Sweaty Jungle Supply Retrieval - RPLOG
Participants
Date
27/12/2016
Log
A Frog Prince sits on a folding chair in the northern Zephyr parking lot, writing something on a tablet comm unit using a tablet pen. They seem dressed like squire would be - poofy pants, a waistcoat, a hip scabbard with a silver rapier, and a chapeau complete with a quill going through it, as well as a scratched up messanger bag. However, on closer inspection, one would notice bruises and cuts on their skin.
Auros just got out of the Zephyr building after seeing the notice on the bulleting board. It certainly was a strange sight, not the frog, but his garments. The huge man approaches the amphibian, a friendly tone and a warm smile in his face. "Hello there, I take it's you that needs help with the shipment of supplies? The name's Auros!"
Asuki oozes onto the scene, she smiles as she gets stands next to Auro "Asuki here, heard ya needed some help" if she thought either the frog or his dress on she gave no outword look of it.
Zophah walks out behind Auros, having napped in the lobby waiting for the supply run to start. She has her usual lab coat and bikini on, carrying her usual mailbag. Giving a polite bow she says "I'm Zophah, and I'm here to help."
Xifeng flys in from above the parking lot and lands besides everyone. She takes a look at the frog and assumes that he is her employer. She waves towards everyone and says, "Hiya everyone. Sorry I'm late. I almost forgot about the help notice and had to fly in from the Death Valley Scrublands."
Firecracker drops from above to land her tiny, 3 ounce weight on top of the Frog Prince's head, and thusly its hat, as she peeks at their tablet. "Whatcha writin'?" she chirps happily as she lands before looking up to the rest of the group. "Oh, and I'm Firecracker!" she introduces herself with a rapid waving of her foreleg as she sits up on her haunches.
The frog stays quiet as they watch as the group of people gather around them, but gives an acknowledging tip of the hat to those who address them. "I assume you all are here for the request I put out on the bulletin board the other day? Hm, not quite what I was expecting, but this is good." He looks among the group as they stand up, their voice of a central British accent. "Alright, here's what happened. Two days ago, I was transporting a crate of supplies through the Sweaty Jungle on my way to Zephyr. But then, a group of ferals came out and attacked me. I managed to get out of there, but I had to leave some of my belongings where they attacked, including the supplies." They pace about for a bit as they continue. "If you can find the supplies, all will be good. I'll pay you some extra if you can return most of them. I've also scheduled Mike to bring you over to the jungle. And, one last thing..." They fish around in their messanger bag before pulling out a USB drive. "The crate came with a tracking device. You should be able to plug this into your comm unit, and you'll be able to find the crate, or at least the device itself." The frog begins looking among the group. "Any questions?"
Auros scratches his beard, listening to the frog, raising his hand once they ask. "I do. Two questions, actually. First: what are those supplies? Second: why were you out there?" - His tone seemed more like that of a concerned brother than of a suspicious neighbour.
Zophah waits a second, thinking of what she can ask of the frog. "About how much supplies are there? You said there was one crate but how big are we talking about?"
Asuki thinks a moment "Seems pretty straightforward to me, You said attacked by ferals? where you alone?" she nods to zophah indicated she'd also like to know the size and weight of these crates. "is mike going to stick around or we calling in for pick up once we find the stuff?"
Xifeng raises a feathered hand and says in a sheepish voice, "Hehe, sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Xifeng. And I have a couple questions." Her tone and face becomes serious as she continues and asks, "How many ferals are we dealing with and can we expect more to come?"
Firecracker rides the frog's head back and forth as it paces, listening to its spiel before turning to look at each person as they ask their questions. Once it's her turn, she takes in a deep breath as if she's going to ask a long string of questions, then huffs it out and simply says, "Nah! I'm good!"
The Frog Prince puts their hands behind their back, turning to Auros and Zophah beside them. "I was there because I had to, ahem, run errands for a friend, but the contents of the crates do not matter to you. I'd prefer keeping my privacy about things. And, the crate is about yay big." They raise their hand to about neck level. "And, well, it was one crate containing about 4 more crates. Makes transporation easier." They look at Asuki, nodding again. "Yes, I made the trip by myself because I'd assume that I wouldn't need help or that travelling alone makes me a smaller target. Obviously not true. And, yes, Mike will need to be called again once you find the supplies. He has things to do as well, you know." They finally adress Xifeng. "Well, I made out at least 3 on my trip out. It's a whole jungle, so I'd assume that, yes, there are more." He holds out the USB drive for Auros to take. "Hopefully, no more questions? I am not paying you to ask them."
Auros shrugs and takes the USB drive, taking a look at it before putting it in his right pocket. "You did ask if we had any questions, we need some info before actually helping out, y'know... Anyway, it's pretty much go there, grab the crate and get out with everything intact." - Auros looks to the others gathered there, nodding and smiling. "Let's do it then!"
Zophah doesn't have anything else to say, so she just checks her bag one last time to see if she has everything she needs. Once everything checks out she turns to head to the hellicopter.
Asuki nods "yup sounds good to me and easy enough, we can hope at least." she smiles looking all cheerful and hopeful.
Xifeng shakes her head in answer to the frog's question. She gives herself a good stretch to steady herself from her long flight back to Zephyr and says, "Nope, I'm ready to go if everyone else is." She prepares what little gear she has on her and falls in line with everyone else. As she does so, an idea pops into her mind and she asks the group, "Who's going to be our de facto leader?"
"Operation: Go Get Four Crates Inside One Big Crate From The Sweaty Jungle Maybe Guarded By At Least Three People is a go!" Firecracker cheers as she hops up off the frog's head and into a hover, already about to fly off to wherever it is she's supposed to be flying off to.
The prince nods. "Alright, that should be it then. Go board Mike's chopper, he should be at the helipad already. Tell him that you're with George's group, unless you intend to pay when I already arranged the transport." Once the group gets to the helipad, they would see Mike already standing there with his chopper, looking down at his comm unit before glancing over at the group. "Ah, I take it you're all with George? Hop on in, then."
Auros smiled at Xifeng's question, patting her shoulder, "I could be, if no one else is against the idea. I got lots of life experience that may be useful to us, quick thinking for some decisions. Besides, leading isn't too hard, any of us could do it, I'm sure. What you really need to know is what each person of the team is good at and make sure they use their abilities!"
Auros uses his newly acquired nanite adept powers to change size before boarding the chopper, getting smaller and lighter. He also grabs and starts donning a new-looking heavy armor from his large pack.
Asuki nods "that would be us" as she boards the heli. "did we decide on defactor leader for this ban... if no... onetwothree not it" putting a finger to her nose. "also, we should take stock on each other's abilities and work up some plan, in case combat does start. I for one prefere getting a little... up close and very personal, but i can also put up a nanite regulation bubble, you know, a remote server"
Zophah nods her head in agreement with Auros being the 'leader' before she hops onto Mike's chopper, helping anyone else step up if they need it. "I'm better with being covert, deceptive, and crafty. I've got a good mastery of illusion and shaping nanomagic if you need anything." After buckling in she chooses to take another nap until the group gets to the drop point.
Xifeng hops into the chopper with a smile on her face. There is a look of excitment on her face as she awaits their adventure into the forest to recover George's belongings. "I don't care who's the leader as long as it's not me. I'm not suited for that." Then a mischevious grin appears on Xi's face as continues on, "Besides, it's no fun being the leader. As for what I'm good with, um... tracking and other survival based skills. I'm a little strong too."
"Yupperooni! Reporting in for Operation: G-G-F-C-I-O-B-C-F-T-S-J-M-G-B-A-L-T-P!" Firecracker announces with a quick salute as she passes by Mike on her way into the helicopter, landing herself in the pile of goo that is Asuki. The entire ride over, the pint-sized pink pegasus giggles and bounces in the girl's gelatinous body. She pretty much fails to give a description of her abilities as she plays around.
The chopper flight to the Sweaty Jungle goes as per usual. Eventually, Mike lands the chopper at its usual landing area, just bordering the edge of the jungle. "Alright, you guys. This is as far as I can take you in. When you're done here, come back to this spot and send me a page with your comm unit or something." If Auros were to plug the USB into his comm unit, he would see a screen pop up, reading "OBJECT: 67 KM EAST".
Auros gets out of the heli but does not change size yet, aware that right now, some recon would be more useful. He grabs the USB stick from his right pocket and looks at Zophah. "You said you like to be more furtive, right? Think you can scout ahead for us?" - He looks back to the others, addressing what he could be useful for, "If things start getting crazy, just stay behind me, I'll keep whatever is coming off your backs."
Asuki nodding and notting the distance, she had turned on her bubble the moment the heli left the main bubble "I could probably fly us there, wouldn't be very... stealthy. maybe a mix? fly a short distance and walk the rest?"
Zophah takes the usb that was handed to her and plugs it into her comm, noting the distance. "We will be better off if we can get everyone in the air to fly over. You can track my comm location as I scout ahead." She sheds her fur in a shower of flames as she becomes a phoenix, taking off into the air towards the mssing supplies. Within seconds she becomes invisible with her Vanishing Nanomagic.
Xifeng goes up to Auros and pats him on the back. "Looks like you are going to be the leader for this expedition." A look of envy appears on Xi's face as she Zophah go invisible. "Hm... to bad I can't turn invisible myself. Otherwise I would have totally asked to follow her." The phoenix that remained with the group seems to be itching to do something.
"Wouldn't it be easier for you to be behind me if I had something on my back?" Firecracker asks as she zips off to join Zophah in her scouting. "Don't worry, I'll send ya a video!" she calls back to the group she leaves behind, tapping a forehoof to her temple as she goes. A few seconds later, Auros does indeed get the video the puny pegasus promised, should he accept it anyway, as she sends all the visual and auditory information she receives directly to him. At the same time, she downloads the same information from the human as she flies.
While Zophah and Firecracker fly off into the jungle, the part of the group that stays grounded begins trekking through the forest. While a few ferals are encountered - mostly ribbed frogs and the like - most of them give a warning growl of some sort at the moving foliage before scampering off as the large group passes by.
Zophah and Firecracker will eventually come across a small clearing in the jungle, where the supplies are supposedly located. There's a sandy shore by a river in the clearing, and the tracking device can be seen discarded on the pile of rocks. Two mutants can be seen a few feet away from the device, a python and a lily pad. Both seem to be eating the melons that grow in abundance around the jungle, though neither seem to give Zophah and Firecracker any mind.
Auros beeps his comm and checks if Zophah and Firecracker can still hear them. Hopefully the signal won't get cut off by the dense foliage. Leading the ground team, he keeps his focus mostly on his own vision, tracking Zophah. "Asuki, Xifeng, stay close and watch for anything on the sides or on our rear."
After some minutes, he does give a hand signal to stop, once he receives some video feed from Firecracker. He narrates it to the other two, "Two ferals eating melons... A lilypad and a python... It seems they took off the tracking device from the crate. Let us hope they know where the crate is. I suggest two of us get there and try to talk to them. The others will stay in position in case violence is neccessary."
Asuki nods "range isn't my strong point but i can become hard to detect if you want some hidden cover. not big on the talking though, i do well in the think of things"
Zophah makes an illusion of a whisper next to Firecracker, just loud enough for her to hear: "Hold back for a second, I have an idea." Keeping her invisibility, she then lands next to the two ferals, usig her kitsunetsuki power to push the lily pad into discussing where the other supplies would be.
Xifeng advances slightly ahead of the group at Auros' orders, using her tracking skills gained through living in the wilds to check for any signs of danger that the two flying might have missed. There is now a serious look on her face, the lighthearted feeling she gave off before setting out is no more. She is cautious in her movements and awaits any new orders from Auros unless something occurs.
