The Rescue of Tahoe - Part 2 - RPLOG
Participants
Date
8/7/2017
Log
As the sun sets on the highway outside of Tahoe, everyone is abandoned. The helicopter is a wreck, and the pilots are dead, too far gone for nanites to help them now. Although the sniper responsible for ruining their escape has fled, a black-furred bunny girl in security armor has been captured trying to disguise herself as a guard. She sits and cries for her life, a crossbow bolt in one forearm and a bruised wrist on the other side. "I was just supposed to go with you! It was supposed to be quick!"
Draken sits nearby, listenbing to her go on, but not reacting in the slightest. She glances around to take stock of where everyone is and what they are doing.
Ebreus glares at her as he waits for the others to gather. "Really, you were to come with us? Tell me, to what end where you to be coming with us?" he interrogates tightening his grip on her shoulder while slowly moving his right hand, still stinging from the shot to his hand.
Firecracker keeps watch from above, hovering about 20 feet over the others as she keeps her eyes and ears open for anything in the area, especially looking for that sniper or any signs of his escape.
Arris sighs as the bunny whines, sitting inside the trailer, now free of fog. Sie has scrounged together some scraps of cloth and some tree leaves to make a very primitive pillow. "Well, looks like it won't be quick anymore, judging how your friend decided to take care of our way out." The gator has gotten halfway through hir third pack of saltine crackers, the taste getting bland in hir mouth as sie folds the wrapper around the remaining crackers and sets it aside. "Did anyone bring food?"
Cerl sits near the destroyed chopper, also watching for any further threats. Snug inside Fire's bubble, she maintains her invisibility while she keeps watch, safely out of the way so noone trips over her.
A broken whimper fell from the lips of the fennec as she all but pasted herself to the ground. Their ride was gone. Destroyed and broken, those who could drive it in a similar manner. Her ears folded sharply against the flat of her skull, the fennec lass tried to keep it down, to keep herself together. Moving slowly to stand, she looked back to Arris, giving the gator a faint shake of her head. Blast, this was supposed to be quick! Not worrying about food, not bothering with.... The fennec's eyes fell back upon the bunny lass, something between irritation and sadness in those eyes. "Supposed to is thrown out the window, and we are all stuck with the rough end of it now. Will you explain yourself? Complaining and grumbling... It, ah, it won't help anyone here... Okay?"
The bunny guard is barely standing up to Ebreus's interogation, her eyes streaming with tears and her legs are about to collapse. "We... We needed a way in! Someone to find all the stuff that was stolen from us! I just needed to locate everything for when Carson shows up!" And the moment she mentions Carson, she screams and falls unconsious.
Draken does not react to the scream at all, searching through her pack, she pulls out a loaf of bread and a bottle of water. "It's not much, but i have this." She says.
Ebreus maintains his glare at the bunny as she explains not letting up on anything. Once she screams and colapses he moves his hand from her shoulder to her throught and pays close attention to her breathing for a moment. Once he's sure she's not faking he releaces her and grabs his shield. "Something's here." he says.
Firecracker continues watching for anything out of the ordinary, still not seeing anything for the moment. "Well, we can either go after that guy or we can go back home and try again later. No point in worrying about what we can't fix..." she says to those under her, taking a look over to the helicopter before looking back out to the woods.
Arris winces a little when the bunny girl screams, glancing over as she falls unconscious. "I think you might be going a bit harsh on her, buddy. She's not a friend, but a person is a person." Sie gets up, walks to the door of the trailer, then bolts to behind the chopper, glancing up at Draken as sie kneels down. "Well, some food is better than no food. We won't know how long until Zephyr sends another rescue mission, if they even will." Leaning forward, sie begins checking up on the bunny. "You think this 'Car Son' guy may be the guy in charge? I mean, you'd have to be crazy-prepared to, uh, hypnotise, maybe? ...Hypnotise your henchmen into fainting upon mentioning your name." Removing the crossbow bolt, sie begins applying liquid bandages to the open wound.
Cerl turns her attention to the collapsed bunny girl after she screams. "What did you do to her, Ebreus? There's nothing here right now. Fire or I would have seen it." Shifting back to visibility so that she can look the bunny over with her biomonitoring abilities, she shakes her head after a moment. "Hypnotically implanted suggestion or something. Something she did, or said, seems to have triggered it and caused her extreme pain. I wasn't paying attention to her while I was keeping watch. What was she talking about?"
Mokou winced as the bunny lass trembled and fell, those words ringing in her over-large ears. Moving slowly over to the bunny lass's side, she reached out to them, a hand resting upon the lass's chest. A heartbeat, a pulse, but the girl was dead to the world. Her sigh was brief, a slow shake of her head. The girl seemed like that was real pain, real terror and real fear in her voice. She peered back to the others, a faint shake of her head given. "Physical overstimulation... I would bet. Girl probably was running a thousand miles an hour... Passing out from blood pressure if I had to guess." The lass winced at those words Ebreus gave, leaning forward, hands reaching out as she pasted herself to the ground, trying to reduce her silhouette. Only to... sigh as Cerl dismissed such a notion. "She said... Wanted to get what was stolen. Wait for that Carson guy. One word Arris... it's a name..."
As time passes the valley gets darker, even with people's eyes adjusting it will soon be to dark to see. Arris's application of liquid bandage is horribly messy, only sealing half of the wound and some of the substance even ending up on the floor, causing the bunny to start to bleed out.
Draken winces at the patch job, loooking up. "Want to try that again? That does not look... good." She says. She puts away her bread.
Ebreus shakes his head watching from around his shield. "Nothing. I've yet to see hypnotism or indoctrination do /that/ though." he says gesturing to the unconcious bunny. After a moment of no shooting or explosions he sighs. "We don't know what is or is not fixable until we try. I can mold metal with nanomagic, lemme take a look at the engine before it gets too dark." he says. He examines the broken engine. "It's partially melted." He considers the engine for a minute or so before stepping back and gathering some wood into a clear area, behind cover from where the shots were coming from. "Startin' a fire." he alterts the rest of them before ignighting the wood with his flamethrower.
"Wasn't talking about the copter..." Firecracker mumbles to herself. With nothing happening and the area getting dark, she decides to look around for food, berries, fruit, and the like. "I'm gunna find somethin' to eat! Back in a couple minutes!" she says to the others, dashing off to search.
"Whoops." The gator accidentally misses with her bandage, shooting it just beside her wound and only partially getting the wound. "Dammit. Okay, let me try again..." Sie aims the sights of hir heal pistol carefully at the wound, before firing another bandage. "Well, it could be hypnosis, but it could also be... uh, I dunno, some sort of microchip or something. Just taking a guess here."
Cerl wanders over to the edge of the ravine, leaving the medical care of the bunny to Arris after she retrieves her bloody crossbow bolt. Lookind down the steep slope, she sighs. "Well, at least we won't have to worry about water. There's a river down there, so we can fill up our canteens before we leave." Shifting back to invisibility, she settles back down in her previous out of the way spot by the helicopter, and goes back to keeping what watch she can in the fading light, making sure to keep her back to the fire so she doesn't ruin her night sight. She grumbles at losing her invisibility once Fire departs, but her dark fur and the darkening sky should serve to keep her well hidden.
Mokou tried to simply stay calm, to not yell or to harass anyone. They were doing what they felt was right. They were doing what they could. Didn't help they were about as organized as a group of cats, but hey. Breath girl... Breath. The fennec gave a mute grumble, shuffling over to the bunny girl, only to find the wounds being taken care of, and a fire being lit. Lovely. Simply lovely. A calming breath later, she sat by the edge of the trailer, looking out into the deep, trying to watch for enemies unknown for reasons uncertain.
Arris's second attempt is mush smoother, closing the wound in the bunny's arm. And now with a fire going there is enough light. Firecracker's scavenging for food would result in her bringing back what she can carry: about 7 ounces of berries.
Draken moves over to the bunny girl, not doing anything, really, just being close in case they wake up. She looks them over in case they had woken up and are faking still being out.
Ebreus watches the fire spread a little further than he would like as he lowers the flamethrower. "Umm... this'll spread easy if anythin' gets too close." he says. He takes a rope from his long-term survival kit as he aproaches the bunny. "Draken, here." he says handing her the rope as he takes cover relative to the aproaching truck where he could burn it should it be driven by an enemy.
Firecracker drops off a little pile of edible berries, already having eaten her fill of them straight from the bush before returning. "There's a buncha berries over there if someone wantsta help me get em," she informs the group, nodding her head towards th bushes she found. As she gets ready to head out for another bunch, the headlights and sound of cars approaching catches the mare's attention! "Oh, here comes the second encounter!" she says with a wide grin. She flies straight up into the air to get a better view of the cars as they approach. She aims to get about 50 feet in the air, plenty high that nobody would suspect to look for her and low enough to keep everyone still in her bubble.
With the wound taken care of, Arris begins patting the bunny down, looking inside pockets for anything sie can take. Hir impromptu search is interrupted by the cars coming close on the road. "Company." Sie scoops up the bunny, carrying her behind the chopper and unslinging hir bolt-action rifle.
Cerl reactivates her invisibility once Fire gets back into range, and moves so that she can watch approach of the vehicles that can be heard. "Get in some cover people!" she calls out. Checking that her crossbow is loaded, she waits patiently off to the side for those approaching.
Mokou twitched in her seat, ears twisting as they caught something in the distance. A rumbling... a humming. Vehicles. She stiffened, hopping off her perch on the back of the trailer, turning towards the back of the trailer... towards there the sound was rolling from. The fennec's brow furrowed, glancing back to the corpse-like stillness. She shook her head, watching as the crew began... Ambling about to tie up the bunny. Actually moving to tie up the bunny. Not Tying up the bunny again, and arguing what they should do with the bunny. At least the bubbly pegasus was actually warning people of the approach while the others moved into position. That, that was handy. As she off to the cliff face, pressing herself close to try and hide from the gaze of those who may be coming... Readying her pistol as she tried to hide, to be out of the line of sight, she leered out... trying to see whom she may be shooting at.
The vehicles come up the highway from the direction of Tahoe, and what a sight to see: on one side is a millitary transport truck that looks like nanites never got to it. On the other side is a minivan with broken headlights, numerous missing panels, and one of the tires is a spare. The vehicles quickly apporach the camp, stopping a few yards away before a heavilly armored humanoid gets out of the minivan.
Draken sighs, tying up the bunny, and pulling her into a place out of sight of the vehicles. She stays there with the girl, knowing how useless she is in a ranged fight.
Ebreus boards the chopper and aims the flamethrower toward the aproaching vehicals from behind as much cover as he can be behind without aimpairing his ability to fire at them. He takes a breath and takes a fragmental gernade from his pack as he waits.
Arris slowly pulls on the pipe bomb strapped to the bunny's leg with hir left hand, listening for the clunk of heavy armor as sie peers an eye at the newcomers through the chopper's windows.
Cerl remains invisible and hidden, her crossbow ready in one paw. She pats at the bandoleer of grenades she is wearing to check they are all there and ready to be thrown in an instant. Peering at the heavy figure that gets out of the transport, she makes no move for now to see how much of a threat he will prove himself to be.
Firecracker continues hovering in the air far above the others, looking to the cars to see how many people there are and how heavily armed they all are. The second they appear to be hostile, she'll make them wish they weren't.
Three things stuck out to Mokou within moments of the armored convoy of sorts rolling up. A, it was an Armored Convoy, and far more than Zephyr would be willing to send out for them, this soon. B, An assault upon the vehicles would likely end with several of them wounded, or likely dead, considering they were holding man portable weapons, and that was very nearly an APC. And C, The person who stepped out was human. Crap. Really not their friends then. Putting away her pistol to her side, drawing up the metalic knuckles, she looked on nervously to them... This was not how this was meant to go. Not at all.
The armored humanoid stands in plain view, in front of the headlights of the truck. Its speech sounds like they used a modulator to hide their voice: "You have caused us a great deal of trouble over the past few months. You ransacked our solar farm, stolen our radio, and raided our books. Don't deny it, you even left a message." The person then holds out a slightly wrinkled sticky note:
'Come to Zephyr, Fairhaven for radio equip. and discussion; FOG NOT COOL'
Though We'll be generous. Return unit Luna and we will leave this van for you to return home."
Draken stays hidden with the bunny, not even looking out. She again checks on the bunny, not having much else to do.
Ebreus watches the truck come to their position. When he speaks he thinks for a few moments. He then opens the door to the chopper to reveal his position. "Really, all that stuff was yours? All that stuff that while trapped had nobody there watching it?" he asks keeping his flamethrower trained on the soldier with one hand and keeping the frag out of view.
Firecracker moves through the air above until she's over the other group, making it easier to be hidden, out of their line of sight or anywhere they would likely check, while also getting closer to them. For now, she just waits to see their response to Ebreus.
Arris continues looking over at the human. The sight of the sticky note sie left makes hir unsure of whether to laugh about it or to curse hirself, not knowing a big organization was behind this - but, a different decision was to be made at the time. Sie glances over to where Draken took the bunny, and to Ebreus as he stands up, poking hir head out from behind the chopper when he speaks up. "Hey, don't be like that. The guy is offering us a way back home. Besides, it IS partially our fault for taking things without asking, as is Zephyr's."
Holding perfectly still so that she can maintain her invisibility passively, Cerl quickly sends a message telepathically to the rest of the team. "You know we can't take that offer. They love to fuck with your mind, don't forget. That van is probably loaded with explosives." After giving her opinion to the team, she takes the opportunity given her by Firecracker. Cerl moves closer to the vehicles so she can examine them while remaining invisible, and while the attention of the enemy are on the rest of the team.
Yup... Not friendlies. Most certainly not on their side for this. Mokou shivered where she stood, a slow and shaky breath taken. Come on... Relax. Calm yourself girl. Relax... Looking out to her allies for a moment... she shook her head. Standing still, not moving... not making their way forward... Simply readying their weapons and waiting... The others seemed not hostile at the moment... only irritated and blatantly unhappy. Finally though... Ebreus stepped out. And what words. What wonderfully... useless words. She felt herself sigh. What were the others to say? Oh yeah, we just didn't need people there. Traps should have deterred thieves, but seems it didn't work for you? Yeah. Great response. Even as the words of her companions flitted through her mind, she sighed and shook her head. What other choice did she have? The lass shook her head, slowly stepping out from her cover moving towards the edge of the light.
"Listen.. We might be able to work with that... But WE can't." Gesturing to herself, she shook her head. "I at least was hired onto this. I don't even work for Zephyr. The rest here? Well, field agents. We ourselves can't get you whatever the heck Unit Luna is... At least not right now. Zephyr doesn't want to send more people out, so killing us would likely just... result in them giving up on whatever they wanted out here until they can gather it elsewhere. If we kill you, that does nothing to help us either, as we still haven't a clue where the people we are looking for are. Or if they are dead." The fennec, only about two thirds the height of the man in armor shook her head. "So, what next? A firefight for pointless violence, or an unhappy situation for all of us, that might actually resolve some of this damnable conflict."
The armored one speaks again, first to Ebreus: "All of it was ours. And there are quite a few more stashes out there so don't be grabbing everything you find." They then turn to Ebreus. "We know just as well that a fight is a waste of resources. Unit Luna is one such resource, and she is laying in the helicopter with a few of your friends right now." The person continues to stand there, making no movements that would betray emotion.
Draken keeps her mouth shut, and keeps her eyes on the Bunny.
Ebreus steps out of the chopper, "So her name is Luna. I believe your organization has some of our people as well. I believe what you're asking for is a prisoner exchange." he says. He smiles lightly but keeps his flamethrower ready. He watches the armored figure and tries to keep aware of any movements.
Firecracker limbers up in the air above, stretching her legs this way and that. She turns her head to one side, then the other, tilts it, rolls it around. Watching for their reaction as she readies herself for a fight.
Arris makes a poker face at the armored guy as they reply to Mokou, mentioning that they can detect the bunny inside of the chopper. "Not really a prisoner exchange, Ebreus. I mean, it would be pretty great if we could get some of our own guys back, buuuuut a ticket back to Fairhaven is already a rather compelling arguement."
Cerl holds her ground, growling softly at the sniper. "I want to have a look at that van you folks are trying to hand us before we agree to anything."
Mokou offered a slight nod back to the armored figured, glad at the very least the situation was understood... But she shook her head at the idea of a prisoner exchange. "Arris is right. Even if we did manage to trade Luna for our own agents, how would we manage to get them back? Marching for several hours under possible sniper fire to tie up loose ends isn't exactly what I would call a walk in the park. Nor something I'd like to attempt." Glancing to the creature in armor, she sighed. "They have a point though. Might we investigate your... offer first? Paranoia has proved prudent previously, so pardon our pressing but..."
The armored person turns their head in the direction of the truck. "I do not apreciate sneaking around us. If you want a look at the van, you just needed to ask, like the long-eared fox lady here." The winged sniper then walks out from behind the truck (wearing the same kind of armor), holding a hand out for Cerl indicating that she can go check the minivan.
Ebreus maintains visual contact with the armored figure. When the winged sniper steps out from behind the truck he takes a few moments to examine them. He grins a bit, "A ride would be nice, though we came here to get our people and you've come here for your 'Unit'. Seems like a natual trade to me." he says.
Cerl growls
Firecracker waits to see what Cerl finds, still watching from above, waiting to see what's what.
Arris comes out from behind the chopper. "Well, alright." Sie holds hir rifle at the ready as sie glances over to the minivan. "So, I take it your Carson, or something? Why'd Luna faint after mentioning your name?"
