The Rescue for Tahoe - Part 1 - RPLOG
Participants
Date
1/7/2017
Log
The helicopter is ready to take off from Zephyr, and everyone is brought to the helipad for the mision briefing. An alpha husky herm is the pilot this time, and he stands next to his ride looking at the agents that came. "Simple pickup. I and my copilot fly you all out near Tahoe, and then in an hour or two I fly you all back with whatever you get. Hopefully we manage to save some of the crew..."
Firecracker bobs her head side-to-side, humming happily to herself as the briefing happens. The pint-sized pink pegasus hovers in the air at about normal head level as she gives a casual salute. "Find some peoples and then come back! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! I'm greatastic at Hide and Seek!"
The helicopter blades slowly bobbed violent and sharp above the assembled, each there for their own reason. But, they were all there for the mission, a rescue of sorts. Mokou, the slight fennec among the others, simply took a slow breath. Her hands slowly curled about the straps of her pack, the receptacle hanging down by her waist. Modified for her height, the canvas bag seemed handmade, roughly constructed and built, lightly packed. The slight lass simply nodded back to the alpha husky who would be their guide. Or at least, a means to reach there. "Alright... Will do what we can out there." Shifting upon her feat, she let a faint sigh fall from her lips before she quickly shot back, "But do you mean one hour, or two? Don't give us a somewhere about there answer. If we are being sent out past... If we are being sent out there, when are you coming back? And whom are we looking for? Can I get some details?"
Arris hurriedly jogs to the helipad, panting a moment before comprising hirself and taking a breath. "Alright... do we know where the truck might... might have crashed? Did it send any radio signals before it went offline?" The gator slowly walks to the heli's entrance, keeping eye contact with the husky pilot but glancing around to some familliar faces from the previous expedition to Tahoe..
Ebreus walks onto the landing pad in time to hear the their pilot's anouncement. He nods when rescuping the crew comes up, "Yeah, teh group sent to go get that semi-truck, right? I hope they didn't encounter anything like what was in the Tahoe bubble." he says. When the Fennec starts asking questions he humms a short agreement and says, "I assume pickup and dropoff locations will be the same if not we'll need to know that too."
Draken sighs, leaning on Ebreus a bit. She listens quietly, looking to everyone as they speak.
Cerl listens to the rather brief briefing the pilot gives, then starts checking her gear. Grenades, some rope, various small supplies are all packed away in her saddlebags, check. Crossbow in good repair, check. Lots of spare bolt cases packed away in easy reach, check. Nodding to herself, she boards the helicopter and tries to find a corner where she can strap her tauric half in for the flight. She listens to the others question the pilot but holds her peace. The important questions were already being asked, and she was just there to provide scouting services and backup as needed.
The pilot replies: "as far as we know, the salvage team never left where the truck is. The helicopter will just power down and wait for everyone to pack everything up when we get there, so we don't spend too much time." Then as everyone gets onto the helicopter and it makes its way out near Tahoe, The pilot turns his head to ask: "anyone been out this far? I think I heard that a few of you were there and found the truck in the first place." He's definintely just asking to pass the time, and when everyone makes their responses the helicopter is starting it's decent to the location.
"Nope! Never been out here before!" Firecracker answers happily as she looks out the window to the ground and sky and clouds and everything else there is to see outside. The moment the group leaves the bubble, she activates her Distributed Nanomagic and creates a bubble for the group ranging 140 feet in every direction. "Adventure!" she cheers happily, giggling as the helicopter continues its flight.
The slight fennec frowned faintly at the lack of a direct answer, but an implicit one was given none the less. She simply sighed, shaking her head before tugging herself up into the helicopter. Securing a seat for herself, tail wrapped about to lay upon her lap, she swiftly buckled herself in, fingers idly tapping along her bag. Patiently, she watched the others hop up on in, spending more than a few moments gazing at the assembled number. The bubbly little pegasus drew more than a few frowns as she began to... feel present. The mini bubble of sorts... she shook her head, both at such a feeling and in answer. "I've... not been out of the bubble. Not... gone out since it all happened."
Ebreus steps into the helecopter and finds a spot where he and Draken with be able to stay close together. He buckles himself in and checks his own equipment and uses his nanomagic to make adjustments while still in the bubble if he finds any faults. He double checks his supply of explosives as the pilot begins making smalltalk. "I've been there and so has Fire. We disabled the mind-fuckery field around Tahoe." he says. When Mokou confesses to not having left the bubble he turns his attention to the Fennec and says, "Stay near the hyper pegasus and we'll almost be in a bubble. Most things'll still work, or at least should."
Draken nods to the pilot, smiling at Firecracker's optimism. She pokes Ebreus in his side. "Hey, just because the mind fuckery drove me insane for a few minutes doesn't mean i wasn't /there/." She states.
Cerl relaxes during the flight to the truck. The noise of the rotors make it hard to talk to anyone, so she doesn't bother to try, leaving to those sitting closer to the pilot to make conversation. She mentally reviews what she can remember of the terrain around where they found the truck before settling back into a light doze.
Arris nods, climbing into the helicopter and peering out the window as the pilot makes chatter. "Yeah, I've been on the last mission out to Tahoe, with, euh..." Sie pauses a moment, turning around to do a brief headcount. "Ebreus, Draken, Cerl, Firecracker... and Mokou, I think. Whole gang is here, except Otto, I think. Didn't we take everything that was there to take, anyway? Why are we going back to the place?"
As the helicopter sets down, the scene is apparent. There are signs of a firefight everywhere: spent bullet casings, large scorch marks, and the semi trailer is ripped in half by what looks like an explosion. A few tents are left in disaray, parts from the truck are strewn about the ground along with the tools that were used to remove them and quite a few blood stains. And yet, not a single body can be found anywhere. The pilot turns off the rotors, and as the engines slow down a woman's voice can be heard: "Is anyone out there?!"
"Oh we did? That sounds fun!" Firecracker giggles at Ebreus's explanation. "Oh wait! I forgot to ask cause I was so excited cause I thought I never came out here but I did come out here before but I don't remember that but I'm still excited anyway!" she rapid-fires, bouncing in place as she turns to the rest of the group. "I'm Firecracker! What're all your names?!" When the copter lands and the woman calls out, the pegasus zips out to go towards the trailer it came from. "Oh! Found you already! That was the easiest game ever!" she chirps as she goes to meet the voice in the trailer.
Feeling her stomach lurch beneath her, Mokou tried to make her brief fit of hacking discrete, managing it to an extent. Looking back, a touch greener, she slowly nodded back to Arris at the question of sorts, her hands swiftly working over the buckles that kept her in the chair. A trembling shook her for a moment as she moved to stand, eyes peering back over the ruins of the fight. The air felt... weird here. Still thick with nanites from the puny pegasus actions but... off. Her feet fell to the ground, a slow breath taken, clearing her head. Her ears had flicked at the nonstop barrage of statements the blasted creature called out, before flicking up at another voice. Female... Not much else could be gathered though. Slinking forward she... Sighed, the runty flying mongrel dashing into the ruins of the trailer. "She's going to be shot one of these days..."
Ebreus snerks and says, "Hay, I was just correcting Fire. I figured anyone who wanted to would answer for themselves." as the chopper descends. He looks out the nearest window to see the state of the scene. He humms a thoughtful tone but dosen't mention anything. As the door opens and they hear a voice. He scanns the scene visually and his ears swivle atop his head as he tries to find the source of the sound, keeping his weapons ready in case the source isn't friendly.
Draken hops down with Ebreus, indicating which way the voice is coming from to him if he does not seem to know immediatly. She sticks close to him. She half-smiles at Firecracker, and nods to Mokou.
Cerl looks off across the valley at something that caught her attention, leaving the woman to the others for now. Turning to the pilot, she taps him on the shoulder. "Do you happen to have a set of high power binoculars handy?" Receiving a negative response, she asks the rest of the group if anyone has a set. When Mokou pulls out their binoculars, Cerl quickly thanks the fennec and then trains them on something she saw across the valley, trying to determine what it is.
As the chopper descends, Arris scans the distance for any possibly good sniper perches, not finding any as the helicopter lands. Sie slowly follows the others as they leave the chopper, the stock of hir rifle resting on hir chest as sie glances over to the trailer. "Careful, you all have been to Tahoe, this could... aw, nuts." Sie can only sit there and watch as Firecracker dashes over to the voice.
As most of the crew goes out, Firecracker no doubt finds the womn first: a bunny girl in bloodied Zephyr guard armor, laying against the inside of the trailer. "Oh, thank goodness. I was running out of supplies. There was a man or something, he came into the camp on the first night looking like a wandering survivor, but it didn't take him long to show his true colors! He absolutely wiped the floor with us..." She then begins tearing up and shaking.
Seeing the bloodied bunny, Firecracker instantly flies over to give the girl a warm hug, standing on her shoulder and rubbing her cheek-to-cheek. She warms her with her body and Fiery Feathers as she presses against her. "It's okay, you don't haveta cry! Just let Auntie Firecracker take care of it for ya!" She says, consoling the bunny. "What about that glinty thingy outside though? Is that the guy?" she asks.
Mokou slowly began slinking forward, her hands idly brushing the ground before her, the lass nearly doubled over as she crept towards the trailer. Brushing her feet against the pavement beneath, she slowly wrapped a hand around the edge of the trailer. Lifting her muzzle slowly, peeking into the edge of the trailer, the lass visibly winced at the sight. Swiftly glancing back out of the trailer, her eyes scanning behind her, back to the side of the trailer. The others seemed to harass the lady enough, she didn't need to speak with them... Gazing on down the side of the road... wide ears twitching, trying to catch any sound... any note of the man the wounded lass spoke of. Her hands never left the edge of the trailer though... Didn't want to let go of something yet...
Ebreus steps away from the helecopter, still prepared for a fight. He walks around the destroyed trailer as he tries to keep watch for anything that might surprize them, landmines, snipers, hostile wildlife and the like. After a short search he positions himself behind some cover in line of sight to the, apparent, Zephyr guard and asks, "One man did this? Happen to get a glimpse of how?"
Draken hums lightly to the woman, taking her hand. She looks over their injuries, trying to tell if they re in mortally wounded.
Cerl keeps the binoculars trained at whatever she is looking at across the valley, but makes a beckoning motion with one paw. "Arris, come over here a moment, please." Speaking quietly to him, so that her words don't carry to anyone else, she continues in a whisper. "Look across the valley at that big clump of bushes with your scope. Do you see the winged guy with what looks like a large laser rifle hiding in them?"
Arris nods to Cerl, stepping over and peering through hir scope. "Yeah, I see them. No worries, I'll keep an eye on them." Keeping hir crosshairs trained on the figure, sie gets into prone position between the chopper and the cliff face. "Go get the rest of the team and the survivor behind cover, preferably in a discrete way."
The bunny guard wipes up her tears, shocked at what Firecrcker said. "A-a glint? Where?! Is he still out there?!" She panics and grabs hold of the tiny pony that is firecracker, holding her against the guard's chest like a comforting doll. She doesn't say anything else.
"I dunno," Firecracker says soothingly to the panicking bunny as she tries to calm her down. "You got any other friends out here? What do they look like?" she asks, stroking the bunny's breast with a forehoof as she is held to her chest. "You don't haveta worry about anything... Just let me and all my friends take care of it for ya."
Mokou flicked those ears of hers, a few words catching her attention. Words of a glint. Words of surprise at the... Glint? She turned her head, a faint furrow upon her brow, eyes scanning about, peering back across the valley. A glint... Metallic glint. Akin from... A weapon? Her eyes slowly widened, realizing just what might have caused those scorch marks. What would likely cause the lady's injuries themselves... 'Go! Run!' Her mind screamed at her to bolt, her legs idly twitching as she shifted... moving a touch jittery behind the trailer. Crap, crap, crap....
Ebreus hearing about a glint his eyes widen and he counches a bit lower in his cover, internally cursing himself for having plate armor over just about all his body with the exception of his head. He says to the Bunny Guard, "Be quiet and be still. If they're at range they may mistake you for a corpse." He then telepathically says to Cerl, 'Fire noticed something that may be hostile, a glint, see it's cause?'
Draken stays behind the truck, with the woman. "Hmm... So long as we stay out if sight." She says, starting to pet the bloody woman. "Don't worry." She says.
Cerl lowers the binoculars after making a note of where the figure dashed off too, and after confirming that Arris still had them covered moves towards the rest of the group. Telepathically sending a warning to each team member so the bunny, who is obviously already panicking, doesn't hear what is going on, Cerl tells them quickly that there is a potential hostile across the valley and to get behind cover discreetly. Then while she is hidden from the figure's sight, she activates her vanishing nanomagic long enough to step into the trailer unseen by the unknown target. "Miss, my companions here will take care of you, and we have a helicopter ready to take you home as soon as we can find any of the rest of your team, if they still live. But I need the pony's help for a little bit, and we need you to stay right here where we can protect you." She holds out her paws, waiting to see if the bunny will let go of Firecracker.
Arris keeps hir crosshairs trained on the humanoid, speaking up when they begin moving. "We need to get the survivor to the chopper, but we need to do so while keeping her protected, or at least concealed. If anyone has earth nanomagic, I heavily reccomend building up a rock wall on the cliff face. If not... I have an alternate plan we can use."
The bunny girl slowly gives up Firecracker and then grabs Cerl's hand when Cerl reappears next to her. "O-ok..." She picks up a bag siting next to her and gets up, her shaking knees taking a bit of help to get her standing.
Firecracker is transferred from bunny to vixen taur even as she continues to looks to the bunny. "Gotta know who we're looking for though, so can ya tell us what everyone else looks like? And what's in your bag anyway?" she asks, thrusting a forehoof towards the bag as she points. "Gotta know that stuff before we can go!" she says, ready to go with Cerl once the answers are given.
Mokou winced as she felt that message run through her mind, playing across her mind. No... none of that... She'd had more than enough mental modification of her own... She shook herself briefly, slinking back towards the back of the trailer, away from the outside and range of the weapons unknown. Raising a hand to Cerl and the bunny lass, she hopped back up, slowly helping guide her to the back of the trailer, trying to shelter her. "Come on dearie... You in our safety for now... Breath. You're fine... You're safe now..." Slowly trying to guide them back, she simply... shook her head. "Go on you all. I'll take care of her. Anyone else you can find... send them back here. Need someone to prevent them from being picked off... Okay?"
Ebreus stays low, he telepathically says to Arris, 'I have Earth Nano but mini-bubbles aren't normally strong enough for it to be used.' He looks around for anything that could be used as a shield. "Anyone have somethin' that could cut metal? We may be able to make some mobile cover." he says. He thinks for a moment then telepathies Cerl, 'Do we have a good idea of what could've causes this much damage... not sure a shield will work.'
Draken stays in her place beside the bunny guard.
Cerl telepathically sends to Firecracker, "Keep silent, talk to me telepathically...I know you can, we have before. Let the others worry about getting descs of the rest of the team. That glint you saw was someone with a big laser rifle and I need your help to get across the valley so we can check him out. I'll fly both of us across while invisible, though I'll have to hang onto you so my invisibility covers you too, and then if you can shrink your bubble down to just a few feet we can sneak up on him without you bubble spooking him."
Arris keeps hir eyes through the sights. "I know the guy over there is using a light-based weapon. If we can get a shield that reflects light, that would be amazing."
The bunny guard stays put, still holding Cerl's hand. She's not crying or shaking any more. "Thanks. I feel better now. As far as I know, the man took everyone else away. I don't think any of them are left alive. But we need to get out of here."
"And my bag?" the guard adds, "It has a few grenades I was going to use for emergencies. One of them made that hole in the trailer. But the man was too fast."
"Oh okay!" Firecracker chirps as she stands in Cerl's hand. "But ya didn't haveta pretend to cry when we got here y'know! We woulda taken care of ya anyway! And we can use those thingies for the plan!" she says, motioning towards the bag for Cerl to see.
Ebreus begins to look around the trailer as he listens to the guard, "Ok, glad he didn't do that. Bodes well for shields working." he comments. After a few moments of searching he finds a piece of metal loose enough to remove and does so. He then begins to bend and shape it, metal molding easily in his paws. After a few moments of bending and smoothing it behins to take on the shake of a curved rectangualr shield just large enough to provide him with total cover while crouching behind it. Now with the shield shaped he turns it over and examines its surface area. He humms as he considers the metallic surface. Thinking for a moment on it he then turns the shield over again and says, "Ok, now I've got some cover... isn't reflective though."
Cerl carefully pulls her paw free of the bunny's grasp, pausing in her telepathic communication with Firecracker to ask, "This very fast man, did he have wings?" When the bunny replies negatively, Cerl telepathically sends to Arris, "Keep an eye out. The sniper over there is not the one who attacked the camp here." Grinning down at Fire, she chuckles, "Oh, don't worry...I brought plenty of grenades myself...but a few more couldn't hurt." She kneels to see what is in the bag that might be useful when confronting the unknown foe.
Arris keeps hir sights on the figure, continuing to watch them move around and overhearing the bunny guard speak about her bag of grenades. "Could really use a smoke grenade or something right about now..."
As Cerl goes to look at the beg, the bunny holds it closer to herself. "Smoke grenades? I have those. Are we using them to leave? Why are we just standing around?" She's starting to look visibly upset gain.
"Yeah those grenade thingies!" Firecracker says, "And I just said ya didn't haveta pretend to be sad! So you can just give us the bag and then we can get them out and use em to help! Cause now I really wanna see what's in the bag because you're being all secrety and stuff and I gotta knooooow! What's in the bag?" she nearly whines, dancing in place in Cerl's hand as she looks between bunny, bag, and Cerl.
Ebreus presses on the surface of the shield without nanomagic to test its strength and then satisfied with it he smiles and says, "We were sent to rescue your team. We'll be finding the rest of them, dead or alive." in response to the guards question. "And dealing with the sniper." he adds positioning the shield in front of him. He then asks Cerl, telepathically, 'You're sneakin' right? Geussing I shouldn't step out with an obvious shield just yet.'
Looking down at Firecracker, Cerl looks back up at the bunny with suspicion. "Yes. What else is in the bag? Why is it that everyone else is gone and you are the only one remaining here? I suggest you set the bag down, carefully, right now, and keep your paws where I can see them." She raises her crossbow, not pointing it at the bunny yet but the threat is clearly there.
Arris curses, lifting hir eyes from hir scope. "Shit. Lost track of the sniper..." Sie peers through hir scope again, quickly scouting the distance for the hidden foe. "We got the shield? Let's get packing already before they start shooting us up!" The gator quickly scouts the distance for the possible sniper.
With the pressure on her, the bunny goes calm and takes a deep breath. "Fine. Though I thought we'd be on our way by now." As she sets down the bag everyone in the trailer can hear a loud 'click-ding' of a spring-loaded device, and the whole trailer is engulfed in FOG. In such a tight space, the fog doesn't disperse quickly, leaving it so thick that no one can see more than an inch from their face.
Outside, The sniper's weapon rings out like a flash of searing light, blowing appart the engine of the helicopter that was sitting nearby.
Firecracker is instantly in motion, dashing out of Cerl's hand and towards the bunny's face as she bursts into a little ball of flames. As she gets closer, the bunny's hand darts out of the smoke and wraps around the pegasus's leg, even as she attempts to dodge! In response, the flame-covered pony does the most logical thing to be released, slamming her wrist repeatedly with her burning hooves.
Ebreus crounches while still in the trailer and looks along the perimiter of the shield, estimating what is and is not covered, he notices his ears peak out over it and lowers them. He looks over to the comotion on the other part of the trailer. Before he can comment Arris chimes in and he responds, "One personal shield, would be hard to cover two or more." He then turns his attention to the Zephyr Guard Bunny-woman. As the fog fills the trailer he closes his eyes, the lack of one inch of visibilty being effectively no loss, and growls in her direction, with is flamethrower and shield positioned in front of him toward the sound of moving Bunny-target, "Freeze or Die!" as loudly and fiercely as he can.
Cerl snaps off a quick shot in the direction of where the bunny girl had been causing something to scream, shifts to full invisibility, and scrambles for where she remembers the exit to the trailer was. She pauses halfway through the trailer as if trying to listen for something on the edge of her hearing....the edge of her memory. Unable to see anything through the fog, she swivels her head around anyway, trying to locate the source of the whispers she hears. Standing still so she can maintain her invisibility, she starts trying to scan through the fog with biodetection to locate whoever it was that sounds so much like her long missing mother...a voice that she can barely even remember, and begins to reload her crossbow.
Arris glances over just as the fog fills up the trailer, then back to hir range as the blast of light flashes from the bushes. "Found you." Sie pulls the trigger, aiming for the weapon of their assailant. Once the shot lands, sie stands up, reloads, and rushes to the trailer's front door, slamming it shut. "Keep that woman in there! Block the doors, constrain her, then knock 'Shave and a haircut'!" Standing from the side, sie watches the back doors and the hole in the side, trying to keep out of the fog but standing in it if it means being able to see all exits.
The bunny lets go of firecracker, then seems to go completely silent. No one can tell if Ebreus's intimidation worked, and the fog doesn't seem to be effecting anyone right now.
When the bunny lets go, Firecracker goes right to what she was doing before she was grabbed, charging into bunny face for a well-deserved hoof sandwich! With a few strong flaps of her wings, the pegasus thrusts herself towards the bunny as she starts to flee, but she's just impossibly fast! The pegasus whiffs her tackle and is left hitting air. Quickly righting herself, the pegasus turns to give chase to the bunny!
Ebreus continues to growl, eyes closed listening for any new movement. "Give me the fog machine." he demands. He does not move from his position listening for the bunny girls move.
Cerl aims at the only target she can sense via biodetection that she knows must be the bunny, and fires. Hearing a loud clang as her bolt strikes something metal, she growls softly. "She got into some sort of cover!" she calls out to Ebreus. "I can sense fire somewhere near her but I can't tell where or what type of cover she got into. Also, it wasn't a machine, Ebreus...the grenades she claimed to have, those were fog grenades I think."
Arris sees the bunny crawling out through the small hole, lowering the muzle of hir rifle down to her face. "Aaaand, checkmate." Noticing the small grenade she has, sie begins to take a few steps away, but keeping hir aim on her. "Don't make this difficult on me, alright? Just surrender, make it nice and easy, and you might be accepted into society again. Sounds good, hm?"
As the bunny leaves the trailer through the hole, she experly flips over to avoid using her injured arms, then speaks to Arris: "Let me go now, and I won't signal Max to kill any of you."
Firecracker follows the bunny right out the hole to find her being held at gunpoint by Arris. "Well aren't you a fast one?" she says with a grin as she hovers, slowly getting closer to the bunny. "And who's Max? Is he that glinty guy you were so worried about?"
Ebreus, hearing the chatter outside, sets his shield down and walks to where he remembers the whole in the trailer to be, running a hand along the wall to measure. He peers through the hole and smiles. He shifts his flamethrower into his other hand and darts his right forward to grab the rabbit. He sinks his claws into her shoulder when a bullet hits the plate on his hand then darts his other out to grab her other shoulder and pull her back into the trailer. Once she's in again, still in his grasp he growls at her, "How about you call Max off and we don't kill you?"
Dropping her biodetection now that she is going to be moving invisibly again, Cerl scrambles for the back of the trailer and bursts out of the doors. To anyone outside, all that will be seen is the doors being flung wide and fog billowing out as Cerl hits the ground running, rushing for the front of the trailer while she gets her crossbow reloaded just in time to see Ebreus drag her back inside the trailer rather than getting the hell out of the fog himself.
"Is that your sniper's name?" Arris continues backing away from the bunny, until the chopper stands between hirself and the valley. "I'm, well, sorry to say this, but I - oh." Sie watches as the bunny gets yanked back into the trailer, then the shot going off. Acting as fast as sie can, Arris peeks through the window of the chopper, scanning the distance if sie can catch the muzzle flash before it dissipates.
The Bunny practically wets herself at that point, barely getting out any words: "I-I can't! I... I don't know how! ...the plan!" Meanwile, outside the sniper does nothing...
Firecracker blinks as the bunny is grabbed and yanked back into the fog. "Heh, that's some crazy horror movie stuff right there!" she chuckles before looking around for Cerl, ready to enact the second part of the plan as she heaads back into the fog to search for her.
Ebreus growls angerily at the rabbit as the fog clouds his mind and the small device clipped to his ear begins to strain itself. Not being clear enough in the head to scrutinize her fear he pulls her to her feet and grabs his shield. "Walk." he demands and begins to push her, claws of his left hans still embedded in her shoulder, at the fastest pace that could possibly be considered walking to the exit, trying to cover his head with the shield, totally neglecting to crouch exposing his plated legs.
Cerl looks around for Firecracker, hissing a quick "It's Cerl" just before grabbing the pony and cloaking her with invisibility. "Remember, when we get over there, try to shrine your bubble so we don't let Max know we're almost on him, and fly way up in the sky to help find him." Glancing over at the chopper, Cerl calls softly, "Arris, where is he approximately?" Once she knows about where the sniper is at, she takes a running start towards the dropoff and launches into the air, intending to land at least 500 feet away from where the sniper's last known spot was. After landing, she lets go of Firecracker so the pony can do her thing, and begins to employ every stealth trick she knows to sneak up on the sniper, preferably coming at him from behind.
Arris ducks behind the chopper's and moves out of the way of the possible sniper fire. "Sniper's over there." Sie motions to the bush in which sie last saw the sniper, and using hir tentacle nanomagic, sie extends a slew of scaly tentacles onto the ground, attempting to imitate hir own shape with them.
The bunny guard is escorted out of the trailer, the fog starting to disperse. She looks too scared out of her mind to do anything. "Wh-what are you going to do with me? I don't want to die!" And during her mental breakdown the sniper does nothing.
Firecracker hops out of Cerl's hand to fly up into the air, shrinking her bubble down to cover just herself and a few feet aroud her. She scans the area below as she flies a few dozen yards into the sky, searching for the same glint she saw earlier, or even better, the person with the glint! Finally spotting him, she changes course to get in position right over his head, aiming to hover in the air above him as she watches his movements.
Ebreus steps outside of the trailer, claws still in the bunnies shoulder, and after a moment shakes the fog from his head. He glares again at his prisoner and crouches. "Don't resist and you live." he states then begins to guide her, by her vice-grip on her shoulder around to behind the cover of the chopper, facing toward where he assumes Max to be and keeping his shield up the whole time. Once he is certan he's behind cover he drops the shield and begins flexing his hand. "Got a hostage. Hand stings." he says to Arris.
Cerl catches a glimpse of the sniper as she flies across the valley. After releasing Fire to go do her thing she starts making her way quietly, stealthily over to where she had spotted him, angling to be able to approach him from the rear.
As Firecracker and Cerl make their flight to the sniper, Arris sits down on the ground crosslegged. "Welp. Nothing much to do while I'm pinned by another sniper." Sie fishes around in hir pockets, looking for a chocolate bar or something sie can eat and pulling up some saltine crackers. After a wistful sigh, sie unwraps the package and takes a bite out of a cracker just as Ebreus joins hir. "Mind if I see that wound?" Sie takes Ebreus' hand in hirs, offering another cracker with the other hand.
The bunny does nothing to risk Ebreus's wrath, and doen't sem to be doing anything about her bruised wrist or the crossbow bolt in her other forearm. As for the sniper, Firecracker and Cerl come across what looks like the sniper's nest, and no sniper.
Firecracker descends to the sniper, or at least what she thought was him at first. Once she gets closer, she finds that it's just his post! Taking a quick look around, she spots the direction he ran in and she quickly points towards it and darts through the trees fter him, following his trail and her nose as she goes!
Ebreus sits down and tries to relax as best he can while keeping his left hand on the bunny. He extends his right hand, the one hit by the sniper, to Arris. The plate that protected his hand seriously damaged and likely unable to take any more punishment. He takes the cracker with his mouth and says, "Thanks. Can you get the bracer off? I've gotta make sure out friend stays put."
Finding the sniper nest empty, Cerl casts around quickly looking for the sniper's trail. Finding it, she moves carefully along it, alert for any traps the sniper might have tried to leave behind, hunting this "Max" character down, shaking her head at Firecracker's impulsiveness. She hisses 'Fire!' quietly, hoping the pony heard as she moves along the trail.
Arris removes the bracer, beginning to inspect the wound closer. "Looks pretty bad, but could be worse. Is our pilot asleep?" Sie peers into the chopper again, looking for the person inside.
The sniper keeps running, and if Cerl and Firecracker keep chasing they will seperate from the group. As for the helicopter pilot, hie has a large piece of metal in his chest, covered in blood and not moving.
Firecracker keeps chasing! No reason to stop at this point! She flies through the trees on her way to catch up with the sniper, following the trail he left behind as he fled.
Ebreus winces as the bracer is removed. He looks around when Arris makes hir examination. "Good to hear that it's not as bad as possible at least." he says. When Arris checks the pilot he asks, "Is sie ok
After travelling back as far as her landing point, and with Fire having flown out of sight chasing Max, Cerl just shrugs and glances down into the valley to try and determine the best route a tauric being could take to return to the helicopter.
Arris enters the chopper, moving to the pilot and checking for a pulse first. Sie attempts to asses the situation. Without any form of nanite healing, the pilot was essentially dead. "Goddammit." Sie holds up hir comm, calling Firecracker
Arris slurs, "Return to chopper, pilot is dead.""
Ebreus winces as the bracer is removed. He looks around when Arris makes hir examination. "Good to hear that it's not as bad as possible at least." he says. When Arris checks the pilot he asks, "Is sie ok?" then upon hearing the pilots condition imediently radios Firecracker and Cerl to come back.
The sniper still keeps running, and the sun is starting to go down.
Firecracker comes to a screeching stop mid-air as she hears the others calling her back. She quickly turns herself round and shoots up into the air out of the trees to make it easier to make a speedy trip back to the copter.
Ebreus looks to their bunny prisoner for a few moments, "What are you and this 'Max' character doing out her to warrent deathtraps and lethal force?" he says, aggrivation with her still apparent in his voice and claws still embedded in her shoulder.
Carefully descenting the side of the valley, Cerl sends a quick message to Ebreus and Arris. "If you see Fire, could have her come get me? I'm not sure I can get back up to the road on that side of the valley without help."
The bunny feints, out cold at Ebreus's feet. And no doubt Firecracker would have helped Cerl back to the broken helicoper. Looks like everyone will have to spend the night here.
