Promethean Farm Raiders Incomplete - RPLOG
Participants
Date
29/3/2013
Log
A worrying distress call makes its way to the likes of Zephyr, any available Promethean, and that of RSX. After checking the message over, both Zephyr and RSX filter through their list of agents and determine who is best fit for a job of this magnitude. With a loud and static pop, a request is sent in to the chosen few over their communication devices. "Agents, it would seem that our Promethean "friends" are in a bit of trouble," booms a commanding voice. "Their farms have been the victim of raids from various and unknown mutants. We can't let such a wonderful source of food fall to acts of thievery. You have been chosen based on your credentials and will meet up with other comrades at the designated area. Expect resistance and good luck." Afterwards, the coordinates from the distress call are uploaded. They seem to be quite far away from the farm.
In the middle of running errands in Fairhaven, Rihko stops to listen to the message. The kitsune mulls it over for a few moments, then turns and sets off towards the farms. Although she's traveling on foot, she's been walking and running and patrolling for years now and makes good time, carefully approaching the location with her ears perked and eyes alert.
Deerchild arrives in a small weather-beaten Volkswagen mini-van, pausing somewhat outside of the drop off point. Engine running roughly as the side door opens and the hydra piles out in a mess of coils, before a furred arm hands them their pack. "Got it--" hisses one of their heads. "We'll pick you up some chicken." "If we find any." "Thanks for the ride!" The van sputters back into gear and does a circle in the middle of the crossroads before departing in a cloud of blue smoke.
Arlan continues to be alarmed about how an engineer keeps pulling soldier/thug duty assignments at Zephyr, but reports in as ordered with his weapons ready and his form disgustingly (but battle-effectively) mutated. He follows the map directions and flies to about a half-kilometre away from the map location in the shape of a crested wyvern, then changes to his battle from and advances to the location on foot using available cover, checking his angles for signs of friendly or hostile contact.
As the group nears the supposed distress call coordinates, they all converge on on a west/east running road surrounded by various buildings. Much further to the east is the supposed farm, yet the coordinates definitely match up to this location. It doesn't take a keen ear however, to hear the viscous sobbing of a sad and confused mutant sitting up against a brick wall. "Why? Why?! Who would do this?" the poor and naked blue gryphon female chants in between sobs.
Rihko watches the sobbing gryphon, ears twitching, and then sniffs at the air. She glances around and, knowing it is a trap, steps onto the road and begins moving towards the woman. As she gets closer, her expression becomes concerned, and her tone is quiet and gentle as she calls out. "Hello? Ma'am? What happened?"
Deerchild orients themselves and makes their way down the road towards the farm, the serpent's colors a little bluer than the scenery. "Hello, agents," they say in greeting as they approach the others. Deciding to approach the gryphon as well, Deerchild's tongues flick the air, sometimes a person's flavor tells you more about their feelings than one's eyes can. "Hello--" they call out, "--are you the one who sent the distress call?"
Arlan searches for good cover locations and then picks his third-choice spot for a sniper nest to climb to, planning to cover Rihko, whom he thinks he recognizes, as she investigates the unconfirmed contact. He meanwhile contines scanning for the expected ambush, covering the agents with his tesla cannon.
The blue gryphon continued to sob almost uncontrollobly. She eventually rolled over onto her side and unleashed her various accusing cries against the world. At first, she wasn't aware of the agents approaching on her location due to being stuck in her own little world at the moment. The grypon attempts to pull herself together and at first spots a kitsune coming right for her. "G-get away from me!" She yells while scooting backwards and starting to cry again. A genuine look of fear crossed her visage with each step the kitsune took. As Deer approached the grypon and tasted the air, shi would note a sweet taste that's been somewhat dulled. Perhaps an indication of a good personality. The gryphon for some reason didn't feel as scared with the hydra. "Y-yes, I sent the distress call..." She looks down in a shameful way and continues. "My name's Linda. I'm a regular worker over at the farm that's currently being raided. I was the only one who got away..."
Rihko lets one of her ears flick, but stays back from the woman, letting the hydra talk to her; then she sniffs and frowns slightly, looking around the small area. Her nose wrinkles, but she remains quiet.
Deerchild's heads nod as the hydra slithers somewhat closer to the gryphon, "We are Deerchild, all of us are from Zephyr, and here to help." A pair of heads turn to look towards the farm as the hydra asks, "You were the only one to get away?" "--how many workers does the farm have?" The two looking towards the farm turn back after a moment and look over to Rihko. "We probably surprised her, no doubt." They inquire of Rihko in a quieter tone, probably thinking their conversation is private, "(Did you want to introduce yourself? We think sshe may be able to help us.)"
"I'm the danged engineer, I'm not supposed to be the only one with knowledge of lines of fire tactical placement," Arlan mumbles as Rihko and the other agent bunch up into a nice grouping with the unconfirmed contact that could be hit with a single RPG round. He continues keeping overwatch with the tesla cannon and checking possible locations for an ambush.
Linda gradually begins to calm down now that she's realized help has arrived. Certainly an interesting group, but the farm needed all the help it could get. "You're the help? My message actually got through? Thank the Gods!" Linda, without thinking, immediately gets up and hugs Deerchild with all her might, which isn't too strong. "Thank you! Thank you!" The gryphon eventually notices her squeezing and lets go with a blush. "Sorry about that... I- well... There are six workers total including me working today. The head administrator for the farm is also on shift. When the raid came, I was a far enough distance away to run off and make the call." Linda looks sad once more and sits back upon the ground. "I abandoned all my friends. I feel so ashamed, but... I'll do what I can. I'll try and answer any question you have."
Rihko frowns, and her ears go flat. "The others. Are they safe? And how many raiders were there?" Her tails gather together and flick back and forth, and the kitsune rocks a little on her feet, ready to go... but the survivors have lasted this long, if they lasted at all. A question or two should be fine.
Deerchild's coils slide over each other as the hydra's heads wave about, making aborted attempts to ensnare the gryphon as she comes close. "They will be happy to know that you've gotten help for them," one of their heads hisses. "The message said the raiders were ferals? What kind?" Another of the hydra's heads flicks its tongue at Linda's ears, to watch them flick before drawing back again. "You can answer our colleague's questions first, then ours as we travel to the farm perhaps."
Arlan listens in with his mutant powers, and wants to ask questions about tactics used and how the opposing force was armed, but expects that this gryphon probably doesn't have much useful information about that anyway. He shakes himself from that distraction and continues scanning angles of attack and covering the agents.
Linda looks much less afraid of the kitsune this time around. She picks her head up and looks at Rihko straight into her eyes. "I didn't get a very good look since I had to run away as fast as I could, but I'm pretty sure everyone is still alive. I think I saw them being pushed into the administrations building right next to the farm. The raid was so sudden, but there were at least ten mutants of various infections. They didn't look all that high tech or organized either." Linda turns her head towards Deerchild and quirks a brow. "I don't think they were ferals. They seemed normal to me, just angry and with melee weapons..."
Rihko thinks for a moment, and nods her head. "Good. They might even be reasoned with." She smiles at Deerchild and nods, then motions along the road. "Let's go, then. I'll take point; hopefully nothing crazy happens though."
Deerchild drones as their heads put out an annoyed hiss as one of them says, "It seems we were mistaken, then." "(--I never said anything!)" They turn a couple of heads towards Rihko and nod, "We will keep our eyes out for any surprises." The heads addressing Linda mention, "It might be best if you come with us, you could help us find a way to rescue your friends." "Or locate some weapons so they could assist us if there is a fight."
Realizing he's spent too much time in one position, Arlan sneaks to his 4th-choice spot for a sniper position, looking for where the imminent ambush should be arriving from and hasn't yet. He's worried about the imminent engagement that should be arriving shortly because there are remarkably few agents around for a mission group. It doesn't help his nerves that he hasn't worked with Rihko much and he isn't sure he even knows who that strange hydra is.
Linda gets up from the street floor again and starts to dust herself off. "O-okay, I'll come with you guys and try not to be a liability..." The gryphon points down the road and towards the farm area. "It's only a couple minutes walk down east. This way, we should be covered by a large storage building that blocks vision to the farm. It should give us the surprise we need... Before that however, we should be safe I think. They seemed only interested in the crops." Linda pauses and tried to collect her nerves. "Are we ready? Is this everyone," she says, not noticing Arlan.
Rihko shoots the gryphon a big grin. "Hey, we're all you need. No worries." Her tails wag, and then she looks back down the road, picking up her pace. "And if you just want to point the admin building out, then run and hide again, that is perfectly acceptable. Not everyone's been built to handle the rough stuff."
Deerchild's heads look out on all sides as the hydra slithers down the road, "Your message got the attention of a lot of people, so we can't ssay if some of them are late." The hydra looks over at Rhiko and hisses, "In this case you may be right." "If someone gets here late, they can not miss the farm and we can always come back to reinforce." The hydra's coils leave waved tracks in the dust as they move down the road.
Just settling in to his new position Arlan hears that the unconfirmed contact is now going to be leading the agents towards the mission objective. So he silently curses and then makes a graceful bouncing arc down from his sniper perch, bouncing twice on his latex bottom before coming to rest a good seventy metres behind the rest of the party as they begin to set off. He shadows their advance, keeping to cover.
Linda nods to the group and travels in the back, at least to her knowledge having still not noticed Arlan, as they walk closer and closer to the farm. Upon first glance from about 60 meters, various mutants can be seen on a farm. They seem to be stuffing whatever crops they can find into large brown bags. None of them seem to be brandishing projectile weapons, but things such as bats and pipes are quite visible on the skunk beasts, gryphons, felines, and other mutants that make up the raiders. They aren't wearing armor but instead, regular clothing or none at all.
The group comes up to a large storage building that hides both the farm and the Admin building. "H-here," she says while pointing forward, "That's the admin building. This one we're at now is storage. Not much in the room of weapons except farming supplies I suppose, at least as far as I'm aware..." Linda pauses and looks at the admin building. "Eep!" she stifled under her breath as she notices a guard walk out of the administrations building and take post by the door. "W-what do we do now?"
Rihko leans against the building, out of sight of the thieves. Her nose wrinkles, and she thinks a moment. "Two options," she begins, holding out two fingers. "First, we," she pauses, glancing over at Deerchild with a smile, "go try and talk to them. Get them to set aside their scoundrelous ways. Or two," she pauses, "we use a brutal display of horrific violence to crush their will to fight and send them fleeing." Her tais flick, and then curl. "I prefer the first one. Ideas?"
Deerchild's pupils widen as the hydra shows alarm, its heads turning to look behind it in turn as it moves. "There is someone behind us too," they hiss. "But they haven't done anything--" "--yet. Maybe we should wait and see if they make the decision for us." The hydra flexes their torso and attempts to get a higher look on things, turning to look at the harvesters in the fields. "We have another equally viable tactic to ssugest." The hydra flicks their tongue, "They have bags and they are taking things rather quickly, so maybe they don't want to stick around?" Deerchild suggests, "Perhaps we can wait until they have gathered as much as they can and then when they are slowed down by the load we capture them once they have left the farm." The hydra hisses, "Free harvest."
Noting that the visible opposition seems to lack military organization, or at least that he can't see the true dimensions of the threat and these are just quickly-recruited thugs, Arlan decides to catch up to the group. Coming close, he announces his presence by making a throat-clearing sound out of his scratchy, robot vocalizer, then introduces himself: "Arlan, Corrundum Engineering section of Zephyr, not sure why they wanted me to come on this mission. I'm ready to take sniper position if you want to try talking, I can probably bounce over pretty quickly if you need some close support after that doesn't work so well. Careful, someone else probably is organizing these folks to do this, or at least informing them what to do here so expect more resistance than just pipe-wielding thugs. I'm gonna go climb to the second from top story now and take position."
While the newly arrived guard had the discipline to stay at his post, the helmet wearing sunk beast sets his bat aside against the wall and pulls out a cigarette. He lights it, puffs, and stares out into space for a bit, probably not expecting any sort of resistance. Linda sits against the wall and listens to the group's ideas. "Ah!" The gryphon grew a surprised look as the newcomer approached them. "Y-yeah, sounds good..." She takes a moment to regain her normal state. "W-when they raided us, no one got hurt physically. I-I don't think they're random thugs... Perhaps someone should check out the Administrations building as well? Although, maybe splitting up would be bad... You guys could start shooting too, but that also might damage the farm."
