What a terrible time to be outside, the weather was truly dreadful. However with the call having been sent out, this was not something worth considering. The only time to act was now, so those willing to brave the wilds and save a few lives would have to deal with getting a little bit wet and cold out in a much unwanted storm, as it sweeps of the terrain and makes everything that much harder. The group would have geographic coordinates to follow, ones set right at the edge of the bubble, where they were to wait for their transport to arrive. It wouldn't be a long wait, and they'd find themselves right at the edge of the road, where the cracked surface ended and the dunes of sand met, stretching out into the limitless horizon.

With a short *bzzt* sound of a cloaking device deactivating, a pink jello-tailed lamia simply appears. She's wearing her usual outfit, as well a harness with many pockets, weapon holsters and electronic gizmos attached. On her back, she has a simple, black scabbard holding a short, straight blade. Not having anything much to do other wait for the transport, she stares in the distance and mutters something to herself.

Euoia checks hir watch. Sie taps it to see if it needs repaired again. Sie was listening to some hits by WHAM! and Duran Duran. Euoia pondered if sie needed to queue up 'Fortunate Son' or 'Ride of the Valkyries' once the transport arrives. Sie grabs a root beer from hir dimensional pocket and drinks it.

Euoia notices Uvi and waves to her. There were a bunch of other people here sie didn't know, but it was nice to see a friendly face. Sie adjusts hir laser pistol holster so it wouldn't hit the medkit sie had. Waiting for something when danger is ahead of you is never easy.

Fenris jogs up to the rendezvous point, water streaming off his long, leather duster and the conspicuously large leaf he is wearing as a hat. "Here to help!" he says, spinning his short spear once and strapping it to his back. He looks around for the transport, rather hoping it was a roomier kind of vehicle.

Sheela has been lying outside for some time and sees how a few people are starting to show up. Her species is feral and she sits quietly, not many contacts in the area, she has decided to pitch here and support the relief team. While waiting for the transporter, she tries to learn a few words and looks silently into the distance.

Nena doesn't mind the rain, overly much. Tigers are good water cats, and with her hood tugged up she wasn't too bothered. Even if it wasn't ideal. "I wonder what an augmented beast is. Pretty vague." With her hands in her coat pockets, the woman lapses into a brief grumble about how she doesn't even want to try and light a cigarette up in this weather. "So, any bushy-tailed leader types want to take charge?" For someone showing up to a distress call, she looked remarkably unprepared. No uniform, no heavy weapons- Or weapons at all on first glance, no armour. Though occasionally her coat shifts in a way to hint that she's packing something or other under it.

To call the weather harsh would be an understatement, it seemed as though the skies themselves had opened wide, rain barreling down upon the terrain below, thunder cracking above them, rumbling thunder and frequent flashes of lightning shattering the otherwise desolate peace of the vast, lifeless expanses before them. The terrain was anything but smooth, sandy dunes now soft and dangerous to traverse, it'd take a well specialized vehicle to cross this... and thankfully there was one waiting just there at the edge of the bubble, where the ruined roads connected to the empty expanses beyond. As the group arrives at the geographic coordinates that were pointed out on the distress signal, so would their transport still be on its way.

The truck in question was a heavily modified offroad van, fitted with wider tires and a monster of an engine, fueled up with what a fraction of what little petrol-based reserves existed. Someone had paid a pretty penny to get this thing up and running! The large vehicle looked like it was suited to transport no more than ten about average-sized people, its paint job relatively well maintained, a typical sandy brown that most offroaders preferred such that the grime is less notable. Some heavy duty and slightly battered guard bars shielded its front, the metal barrier seemingly welded together by various bits of scrap.

The vehicle roars in from the distance, stopping before the gathered party as its back doors swing open. From the driver's seat, Magnus of all people looks back at the group and yells. "You read the message, folks! No time to dawdle, get in here now!" he'd yell out, then honk the horn twice for emphasis. Looks like whoever doesn't get on now is getting left behind. "This ain't a meet the locals an' see the sights, we're looking to face some big, angry fucking beasts in a half hour or so. Get yourselves ready, there are lives on the line! As much as I wanna join you lot, I'll be the getaway driver." he'd instruct while those that were coming got onto the transport.

The lamia rushes towards the vehicle, shielding her face from the rain with her arm. "I get the front seat!", she says, as she stuffs herself into the vehicle. The redhead girl adds, before slamming the door, "I'll kill everyone who steps on my tail. This vehicle is big enough. No excuses. Also, hello everybody." She greets the team with a wide smile.

Euoia mutters to hirself, "Ride of the Valkyries it is then..." Sie gets into the transport and queues up the song on hir MP3 Player. A little sigh escapes hir lips. "I'm just here to repair stuff and heal people... Focus, Euoia, focus. No magical girl stuff today. This is search and rescue," sie said softly to hirself. Sie felt scared. Euoia isn't normally one for combat, but these are people that need a rescue. Helping people is what a shrine maiden, let alone a warrior of peace, love and friendship, would do. Euoia bunkered down in the transport about as close as sie could get to a toolbox and strapped in. Sie just weakly smiled, double checked hir kit, and braced for a bumpy ride.

Fenris is unphased by the threat of dangerous beasts and only grins wider. "Shotgun!" he calls gleefully, then laughs when Uvi beats him to it. He looks at the cramped inside and shakes his head. "Guess I'll ride up top!" The burly tanuki heaves himself up on top of the van and a pair of goggles materialize from somewhere for him to pull over his eyes.

With a big jump Sheela manages to jump from her sitting position into the truck. Targeted she lands on the back bank and try as quiet as possible to take their place. Due to her its size, it hardly takes up space. She looks excited and listens to the conversations and words that are exchanged in the group to learn as much as possible. A soft and not very distinct growl comes out of her mouth, "Hello everybody." After that, she is silent and looks closely at her team.

"Why are -you- always the driver, Magnus? Are you even tall enough to see over the wheel?" Teases Nena. Big words coming from the woman who was typically only 166cm herself. Stepping into the van, she unceremoniously plops down compactly with all the second nature ease of someone used to riding public transport. "Anyway, hello and all. Say, Magnus, do you have any idea what it is we're going to go pick a fight with?"

The engine roars nearly instantly once everyone was on board, the back doors slamming shut as the truck rushes through the wasteland. Inside, Magnus shakes his head and turns on the AC to get some heat going inside. "No idea, we got only a few words about it. Augmented beasts my fluffy ass." he'd grunt, a quick look revealing that the fennec's eyes were bloodshot. He was not in a very good mood. The bags beneath his eyes were a good hint that someone had woken him up for this. "Aye, I can see over the wheel just fine. Been the driver for the folks I work with so much now that they yanked me out of bed to do this. I coulda told them to fuck off, but I didn't... because reasons." He'd grumble and shift gears into fifth, the engine truly showing off its power at this point. "Whatever it is we go up against, keep a sharp eye out. The camp, fro, what I can tell, is fairly small. Just a farmhouse they reworked into a research outpost. Be great if we save those muckers. They're medical doctors, I'm told. Be good to have more proffessionals that use actual fucking medicine and not bodily juice erruptions to heal, hmph." Magnus growls quietly. "ETA 20 minutes. Get your gear ready."

Uvi the jellosnek pouts her mouth and says, "You know, the last time I answered a distress call it turned out to be sent by someone who couldn't open a jar. I hope it's not going to be a waste of time, especially in this weather." When the car starts moving, she looks at the team and tries to assess the squad. A crazy alcoholic tanuki on top of the car. A magic girl. A.. talking dog? A smoker. And Magnus as a driver. Great.

The lamia wonders how to approach the situation and what could await them, until she suddenly asks, "You know, what if the doctors augmented beasts' dicks to be super thick?"

Euoia notices the little voice near hir. "Hello, I'm Euoia. How are you?" Sie smiles at the dextrious one. Magnus' tone was the kind of rough that really shows how urgent this is. Sie pulls out two more bottles of root beer and offers one to the little feral. "Would you like one?" Sie asked. Hir mood was in hiding right now as the people up front trickled details about what is going on, what it means, and other stuff. Sie was making contact with someone new. Once the conversation turned lewd, sie decided it was better to focus on the dog-person for now.

Fenris has all his gear ready, and of course heard nothing happening inside of the vehicle. The big tanuki is just holding tight to the cargo rails up top and whooping and hollering as water and sand blow atound him and his leather duster whips about in the wind and rain! "Adventuuuuuure!" he howls into the storm.

When the stressed aura emanating from Magnus, the little wolf is a little uncertain what quickly becomes noticeable as the feral art briefly gains the upper hand. The chaps pull up and a threatening growl escapes her before she can catch herself again. She quickly barks in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry, I did not want that." She was recently inducted into the Z and still needs to learn to control her feelings and instincts. In addition, sometimes she can not speak or find the right words. She then smells of the root beer and nods in agreement and growls softly, "I'm very excited, it's my first time with so many in one place." then she licks the beer and her face is slightly distorted.

"... Yeah, I hear that. I don't really like the healing people do these days," Nena agrees, brushing her hair back under her hood. "And while I hope that's not what they did to the beasts, well... It'd make them easier to wrestle I guess, opposed to super strength." She casts an uncertain glance upwards. That Tanuki was nutters, she was sure of it. "Peculiar group we've got going into this."

"I've had weirder." Magnus notes with a touch of whimsy as they now seem to be leaving the worst of the storm. The cascade reduced to a drizzle, he'd thankfully need to use the windshield wipers much less. "Ten minutes ETA. We should be within range of their emergency radio transmitter. Someone grab your comm units and try to see if you can catch something. I'm driving, I can't do it myself." he'd note, before pointing towards a building in the far distance. It looked like a modest family home, albeit surrounded by several towers of some sort.

"That's our target. If anyone wants to try and see if they can see something from here, be my guest." The fennec notes as the engine starts to rev down. They would be making their stop soon. "I'll open the back door and let you guys off on my mark, gonna slow down so you can hop off, then I am outta here to cirlce aro-OH SHIT! The fox shrieks as something leaps out at them right in the truck's way. *THUD* it impacts the front armor and the vehicle's tires screech against the terrain. In an instant, everything goes upside down... quite literally in fact as the heavy truck starts to roll and tumble, once, twice, thrice before coming to a stop on its left side. Magnus, thankfully, had a seatbelt...

Once the chaos settles, the fennec is left coughing and with a bloodied nose, a stream of crimson ichor leaking out one ear. "Fuck..." he'd growl and repeat the curse to himself several times. "Who's not dead, sound off..." he'd ask, peering back at a thankfully intact team. Sheela and Euoia had taken a few hits, but bruises were easy to deal with. No broken bones, and they would still be standing upright with ease. Nena had faired better, a tough cookie as she was barely scraped, as for Uvi? She'd somehow avoided being slammed against the walls at all! Impressive. Fenris meanwhile was... somewhere else... still! The tanuki would too be uninjured! Much to everyone's horror, the windshield was splattered with blood. Whatever they'd hit, it was very dead...

Uvi nods to Nena, agreeing with both of her statements. She spends the rest of the trip in silence, only occasionally looking at Magnus to make sure he doesn't fall asleep while driving, as well as glancing back at other team members. She honestly thinks that the little feral is cute and wants to pet it, but in the end, she decides against it.

"AAAAAIEEEEE!!!", suddenly shrieks the lamia girl, the moment the vehicle starts tumbling. Lenghts of jello tail flail around the interior, but when it all ends, she opens her eyes and realizes she's fine! "I'm fine!", Uvi confirms, quickly checks if everyone else is alive and says, "What the fuck was that?" She quickly unfastens the seatbelt, readies her PPD-VA and hoisting herself up, she carefully peeks her head out of the window.

Euoia sighed as soda was now everywhere in the back. "Ugh, did you get the number of the truck that hit us?" Before undoing hir harness sie does a little magic. "A quick prestidigitation should hopefully clean up the mess." Sie helped anyone else that needs it to their feet before exiting. Euoia climbed out of the van hirself and started to look where the building is supposed to be.

When she has processed the shock of the impact and the windings, she looks around excitedly. She puts her own pain in the background, even if the bruises took her quite a bit. A miracle that she got only a few bruises, after all she was not able to put on the seatbelt. Slowly she sneaks out of the broken window and looks into the rainy distance and pricks her nose. She growls in a low tone, "All ok?"

Fenris stands alone in the sand as the drizzle continues around him. He was just on top of the van a moment ago. Then a big ugly something hit the van. Or maybe the other way around. Either way, things got real exciting for a second and now his brain has finally caught up with his body that relied on his surprisingly honed reflexes and training. "Monsters in the dunes!" he shouts, jogging toward the wrecked van and unslinging his sword and spear as he goes. "Anyone dead?"

A tough cookie indeed, Nena doesn't miss a beat as the impact happens. She pulls up her knees and tucks her head, weathering the turbulence with... Maybe not grace, but she was sturdy. She was used to taking knocks. "Just fine, here. Better than whatever you hit." Harboring no desire to be caught flat footed, she leaps from the van and readies herself. She didn't have to worry about taking cover from fire at least, so she sets her stance in the event something charges. "Rough parking, but it got us here, I suppose. No dead, yet. Hopefully it stays that way."

Magnus undoes his seatbelt and sighs with relief. "Good. Nobody hurt. Not too bad anyway." he'd note, then hop towards the back of the van. He opens the back door and steps outside, hobbling slightly. "Son of a bitch..." the fennec grumbles once he reaches the front, kicking the corpse of the... thing... that they'd hit. "Well, at least it ain't a person. No tears shed over this thing. Someome help me flip the damn truck back upright, ugh... glad I invested into front armor. Else the engine would be totaled right now. You're on your own from here, I need the time to make sure the damn thing'll start. You know my comm, but just in case it doesn't work, there's a flare gun under the driver's seat. Grab that and fire it in the air once the humans are secure. Oh, yeah..." he'd remember suddenly "We're saving humans, ones that aren't infected yet, so... uh... try not to sneeze on them or whatever. We're bringing them to Fairhaven, they'll deal with the nanites on their own time. Now someone come help lift this fucking thing." Magnus growls as he moves over to the roof of their transport and readies to lift it~

Uvi sighs. Apparently, everyone decides to leave the cover and safety of the vehicle seconds after crashing in a dangerous territory. Not wanting to leave her teammates alone, she decides to take the lead. As she slithers closer the camp, she points with her finger at several quadrupedal shapes she has spotted, at least three patrolling the area, while two others are leaned down over something nearby. Another two meanwhile are reared up against the door of one of the towers, trying their hardest to knock it down. "Alright, I'll draw their attention, cover me", she says, slithers a bit further from the team, switches her PPD-Va to the sonic setting and fires it.

Three nearest monsters start running straight at Uvi, but fortunately they are focused only on her. "Oh shit, I didn't expect it." She says with a surprised tone, then adds, "Err, nope!". She wraps her massive tail around herself, transforming into a big pile of pink jello coils. A muffled voice comes from the pile, "Hahahahahah, can't do anything to me now!"

After giving the vehicle a good once over, Euoia looks to Magnus and says, "The engine definitely looks fine, but you will want to manually pop the gearbox to prevent a bum start. All in all, it doesn't look too messed up." Euoia quickly perks up. "Oh yeah, we gotta roll this thing back on its wheels." Sie draws hir improved las-pistol, Stella Polaris Mk 2, and keeps on guard while people lift the vehicle into a more drivable position. Then sie notices what Uvi is doing and readies to help her.

Fenris jogs across the sand, keeping his weapons ready. He does not bother to waste words, since no one seems particularly injured. The burly tanuki grips the edge of the van roof and heaves to get it back on its wheels, with whoever else is ready to help. Then he is a blur of sand and tanuki as he springs away, rolling at speed toward the research camp, careening toward the beasts trying to destroy the tower.

Sheela's nose wiggles excitedly. She would like to look worried at Magnus, but the smell of blood is not just pouring out of the car. The back fur arises and a loud rumble comes from the little wolf. Her body posture is hunched and her chaps are pulled backwards. She barks excitedly, "blood...I smell blood from others." then she stands in a lurking position and points her ears. Dull tones ring in the distance and she growls aggressively, "Quick!" Her heart is racing and she is staring through the rain. "there are gunshots in the house!" she barks to Magnus and Euoia, then she runs behind the Tanuki.

Stepping aside, Nena takes a moment to help upright the van, once no assault is immediately forthcoming. "Yeah, get this thing working. I don't really want to walk back if I can avoid it." With a huff of exertion, and proper lifting form to boot, she assists in getting the van upright and looks around, ears twitching. "... So which way are we headed?" Though no sooner have the words left her mouth does Uvi draw the attention of several. "That way, I suppose," she says, setting off to assist the lamia, putting herself on an impact course with one of the beasts. The researchers had a tower and doors, their ally was less fortunate, and so takes priority as far as she's concerned.

Magnus nods and pats Euoia on the back. "Thanks. I think the others need you right now." he'd watch Fenris dart off, then Nena as well. The fox returns his attention to the truck while the chaos follows in the near distance.

Muffled whimperings come from the snake-pile as beasts administer various acts of ouchification and sink their teeth into the tasty jello. While normally this would be an almost perfect defense, the lack of nanites in the area makes it much less effective. The lamia says to herself, "Okay, this kinda hurts." She's not gonna last much longer, but she tries her best to endure it. It's better that monsters focus on her instead of others, some of them even unarmed. If she can't take it any longer she could probably just roll away, but it may leave her even more exposed. "Ouch ouch."