prove yourself in this mission, I'm sure they'll look up to you a bit more. Now, in the meantime, we need to get this place fortified. Any ideas?
"I still think that we should try and set up some kind of explosive trap around the entrance. I can't remember if we brought any ourselves, but there must at least be some kind of blasting material."
Chance's expression softened a little as Fet explained his opinion. He must have been in a lot of battles.. She was brought back with Dorcan's words and her face went returned to its normal hard look.
"What about the plasma charges? I don't know what would happen if someone drove something over it.. but I'm sure it wouldn't be a good thing to shoot at one. If they do explode we could set a few up and shoot at them as targets move close enough." She shrugged. "Best idea I have other than pilfering the digger's supplies."
Morgan found himself a convenient rocky outcrop at a sufficient height escarpment to watch the approach on his designated stretch of highway. Keeping low, he deployed his "rifle", setting the bipod and sighting through the scope. finally he loaded the magazine, preferring to start with the simple 300+ gr tungsten APFSDS rounds. Primarily an anti-material rifle, capable of destroying parked aircraft, the weapon would be quite effective against armored and unarmored vehicles.
Like Darkshine, he prepped his area by laying out his camo netting and securing it with local rocks.
The Fox is in position, awaiting the rabbits to wander by. Hold engagement until we can access targets. Switch to secure comms and encrypt transmissions.
Using the enhanced optics built into his eyes, he zooms in on the highway, continually looking far, wide, and close in a scheduled pattern. Processing the data through the CTC, he transmits it across the secure comms for anyone able to receive and see the feed.
Now we wait.
The meeting breaking up, Fetrethar decided to get busy. It was all well and good to set up a deathtrap, but they had to walk into it for the plan to work, and that wasn't likely if their presence was discovered.
He skulked over to where the vehicles were driven, and nodded approvingly at the camouflage nets already flung over their transport. They would be nearly impossible to spot unless someone was right on top of them, in which case they'd have spotted the encampment first. But the trail... Fetrethar broke into a round of tongue clicking at the sight of parallel tracks, trampled into the dirt and loose brush of the mountainside.
He spent some time, maybe two hours, kicking dirt and dragging a few bushes across the path, obscuring it for a fair distance. It still showed something leading to the mountain, but hopefully they wouldn't be observant enough to realize there was a heavy presence, and would conclude it was just the researchers or something.
He hadn't been given any particular instructions for a battle position, so he decided to entrench himself as a second line, far behind the pickets, and closer to the entrance to the dig site than any of the others he saw. He had that rifle, but he was still most familiar with his gauntlets and poison stinger, and both were weapons that needed to be up close to be effective, something more likely to happen in the close confines of an underground complex.
Opening up his backpack, he pulled out his armor, and donned the uncomfortable vest. More comfortable than taking a slug I guess. Wish the thing could hold out gas. But it's open air. Maybe that will be enough to discourage it. The scientists mentioned the ground was hard, too hard for them to dig with explosives, so he didn't bother with the shovel, instead settling for a promising site in a little crook in the mountain, with some scrub to cover him from most viewers coming from the bottom. He then flung his personal camo net over himself, tying it to some of the roots of the bushes and dropped to his belly in the rock. After a moment's pause for consideration, he sliced it in a few sections with his trophy knife, to allow for quick wriggling outside if the net needed to be abandoned in a hurry. They sure are rich. These guys have everything.
He spent a minute checking the unfamiliar rifle, and finding nothing out of order he could detect, put it in a cautious, two handed grip. Fumbling with his communication gear, he sent out his own message after setting it to encrypted. "In position near the dig, ready to strike at targets."
Dorcan stood just inside the entrance to the workings, checking and test-firing the laser rifle. He had also gathered a small number of fragmentation grenades and flashbangs. "Okay," he said over the comms. "Unless anyone has a better idea, I'm going to take a position with the dig team. If things look rough, let me know and I'll do my best to get them out of here. Even if I have to stun them first."
Chance watched everyone scatter and updated their position over the comms. She figured she might as well do the same.. even though she hadn't moved. Her voice was enough to let them know who she was. "I'm still here at point A." She reached behind and unhooked her plasma rifle, set it down beside her, and gave it a few pats. "Looks like things will start soon.." She muttered to herself quietly and looked down the road, waiting for the first sign of trouble.
No-one seemed to object, so Dorcan made his way down to the dig itself.
"Okay, I'm in position," he sent over the comms. "Morgan, Darkshine, do you copy?"
He'd seen enough bad horror films to be just a little paranoid in case something in the rock or the Ancient Magical Ruins was going to interfere with the comms.
While he waited, he glanced at the workings. "How's it going there, guys?" he asked casually.
Morgan is here, what is your sitrep Dorcan?
He shifted slightly to remove a rock that had dislodged itself and was poking into his side. Always the observant redhead and less the fiery tempered type, he made note of the rather unusual lack of traffic through the area. Probably because of all the burned out towns.
Too quiet... anything on your end Darkshine?
Jexx, of course, was either focusing too much on lookout duty next to the machine gun, had found some remarkably facinating dirt, or really was that put-out that he was put on guard duty in the first place. Either way, he somehow completely missed out on Dorcan, Morgan, and Darkshine's scouting mission. He remained near the machine gun, looking out for any signs of Brotherhood.
"Just checking the comms," Dorcan replied. "Wanted to be quite sure they'd work in the ruins. Not much to report this end. Just asking the guys how the dig is progressing."
Darkshine almost whispered into his headset, "Dorcan, got you loud and clear on my end. Morgan, there's no movement besides a barely noticeable wind."
An annoyed voice came out from the dig site.
"This is very delicate work, but we're working as fast as we can!"
The horizon was still, no birds, no dust, no nothing. Like the calm before a storm. After a few minutes though, a dust cloud appeared on the horizon.
Darkshine locked his scope onto the plumes of dust in the distance, not only did they seem to be coming fast, but, instead of using somewhat stealth, and taking the roads, the Brotherhood seemed to be sending an expeditionary force off-roading for a quickest possible intercept before preparations could be made. Centering his scope's cross-hairs on the center of the plume, Darkshine said into the comms, 'i've got contact, at least one bogey bearing approximately' a slight pause while checking his headset's compass, 'two one five degrees, make it estimate ten clicks and closing. ETA unknown, will update as data becomes more available, Darkshine out'
The spotted feline began a relaxing technique while tracking the source of the cloud as best he could, looking for vehicle silhouettes, multiple clouds, or anything that would be pertinent to the rest of the defense forces... It struck him as odd that the brotherhood would come barreling ahead as they were, but, Darkshine knew better than to look a gift-horse in the mouth.
Morgan focused his optics in the indicated direction and fed the data to his tactical computer. At this range he could not determine force strength or composition, but it was quite obvious they were not worrying about stealth.
The tactical data showed the various bits of general data, from wind speed and direction to barometric pressure and elevation above 'sea level'. The tactical forecasting module placed their estimated path between both Darkshine's and Morgan's positions using the same entrance into the area that they had.
Dark, here is the current estimation on tactical deployment. We will have optimal firing at this location. This red area is your maximum engagement range and the blue area is mine. Where these two areas overlap at reasonable range is where we can engage for maximum effect. My 15.2mm is designed to take out vehicles, but your weapon should be sufficient on anything short of a tank or surplus Rostovlian APCs. Keep an eye open for other formations.
Morgan began examining local communications traffic looking for the Brotherhood's frequencies.
"Roger that," Dorcan said over the comms. "Unless I'm much mistaken there's just this one entrance to the site, so let me know when things get serious. The last thing we need is for the Brothers to trap us in here."
He paused.
"OK, this is a silly question... but you're sure it IS the Brotherhood, right? I mean, if it's a bunch of refugees or a herd of animals, blowing them to Kingdom Come isn't going to make us very popular."
As he spoke he knelt down and crawled to the edge of the site, poking his head down into it.
"Okay fellas," he called out to the dig team, "We have visitors on the horizon. Don't know their strength or ETA. If they're invited guests, I need to know now, before we start shooting."
"I guess this is it.." She muttered to herself, shifting a little to see down the road better. Morgan and Darkshine were out there, somewhere, and she had better be ready for anything they missed. She'd wait to jump up until they started to fire, trying to make sure they would be the ones to initiate the surprise, and not her.
A slightly more panicked voice came back to Dorcan from the dig site.
"That's them! That scout we scared off is bringing back his friends!"
The tension in the site noticeably increased as people started working harder, knowing their necks were on the line now.
The cloud of dust on the horizon dissipated, leaving the silhouette of a fast moving vehicle that had stopped just at the horizon, and a man standing up in it, looking towards the site. Anyone looking through binoculars would notice the telltale circuit lines going across the side of the vehicle, marking it as a Brotherhood scout vehicle. The soldier in the vehicle, a grunt, pulled out his own pair of binoculars and scanned the site. He then sat back down in the vehicle and waited. A few moments later, a distant rumbling could be heard, as more dust clouds began to rise up and approach the horizon, with the scout in the middle of them.
"What's happening out there, guys?" Dorcan asked over the comms. "Is it just the one guy or does he have company? And do we have an ETA for him?"
He glanced back down at the dig works. If any of them look like they're going to reach here, we'll have to call a halt to this, he thought unhappily and glanced once again at his pile of frag grenades.
Darkshine focused in on the light vehicle the scout was in, looked to sit 2, maybe 3 at a stretch. The man was alone, his circuit-like pattern shown clearly as he observed through his rifle's scope. Darkshine smirked at a sudden thought. If he tries that stunt in another few klicks, he's going to find himself halved. An ever so slight breeze rustled across the mountainous terrain, and the feline adjusted for it with a few clicks on the nobs of his scope.
Speaking into his comm set, "This is Darkshine, we've got 1 scout vehicle, stopped, and dust columns from approaching vehicles, 2 perhaps more if they're in tight formations. The scout is outside of my range, however, it may be wise to eliminate him as quickly as possible. It will deny the enemy his knowledge of the area. Actually... what are the rules of engagement here? Is it at one's own discretion?"
Morgan was also observing the approaching contacts and confirmed Darkshine's information over the comm, acknowledged, one scout and additional incoming. Two, possibly more vehicles. Darkshine, no joy on discretion at this time until identification. After we identify force composition, we will engage. I will have range on them before you do, but I plan to hold until we both have it. Dark, engage scout and light armored vehicles, but do not attack heavier ones unless necessary. I will take care of those.
Pausing, Morgan updated the tactical map, If they are all light, then will saturate them. Be sure to take out that scout first though. For everyone back at the site, I am hoping we can take out this group before they get too close, so stay concealed for now. Dorcan, you need to get those people working faster.
Morgan continued to observe for enemy forces and watching those incoming so when they reached identifiable range with binocular and weapon scope magnification, he could assess those incoming.
"They know," Dorcan said. To the dig team he called out: "How long are you going to be, guys? How much further is there to go? You must have mapped the site with radar or something..."
The team in the site didn't respond, but instead muttered to themselves. Who does this guy think they are, some government funded research team? Radar mapping indeed.
"We're doing the best we can!" Ms. Clay shouted back up to him.
The dust plumes on the horizon began to slow and fade. Two more vehicles like the one the scout was in appeared as the dust cleared away, each holding three grunts. A larger carrier vehicle, much like the prison vehicle that was captured, only smaller, took a position behind the scout's vehicle. They didn't make a move, but instead seemed to be surveying the situation.
Morgan's comm equipment would begin to pick up encrypted signals coming from the larger vehicle, obviously using a Brotherhood cypher.
Dorcan's face became a scowl for a moment until he mastered himself. How do they know they're even in the right fucking place?!
"Okay guys," he called over the comms, "What's going on out there? Any updates?"
Darkshine watched the dust clouds as they grew closer, he focused in and clearly made out another pair of scout, and a 3rd cloud which pulled in behind the scout. He waited a few moments as the 3rd vehicle started to clear the dust clouds kicked up by the other scout vehicles. Clicking his Comm headset, he replied: "We've got what looks like 3 scout cars and, if i'm seeing this right, an armored transport vehicle. Wheeled, armored, though armaments are indeterminable for me at this range. They're stopped well outside my range."
He paused as he looked over the vehicles, "Current threat estimate, 20 foot troops, all mounted... Morgan, do you concur?"
Still hunkered in his little burrow, Fetrethar listened in on the communicator. Making sure his own encryption was working, he sent back.
"We need to get some way to force them to attack us. If they just camp out by our exit route and wait for more guys, we're dead. However, with them in the vehicles, and us in our field fortifications, they have all the initiative. No recommendations at this time."
There were no enemies in visible range, so Fetrethar checked his gear once more, making sure his stinger was in place, his gloves were powered up. His belt was working about as well as usual, meaning poorly, and he thought the rifle he was issued was in working order, but wasn't familiar enough with the weapon to know for certain.
Chance scoffed lightly and muttered with a growl. "Why the hell don't they just come and get what's coming to them?" She stayed low with her trusty rifle by her side and her eyes pointed between the turrets of the machine gun. The smoke was slowly clearing after the vehicles stopped and she was getting antsy. She had no opinion as to what to do in a situation like this so she'd just wait.
Morgan was reviewing the force composition and running his own estimates. He spoke over the comms, roger, estimation seems accurate. Dark, hold fire until convoy reaches this point, well within our coverage areas and well before the dig site. I want you to take out lead scout and then the left three grunts. I'll concentrate on the right three grunts and then concentrate fire on the armored vehicle. All parties are transmitting encrypted communications using a Brotherhood cipher. Dig site defenders are to engage as targets present themselves.
While he waited, Morgan dedicated a portion of his processor resources to trying to crack the Brotherhood cipher and snoop their communications.
Next to the machine gun (and next to Chance), Jexx was getting impatient. It wasn't possible for him to close the distance between himself and the Brotherhood without any cover, and that got him worked up. He was swaying back and forth, and began muttering things to himself, like "Come on...wanna getcha...come here...gonna getcha...c'mon..." Of course, his muttering was picked up by his microcomm.
As he swayed next to Chance--wait a sec, those red markings on him, were they...glowing?
"Jexx, stop chanting," Dorcan growled. "We need to keep the line clear for more important things. Like how long until I have to start evacuating these guys."
Chance had to bite her tongue pretty hard to keep from either giggling or cursing. She was feeling just as impatient and the display of his own impatience was making her more jittery. Her hand went to the back of her head and jostled her hair a few times to calm herself, but when she looked back at Jexx she noticed his glowing red markings...
"What the..." She began.. but remembered the comms.. so with a big frown covering her face she grabbed her rifle and poked him with it, motioning towards his eerie markings. Guessing it was in response to his getting worked up she mouthed the words 'Calm the F....' shook her head and tried again. 'Calm... Down..'
"What's that?" Dorcan asked tensely. He'd distinctly heard an exclamation over the comms. "Chance? Have you spotted something? What's happening?"
When Dorcan's command to "stop chanting" came over Jexx's microcomm, he glumly (and sliently) complied, but continued swaying and stepping. Shortly after, Chance tapped him, apparently to get him to stop doing even that. Jexx's head whipped around, but amazingly (or what would have been amazingly to anyone who knew him) he did not raise his handcannons towards her. "What? Leave me alone, I'm just ready for them...ready to fry me some Brotherhood...can't get 'em yet, they aren't close enough..." Jexx hissed to her, before turning back to watch the Brotherhood vehicles. However, there was yet another strange thing; Not only were his red-pupiled irisless eyes glowing in the same way as his markings, but for the Superbunny t-shirt that was being used as a bandanna over his forhead...the superbunny logo had somehow been overlaid with a glowing, solid red X.
Eventually, Morgan was finally able to crack the cipher, and his radio came to life with Brotherhood chatter.
"......that experiment with them."
"Doesn't matter, standing orders are to shoot 'im down and bring 'im back. The Priests want him back at Central. In one piece."
"Alive?"
"I don't know if he fits the descriptor of 'alive' anymore. Just make sure he's not blown to itty bitty pieces."
A moment of silence...
"Anyone see that bot they have yet?"
"I still wanna get 'em for stealing it."
"How come we didn't bring one of ours?"
"Orders. Central's got our heavier resources tied up elsewhere. We'll have to deal with it."
"I'm not tangling with that thing. Let the big guy take care of it."
Another moment of silence...
"Looks like they're waiting for us to make the first move."
A deeper, but emotionless voice came over the comm. "Then we won't disappoint them. Full surge forward, kill anything that moves. Mother demands the crystal, and the experiment."
"Sir."
"Yessir."
"Yessah."
All the vehicles revved up, the grunts brandished their weapons, and all the vehicles moved forward, getting into range.
"What's going on with you??" Chance hissed back to Jexx as he turned away. "What are those markings?" She had to keep her eyes from being distracted by his handcannons.. so very curious.. now is not the time. Another distraction came, though, in the form of revving engines as the Brotherhood began to move forward. A grumble came from her throat as she adjusted herself once more, ready to spring up and put her guns into action.
Morgan smiled briefly as he broke the cipher, but that quickly evaporated as he realized what was being said. He stepped up his own encryption as he swore on the comms, bloody fucking hell, somehow they already have intel on us at this site. They have made Exo and someone else, did not quite understand that bit. They are after the crystal, hurry the doctor and his team in there Dorcan. Dark, sights on target and you are clear to engage. Everyone else, engage as targets range. Whoever is on the machinegun, be careful, as it tends to be a high priority target for infantry. Try and coordinate fire to the best effect.
Morgan quickly laid out his ammo on the heavy rag next to his gun. Taking aim on the driver of the vehicle he was hitting first, he squeezed off the shot, aiming for the head. Without so much as a confirmation of a hit and before the dull metallic spent case had struck the rock, the scope moved the the second man. Another shot was let loose and again the red-head moved the scope to the third, letting fly with the final 15.2mm round.
Three aerodynamic, fin-stabilized KEP rounds shed their sabots and rocketed through the air like crossbow quarrels hyped on speed. The CTC flashed warnings at Morgan that he was exceeding the tolerance levels of the weapon, as the heat of action had caused his accelerated reaction systems to go into full gear.
Slowing down a bit, Morgan had ejected the spent clip and inserted one of only two API clips he carried. The 'Fox' took aim on the theoretical location of the driver of the armored vehicle.
Jexx was really starting to get annoyed now. The Brotherhood force had begun to move forward and shots were already being exchanged, but they were still just too far away for Jexx, he could shoot and hit them, but his plasma shots would burn out enough that they wouldn't do much by the time they hit. There wasn't enough cover for Jexx to try and advance to get closer, it was just the hill he and Chance were on with a few trees. Jexx was mostly deprived of all his usual advantages.
So, he crouched down even lower, ignoring Chance's questions, and waited for the convoy to get closer as he settled for the next best thing; when they were close enough, he planned to start running sideways, and strafe them with his red plasma...
"They are coming," Dorcan said out loud. "They want the crystal. There is no time for any gentle excavation now. "
Over the comms he replied: "Copy, Morgan. Do we know their policy? Are they targetting individuals or everyone?"
The Doberman moved further back so that he could see both the dig team and the corridor and his eyes switched to night vision.
In-between acts of destruction Morgan found small amounts of time to answer Dorcan's inquiry, they are singling one out to be captured, do not know who... they leaving Exo to whomever their 'big guy' is, and everything else that moves is to be killed. Their objective is to take the crystal and capture the person they want. Capturing one of our team is unimportant, not even worth worrying about right now, just take them down.
"Oh perfect." Chance didn't realise that tidbit of knowledge Morgan had provided, then again she didn't exactly join up to hide. Protectively, she moved her plasma rifle further down the hill where she lay. It was now more by her feet so if she were to push herself into a crouch it would be right there. Plus if they started to take shots at the 'disguised' machine gun at least her rifle would be safe.
She grumbled at Jexx's apparent ignoring of her questions and then his crouch. What is he going to do? Get himself killed?? Another thought occured to her and she shook her head.. She moved her eyes to peer over the crest of the hill at the on-coming jerks, through the turrets of the gun, as she heard the first shots ring out.
Almost.. there..
Off in the distance, Fetrethar could see flashes of light that indicated energy weapons being fired, but it was still much too far away for him to join into the fray. Briefly, he considered breaking cover to enter, but decided that he would be too exposed. Best to stay here, to hold a line of retreat. Sooner or later their forward scouts would have to be pushed back.
As he waited in his camoflauge, plasma rifle held ready, he sent over the comm to Dorcan.
"Can you rush those people out? I find it highly disturbing that the Brotherhood seems to know not only that these scientists have been reinforced, but that they know that we have a bot with us. It smells of a trap. In fact, are we sure that these scientists are not part of some bait to lure us here?"
"Noted," Dorcan said over the comms, and feeling a little trapped himself. "But letting the Brothers have the crystal may be a disaster. I'm staying put a bit longer, but I'll trust you guys to tell me when we need to get out."
So saying, he crouched on the ground, laser rifle at the ready. If it came to that it would probably be too late anyway, but better than being entirely unprepared.
As the vehicles came to life and surged forward, Darkshine got his extra mags out of the rifle bag and positioned them for easy access, at 10 rounds apiece, he hoped he didn't have to start reloading the mags, given that he'd only been issued 3. Comm data came in from Morgan, and upon receiving the order to fire, the feline replied with a cold and calm, "affirmative"
The leopard lined his sights up on the scout car and slowed his breathing as he brought the rifle's sights in line with his target. He adjusted for the distance the scout would travel for the bullet's flight time and held steady. Holding his breath for a moment, he began exhaling slowly while depressing the trigger.
The weapon roared as the heavy slug flew forth, It recoiled heavily against Darkshine's shoulder, despite the oil-spring recoil reduction built into the weapon. He fired 2 more rounds as an insurance policy to make sure the first scout was down.
His sights slew over to a second scout car, and, aiming carefully, he fired a single shot in much the same fashion as with the first car. However, instead of lining up a precision shot again, the feline began a fire for effect as he fired the remaining 6 slugs at the scout with the goal of hitting the car, and not something smaller than that.
Morgan switched to a point-to-point transmission to Dorcan only. The channel indicated its secure state in his ear, Dorcan, be aware that the dig team might have a Brotherhood spy, a sleeper agent, or something much more sinister and you are right in the middle of them. Keep an eye out for unusual activity and keep one of those ears open for anything unusual, even if it is one of the dig team complaining that 'so-and-so is acting different today for some reason'. If you find someone, isolate and capture if you can. Be careful.
"Noted," Dorcan said. "Let me know if you detect any spurious transmissions from this area.".
Shouldering his rifle, Dorcan took out the stunner. He turned his attention back to the dig site, trusting the others to keep an eye on the entrance for him.
Morgan's system would pick up a second signal, coming from the rocks above the ruins. It was broadcasting, using the same Brotherhood cipher that Morgan just broke, so it would be a simple feat to find out what it's transmitting. Morgan would quickly learn that it's a camouflaged listening device that could be deployed remotely via a remote drone, or a catapult of some kind, possibly installed by that scout that had come earlier. It was transmitting visual and audio data to the Brotherhood forces heading right at them.
As soon as the Brotherhood vehicles came into range, they all opened fire. The scout cars that Darkshine fired at swerved as they took fire, and then the first slowed to a stop as the driver expired from gunshot wounds. The vehicle that Morgan fired on swerved and skidded sideways to a halt as the driver slumped. The other soldiers in those cars came out and took cover behind the vehicles and returned fire.
From within the ruins, Dorcan would hear an older man shouting.
"Here! It is here! Quickly, give me that drill!" The man shouted.
The people in the ruins started shuffling around quickly.
"I think we've hit paydirt," Dorcan announced over the comms. So long as he stayed in contact it didn't really matter what else he did - if more than one or two Brotherhood soldiers got into the ruin itself they were likely dead anyway. Mentally he tried to weigh up the advantages of doing nothing and defending the entrance (which the others were already watching) against helping to speed up the process of the dig.
"You need any help there?" he called out.
As the Brotherhood force moved up towards the hills that Jexx and the others were on, they got close enough fire upon several positions. Jexx ducked a little further in the bushes as the ground ten feet in front of him kicked up dirt as it was peppered with plasma and slug fire. He waited a few more moments for the Brotherhood to close some more distance, then decided it was time.
Getting to his feet while keeping low to the ground, Jexx started running straight to the left of the machine gun, along the top of the ridge. With a whooping cry, Jexx started raining down his own red plasma. Between the higher ground up on the ridge, small profile from keeping low to the ground, fast movement, and occasional bush, tree, and rock, Jexx managed to keep any random, unconcentrated return fire from hitting him.
A flare of worry sprang up inside Chance as Jexx took off running and whooping, but she quickly grumbled it down as she squeezed the triggers on the machine gun and fired upon the Brotherhood vehicles. Not here to worry about every damn person.. She made a sweeping motion to cover the front range of the vehicles, but careful not to let the spray get near Jexx (even with his higher ground, she didn't trust this machine).
Darkshine watched as rounds were unleashed from the vehicles, he very calmly and slowly reached down and ejected the magazine. He set it inside the rifle bag, and retrieved a fresh load. Sliding it into place, where he heard the faint *click* of the locking mechanism.
Gently sliding the bolt back, he was greeted with another satisfying click as he chambered a fresh round. The spotted feline adjusted his pose slightly as he looked down the scope, tracking the vehicles again from the safety of his sniper-nest.
He whispered into his comms, "Dorcan, Darkshine here, the brotherhood are advancing fast on your position. We should be able to handle them for now, but keep us informed, Darkshine out."
Morgan traced the lines of an unusual transmission and immediately noticed a point of origin. He identified what appeared to be a remote drone on the rocks above the site, base, this is Fox... there is a listening device above the ruins. Someone get up there and take care of it. Fox out.
Morgan hoped using the comms would minimize the possibility of it being overheard by the device, but he was not certain of it.
Fetrethar winced at the crackle/whine of the comm buzzing to life right beside his left ear. Still, the fox's comments were concise, and to the point, and the mountain man admired the brevity. Too many nattered on in battle as if fighting for home and own were a matter of light repast. "I'll handle it" he breathed into the mouthpiece of his own communicator, wondering if the others also faced the same discomfort.
He eased himself out of his camouflaged enclosure with perhaps excessive care. Still, he wanted to be able to return to his post after he wrecked the transmitter, and that meant not disturbing the netting to the point where it stood out against the craggy flank of the mountain. When it was finished, he started to dash up the slope, shuddering at the prospect of the enemy's men lining up cross-hairs to his back. He thumbed on his belt to activate its shielding, and cursed when the thing refused to emit it's characteristic hum.
If shielding doesn't worked, then speed was his only real defense, and he ascended to the marching song of obscenities. His litany started with the failure of his shield belt to work, and progressed to technology in general, and ended up with this plant and how the Brotherhood inserted something this deep in the perimeter.
He still couldn't shake the conviction that this whole trip was a suicide run. Too many oddities. How these labmen managed to get out here in the first place, how much the enemy knew. Standing still when the enemy had more firepower than you did was a fool's strategy..... And there was still no clear plan on how they were going to get out through resistance.
Fetrethar had reached the general area "above the ruins", and spat onto the ground in disgust at his defeatist thinking. He tried again to get his shielding belt to work and then scanned the ground beneath him for something out of place, and hoped that none of the hostiles broke through while he was this exposed.
Morgan would notice that it didn't seem that the device was transmitting the group's comm information, but rather it was picking up audio signals through the vibrations in the rock face into the ruins, and visual data from the surrounding area.
Fet would quickly notice the listening device. It was small, metal, black in color, and had an antenna on the top of it.
"Just hold them off for a few minutes! We'll have the crystal soon!" Ms. Clay's voice responded to Dorcan.
The vehicle that Jexx started firing at swerved to avoid the projectiles, but ended up sideswiping another and then spinning out, while the other got overbalanced and went into a roll, tossing all but the driver out of the vehicle. One of them sprang up and took refuge behind the overturned vehicle and helped the driver get out. The other two were slow to get up, and were sitting ducks. The rest of the vehicles continued forward, still firing.
"Okay," Dorcan said. "Send someone to me when you're done. I'll be at the entrance."
So saying, he made his way there. Crouching at the edge of the cave mouth with the rifle poking out, he scanned for targets. Just behind him was a small pile of fragmentation grenades.
Fetrethar's hackles rose further at seeing the transmitter. It was out in the open, metallic, obviously unhidden. Why hadn't it been located earlier? Even a cursory observation would have revealed it, and while these diggers certainly seemed blind, surely they at least looked over this mountain they were excavating.
He pressed his ring and middle fingers into the heels of his palms, and heated up his gloves, and reached out to pick up the device, melt it in his grasp. He paused as he stooped down. If there was some booby trap on the thing, he didn't want to be within arms reach of it when it went off. Waving his wrists deactivated the gloves again, and then backed up, and unslung his plasma rifle from across his shoulder, fired perhaps a dozen times at the little rod.
Darkshine leveled his scope on the closest of the halted scout-cars while comming Morgan, "Think you can stop the big one, or should i re-prioritize targets?" His tone, flat and level, as he line the cross-hairs of his scope up with the center mass of a brotherhood zealot. He gently depressed the trigger, sending another heavy 12.7mm slug down range.
Chance stopped firing the machine gun for a moment, crouched back for her plasma riffle and sent off three shots towards the oncoming vehicles. Then went back to spraying them with bullets.
Jexx kept up his strafing after one vehicle overestimated the power of his plasma shots and wound up crashing itself desperately trying to avoid them (something Jexx found inherently amusing). However, even though his plasma wasn't very effective over distances, the fire he kept up should be enough to make sure those goons taking cover behind the vehicle stayed in cover. During that, Jexx scanned ahead, looking for any possible path down the hillsides that had reasonably enough cover to at least allow him to get into a position to flank the crashed vehicles, if not get behind them.
Dorcan stood at the entrance, glancing around. So far the others seemed to be keeping the Brothers at bay, which was all to the good. He took a chance and ran back into the works.
"How's progress?" he called. "Anything I can do?"
Morgan had already zeroed in on the large vehicle and switched to his API (Armor Piercing Incendiary - designed to penetrate armor and fill the space beyond with incendiary material). His AMR2000 had an amazing penetration of 40mm of rolled homogeneous steel armor, so getting through such armor should be possible easily.
He took aim and engaged hoping for better results than earlier.
Darkshine, I have the large target. Continue to engage other targets keep people pinned down as muxh as possible.
Morgan's shot went clean through the larger vehicle's cab, but didn't stop it's progress. Darkshine, and Jexx, and Chance's attacks were able to take down a few more of the grunts near the lighter vehicles. The grunts from the other vehicles that hadn't been shot down by Darkshine, Jexx, and Chance all took cover behind their crashed vehicles and returned fire as best they could. It was quickly becoming a stalemate, except for the larger vehicle barraling towards them.
The transmitter shattered only after a few shots from Fet's assault. It sparked and there was a puff of smoke, and the signal instantly died. It was nothing more than a little spy device, not much armor on it.
Activity in the ruins went quiet except for deep within, where the most excitement was.
"It won't be long now!" A voice from inside cried out.
Fetrethar started back slightly as the device disintegrated, but after a short moment, it became apparent that it didn't have any sort of dying retaliatory ability. After a short pause, to think, the small man scuttled over to a fragment of the device, and trusting the heat resistance in his gloves, seized it, and put it in one of his pouches at his belt. A poor trophy, to be sure, since the thing did not really defend itself, but still, it was a victory against the enemy.
The rumble of fire below him on the mountain slope reminded him that he might yet collect a more prestigious trophy yet, but for now, there was duty to endure. Clicking on his headset, he coughed out "eliminated enemy transmitter. Should I head out back to my previously prepared position, or head into the fray?"
Either way though, he'd have to go downslope, and started picking his way down the mountain face, trying to attract as little attention as possible.
"Dig seems to be going well." Dorcan reported over the comms. "What's the situation outside?" In other words, are we going to need to evacuate at a moment's notice? he added mentally.
Darkshine adjusted his zoom on the scope for a more panoramic view, hunting for the darting zealots as they moved from cover to cover, often times blind-firing in the general direction where they thought people were. Darkshine waited for a target to pop up, carefully lining his sights up, hoping the zealot would stay out just a few moments more as he depressed the trigger again.
The weapon roared, then bucked slightly as Darkshine began to slew the rifle onto a new target, whether or not his round actually hit, the shell whizzing by the soldier's head would make him think twice about standing up again.
Grunting in frustration Chance replied to Dorcan's inquisition as she continued to fire at whatever would pop out of cover long enough to get a piece of metal lodged into their skull.
"We got most of them to hold back, but they're still pretty angry with us. One vehicle still coming... hrm.. should take care of that."
She crouched back, grabbed her plasma rifle and sent six shots towards the on-coming vehicle.
"Roger," Dorcan replied. "Let me know if it looks like they'll break through."
We should be able to hold them back. Concentrate on keeping them pinned down, let the snipers and big guns concentrate on taking them out. Though by all means take a shot of opportunity if one presents itself.
Morgan poured three more shots into the front of the vehicle with Armor Piercing incendiaries. Saving a few rounds of the incendiary, he switched back to AR rounds and concentrated on taking out engine mechanical, tires and drive-train. Something had to be moving this vehicle and this weapon could penetrate 40mm of rolled homogeneous steel armor. It was just a matter of time.
After a few more fell to Darkshine, Chance, and Jexx's attacks, the remaining few grunts behind the overturned vehicles resorted to blind firing, sticking only their guns over their cover in the general direction of the ruins and opened fire as best they could. Their shots were wildly inaccurate and wholly unpredictable, but they kept on shooting anyway. One of them chanced a peek around the corner of the vehicle nearest to Jexx and fired at him.
The larger vehicle finally bellowed out a stream of black smoke and sputtered to a halt. The door opened, which the grunt inside used as cover, and fired through the window. The back of the truck opened and a larger man, clad in black robes adorned with bright red circuit lines and his face covered with the same featureless metal mask, came out carrying a large metal shield and large rifle. He stuck the shield in the ground and used it for cover. The rifle whined as it charged and there was a "THOOM" as the round fired, going just over Chance's head into the rock wall behind her, leaving a large black mark, surrounding a hole. The remaining grunts cheered, and followed his example. Gaining renewed vigor, they came up over their cover and opened fire again.
Around that time, an excited voice came up from the ruins.
"This is it! I have it! Give me the box, now!"
Ms. Clay came to the entrance, but didn't stick her head out.
"We're ready to move as soon as you guys are!" She cried out to Dorcan.
Dorcan's heart leapt. He thought for a moment - was it worth him personally carrying the crystal himself, on the grounds that he was less easy to kill? The idea of then driving off into the sunset with the others and leaving the dig team stranded made him smile and he shook his head.
"Stay here for now," the Doberman said. "The crystal is important but our main objective was to protect Dr. Woodworth. And his staff," he added hastily. "Your own safety aside, we may need to consider sealing the entrance with explosives to deter the Brotherhood from taking the site. We can get you out of here but we don't really have the manpower to defend it indefinitely, I'm sorry to say."
"Okay," he asked over the comms. "We are ready to leave. Are you providing cover, or should we wait for the current wave to end?"
"F--K! WAY TOO CLOSE!" Chance could only blink once at the large hole that now was behind her... taunting her saying 'heh, heh.. you're next.' Grumbling a bunch of curses she put down her metallic friend, laid down, rolled onto her back, lifted her hips ever so slightly as she unbuckled her belt and slid it from the loops on her pants. She rolled back onto her belly, raised to a low crouch, and carefully strung the belt through the loops for the triggers. Before tightening the belt to depress those triggers she replied to Dorcan over the comm.
"Well.. some fruit cake just paraded out and shot a freakin' hole into the rock behind me.. looks like he has a shield too. If we can take out that pompous prick we'd be set, but honestly I wouldn't let anyone out of any sort of cover at the moment. That's just my opinion, though. Perhaps the others have a better viewpoint."
With that she tightened the belt, setting the machine gun into a constant fire, and dragged her plasma rifle to point at them between the turrets as she lowered herself to her stomach. She'll have to have a nice, relaxing time cleaning her rifle after this.. hopefully. Chance swayed the machine gun from side to side, spraying the jerks while she concentrated her plasma fire on the flamboyantly robed bas***d.
Still making his way downslope to a firing position, Fetrethar was in a position of relative calm to make tactical assessments.
Most of the hostiles were simply firing blindly, although still active, and that meant a breakout would either have to be armored, or allow for saturation fire to keep them suppressed. Some sort of heavily armed enemy had just entered the fray, and a lot of the baddies seemed to look to him for leadership, ceasing fire to admire the cannon-like instrument in progress.
Thumbing on his communicator, he stated. "I agree with Chance's assessment, provided we can keep the hostile grunts in a panicked state. It would not do if we were out of cover when they decided to fire for real. Furthermore, do we have any information as to how many enemy vehicles might be able to mount pursuit? I am still worried of a sort of loose blockade, one we can't see.
Either way, we need to take down that leader. He seems to have some sort of odd shield. Would it be vulnerable to plasma fire? I am certain I could kill him with my gloves, but, I don't think I can get close enough to him to grab him, not in the open like this. Still, descending to a firing position. If we can fire at him from two directions, he won't be able to block both at once."
Making his way from rock to rock, Fetrethar clambered down, trying to reach a firing position unobserved.
Darkshine hadn't been watching for Jexx's approach. Instead, he'd been watching for anyone to stick more than a rifle out and spray. The large 'man' walked out from the smoking wreck carrying a shield that looked more like the front end of a tank, than a shield, and Darkshine couldn't get a clear shot. However the metal-plate on leg's mere presence seemed to instill more courage in the foolish grunts. One clambered out of cover to get a shot at someone somewhat nearby, the zealot's rifle was raised and his attention was one someone else. Darkshine lined the cross-hairs up with the man's throat, and depressed the trigger. He then fired the rest of the magazine into the surrounding Zealots.
As the 10th and final casing came to rest under the camouflaged netting, the spotted feline clicked his comm unit, "Morgan, Darkshine here, I had an idea about how to take this guy down, but it'll take some very expert timing. The next time he pops back up to take a shot, i'll try and knock him back with shot, see if you can't drop a shot clean through while he's still recovering... The problem is, you'll have to guess where his head and body are going to end up..."
As he finished passing along his plan, Darkshine unlatched the magazine, setting it gently in his rifle-bag, retrieving the still loaded mag, inserting it into his weapon, and cambering the first round.
"Looks like we may be here a little while," Dorcan said, glancing at the dig team. "If there's any tools or stuff you've left on-site, there's still time to pick it up."
As Jexx was ducking, dodging, and always moving erraticaly, one of the zealots caught sight of him and loosed some fire his way. The bullets whizzed by and impacted the area around him as he passed behind a tree. Jexx immediately twisted his body to return more concentrated fire, but just as he finished the volley and began focusing forward again, he noticed that the zealot's head suddenly jerked around as bullets impacted that general area. That was good.
The thing that was not-so-good, however, was that Jexx noticed that a large Enforcer was in the Brotherhoo'ds midst, and-
THOOM!
-he had a really big gun. Fortunately, that shot had not been aimed at Jexx, but...that kind of heavy-impact, large-area-effect weapon was the most dangerous kind to the completely unprotected Jexx. If it was turned towards him, he would be in big trouble...
Jexx was now almost perpendicular to the Brotherhood position in relation to where his allies were, and running out of cover fast. Putting on a last burst of speed, Jexx quickly dove behind the nearest thing just barely big enough to conceal his curled-up form, a small bush, and held still. Hopefully, he had escaped notice of that Enforcer, and the Zealot that caught sight of him wouldn't be telling anyone else. If not, well...running wouldn't be much more help than the bush.
From above the action, the still concealed sniper observed the change in events. The large man in robes appeared to be a leader, and his actions renewed the determination of the remaining grunts.
Morgan smiled to himself and thought out-loud into the comms, If we can take down the big guy... Oh, that actually is a good idea... everyone, focus all your attacks on that big robed guy. Taking him out should break morale somewhat, plus with that cannon, we will not be able to make a run for it too safely.
He took stock of his ammunition supplies and marked off his AP Incendiaries, having just used up the remainder. He still had two clips of HEAP and more than enough of the standard KEPs. Loading the first clip of his High Explosive Armor Piercing rounds, he brought his cross hairs on target for the large, cannon wielding, robed person and fired quickly spreading shots between head and upper torso. Rounds that penetrate armor and then explode are considered excessive on soft targets, but Morgan had a feeling the big guy was more akin to a tank than an infantry soldier. Good thing he uses an anti-materiel rifle.
The larger soldier, with more agility than it appeared that he actually had, dropped to a kneeling position behind the shield, just as Darkshine's and Morgan's rounds penetrated the vehicle and his shield, missing him by just a tiny bit. Morgan's round exploded over his head, causing black marks on his mask and making the hood of his robe to burn, revealing that his mask was a full helmet. He pulled a lever on his rifle, it made a loud clack as it ejected a fat steaming shell, which hit the ground with a thud. He pushed the bolt back in which loaded up another shell and primed the rifle. This took some time, and he stayed behind cover while the rifle charged. Unnoticed by him, as he worked the rifle, the underside of the rifle was sparking.
The grunts renewed their attack, but quickly dived back behind cover when Chance's spray reminded them that they weren't fighting unarmed civilians. One of grunts caught sight of where Jexx had gone and patted his comrade's shoulder and pointed to where Jexx was hiding. They both started firing on Jexx's position.
A voice came up from the ruins.
"We have everything we need! We can leave now! What's the situation out there?"
"It still looks pretty evenly matched out there," Dorcan said, taking a quick peek out of the end of the tunnel. "We did have a warbot on our side at one point, but I guess there must be a problem there.
"Anyway, I think we'd better say here for now. In the meantime, what artifacts have you actually obtained, and what do you hope to learn from them?"
Nobody seemed to be paying much attention to him, on either side of the battle. No new orders or information flooded in from the headset, and the chafe and heat from that armor vest the quartermaster had doled out seemed to be a wear on him this battle. Still, better to have and not need, than need and not have, he supposed. But the hostiles weren't even firing at him, although Fetrethar did not feel bold enough to walk normally, instead dashing in a crouch from covered position to covered position.
Finding what he wanted, Fetrethar went prone, poking the end of his rifle out from some wiry scrub. He had skirted the worst of the battlespace, and now had a bead on that big one, the one with the shield and what looked like a portable cannon of some sort. No matter how quickly he moved his iron pavise, he wouldn't be able to cover both Fetrethar's vantage point and the one's firing from near the dig. As of the moment though, he was ducked against the barrier, reloading his massive weapon.
Smiling grimly, Fetrethar suppressed a war cry, took aim at the large figure, and opened fire with his plasma rifle.
Rather than try and take down the shield, Darkshine tried taking out the weapon. Looking for signs of the large cannon from behind the shield, whether it be sights, barrel, or grip. If the weapon was taken out of action, that should crush the rest of the opposition's will to fight.
Tapping his headset, Darkshine sent on the team channel, "Things are at a stalemate, if people aren't ready to move, i'd recommend getting them to do so. I'd like to pack up and head out as quickly as humanly possible."
As bullets and bolts started impacting around the bush Jexx was hiding behind, all he could think was Well, at least it's not the Enforcer's gun...
Since he couldn't return fire effectively, and those small, powerful bolts wouldn't be stopped by the itty-bitty bush, Jexx was rather trapped. However, there was one thing he could do, he laid on his back and drew up his metal legs in front of him, facing the Zealots shooting him, creating something of a shield, as any glancing shots should just bounce off the meal of his legs. He vaugely remembered doing something similar to this, some time ago...
"We are definitely ready to move out," Dorcan confirmed to Darkshine over the comms. "But our mission was to safeguard the professor. I can't risk these people's lives if it's still too dangerous."
We are going to have to take out the Brotherhood forces that are already here. With their weapons, fleeing would be too risky and we would have to have cover, meaning some of us would have to stay behind. Dorcan, if you can do it safely, start getting people into the vans and have them prepped so we can get out of here. Morgan stated over the comms. DK, can you get a clear shot on the big guy from where you are?
Morgan took aim and angled his shot downward for a penetration that would impact with the lower torso or legs, which should detonate the HE right into the large soldier. He did have to expose his otherwise nicely hidden position in order to make such an angle, so he prepared to relocated if they attempted to engage him.
"Roger that," Dorcan said, and turned to face the archaeologists.
"Okay," he said, looking very serious. "I've been asked to try and move us to the vans. I'm assuming that the Brothers are more interested in taking the site itself than... than eliminating people who have seen it, but I don't know for sure. So I'm looking for volunteers, I guess.
"I'm no strategist, but I'm thinking that I should escort small groups of people to the vehicles, maybe just one or two each. I will be on the outside - try and stay so that I'm between the enemy and you. if I get hit it probably won't be as fatal, or so I hope."
Dorcan paused. A real 'Cubi would have wings that could be made stop small-arms fire, but he wasn't quite sure if his fake wings were armoured or not.
"Any questions, or suggestions?"
There was a silence from the group in the ruins, and then silent murmuring. It seemed likely that no one wanted to risk their lives.
"Oh for crying out loud, I'll go!" Ms. Clay's voice rang out.
Ms. Clay came out of the ruins. She was a feline, a grey tabby, with black hair, cropped short, with green eyes. She stayed just inside the entrance to the ruins.
"What do you need me to do?" She asks.
The larger soldier came back up and angled the rifle towards where he thought the snipers were. But just as he was about to fire, Morgan's round caught him and the force threw him back, away from his shield, and making his rifle shoot up into the air, harmlessly. Curses came from the grunts as they realized just how bad of a position they were in. They were outgunned here, but they were determined to fight on, to choose death over retreat. They all came up from their positions and started firing randomly at the ruins.
"The vans are in that direction," Dorcan pointed from the edge of the cave. "I will go in front, I want you to stick close behind me. Use me as a shield and try to keep yourself hidden as we make our way there.
"We will do that in a moment," he said, noticing that some of the gunmen had made themselves visible. "First..."
He took a couple of frag grenades from his pile, chose a couple of targets who seemed closest, and threw the grenades at them before ducking back into the cave. "Hopefully that will reduce our fire a little." He picked a couple more grenades just in case, and began the journey.
As soon as the big guy fell over, Darkshine lined his cross-hairs up with the oddly featureless helmet. He held his breath, steadying himself. He depressed the trigger slowly while exhaling. He felt the recoil ripple through his shoulder, the vapor trail of the round still visible in his scope. With any luck, the round should hit about center mass... If not, he was already adjusting for windage and drop.
Darkshine's focus was the big guy. Once he was gone, the smaller troops could be taken out in short order.
Seeing the big guy go down, Chance almost let out a 'whoop'.. but as things would have it.. his fall seemed to make the grunts act like cornered animals.
"Ffffffffff"
She continued her rigged machine gun spray with one hand and with the other shot 5 more plasma shots towards the closest grunts.
Fetrethar kept to his position, and smiled grimly as the grunts began to charge. Stupid of them, really. Whomever the Brotherhood had running this siege didn't really seem the two way nature of an extraction. They should have called up more force and Fetrethar wasn't sure why they weren't. Perhaps they didn't understand what exactly they were trying to accomplish here.
Still, that was for analysis after they got back. For now, Fetrethar shifted aim to the closest grunt and opened fire on the unprotected warriors. As the plasma burst out towards the rushing figures, Fetrethar wondered how he was going to take trophies from them.
After the bolt stopped flying around Jexx, he quickly took a peek over the bush--and noticed the Brotherhood goons had forsaken their cover and seemed determined to throw as much fire as they could towards the main group up on the hill as the group returned their own fire.
This was his chance.
Jexx darted out from behind the bush again, going further in the direction he had been; around and behind the Brotherhood position. He zigzagged as best as he could, running low to the ground, and launched a stream of plasma shots towards the circuit-robed enemies. As Jexx's angle in relation to the group and the brotherhood increased, his shots began coming from the Brotherhood's rear--catching them in quite a crossfire. Hopefully, if the combined fire from everyone on the goon's cover-less forms didn't finish them off now, the crossfire would set that up to happen very shortly...
Morgan focused his scope on the helmet of the big guy. Silently he swore an oath to whatever powers might listen that the large enemy better not be some shrew in an exoframe and the head was perfunctory.
The fiery haired lad was struck by how ridiculous that sounded as he pulled the trigger firing his AP rounds at that critical location.
Had he not been lingering on odd thoughts, he would have had more time to be self-conscious about how odd an averaged sized, slight framed male looked firing a 15.2mm weapon from the shoulder. The Aestralite AMR2000 was meant to be crew-served after all. The stature of the weapon made him appear like some Section 2 cyborg agent, except he'd be the wrong side of a fratello.
The grenades that Dorcan threw exploded near one of the overturned vehicles, which caused it to roll back over, on top of the grunts that were using it as cover. It's fuel tank exploded at the same time, having been penetrated by a piece of flaming shrapnel. The grunts on that side died instantly.
Ms. Clay started to follow Dorcan, but flinched at the explosions. She froze for just a second, and screamed as a round flew over her head, which caused her legs to start moving again, and she resumed following Dorcan... though much closer now.
Morgan and Darkshine's rounds caught larger soldier in his chest and head, leaving visible holes... though no blood came forth. Though the others couldn't hear it, there was a beeping noise coming from his uniform, and suddenly smoke billowed out from under his uniform as the built-in self-destruct melted his body.
Chance's, Jexx's and Fet's firing on the remaining grunts brought down all but one of the remaining grunts. He took cover behind the vehicle. He pressed a button inside his uniform, and cried out for Mother as the self-destruct bomb exploded, destroying the other vehicle and the other grunts in the explosion.
Once the explosions died down, everything fell silent.
"Well," Dorcan said, breaking the sudden stillness, "I guess we don't have to worry about sniper fire anymore. Guys, can you confirm that everyone's dead?"
To Ms. Clay, he added: "All the same, we should probably hurry - it's only a matter of time before reinforcements arrive, and we probably won't be as lucky next time."
Seeing as they hadn't got very far anyway, Dorcan turned tail and went back into the dig to fetch the others. If he didn't have to protect them individually, he might as well lead the entire group.
Fetrethar kept prone on the ground, the butt of the rifle issued to him digging into the pit of his stomach as he fired. The weapon was getting uncomfortably hot. Not dangerously so, but enough to produce irritation. It was difficult to ascertain which enemies he had felled in the storm of fire, but he was certain two grunts, those two, were mowed down by his plasma. He noted with some interest that the corpses tended to explode after a short time, although the explosion only usually disintegrated their armor; an odd feat he was unsure of how it was managed.
The battlefield was still and smelly and silent, and his weapon cooled. No further enemy strikes, no further detected presence. Nothingnothingnothing. He didn't realize he spoke aloud until he heard the crackle of his headset repeating his words "Could it really have been that easy?"
Fusting his belt to make sure the shield was back on, Fetrethar stood up, and holstered his firearm and hefted his backpack. Dashing out of cover, he went to the spot where he felled the two enemy warriors, falling almost on top of each other in death. He grinned ghoulishly at the corpses, and reached into his pocket, pulled out a sharp knife. What trophies to take? Neither of them seemed to have any equipment worth salvaging, and he didn't have any preservatives with him, a situation he would need to rectify. Grumbling, he took a tuft of brown hair from one of the grunts, and noting the other was bald, reached into his mouth and jiimmied with his knife a little until he extracted a molar. He shook off some of the blood, and then hurriedly stuffed both artifacts into one of his pouches, and put his knife back where it belonged.
After that, he headed back to the position of the others. Even if this group was completely defeated, there was little point in staying on this rock any longer than necessary.
We had a small but useful tactical advantage and a lot of luck, but I would not say it was easy. Anyone injured? Status report from all teams, please.
As Morgan spoke into the comm, he swept the field from his vantage point and when it seemed fairly clear the enemy was defeated, he shouldered his cannon, and gathered up his few items on the ground. He was careful to collect each of his spent clips, but he had no casings to collect as the AMR used caseless 15.2mm. Doing this he managed to miss Fetrethar's barbaric and utterly reprehensible trophy collecting.
Drawing pistols, he took the easy way down as he leaped over the edge and bounded down the slight incline of the cliff face. To cover greater distance and to break momentum, he made short hops down. Landing at the bottom, Morgan bounded over to the Brotherhood's convoy line and made a quick search to see if anything or anyone still lived or anything useful remained.
Let us get everyone from the dig loaded up and ready to go. Dark, can you keep an eye on the horizon for a bit and verify we do not have enemy reinforcements in bound.
With panted breath, Chance uttered a curse to the fallen men, she did not realize how much her heart was racing from the stand-off.
"Everything fine here." She replied over the comm, still catching her breath as she packed up her rifle, strapping it to her back again. While stretching her eyes surveyed the destruction, seeing some comrades she felt relief, hoping they were all without injury. The smell in the air was new to her, she sniffed a bit then snorted. Not great.. but at least it's them and not us.
Dusting off her cargo pants she walked down the hill, looking around for anyone left and kicking various leftovers of small fires.
Scanning the devastation through his scope, Darkshine continued looking for any signs of movement. He pulled back and scanned with his eyes as well when going for a panoramic view. He also took note of where the spent casings had landed.
Bringing his head back into position, he clicked his comm-set on, and replied "Got you covered, just let me know when we're ready to move."
He started scanning the horizon as best he could, checking for signs of additional vehicles.
"Whoohooo!"
Jexx, as was par for the course with him, whooped and cheered as he rushed for the fallen Brotherhood convoy. When he got there, he made sure to give every corpse a couple of good kicks, just to be sure, and melted the heads off of anything that looked at him funny. When he was done, he ran back up to the group on top of the hills, still bouncing around and high on the excitement.
"I'm fine," Dorcan replied. "Ms. Clay is a little shell-shocked, but doesn't seem to be physically harmed."
Unlocked at the request of the players.
Ms. Clay was definitely shaken from the whole ordeal.
"If I knew it was going to be this dangerous, I would have stayed home!" She exclaimed.
Though she still stayed close to Dorcan, in case there was more danger.
The horizon was still, there was no sign of any approaching vehicles. The wreckage from the Brotherhood vehicles burned in various places, and the bodies of the Brotherhood soldiers were smoking, their self-destruct mechanisms had all gone off when each had died, rendering their armor and weapons to useless slag.
"Hey out there! Is it safe yet?" A voice from the ruins called up.
Dorcan glanced back. Someone had called out from the ruins, but he was too far away and couldn't make out what they'd said. Maybe someone closer to the cave entrance had...
"Anybody catch that?" he asked over the comms. "Is there a problem in the ruins?"
His stride slowed in case he needed to run back there, but in the meantime he kept on moving.
Darkshine clicked his comm-piece "All clear, returning to rendezvous location momentarily... Judging by the size of the force involved, reinforcements could be ready to move shortly, suggest we ex-filtrate at the up-most expediency"
The speckled feline began collecting his gear, carefully packing the rifle into the bag, along with every spent shell casing, every empty magazine and every fresh magazine. He wanted to leave as little evidence as possible. After another visual inspection, he brought the carbine out in front, resting the grip in his right hand, while slinging the rifle bag over his shoulder with the left. He carefully moved down rock-face, working his way back to the dig site.
Turning towards the direction of Dorcan, he spoke into the comm, "I did not hear that either. Chance, Fet, Jexx... could one of you check on the dig site and see what they need. Let us start moving everyone out and into the vans."
Morgan had just finished scragging any obvious or known (he is an embedded systems programmer) computer units within the enemy vehicles and prepared to head towards the dig site.
"Agreed Darkshine, let us mount up and pull out." He said with a wave and a pointing gesture back towards the road.
Jexx was still excited and in a good mood from the fight. He didn't say anything as Morgan's voice came over the comm asking him to check out the ruins, and simply did it, running in that direction energetically. When he got there, he skidded to a halt in front of the archeologists.
"Hey hey, what's up? Anyone need anything?"
Confident that one of the others would be more suited to dealing with the diggers, Fetrethar made sure that his trophies were secure, and then went to check on the vehicles. Sooner or later they'd need to depart this barren rock, and he was sure that they'd be attacked on leaving, so best be ready.
Chance saw a very jubilant Jexx trot about towards the ruins after Morgan's transmission, so at a jog she caught up with him to also check out what was going on. Everyone else seemed set with their own little tasks and without admitting it to anyone she was slightly without a purpose right then.
She just stood a few feet from Jexx, peering about.
The people in the ruins were a little taken aback at Jexx's sudden appearance and more so by his jaunty mood. Chance's appearance was a little more comforting, as they had seen her manning the gun.
"Uh, we were uhh... umm I..." One young man who was covered head to to in dirt, stammered out.
An older man wearing a similarly dirty outfit, wearing a hard hat, and sporting a thick orange mustache with just a few wisps of grey in it pushed his way to the front. He was carrying a metal box.
"I am Dr. Woodworth, an archeologist of considerable note," He said, putting emphasis on his position, "and I would appreciate it if we could vacate the premises so that I can get back to my laboratory to study my findings."
His tone was one that only hinted at exasperation.
The whole area had gone completely silent as the dust settled. Dorcan and Ms. Clay would have no problems making it to the van. Darkshine and Fet would have no problems getting down from their positions.
Morgan's work on the computer systems in the vehicles would go unimpeded. They were low-priority systems and contained no data of any value. The systems on the soldiers bodies were already completely fried.
Dorcan led Ms. Clay to the van and hovered for a bit, unsure whether to guard the vans or help with the evacuation. "What's our policy on leftover weapons?" he asked over the comm. "I left some grenades by the ruin, should we retrieve them or is our priority to get away ASAP?"
To Ms. Clay, he added, "Is there anything left in the ruin that we need? Stuff that we couldn't consider bringing while we were under fire?"
Chance's expression softened towards the stammering man.. but once the old guy stepped out and said his notes of supremacy, well, her normal glare hardened considerably. She moved next to Jexx.
"Well, Dr. Woodsworth, forgive us for being so slow.." Much acid was put into her words. ".. we had to bring out your red carpet... and didn't want your assistants' blood and your own to stain it."
Her fists tightened. How dare he act like we didn't just save his a**
Morgan was satisfied with the destruction of anything that might hold data on their activities here. Shifting the weight of his weapon a little, to move it to a slightly more comfortable position, he began moving towards the vans. Unaware of the coarse reception Chance had received from an ungrateful professor, he addressed Dorcan's query, "Hmmm, I would recommend we pull everything we can carry out, especially the weapons. No one is bearing down on us immediately, but we should not tarry too long."
Reaching the entrance, he was not happy to not find little archaeology peoples not scurrying out and into vans already. Calling into the area where they were still gathered, he used his best angry officer voice, "Oi! You lot still in here? We need to move, double-time!"
With the others in tow and loading up their respective vehicle, Darkshine proceeded to his ground-effect transport, and stowed the rifle-bag. He kept the carbine, but given the current situation, a heavy sniper would just get in the way.
Emerging from his own vehicle, Darkshine commed Dorcan: "Anything i can do to speed things along?"
"I'm going to stay by the van," Dorcan decided, as he answered Darkshine over the comm. "If you're near the dig, you should find a pile of unused grenades near the entrance. I think that's all I've left behind, unless there is something else belonging to the dig team that we now have the option of retrieving."
Without the need for anymore encouragement from Morgan, the group, being led by Dr. Woodworth, came out of the dig site hurriedly. Each person was carrying tools, boxes, and various artifacts unearthed in the ruins. Dr. Woodworth was holding onto his box tenaciously. It was obviously an artifact of great importance. All of them made their way to the vehicles. Dr. Woodworth still kept his attitude of importance, while the others in his group were overly grateful for the rescue. It wasn't long before everyone was accounted for and had a place in the vehicles. Dr. Woodworth spoke up once everyone was accounted for.
"There we are, everyone's all here. May we please be on our way now?" He asked, with much more politeness in his voice.
Jexx was oblivious to Dr. Woodsworth's attitude, but didn't hear him actually say anything about needing anything in particular. Jexx meandered about aimlessly while everyone packed up their things, as Jexx had nothing to pack, and slowing calmed down from his excitement. When everyone began clambering into the vehicles, Jexx happened to follow Woodsworth.
Inside the vehicle, Jexx sat and stretched, moving his limbs about and nanomorphing his handcannons to hands and back boredly. After a little bit of time, he noticed how tightly Woodsworth was clutching a box.
"Yo, what's in the box? Izzit what we came for? What's so important about it?" Jexx asked curiously.
Dorcan belted up, and took one last look at the hill. Aside from all the dead people and other signs of war, it was actually kind of pretty and he could imagine himself as a puppy trying to explore every nook and cranny.
Shaking himself back to the present, the Doberman glanced around and waited for his vehicle to move out.
Nothing seemed wrong with any of their departure vehicles, and standing out in the open where more Brotherhood forces could intercept them seemed to be a poor choice. Still, those diggers would be done when they were done. Fetrethar didn't quite keep his weapons out, but he scanned the horizon for any approaching forces.
Once down from the rock face, Darkshine collected what gear he could find, then loaded himself into his own vehicle. He waited at the rear-hatch on the air-cushioned vehicle, waving both soldiers and scientists inside. "Let's get moving, get your gear stowed, grab a seat, and lets move!"
He opened a locker, securing his own gear inside, he kept the carbine clipped to his harness. While he was fairly sure he could hold his own, he didn't want to take the risk of someone else thinking they were in charge while in his vehicle. Particularly a scientist.
Morgan retreived the box of grenades where Dorcan had indicated he had left them. He performed a quick once over of the location and silently wished he had a demolitions team to collapse the entrance at least.
Padding over to "his" vehicle, the one he drove here in, he called out loud, "everyone stow their gear, keep weapons close and mount up. We need to be out of hear an hour ago."
He hit the seat of the van started it up and glared at their charges to make sure they all buckled up. When everyone was ready he lead the pack out and back towards their destination.
Everyone settled in for the long drive back to Rebellion HQ. The archeologists settled down, getting over the attack. Most of them mention that they had never been on such a dangerous rig before... but they'd do it again! How exciting! Thankfully, there would be no more excitement today, as there was no pursuit.
Dr. Woodworth still clutched onto the box he was carrying. He looks over at Jexx as soon as they get moving.
"To answer your question, what I have in this box could be an incredible link to our past. Inside of this box is a crystal, it glows but gives off no heat or radiation. I believe that our ancient ancestors created them for reasons I have yet to decipher. But it is a certain thing that these crystals were created prior to the great magical devestation." He says.
As the vans went along, a figure became visible going towards the dig site. As they approached, the figure started waving his arms trying to flag them down. Upon closer inspection, it would be found that the figure was a man, around college age, with a rather messy head of brown hair. Wearing a gray t-shirt and loose-fitting pants, his arms, face, and neck were tanned to a light brown, while on his back was a faded backpack, obviously carrying some items, but not so many as to appear stuffed. "Hey!" He shouted when the vans got close. "You guys coming from the dig in the mountains?"
At the shout, Dorcan arose from his dozing and snapped to attention... someone was trying to flag down the vehicles!
Listening intently, his ears raised slightly as they mentioned the dig.
"He knows too much," he muttered, "We'll have to kill him."
Although enclosed in Darkshine's vehicle, and not having a view to the outside, some odd working of these people's vehicles allowed for chatter between different members of the convoy. It was..... Dorcan, he thought, the dog-man. No proper introduction with any of them, hard to keep faces and voices straight. Still, killing was permanent, and Fetrethar was always a curious one.
"We shouldn't kill him, at least not immediately. I thought this dig itself was supposed to be secret. We should probably interrogate him first, before giving him the knife. This whole operation has seemed way too easy to me, and I don't like being in the dark."
Dorcan blinked and his ears drooped. Is he being serious?
Darkshine flicked the control toggle, "Ranger, circle the bogey... do not identify as bandit, yet. I'm going out for a closer look. 20KPH should be slow enough."
He held the carbine's grip in one hand, thumb resting on the safety. "If you don't have military experience, Stay in your seat. If you're going to back me up, stay on the skirt."
Clicking his comm-set, he replied, "Moving in to intercept, attempting live apprehension if possible, approaching with extreme caution unless otherwise ordered."
He flicked a locker open, grabbed several sets of zip-ties, then headed towards the hatch. Stepping out onto the armored skirt of the air-cushioned vehicle, the feline leveled the weapon at about the area the new-comer would come into view. If orders didn't come, Ranger would start circling this person, whoever they were, and Darkshine would be in a position to either gun him down, or step off the still moving vehicle and move in closer.
Morgan considered this newcomer carefully. Training would dictate a simple resolution, quick and permanent silence. However, that would make him seem too much like the Brotherhood for his liking, "no I'm not like the Brotherhood, we have to be better than that. I am no Duke Togo either."
Swallowing his tactical training, Morgan spoke into the comm, "Darkshine, do not terminate target, apprehend and restrain. If the target resists, do not inflict any permanent damage, and make it fast. Grab, restrain and search for locators, transmitters, or tracking devices."
"I was just thinking aloud," Dorcan protested. "I wouldn't seriously suggest murdering hikers on principle. If we kill too many innocents by mistake - or as a precaution - that's going to have a negative impact on our organisation from a public-relations point. People aren't exactly going to welcome us as liberators if we leave a trail of dead citizens in our wake.
"That said, I would very much like to know just how much he knows, and how he came to know it. There may be a perfectly simple explanation for it."
Dorcan looked out at the hiker - not for the first time, he regretting being unable to read thoughts.
Clicking his comm-set, Darkshine replied: "Apprehending now, will proceed with caution... over and out."
He braced himself on the outer hull as the vehicle pitched upward slightly burning off a good deal of it's forward velocity. As the front started to tilt down, Darkshine stepped off the craft with a hop. He landed on 2 feet, letting his armor's strength enhancements take the majority of the force as he moved in. The carbine's muzzle had moved from being leveled at chest level, to something more around the guts.
His masked appearance, all-black armor, and assault weapon were all very visible, Darkshine's movements were meant to be intimidating. He overdid the graceful movements, flowing with each step he took. He barked at the excitable fellow, "Hands behind your head, and no sudden moves. This is for your own protection as well as ours!"
"Holy crap!" Sean shouted, flinching as the armored feline approached. Slowly putting his hands behind his head, he mumbled under his breath, "Who'd've thought that tip I got from the crazy hobo would be this sensitive?" He covered the small port at the base of his skull, just in case the people that were apprehending him decided to design a virus to upload into his brain... He shuddered at the thought of never being able to stop thinking about something horrific enough to be deemed virus-worthy. "So... Anything else you need me to do?" Even though he hadn't managed to complete high school thanks to his own research into some apparently rather sensitive matters, his mother had always told him to be nice, helpful, and appreciative of people with guns telling you to do things. Except when the people with guns want you dead for no solid reason, Sean mentally appended to the teaching.
Darkshine approached slowly, cautiously. He walked carefully around the new-comer. He watched him carefully, while slipping the zip-ties out of a pouch. "Look, just remain calm, and i'm sure we'll get this sorted out quickly... but... if my line of work has taught me anything, its' that you can never be too careful around the unexpected."
He hoped the man would cooperate as he made his move to pull his arms down, and tie them behind his back with the pieces of plastic.
Sean let out a bark of laughter at the dark cat's comment. "No kidding... I've had to deal with that considering my own relations with certain parties." Namely, the Brotherhood, Sean thought silently.
Then, the feline started pulling his arms towards his lower back.
Aw, crud, Sean thought as his hands were pulled away from covering the port at the base of the skull. Please don't upload a virus into my head, please don't upload a virus into my head, please don't upload a virus into my head! He started preparing to send a blast of magic into the armored feline if he felt it even get too close to the shiny metal socket.
As the prisoner cooperated, Darkshine very gingerly started patting down the individual, running a quick scan over his body, sniffing for explosives, or anything that could possibly be weaponized. He clicked his comm-piece "Bogey detained... does not appear to be hostile, however, extreme caution should be exercised."
He lowered his voice a bit hoping to keep the new-comer from hearing. "Suggest we move all scientists to other vehicles, and detain this one with military personnel only. Awaiting further orders."
"If he was trying to hitch a ride, he's just got one," Dorcan said, and grinned toothily. "Probably more than he bargained for, though.
"Darkshine, your plan sounds sensible, though it does remind me of my first encounter with the Brotherhood. Ah well, I suppose it is better to beg forgiveness if he is harmless than to regret it later if he's some kind of agent."
Morgan was in agreement, "Aye, I think that is a good idea. All vehicles pull over and let's switch out quickly now. Have all team members relocate to the vehicle Darkshine is in, we can have the dig personnel take over the secondary vehicle and follow us."
Jexx had seemed to latch on to every word Dr. Woodsworth was saying about his find...but it seemed even Jexx could crash. Before Dr. Woodsworth was done, Jexx's head was rolled back, and he was snoring lightly.
He slept through the entire stop due to the hitchhiker, even with the comms in his ear, and was even still asleep.
Fetrethar, hearing the chatter from the backwash in Darkshine's vehicle, chimed in, "We should probably have someone shepherding the diggers though, inside the vehicle, that is. I am not certain I would want to leave them on their own like that." Or out of our sight, for that matter.
"If it helps, I'd be happy to go with the dig team," Dorcan offered. I'd rather like to know more about what we've rescued from the dig, he added mentally.
When Jexx fell asleep, Dr. Woodworth stopped talking and shook his head.
"You did it again doctor." Ms. Clay remarked.
"I am well aware of that." Dr. Woodworth retorted firmly. "Are we to be moved?" He asked aloud.
Morgan spoke into the comm, "Okay, Dorcan. Make it so. Everyone else, let us consolidate and Darkshine, let us see your interrogations skills."
Dorcan switched over to the vehicle holding the dig team. "No need for alarm," he told them. "Someone hailed us down and they know a little bit too much for comfort. The others are going to question him and figure out if he's friend or foe.
"So, professor... what exactly is this thing that you've unearthed? Why is it so special?"
Dr. Woodworth looked up and smiled. Perhaps this one would listen without falling asleep!
"Ah, what I have here is a crystalline structure of pre-apocalypse origin. Our precursors created these objects, of that I am certain. But for what purpose, I have yet to discern. I believe they may be an energy source, perhaps even the source of all magic. I wrote a paper on the subject, which is why I suppose the Brotherhood has suddenly taken an interest in my work. The writings we found with the crystals indicates that there are several of them, and that they need to be brought together at a specific location, but that location is as of yet unknown." He says. "I do not know what will happen when they're all brought together. They don't seem to react to each other, and they don't react to any of my instruments back at the laboratory."
He then continues on, jabbering about the other artifacts that they had found in the ruins, mostly jars, writings, paintings, everything that you'd expect to find in such ruins. None of it would seem to be particularly interesting to anyone else except the archaeologists. The good doctor would continue in this fashion until interrupted with a question.
Dorcan did not fall asleep, having a somewhat unusual attention span as a result of his condition. Not all of what was said was of interest to him, but he made a note to look up the good doctor's publications when he got back to base.
One thing in particular made his ears prick up: "You have some of these crystals already...?" Dorcan asked. "How many? And do you know how many there are in total?"
At this point Dorcan became almost eager with suggestions. "Have you tried laser diffraction? Different wavelengths? X-ray? How much do they weigh, and does it change if they're turned upside-down, or brought closer together?"
Fetrethar was getting better with their names, The overfriendly dog-man was Dorcan, no surname given as yet. Good choice to watch the diggers, he'd probably not frighten them overmuch.
Still, they were only of a secondary concern. This whole mission had left a pit in his stomach. These...... brothers seemed to have near unlimited resources to draw upon. People didn't strike from hidden culverts out of choice, and defending a site that to him seemed uncloaked from watchers..... Their foes should have been able to bring to bear enough force to make any defense unfeasible, or at the very least ring them with lead and iron, make it almost impossible to escape with the trophies.
He didn't mind having his hide intact, but it was troubling.
Creeping up in the vehicle, and addressing the driver..... Darkshine, that was his name, he started without preamble. "You are more familiar with what can and cannot be done with machines than I. Is it possible one of the digboys has some sort of device that would tell the Brotherhood where we are? It seemed far, far too easy to get away from that mountain, and I suspect some sort of trick, but I have no eyes to see what sort of form it might take.
Keeping his tone cold, and level, Darkshine turned his attention back to his prisoner. "How did you discover the location of this place? Why did you come here? How did you get here? What are your intentions?"
He circled around while waiting for the transfer of scientists, and for ranger to drive the vehicle up to him. He shifted over and sent over the comms channel, "Prisoner detained, awaiting confirmation of VIP exchange, then bringing him in. Going open channel to allow everything his says to be heard and analyzed."
The black-clad feline turned his attention back to his prisoner, awaiting contact from the team.
Morgan was far from being so particular to worry about timing, but there was a bit of a limited window. The Brotherhood underestimated the assistance the scientists could request, but such mistakes only happen once during this type of operation. Any relief that will be inbound, shall be significant.
The agent made special note to check all available spectrums for errant transmissions, leakage, or downright enemy transmissions to or from any vehicle in their convoy.
"Alright let us get moving. I would prefer to get back to the relative safety of base before we delve too deep into everything."
Sean, standing still as he could while the humanoid cat circled him, flinched slightly as the questions were fired off at him. Can't say anything about how I stand with the Brotherhood, don't want to give myself away... How to respond, though? His few seconds to start answering were running out. "I walked here," he replied first, just to get something out. "Took me a few days to find the road, but I followed it after that." He paused as he decided on how to answer the rest of the questions, covering it with a hard swallow. "Some hobo I met a while ago was raving about some horror over this way. I'm a bit too curious for my own good, y'see, so I figured I'd come over to check it out." When the feline kept circling, he continued, "Honest! I just wanted to see if there actually was something here that would be interesting. S'not like I have a job to work or home to--" Sean bit off the end of the sentence, expecting it to be a pointless effort. Whelp, I'm screwed.
Dr. Woodworth seemed a bit happier now that someone here was more interested in his findings.
"Well, this one will be the third one that I've found. As to how many there are, I estimate that there may be six, or eight in total. The writings found among the crystals seem to disagree on how many were made. There should be no more than ten, at the very least." He says.
He then waited for Dorcan to finish asking his eager questions before responding to them all.
"Yes, yes, yes, about ten pounds, no, and no. They don't seem to react to each other at all, which is odd considering their origin. You would think that in a world that was basically powered by magic, that these would have some kind of magical essence that would react when they are in each others presence, but that does not seem to be the case. There may be something else that we're missing, but none of the writings that we've found seem to indicate anything of the sort." He says.
Morgan's scans would come up completely clean. No one was transmitting, other than normal communications with the rebellion's hq from the vehicles. Just a simple GPS signal, nothing more.
Dorcan nodded, and sat a while in thought. "Looks like you've covered most of the bases, Doctor," he said at last.
"Do you know the locations of any other such crystals? Come to that, what are your plans once we reach the rebel facility?"
Once the transfer was complete, Darkshine did another pat-down. then hoisted Sean to his feet. The armored feline spoke, loud enough for the human to hear, "Ranger, bring 'er in nice and easy for our new guest."
As if on-que, the armored, air-cushioned vehicle set down, and lowered the ramp in the rear. "Move" darkshine spoke in a cold, detached voice, urging the prisoner forward, into the bay filled with the various other armed members of the team.
Following behind, it wasn't like he was giving Sean much of a choice, what with the rifle-butt pressed into his spine, and the iron-hard grip Darkshine had on his shoulder.
Once everyone got situated again, the vehicles set off back to rebel HQ. The drive would be completely uneventful. Coming back this way, they would not see anything that even hinted at Brotherhood backup.
Dr. Woodworth shruged at Dorcan's questions.
"I do not yet know. I know the locations of a few other ruins, thanks to the writings we found. But nothing is absolute. I would so love to know how these crystals were constructed. You see, I believe they were not created naturally. There are no other crystals like these anywhere in the world." He says. "And to answer your other question, once I reach your facility, I will be having a talk with your benefactor, Mr. Phoenix, so we can negotiate some kind of agreement for further study of these ruins... with more adequate protection."
--------------
Back at the site, long after the group's vehicles had left, a second group of Brotherhood vehicles shows up. Two more scout cars, and another large transport. Six grunts and two elites come out of the vehicles and survey the damage left by the rebels.
"Damn. No wonder they didn't report back." One of the grunts from the destroyed transport called back. "They were cut off completely. The radio's completely dead. Looks like they just tried to take the ruins themselves."
"Did the rebels fight them off?" Another grunt asked.
"Looks like it. The blast marks on the vehicles are all from different types of weapons, not our standard issues." Another grunt responded.
"What do we do now?" A grunt asked.
"Check the site. Any special artifacts must be confiscated. Then we level it." One of the elites said, in his emotionless tone of voice.
Sean sat in the vehicle he'd been pushed into, fidgeting occasionally to keep from having his limbs fall asleep completely. After a long while, he asked, "So... What side do you play?"
Once the prisoner was secured, Darkshine moved up to the front of the vehicle. As if on cue, the rear ramp closed up, and the vehicle lifted off the ground, positioning itself in the convoy of leaving vehicles. Darkshine sat down up front, storing the carbine in a rack next to the command console. He punched a few commands into the console, brought up some local information, then he proceeded to head back towards the rear.
He kept the cold, emotionless black mask on, staring intently at the prisoner as he started asking questions. "It should be rather easy to guess who's side we're playing, given the non-standardized gear... but... perhaps you're that inexperienced. That naive. Wouldn't surprise me the way you just walked up to military vehicles with very little in the way of identification."
The armored leopard shrugged, running one last scan for explosives, or electrical signals. His suit's sensors pinged green, and Darkshine very slowly opened a locker, displaying a grasp of drama by turning his back on the prisoner while removing the mask. The large fuzzy ears might seem odd to someone not prepared for a hybrid, however, they weren't nearly as off-putting as the feline form that walked and talked like a human. The feline flashed an intentionally broad grin to display the very long and point feline teeth that lined his mouth, another means of mildly intimidating the boy before continuing with the questioning. "Perhaps you were expecting something a little... more expected?"
Sean seemed to take the idea of an anthro in stride. "Not all that odd, to be honest. You'd be surprised how common they are in high school." He fell silent for a moment. "So, I take it you mean that you're Rebellion?" Thank god, Sean thought with relief. "Glad to be in your hands instead of theirs." He leaned back and shut his eyes, hoping to get some rest.
"Magic, I am not sure how the world would react to such at this juncture in its current state of technological dependence. It is not hard to see why the Brotherhood would want to control this type of thing." Morgan stared at his hand for a moment before continuing, "this is also the kind of thing Phoenix would likely fund and support."
Dr. Woodworth nodded to Morgan's comments.
"Yes, that's what I'm hoping for. The more investment and protection we can get, the better." He says.
-----------
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. Dr. Woodworth and his associates chatted idly with each other, discussing what they had seen, comparing notes, and whatnot. Eventually the vehicles would make it back to rebel hq, where Lt. Armstrong could be seen waiting for them at the motor pool. The vehicles pulled in and came to a stop. With that, everyone began to disembark.
Dorcan held the door for the members of the dig team and separated out his armaments so they could be handed in more quickly. He was about to head into the building, but stopped and approached the Lieutenant.
"Sir, what happens to the dig team? Are they to be debriefed with us, or sent somewhere else?"
Catastrophe failed to occur at any point along the ride, and while Fetrethar did not exactly relax at the thought of reaching back to their home base, arriving back to a place of relative sanctuary loosened some of the tension between his shoulder blades. Checking one last time to make sure his equipment was in good order and his trophies were secure, he opened up the vehicle and vaulted out almost before it had come to a stop, mind already spinning as to how he'd spend his down time.
For one, the trophies would need some sort of preservative, formaldehyde preferably. And that quartermaster would probably want the plasma rifle and the armor vest back. Still, when he got out of the vehicle, he saw someone, with the sort of authority and dress that signified an important personage in this clan. While Fetrethar didn't think he would personally be debriefed, it would doubtless be considered an insult to just wander off and attend to business, so Fetrethar dropped into a comfortable crouch and awaited further developments.
Sean slowly woke as the transport came to a halt. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he flexed his fingers, restoring a small amount of circulation. Stomping his feet a bit, he looked over at the feline, the only person he'd talked to. "So, uh... What now?" He asked.
Darkshine's trip was mostly spent in the forward cabin, having a prolonged discussion with his AI about the current situation. What could be heard was mostly nonsensical to anyone trying to listen in, as the pair seemed to almost be speaking their own language.
As the convoy pulled into the base, the speckled feline first made sure he had a fresh magazine in the concealed pistols, hidden in the boot-plates. Afterward he proceeded to collect the loaned equipment from one of the lockers, stored it in a rifle bag, and headed out. He left the headgear off, as he didn't want to put the people on edge, however, he did want to make sure he was prepared for a double-cross. He'd seen other employers try it, and while the face protection was gone, his head was a small and fast-moving target. Difficult to hit at the best of times, nigh-impossible once he got moving at full speed.
He followed the prisoner out, waiting to see what was to happen next.
As everyone made irregular noise disembarking the vehicles, Jexx yawned, coming around to wakefulness. He stretched out in his seat, warming up his cybernetic limbs. Jexx actually wasn't very thrilled at being back again, as it meant he'd just be bored until the next mission. Not saying anything, he followed the others out of the back of the van. As everyone congregated, he noticed someone get out of Darkshine's vehicle he didn't recognize. Jexx bounded up to the person.
Sean was met to the sudden sight of a slightly short and shirtless black-furred individual, with pointed hair, a red X on his forehead, and red markings on his sides, all in addition to two cybernetic arms that did not end in hands but cannon barrels, and metal lower legs and feet.
"Hey. I don't know you. You're a new guy. What's up, new guy? You with us? You a prisoner? Am I gonna fry ya? What what what?" Jexx fired off so on and so forth in rapid speech, not even pausing to actually allow Sean to answer any questions. Several of the things Jexx said seemed to be getting more and more macabre as he kept chattering.
Dr. Woodworth approached Lt. Armstrong and they spoke in hushed tones for a few moments. Armstrong motioned for a few other rebels to come over, and they led Dr. Woodworth and his companions inside.
"To answer your question, Dr. Woodworth and his team will be having a meeting with Jackson. Who is this new face? Picked up a straggler?" He asks, motioning towards Sean.
When the black anthro didn't shut up after a minute or two, Sean finally said, "Are you quite done yet? I'm pretty sure you've covered all the bases for ways you can kill me with... whatever those things are in place of your hands. Take some Ritalin or something, seriously." Sighing, he thought, Why does he even think I know the answers to his questions?
"This guy hailed us down while we were heading back," Dorcan explained. "He might just be a hitch-hiker, but he seemed to know too much, and besides one doesn't usually try to beg a lift from armoured vehicles so we brought him with us just in case. If he's clean I guess we'll have to release him back into the wild at some point."
"Sir," he added as an afterthought.
Morgan nodded towards Dorcan, "He is right, strange type to be hitchhiking from a caravan especially one with an APC-like vehicle. Could be get to the whole debrief thing, I would like to get on with the next mission, or take a nap."
With a pause he added, "at your discretion of course Lieutenant <lef-tenant> Armstrong."
Armstrong motions over another couple of soldiers who lead Sean away to be questioned.
"It does seem odd that he would flag down our vehicles. We'll have him questioned. In the meantime, let's get to the debriefing room." He says, and then motions to the building to let them lead the way.
Sean would be led through the building to a room with a chair in the center, and a big mirror on one wall.
"Have a seat. You'll be asked some questions. Answer honestly. We'll know if you're lying." One soldier says as he closes the door behind Sean.
Dorcan nodded respectfully and made his way to the briefing room, surrendering his weapons as before.
Fretrethar followed Dorcan, mimicking his actions in surrendering his gear, but dropped down into a crouch, instead of taking a seat.
Darkshine returned the sniper rifle, and ammunition to the requisitions officer, then proceeded to follow the others into the debriefing. He kept his face neutral, noting that the others were in here to, which, may or may not be a good thing. The feline leaned back into his his chair and casually crossed his left leg over his right knee. A nice, relaxed pose. He had strategically selected a position with his back to a wall, and very little, if any room for someone to sneak in behind him. With a sense of moderate security, the armored feline sat back and relaxed. If someone wished to address him they could, but otherwise, he'd sit and learn, seeing as this was his first major wrap up with this organization.
When Sean finally managed to get a word in edgewise, Jexx seemed to lose interest. He then started wandering around, until a familiar man told them all to gather for a debriefing. Not having anything else to do, Jexx follows the others into the room. He doesn't sit, but instead stands around, looking over his metal arms.
Sean followed the men into the room. Taking a seat, he asked, "Just to make sure, you guys are the Rebellion, yes?"
"Yes, we are the rebellion. But we need to be careful that we're not inviting a spy into our ranks. Now, tell me, what were you doing out there? Why did you flag down our convoy?" A voice boomed through a few hidden speakers in the room.
----------
In the briefing room, Lt. Armstrong waited for everyone to take their places in the room before he spoke up.
"Dr. Woodworth's research is apparently of interest to the Brotherhood, which makes him interesting to us. Thankfully, you got to him before they did. There's no telling what they would have done with him, or his findings. He'll be discussing our future relationship with Jackson." He says. "For this, you'll all notice a healthy bonus in your pay. Now, let's start from the beginning. Tell me what happened out there."
Sean visibly relaxed as he was ensured that the men were Rebellion people. "I was trying to get to Dr. Woodworth's dig site. I'm a freelance archaeologist of sorts."
Dorcan opened his mouth, closed it again and looked to see if anyone else was going to summarise the mission first.
Darkshine idly tapped his fingertips against the table. He wasn't in command, it wasn't his place to speak up first. He retained his relaxed posturing, though his reactions were on a hair-trigger. It would have been nice to hide a couple of grenades before hand, however, that wasn't an option at this point. His posture left him the minimum distance to the concealed weapon, and yet hid everything under his posture. He considered his borderline-paranoid nature, and yet, it's only a disease if your wrong, if it saves your life, it's called being cautious.
No-one else seemed about to start, so Dorcan piped up, glancing at some notes he had made on the journey back. "I didn't see much of the action, personally. Others will have to fill that in, but from what I recall it basically went something like this.
"The journey itself was uneventful. We arrived ahead of the Brotherhood, took stock of the land and set up what fortifications we could. The dig team had scared away a scout, but it was just a matter of time before the Brothers returned with reinforcements.
"I went into the dig site itself to act as a relay - since there was just the one entrance, we couldn't risk them being trapped inside, so if things were about to go tits-up and we needed to evacuate, I'd be on hand to relay the order from the others and shoo the archaeologists out before the site was overwhelmed.
The dig team was still hastily trying to excavate and did not want to leave. Recognising that the crystal might prove crucial to the Brotherhood - or to us - we decided it was probably best to try and buy them enough time to finish the dig and then run like heck.
"Morgan broke into the Brotherhood's comms systems and intercepted their transmissions. From this we learned that the Brotherhood soldiers had orders to eliminate everyone at the site except one special member they wanted captured, probably the good doctor. Their primary target was the ancient crystal found in the site - Oh yeah. If I remember right, Morgan was worried that they knew too much about us and might have had some kind of telltale or spy amongst the dig team. I don't know what became of that."
"I missed most of the action, being holed up in the cave. I don't really know what happened. Eventually the dig team managed to locate their artifact and we had to move out. At this point the battle was still raging and things were looking serious, so we decided to try and evacuate the dig site.
"I decided to try and ferry the dig team to the site one by one, using myself for cover since I am... unusually tough. Fortunately the enemy was routed during this and so after... Miss Clay? was taken to the vehicles we were able to perform a more usual evacuation, with the full complement of the dig team, and no losses I'm aware of. Though I'm not sure what happened with Exo," he added.
"On the return journey we were flagged down by that human guy who asked if we had been to the dig site. This kind of spooked us so we took him in."
"I think that's the guts of it," he concluded. "But there's probably a lot I've missed."
Fetrethar rocked his head as Dorcan spoke, humming to himself quietly. None of the others seemed to eager to speak, so he added his own voice to the dog-man's.
"Their attack was odd, overeager, but the force composition was odd. They knew that the diggers had been reinforced, and they seemed to fear the warbot, although something odd happened to him. However, they did not bring enough force to whelm the defenses, bringing a strike force that I would guess was more measured to only defeat the ones we came to help. I did not see the entirety of their force, but I estimate a score, perhaps a score and five, lightly armed for the most part; and they were backed up by some kind of leader, with a pavise and a portable cannon.
They had placed a listening device on the mountain at some unknown date. It was right out there in the open, although none of the labmen had found it. Shortly after Morgan had discovered the thing, I ascended the slope, and fired eleven rounds with the loaned plasma rifle. It was unarmored, it took perhaps three to destroy. I have a trophy, if any care to inspect it.
I then descended the slope of the mountain, and took up a position off to my left from the main battle. Both us and they were mostly firing from behind cover, with few clean shots. However, someone, I did not see who, took down the larger enemy, and upon his falling, the grunts abandoned all tactical sense, rushing up the slopes to engage us. They lasted but a few seconds before being cut down. Upon falling, the enemy's gear detonated, preventing salvage.
Strategically, the enemy's choices were strange to me. At best I can surmise that they somehow found out about our reinforcement after sending their own strike force, but chose not to wait or reinforce their numbers. Once there, they initiated an attack against a force in a superior defensive position, attacking over-aggressively. They did not plan for contingency, and seemed more intent in felling us than in trying to deny us. I still count us fortunate that they did not fall back from our ambush, holding to the road and either forcing us to try to escape through rough terrain, or simply waiting for an overwhelming force to arrive. I can make no account for such actions."
Somewhat nervous at putting up his own opinions before the others of the clan, Fetrethar rocked on his heels, waiting for a response of some kind.
Darkshine added in, "I took an over-watch of the site with the loaned sniper, and my own carbine as a backup. I put most of the ammunition for the sniper down range, taking down several soldiers and a scout car. Between myself and Morgan, most of the brotherhood were incapacitated before they could effectively fight back. Once they entered the effective range of the rest of the squad it was a simple matter of entrenched positions against a disorganized push. The brotherhood threw themselves into a meat grinder effectively. After the mop-up, we extracted, until we were flagged down by the one prisoner. From what i gathered, he claimed to have picked up on the dig site through some of the local vagrants. He decided to check it out, and when he saw us, somehow thought it would be a good idea to wave down military vehicles. We detained him and brought him here."
The spotted feline took a shrug and leaned back, idly resting his elbow on the leg crossed across his knee.
Morgan, who had been quiet up to now, slowly rose and produced a tiny portable data storage device. "here is all the combat footage from my vantage point. What has been reported so far is a fairly complete account when combined from all sources."
He handed the storage device to Armstrong.
Armstrong took the device and examined it in his hand.
"Good, good. We'll check this out, but it looks like all went well. I'm a little concerned that the Brotherhood didn't have any backup. We're going to be looking into that." He says. "In any case, you've all been paid for the mission. If you're ready for the next mission, we can get right in to that briefing."
Sean's interrogators went quiet for a moment.
"Freelance archaeologist? You mean that you're not associated with a university?" The voice finally asked. "That seems rather-"
The voice suddenly cut off. After a few more moments, it came back up.
"Please tell us about your experience in the field of archaeology." The voice said.
"If I may, Sir," Dorcan said, holding a hand up, "At the last meeting there were, I believe, four missions planned and this was the one that seemed most urgent. Since you refer to "mission" singular, does this mean the situation has now changed?
"Also, what is the likelihood of the Brotherhood wanting to come here to retrieve the crystal?"
Sean scratched his head, buying some time. "I've read some books on the subject, and I've been to some digs when everyone's left..." And tested everything left there with a bit of magic, but that's beside the point. "I haven't taken any honest classes on the subject, though."
"There were three missions, and yes this one was the most urgent. The other two were to destroy a fuel depot, and to investigate some odd seismic activity." Armstrong said. "If you're ready to move into another mission, we can start the debriefing now. These last two targets can wait a few days if necessary if you want to take a break."
Sean's interrogators went quiet again, for longer this time.
"So to be certain, you're not a professional and not connected to any universities, correct?" The voice asked.
"I'm easy," Dorcan said. "If no-one else has questions, I guess we can do it now."
At the repeated question, Sean wondered, Does freelance have a different meaning here or something? "No, I am not working for or with any university, company, or other organization."
Darkshine shrugged, "I'm fine with rolling out as quickly as possible. If we're going to hit that tower, time is a critical factor. The longer we wait, the higher chances we'll have of dealing with automated defenses. As for the strange activity... well... that's a scouting mission... we'll have to check it out at some point... but given the unknowns, i figure the tower would most likely be top priority"
Armstrong pulled a remote out of his pocket and clicked a few buttons. The lights in the room dimmed and a projector came online, displaying the remaining two missions.
"The other remaining missions are this: first off, to the north we have located a fuel storage facility for the Brotherhood. This needs to be destroyed. We recommend explosives. Secondly, to the southeast there is a site that has been experiencing some strange seismic activity. Nothing catastrophic, but it appears to be localized, and unnatural. We cannot confirm that it is being caused by the Brotherhood, but we can't be too careful." He says.
Sean's interrogators went quiet for a moment and then spoke up again.
"We could use an unattached archaeologist working for us. Would you be interested in a job?" The voice asks.
Sean looked about warily, expecting a trick of some sort. "You want me, an untrained archaeologist, to work for you? Show me the hidden camera's; this must be some kind of trick." Sitting up a little straighter, he continued, "If you really do want me, then I'll be happy to work for the Resistance."
"Sir," Dorcan said, "The seismic activity is a phenomena, which may cease. The fuel dump is a fixed installation. I would move that we target the seismic phenomena first, unless there is some overriding need to target the fuel dump such as a military convoy scheduled to use it.
"Has any thought been put into how the phenomena will be studied? Are we looking at ground radar or a dig? And is our role hands-on this time, or to act as shepherds for a scientific team?"
"Destroy a fuel depot?" A voice suddenly spoke up. No points for guessing who it was. "Use explosives? Blow stuff up?!" Jexx practically looked like a kid on christmas morning. "I'm all for that! C'mon, what are we waiting for? Let's go go go, boom boom boom!" He was, quite litterally, bouncing with excitement.
Morgan shook his head after Jexx expressed his, eagerness. He nodded towards Dorcan, "I agree with Dorcan's assessment. In light of any pressing concerns with the fuel depot, I would vote to investigate the seismic phenomena first."
Kedered crouched, listening to the others debate. It was odd, that the hands carrying out the mission would get to decide where and when to go, but if one were allowed to chime in.
"We know that the fuel depot is connected to the enemy. The seismic activity could be a freak occurrence. We are at war, we should be striking at the enemy."
Dorcan paused at Fet's comment. "I don't know what magnitude of activity this is, but if it's definitely artificial and it's not done by any known organisation, I would suspect Brotherhood involvement. It may even be another dig for crystals such as the one Doctor Woodworth and his staff retrieved.
"Whichever mission we decide to do first, we should probably seek advice from the good Doctor - find out if he is aware of any ancient ruins or suchlike in that area. If so, that may affect our decision.
"If it's not blasting at a dig site or something, it may perhaps be some secret installation of the Brothers, in which case we should find out what we can and report it back."
"In any case," Dorcan added, "I suspect they have more than one fuel dump. I don't think blowing that one up is going to cripple their organisation for good."
Darkshine chimed in, "It's the option to investigate an unknown, versus smashing a known and easily identifiable target. I'm going to abstain from voting... My involvement is as a mercenary, and while i do suggest smashing the fuel depo first, and cut off their sphere of influence... i'll let those who have a larger stake in this vote, and abide by their decision. It's my place to plan and execute the tactics of a single mission at a time, not the strategics of a campaign. "
He eased back and watched attentively while the others discussed.
"I can see we're not going to reach a quick decision on this one," Dorcan said. "Does command have any preferences?"
"Indeed, our employers should have a preference," Morgan said, "or at least a recommendation."
"We might have an opportunity for you coming right up." The voice said to Sean.
The door to the interrogation room opened and in stepped Jackson.
"I apologize for the interrogation, but we have to take certain precautions before bringing in new people. I'm Jackson Phoenix, the leader of the rebellion." He said.
-----
Armstrong thought for a few moments, carefully considering each scenario.
"Well, the fuel depot isn't going anywhere, and it wouldn't hurt to give them a chance to get complacent. You should probably go investigate the seismic activity." He said.
Sean sat silent. "I'm not dreaming, am I?" Slowly standing up, he continued, "Either way, I don't suppose it'll hurt to take the initiative on this last thing about me." Placing his hand on the side of the chair seat, he sent a small burst of magic into the seat and stood back to watch Jackson's reaction.
"Works for me," Dorcan said, and began planning. "What is the rough area that this activity is spread over? Do we know the location of the epicentre? Do we have aerial pictures of the region?
"Personally, I would think that ground-penetrating RADAR would be a good place to start. How easily can we procure such equipment and skilled operators?
We will also have to think about what we may find there. If it's artificial, it may very well be a Brotherhood-controlled facility so we will have to bring suitable weapons to protect both ourselves and also the GPR technicians."
"If our objective is to get inside there as well, we'll need to think about a stealth approach. A facility is liable to have an entrance - again, aerial photos of the surrounding region would be useful.