T'was late in the afternoon on a slightly cloudy day, the sun shining brightly from the west, casting the already arid ground below in a vibrant plethora of rich orange and red shades. There, at the edge of the well maintained roads, where wilderness clashed with civilization, one fennec would be leaned against a large and very clearly refurbished desert roamer jeep. The small fox would be sat at the driver's seat, with a small device in his hands, and earphones on his large satelite-like ears. He'd be passing the time, waiting for those willing to take on the dangers of the wastelands to arrive.

Kadir aproaches the jeep, six and a half feet of rippling Saber-Toothed Soldier musculature decked out in power armor and weapons. He double checks his comm to make sure he has the right location before introducing himself. "Kadir, Eureka security opperative and RSX marksman, reporting for duty." He then gives a quick salute and heel-click.

Avoiding the unpleasantry of the rough road up to that point altogether the large Hellhound approaches the meeting place by air, flying on great membranous wings while the bubble is strong and beginning to glide downward as he hears the feline arriving ahead of him introduce himself. With a grin he decides on a bit more impressive an entrance. Landing from a short dive the large 'hound lands, knees bent to mitigate the impact, still creating a noise as expected from three-fourths of a ton of weight hitting the ground. With the landing out of the way and feeling the nanite signal weaken he shrinks down to just a bit above seven feet tall and substantially lighter as he walks up, "Ebreus, Promethean... technically a negotiator but I do this sort of work regularly enough. Nice to meet you Kadir, and nice seeing you again Magnus." he says as he dusts off his coat and checks his colossal shotty over in preparation for leaving the bubble.

A dark-furred kitsune arrives shortly afterward in his combat attire. Having heard the request for aid and potential for rewards, Zen decides this might be a good chance to test his skills. Still, for someone who looks ready to take a hit, there aren't any obvious weapons affixed to his person.

He glances around to the others who have gathered here before him. There he sees a tall Saber-Tooth soldier who looks rather decked out... much more than he is in any case. His eyes wander over the armor to reveal the typical RSX insignia. He also glances over to the Hell Hound, recognizing it as Ebreus. He looks at the massive weapon on his back witha nod. "Ebreus, good to see you again. You certainly look a bit more decked out than the last time I saw you." He then looks between the Sabertooth and the Fennec with a casual wave. "Hey there, I'm Zen. RSX Operative, technically... But I main just hunt.. They haven't given me tasking in some time."

Taking note of the various people already clustering around the jeep, some close enough to touch, a tauric shadow vixen wearing dark armor fades into view already sitting in the back of the jeep totally relaxed.. "Busy with all these salvage operations, aren't you Magnus? Good afternoon." She nods at Kadir, Zen, Ebreus, and the final approaching member of their group. "Since we're apparently doing introductions, " she says, nodding at Kadir, "Cerl, stealth and security expert, scout, and" She pats her crossbow. "Sniper as needed."

A khaki skinned black haired sea angel just jogs in from inside the bubble with an MAS-36 bolt-action rifle slung onto her back and a pouch of bullets for it in clips at her side. Sensuen also wears a sharpened, sheathed spade at her side. Sensuen looks to where the rest of the people are standing, awaiting orders and offers her own services with. "Hello there. I'm Sensuen, mainly a sniper, trapper and survivalist."

"At ease, soldier." Magnus laughs and moves over to give the other a light shoulder-punch. "You're not here to run laps or be barked at by some commander worth half the material costs of their medals." Once Ebreus makes his entrance and does a formal introduction too, the fennec rolls his eyes and flicks his mane from one side of his muzzle to the other. "Jeep, seats, intended to have your butts occupying them." he'd do a jest-introduction as he opens the doors to the vehicle, and moves over to the front of the car.

Popping the bonnet, the fennec would check the state of the engine, muttering something about this 'hunk of junk always leaking oil at the worst of times', before closing the bonnet again and wiping his paws on a rag he'd pull out of his pocket. Once more folks arrive, he'd give Sensuen a greeting nod and a wink, much the same to Zen, a hearty "Heya fella." Once Cerl speaks up, he casts her a cold glance, but answers... "I call these contributions to my walle-I mean to society." He'd stick his tongue out at her.

Climbing onto the roof of the car, Magnus would clear his throat and start to speak... an impressive speech perhaps? An inspiring monologue? A mission briefing? "RIGHT! You know why we're here. We're gonna drive off about five or so clicks Eastward, find some smelly armed bandits, end a couple of lives and grab the stolen loot. I mean c'mon, let's just have fun with this. Try not to get shot though, I hear it's bad for your health." he'd wink, then grab the upper rim of the open jeep window, and turn the ignition. The engine sput-sput-sput-put-put-pu-pu-pu-putters, then roars to life like a beast, roused from its nap. "TIME TO GO, LADS! GET IN!"

Kadir quickly and efficiently hops in to the Jeep, double checking his rifles, crossbow, ammo pouches, and miscellaneous gear. "Just because I don't need to salute, doesn't mean I don't like doing it." He says with a smile. "Any chance we'd get to interogate any of them? I love it when I get to do interogations." He gives a deep, hearty laugh and waves to the other occupants of the jeep before turning on his regulation nanomagic, prepared for the trip out of the bubble.

Ebreus smiles as he hears Zen arrive and can't help but snicker when he Cerl reveals herself to have, apparently, hitched a ride to the meeting place with Magnus without being detected. Leaving his shotty to hang by its strap for a moment as he cracks his knuckles, "Lookin' like we've got just about all the relevant skill sets covered... so long as nobody slips and gives us a wanting for a Phoenix." he says. The large 'hound climbs into the back of the jeep and says, "So, how was the ride out here? Or did you sneak in after it parked?" to their Shadow Vixen stealth expert.

Sensuen nods to Magnus and climbs in the jeep, she's cleaned and serviced her rifle on the way here. Sensuen elaborates with, "Heh. I guess I was quite busy with salvage missions a few weeks before this. Still, I can understand that these bandits are a problem." before asking, "What do we stand to gain by removing these bandits?" and wondering why she doesn't get out more.

Zen nods and looks around at the others who have gathered, giving a nod to those he hadn't noticed before. "Right, don't want someone to snatch the loot before we do... or have it moved out before we even show." He doesn't waste any time in jumping into the bed of the jeep, leaving the more comfortable seats for the others.

"Well, I'm sure I might make a decent infiltrator... but it looks like someone might give me a run for my money." Zen says with a glance to the other dark-furred fox-taur. "Anyway, the rest of you look to be packing some pretty heavy weaponry. Planning to just riddle their hideout with lead?" He looks back to the Fennec and asks, "So, what kind of information do we have on the theives? What kind of armaments are they packing? Any advanced-tech security, or are they just using some beaten down structure? Do they have any particular attire or insignias that will give them away?

"Nope, flew in. Road is too rough to want to ride out here, it'll be bad enough out of the bubble." Cerl laughs softly. "Nope, flew in after Magnus parked, and slipped into the jeep before anyone started showing up." She moves around to give Ebreus and Zen more room in the back. "Surprised one of you aren't claiming one of the seats...though I guess one of you would have to ride back here with me regardless." She turns her head to look over at Magnus. "When one can pad their wallet at the same time as contributing to society, all the better. And if such a contribution to society is just a small thing while the contribution to my coffers is much bigger? Well, all the better for me." She snickers, and sticks her tongue out back at Magnus.

Sensuen nods to Magnus and climbs in the jeep, she's cleaned and serviced her rifle on the way here. Sensuen elaborates with, "Heh. I guess I was quite busy with salvage missions a few weeks before this. Still, I can understand that these bandits are a problem." before asking, "What do we stand to gain by removing these bandits?" and wondering why she doesn't get out more.

"No music this time! Last time Zephyr swiped my sound system, claiming it came with the car I rented. Effing A." Magnus huffs as he adjusts the mirrors. Upon hearing Kadir's question, he shrugs deeply and casts him an odd look. "Do I look like a soothsayer to you? If you wanna interrogate one of them, grab one up and break their bones one at a time for all I care. If it means we get our haul, that's where my concerns end." he'd wave it off, then perk an ear towards Sensuen. "From what I hear, industrial autoassembly machinery, for the most part. S'why I got this thing here. Gonna be a hefty load, and this old girl can carry upwards of three thousand kilos!"

With everyone in the car, he'd press the gas pedal, and with a loud roar of the engine, they'd be off. The trires screech and raise a large dust cloud behind them, the road ahead looking inviting, in a way... Hearing Zen's question earlier, the fox shouts over the sounds of the engine to answer. "Whaddya think? Kinetic weapons, clubs, knives, the standard fare for highwaymen and wasteland thugs! If it's anything else, well... we roll back empty-handed and tell big Z to send in the supreme league of hoity toity professionals. I ain't being paid enough to bother with anything else, and neither are you!" To reply to Sensuen, he'd shrug deeply. "You find anything worth taking off of their flea-bitten bodies, have it. Wasteland rules, finders keepers." he'd wave dismissively and lean back in his seat, before casting Cerl a glance. "Everyone has their priorities, eh?"

The trip was relatively short, given their usual excursions would last for the better span of several hours, a mere half-dozen miles beyond the bubble's edge prove... well, easily handled. Within a half hour, Magnus would honk the horn to draw the other's attention. "Right! We're nearing the encampment. Those filthy thieving rats have their base set up..." the jeep would come to a sudden halt, the tires digging into the ground as he grounds them to a standstill right before a tall and very steep cliff leading upwards to a plateau some hundred or so feet above them. "...up there." Looks like they'd need to find a way up~

Kadir spends the trip in silence, making sure his regulation nanomagic stays up so he doesn't have to worry. But when they reach a tall cliff to climb at the end of their journey, he starts worrying. "I can't climb." He growls, marginally frustrated that all of his fun is on the other side of such as trial. "Can anyone lift upwards of 370 pounds? Or have a way I can fly?"

Ebreus shakes his head as Kadir comments on wanting to interrogate them, "If they're the same band that tried to rob one of our groups a while ago and burnt down a farmhouse, farming family and all, then interrogation will be a euphemism for what we'd need to do to get information... as for what we're getting from it? Well this band stole stuff from us and are likely terrorizing the countryside. They couldn't do either in the future if they're six feet under." Ebreus shakes his head as Magnus says they're not being paid enough for the bandit group, "If they're the same group from a while ago I've got a score to settle... if they've got heavy industrial machinery then they've got a path for moving it and likely somethin' big and powerful to move it for 'em.... big, powerful, and valuable." he says with a grin.

As the truck comes to a stop and the horn blows Ebreus looks over the cabin of the truck out toward where their encampment should be as Kadir asks, "Don't think flying will be needed. Heavy gear and bandits... my money is on a truck path and large truck. Don't see a mechanical crane for them to be using instead."

Having arrived at the destination, Zen looks up at the cliff and huffs. "Well, I guess this'll make things fun. Looks like we will be getting a lot of exercise hauling everything back down this cliff." He looks around to see if there are any more managable approaches. "Well, I guess we can always clear out the camp and hopefully find some way do drive this thing up there." He adds with a few taps on the jeep.

Hearing the concern about scaling the cliff he adds, "Maybe one of us could take a rope up with them and anchor it down for the rest of us? Maybe do so discreetly, we don't know what is at the top of the cliff from down here." He gives Ebreus a nod, "Thats right, there would certainly have to be another path, but it might also be true that it is one they are monitoring. If we find the compound, we can probably follow the tracks away to see their normal route."

"Like Ebreus said, they've got to have some way of hauling their loot up to their camp easily. I seriously doubt they block and tackle the loot up the cliff face. While I might be able to fly up if we were in the bubble, there's no way I can climb up there." Cerl starts looking around, trying to spot any alternate paths up. "I would assume that Magnus stopped HERE so that the bandits don't hear us coming, and that the way up is going to be further down the road." Hopping out of the jeep, she starts trotting down the road while examining the cliff face and road ahead for any way to ascend to the top of the cliffs easily.

"All I got is the location as told by the scouts, folks." Magnus would climb out of the jeep, then open the trunk to reveal a grapple shot and several lengths of rope, among other utilities that may prove useful, such as a winch, some bandages, a large water bottle full of water, and one full of spare fuel, a spare tire and some basic mechanic's utilities, the rest too deep down to see. "I am guessing there IS a path that they could have legged, but here's the thing..." he'd pick up the grapple shot and twirl it between his fingers. "Bad idea to mosey our exposed asses over the same road that they were able to topple a caravan onto. I ain't risking landmines, and those are very much possible." His finger rises and shoots towards Zen. "Someone gets it." Handing he grapple shot to Kadir, the fennec would smirk and wink. "Alright mister RSX Marksman. You know what to do. Alternatively, if you lot want to take the path that would leave you wide open and easy to see from a mile away, go right ahead! Personally I'd rather not risk being shot at."

Sensuen looks to Kadir and says, "Don't worry, I couldn't climb up a yacht without the ladder a few years ago." then considers Ebreus's assessment of the situation. So they drove into the wrong end of this camp basically, at least they're safe down here for the time being so they should be able to plan without being overheard or spotted, so long as they keep their voices down. Sensuen ends up nodding to Cerl in agreement then turns more generally to ask the group as a whole "So where to approach from? I'm mostly already camoflagued already."

"All I got is the location as told by the scouts, folks." Magnus would climb out of the jeep, then open the trunk to reveal a grapple shot and several lengths of rope, among other utilities that may prove useful, such as a winch, some bandages, a large water bottle full of water, and one full of spare fuel, a spare tire and some basic mechanic's utilities, the rest too deep down to see. "I am guessing there IS a path that they could have legged, but here's the thing..." he'd pick up the grapple shot and twirl it between his fingers. "Bad idea to mosey our exposed asses over the same road that they were able to topple a caravan onto. I ain't risking landmines, and those are very much possible." His finger rises and shoots towards Zen. "Someone gets it." Handing he grapple shot to Kadir, the fennec would smirk and wink. "Alright mister RSX Marksman. You know what to do. Alternatively, if you lot want to take the path that would leave you wide open and easy to see from a mile away, go right ahead! Personally I'd rather not risk being shot at."

Kadir takes the grapple and rope that is tossed to him and measures the distance in his head for the throw, winding up. With a heave the grapple hooks the top of the cliff face and Kadir makes his way up the rope, doing a lot better climbing than he expected. He stays quiet as he accends, focusing on not messing up.

Ebreus nods lightly as Zen and Magnus comment about the danger of the enemies monitoring &/or mining the rout up to their base, "Yeah... Cerl might be able to make the path up without too much trouble but the rest of us would have some trouble... course the climbing rout also has problems." He hops out of the back of the jeep, "We'd likely need to haul Cerl up... and possibly myself as well as neither of us are much for rock climbing." he explains. Taking a few steps closer to the cliff he says, "A bit too big for a bubble to reach from bottom to top... unless Kadir made it halfway up." he says. Reaching the cliff he leans back against it and says, "Once you're up there I'll start climbin'. Don't want to move or strain the rope with someone else on it... If someone brought a filiment kit we'd just about have the range to fly if they burnt it." he comments as he takes the rope and slowly tries to find footholds.

Zen nods, "Yeah, we could probably manage more if we could catch them by surprise. I doubt anyone would actively be monitoring an approach like this." As Magnus digs out a grapple shot, he smirks and says, "That'll do the trick, having a nice rope to climb will make things tremendously easier." His tails filt behind him as he watches Kadir line up the throw, hoping for his own sake that the grapple-end anchors well. "Right, I'll be adding some pitons along the way to create different anchor points. Don't want to have everything hanging on a single point of failure." He says as he starts his accent too, carefully securing the rope to aid those who follow after. "As far as a 'plan of attack'... I think we should try for a stealth approach. Maybe have a team try to get on the inside while another is prepared to support from a secured position."

"Climbing. Ugh. Taurs don't climb." Cerl stares at the rope while everyone else climbs up, then sighs. Grabbing onto the rope, she leans her full weight into it to ensure it'll hold against her nearly 3/4 ton of weight before slowly trying to haul herself up the cliff. After several long, torturous minutes she finally manages haul her heavy taur body up to the top, where she rolls off to the side breathing heavy. "I almost think I should have tried their main route and just made sure they couldn't see me. That climb. Ugh."

Sensuen nods to Magnus, landmines or IEDs or snipers firing on them in open ground, if they don't crawl through the scrub using it as concealment, nor have wholly appropriate camoflague, and even then landmines, snakes, scorpions could all be waiting. The cliff is the safest route, and now that even Sensuen can climb up via a rope shot up there that she hopes the bandits didn't hear the grapple hitting some part of their structure that it now seems to cling to quite securely. Sensuen offers. "I'm nearly 190 or so pounds with gear on so I might be one of the lighter ones if you don't want to stress the rope. If not we could always throw more grapples up there. Or I could go up and secure more grapples if you want."

Magnus shimmies his way up the rope, a feat made easy for a fox so light and nimble. Once he climbs his way up and over the edge of the rocks, he'd provide a shade for his eyes with his hands, then huff and fold his ears forward to do so better. Reaching into his pack, he'd pull out some binoculars and scan the area. "Weird... could have sworn we'd see an immediate presence... figures, the scouts must have fed us some bullshit. I swear, if it turns out that we're not in the right spot..."

Putting his binoculars away, the fennec waits for everyone to join him, then looks down towards the jeep. "You folks go on ahead. I'll try to secure a pully system so we can lower the good stuff down, ifn' you find a camp that is. I'll catch up later." With that, Magnus would scurry off, searching for a good spot to set up what they'd need on their way back.

You stand atop a flat plateau, nothing seems to catch your eye on first glance, the winds causing puffs of dust and sand to swish and float above the terrain doing little to help with that too. There is... an uncanny sensation to those more acute. A whisper in the wind, a feeling of dread perhaps, a knot in one's stomach. What's stranger is that it seems to have an origin, a direction, if you will...

Kadir reaches the top of the cliff and looks around, disappointed. "Why is there nothing to shoot?!" He yells, looking around and seeing nothing of note. "Does anyone see anything?" That is when he gets that chill feeling, and immediately draws his nanite cannon from his back and powers it on. "What? Is something out there?" He readies to shoot any surprises.

Once Ebreus reaches the top of the cliff and Kadir shouts he shakes his head, "See no. Smell yes." he says and points to the east. "Caught the scent of blood... but something is wrong with it. He grabs hold of his scattergun and prepares to fire as he slowly walks in that direction a few steps before stopping, "Someone who's idea of stealth isn't 'I'm not using high explosive rounds at the moment' should be leading... and on that note someone remind me to make explosive slugs for this thing on the way back." he says.

Having hardly any trouble with the climb and reaching the top. Zen scans around to see if there were any signs of the outpost, and more importantly, any potential watchmen. "Well, that wasn't so bad." He says with a brief snicker to the exhausted looking fox-taur. "Well, at least Magnus will have us covered for the way back. I'm sure if it can secure our load, it'll be able to give you a nice ride down as well." Zen continues to survey the top of the plateu, having narrowed his focus to a scrap of cloth that looked a bit shreaded to the southeast. "Hmm, I don't see anything that looks like an outpost." He grumbles, "I don't see anything but some tattered clothing over there... I wonder if its even worth looking into." He gives a huff before moving towards it, having nothing else to focus on. At the mention of smelling blood, Zen gives another few sniffs to the air while moving along. "Well, I suppose we have nothing else to go on for the moment." After he reaches the tattered cloth, he leans down to give it a closer inspection. Maybe there would be some identifiable insignia? Maybe pockets containing somrthing worthwhile? Hell, maybe something that would give a clue as to what had happened to its previous owner.

Cerl stands up after a couple minutes, having gotten her breath back and starts looking around. Pulling her crossbow off her back, she loads it with a simple bladed bolt for now while scanning around. "Hey, there's a trail here. Some black goo...oil from the machinery maybe, or the blood that Ebreus smelled perhaps? It's leading off to the southeast. I'm going to see where it goes." She fades out of sight even though she knows she won't be able to remain invisible once beyond Kadir's regulation range, and starts down the trail keeping an eye out for anything else of interest or danger while making sure she is as stealthy as possible once her invisibility can no longer be maintained.

Sensuen makes it up the rope far more easily than she would have expected. Once there she looks both near and far for signs of some activity in the area. It looks like someone was limping here, from a leg wound if the black ichor on the ground is blood, it's not likely to be a leaking car, though it could still be. Sensuen looks to Ebreus and says, "Ah so it is blood." before she too draws her rifle from her back and loads it with a clip from the bag at her side.

Across the flat wind-blasted plains and down a short ways southeast, those brave enough would peek around the rocky walls of the desert and bare witness to their expected targets... but not quite. The camp in question, or what remained of it, had been found, in the most unexpected of ways. Gooey creeping ooze and ichor, blacker than the starless night, thick and bubbly tar-like sludge was present, wafting terribly of death and decay, its repugnant stench enough to force a gag out of all but the steeliest, or bereft of a sense of smell.

The fluid seemed to crawl along the surfaces once untainted, oozing its repulsive self across and over, even up a steep climb as it consumed everything but the stones it came into contact with. Tents, bodies, fabric, food, water, anything organic was slowly being devoured, digested out in the open and reformed into more of that putrid black horror. As for the bandits? Merely peering at the deepest of the pools of grotesque slime reveals the bodies of the fallen, stripped of flesh, one layer at a time, slowly being taken apart and turned into more of the same fluid. This is a very bad place to be right now...

Kadir follows behind the others who tracked the targets, and for being in a sealed power armor isn't acosted by the rotting, digested smell when the crew comes to the scene. He keeps his rifle at the ready, loking around for what would have caused the damage and for the supplies that the crew is looking for.

Ebreus huffs and shakes his head lightly as the horrid smell comes to him beyond just the blood tinge to it and soldiers on as he follows the trail pointed out by their scouting and stealth expert, making sure to stay what should be a fair distance back to avoid his large frame from being easily spotted and raising alarms in the bandit camp... though that proves to be unneeded as the camp comes into view and it becomes rather apparent the bandits aren't the biggest threat here, "Well... this is unexpected." he says as he keeps his shotty ready and keeps several feet distance from the nearest puddle of death. "We have any chemists or nanotechnitions in the group?" he calls back to the rest of the party

Zen growls after inspecting the remnants of smelly, repulsive black goo that was affixed to the piece of cloth. He gives a shout out to those in earshot. "Well, nothing here but some... corrosive black ichor that smells rather putrid." He gives his head a shake from the disgusting stench, continuing to move along with the group to get away from the smell. It doesn't prove to be too useful as the smell wafting further southeast is just as strong. Still he manages to adjust to the scent rather effectivly, looking upon the scene without it serving as a distraction. "The hell is that...?" He says with confusion and disgust. "That is a lot more of whatever I saw back there... Do you think this has something to do with the stolen supplies... I never did hear what it was we were going to recover. In any event, it doesn't look like it is moving too fast... Maybe we can get in and find the supplies and get the hell out of here?"

Cerl wrinkles her sensitive nose, holding an arm up to try and filter some of the stench away. Glancing at Zen, "It's not moving fast now, but if you look close you can see the bodies of the bandits in it. You really think they couldn't have gotten away from something moving THAT slow? I'm betting it can move a good bit faster when it needs to." Looking around the area she starts pointing. "Look, there's the Zephyr crates. That big pool is pretty close though. If we're going to do this, we need to be FAST. Look at the way those pools are spreading...it looks like whatever this sludge is came up from underground...we might need to probe the ground ahead of us as we get the stuff."

Sensuen takes her spyglass out and looks to the strange black ooze before she twists the larger lens from her spyglass aligns it between the ooze and the sun and burns the dried black ichor, at first lightly frying the stuff to see if it melts or chars, implying petrochemicals or organic matter. At least this could help narrow things down. As she's doing this, Sensuen hears what everyone else is saying about this ichorous ooze, nobody seems to be coming up with anything all too conclusive, but that's what Sen's trying to do, albeit on what she assumes is a dead amount disconnected from its host.

"Remember what I said about us not being paid enough for this?" a voice would chyme out behind them. Magnus had caught up, and he looked... well, justifiably surprised. "Yeah... this qualifies pretty well..." he'd sigh softly. "Then again... if we bring samples of this gunk, we might be paid a lot more th-ACK!" the fox yaps in surprise! The ground beneath them starts to crack violently. Those more perceptive manage to get a heads-up, making the evasive effort a cake-walk, but Kadir does not hear the movement of the ichor beneath the ground. Neither does Sensuen, nor does Zen in fact.

They are caught off-guard as the terrain bursts open, lines of the horrid liquid in the forms of biting nails, skeletal hands wrapped in pitch-black living tar and tendrils reinforced with the bones of the dead lash out, flailing and trying to grab onto anything they can! Zen squirms free, an acute reflex yileding a painless escape, while Sensuen and Kadir manage to pull free of the damnable thing's grasp. The rest of the party were more fortunate, able to avoid its grasping tendrils as the horrid creature tries its best to rope a victim into itself... before giving up, and pulling its terrible appendages back into itself.

Kadir didn't see it coming and couldn't dodge, but he was not going to let anything get a hold of him. With a roar he pulls himself free of the ichor, squeezing the trigger on his rifle an firing off a pulse of disintegrating energy into the open pool of gunk. With trained motions he switches out his first rifle with another as he makes his steps back out of the sludge's reach, waiting for the indicator that his disintegration rifle recharges.

Ebreus nods, "That... or the source can project the ichor onto its targets." he replies to Cerls comment about it being able to move faster as needed. The 'hound keep an eye on on the group... until the sound of the Fennecs voice chimes out and shortly there after he quickly bounds backward outside of the grasp of the monstrosity... nearly opening fire on the appendage coming for him but restraining himself to avoid splattering everyone with ichor. "Well this just got interesting." the 'hound says and blinking on thermal vision and spying the ichor being white hot under thermal scrutiny he scans the ground for warm spots, pointing them out to prevent anyone from stepping back into this trap, "Hell that stuffs hot!" he says, "Bright white on thermal vision... keep away from warm spots." as he's pointing them out. "I see a rout to the cargo... I'll need cover if I'm gonna risk it." he says as he maneuvers to a safe-enough spot as he awaits a reply.

Zen scratches his chin while looking to the crates that Cerl pointed out. "Mmmh, I see.. that does look to be a bit risky if it can move like you suggest." He gives a bit of a huff and says, "I wonder how it detects things... it just looks like sludge to me... Think we have a chance to just... sneak by it?" As he finished his thought, the ground tremors and cracks as he finds some of those black tendrils reaching out to ensnare him. With a quickened heartrate and a reaction surprise, he narrowly avoids being caught, managing to bound away to safety. He snarls at the creature before taking a quick glance to see if anyone else was in need of assistance. To his relief, nobody seems to have been caught by the 'creature?'... What else would you call it? With the warning issued by Ebreus, he steps away from the nearest spot revealed, then looks back to see what was going on with the other pools they had seen. Seeing Ebreus start a charge towards their retrieval target he shouts out. "Careful! there are some things starting to emerge from those pools!" He starts to book it after him following in his path as the 'hound likely knew how to avoid the ichor mines. His wrist glows a luminous white as a bow form in his left hand, prepared to loose an arrow of moonlight at whatever got too close... but he wasn't about to trust in its effect against a goo-like creature.

Hearing the rumble underfoot, Cerl easily moves out of the way of whatever is coming and pulls a large grenade out of one of her pouches. Pulling the pin, she throws it at the large mass of goo. When Ebreus yells out about it being white hot, she hurries over near Kadir to get inside his bubble, and concentrates on dropping the temperature of any of the ooze within the bubble as low as she can get it to go. "Hey, anyone able to help me freeze this stuff?" She takes note of Ebreus running through the minefield only he can see, but stays by Kadir to try and cool the ooze down.

Sensuen is surprised when neither turns out to be the case. Sensuen quckly pulls away from the ooze on the ground , twists the cap back onto her spyglass before stowing it in its case on her belt. But, as is the case with living things, Sensuen is ambushed by the black sludge, and it seems to be recycling the dead's bones into its own structure. The sea angel manages to struggle free after she's grabbed, and shoots at the bones to break the sludge tentacle's reinforcements. Sensuen then catches up with the rest of the group to share her discovery, at a reasonable volume just in case that stuff can also hear. "That ooze droplet that we thought was blood or oil turned out to be asleep. It ran away when I tried to burn it with a lens from my spyglass to see what it's made of. I'd be careful around any of that stuff." Sensuen then loads a fresh clip into her rifle, keeping several more in her tentacle hair, ready to load if the need for supressive fire arises, though she relies more on marksmanship than volume of fire to deal damage at a distance. Sensuen sees Ebreus running for the cargo and shoots for the bone reinforcements of any tentacles that come near to try to touch him. Fortunately she succeeds in this endavor, not exactly breaking all of the tentacles' bones but at least keeping them away from Ebreus as he makes it over to the cargo.

The grenade sinks into the ooze, exploding within its depths causes it to splatter in every direction. The ray of negative energy however leaves a trail of hardened, grey, dried out sludge where it had impacted the pool. The sounds of earth cracking become overabundant, and the entire group could see as the black tar starts to diminish... however...

As it does, so shapes start to manifest from its depths. Horrid, gangly amalgamations vaguely resembling humanoids, held together by the viscous liquid, given structural support by the bones of its victims start exit the nearest pool, rapidly crawling their way towards the group, clawing and swiping as their grotesque limbs try to propel them faster across the terrain. They claw and chase after their nearest target, Ebreus, though the fleet-footed one proves too quick to catch.

Their attention divides amongst those present, gutteral moans and sickening glops audible as the hideous beings rush in, more forming as the pool continues to empty out...

Kadir fires his secondary rifle into the goo and then pulls out his pistols, spraying bullets down range at the shambling remains. "I don't have anything elemental or explosive to deal with this, but I've got ammo for days. Any suggestions?" He takes careful steps to distance himself from the strange creature, a hail of rounds launched between him and danger.

Steeling himself shortly after calling out that he wants some cover the large Hellhound bounds down the only safe-ish path to the cargo... a path unfortunately right next to the largest pool of ichor. With the covering fire of his squad Ebreus dodge, dives, ducks, dips, and dodges his way to the crates and hoists one onto each shoulder... unfortunately dumping the remaining crates into the ichor in the process and then bounds his way back to the squad as the ichor zombies rise behind him to give chase. "I suggest we add distance between them and us." he says, "I *might* be able to slow 'em down once I'm not toting two crates." he explains as he reaches them and starts heading past.

Having followed behind the 'hound, trusting in his own speed and evasion, Zen lets loose an arrow at the nearest looking humanoid blob, hardly expecting anything to come of it. Seeing Ebreus heft up the containers... dumping the rest into the goo, he calls out. "If you can slow them down, give me the crates. I wasn't about to let you run off by yourself." He says with a slightly annoyed tone. He would be able to do the carrying while freeing up someone with a bit more firepower... He had followed him all that way after all. With the pass, Zen follows Ebreus back out, serving more to try and distract those amalgamates and give the rest some more room to run. "Lets get the hell out of here... I hope we won't have to dive off a cliff."

The closest two shamblers slow as Cerl focuses her cryo nano on them, being reduced to near immobility by her efforts. Moving backwards, staying with Kadir, she concentrates on whatever gets too close. "I suggest we get the hell out of here, Kadir!" Regardless of whether Kadir starts retreating or not, Cerl stays near her bubble source in order to keep the shamblers away.

Sensuen thinks a bit and goes through her options, the open is a bad place to be, so she shoots through the zombies to get over to Cerl, carefully aiming her shots away from the rest of the party to avoid accidentally shooting them. Sensuen looks to Cerl and the others and moves to rejoin them, avoiding the black pits of death, platforming turns out to be much easier when you're good at aiming yourself. Sensuen hears the hopes against cliff diving and says, "If we have to jump, try to roll soon after you hit the ground, if you're still alive that is. I agree with falling back and I'll try to cover us with what bullets I've got left, not that they're running all that low."

"Guys..." Magnus raises his hand and points to the south, and the north, from where in the distance an entire platoon of shamblers were seen clawing their way toward their location. Whatever this thing was, it was bigger than they knew, and now it seems they'd agitated it enough that it was sending everything it had in the area at them. There were hundreds, if not thousands one could count, dragging their horrid lopsided bodies in their direction, hungry for flesh and bone. "I suggest we leg it... NOW!" he'd yell out, then reach out to grab one of the crates, running back towards the jeep. Gods, if they reach the damn jeep before they all could. "I WILL BE AT THE CAR, IF THOSE THINGS GET TO ME BEFORE YOU DO, I'M ASSUMING YOU'RE DEAD AND PRESSING THE GAS PEDAL!" he yells out. The fox does a one-handed slide down the rope, then dunks his cargo into the back and jumps into the driver's seat. He turns the ignition key and fires up the engine.

Kadir is running out of options. Five Rounds Rapid isn't going to work and there are even more on the way. "How is this thing even working out here? It certainly didn't have nanites before we showed up." A brief click and a green light indicates his primary weapon is available again, Kadir putting away his other weapons to draw his disintegrator rifle quickly. "At least tell me it has something like a core, or a brain, or something!" He legs it to the cliff face, making sure Cerl has enough space and speed to keep up their cryo nanomagic before he makes his way fast down the rope.

Ebreus passes one of the crates to Magnus as he grabs for it and the other to Zen as they reach the momentary safety of the mobile bubble. Immediately he grabs his scattergun and fires on the shambling abomination closest to being in his way, while not risking hitting a squadmate, "Just run, we're heavily outnumbered!" he shouts as he continues past toward the cliff opening the breach of the small-cannon scale gun and loading another shell as he runs. Quickly reaching the cliff he weals around on his heals and continuing to provide suppressing fire until everyone is close then leaps off to glide to the bed of the jeep.

As he is passed another crate, he high-tails it to the cliffs edge before preparing a rapid descent down. "Damn, of all the times to lack wings..." He passes the crate to Cerl who seemed ready to take flight with it. He fires off another two shots of his bow at the nearest goo-husks, taking note of the rather particular effect it was having on them. Rather than just plunging into them like normal arrows, they seem to cut straight through with a sort of hissing sound, looking to have some unexpected effectiveness. "This thing better be humming. I don't want to have to outrun this monstrosity on foot." Zipping down the cliff and running over to the vehicle. He uses jumps into the passenger seat while hoping the damn thing starts.

Once Kadir hits the rope, Cerl grabs the remaining crate, and then simply spreads her wings and launches off the face of the cliff. Gliding easily down to the jeep, she stashes the crate then climbs in the back with them. "They're right behind us, Magnus, floor it soon as Sensuen is in!"

Sensuen thinks a bit and goes through her options, the open is a bad place to be, so she shoots through the zombies to get over to Cerl, carefully aiming her shots away from the rest of the party to avoid accidentally shooting them. Sensuen looks to Cerl and the others and moves to rejoin and their retreat, avoiding the black pits of death, platforming turns out to be much easier when you're good at aiming yourself. Sensuen hears the hopes against cliff diving and says. "If we have to jump, try to roll soon after you hit the ground, if you're still alive that is. I agree with falling back and I'll try to cover us with what bullets I've got left, not that they're running all that low." However she covers the group as best as she can while trying to get out with the rest of them. Someone will have to come here with a huge bowl or something. At least there are no bandits out here, something worse, but less intelligent. After Sensuen slides down the rope towards the jeep and hops into the back of it, she asks, "Is everyone ok? to the rest of the team assembled there.

Nobody is given a chance to answer, as more bony tendrils erupt from the ground and make a frenzied reach for the jeep. "HANG ON!" Magnus screams as he grabs the gear stick and presses the gas pedal down to the ground. The tires screech and the engine roars a mighty roar while the coagulation of black goo, nearly five meters tall swings down at them. *THUD* it impacts... the ground, where the tire tracks and dust cloud of their vehicle lingered. Now, their nightmares were but a rapidly fading collection of black dots in the distance. One thing was certain though, this was not the last time they'd encounter this horrid foe...