Kris nods to Borax and says Let's get back to an evac point.
Alright. Civilians to the center Ja? Gavril will take up the rear. Borax, Jacob and I will go forward. We take this block by dritte block. Stay on radio.
Kris waits for everyone to get in position and then begins heading east. The SOP would be for Kris, Borax and Jacob to move a block and set up and then the others would catch up with Gavril taking the rear and watching their six. It would be a slow but ultimately safer way to travel, especially for the Civilians.
Gavril frowns at Jacob's suggestion and shakes his head. "They aren't those things. They don't look like that, and look at the eyes. Keep your head, everyone." He nods at Kristophe's plan and hefts his SAW, keeping an eye out behind.
Borax reloads his clip full and falls into formation.
"Let's get moving." Rosa says curtly, clearly more than a little disturbed.
Jackalyn nods and moves out, eyes peeled.
As the team moves from street to street, they sweep the area for enemy forces as they keep a tight formation. For several hours they continue towards the coordinates given to them by the lieutenant. As they get closer, it becomes clear why the lieutenant was at a loss for words as to what they found; soon enough, the group can spot the crater left by what leveled Basra. The remnants of what has to be some sort of gigantic alien vessel lie towards the northern end of the city, with debris scattered around the streets as you grow closer. However, you don't have contact with any more enemies before reaching the coordinates provided. Sure enough, you find what appears to be an outpost manned by other UN soldiers, who quickly wave you inside their perimeter. Inside, you see the defensive perimeter is comprised partly of whatever the soldiers from the base camp could scavenge, as well as broken walls and debris from the alien vessel.
"Good, you all made it." The lieutenant finds you soon enough, a bandage across his left arm and chest, but otherwise alive and well. "I've got someone flying reconnaissance in one of the choppers we still have available, and we're set up around an old radio tower. We're doing our best to repair it, so we can call for evac." He motions to those at the perimeter, and then to some engineers attempting to fix the radio. "Farrell, give them a hand if you can. The rest of you, I need you in a defensible position, assuming you're uninjured and don't need any medical attention."
Rosa stops dead in her tracks as they reach the extraction site. "¡Manda huevos! What is that thing?!" Her eyes seem locked on the strange... UFO... thing as they're hustled in to the make-shift encampment. "I've treated everyone's wounds as much as possible," she says as the lieutenant hands out their orders. "We also have civilians that need to be moved somewhere safe."
Jackalyn shakes her head at the crater. "Damn," is all she has to say. She snaps a salute to the lieutenant, and says, "Keep an eye out for any weird-looking twin types. They're actually aliens. Their disguises aren't too sophisticated, though, and they all look alike, so they're pretty easy to identify."
Jackalyn nods and follows his orders, looking for a perch or a patch of shadow she can hide in.
Kris nods at the Lt. Sir! is all he says in response as he jogs off to find a post.
"Da, we have civilians and one strange enemy force, lieutenant," Gavril says, waving the civilians in. "Borax can show you some bodies. Do we have a safe place for locals?" Once he's sure the family will be safe, Gavril sets up at the perimeter, double-checking that his machine gun is still functional and ready to fire. He considers reloading it, but considering its massive capacity, it should be okay.
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Jacob simply whistles as he sees the gigantic alient vessel and comments "Somebody call Mulder an' Scully." as he laughs.
When they are greeted by the Lieutenant, he gives the man a nod and goes to help the engineers with the radio.
When he arrives he yells "Bunch of sloths, the hell you doin'?.... Godanit! Lemme before ye radio to the greenies instead of the cavalry..."
Borax has little to add besides the bodies. Turning to Rosa,
"Perhaps we should try and examine these bodies for information. Maybe we can find a weakness or some biological flaw we can exploit."
While Rosa contemplates her answer, Borax tries to track down additional ammo.
"I'm not exactly carrying the tools to do a field dissection," Rosa points out. "And in-depth tissue samples would take time to analyze for weaknesses. Better to just keep the bodies safe and examine them when we have a full lab set-up."
"Locals... right, you lot found some survivors. We've got a command tent set up for me, they can stay there. That ought to be safe enough." As Borax and Rosa talk about the bodies, the lieutenant takes a look at the corpses, assuming no one tries to stop him. "These... well, they're sure not some sort of combat drone. I know what they look like, obviously, but..." The lieutenant trails off, before zipping the bag back up and moving it aside. "Keep a hold of those, once we evac they'll want to take a look at them, I'm sure." Borax takes a look around to find some ammunition, but supplies for the moment seem to be fairly tight, and most soldiers only carried what they could take without being bogged down. He does manage to scrounge up enough ammunition to reload his magazines fully, however.
As Jacob takes a look at the beacon, he can tell it seems to be in very bad shape. However, it does seem to be salvageable for short transmissions, which is all that would really be necessary in order to contact someone for evacuation.
"Hmm... it's our only shot, though. I'm sure there's another radio tower we could use, but we'd have to break camp and lose this defensive position." The lieutenant winces as he drops down to one knee, examining where Jacob was working, the pain from his wounds clearly getting to him. "We don't have any other choice, Farrell. Work with them, see if you can't come up with any ideas as to how this thing might get working. Without it, we're stuck here... like sheep for the slaughter." He stands back up, addressing Rosa and Borax as he glances at the bodies again. "I'd get those things into the tent with the survivors, if I were you. If nothing else, those need to get out of here in one piece."
Rosa nods. "Understood sir." She motions for Borax to help her carry the inhuman corpses inside the tent while they take the civilians to the relative safety of the tent. With that taken care of, she heads to take a defensive position, ready for when the creatures make their inevitable attack.
Given the amount of time passing, Gavril does retrieve more ammunition for his machine gun and reloads it, and then stands by, ready to defend the base or serve in any other capacity that's needed.
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Jacob nods and goes back to the radio and engineers, whom he bullies in a friendly manner while working together.
After a while they realise copper is more conductive than plastic, somebody gets yelled at and they resume work.
But in the end, they manage to put the radio in working condition.
"Good job, buddies. You lot aren't half bad, considerin' the lack of proper experience, knowledge or sense of humour."
Borax helps Rosa and then scrounges up a concussion, incendiary, and a flash bang grenade. He reloads his clips and mans the post.
On heading to the quartermaster's to restock on ammo for his machine gun, Gavril also picks up three frag grenades. Things here were clearly too hairy and they were facing unidentified, highly dangerous threats. Flashbangs and concussion grenades have their uses, but Gavril trusts more in good old-fashioned shrapnel to bring down aliens.
As you all regroup and re-arm yourselves, the lieutenant appears to be getting some sort of information on his own radio, and from the looks of it what he's getting doesn't appear to be good. "Forced to-- how, they got to you--" he starts, waving his off-hand around as he speaks. "Look, stay put--I'll send a team out to keep you covered, and to make sure what you've got doesn't get lost out there. Sit tight, they'll be inbound soon." With a scowl, he puts away his radio and clutches at his side for a moment, his gesticulations hurting his wound.
"I have another job for you. We had to abandon the base camp, but they didn't destroy most of it. We had trucks, supplies... one of our choppers was in decent shape to fly, and after we were secure here, I sent him to pick up what we had to leave behind." The lieutenant rests a hand on his forehead before wiping away the sweat, then shakes his head. "He didn't have any problem picking it up, but on his way back he thought he saw some survivors and radio'd in that he was picking them up. He's got them, and they're more or less okay, but the bastards forced him to land. He gave me his location, I need you to try and keep the bastards off his back so he can get back in the air."
"Did he say what the survivors look like? We already know these things have infiltrators that look enough like us to pass for human if you don't look too close." She checks her weapon and nods. "And where are we going anyway?"
Kris reloads his rifle and grabs fresh magazines.
We are going yes. Walking or do we have a vehicle?
Gavril nods, and frowns slightly at Rosa's implication. If there's any chance of any survivors, we should help. He keeps his mouth shut and ears open, though.
Jackalyn nods and rechecks her gear. "I heard Jacob got the radio working. How long before evac arrives? And how did you not convince mission ops that we aren't all insane?"
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Jacob seems quite distracted as he packages his newfound demo charges with care, but he does indeed listen to the briefing.
"I guess we be walkin' there, fly back with the chopper. Sir, those freaks that attacked us... they had top notch tech and we didn't even see any of their rides. This time I'd say subtlety and surprise suits us better, but I recommend preparing some heavy ordinance til evac comes. High caliber, anti-tank or plain ol' big packs of explosives." voices the Irishmen as he casually steals a cigarette from a passing soldier with a wink and a "I'll return one later" gesture "God forbids, but if they have any sci-fi hovering s&*~ we'll need it."
"How did I convince them? I didn't, I just lied." He wipes at his face for a moment, some of the kicked-up sand biting at him. "I told them that terrorists had hijacked experimental bio-tech, and that we needed extraction after we were ambushed. We'll... have to explain later, with the proof that we've got." Listening to Rosa, the leiutenant scratches his chin, but doesn't seem too worried. "He didn't say much, but I didn't catch anything odd about the survivors he'd found. As for fortifying ourselves, that's part of what he went to the camp to do; that's why we need him back here so badly. These things have us outgunned and outmaneuvered, and I'm trying to find a way to even the odds back towards our favor. We don't know what kind of ordinance these bastards have, and scavenging what we can of our own supplies is the only way we'll have something to fight back."
"Here are his coordinates, see if you can't cover him long enough for some field repairs; he hasn't made contact yet since he landed, but there's no telling when that'll change. I'll radio when an extraction is inbound."
"We'll get it done."
Borax seems overly confident as he waits for Kristophe to give the order to move out.
"Good to hear it, Bohan. I'd give you a vehicle to get there quicker, but that's likely to draw a lot of attention. You'd better make your way there on foot, see if you can't get the drop on them for once." The lieutenant turns to speak to another soldier approaching him, speaking with him for a moment before addressing you all again. "He should have room to carry you back in the chopper, though. I'll see you when you're inbound, hopefully."
The path towards the helicopter is quieter than you all expect, given the attacks you suffered on your way to the camp. Nothing seems to hint that you're being followed or watched, and you don't manage to catch any hostiles unawares, either. After a few hours of travel you reach the coordinates the lieutenant gave you, but much to your surprise you don't see a helicopter anywhere nearby. It doesn't appear to be an ambush, either; even as you puzzle over the absence of your mission, nothing around you seems to move in the abandoned city.
Jackalyn scans her surroundings for anyplace she can hole up in case they get ambushed, as the soldier's sense on the base of her spine tingles...
"This is going to end poorly," Rosa mutters as they walk. "Anything that's this quiet going is has to end badly."
Borax sniffs the air for any odor of exhaust fumes from the missing helicopter.
Kris keeps his eyes open and his rifle downrange.
Gavril glances around, ready on the SAW and with ears and eyes open.
"Wait. Do you hear that?" Gavril turns and stares across the street, where, although no one can see it, a fly is padding across some rubble. "...Strange."
As the squad looks around, nothing seems to be unusual. No signs of a struggle are present, and you certainly don't see anything to indicate that either the creatures you fought nor a helicopter was at this immediate location. However, Jackalyn and Rosa both manage to find what looks like some metal debris maybe a few dozen yards from your location, along with some kind of clear liquid that stained the ground where it dried; upon closer inspection, it is likely some sort of gasoline.
Gavril, on the other hand, finds something far more interesting. While those two stop at the metal and gas, he continues a bit farther and finds something seemingly unnoticeable that had come to rest against the side of a collapsed house; a radio.
Gavril moves to investigate the sound he heard, and comes upon a radio resting at the side of a house. "I have something!" he calls, and after a moment, he reaches down and picks up the device. "Jacob, you are our engineer, yes? You want to take a look at this?"
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Jacob walks up to Gavril and extends the hand waiting for the radio.
"Lemme check, big boy. You got good eye, ain't you?" the Irish says as he pats Gavril in the shoulder.
Once the thing has been handed Jacob both tries to discern if it does indeed belonged to a copter and if he can make it work again.
As Jacob examines the radio, it does seem to have come from the helicopter, although the fall has rendered it inoperable. He turns it over in his hands a few times, fiddling with some pieces, before giving it a decisive smack against the side of a nearby building and the device crackles back to life. A few seconds later the static subsides, and it seems the radio is fully operational, at least for the time being; however, you don't hear anything on the other end at the moment.
Kris scans nearby buildings for movement while putting himself in a decent firing position.
Borax speaks in a half-question half-statement manner, "If the helicopter didn't land.....then it went up?"
Borax takes a look at where the radio landed and tries to determine if the fall of the radio left marks along the ground.
"Metal debris... gasoline... I really hope that the chopper didn't get taken down. That would be... problematic."
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Jacob returns the radio to Gavril with a smile "Here you go, fully operational and almost mint condition. I usually charge 20 bucks for this, but consider it a favour." jokes the old man before cleaning his hands and turning to Borax "Hey, sir, got caught with the radio. What do we have here? Is that gasoline? I don't believe the copter got black hawk'd, lass.... because there's no copter at all."
Jackalyn inspects the pieces. "My bet is that the pilot got spooked and took off, leaving some scraps behind."